It’s important to engage with what you’re reading by asking good questions and thinking about what you’re reading while you’re reading. It’s time to move beyond high school approaches to literature, so that you can begin analyzing words at a much deeper level. Forget about themes/symbols/relating to the characters as if they are real people. Instead, consider what seems strange or different in the novel. What do you not understand? What do you think means something interesting, but you can’t figure out what, exactly it means? This isn’t about “playing teacher” or figuring out the “correct “interpretation.
Post two strong, analytic questions about one of the short stories to the discussion board.
These questions must be analytical, meaning that they should not be obvious, should be the result of close and careful reading, be very specific, do not have have a clear obvious answer, and should help begin to unpack the text in a clear direction. These are not speculative questions: “What if…,” yes/no questions, surveys of the group for an opinion or speculation, or quizes for a “fact.” Instead, seek to write a well formed, very specific question that asks “how?” or “why?” Are there more questions that emerge from that question? Write down those too. You need to think about the story and spend time writing these questions.
Response: Answer one question posed by a classmates using quotes and analysis of the quotes to make your points. Again, you are writing about what you see in the short story and think about it, not trying to guess what’s in the professor’s head. If you see a speculative question on the discussion board– don’t answer it. At least 500 words.