Westland Hialeah High School
Summer Reading Program 2014-2015
“It is what you read when you don't have to that
determines what you will be when you can't help it.” ― Oscar Wilde
All students are required to read a minimum of two books; however,
we strongly encourage students to read several books for fun and
for mental exercise.
All students will read Who Moved My Cheese? For Teens and one
of the books from the choices listed below.
At the beginning of the school year, students are required to turn-in
their Dialogue Journal (see last pages). You may use the one
journal for both books.
*Be Prepared! On the first week back you will have a quiz on the book, Who Moved My Cheese? In addition,
you will be required to present a short book talk on the novel you selected.
*AP Language and Composition, AP Literature and Composition, and Dual Enrollment: Writing and Rhetoric I
will have a different Reading List. (See separate packet for instructions)
Westland Hialeah High School
Summer Reading Program 2014-2015
Freshmen Class
All English I and English I Through ESOL
Who Moved My Cheese? For Teens An Amazing Way to Deal
with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson
And choose one of the following:
Choose one book to read:
1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
It describes a young girl's relationship with her foster parents, the other residents of
their neighborhood, and a young Jewish man who hides in her home during the
escalation of World War II.
2. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Glass Castle is an amazing story of a girl battling domestic abuse throughout her
childhood. Through the memoir you can see the writer’s constant struggles as she
grows up in less than ideal conditions with her odd, artistic mother who doesn’t seem
to see the problems she is allowing to happen.
3. Hip Hop High School by Alan Lawrence Sitomer
Theresa Anderson is every kind of smart: too smart-mouthed for her own good, street
smart enough to deal with a neighborhood that gets more dangerous every day, and
more book smart than anyone knows. But with the example of her super-achieving
older brother towering above her, Theresa hasn't even been trying. How can a girl
compete against the family favorite, especially when he's a certified local hero? With
her parents and her teachers always on her case, and her best friend pregnant and
dropped out of school, ..
Westland Hialeah High School
Summer Reading Program 2014-2015
Sophomore Class
All English II and English II Through ESOL
Who Moved My Cheese? For Teens An Amazing Way to Deal with
Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson
AND choose one of the following:
Choose one book to read:
1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark
Haddon
This book is a mystery, so if you like solving a murder, it is great. It
contains many unexpected revelations. This is a great book because it is
funny. It is also cool to see how a person with autism thinks, if you
yourself do not have it, because you can put yourself into their position.
2. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
This book is about a boy named Ender Wiggins who is sent to Battle
School. He is trained to fight against the Buggers, the aliens that are
trying to invade Earth. This book follows how Ender learns to fight and
considers the decisions he has to make.
3. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
This is a novel about a family secret kept between the three surviving
members of the Blackwood family. No one but Constance, Merricat, and
Uncle Julian knows what really happened on the day the rest of the
Blackwood family was poisoned to death.
Westland Hialeah High School
Summer Reading Program 2014-2015
Junior Class
All English III and English III Through ESOL
Who Moved My Cheese? For Teens An Amazing Way to Deal with
Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson
AND choose one of the following:
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The story is narrated by a sixteen-year-old cancer patient named Hazel,
who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she
subsequently meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old
Augustus Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee.
2. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity,
Hornby's award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom—its
agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young
men's coming of age stories.
3. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Thomas senses that he holds the knowledge to lead his fellow Gladers
out of a maze that surrounds their safe haven. But with no memory of
their past lives, escape might lead Thomas and the other Gladers into
worse situations.
Westland Hialeah High School
Summer Reading Program 2014-2015
Senior Class
All English IV and English IV Through ESOL
Who Moved My Cheese? For Teens An Amazing Way to Deal with
Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson
AND choose one of the following:
1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
By the author of the best-seller The Kite Runner, this moving novel is
told from the perspective of two women struggling to come to terms with
the repressive rule in Taliban-run Afghanistan. “In the end it is these
glimpses of daily life in Afghanistan — a country known to most
Americans only through news accounts of war and terrorism — that
make this novel, like The Kite Runner, so stirring.
2. Bossypants by Tina Fey
This is an excellent memoir by Tina Fey. It is absolutely hysterical.
This is a hilarious autobiography about how Tina Fey became a
comedian. It’s one of those books that actually make you laugh in
public.
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
“The Road is a mind-stretching adventure. The post-apocalyptic setting
forces you to decide how you would act in a unique and terrifying
situation. This book teaches you more about yourself than you would
think.”
Westland Hialeah High School
Summer Reading Program 2014-2015
The Dialogue Journal
A Dialogue Journal enables you, the reader, to respond to an article, book or
other piece of writing in a personal and analytical way. Furthermore, it forces
you to pause and reflect on what the author has communicated, thereby
strengthening your reading comprehension ability. This is what good readers
do naturally.
Directions:
1. Draw a real or an imaginary line down the middle of each page in your
journal.
Label the left-hand side of the page, What the Book Says, and the right-hand side
Of the page, what I Say.
2. Use the left-hand side of the page to record something from the book that interests you or that
puzzles you. Copy the passage exactly as it is written. You may use ellipses (…) if the passage is
very long. Remember to write the page number in parentheses after each passage. Using some of
the attached questioning and/or interactive reading strategies, use the right-hand side of the page to
respond to your selected passage. This will indicate your feelings about the passage. Then write a
more analytical response to the passage. To do this, closely examine the text and briefly write about it
insightfully. (See the example of a Dialogue Journal entry below.) Remember to respond with clear
and complete sentences.
*You must have at least 30 entries for each book.
Below is a sample Dialogue Journal that a student wrote to John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me:
What the book says:
“It was unlike anything I had imagined. I
became two men, the observing one and
the one who panicked, who felt Negroid
even into the depths of his entrails. I felt
the beginnings of great loneliness…I
tampered with the mystery of existence
and I lost the sense of my own being.” (16)
What I say:
This is Griffin’s first experience as a Negro. The
change for him seemed traumatic, but he knew
he had to adjust to it. It must have been
frightening because it was like losing all of his
security and self-confidence. He did not know the
self he was as a Negro. It was an identity he
could not recognize.
“Here hips, drew the eye and flirted with the eye
and caused the eye to lust or laugh. It was better
to look at hips than at the ghetto.” (22)
I like the use of repetitive words. Also it describes
one of Griffin’s opinions about the ghetto and how
he’s trying to adjust.
Be
Prep
ared! On the first week back you will have a quiz on the book, Who Moved My Cheese? In addition, you will be
required to present a short book talk on the novel you selected.
AP Language and Composition, AP Literature and Composition, and Dual Enrollment: Writing and Rhetoric I
will have a different Reading List. (See separate packet for instructions)