ANECDOTAL- (of an account) not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research. “while there was much anecdotal evidence there was little hard fact”
Anecdotal learning fosters the student’s ability to identify, through personal application, the importance of theme, plot, character, and other literary elements. Furthermore, when a learner skillfully employs their ability to meaningfully relate to literature they are utilizing the higher elements of thinking: objective reasoning, the foundation of intellect. The desired effect is to instill a worthwhile level of retention for the learner.
For instance, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader is confronted with the brutal image of a racist society. The engaged reader responds to this theme with insights forged by their own understanding of discrimination.
Aside from To Kill a Mockingbird, consider three assigned readings from this academic year in English and list the most astute understanding that you gleaned (collect gradually and bit by bit) from each of the publications. Explain how this observation relates to your informed revelation (previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way), of the observed theme.
This year in English, aside from To Kill a Mockingbird and Life of Pi, you have been assigned to read a variety of essays and short stories along with Station Eleven, Oedipus the King, The Odyssey, and Romeo and Juliet.
ESSAYS:
Kadish for Zelig, The Ring of Time, A Child’s Christmas in Wales
A Mickey Mantle Koan, Sending Grandma to the Ovens
A Modest Proposal, The Death of the Moth 1 & 2, Advice to Youth
Of the Passing of the First-Born, I Have a Dream, We May Be Brothers After All
Thinking as a Hobby, What Life Means to Me
SHORT STORIES:
The Masque of the Red Death, The Stone Boy, A&P,
A Beginner’s Guide to Burning Cardboard Walls, Harrison Bergeron
The Laughing Man, A Mother’s Tale, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings