Summer 2016 Reading Assignment American Literature 11 th Grade Read 1. Read The Chosen by Chaim Potok 2. For extra credit, read books from the list on the following pages. For each book and short review, there will be one percent bonus for the 1 st quarter period. Respond 1. Sign and get your parent to sign the form stating that you did all the reading (Due second day of school) 2. Complete the book annotation for the novel (plus a short review form for each bonus book). 3. An essay about The Chosen will be required, but not until after school begins. Please wait until school starts in order to receive instructions on the essay requirements. The reading and annotation will count as 3% of the grade for the 1 st marking period (failure to read will result in a three percent grade deduction). The essay will be graded separately NOTE: Reading Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, or some other such guide in place of reading the book is not acceptable. Nor may a movie version be substituted for reading the novel. You may use an audio version as long as it is complete and unabridged if approved. You may read other books from this list for extra credit. Reading a book and completing a short review will be worth 1% bonus on your first quarter grade. You may earn credit for up to three percent bonus (although you may read as many books as possible during the sumer!). Please do not read books for credit which you have previously read. Have a blessed summer, and happy reading!
11 th Grade American Literature Summer Reading List The Colonial Period (to 1750) & The Revolutionary Period (1750-1800) Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford The General Historic of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, by John Smith The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin OR The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson The Light and the Glory, by Peter Marshall (Christian history book about the period) Early American Romanticism (1800-1840) The Spy, by James Fenimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper The Deerslayer OR The Pathfinder OR The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper Short stories by Washington Irving Short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe New Englad Renaissance & Civil War (1840-1865) Two Years before the Mast, by R.H. Dana, Jr. The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (or other Longfellow poems) The Scarlett Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Uncle Tom s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe Moby Dick, by Herman Melville Realism & Regionalism (1865-1915) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court, by Mark Twain The Prince and The Pauper, by Mark Twain Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain Pudd nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain O Pioneer, by Willa Cather My Antonia, by Willa Cather Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs A collection of short stories by O Henry Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott A novel or two novellas/short stories by Henry James The Virginian, by Own Wister Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair Ben Hur: a Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace (Christian) The Modern Age (1915-1946) The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway A novel by John Steinbeck Poetry or plays of T.S. Eliot The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams Green Grow the Lilacs, by Lynn Riggs Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (abridgement is acceptable) The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck
Giants in the Earth, by O.E. Rolvaag Post WWII & Contemporary Writers (1946-present) Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller Lake Woebegon Days, by Garrison Keillor A Separate Peace, by John Knowles The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan Native Speaker, by Chang-rae Lee The Silver Chalice, by Thomas B. Costain The Black Rose, by Thomas B. Costain The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison Our Town (and) The Matchmaker, by Thorton Wilder
Reading Log 11 th Grade American Literature Please check one of the following: I have read the entirety of The Chosen, by Chaim Potok I have not read the entirety of The Chosen, by Chaim Potok If you have not read all of The Chosen, please indicate the number of pages you have read out of the total number: / Bonus: Novel(s) of your choice from the list: Title Author 1. 2. 3. Comments and explanations (particularly if you read only part or none of the book): On my honor as a child of God, the above report is a true and accurate record of my reading of the summer reading. Student s Signature: Parent s Signature:
Extra Credit Reading 1. Title: 2. Author & Year of publication/release: 3. Setting: 4. Plot: Give a 3 6 sentence summary 5. Themes: identify three themes from this novel a. b. c. 6. Literary Evaluation a. Strengths: b. Weaknesses: c. Your opinion (how you liked it overall): 7. Biblical Evaluation
Summer Reading Annotation (For summer reading, you may type or NEATLY write your answers.) 1. Title: 2. Author & Year of publication/release: 3. Setting: a. Time: b. Place: c. Occasion: 4. Characters: (name & brief character description) a. Protagonist: b. Antagonist: c. Other characters: 5. Plot: Give a 5 8 sentence summary: 6. Themes: identify and briefly (in a phrase or so each) explain four themes. a. b.
c. d. 7. Other literary elements & literary devices: (such as symbolism, conflict, irony, metaphor/simile, allusions, foreshadowing, idioms, point of view and narrator, etc.) 8. Literary Evaluation a. Strengths: b. Weaknesses: c. Your opinion (how you liked it overall): 9. Biblical Evaluation a. What kind of work is it? Explain your answer. - Christian literature (ex. Pilgrim s Progress) - Literature with a Christian worldview (ex. The Fellowship of the Ring) - Not particularly Christian, but with a compatible worldview (ex. A Christmas Carol) - Neutral (nothing particularly for or against Christianity) (ex. many Sherlock Holmes stories) - Contrary to Christian worldview - Other (explain) b. In what ways does the author endorse values that are biblical? (What points did the author try to make that fit in a biblical worldview?) c. Does the author use any bad or immoral things to teach the importance of a good value? Explain briefly. (ex. Cain and Abel murder is bad, but the Bible tells us the first instance of murder and what God thinks of it.) d. Did the author promote or glorify any unbiblical values? (Did he try to make any that are in opposition to a biblical worldview?) e. What spiritual or moral benefits does this work provide for a Christian reader (or viewer)? (Alternatively, is it a work that is neutral not really of spiritual or moral value, but a good entertaining story? This option is rarer than you think? Or is it a work that Christians should not read/watch?) Explain your answer.