ENGLISH I SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 2017

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1 ENGLISH I SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 2017 Dear incoming 9 th grader, I am looking forward to working with you next school year in English I! In preparation for this class, I have designed the following summer assignments that are due on the first day of school. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. Please me if you have any questions. Sincerely, Ms. Molly Seifert molly.seifert@beechwood.kyschools.us ASSIGNMENT #1: PICK ONE OF THESE BOOKS TO READ 2017 Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) Winners: These are books written specifically for young adults that have been nominated and voted upon by teenagers in schools and public libraries across Kentucky. The purpose of the KBA program is to encourage students to read a variety of quality literature. Desert Dark / Sonja Stone Sixteen-year-old Nadia Riley is delighted to earn a spot at an elite, government-funded boarding school. Nothing sounds better than leaving behind her fraught relationship with her ex-boyfriend and moving to faraway Arizona for a spot at Desert Mountain Academy. But the Academy is more than Nadia bargained for: it s a covert CIA program training high-achieving students for the Black-Ops. Nadia struggles to keep up in her new classes while gaining the trust of her assigned teammates. Things get worse when news leaks that there is a double agent on campus, and someone is framing Nadia. Nadia discovers dark secrets about her fellow teammates and learns one of them is the deserter. The Distance From Me to You / Marina Gessner McKenna Berney is a lucky girl. She has a loving family and has been accepted to college for the fall. But McKenna has a different goal in mind: much to the chagrin of her parents, she defers her college acceptance to hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia with her best friend. And when her friend backs out, McKenna is determined to go through with the dangerous trip on her own. While on the Trail, she meets Sam. Having skipped out on an abusive dad and quit school, Sam has found a brief respite on the Trail, where everyone s a drifter, at least temporarily. Despite lives headed in opposite directions, McKenna and Sam fall in love on an emotionally charged journey of dizzying highs and devastating lows. When their punch-drunk love leads them off the trail, McKenna has to persevere in a way she never thought possible to beat the odds or risk both their lives. A List of Cages / Robin Roe When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he's got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn't easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can't complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian--the foster brother he hasn't seen in five years. Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems

2 like the boy he once knew. He's still kind hearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what's really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives. Meet Me Here / Bryan Bliss In a single night graduation night Thomas has to decide: do what everyone has always expected of him, or forge an entirely new path? Thomas is supposed to leave for the Army in the morning. His father was Army. His brother, Jake, is Army is a hero, even, with the medals to prove it. Everyone expects Thomas to follow in that fine tradition. But Jake came back from overseas a completely different person, and that has shaken Thomas s certainty about his own future. And so when his long-estranged friend Mallory suggests one last night of adventure, Thomas takes her up on the distraction. Over the course of this single night, Thomas will lose, find, resolve, doubt, drive, explore, and leap off a bridge. He ll also face the truth of his brother s post-traumatic stress disorder and of his own courage. The Memory of Light / Francisco X. Stork When Vicky Cruz wakes up in the Lakeview Hospital Mental Disorders ward, she knows one thing: After her suicide attempt, she shouldn't be alive. But then she meets Mona, the live wire; Gabriel, the saint; E.M., always angry; and Dr. Desai, a quiet force. With stories and honesty, kindness and hard work, they push her to reconsider her life before Lakeview, and offer her an acceptance she's never had. But Vicky's newfound peace is as fragile as the roses that grow around the hospital. And when a crisis forces the group to split up, sending Vicky back to the life that drove her to suicide, she must try to find her own courage and strength. She may not have them. She doesn't know. The Reader / Traci Chee Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin s been taken, or if she s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt s disappearance and her father s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed and punish the people responsible. Rebel of the Sands / Alwyn Hamilton Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it s an unforgiving place, especially if you re poor, orphaned, or female. Amani Al Hiza is all three. She s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she s destined to wind up wed or dead. Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she d gallop away on mythical horse or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew. The Skeleton Tree / Iain Lawrence Less than forty-eight hours after twelve-year-old Chris sets off on a sailing trip down the Alaskan coast with

3 his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they ve got to forage, fish, and scavenge the shore for supplies. Chris likes the company of a curious, friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive. Stalking Jack the Ripper / Kerri Maniscalco Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world. The Sun is Also a Star / Nicola Yoon Natasha: I m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won t be my story. Daniel: I ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? ASSIGNMENT #2: CREATE A BODY BIOGRAPHY FOR YOUR CHOSEN NOVEL What is a body biography? A body biography is a combination of artwork and writing quotations from the novel and your own explanations of those quotations. You will decorate your body biography according to the requirements listed below to demonstrate your understanding of this character. Please note: your body biography is not supposed to be a literal representation of your character. Instead, it should be more like a giant collage of written ideas, drawings, and symbols that work together to show me how well you understand your character. You are encouraged to be creative with this assignment. What is the purpose? The purpose behind creating a body biography is to allow you to take a DEEP look at one character from the novel that you have chosen. You will have to review significant events, choices that your character made, and changes that your character went through internally within the course of the novel. You will have to take a serious look into what makes your character tick - what motivates your character, how your character feels about himself/herself at the beginning of the novel, and how those feelings may have changed by the end of the novel. Is this a poster project? It could be. It could also be a drawing, sculpture, or painting. Maybe it s a Prezi. Perhaps you could create a PowToon. What if you created live-action video and uploaded it onto YouTube? That

