2014 Summer Reading Assignment

Transcription

1 AP English Literature Mrs. Brunner The purpose of summer reading assignment is complex: 2014 Summer Reading Assignment To help build confidence and competence as readers of complex texts To give you, when you enter the class in the fall, an immediate basis for discussion of literature elements like theme, narrative, viewpoint, symbolism, plot structure, etc. To set up a basis for comparison with other works we will read during the year To provide you with the beginnings of a repertoire of works you can write about on the AP Lit exam next spring Last but not least to enrich your mind and stimulate your imagination If you are willing and able to purchase your own copies of these books, you can annotate as you read and will have the books to refer to later in the year. If not, you can find these works in the local library or online During the first week of the semester, you will be evaluated on the books you have read through various assessments. Although video versions of your book may exist and can be enjoyable, they differ greatly from the written word; it is better to rely on the works themselves. Some of the works may contain somewhat explicit language, sexual references, or mature subject matter. Feel free to make another choice, but please be advised that many of the works we read and discuss will have content such as this. The assignments below are due the first day of school (Thursday August 14 th 2014). Bring your typed copies to class and submit electronic copies to Turnitin.com If you cannot be in school for the first class, your assignments to me prior to August 14 th 2014 at Susan.Brunner@matsuk12.us No work will be accepted late. Please note that the successful completion of your summer reading and writing assignments is a prerequisite for continued work in this course. If your summer assignments are not turned in by the due date, you will not be allowed to continue in this AP college level class and will be sent to your counselor to change your schedule. FIRST ASSIGNMENT: This must be typed/word processed and will be collected on the first day of school in addition to being submitted to TURNITIN.COM prior to August 14, 2014; KEEP AN ELECTRONIC COPY AS WELL, as we will continue to use this information over the course of the year. This will count as one half of your summer reading grade. Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. After EACH chapter (there are 26!) summarize 2 3 main points and analyze those points in relation to a work you have read. While I realize that you may not have read a plethora of higher level reading selections, please try to choose works that have been studied in high school, or at the very least are high school reading level. We will have long discussions about what constitutes literary merit and the Canon. If you are wondering if your reading selection is appropriate, look up these terms and consult the College Board s list of AP quality authors. YOU MUST DEMONSTRATE VARIETY; use multiple sources for your examples. Here is a sample for chapter 1: Chapter 1: Every trip is a Quest (Except when it s not) Main Ideas: There is usually a quester, a place to go and a stated reason to go there The quester usually encounters numerous challenges and trial that help him/her on the journey The ultimate reason for the quest is to gain self knowledge and understanding

2 Connection: In The Kite Runner, Amir s quest is to return to this past to set right the wrong he did as a young child. His reason for returning to Afghanistan is to rescue Hassan s son Sohrab, who has been sold as a child prostitute to Amir and Hassan s childhood enemy. Amir faces many challenges, including restrictions imposed by the Taliban, and the physical and mental challenge of confronting Assef. Ultimately, having completed his journey, Amir gains valuable knowledge about himself and his relationship to his own past as well as the possibilities of the future. *Note: The sample provided incorporates the theme of Foster s chapter (the quester, quest etc.), provides a specific reference to the text, and connects the purpose of the quest as it is incorporated in the book. This is the connection that I am looking for you to recognize. Find this, avoid plot summary, and you are good to go. SECOND ASSIGNMENT: Your second assignment for the summer is to read a book from the reading list found at the end of this handout and type a Data Sheet (provided for you and available to download from my class webpage). Use the exact format provided and use additional pages as necessary. A quality Data Sheet will be at least four dense pages (typed, single spaced). In addition, you will be assessed on your understanding of this book selection during the first week of school. These works are of recognized Literary Merit and come from the College Board in Princeton, New Jersey, in its guidelines for advanced placement English literature courses. The purpose of this assignment is to add to your reading experiences and to develop your critical thinking skills. Thus do not choose a book on this list that you have already read! In preparation for the AP Literature exam you will need to be familiar with a wide range of literature. The more you read books of literary merit the more prepared you will be. I encourage you to visit the College Board website to review sample questions, additional preparation suggestions and lists of literary works that offer appear on the exams. You will be assessed during the first week of school on the novel you have read for this second assignment, using an AP exam prompt. Use the guidelines of the following pages to annotate the book you have read. This will help you to organize your thoughts, connect with the text and ultimately to remember it all after a long summer of sun and brain atrophy. Additionally, you will be completing annotations and note cards for all of the texts you read during the course, so this is really a good start. This assessment will count as one half of your summer reading test grade. Your annotations and notecards will not be collected, however, this is an excellent practice to begin now. For the first assignment: How to Read Literature Like a Professor Please follow standard MLA formatting and provide the following Header: Name AP English Literature and Composition Mrs. Brunner Summer Reading Assignment Part 1 Date Submitting your assignment to turnitin.com Visit the site Enroll in Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition class Class ID: Password: APLIT Follow the instruction on the site to upload your completed assignments no later than August 14, The names of the assignments are How to Read Literature Like a Professor and Second Assignment Data Sheet

