Summer Reading AP English Language and Composition

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1 Overview: You will have three summer assignments a Commonplace Book, a Pop Culture Assignment, and a Reading Assignment. The due dates are staggered from the beginning of school to the first week in September. However, you will want to start work on them as soon as school is out and work on them throughout the summer. Once you begin your junior classes, you will have a heavy workload, especially if you are taking more than one advanced course. Assignment #1 Commonplace Book Due: August 6, 2018 To begin: Purchase a spiral bound composition 5-subject composition book, college-ruled, with 200 or more sheets. Decorate the front cover to make your composition book unique and representative of you. In the first section, number the pages back and front in the outside upper corner. Complete 10 of the following 20 assignments over the summer in any order. Additionally, complete the three required assignments (13 total). Be sure to label the top of each page with the assignment number and the date completed. Your assignments should be written over the entire summer, not in the last week before school starts. Each entry should be written in blue or black ink single-spaced in legible handwriting. You may use highlighters and markers to enhance your pages, but the primary writing should be completed in blue or black ink. Pencil is not acceptable for assignments in AP Lang. Your writing assignments will be similar to those you complete in AP English Language and Composition this year and are considered think pieces and rough drafts rather than polished writing. Please pay attention to the prompts below to complete your Commonplace. All entries will be two to five pages long. Be sure to include citations for any sources you are responding to or are including in your writing. You should aim for writing about 40 pages in total over the summer. Included in the 40 pages will be additional notes, thoughts reflections about summer reading not included in the list below. Note: Your Commonplace Book is not a personal diary. The entries will be read by teachers, classmates, and shared in class. 1. Required: Write a profile of yourself and three goals you have for yourself in AP English Language and Composition this year. 2. Read the main cover story from The Atlantic ( this month. Write a response summarizing the article and finding at least three points with which you agree or disagree. 3. Select a quotation you find inspiring and analyze it by looking at its grammar, syntax, diction, and figurative language. Then try to write a few sentences using the quotation as model for the sentences. Briefly write about why the quotation was inspiring. 4. Read a newspaper article in a national newspaper (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, etc.) about a topic that interests you and write a response to the article, identifying any biases that you perceive in the reporting or incorrect information. 5. Identify five words from your summer reading assignments that you need to learn more about. Identify the denotation, connotations, etymology, related words, synonyms and antonyms and the sentence where you first saw the words. Write several sentences using the words. 6. Read an editorial in the New York Times. Write a response to the editorial using a counterargument to its claim. 7. Read a local news story that matters to you. Write a letter to the editor responding to the news story. Bonus points if it is published (cut it out of the paper and glue it in your Commonplace). Page 1

2 8. Find an editorial cartoon published in the last month. Print it out and glue it in your Commonplace, then analyze the elements of the cartoon. Identify any claims, assumptions, or counterclaims the cartoon is making. Then write about whether you agree or disagree the cartoon. 9. Watch a short video on YouTube that has received over a million likes of anything from playful puppies to how to win at a level in a video game or a music video. Describe the video and explain what is appealing about the video that has made it so popular. 10. Go to a museum (real or virtual) and find a painting that appeals to you. Explain what you see in the painting and what you like about it. Write about what you think the artist was trying to argue in the painting (everything is an argument). Research the artist and the painting and see if you were correct. 11. Go to a place where you can observe people (a Starbucks, a park, a beach, etc.). Write descriptions of the people that you see and make conjectures about them based on your observations. 12. Find a favorite family photograph and write a description of what is happening in the photograph, what your family members were probably thinking, and how the photograph captures that day, event, or your family. 13. Select a current meme for visual analysis. Write about the allusions that must be understood to understand the meme and why you think this meme has entered popular culture. 14. Write about the poem or song you picked for summer reading. This may be a personal or analytic response. 15. Write a review of the film you watched or drama you read for summer reading. Write for an audience of classmates who may be deciding whether to watch the film or not. Read some film reviews before you write yours. 16. Write about the novel you are reading for summer reading. Choose one passage of about 500 words that you think is the most important passage of the novel and write a letter to the author explaining why you think the writing in this passage is significant. 17. Write about the nonfiction book you are reading for summer reading. Make connections from it to the poem, song, novel, or film. The connections may be about content or style. 18. Free Choice: write about any topic in any style you would like. Make sure it is school appropriate and something you could share with classmates. 19. Required: Read the essay On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion (available online). Write about what she values in keeping and notebook and what you value in keeping yours this summer. 20. Required: Reflect on and evaluate your Commonplace Book. To what extent did you follow directions? To what extent did you make it your own? What common themes do you see in the writing you did this summer. What piece are you most proud of? What piece would you like to rewrite? Page 2

