AP Literature and Composition Summer Assignment 2017-18 DUE FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29th 2017 Turnitin.com: AP LITERATURE & Composition 2017-18 Key: Englishrocks # 15549330 Google Classroom: AP Literature & Composition 2017-18 # 4madvk The purpose of AP Literature and Composition is to engage you in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, you deepen your understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for readers. As you read, consider a work s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Required Reading: Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper Collins Publishers, New York: 2003. First Assignment: 1) Read and annotate this book. Make notes in the margins so that when you return to school to talk about the book, you can do so in a cohesive way. Using annotating as a way to digest the book and remember its key points. 2) Read Katherine Mansfield s short story The Garden Party in Chapter 27 of the book. Follow the 5 ground rules that are after the short story. Use the knowledge learned throughout the book to write a 2-3 page paper answering: What the story signifies? and How does it signify it? Do NOT use outside sources for help. Test your own analytical skills here. There is no right or wrong answer as long as you backup your opinion. Have fun with it! Turn it into TURNITIN.com 3) If you have a bad memory, you may find it helpful to make a list of the objects and things they symbolize as you go through the book. This is not required but may prove extremely helpful to you in the course. *****OPTIONAL Second Assignment : 1) Read a book from following list. You may annotate if you like but the annotations will not be part of your grade. 2) Keep a dialectical journal of the novel. Consult the attached resource to learn how to create a dialectical journal. You may also do your own research on the internet. The key is to create a journal that shows me that you interacted with the text. Remember that the reading experiences in AP Literature are to be both meaningful and pleasurable. Pull the meaning out. Tell me what about the reading gives you pleasure. Be specific. I expect to see no less than 10 entries (responses 100 or more words) in your dialectical journal. Again, let these come from your brain, not outside sources. It s okay to consult those sources, but you must let your brain do the work. If not, you will only be hurting yourself when it comes time to take your AP Exam. The following is a list of the most frequently cited works that appear on the AP Literature and Composition Exam. Novels/Plays we are reading this year are not on the following list. Get your brain ready for the AP Exam and for the course by reading a few of these this summer if you have time. Enjoy your summer of reading! The more you read, the better AP student you will be.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. ~Joseph Addison Exercise your brain this summer! Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Moby Dick by Herman Melville Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte King Lear by William Shakespeare The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Billy Budd by Herman Melville Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Light in August by William Faulkner Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Candide by Voltaire Othello by William Shakespeare Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zorah Neale Hurston Antigone by Sophocles Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad Native Son by Richard Wright A Passage to India by E. M. Forster Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Beloved by Toni Morrison The Color Purple by Alice Walker The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Junior Year) Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton A Doll s House by Henrik Ibsen An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen Obasan by Joy Kogawa Portrait of a Lady by Henry James A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway The Tempest by William Shakespeare Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett Gulliver s Travels by Jonathan Swift Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare Moll Flanders by Daniel DeFoe Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Sula by Toni Morrison Tess of the D Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy The Turn of the Screw by Henry James Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee Our Town by Thornton Wilder Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Lord of the Flies by William Golding 1984 by George Orwell Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Dialectical Journals The term Dialectic means the art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation involving question and answer. Think of your dialectical journal as a series of conversations with the texts we read during this course. The process is meant to help you develop a better understanding of the texts we read. Use your journal to incorporate your personal responses to the texts, your ideas about the themes we cover and our class discussions. You will find that it is a useful way to process what you re reading, prepare yourself for group discussion, and gather textual evidence for your Literary Analysis assignments. Remember you need 10. Procedure: As you read, choose passages that stand out to you and record them in the left-hand column of a T-chart ( ALWAYS include page numbers). In the right column, write your response to the text (ideas/insights, questions, reflections, analysis, and comments on each passage) Label your responses. The following is a list of sample codes: (CH)Characterization Analyze details or dialog the author gives you to build his/her characters. (C) Connect Make a connection to your life, the world, or another text (P) Predict Anticipate what will occur based on what s in the passage (L) Literary Device analyze the author s craft using literary terminology (R) Reflect Think deeply about what the passage means in a broad sense not just to the characters in the story. What conclusions can you draw about the world, about human nature, or just the way things work? (T) Theme - Determine the author s overall message about some aspect of life through a close reading of a passage. (M)Mood Determine the mood or tone of a scene and explain how that might be important.
Sample Dialectical Journal entry: Blues Ain t No Mockinbird by Toni Cade Bambara Passages from the text Pg# Commentary The puddle had frozen over, nd me and Cathy went ompin in it. The twins from ext door, Tyrone and Terry, ere swingin so high out of ght we forgot we were waitin ur turn on the tire. Cathy umped up and came down ard on her heels and started apdancin. And the frozen atch splinterin every which ay underneath kinda pooky. Looks like a plastic pider web, she said. A sort f weird spider, I guess, with many mental problems. 1 CH) In this first paragraph of the story Bambara indirectly characterizes the narrator sing rural Southern dialect to let us know our setting is the South and our narrator may e smart, but may not be educated. We also learn that the characters are children from the ctivities described. (L) Nice thermal imagery about the puddle freezing over to let us now how cold it is in the scene. (C) The visual imagery of the twins swinging high on the re swing reminds me of my own childhood when I had to wait in line forever to use the wing. And how exciting it was once it was my turn. (L) There is more great visual imagery bout the splintering puddle, and the kinetic imagery of the tapdancin. I especially liked he simile about the spider web and the humor of spider with mental problems. (M) The mood of the story seems to be playful and humorous. (P) I wonder if the entire story will be his way, too? Overall, I am drawn into the story and am already laughing. Choosing Passages from the Text: Look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling. For example, you might record: Effective &/or creative use of stylistic or literary devices Passages that remind you of your own life or something you ve seen before Structural shifts or turns in the plot A passage that makes you realize something you hadn t seen before Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs. Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary Events you find surprising or confusing Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting If you find an extremely long passage that moves you, don t hesitate to use it, just employ ellipses ( ) to shorten your writing load. You ll have the page number so that if you decide to share your entry, the class can easily find and read along.
Responding To the Text: You can respond to the text in a variety of ways. The most important thing to remember is that your observations should be specific and detailed. You can write as much as you want for each entry. You can use loose-leaf paper for your journals or download the template from the my website: Dialectical Journal Word Template, and type your responses on the computer. To Get Started: Beginner Responses Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text Give your personal reactions to the passage Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s) Tell what it reminds you of from your own experiences Write about what it makes you think or feel Agree or disagree with a character or the author Sample Sentence Starters for Beginners: I really don t understand this because I really dislike/like this idea because I think the author is trying to say that This passage reminds me of a time in my life when If I were (name of character) at this point I would This character reminds me of (name of person) because The Target: Higher Level Responses Analyze the text for use of literary devices (tone, structure, style, imagery) and how they contribute to the Theme Make connections between different characters or events in the text Make connections to a different text (or film, song, etc.) Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s) Consider an event or description from the perspective of a different character *Analyze a passage and its relationship to the story as a whole.