Howard High School – Summer Reading 2014
Gifted / Advanced Contend 10th Grade World Literature
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reading Assignment:
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success (ISBN: 9780316017923)
A few expectations about Summer Reading:
 Your work is due the first day of class. Do not bring a flash disk and ask to print it. Handle this
before coming to class. Work submitted on a disk or flash drive or through email will be
considered late.
 Read the material yourself and do not depend on short cuts and summaries.
 Spend some time thinking and analyzing as you read – it may be helpful to keep a reading
journal.
 The first couple weeks of class will be spent discussing Outliers in class. If you have not read
the book, you will be behind from the beginning. This is not a good place to be.
 If you have any questions, please feel free to email your instructor at
aelrod.howardhs@bibb.k12.ga.us
 Please be aware that if you send an email to me, it may take some time for a response as I am
not checking email as often as I would during the school year.
 The assignments listed here will not be accepted late after the first day of school.
 After the second class meeting, any student who has not submitted this work will be tested over
the book, a late penalty will be applied to the test score, and the test score will be used as the
grade. This test must be taken on your own time, and will remain a zero until it is resolved.
Written Assignment, Part 1
You should define the following terms / ideas from Outliers, as they relate to the book / as Malcolm
Gladwell would describe them. I encourage you to work on this as you read and give specific examples
from the text. This will require more than a simple sentence and should also be typed:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Accumulative Advantage
Cultural Legacy
Opportunity
Outlier (both as defined in the beginning
and the end of the book)
5. PDI (Power Distance Index)
6. Rice Paddies and Math Tests
7. Success
8. Success Related to IQ
9. The 10,000 Hour Rule
10. The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
11. The Matthew Effect
Written Assignment, Part 2:
After reading Outliers, write a two page reflection essay in which you do the following:
1. State what your own definition of success. How does your definition align with Gladwell’s? What
did you think about what this book had to say about success? Support your statement with
evidence from the book—you must use quotations, and must use MLA format. Ex: (Gladwell 163)..
2. Informally research someone you consider to be successful (It can be a family member, celebrity,
etc). In your research, see if you can find examples of “hidden advantage” that helped them on
their journey of success.
3. Lastly, what’s your story of “success”? To what extent are you the beneficiary of “hidden
advantage, extraordinary opportunity, and cultural legacies?” In essence, describe how all of these
factors have shaped the “success” you’ve had up to this point.
4. This essay should be typed using 12 pt. Times New Roman with 1” margins and should be at least
two pages.
** You should make at least 3 specific references to the text in your essay, using proper MLA format.