Novel Study (Reading): African American Literature (Elijah of Buxton)

In this multi-day class students will read and discuss Christopher Paul Curtis novel Elijah of Buxton.  Class will meet for four days for a week. Students will be required to read chapters one through six before the first class. Chapters seven through twelve will be read before the second class, chapters thirteen through nineteen before the third class, and chapters twenty to the end will be read before the last class. The Socratic method of asking questions and discussion will be incorporated into class time. Class time will consist of students discussing the five elements of literature in regard to the novel. The five elements of literature to be discussed are conflict, plot, setting, character and theme. Throughout class time literary devices will be introduced and students will be given the opportunity to try and locate various literary devices incorporated in their reading by the author. Also, students will research the author in order to gain some insight on who he is and what may have inspired him to write this story. Completing notebook pages and oral discussion is a vital part of this class. When written assignments are given students will be required to write information in complete sentences. Most important, any unabridged book can be read. If a student is a struggling reader he is welcome to listen to an audio book and must also complete class assignments. 

The reading of this book may open up conversation about racism in American, essentially this is not the purpose of this class. This class will not take a deep dive into racism. However, the class may discuss the positive and negative consequences of events which happened in the story.  Fundamentally, this class will focus on completing a literary analysis of the book.