LaunchPad Solo for Literature (Six Month Access) by Bedford/St. Martin's - First Edition, 2016 from Macmillan Student Store
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LaunchPad Solo for Literature (Six Month Access)

First Edition ©2016 Bedford/St. Martin's

LaunchPad Solo for Literature, a set of customizable online materials, helps beginning literature students learn and practice close reading and critical thinking skills in an interactive environment. Easy-to-use and easy-to-assign modules based on widely taught literary selections guide stu...
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LaunchPad Solo for Literature (Six Month Access) by Bedford/St. Martin's - First Edition, 2016 from Macmillan Student Store

Get to the heart of close reading

LaunchPad Solo for Literature, a set of customizable online materials, helps beginning literature students learn and practice close reading and critical thinking skills in an interactive environment. Easy-to-use and easy-to-assign modules based on widely taught literary selections guide students through common assignment types: responding to a reading, drawing connections between texts, instructor-led collaborative close reading, and listening to a text. In addition, students and instructors have access to a library of texts and nearly 500 reading comprehension quizzes on commonly taught literary selections along with several engaging videos by well-known authors on literary elements such as character, dialogue, and voice. Get all our great resources and activities in one fully customizable space online; then use our tools with your own content.

LaunchPad Solo for Literature can be used on its own or packaged with one of our literature titles at no additional cost.

Features

Interactive modules are easy to use, assign, and monitor to guide students through close readings of 10 widely-taught texts (stories, poems, scenes from plays) based on 3-4 common assignments:

  • Respond to a Reading: Using marginal questions that point to specific lines and moments in the selection, students are asked to read carefully and think critically about important issues raised by the text.

  • Draw Connections: Students are asked to read and compare two or more complementary texts, which have been annotated to highlight key moments and helpful contextual information. Students respond in writing to a series of questions that highlight important similarities and differences between the texts.

  • Collaborate on a Reading: Using the highlighting tools and notes feature in LaunchPad, instructors can post notes or questions about specific moments or issues in a text, prompting students to respond with their own comments, questions, or observations. Students can also respond to each other, further deepening their understanding of the text.

  • Listen to a Reading: Select modules include an audio recording of the selection or reading by the author. A series of accompanying questions ask students to reflect on key aspects of the recording.

More than 200 literature texts – and the ability to add your own. Assign additional commonly assigned readings from the many publisher-provided poems, short stories, play scenes, essays, and contextual documents. Instructors can assign these readings – or upload their favorite texts – and create a customized lesson or module around the selection.

Close to 500 hundred reading comprehension quizzes on commonly taught stories, poems, plays, and essays. These multiple choice quizzes report to the instructor gradebook and help students test their understanding of a specific literary selection.

Instruction and Exercises on the Elements of Literature – fiction, poetry, drama, figurative language, and more – provide students with an overview of key literary concepts and invite them to test their understanding.

Critical Approaches to Literature offer students a brief guide to each of the key critical lenses for approaching literature.

Author videos on the elements of literature are perfect for the YouTube generation and include T.C. Boyle on comedy in fiction, Anne Rice on transitions in fiction, and Frank McCourt on voice. Using the video editing tools in LaunchPad, instructors can annotate, assign, and add questions or comments to these videos, as well as apply these tools to videos that they upload themselves.

Thinking Aloud about Literature videos provide a window into the close-reading process of three students as they work their way through a poem by Louise Glück.

A Glossary of Literary Terms is a comprehensive resource for students and instructors.

MLA Instruction and Practice prepare students for writing and documenting their sources using The MLA Handbook 8e (2016).

LearningCurve adaptive quizzing is game-like online quizzing that adapts to what students already know and helps them focus on what they need to learn. It offers a thorough coverage of grammar topics, MLA and APA citation, and argument.

More than 100 Grammar Girl podcasts offer a different way to experience and understand writing, grammar, and punctuation. The host, Mignon Fogarty (a.k.a. Grammar Girl), offers clear, upbeat, and sometimes humorous takes on a variety of English-language topics.

New to This Edition

"Using LaunchPad Solo for Literature helped improved students' understanding of literature and enhanced class discussions. I saw an improvement in exam scores, as well."
– Tiffany Messerschmidt, Polk State College

"I like that it encourages students to stop and reflect on what they are reading."
– Abigail Scheg, Elizabeth City State University

"I like that it requires students to use higher level thinking skills as they compare two texts."
– Nichole DeWall, McKendree University

Digital Options

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Table of Contents

Welcome

Contents by Author (instructor-only)

Contents by Genre (instructor-only)

Video Contents (instructor-only)

LaunchPad Solo for Literature contains Interactive Modules with three to four activity types:

Respond to a Reading

Draw Connections

Collaborate on a Reading

Listen to a Reading

Interactive modules are based on the following selections:

Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book

Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool　

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour

Emily Dickinson, I Heard A Fly Buzz

Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Susan Glaspell, Trifles

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown　　

Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants　

Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl　

Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado　

William Shakespeare, scenes from Hamlet

William Shakespeare, scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

John Updike, A&P

Sophocles, scenes from Antigone

Oscar Wilde, scenes from The Importance of Being Earnest

William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

John Updike, A&P

William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow

Exercises on the Elements of Fiction

Character

Plot

Point of View

Setting

Style

Symbolism

Theme

Exercises on the Elements of Poetry

Assonance

Denotation and Connotation

Diction

Image

Irony

Meter

Rhyme

Tone

Word Order

Exercises on the Elements of Drama

Character

Dialogue

Performance

Plot

Setting and Staging

Theme

Exercises on Figurative Language and Other Elements

Allegory

Alliteration

Metaphor

Simile

Symbol

Thinking Aloud about Literature

Student Laura Paik

Student Chelsea Dickson

Student Stephen Epples

Critical Approaches to Literature

Deconstruction

Feminist Criticism

Marxist Criticism

Postcolonial Criticism

Psychoanalytic Criticism

Reader-Response Criticism

Structuralism

The New Criticism

The New Historicism

A Glossary of Literary Terms

MLA Documentation

MLA Documentation Guide

LearningCurve: Working with Sources (MLA)

LearningCurve Exercises (40 exercise topics)

Grammar Girl Podcasts (over 100 to choose from)

Reading Comprehension Quizzes (nearly 500 to choose from)

Author Videos (over 130 to choose from)

ADDITIONAL READING SELECTIONS (over 200 to choose from)

* An asterisk indicates there is a quiz or exercise for the selection.

Additional Selections: Fiction

Burroughs, Edgar Rice. from Tarzan of the Apes *

Cather, Willa. Paul's Case *

Cather, Willa. A Wagner Matinée

Chekhov, Anton. The Lady with the Dog *

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour *

Conrad, Joseph. An Outpost of Progress *

Crane, Stephen. The Open Boat *

Crane, Stephen. The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky *

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Winter Dreams *

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper *

Harte, Bret. The Luck of Roaring Camp

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Birthmark *

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Minister's Black Veil *

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown *

Hemingway, Ernest. Hills Like White Elephants *

Hurston, Zora Neale. Spunk *

James, Henry. The Jolly Corner

James, Henry. The Real Thing

Jewett, Sarah Orne. A White Heron *

Joyce, James. Eveline *

Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl *

Lawrence, D. H. The Horse Dealer's Daughter *

London, Jack. The Law of Life

London, Jack. To Build a Fire *

Mansfield, Katherine. Miss Brill *

Mansfield, Katherine. The Fly *

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener *

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado *

Twain, Mark. The Story of the Good Little Boy

Updike, John. A&P *

Wharton, Edith. The Quicksand

Additional Selections: Poetry

Anonymous. Bonny Barbara Allan

Anonymous. Scarborough Fair

Anonymous. The Frog

Anonymous. There was a young lady named Bright

Anonymous. Western Wind

Arnold, Matthew. Dover Beach

Behn, Aphra. On Her Loving Two Equally

Blake, William. Infant Sorrow

Blake, William. London

Blake, William. The Chimney Sweeper

Blake, William. The Garden of Love

Blake, William. The Lamb

Blake, William. The Tyger

Bradstreet, Anne. To My Dear and Loving Husband

Bronte, Emily. Riches I hold in light esteem

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. When our two souls stand up erect and strong

Browning, Robert. Home-Thoughts, from Abroad

Browning, Robert . Meeting at Night

Browning, Robert . My Last Duchess

Browning, Robert. Parting at Morning

Burns, Robert. A Red, Red Rose

Byron, Lord George Gordon. She walks in Beauty

Carroll, Lewis. Jabberwocky

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Kubla Khan

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. What Is an Epigram?

Crane, Stephen. Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind

Crane, Stephen. A Man Said to the Universe

Dickinson, Emily. Apparently With No Surprise

Dickinson, Emily. "Faith" is a fine invention

Dickinson, Emily. I Know That He Exists

Dickinson, Emily. If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

Dickinson, Emily. Oh Sumptuous Moment

Dickinson, Emily. Portraits Are to Daily Faces

Dickinson, Emily. Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—

Dickinson, Emily. The Bustle in a House

Dickinson, Emily. The Thought Beneath So Slight a Film—

Dickinson, Emily. To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee

Dickinson, Emily. Water, is taught by thirst

Dickinson, Emily. Wild Nights—Wild Nights!