3 Assignment #2 Pop Culture Assignment Due Date: August 13, 2018 Purchase Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs (We will refer to this book throughout the year.) Introduction: In his book Thank You for Arguing, Jay Heinrichs addresses the art of persuasion by exploring relative examples in modern popular culture. By exploring aspects of rhetoric through commonplace pop culture references, the reader gains an understanding of the relationships between rhetoric and a modern world. As Heinrichs explains, the references appeal to the reader s acceptance of invisible wheels within wheels of modern existence (4). These references prove how rhetoric is as relevant to a modern person as to a Greek in Aristotle s day. As budding students of rhetoric, you will see that the art of effective discussion and persuasion is still alive today. Task: In the spirit of Jay Heinrichs, you will offer examples of how rhetoric appears in current television show(s), movie(s) or book(s). You will write a summary, select examples, defend your claim, and present your examples to the class. Presentation: Create a 3- to 5-minute presentation for the class. Each of the elements (Synopsis, Offense, Defense, etc.) should be represented in the presentation. Choose a multimedia format with which you are comfortable. You will need to analyze your selections through the lens of the four major sections of Heinrichs s book. You will need to find four current pop culture samples to complete the assignment - one example per section of the book. Ultimately, you are selecting four total persuasive/argumentative pop culture samples that you will analyze based on Heinrichs s elements of persuasion. You are required to utilize at least one rhetorical term per section. You ll be surprised at how many you can find. Components: Four Sections of Thank you for Arguing: Offense Defense Advanced Offense Advanced Agreement Synopsis: Once you select your pop culture examples, write a brief synopsis of each selection. In the synopsis, write a brief overview of the show, movie, or book by including relevant details and descriptions for the audience to gain an understanding of the premise and storyline. Your synopsis should be brief and help your audience understand the evaluation and analysis of your example. Do not assume that your audience is familiar with your selection; however, you need to be specific and concise in your summary. Analysis: Each pop culture example is going to be paired with one section of the book (as listed above). Make sure to include the following: Identify one rhetorical element or term from each section that is represented in your example. Use Heinrichs s writing as a model for your writing; for example, use dialogue or quotes from the show, define the term, explain/defend how your example represents the term. Persuade your audience of the validity of your example. Page 3

4 Assignment #3 Summer Reading (Due Date: Complete the assigned reading by September 5, 2018) Read the assigned novel and one of the nonfiction books from the list below and take notes in your Commonplace Book about connections you are making between the text and yourself, the text and itself, and the text and the world: Assigned Novel The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl From Good Reads: In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbor. Nonfiction Choices Choose one of the following books: A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr (1996) From Amazon.com: This true story of an epic courtroom showdown, where two of the nation's largest corporations were accused of causing the deaths of children from water contamination, was a #1 national bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed American by Erik Larson (2003) From Amazon.com: Erik Larson author of #1 bestseller In the Garden of Beasts intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2011) From Amazon.com: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells taken without her knowledge in 1951 became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can't afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966) From Amazon.com: On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence. Page 4

5 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (1997) From Amazon.com: A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more-- including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962) From Amazon.com: Rachel Carson s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century. To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface by Olivia Laing (2012) From Amazon.com: One midsummer week more than 60 years after Virginia Woolf drowned in the Ouse in 1941, Olivia Laing walked that same Sussex river from source to sea. The result is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love. Along the way, Laing explores the roles rivers play in human lives, tracing their intricate flow through literature and mythology alike. She excavates all sorts of stories from the Ouse's marshy banks, from the brutal Barons' War of the 13th century to the "Dinosaur Hunters," the 19th-century amateur naturalists who first cracked the fossil code. Central among these ghosts is, of course, Virginia Woolf herself: her life, her writing, and her watery death. Woolf is the most constant companion on Laing's journey, and this book can be read in part as a biography of this extraordinary English writer. But other writers float through these pages too among them Iris Murdoch, Shakespeare, Homer, and Kenneth Grahame, author of the riverside classic The Wind in the Willows. The result is a wonderfully discursive read, interweaving biography, history, nature writing, and memoir, and driven by Laing's deep understanding of science and cultural history. Note: You will receive a written assignment the first week of school to complete for summer reading in order to prepare for your first Socratic Seminar. Page 5