Great Expectations

The Telemachos Guided Reading Editions of classic novels are designed to encourage educators to teach once again from the unabridged literary treasury of Western Civilization. Each edition provides students-unaccustomed to the sentence structure and vocabulary of novels written over a century ago-a path, alongside the story itself, of directed questions, which light their way toward understanding the novel's concrete details of plot, character, conflict, and imagery, details essential for all young readers to grasp when they enter, for the first time, into the world created by Charles Dickens.

Each Telemachos Guided Reading Edition

establishes close-reading skills that become, over time, customary during the act of reading;outlines a process by which educators help students find an appropriate analytical voice for crafting written arguments based upon the evidence the story itself provides and the related associations arising therein;offers sample pages illustrating how a reader can personally annotate a text for evidence and associations in preparation for constructing an essay;includes footnotes for both historical and literary context and, in most cases, a glossary of vocabulary from the novel.

About the Editor

Michael Degen, Ph.D., has been teaching AP English for over thirty years, primarily at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. He has served as a College Board consultant and workshop presenter nationally and throughout Texas, where he has provided instructional guidance for over 5o school districts.  He is the author of Crafting Expository Argument, Prospero's Magic, and Virginia Woolf: A Contribution to the Essay Form. His most recent book is co-authored with his former student and colleague Ian Berry- The Instructional Coach's Playbook: Classroom Strategies Informed by Neuroscience, Athletics, and Psychology.