AP English Literature and Composition Reading Assignment Summer 2016 This summer you will be reading Yann Martel s novel Life of Pi and Henrik Ibsen s play A Doll s House. Life of Pi is available free online at http://www.scollingsworthenglish.com. You may acquire a copy of Life of Pi if you wish or consider checking it out of the library or visiting local used book stores. Whichever option you choose, get the book early in the summer so you have plenty of time to read and complete the assignment. Also, you may want to bring a copy of Life of Pi to class during the first two weeks of school when we will spend time in discussion. The journal entries for Life of Pi will be due throughout the summer as posts on Edmodo. There will be deadlines for each journal entry/post. It is your responsibility to keep up with these throughout the summer. A Doll s House is available online at www.bibliomania.com. Choose Read on the left and then narrow down the search to Drama, then Henrik Ibsen which will take you to an online copy of the entire play. You might want to buy a copy of the play, but this is not necessary as long as you included cited quotes in your preparation for the Socratic seminar. The Socratic seminar will take place the second week of school. Be ready. Grading: The Life of Pi Reader Response Journal posts will be worth a combined 200 points, counting as a major assignment grade. The A Doll s House Socratic seminar is worth 100 points, counting as a major assignment grade. The Major Works Data Sheet and the Essay are also worth 100 points each. Doing well on these assignments will go a long way toward helping you earn a good grade for the 1 st 9 weeks, which is important for your college applications. A note on the quality of your work: One observation from AP test readers is that students are not able to wrestle with complex texts. I am not so sure that the ability is lacking. Rather, it is the desire or the willingness to read difficult texts and think deeply about them that is sometimes missing. It does require discipline to train yourself to read complex texts, but worth it, not only for the AP tests, but also for college and beyond. Assignments- The Life of Pi Reader Response Journal is attached to this document. 1. Online Summer posts on Edmodo To join your class group follow these steps: a. Click on "I'm a student" b. Enter the group code you have been given. c. Create a username that is a combination of your full first name and last initial or full last name d. Enter a password YOU WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER e. Enter your email if you d like. f. Enter your full first name and last name. EDMODO IS PRIVATE AND SECURE :) g. After joining click on "settings" in the upper right. h. Choose how you d like to receive notifications (email or text). Your information isn t shared. If you have limited texting, then choose email. i. Check off all the notification types and save. Email Davanzo for Edmodo code. Post Due Dates- You are responsible for 8 of the 9 posts. You can decide which one you will leave off. They are worth 25 points each. 1. Friday, July 1 by 11:59 pm 2. Friday, July 8 by 11:59 pm 3. Friday, July 15 by 11:59 pm 4. Friday, July 22 by 11:59 pm 5. Friday, July 29 by 11:59 pm 6. Friday, August 5 by 11:59 pm 7. Friday, August 12 by 11:59 pm 8. Friday, August 19 by 11:59 pm 9. Friday, August 26 by 11:59 pm 2. Major Works Data Sheet -Background on Life of Pi- Major Works Data Sheet- to be completed by hand or typed and due on the 1 st day of school. Please plan to print your work if typing before arriving the first day of school. Please turn in something that screams how proud you are of the work. A Major Works Data Sheet is attached. There will also be a digital one on Edmodo if you choose to type it. Information for the MWDS includes the following information. A. Title of work and author, Genre (play, novel, nonfiction text); sub-genre, (example, not just play for Henry V, but history play). B. Historical context, such as the year published, the literary period, any historical or literary connections worth noting C. Brief plot summary- In YOUR OWN WORDS D. Author s Style and examples E. Key themes: main three with an explanation of how the author illustrates theme (Remember theme is a message, not a one word idea.) F. Significant literary elements, such as symbols, motifs, allegory, allusions, special structure, point of view, etc. Do not just say the book has a lot of symbols, list some and describe them. You should have at least five different elements. 3. Socratic Seminar Guidelines - A Doll s House While you read this play, take notes. During the second week of school, you will participate in a Socratic Seminar. A Socratic Seminar is a student led discussion during which you discuss the text. I would advise that you write out answer to at least five of the questions below and cite textual support. You will be expected to speak at least five times. Notice the rubric below awards full credit for comments with
