Join Mr. Dahlstrom's AP English Class!

[Laura]

Read along and join the online discussion. This school year, Mr. Dahlstrom's AP Lit class will read Dickens' last completed novel, "Our Mutual Friend." You're invited to read the novel in concert with us: pose and respond to questions with students; share your experience reading a novel brimming with characters, concerns about inheritance, the influence of wealth, the shadows cast by parents and one's upbringing, and the complexity of the pursuit of happiness. The novel is also funny.

Original readers of the novel took 19 months (1864-65) to read the whole work, as it was published serially, at a rate of 32 pages each month. Our class will read in imitation of that serial form of publication, but increase the pace so that we finish the novel in May. You are invited to read with us, the only hard-fast rule is that no one reads ahead; we want to live with the structure of story episodes. Go to www.webb.org/communityread for the year's reading schedule. To read the novel steadily over a year will create its own kind of experience, giving us time to wonder and predict, coaching us in delayed gratification.

How to get started:
Order the Penguin Classics edition of "Our Mutual Friend" (ISBN # 0140434976) from Powell's Books or from Amazon.

Opportunities with this COMMUNITY READ:
If you are fired with enthusiasm, wanting to join the class discussion, what do you do? Speak up, either online or in person. If you live near the Webb campus, join us for an evening discussion of "Our Mutual Friend." These sessions, three are intended, will be on Tuesdays: October 1, January 14, and April 15. You can also submit comments, observations, and questions, which will add to our class discussions. An explanation of the appropriate technology to use for the video, audio, and written comments will be provided. Students in the class will model how to use these technologies.

You can also read along with the class as a fly on the wall, never posting thoughts and questions, simply enjoying the camaraderie and assistance of a reading schedule. (Like having a trainer give you a fitness plan to follow.) Feel free to read and think privately, checking in on our progress as you wish.

The AP Lit class started "Our Mutual Friend" on September 6. Those of you outside the class can catch up, at your leisure.

Extend this invitation to family and friends who are not on the immediate Webb Schools e-mail lists: grandparents, godparents, distant uncles and aunts, etc.

We are excited to share this year of reading with you, and to see why readers often think of Dickens' characters as real acquaintances, influential in contemporary life.

[Laura]

Comments posted on:
http://www.webb.org/news/detail/index...