Brentwood High School’s Summer Reading Project is taking a new direction. This summer, at
each grade level, students will be reading one required novel. Each novel and its corresponding
activities have been carefully selected and designed to encourage your independent reading and critical
thinking skills in order to develop a deeper understanding of the text. In September, after having
completed the assignment you will be able to fully participate in the classroom lessons, activities and
assessments your teacher has planned for the novel. We are certain that you will enjoy the selection and
its timeless themes. We wish you all an enjoyable summer and good reading!
BRENTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
REQUIRED SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
Entering 10th Grade Part II – We Beat the Street by the Three Doctors and Sharon Draper
ASSIGNMENT: We Beat the Street Reader Response Journal
You will be responsible for completing BOTH of the following assignments as you read the novel. Please
bring these completed assignments with you on the first day of school. You are encouraged to annotate, or take
notes, while reading the novel as well. Since you are not allowed to write in the book, post-it notes can be used
instead.
Reader Response Assignment #1
This novel contains many pieces of advice and words of wisdom. Below are two quotes from the novel. For
each one:
1) Explain how this particular quote relates to the characters and/or events in the book.
2) Relate the quote to life. Can you apply this advice to yourself? How can you relate to this? How is this
an important piece of wisdom for people your age? Make a connection to your life or the world.
Quote #1: “In life you are going to have to make some hard decisions. Always try and make sure you make
them with the very best intentions. If you do that, no matter what you decide and no matter what the outcome,
it will be the right decision, because you make it for the right reasons.” (Page 43)
Quote #2: “Creative outlets are good for the soul, as well as the community. Everyone benefits when art or
music or literature is shared.” (Page 152)
Quote #3: Choose your own quote from the story. Respond to your selection.
***Each response should be around 3-5 sentences***
Reader Response Assignment #2
The focus of 10th grade English is ethics and morality. Ethics is defined as the moral principles and values held
by an individual or group. In 10th grade, you will read stories that ask you to question the ethics of individual
characters or even society as a whole. For your last part of the summer reading project you will consider
ethical, and unethical, decision making in We Beat the Street.
For each section of the book, you are required to do the following:
1. Choose an excerpt from the text that you think illustrates ethical, or unethical, decision making. In other
words, choose a quote that illustrates a character making a good decision or a bad decision?
2. Write out the line(s) and give the page number.
3. Explain how you think this quote relates to ethics or morality. Why did you choose this quote? What is
it illustrating about ethics or morality?
Choose one quote for each of the following sections:
Section 1: Chapters 1-7
Section 2: Chapters 8-14
Section 3: Chapters 15-22
***Each response should be around 3-5 sentences per question***