4U ISU
The Independent Study Unit (ISU) for this year has four stages:
A. Knowledge of your chosen novel: Answering provided questions.
B. Application: Using research methods in finding academic literary criticisms.
C. Knowledge/Thinking/Communication/Application: Formal literary essay.
D. Thinking/Communication: Individual class presentation.
First, you must select a novel from the approved list.
As part of your selection process, you must also find three appropriate scholarly articles
about your text or author. This means that they must come from peer-reviewed academic
journals and/or The New York Review of Books and/or The Times Literary Supplement.
Other sources, including Wikipedia, general book reviews, non-academic web pages, etc.
are not acceptable as criticism.
Before you start reading a text, you must meet with the teacher-librarian, Stephanie
Moffat-Watson on your own time (e.g. before school, during a spare) to
i)
show her your resources
ii)
get your book approved
A.
Knowledge of your chosen novel. Completion date: Nov. 15
You will be provided a series of questions to answer. You should frequently consult
these questions as you read your ISU novel in order to generate answers.
In mid-November you will be requested to submit your work and selected questions
will be chosen for evaluation. Make sure you have completely read your novel
before this date!!
B. Application of research methods. Tentative Date: December
1. Find and carefully read three academic literary criticisms of your novel from
reliable print or web sources, using the skills learned in the database
presentation by Ms. Moffatt-Watson.
2. Write a bibliography of your academic literary criticisms using correct MLA
format. Handouts on this format are available in the school library.
3. Make a conference appointment with the teacher-librarian, Ms. MoffattWatson, to discuss your literary criticisms and your bibliography. You must
present the complete literary criticisms for her approval, and be prepared to
discuss them with her.
4. Keep the approved criticisms to support your thesis in your ISU formal essay.
Bring the following with you to your conference with Ms. Moffatt-Watson:
 Your novel
 Three literary criticisms
 Typed bibliography
C. Formal Literary Essay. Tentative Date: February/March
1. Based on the reading and analysis of your novel, answer your choice of one of the
forty essay prompts provided in the Student Exemplar Handbook (pp.55-58).
You may only choose a separate topic only with the course instructor’s approval.
2. Write a formal literary essay of about 1250 words proving your thesis. You may
want to refer to your literary criticisms in your essay.
3. Use MLA format parenthetical citations in your essay, and attach a properly
formatted bibliography.
D. Class Presentation. Date: Follows CB summative schedule
As part of your Summative Tasks for the course, you will be required to perform
and individual presentation in front of the class about your chosen ISU novel.
Specific details will follow.