quotes. Keeping an informal reading log with quotes and thoughts and reactions as you read is suggested so that you can more easily reference that information during the Socratic Seminar. You will be able to use whatever notes you have taken. The rubric and questions are below. Grading Rubric that will be used during the Socratic Seminar + : Insightful thought, with quote, 10 points : Insightful thought, no quote, 8 points - : Repetitive or obvious statement, 6 points ^ : Connects to another work of literature, 5 points * : Personal Connection, 2 points Speaking Turn 1 Speaking Turn 2 Speaking Turn 3 Speaking Turn 4 Speaking Turn 5 Socratic Seminar Questions for you to carefully consider before the seminar: 1. Who is responsible for the doll house condition of the marriage? To what extent is Nora a victim? 2. Rank the characters in order of virtue, explaining which moral quality you think each person embodies and why. 3. How does the play present the idea that moral corruption may be passed from generation to generation. Consider Krogstad and his sons, Nora and her children, Nora and her father, and Dr. Rank. 4. Is A Doll s House a comedy, a tragedy, or both? Explain. 5. Which characters change in the course of the play? Consider one dynamic character and examine the causes and effects of the change. Also consider how characters act as foils. 6. How does the play criticize society's conventions, such as the patriarchal society and laws concerning loans. 7. In what ways does Ibsen give external symbols of internal qualities in his characters? 8. Who is the play's antagonist? Explain. 9. Argue for or against Nora's decision at the end of the play. 10. What elements of either Romanticism or Realism do you find in the play? 4. Essay on Life of Pi : Choose any one of the following six topics. Write a standard literary analysis essay to answer the question. This essay is due on the first day of school. This means using correct MLA citation format as well as other MLA format requirements. Consult the OWL at Purdue online at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/. a. In his introductory note Yann Martel says, "This book was born as I was hungry." What sort of emotional nourishment might Life of Pi have fed to its author? b. Yann Martel sprinkles the novel with italicized memories of the "real" Pi Patel and wonders in his author's note whether fiction is "the selective transforming of reality, the twisting of it to bring out its essence." If this is so, what is the essence of Pi? c. Pi's full name, Piscine Molitor Patel, was inspired by a Parisian swimming pool that "the gods would have delighted to swim in." The shortened form refers to the ratio of a circle's circumference divided by its diameter. Explore the significance of Pi's unusual name to the events in the novel, and/or the theme of the novel. d. How do Mr. Patel's zookeeping abilities compare to his parenting skills? For example, note the scene in which his tries to teach his children a lesson in survival by arranging for them to watch a tiger devour a goat. Did this in any way prepare Pi for the most dangerous experience of his life? e. How did you react to Pi's interview by the Japanese transport ministers? Did you ever believe that Pi's mother, along with a sailor and a cannibalistic cook, had perhaps been in the lifeboat with him instead of the animals? How does Yann Martel achieve such believability in his surprising plots? f. The opening scene occurs after Pi's ordeal has ended. Discussing his work in the first chapter, Pi says that a necktie is a noose, and he mentions some of the things that he misses about India (in spite of his love for Canada). Would you say that this novel has a happy ending? How does the grown-up version of Pi contrast with his little-boy scenes? Honor Code: AP Literature and Composition is a college level course. As a result, you will be held to the utmost level of honor, dignity and honesty. All work that you do must be your own. If you consult an outside source (anything other than your mind), you must acknowledge that with an MLA Works Cited Page and parenthetical citations. If you plagiarize, you will receive a zero on the assignment, a phone call home and a referral. You will not be allowed to redo the assignment. Issues: If you have any issues, please contact us via email; keep a copy of the e-mail and response for documentation purposes. Ms. Davanzo: Mary.davanzo@vbschools.com Mr. Doyle: Mark.doyle@vbschools.com
