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Lesson 1 (from Part 1, Chapters 1 and 2)

Objective

Part 1, Chapters 1 and 2

The student will take notes on the background for the novel RAGTIME and about the novelist, E. L. Doctorow.

The student will collect information about Doctorow's writing style.

Lesson

1. The teacher begins the course by giving background information on the history of America in the time of the novel. Some important people to mention include President Theodore Roosevelt, President William H. Taft, Harry Houdini, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. The teacher will also include information of labor unions, the rise of socialism in Europe, the coming of the mass produced automobile, and the beginnings of the motion picture.

2. In discussion about Doctorow's writing style, two things need to be noticed: (1) His use of short, simple sentences; and (2) His omitting of quotation marks in writing dialog. A good contrast might be to show the students a paragraph from Faulkner and one...

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