Summer Assignment: Due 2 nd Day of Class English 3 Honors Lakeland Regional High School Reading: You are required to read two texts this summer: Mary Shelley s Frankenstein and William Shakespeare s The Tempest. The first weeks of school will be spent working with these texts and you will be asked to complete an in-class AP style essay on Frankenstein early in the first quarter. A sample prompt and rubric have been included in this packet for your review. 1. Mary Shelley s Frankenstein is a 19th century novel of both Romantic and Gothic influence, and is often considered a landmark work of the Science Fiction genre. Frankenstein follows the adventures of one Victor Frankenstein, a young and ambitious Genevan scientist, who succeeds in animating a creature constituted of parts from sundry organisms. Frankenstein's scientific ambition and ability, the monster's existence and relationship with his creator, and the decisions and consequences that ensue, make for a tragic plot with a fascinatingly complicated thematic terrain. 2. William Shakespeare s The Tempest will add to your advancing familiarity with Shakespeare and his works. As Folger Shakespeare Library explains, Putting romance onstage, The Tempest, one of William Shakespeare's plays, gives us a magician, Prospero, a former duke of Milan who was displaced by his treacherous brother, Antonio. Prospero is exiled on an island, where his only companions are his daughter, Miranda, the spirit Ariel, and the monster Caliban. When his enemies are among those caught in a storm near the island, Prospero turns his power upon them through Ariel and other spirits. The characters exceed the roles of villains and heroes. Prospero seems heroic, yet he enslaves Caliban and has an appetite for revenge. Caliban seems to be a monster for attacking Miranda, but appears heroic in resisting Prospero, evoking the period of colonialism during which the play was written. Miranda's engagement to Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples and a member of the shipwrecked party, helps resolve the drama. Folgerpedia: Folger Shakespeare Library. "The Tempest. Folger Shakespeare Library. n.d. Web. June 12, 2018 Annotations Assignment: You are required to make meaningful annotations to the two required texts to aid in your successful, meaningful participation in and completion of class discussions and assessments during the first weeks of the school year. Since you cannot write in your books I repeat, DO NOT WRITE IN THE PROVIDED BOOKS you may use other means to record your annotations: a small journal or notebook, lined notebook paper, etc. Regardless of the method you choose to record your annotations, all annotations should be handwritten, be in a format that can be handed in to the teacher, and follow the Close Reading, Annotating, and Sample Annotations documents included in this packet. In summary, you should o o o Clearly label and organize your text annotations. Complete 2-3 annotations per chapter, section, or scene. Include varied annotations see Annotating guide that consist of Summary/Lower-Order comments (Summarize) and Higher-Order comments (Analyze, Criticize, Hypothesize, Synthesize) with the latter being greater in number.
CLOSE-READING What should you annotate? The possibilities are limitless. Keep in mind the reason careful, discerning readers annotate: to form interpretations of the text based on sustained, careful reading. Your annotations are essentially comments that show evidence of thinking. The most common complaint about annotating is that it slows down your reading. Yes, it does. That s the point. If annotating as you read annoys you, read a chapter, then go back and annotate. Reading a text a second time is preferable anyway. I. First Impressions: o What is your first observation about the passage? The second? o Do your two observations complement or contradict each other? o What mood does the passage create? Why and how? II. Vocabulary and Diction: o Which words do you notice first? Why? What is noteworthy about the writer s diction? o Do the important words relate to one another? Why? o Do any words seem oddly used to you? Why? o Do any words have double meanings? Do they have extra connotations? o Look up any unfamiliar words* *For a pre-20th century text, look in the Oxford English Dictionary for possible outdated meanings. (The OED can only be accessed by students with a subscription or from a library computer that has a subscription.) III. Discerning Patterns: o Note any images and if they remind you of an image elsewhere in the book. What's the connection? o How might this image fit into the pattern of the book as a whole? o Could this image serve as a symbol within the entire work? Could this passage serve as a microcosm a little picture of what's taking place in the whole work? o What is the sentence rhythm, or its syntax? Short and choppy or long and flowing? Does it build on itself or stay at an even pace? o Consider the punctuation. Is there anything unusual about it? Are any words or phrases repeated within the passage? What is the effect of that repetition? o How many types of writing are in the passage? (i.e., narration, description, argument, dialogue, rhymed, alliterative poetry, etc.) IV. Point of View and Characterization: o How does the passage make us react or think about any characters or events within the narrative? o Are there colors, sounds, physical description that appeals to the senses? Does this imagery form a pattern? Why might the author have chosen that color, sound or physical description? o Who speaks in the passage? To whom does he or she speak? Does the narrator have a limited or partial point of view? Or does the narrator appear to be omniscient, and he knows things the characters couldn't possibly know? (For example, omniscient narrators might mention future historical events, events taking place "off stage," the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters, and so on). V. Figurative Language & Symbolism: o Are there metaphors? What kinds? o Is there one controlling metaphor? If not, how many different metaphors are there and in what order do they occur? How might that be significant? o Do you notice any symbolism? How might objects represent something else? o Do any of the objects, colors, animals, or plants appearing in the passage have traditional connotations or meaning? What about religious or biblical significance? o If there are multiple symbols in the work, could we read the entire passage as having allegorical meaning beyond the literal level? o Is there any personification in the passage? If so, to what effect/purpose?
