IB Summer Reading Assignment
West Charlotte High School
English III: IB Language and Literature
Ms. Robinson
Email: Ladawna.Robinson@cms.k12.nc.us
Summer reading is an integral and required part of the IB Language and Literature course.
Students enrolled in the course will read several novels from different genres, cultures, and
literary periods. Your summer reading assignment is to read Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes
Were Watching God. After finishing the novel you are expected to express your understanding,
response, and critical analysis of the novel by answering one of the following six prescribed
questions in 800-1000 words. Your essay must also include a 200-300 page rationale explaining
the purpose of your essay. It is highly expected that you purchase your own copy of the novel so
that you can write and highlight important passages.
Summer Reading
Novel: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Author: Zora Neale Hurston
1. How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?
2. If the text had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different
audience, how and why might it differ?
3. How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?
4. Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?
5. How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre,
and for what purpose?
6. How has the text borrowed from other texts, and with what effects?
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