Summer Reading 2015 AP English III Mrs. Tran Animal Farm, by George Orwell; ISBN: 978-0-451-52634-2 Founding Brothers, by Joseph J. Ellis; ISBN: 978-0-375-70524-3 Incoming AP Language 11 th graders are required to read Animal Farm and Founding Brothers and complete the following projects by the second day of school for a combined TEST grade. Animal Farm (30% of test grade) Summary: Animal Farm is a short allegory about the Russian Revolution and the rise of the communist USSR. It simplifies the different forces and interest groups that led to one of the most impactful revolutions in history into different characters with different personalities and values. The book is a quick, humorous and easy read, but is relatively meaningless without basic knowledge of the events it is depicting. I loved reading this book in high school and hope you have fun with the project and the representation of the characters. To Do: END PRODUCT: a packet or poster of the above before AND after research information. This packet can be as fun and creative as you would like as long as it is neat organized: you can make an accordion book, or you can put cut out the info and pictures and put them in a photo album, or just type everything up. You may NOT handwrite this on notebook paper. Because this is not an essay, it does not have to follow MLA formatting. *Up to 3% bonus to the top of the combined test grade will be given for especially creative projects* BEFORE reading the book, research who/what each of the following characters in the book represents. For each character, write a paragraph (2-5 sentences) about the person/thing the character represents. Be as specific as possible for that particular thing. Consider what their interests were during the revolution (what did they want?) and what he/she/it/they did to bring about the revolution and how did they respond to the revolution? Also include a picture of the entity/person. DURING/AFTER reading the book, (1) Find or create picture for each animal farm character and for what/who it represents, (2) Write a brief description (2-5 sentences) of how the character in the book similar to who/ what it represents. Some characters in the story are more developed than others, make sure you be more specific and detailed for the more developed characters. (3) Find one quotation that you think best represents each character (with page numbers!) Character List: Old Major* Mr. & Mrs. Jones Snowball Napoleon Squealer Moses* Boxer & Clover Mollie* Benjamin* Mr. Pilkington* Mr. Frederick* Mr. Whymper*
Rubric for Animal Farm Project / 180 = % Old Major* (15) person/thing Snowball (15) person/thing Squealer (15) person/thing Mr. & Mrs. Jones (15) person/thing Napoleon (15) person/thing Moses (15) How the character is similar to the person/thing
Boxer & Clover (15) person/thing Benjamin* (15) person/thing Mr. Frederick* (15) person/thing Mollie* (15) person/thing Mr. Pilkington* (15) person/thing Mr. Whymper* (15) How the character is similar to the person/thing
Founding Brothers (70% of test grade) Summary: Each section of this book focuses on a different event that was influential to the founding and direction of our nation. The book portrays the particular person or people involved in these events as the single most important thing that determined how the events played out. It essentially argues that our nation s early history was not an inevitable outcome, but was determined by the people s particular personalities at that time. (This underlined sentence is the main point of the book.) To Do: Historical Book Review the book. You will write a review for this book would be done for a college class or a professional journal. It should be approximately 750 (no more than 900) words and contain both summary and analysis. You should spend no more than one-half of the review summarizing the content. Your primary job is to assess and evaluate. Be sure that your book review contains a clear assessment of the book s thesis and major arguments. Explain the author s overriding thesis in your first paragraph. You can work on evaluating it throughout the review and in your conclusion. You are required to have a minimum of 5 direct quotes, with correct MLA embedding (parenthetical at the end of the sentence). Write in the voice of the professional historian, not the timid student. Remember never to write in first or second person. When reading a book critically, you should ask yourself the following questions: How is the book structured as a whole? How are individual chapters structured? Possible structures include: Does it go in chronological order (beginning to end of the event)? Is it divided between focusing on different characters? Does each chapter introduce a problem followed by a solution? Did you think each chapter was well-organized or difficult to follow? If you thought it was difficult to follow, what made it so? What kind of evidence/ sources does the author utilize? (letters, transcripts, speeches, secondary sources) How well do they use the evidence? After considering all the evidence, did you find the author s main point (see underlined sentence above) believable? Was it well-supported by the evidence? Did it leave any lingering questions in your mind or leave out addressing things you think are important? What was the overall impact on your historical understanding of the topic or time period in question? Would you recommend it to others? (Again, do not use first person. If you would recommend it to others write something like This is an exceptional book that is a must read for students of American history. )
The attached essay is a copy of a 753-word book review that Mr. Davis wrote in college. Use this exact format to write your review. In following the style of academic book reports, the title of the piece will be your bibliographic citation, aligned left with a hanging indent, followed by your review. You should close with your name and school at the bottom. All other MLA formatting structures will remain the same. I do not expect you write like a college graduate or a professional historian. I do expect you to do your best and have fun with this assignment. Historians often bring their unique personalities into their reviews; feel free to do the same within the context of this assignment.