2016 AP English Language & Composition Summer Reading Assignment Texts: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, America in 4 Minutes by Branden Wellington (spoken word on YouTube) Note: STEM Camp does not exempt AP students from the summer reading. This text will be the basis of the first six weeks’ instruction. Welcome to AP English Language & Composition. The purpose of the summer reading assignment is to expand your experience with nonfiction texts. This summer you will have the pleasure of reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The associated assignments will help you to establish a foundation that you will use throughout the course. In the first week of school you will be given assessments that will evaluate your reading comprehension and writing ability. As you read, annotate your book. If you are like me and terribly pained by writing in books, feel free to use sticky notes. Additionally, once you have completed each section of the book, you will complete three entries in a dialectical journal. Select quotes that jumped out at you while you read. Then, in your journal entries try to figure what the author did with his writing that caused that statement to be memorable. How did that idea strengthen his writing? A more in depth description of the expectation for this is on the next page. After reading you will respond to one of the essay prompts below in a 1-2 page typed essay. It must be MLA formatted (12 pt, Times New Roman, double-spaced). Be sure to clearly label your essay so that I know which prompt you chose. Finally , you will watch America in 4 Minutes (Official Video) by Branden Wellington on Youtube. This, too, will be analyzed. Create a second dialectical journal for the video. Create 5 entries for the most powerful phrases Wellington uses in his piece. Keep in mind how his view of America compares with that presented by Capote. Submit your journal with your work for In Cold Blood. We will continue with this piece in the first week of class. Assignments should also be compiled in a portfolio of some sort (report cover, folder, etc.) Questions??? Feel free to contact me via email at shuntaspencer@lancasterisd.org or kik me @englishflava. I will try to respond within 24 hours to all of your burning questions. You can also find me at AP Bridges June 13-16 from 8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. If you haven’t already registered you’d better hurry. Spaces are limited, and you don’t want to miss it! Essay Prompts 1. In Cold Blood is set in the Midwest, an area associated with traditional values and hard work. The Clutter family was seemingly a living example of the American Dream. In a wellorganized essay, discuss what this nonfiction novel says about the nature of the American Dream, not only in relation to the Clutter family but also in relation to one or more other characters in the work. Be sure to mention specific sections and incidents (at times citing directly from the text). 2. Perry Smith eventually admitted that it was he alone who actually committed each of the four Clutter murders. At the trial, the prosecuting attorney told the jurors that “Regardless of who pulled the trigger on Richard Eugene Hickock’s shotgun, both men are equally guilty.” Dick steadfastly maintained that he was less guilty and did not deserve the death penalty because he “never touched a hair on a human head.” In a well-organized essay, discuss which of those two points of view is more valid. Use evidence from your own reading, observation, experience or specifics from the novel to support your position (at times citing directly from the text). 3. In the course of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote manages to create sympathy for almost every character at some point, whether the character is a murder victim, a murderer, a lawenforcement official, or an ordinary citizen. Select two characters – from two of the four categories above – and in a well-organized essay, discuss how Capote creates sympathy for the two characters. Use specific evidence from the work to support your points (at times cite directly from the text). 4. The theme of American middle-class is central to Capote’s text. Read the passage from the section “The Last to See Them Alive” from Capote’s In Cold Blood, starting from “The master of River Valley Farm, Herbert William Clutter...” and ends several pages later with “...had small reason to complain.” Then, write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Capote uses the Clutter family to represent the rising middle-class in 1950’s America. Be certain to ground all of your assertions firmly in the text. Do not merely summarize the passage. Dialectical Journal Guidelines In your introductory assignment you will begin to analyze the author’s style. Style is mainly created by the author’s use of the following. Diction- word choice used to convey purpose, tone or effect; think of how one word may change the meaning of a sentence. Syntax – how words are arranged within a sentence to convey meaning; sentence structure; changing the order of words changes the effect of the words. Figurative language – expressed through the use of figures not limited to personification, metaphor, hyperbole, irony, etc. Look up examples of each of these and include them at the beginning of your dialectical journal. Create a three column chart in a Word or Google Doc. In the left column, record facts, quotations, examples, emotionally loaded words or images, and other forms of evidence the writer uses to make his case. Use quotation marks around quotes and cite the location within the text (Author’s last name page number). In the second column, note the device(s) being utilized (diction, repetition, etc.). In the third column, explain or interpret the significance of the evidence. Do NOT just restate or summarize the information. All explanations will need to be written in complete sentences and correctly punctuated. ********** Read the example journal entries carefully. The first entry is from Dr. Oz’s Time magazine article “The Oz Diet: No More Myths. No More Fads. What You Should Eat —and Why.” Evidence (quote & context) Quotation: “...I was brought up short by the traffic graffiti of atherosclerotic plaque” (lines 2-4) Device used Diction: “traffic,” “graffiti” Commentary (explanation, interpretation, analysis) Dr. Oz’s metaphor connecting the patient’s clogged arteries to “traffic graffiti” suggests a jumbled network of jammed blood vessels, much like a highway blocked with cars. The negative word “graffiti” describes the ugly plaque, which acts as a pollutant and scars the beauty and efficiency of the blood vessels. In one phrase, Dr. Oz conveys the dangerous, ugly, contaminating nature of atherosclerotic plaque on our circulatory system. The following sample is from In Cold Blood and may not be used in your dialectical journals. The people of Holcomb speak Diction: “Federal Building,” Capote contrasts the big city of their post office as “the drafty and dusty shed,” feeling created through Federal Building,” which “ceiling leaks…” referring to the post office as seems rather too substancial a a “Federal Building” with the title to confer on a drafty and reality of Holcomb – a dusty shed. The ceiling leaks, shabby town where even the floor boards wobble, the federal buildings are not in mailboxes won’t shut, the proper working order. This light bulbs are broken, the causes the reader to question clock has stopped” (Capote the perception of the locals. 67).
