Honors English 3—Summer Reading Requirements
All students entering Honors English 3 for the 2015-2016 school year are required to complete
a summer reading and journaling assignment. This will be due on Tuesday, August 25, 2015.
1. Read The Glass Castle: a memoir by Jeanette Walls (2005)
Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster.
This text may be accessed on line as a pdf:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CC0Q
FjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhhs.d300.org%2Fsites%2Fhhs.d300.org%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments
%2Fhowtoreadliteraturelikeaprofessor_0.pdf&ei=XBOdVbrBO4uvggTCzIDACg&usg=AFQjC
NGxfTLED7bVxl8anhxLA7gIZyg8zQ
2. Complete 3 journal entries for The Glass Castle based on the following criteria:
 Entry One: Parts One and Two
 Entry Two: Parts Three and Four
 Entry Three: Part Five
a. Each entry must be at least one typed, double-spaced page, size 12, Times New
Roman.
b. Include this heading across the top of each page:
Your Name
The Glass Castle
Entry Number (1, 2, or 3)
c. The journal entry must discuss the story parts using one or both of the following
methods:
i. Reader Response involves the interaction of the reader with text. Each
reader brings something to the text that completes it and makes each
reading different; the text has no life of its own without you--the reader.
Interact with the text as you read it. What are your feelings as you read the
text? What questions do you have? What are you reminded of? What
would you do in a similar situation? What would you say to the characters?
Etc.
ii. Critical Formalism offers a way of reading and interpreting literature by
examining and synthesizing a work’s formal elements: plot, theme, setting,
character, style, conflict, and point of view. The central strategy entails a
close reading of the text, and this reading in turn allows the reader to trace
the interconnections of these literary elements and to discover how they
interact to create a harmonious and unified structure. Your discussion may
include two or more of these elements.
Discuss your thoughts without summarizing the text.
A test on both required texts will be administered on Friday, August 28, 2015.
Honors English 3—Academic Expectations
Writing: Honors English 3 requires students to compose both timed, in-class essays and process essays. Students
employ the formal conventions of writing while composing literary analysis, persuasive, cause and effect,
descriptive, narrative, and expository essays. Formal writing skills benefit students by providing them with the tools
they need to be successful in all other classes, including AP classes where writing is intensive and essential. In
addition, formal writing prepares students for the SAT essay, collegiate writing, and the work place. In addition to
practicing and mastering the conventions of formal writing, students are increasingly urged to develop their own
voice and style. Literary devices, syntax techniques, and creative approaches to content and development are
encouraged throughout the course. A sophisticated, formal writer is one who synthesizes formal conventions
with creativity and style. Journaling, poetry, and a variety of innovative writing assignments allow students to
explore inventive techniques.
Independent reading: Students should have approximately one hour available each night for reading and
journaling; time requirements vary depending on the length of each work.
Reading expectations: Students are required to think and become actively involved with the text. As they read,
they should question, make connections, synthesize concepts and ideas, make inferences, come to conclusions, and
form opinions. A cursory reading of the literature does not suffice. Students need to read with integrity in order to
discuss the literature on an insightful level and to and write about the literature in a sophisticated manner.
The most successful Honors English 3 students enjoy reading, discussing, and writing about a variety of genres; they
enter the course with competent writing skills, and they maintain a willingness to challenge themselves in
accordance with the high expectations of the course. In contrast to Academic English, Honors English 3 moves at a
quicker pace, covers more literature, and requires a higher reading and writing competency from the onset of the
course.
Additional Information: Access the Honors English 3 podcast that discusses all aspects of Honors English 3:
Log on to the NA website, choose NASH under the schools tab, and click on the link titled AP and Honors Course
Podcasts that is located on the menu on the left side of the page.
Current Reading List:
The Crucible
Arthur Miller
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
All My Sons
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
Arthur Miller
Please direct specific questions to kesposito@northallegheny.org or cwalters@northallegheny.org
Thank you,
Mrs. Esposito and Mrs. Walters