4 would be cool. Can you sew? How awesome would it be if you made a quilt with each element on it? The sky is the limit. (A simple Google search of the phrase body biography for literature will show you lots of examples of what a body biography can look like. This is a popular assignment that many English teachers use.) How should you create a body biography? STEP ONE: Gather necessary supplies: poster board, markers, scissors, google-eyes, glitter, glue, magazines, clay, paint, video cameras, laptop, etc. STEP TWO: Choose a character from the novel on which to focus. It does not necessarily have to be the protagonist. STEP THREE: Put the character s name in large font on your (poster board or Prezi or clay pot, etc.) STEP FOUR: Draw a large outline (similar to a hollow person) of your character. STEP FIVE: Here comes the creative part. You will need to find a way to fill in the hollow body (and/or the areas around it) with the following details. o THE HEART: Draw (or make a collage of) something that represents what this character loves the most. Think about shapes, colors, pictures, or symbols that could be included in the character s heart. Does the character s heart or love change during the course of the novel? If so, find a way to represent this. The heart is a good place for illustrating the important relationships in his/her life. o THE BACKBONE: Actors often discuss a character s spine. This is the character s objective within the novel. What is the most important goal for your character? What drives his/her thoughts and actions? This is his/her spine. How can you represent that? o THE FEET: On what is the character standing? This should be a symbolic representation of the character s most fundamental beliefs about life. o THE HANDS: What does the character hold in his or her hands? Items that are associated with the character either literally or figuratively should be included. o QUOTATIONS: Near the character s head, place three direct quotations from the novel that sum up the character and add to an understanding of the character. These quotations do not necessarily need to be spoken by the character. Possibly, another character says them in regard to your character. o COLORS: Colors are often symbolic. What color(s) do you associate with your character? Why? How can you effectively work these colors into your project?

5 When is this due? o This assignment is due on the first day of school. If you have chosen to do an electronic project, please it to me. o On the first day of school, we will create a schedule for students to present their projects each day in class during the first 6 or 7 days of school. We will fit in approximately 3 or 4 presentations per day until we re finished. How do I present the project? o Most kids like to prepare the following information for the presentation in advance. I highly suggest using note cards to organize your thoughts, especially if you get nervous in front of groups. o In your presentation, you must. Discuss the symbols or drawings that you ve chosen for each body part listed above and provide an explanation for why you ve chosen these particular items. Discuss the quotations that you ve chosen and explain why you ve chosen them. Discuss the colors that you ve chosen and explain how they represent your character. Discuss whether or not you liked this novel GRADING: This project is worth 75 points. PROJECT SCORE: BODY BIOGRAPHY RUBRIC EXEMPLARY PROFICIENT EMERGING NEEDS IMPROVEMENT Neatness Visual representations for each body part Project is neat, well organized, and shows a great deal of effort and attention to detail. All components are present. The body, as well as the symbolic images, are detailed, creative, insightful, and colorful; the meanings of symbols are clear and accurate as they relate to your character points Project is somewhat neat, organization is sufficient. It is easy to read, but it lacks the attention to detail that the exemplary project contains. All components are present. The body, symbolic images, and meanings are clear or detailed, but not as insightful or creative as the exemplary project points Project is either lacking in neatness, organization, or the handwriting is too sloppy or small; may be incomplete. Some components may be missing. The body, symbolic images, and meanings are unclear, not colored, or confusing or lacking insight. 9 1 point(s) Project is not neat, organized, or clearly written; parts may be missing, or not complete. Some components may be missing. The body, symbolic images, or meanings are confusing or lacking insight. Passages/ quotations All three quotations are present. Quotations are insightful and show meaning to the character as a whole. The quotations are logically or creatively placed on the project. All three quotations are present. The quotations may be less insightful. They may not be as logically or creatively placed as the exemplary project. A quotation is missing, one or more quotations are confusing or lacking insight. Two quotations or more quotations are missing.

6 PRESENTATION SCORE: VOLUME: Did you speak loudly enough for us to hear you? (5) ARTICULATION: Did you speak clearly (with good articulation)? (5) EYE CONTACT: Did you make eye contact with the audience? (5) POSTURE: Did you stand up straight with your feet firmly planted beneath you without squirming or leaning on the wall? (5) GESTURES: Did you use hand gestures instead of keeping your hands crossed in front of or behind you? (5) PREPAREDNESS: Did you look and sound confident and rehearsed? (5) TOTAL SCORE: / 75