AP Literature & Composition Ms. Crowther 2016 Summer Assignment Welcome to AP Literature! Over the next year, you will undertake a comprehensive study of literature in English. In all of your work for this course, the underlying questions will be how and why? How does an author create complex meaning? Why does it matter? Much of the work in our class will involve creating knowledge and context for you to help you analyze literature, and written works in general, more successfully. Our work will also focus on the goal of developing your own unique voice as a thinker and writer so that you may produce original written insights about literature and ideas. That work is essential to college and career success. That work begins now. I am asking you to engage in the work listed below between now and your first day of school September 7th. Bring all of it with you that day, and ensure that essay work is submitted through www.turnitin.com. Each assignment is intended to engage you intellectually, and to help prepare you for the challenging work we do in class. Understand that our first days of study in A.P. Lit will draw heavily from your annotations and writings about this summer work; prepare early, thoroughly, and well. Part 1 Acquire, read, and annotate How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster. Do this prior to any other summer reading. It is meant to serve as our class equalizer, refreshing those of you who haven t studied literature in a while, and offering strategic ways of thinking about literature for all of you, especially those of you who might not be naturals to literature. Annotate or take handwritten notes on each chapter of Foster. This will help you later. Consider annotating for the following: The chapter s most important idea Interesting minor ideas Major works cited esp those familiar to you and why they matter as examples for each idea Foster raises The most important example given, and why it matters How the focal idea in this chapter can be useful in the study of literature Going beyond literature, why this idea matters in our world An author s purpose in using the technique in question
Part 2 Acquire, read, and annotate one of the following texts. These are commonly alluded to throughout western literature, particularly in what the College Board calls major works of literary distinction. Reading them is as much about the context they provide as it is about their literary merits; with that said, choose a text that is new to you and not one you have studied previously. If you are unclear on how to annotate appropriately, please see the advice about annotating literature at the end of this document. Also consider making note of how ideas that Thomas Foster discusses in his book are essential to the text you have chosen. Text choices: The Odyssey, Homer Inferno, Dante Alighieri (use the John Ciardi translation) Oedipus Rex and Antigone from The Theban Plays, Sophocles Part 3 Acquire, read, and annotate two of the following major works of literary distinction. Choose one work from List A, and one work from List B. As in Part 2, choose texts that you have not read or studied previously in the interest of broadening your literary exposure. As with Part 2, if you are unclear on how to annotate appropriately, please see the advice about annotating literature at the end of this document. Also consider making note of how ideas that Thomas Foster discusses in his book are essential to the text you have chosen. Text choices: List A: King Lear by William Shakespeare Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Tess of the D Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf A Room with a View by E.M. Forster List B:
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (continued ) The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood Sula by Toni Morrison Part 4 Write one 2 3 page essay (typed, double spaced, Arial 11 point font, MLA format) in response to either of the prompts listed below: a) Discuss how one of the novels you read for part 3 uses one of the major ideas discussed in Foster s How to Read Literature Like a Professor to create complex meaning. First analyze how the author of the novel uses one of the devices or techniques Foster writes about; then be sure to consider why the use of this device matters to use AP language, how does it add to the meaning of the work as a whole? b) Discuss how one of the novels you read for part 3 parallels with or alludes to the work you considered for part 2. First analyze how the the novel relates to or alludes to the work from Part 2; then reflect on why this relationship with the foundational text you chose matters how it adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Bring a printed copy of this essay to class on September 7th; in addition, submit this piece to www.turnitin.com according to the following guidelines: Class ID: 12793948 Password: Polonius I wish you the best of luck, and I ll see you in September! Ms. Crowther amercer@somsd.k12.nj.us
Appendix Annotation guide an approach to consider (see others available online): This approach can be used with post it notes, or with pencil in your own copy of a book (or, rather awkwardly, in an ebook): While you read, use marginalia marginal notes to mark key material. Marginalia can include check marks, question marks, stars, arrows, brackets, and written words and phrases. Consider the following system: Inside Front Cover: Major character list with small space for character summary and for page references for key scenes or moments of character development, etc. Inside Back Cover: Build a list of themes, allusions, images, motifs, key scenes, plot line, epiphanies, etc. as you read. Add page references and/or notes as well as you read. Make a list of vocabulary words on a back page or the inside back cover, if there s still room. Possible ideas for lists include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words. Beginning of Each Chapter: Provide a quick summary of what happens in the chapter. Title each chapter or section as soon as you finish it, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections. Top margins: provide plot notes a quick few words or phrases that summarize what happens here. Go back after a chapter, scene, or assignment and then mark it carefully. (Useful for quick location of passages in discussion and for writing assignments). Bottom and Side Page Margins: Interpretive notes (see list below), questions, and/or remarks that refer to meaning of the page. Markings or notes to tie in with notes on the inside back cover. Interpretive Notes and Symbols to be used are: Underline or highlight key words, phrases, or sentences that are important to understanding the work. Write questions or comments in the margins your thoughts or conversation with the text. Bracket important ideas or passages. Use Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already underlined or bracketed Connect ideas with lines or arrows. Use numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the author makes in developing a single argument. Use a star, asterisk, or other doo dad at the margin (use a consistent symbol): to be used sparingly, to emphasize the ten or twenty most important statements in the book. Use??? for sections or ideas you don t understand. Circle words you don t know. Define them in the margins.
A check mark means I understand. Use!!! when you come across something new, interesting, or surprising. And other literary devices (see below). Some of the things you may want to mark as you notice them are: Use an S for Symbols: A symbol is a literal thing that also stands for something else, like a flag, or a cross, or fire. Symbols help to discover new layers of meaning. Use an I for Imagery: Imagery includes words that appeal to one or more of the five senses. Close attention to imagery is important in understanding an author s message and attitude toward a subject. Use an F for Figurative Language: Figurative language includes things like similes, metaphors, and personification. Figurative language often reveals deeper layers of meaning. Use a T for Tone: Tone is the overall mood of a piece of literature. Tone can carry as much meaning to the story as the plot does. Use a Th Theme: In literature, a theme is a broad idea in a story, or a message or lesson conveyed by a work. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes explore timeless and universal ideas. Most themes are implied rather than explicitly stated. Plot elements (setting, mood, conflict, etc.) Diction (effective or unusual word choice) As you mark, you begin to notice patterns the author has or where he or she deviates from a pattern and much of the work of a critical or analytical reader is noticing these patterns and variations. Notice that annotations are meant to be more than a scavenger hunt for literary techniques and rhetorical devices. Along with marking these you should comment on the effectiveness or significance of the device. It s great if you can detect alliteration in a passage, but that in and of itself is useless unless you can tell that this alliteration demonstrates the mental breakdown of the character, for example. It s amazing if you recognize the hubris of a character, but how does this instance differ from those occurring previously in the novel? Also consider... Inside the front cover of your book, keep an orderly, legible list of "key information" with page references. Key information in a novel might include themes; passages that relate to the book's title; characters' names; salient quotes; important scenes, passages, and chapters; and maybe key definitions or vocabulary. Remember that key information will vary according to genre and the reader's purpose, so make your own good plan. Adapted from An Annotation Guide: How and Why to Annotate a Book by Nick Otten