ANNOTATING General Directions: Keep these guidelines as a resource for future texts we will read throughout the year. Please use the Five Eyes (ize) method of annotating 1. Summarize: These annotations are used to summarize and highlight important literary elements of the story, including: a. Plot, Characters, Mood, Tone, Point of View, Conflict b. Irony c. Text structure: What type of narrative is created? d. Think: Who, What, Where, and When e. You might also note the following in Summarize: i. Define vocabulary ii. Explain unknown terms, references, or allusions iii. Identify figurative language and any other interesting literary device (i.e., allusion, symbol, imagery, paradox, juxtaposition, foil, etc.) 2. Analyze These annotations are used to think about the purpose of the literary elements; Ask why and how about the important elements in the story that have occurred. For example: Why are the character/s Why did the character/s Why has this happened in the plot? How has the structure created the mood? How has the plot developed the conflict? 3. Criticize These annotations are used to make opinionated comments about successful or unsuccessful execution of important elements in the text. For example: Is the theme evident or vague? Are main characters well developed? Is the text structure effectively supporting the delivery of the content? Ask thoughtful questions (e.g., questions that relate to character motivations, issues of setting, conflict development, tension, etc.) 4. Hypothesize: These annotations are used to make predictions about the important elements in the story that have occurred. For example: What might the character/s encounter next? In what direction might the plot move? Examples of foreshadowing? 5. Synthesize: These annotations are used to draw connections from your existing knowledge to the text. There are three ways: Text to Text: Connect to other texts previously read. Text to World: Connect to your community, society, or world of both the future and/or past. Text to Self: Relate your own background, experiences, and/or knowledge to the text.
Sample AP English Literature. Style Prompt (Will not be the one we use!) AP ESSAY: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 1989. In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O Connor has written, I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see. Write an essay in which you make a good case for distortion, as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are distorted and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary Essay Scoring Rubric GENERAL DIRECTIONS: The score you assign should reflect your judgment of the quality of the essay as a whole. Reward writers for what they do well. The score for an exceptionally well-written essay may be raised by one point from the score otherwise appropriate. In no case may a poorly written essay be scored higher than a 3. College Board Score Grade Explanation 9-8 97/93 These well-written essays clearly demonstrate an understanding of the topic and have chosen an appropriate work of literature and appropriate element(s) (character, theme, tone, plot device, etc.) within that work. They address the topic convincingly with apt references. Superior papers will be specific in their references, cogent in their explications, and free of plot summary that is not relevant to the topic. These essays need not be without flaw, but they must demonstrate the writer s ability to discuss a literary work with insight and understanding and to control a wide range of the elements of effective composition. 7-6 87/83 These essays also choose a suitable work of literature and analyze the appropriate elements. These papers, however, are less thorough, less perceptive or less specific than that of 9-8 papers. Though they are not as convincing in their discussion, these essays are generally well-written; however, they have less maturity and control than the top papers. They demonstrate the writer s ability to analyze a literary work, but they reveal a less sophisticated analysis and less consistent command of the elements of effective writing than essays scored in the 9-8 range. 5 75 Superficiality characterizes these essays. They choose an appropriate element from a suitable work, but the explanation is vague or over-simplified. The discussion may be pedestrian, mechanical, or inadequately related to the topic. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. They usually demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of college-level composition and are not as well conceived, organized, or developed as the upper-half papers; the writing, however is sufficient to convey the writer s ideas. 4-3 68/58 These lower-half papers may not have chosen an appropriate element or suitable text, or they may have failed to address the topic. Their analysis may be unpersuasive, perfunctory, underdeveloped, or misguided. Their discussion may be inaccurate or not clearly related to the chosen element. The writing may convey the writer s ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as diction, organization, syntax, and grammar. These essays may contain significant misinterpretations of the text, inadequate supporting evidence, and/or paraphrase and plot summary rather than analysis. 2-1 58 These essays compound the weakness of essays in the 4-3 range. They seriously misread or fail to comprehend the novel or the play (or the question itself), choose an inappropriate element, or seriously misinterpret the topic of the function of the element in the work they have chosen. In addition, they are poorly written on several counts, including many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics, or they are unacceptably brief. Although the writer may have made some effort to answer the question, the argument presented has little clarity or coherence. Essays that are especially vacuous, ill-organized, illogically argued and/or mechanically unsound should be scored 1. 0-0 This is a response with no more than a reference to the task, a blank response, or one that is unrelated to the assignment.
Lakeland Regional High School 205 Conklintown Road Wanaque, New Jersey 07465-2198 973-835-1900 English Department Summer Reading Contract: 2018 I, the Undersigned, agree to complete the following requirements for the English 3 Honors Summer Reading Program and accept the receipt of the materials. I realize that this assignment will form the basis for major assessments in the first quarter of my English 3 Honors course. I understand that I am required to be prepared for a number of assessments based on the summer reading beginning the second class meeting of the 2018-2019 school year. Book Numbers: The Tempest Frankenstein Print Name of Student Date Signature of Student Please address any questions to Mr. Novak through e-mail at mnovak@lakeland.k12.nj.us.