Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. The Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Transcription

1 Christ the King Cathedral School Required Summer Reading Program Students entering 10 th Grade Imagine a football player who never picks up a ball or lifts any weights until the first game of the fall. Imagine a dancer who never practices until the week before the recital. Imagine a car mechanic who never practices putting a motor together until a customer comes. Does the word unsuccessful come to mind? Here at Christ the King High School, we know that students needs some time to rest and relax for the summer. However, we also know that a student who stops practicing the gains they have made in reading and thinking will lose the momentum they have achieved in the past year. Therefore, we require summer reading of all students entering grades 9 through 12 in the coming year as well as assignments that will help students further prepare for college no matter their interests. All students need to read two novels or nonfiction works over the summer and complete the accompanying assignments by August 17, the first one-half day of school in the fall. At that time there will be additional tests and writing assignments using this summer work. If you read any extra novels from the choice lists and complete the additional assignments, you will receive extra credit. 10 th grade Required Novels Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya The Life of PI by Yann Martel Additional Choices for Extra Credit: The Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather 1

2 Assignments for 10 th Grade Summer Reading Out of the two required books, decide which one to read and annotate for a test at the beginning of classes in August. For the other of the two required books, choose two of the following activities out of the graphic organizer. These must be complete and ready to turn in on August 17, the first one-half day of class in August. Remember that as soon as school begins, you will also be taking a test over each book. Please note that plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any paper or project that is copied or pasted so that it is not your own will receive a zero. Choose one from this column for the book you choose for the projects: 1. Create a Power Point for the book with the required slides listed in the direction page that is attached. 3. Create a collage with the required information listed in the direction page that is attached. Choose another from this column for the book you choose for the projects: 2. Complete the literary elements graphic organizer attached with these paper. 4. Write the letters as described on the direction page for the letter writing project. 1. Power Point Project Directions a. Create a Power Point for your novel with 10 or more slides. You may choose any background, theme, or font for your Power Point that you think best represents the book. b. Your ten slides must include the following: i. Title of book and author ii. One slide for each character with an image or symbol to represent them. Be ready to explain why this image or symbol fits with this character. iii. One slide for each chapter of the book. Each of these slides needs to state in one sentence the main occurrence of the chapter. Use clip art. iv. One slide that explains the message of the book for people in today s world. c. Be ready to present your Power Point in class. (That means save it on a flash drive to bring it to school!) 2. Literary Elements Graphic Organizer Project Fill in the graphic organizer on the next page. Bring it to school and be ready to write an essay using this organizer. 2

3 Literary Elements Graphic Organizer For By Name of Element Setting = Time and Place Example (Give actual sentences from the book that show the element. Put quotation marks around them and include the page number from the book in parentheses after the quote.) a. Quote about the place b. Quote about the time Explanation (Tell how this element helps the reader understand the book.) Why are the time and place important in this book? Conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces. Character vs. character conflict vs. Quote that shows this: How does this conflict get resolved? Character vs. Nature Conflict vs. Quote that shows this: How does this conflict get resolved? Character vs. Self Conflict (The character must make a big decision.) Climax (What is the most important moment in the story?) vs. self when they have to decide Quote that shows this: Quote from the climax: How does this conflict get resolved? How was this the most important moment? 3

4 Plot is all the events that happen in a literary work. Quote from the beginning of the book: What is the first thing that happens that shows there will be a problem? Plot #2 Quote from the middle of the book: What things have happened since the beginning of the book? Plot #3 Quote from the end of the book: What happens to solve the problems, or are the problems still there? Theme is the message the author has about life on this planet. Quote that shows this message: What do you think is the message the author has? Why? 3. Collage Directions: a. A collage is a poster with many pictures and words covering it that tell about the subject. They sometimes even overlap. b. Start saving pictures and drawings from online or various newspapers or magazines that might be used to tell the story of your book. c. Using a large poster board, lay out all the pictures and words on the poster before beginning to glue them on. d. Be prepared to explain your collage to the class when school begins. e. The following information must be in the collage: i. Title of the book and author ii. Pictures for each character in the book and/or symbols for them. Be ready to explain your choices. 4

5 iii. One picture, cartoon, or drawing for each chapter of the book that will show what the chapter is about. Be ready to explain your choices. iv. One picture, cartoon, drawing, or symbol that would represent the message the author has about life. Be ready to explain your choices. 4. Letter Writing Project Directions a. Choose two characters from your book. b. Write three letters from the first character to the second. One letter should talk about the beginning of the book, the next should talk about the middle of the book, and the third should talk about the end of the book. Each letter should have 100 or more words. They may ask the second character questions. c. Write three letters from the second character to the first character. One letter should talk about the beginning of the book, the next should talk about the middle of the book, and the third should talk about the end of the book. Each letter should have 100 or more words. They may answer the questions of the first character and/ or ask the other character questions. Below is a sample letter. Please use it as a pattern to write your letters.: June 19, 2014 Dear Tom Sawyer, I can t believe how hot it is here, Tom. I wish you had done everything the teacher told you, and then you might be here right now to go fishing with me. I was walking down the street last week, and I saw that you were running down the street to talk to me. However, I was so frustrated about everything going on around here, I just ran off. Aunt Polly keeps telling me to be polite. I try and I try, but somehow things don t seem to go just right. At least when you were here, I knew that I wasn t the only one in trouble. When are you coming home, Tom? Yours truly, Huck Finn 5

6 Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya Exquisite prose and wondrous storytelling have helped make Rudolfo Anaya the father of Chicano literature in English. Indeed, Anaya's tales fairly shimmer with the haunting beauty and richness of his culture. The winner of the Pen Center West Award for Fiction for his unforgettable novel Alburquerque, Anaya is perhaps best loved for his classic bestseller, Bless Me, Ultima... Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past- a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world...and will nurture the birth of his soul. Reading this will help a person determine the difference between culture and Catholicism. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true? 6

7 Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather There is something epic--and almost mythic--about this sparsely beautiful novel by Willa Cather, although the story it tells is that of a single human life, lived simply in the silence of the desert. In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows-- gently, although he must contend with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. One of these events Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie In the novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, e.g. offers of employment or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet with old friends. All have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island by the 7

8 apparently last death. A confession in the form of a postscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took place and who was responsible. It is Christie's best-selling novel with over 100 million copies sold, also making it the world's best-selling mystery, and one of the best-selling books of all time. Publications International lists the novel as the seventh best-selling title. **Please note: These books are available online at places like Amazon.com for pennies if one chooses to purchase a used book. They will also be available at Barnes and Noble in town. Students may borrow these books from the public library or from past students. The Pearl is available online for free. Please contact me at any time during the summer with questions at my school address: cholley@ctkcathedralschool.org ****Book descriptions are from Amazon.com. ***Please note also: If a student chooses to read one of the extra credit books, they must also complete two of the activities from the graphic organizer to receive the extra credit. I will give the extra credit to help the student s grade at the end of the first nine weeks in whatever area I would determine to be most appropriate. This would also be dependent on the effort put into the assigned activities. Time Management If you will stick to the following guidelines, you will finish your books with plenty of time to spare. 1. If you read two chapters a day of Bless Me, Ultima beginning July 1, you will complete the book by July Then if you complete four chapters a day of Life of Pi beginning July 12, you will complete the book by August 5. The chapters in this book are extremely short. 3. Beginning August 1, you would then have time to work on the assigned projects for one of the books. 8