Some+Possible+Common+Read+Pairings

In order to ensure some continuity and equity of experience, all juniors will begin the year by exploring a common pair of "conversing" texts, one traditional English text and one contemporary "revision text". While we will encourage teachers to define the idea of "revision" as they design their course, this initial common reading experience will feature a revision text that is literally written within, or derived from, the framework of the traditional text.

Below a list of some possible common pairs. The following criteria support these choices: :
 * Relevance
 * Rigor
 * Craft
 * Integrated Studies
 * Global Studies
 * Departmental Familiarity

[|Beowulf] ([|Amazon.com link] ) [|Grendel] an short novel by John Gardner ([|Amazon.com link])

[|Hamlet] by William Shakespeare ([|Amazon.com link] ) [|Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead] a play by Tom Stoppard ([|Amazon.com link]) (Also made into a [|Film] directed by Stoppard

[|Heart of Darkness] by Joseph Conrad ([|Amazon.com link]) [|"An Image of Africa: Racism in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'"] an essay by Chinua Achebe and/or [|Apocalypse Now] a film by Francis Ford Coppola [|Death and the King's Horseman] by Wole Soyinka Things Fall Apart; and a very short short story, "Uncle Ben's Choice." Both by Achebe.

[|The Tempest] by William Shakespeare ([|Amazon.com link)] [|A Tempest] by Aime Cesaire trans. by Richard Miller [|(Amazon.com link)] and/or [|The Sea and the Mirror: a "long poem" by W.H. Auden] The Tempest, a film by Julie Taymoor

[|Mrs. Dalloway] by Virginia Woolf ([|Amazon.com link]) [|The Hours] a film adaptation of Michael Cunnigham's novel

[|Omeros] a poem by Derek Walcott that offers Carribean-based retelling of //The Odyssey//( [|Amazon.com link])

[|Poetry of John Donne] [|Wit] by Margaret Edson

[|Modest Proposal] by Jonathan Swift [|The Onion] and on the December 13, 2010 episode of [|The Colbert Report], Stephen reads a passage of //A Modest Proposal// in support of Ted Turner's suggestions on reducing overpopulation by having poor people sell (to rich people) their right to bear a single child per family

[|The Canterbury Tales] [|Worlds End] the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman's //The Sandman// series, has the same basic storyline as //The Canterbury Tales//. Several very different people meet in an inn and agree to tell tales while they wait for a storm to end.