Donne, John. Batter my heart, three-personed God

Donne, John. Death Be Not Proud

Donne, John. Song

Donne, John. The Apparition

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. We Wear the Mask

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. Theology

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. To a Captious Critic

Eliot, George. In a London Drawingroom

Eliot, T. S. Preludes

Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Farries, Helen. Magic of Love

Freneau, Philip. The Indian Burying Ground

Frost, Robert. After Apple-Picking

Frost, Robert. Birches

Frost, Robert. The Road Not Taken

Frost, Robert. An Old Man's Winter Night

Frost, Robert. Home Burial

Frost, Robert. "In White": An Early Version of "Design"

Frost, Robert. Mowing

Frost, Robert. My November Guest

Frost, Robert. "Out, Out—"

Frost, Robert. Storm Fear

Frost, Robert. The Oven Bird

Frost, Robert. The Pasture

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Queer People

Gray, Thomas. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Hardy, Thomas. The Convergence of the Twain

Hardy, Thomas. Hap

Hardy, Thomas. In Time of "The Breaking of Nations"

Harper, Frances E. W Learning to Read

Herbert, George. The Pulley

Herbert, George. The Collar

Herrick, Robert. To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Herrick, Robert. Delight in Disorder

Herrick, Robert. Upon Julia's Clothes

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. God's Grandeur

Hopkins, Gerard Manley, Spring and Fall

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Hurrahing in Harvest

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Pied Beauty

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. The Windhover

Housman, A. E. "Terence, this is stupid stuff"

Housman, A. E. To an Athlete Dying Young

Housman, A. E. Is my team ploughing

Housman, A. E. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Housman, A. E. When I was one-and-twenty

Howe, Julia Ward. Battle-Hymn of the Republic

Jonson, Ben. On My First Son

Jonson, Ben. Still to Be Neat

Jonson, Ben. To Celia

Keats, John. To Autumn

Keats, John. Ode to a Nightingale

Keats, John. On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Keats, John. To one who has been long in city pent

Keats, John. When I have fears that I may cease to be

Keats, John. Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition

Keats, John. La Belle Dame sans Merci

Keats, John. Ode on a Grecian Urn

Lazarus, Emma. The New Colossus

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Snow-Flakes

Lowell, Amy. The Pond

Marlowe, Christopher. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

McKay, Claude. America

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. Wild Swans

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. Recuerdo

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. First Fig

Milton, John. On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

Milton, John. When I consider how my light is spent

Owen, Wilfred. Dulce et Decorum Est

Poe, Edgar Allan. Annabel Lee

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Haunted Palace

Pope, Alexander. from An Essay on Criticism

Raleigh, Sir Walter. The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

Robinson, Edwin Arlington . Richard Cory

Robinson, Mary. London's Summer Morning

Rossetti, Christina Georgina. In Progress

Rossetti, Christina Georgina. Promises Like Pie-Crust

Rossetti, Christina Georgina. Some Ladies Dress in Muslin Full and White

Rossetti, Christina Georgina. Song

Rossetti, Christina Georgina. The World

Sandburg, Carl. Buttons

Sandburg, Carl. Chicago

Sappho. Beautiful-throned, Immortal Aphrodite

Sappho. Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne

Sassoon, Siegfried. "They"

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 116

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 130

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 18

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 73

Shakespeare, William. Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Shakespeare, William. When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

Shakespeare, William. When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Ozymandias

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Ode to the West Wind

Sidney, Sir Phillip. Loving in Truth, and Fain in Verse My Love to Show

Sigourney, Lydia Huntley. Indian Names

Southey, Robert. from "The Cataract of Lodore"

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. estina

Taylor, Edward. Housewifery

Tennyson, Lord Alfred. Break, Break, Break

Tennyson, Lord Alfred. The Charge of the Light Brigade

Tennyson, Lord Alfred. Crossing the Bar

Tennyson, Lord Alfred. Ulysses

Tennyson, Lord Alfred. Tears, Idle Tears

Whitman, Walt, A Noiseless Patient Spider

Whitman, Walt. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

Whitman, Walt. Cavalry Crossing a Ford

Whitman, Walt. from "I Sing the Body Electric"

Whitman, Walt. from Song of Myself

Whitman, Walt. I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ

Whitman, Walt. One's-Self I Sing

Whitman, Walt. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

Williams, William Carlos. To Waken an Old Lady

Wordsworth, William. Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Wordsworth, William. The world is too much with us

Wordsworth, William. A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

Wordsworth, William. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Wordsworth, William. It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

Wordsworth, William. London, 1802

Wordsworth, William. Mutability

Wordsworth, William. My Heart Leaps Up

Wordsworth, William. The Solitary Reaper

Wordsworth, William. The World Is Too Much With Us

Wyatt, Sir Thomas. They flee from me

Additional Selections: Non Fiction/Critical Contexts

Dickinson, Emily. A Description of Herself　

Douglass, Frederick. Learning to Read and Write *

Hurston, Zora Neale. How It Feels to Be Colored Me *

Mayor of London. Objections to the Elizabethan Theater 1597

Truth, Sojourner. Ain't I a Woman?

Zitkala-Sa. The School Days of an Indian Girl

Bedford/St.Martin's

In 1981, Charles Christensen and Joan Feinberg founded an imprint of St. Martin's Press called Bedford Books and started work on The Bedford Reader. Today, Bedford/St. Martin's is publishing across the disciplines of English, History, Communication, Music, and College Success. Books like A Writer's Reference, The Bedford Series in History and Culture, and A Speaker's Guidebook work because they grow from where disciplines are, where they're going, and what they need.