Update 6/30

For some reason, I’ve been having a hard time getting your addresses into the database for the group. If you haven’t gotten an email from me to join the group, and are still interested in participating in the discussion groups, as opposed to writing a traditional response journal, please click here.  Once you get there you need to apply to join the group. To apply, you must have a Google groups account. You can use your current email to join the group, and it only takes a few minutes to sign up. If you’re having any problems with this, please feel free to leave me a comment at the bottom of the page so I can help you out,

-ms. b

11^th Grade Summer Reading 2008
Ms. Bernier

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich

-Quick synopsis from bookreporter.com

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the “lowliest” occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity — a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

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You have two choices in how you respond to this book; please pick the assignment that suits you best.

1) You may keep a traditional reading response journal. After every chapter you will write your thoughts on the chapter. In this journal I am not looking for plot summary, but instead for your observations as you read. I want to know how you are reacting to text.

Some sample subjects you could touch on for each response would be;

· What surprised you?

· What did you like?

· What didn’t you like?

· Can you relate to anything in this chapter that the narrator is going through?

· Have you noticed any emerging themes or recurring messages?

· Or you can choose your own topic for your chapter response.

2) You may participate in an online discussion of the novel. I have set up a online discussion area where you can interact with your classmates and have a discussion as you are reading. I will begin the discussion after each chapter, but encourage each of you to move the discussion along. To get credit for this exercise you must comment after each chapter. A comment should be about paragraph long and should consider the responses before it. Join the discussion here.

When you return in late August you will use either your response journals or online discussions as a basis for a short paper.