3 AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSTION SUMMER READING LIST CLASSIC Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire 192 pages Blanche DuBois, a haggard and fragile southern beauty finds her pathetic last grasp at happiness cruelly destroyed in large by her brother in law Stanley Kowalski. Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five (Lexile 850) 215 pages A fourth generation German American is tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944 which he witnessed while a prisoner of war. Toni Morrison Beloved (Lexile 870) 275 pages Sethe an escaped slave who now lives in post Civil War Ohio, has borne the unthinkable and works hard at beating back the past. She struggles to keep Beloved, an intruder, from gaining possession of her present while throwing off the legacy of her past. Tom Stoppard Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 126 pages Presents the play of Hamlet as seen through the eyes of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 182 pages Tells of a labor camp inmates struggle to maintain his dignity I the face of communist oppression. Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (Lexile 950) 572 pages In the course of his wanderings from a southern college to New York s Harlem, and African American man becomes involved in a series of adventures. William Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew 124 pages A comedy about a bad tempered woman who is tamed by the man who claims her for his wife. A Midsummers Night s Dream 204 pages When two pairs of star crossed lovers, a troop of inept amateur actors, a feuding pair of supernatural sprites and love potion go awry all come together in enchanted moonlit forest, the result is an unequalled mixture of merriment and magic. Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God (Lexile: 1080) 231 Pages A black woman searches for fulfilling relationship through two loveless marriage and final finds it in the person Tea Cake, an itinerant laborer and gambler. Pat Conroy The Prince of Tides (Lexile 940) 679 pages Tom Wingo is a high school football coach whose marriage and career are crumbling. He flies to New York after learning of his twin sister s suicide attempt. He realizes while trying to save her, this may have be his last chance to save himself as well. Robert Heinlein Stanger in a Strange Land (Lexile: 940) 438 pages After his arrival on Earth from his home on Mars, Valentine Michele Smith becomes the founder and pastor of a new religious sect. Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice 413 pages A novel about a spirited young woman in early nineteenth century England who must cope with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the Romaic entanglements of her four sisters. Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights (Lexile 1380) 320 pages Forced by a storm to spend the night at the home of Heathcliff, Mr. Lockwood uncovers a tale of terror and hatred on the Yorkshire moors.

4 Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Lexile 1180) 226 pages Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically gifted autistic fifteen year old boy decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor s dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. Audrey Niffenegger The Time Travelers Wife (Lexile 780) 546 pages Clare and Henry, deeply in love try desperately to maintain normal lives even though he has been diagnosed with Chrono Displacement Disorder, a condition in which his genetic clock periodically resets pulling him through time to the past and future. Alice Sebold The Lovely Bones (Lexile 890) 328 pages Fourteen year old Susie Salmon the victim of a sexual assault and murder, looks on from the afterlife as her family deals with their grief, and waits for her killer to be brought to some type of justice. Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner (Lexile 840) 324 pages Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father s servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassans son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Lexile 830) 372 pages A novel set against the three decades of Afghanistan s history shaped by Soviet occupation, civil war and the Taliban, which tells the stories of two women, Mariam and Laila, who grow close despite their nineteen year age difference and initial rivalry as they suffer at the hand of a common enemy: their abusive husband. Dennis Lehane Mystic River 401 pages The past comes back to haunt three men who shared a friendship as children when Sean Devine, now a policeman is assigned to investigate the murder of Jimmy Marcus s teenage daughter, a crime the third member of their group Dave Boyle, is suspected to have commit. CONTEMPORARY

5 Ideas for annotating Literature Every Text is a lazy machine asking the reader to do some of its work. Novelist Umberto Eco Use a pen so you can make circles brackets and notes. If you like highlighters use one for key passages, but don t get carried away and don t only highlight. Look for patterns and label them (motifs, diction, syntax, symbols, images, and behavior, whatever). Mark passages that seem to jump out at you because they suggest an important idea or theme of for any other reason (an arresting figure of speech or image an intriguing sentence pattern, a striking example of foreshadowing, a key moment in the plot, a bit of dialogue that reveals character, clues about the setting etc.). Mark phrases, sentences, or passages that puzzle, intrigue please or displease you. Ask questions make comments talk back to the text. At the ends of chapters or sections write a bulleted list of key plot events. This not only forces you think about what happened, see the novel as whole, and identify patterns, but you create a convenient record of the whole plot. Circle words you want to learn or words that jump out at you for some reason. If you don t want to stop reading, guess then look the word up and jot down the relevant meaning later. You need not write out a full dictionary definition; it is often helpful to put the relevant meaning in your own words. If SAT prep has dampened your enthusiasm, reconsider the joy of adding your word hoard as the Beowulf poet calls it. The Harvard College Library has posted an excellent guide to annotation, Interrogating Texts: Six reading habits to Develop in you First Year at Harvard. URL: (