Summer Reading Assignment for Form VII American Literature: Summer 2015
Mr. Hauser (ahauser@cistercian.org)
__________________________________________________________________________________
SUMMER MANDATORY READING ASSIGNMENT
You should acquire, through means noble or nefarious, a copy of Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The
Penguin Classics edition is preferable, but any addition will do as long as it is not abridged in any way. The
Penguin Edition is pictured below with the ISBN number:
ISBN: 978-0-14-303943-3
Forum Discussion Assignment:
You are to go the the class’s Moodle page and respond to the discussion thread in a post that equals 1 page of
text (double-spaced in Times New Roman 12” font). Your response should thoughtfully address certain
thematic issues in The Grapes of Wrath (the first thread’s topic is hinted at below). In Moodle, you will find my
full prompt that I want you to begin responding to by June 25th-26th. As the summer progresses into the months
of July and August, you all will have to create new prompts/threads that will keep the class discussion on-going.
For both the second and third sessions your responses to various threads should again amount to about a page of
text. If a thread is too oft repeated, I will redirect the class conversation. The point of this is to practice the
Socratic/Great Books’ method in reading literature. You’re given a two day window to complete the
assignment. Your responses must be in by 11:59 p.m. of the second day listed below:
●
●
●
June 25th-June 26th: The relationship of the ancillary chapters to the main narrative. (Chs. 1-10)
July 16th-17th: (Chs. 11-18)
August 13th-14th: (Chs. 19-29)
NOTE: If you do not have internet access during a given period, you must hand-write your blog response and
coordinate with myself (via email) about a due date. You should have read through the chapters listed above for
each blog response, that way you won’t fall behind on your summer reading! Grapes of Wrath is a long novel
(455 pages), so pace yourself accordingly!
I look forward to working with you in August!
-Mr. Hauser
1
2