The Summer Reading Assignment.
Incoming students to the English 10 Advanced course must read Mary Shelley's Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus before the start of the school year. Students are required to use the 1818 version (not the 1831 revised edition), and, if possible, to use the 2nd Norton Critical edition of Frankenstein, which contains helpful footnotes, critical articles, and source materials that will be used in the study of the novel. Students are highly encouraged to annotate this text in preparation for assessments upon their return. At the start of the new school year, students will take a common assessment on the book: an objective test. Other coursework that includes projects and writing assignments will be conducted during the study of Frankenstein beyond the common assessment. Students can download the linked Frankenstein Summer Reading Annotation Guide, which is designed to facilitate an "intellectual conversation" with the novel that (a) represents the level of analysis students can expect in the English 10 Honors course and (b) attune students to important narrative, structural, and thematic elements of Shelley's text.
UNIT OVERVIEW
In this first unit, we will study Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a Swiss natural philosopher, Victor Frankenstein, and the creature he makes from parts of cadavers and which he then abandons, horrified by his appearance, and never names. Rejected by all humans who see him, the monster takes his revenge on Frankenstein, killing those dear to him. Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18, prompted by a competition she had with the Romantic poet Lord Byron and her husband Percy Shelley to tell a ghost story while they were rained in during the Summer of No Light in 1816 at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland. This initial unit to the English 10 Advanced course will be used to open the possibilities of how readers can interpret a work of fiction before reviewing the elements of storytelling in the next unit. Students will read scholarly essays about Frankenstein and present their arguments to their classmates. This unit enables students to confirm and hone a common understanding of important literary elements that were covered more thoroughly in freshman English, as well as a shared vocabulary for discussing them.
Incoming students to the English 10 Advanced course must read Mary Shelley's Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus before the start of the school year. Students are required to use the 1818 version (not the 1831 revised edition), and, if possible, to use the 2nd Norton Critical edition of Frankenstein, which contains helpful footnotes, critical articles, and source materials that will be used in the study of the novel. Students are highly encouraged to annotate this text in preparation for assessments upon their return. At the start of the new school year, students will take a common assessment on the book: an objective test. Other coursework that includes projects and writing assignments will be conducted during the study of Frankenstein beyond the common assessment. Students can download the linked Frankenstein Summer Reading Annotation Guide, which is designed to facilitate an "intellectual conversation" with the novel that (a) represents the level of analysis students can expect in the English 10 Honors course and (b) attune students to important narrative, structural, and thematic elements of Shelley's text.
UNIT OVERVIEW
In this first unit, we will study Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a Swiss natural philosopher, Victor Frankenstein, and the creature he makes from parts of cadavers and which he then abandons, horrified by his appearance, and never names. Rejected by all humans who see him, the monster takes his revenge on Frankenstein, killing those dear to him. Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18, prompted by a competition she had with the Romantic poet Lord Byron and her husband Percy Shelley to tell a ghost story while they were rained in during the Summer of No Light in 1816 at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland. This initial unit to the English 10 Advanced course will be used to open the possibilities of how readers can interpret a work of fiction before reviewing the elements of storytelling in the next unit. Students will read scholarly essays about Frankenstein and present their arguments to their classmates. This unit enables students to confirm and hone a common understanding of important literary elements that were covered more thoroughly in freshman English, as well as a shared vocabulary for discussing them.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Learn about the history of the novel as a literary form.
- Recognize the importance of historical context to the appreciation of setting and character.
- Identify major and minor characters.
- Analyze how authors create the setting in a short story.
- Define the concept of theme and identify the theme(s) in stories read.
- Identify and explain characterization techniques in short stories.
- Identify and explain the use of figurative language in short stories.
- Analyze how authors create tone and mood in short stories.
- Recognize the importance of point of view in a novel and why it wouldn't be the same story told from someone else's point of view.
- Identify and explain plot structure (i.e., exposition, rising action, crisis/climax, falling action, resolution/denouement) in short stories.
- Explain that novels may have more than one plot (i.e., subplots) and explain the use of multiple plots.
FOCUS STANDARDS
- RL.9-10.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- RL.9-10.3: Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
- RL.9-10.5: Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
- RI.0-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- W.9-10.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
- SL.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
- SL.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
LITERARY TEXTS
Fiction
Myth
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INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
From Contexts and Criticism in Norton Critical Edition of Frankenstein
Additional Resources
From Contexts and Criticism in Norton Critical Edition of Frankenstein
- "Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve" by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gumar, pp. 328-344
- "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein" by Anne K. Mellor, pp. 355-368
- "Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the Spectacle of Masculinity" by Bette London, pp. 391-404
- "Frankenstein and Radical Science" by Marilyn Butler, pp. 404-416
- "Frankenstein, Racial Science, and the Yellow Peril" by Anne K. Mellor, pp. 481-490
- "Geographic Boundaries and Inner Space: Frankenstein, Scientific Exploration, and the Quest for the Absolute" by Christa Knellwolf, pp. 506-520
Additional Resources
- Frankenstein Summer Reading Annotation Guide
- Mary Shelley Biography (Poetry Foundation)
- Pennsylvania Electronic Edition of Frankenstein, edited by Stuart Curran
- Collation of Textual Variants between the 1818 and 1831 editions, provided Stuart Curren's Pennsylvania Electronic Edition
- "Why a Volcanic Eruption Caused a 'Year Without A Summer' in 1816", Ashley Strickland reporting for CNN, 17 Sept 2019
TERMINOLOGY
Allusion (e.g., mythological, biblical)
Character, characterization Doppelgänger Epistolary novel Feminism Foil Frame Narrative Genre Gothic |
Horror
Imagery Irony (e.g., dramatic, situational, verbal) Narrator Novel Plot (i.e., exposition, rising action, crisis/climax, falling action, resolution/denouement) |
Point of view
Setting Style Symbol, symbolism Theme Tone |
IMAGE GALLERY
VIDEO GALLERY
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Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster
BBC Documentary (58m 24s) This film seeks to show how Frankenstein was influenced by Mary Shelley's upbringing in the forefront of English radical life. |
National Theatre Live Frankenstein (2011) | Trailer
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Frankenstein Pt. 1
Frankenstein Pt. 3
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Frankenstein Pt. 2
Frankenstein Pt. 4
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