AP English 12 Literary Devices, Tone Words and Literary Periods: By studying the Landstown AP English 12 Literary Devices, students will learn to write and speak with greater economy and clarity. The Literary Devices and Periods test will take place in sections throughout the first 9 weeks. The terms listed below are an invitation to you to get started on these over the summer if you would like. 1. alienation 2. allegory 3. alliteration 4. allusion 5. allusive 6. ambivalent 7. analysis 8. anapest 9. anaphora 10. apathetic 11. apostrophe 12. archetype 13. assonance 14. avant-garde 15. ballad 16. bemused 17. bildungsroman 18. blank verse 19. burlesque 20. caesura 21. canon 22. capricious 23. catharsis 24. chiasmus 25. churlish 26. circumlocutions 27. cliché 28. Colonial/Postcolonial 29. comedy 30. conciliatory 31. concrete diction 32. condescending 33. connotation 34. contemplative 35. contradiction 36. couplet 37. critique 38. dactyl 39. dead metaphor 40. deconstruction 41. denotation 42. deus ex machina 43. diction 44. drama 45. dramatic irony 46. dramatic monologue 47. dramatic poetry 48. dystopian novel 49. effusive 50. elegy 51. Elizabethan age 52. end-stopped 53. enjambment 53. epiphany 54. epistolary novel 55. exposition 56. Expressionism 57. extended metaphor 58. feminism 59. first-person narration 60. flashback 61. foil 62. foot 63. foreshadowing 64. formalism 65. free verse 66. genre 67. glib 68. gothic 69. Harlem Renaissance 70. hegemony 71. heroic couplet 72. hexameter 73. hyperbole 74. iamb 75. imagery 76. in medias res 77. interpretation 78. intertextuality 79. invective 80. invocation 81. irony 82. judicious 83. lyric 84. metaphor 85. metaphysical poetry 86. meter 87. metonymy 88. modernism 89. montage 90. motif 91. narrative poetry 92. New Criticism 93. New Historicism 94. nostalgic 95. objectivity 96. ode 97. omniscient narration 98. onomatopoeia 99. oxymoron 100. paradox 101. parody 102. pastoral 103. pentameter 104. persona 105. personification 106. picaresque (novel) 107. poignant 108. postmodernism 109. pretentious 110. prose 111. psychoanalytic criticism 112. pun 113. quarto 114. quatrain 115. realism 116. remorseful 117. Renaissance 118. Rhetoric 119. rhyme 120. rhythm 121. romanticism 122. satire 123. scansion 124. second-person narration 125. setting 126. simile 127. situational irony 128. sonnet 129. Spenserian stanza 130. spondee, spondaic 131. stanza 132. stream of consciousness 133. structuralism 134. style 135. subjectivity 136. sublime 137. surrealism 138. symbol 139. synecdoche 140. synesthesia 141. syntax 142. tercet 143. terse 144. terza rima 145. tetrameter 146. theme 147. third-person narration 148. tone 149. tragedy 150. tragicomedy 151. transcendentalism 152. trimeter 153. triplet 154. trochee, trochaic 155. trope 156. Utopian novel 157. Victorian (period) 158. villanelle
Title: Biographical information about the author: Author: Date of Publication: Historical information about the period of publication: Plot Summary
An example of the style: Author s style: Memor Possible Themes- 3 with a descriptions and specific references
oo Literary Devises Used READER RESPONSE JOURNAL FOR USE WITH LIFE OF PI Write a response to reading selections as a way of exploring, making meaning, or preserving your thoughts and feelings. You must also comment on two classmates posts per due date for a total of 16 comments. Use a variety of the 6 types of Reader Response entries listed on this page. 1. Reactions and Impressions Record these after your first reading. These can be in any form free writing, notes, lists, stream of consciousness, etc. Reflect and comment on why you feel as you do about specific items in the literature characters, ideas, or any other significant element. Wait a while and read the selection again; what do you think now? Add to the reaction. 2. Quote Choose a line, phrase or word that has some significant meaning for you from the piece. Focus on noteworthy dialogue or some insightful sentence. Choose several lines in the piece if appropriate discuss your selection as it relates to your views or application to real life. Make some connections and decisions about these quotations.
3. Vocabulary Highlight words that need interpretation, interest you, or are apparently significant word choices by the author. Highlight words that make you wonder! Find the definition of the words and discuss further thoughts on why the word was selected or how it relates to the meaning of the piece. 4. Questions Pose a few thoughtful questions about the reading that require further analysis, definition, or clarification. What questions do you need answers to immediately? Are there unresolved questions? What are your hypotheses? 5. Smart Remarks Make some honest comments about the subject, characters, actions, events, or connections the piece suggests. This might be criticisms of the writer or the behavior of the characters or the style of writing. Do your remarks reveal something you can discuss further? Why are you bothered or thrilled by what you ve read? 6. Just Some Good Writing Record an example of powerful writing. Why might your selection qualify as golden lines worthy to remember? The line(s) can be brilliant or shocking or confusing. What more can you say about your selection?