Summer Reading Overview
Why Summer reading?
Although the summer months are used as a vacation from school and schoolwork, it is
also one of the most critical times for high school students to make strides in their
academic abilities. The honors students will be held to a higher standard and will be
expected to achieve excellence throughout the school year. In order to give each student
the best chance at meeting his or her academic potential and to be successful on the Ohio
Graduation Test in the upcoming year, it has been decided that the students will benefit
from a Summer Reading Assignment.
What is the purpose of this assignment?
1. To offer a shared educational experience among the honors 10th graders that will
enable them to have a successful year.
2. To provide a foundation for the literary and rhetorical objectives that will be required
of the students on the Ohio Graduation Test.
3. To introduce common core themes: overcoming a struggle, perception, maturity,
personal journey, and relationships with family and friends.
4. To establish course expectations for reading: students will engage in active reading,
make inferences, and draw conclusions.
5. To introduce course expectations for writing: students will establish and sustain a clear
argument, support the argument with evidence, and write with a sophisticated style.
What do I expect the students to learn from the assignment?
The students will be completing a notebook (detailed on the following page) that
corresponds to the students’ reading. The students should annotate (write down your
thoughts) and mark important quotes while reading in order to practice the skills that they
will be learning throughout the year, and give them notes that will allow them to actively
participate in class.
What can you expect in class during your first few days of school?
The first few days of school will be used to allow the students an opportunity to get to
know me and for me to get to know the students. We will use a variety of activities
throughout the first week in order to give the students a chance to feel comfortable and
ready for a rigorous year of Honors English 10. We will then begin a 10-day unit on The
Alchemist and Things Fall Apart and complete a variety of activities that prepare the
students for the year.
How will learning be assessed?
The work will be collected on Tuesday, August 25. Although it will be due on Tuesday, I
will be collecting students’ work on Monday if it is finished. I know the first day of
school can be hectic, so hopefully the extra day will give each student the opportunity to
complete the assignment to the best of his or her ability. The students will be assessed
based on the correctness, completeness, and thoughtfulness of the assignment. The
writing will be used as an introduction for me to each student as a writer.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
5 Journal entries (at least 150 words each)
These five journals should be written following your completion of the book, but you
may use your annotations to help you write them. I would like you to discuss how each
relates to the book and what the events in the book say about 5 of the following big
ideas/themes:
Dreams
Signs and omens
The archetype of the journey (quest)
The search for a “personal legend”; one’s true nature; one’s mission in life
Spirituality
Fate vs. free will
Love (familial, romantic, self)
Numerology
The connection of the individual to the world, including the natural world; “the soul of
the world”; “universal language”
Life’s true treasures
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
5 Journal entries (at least 150 words each):
Describe five major events that happen throughout the book and explain why you believe
it to be important. These can be fairly informal, and you may use first person to explain
your own opinion. I want your honest opinions, feelings, and reactions to events that
occur in the book. We will use these as points of discussion during class.
Comparative Essay
Prompt:
In at least 500 words, compare two characters’ (one from each book) journey to
overcome a struggle. I will leave the rest of the paper up to you. You may use the
protagonists from each piece, minor characters, or even inanimate objects if you see fit.
The journey does not have to be a successful one. You may also consider writing about
how characters respond to either success or failure from after his/her journey is
completed. Although I am not forcing a strict structure on this paper, make sure to
include evidence from the text to support your responses.
You will notice that these prompts are fairly open-ended and can be interpreted in a
number of ways, this for me to get a better understanding of you as a writer. For
this reason, your writing piece will be assessed on its thoughtfulness, that it meets
the length requirement and that it is supported by evidence from the text. This is
your chance to show me what you can do. Impress me!