October 28, 2011 Dear Students, Today, we will begin reading together a powerful and intriguing novel about

young women growing up in post-war Korea: Nora Okja Keller's Fox Girl. Throughout our unit on Fox Girl, we will be thinking about the power of stories and storytelling and contemplating the following questions: How do stories and narratives inform who we are? What power do we have to create and recreate narratives? In her novel, Keller draws on several traditional Korean folktales which we will be studying in order to see how she retells and revisions (sees anew) these stories. We will also be reflecting on the concept of narrative in a broader sense and thinking critically about the social and historical narratives that shape who we are. Fox Girl will offer us a perspective on what happens after a war has come and gone in a country by raising important questions that we began to ask with our reading of The Things They Carried. Throughout out unit, we will think about the following questions: How does war affect women in particular? How did the American G.I. presence manifest itself in insidious ways after the war in Vietnam and Korea (and how does the U.S. continue to colonize the developing world in this way?) What happens to the children fathered by American soldiers in post-war nations? Fox Girl is an emotionally difficult book for many reasons, which we will discuss throughout our unit. Because of its content, I have the following expectations for our reading together, which I hope we can agree to uphold: 1) We will be full readers. This means that you are honest with meif the pace is too quick or slow for you, please come talk to me. I want all of us to be on the same page (literally!) so that when we come to difficult parts of the text, we can talk about them together. 2) We will maintain our current classroom community of consideration and empathy. All students have an equal opportunity to engage in learning in our class, which means that we must respect each other's opinions in classroom discussions, challenge each other to stay engaged in class, and continue to act with integrity and maturity at all times. 3) We will practice rhetorical listening. Rhetorical listening means that we will assume a stance of openness in relation to any person, text, or culture we study together. I hope that you will practice rhetorical listening even outside of our class.

I have been very impressed with how closely and carefully you read, wrote, and spoke about The Things They Carried. I am looking forward to seeing how you grow as readers and thinkers through our study of Fox Girl. Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions at any time! Thank you, Ms. Wu krystal.m.wu@gmail.com