Senior Summer Reading
All students are required to read the books listed below that correspond to their academic level.
Students will be expected to discuss the required reading in class at the beginning of the year. Teachers
will assess students based on their required reading. Such assessments may include quizzes/tests, essays,
class participation, and other relevant assessments
Advanced Placement
1.
2.
3.
4.
Great Expectations—Charles Dickens
Background information on the Belgian Congo (to be provided by Mr. Flowers)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (easily located online)
Heart of Darkness—Joseph Conrad
As soon as you get this assignment, you must send me an email (cflowers@xavierhighschool.org)
telling me that you are in my AP English class for the 2015-2016 year. I will then send you an email
back. In that email will be the registration code you need in order to have access to our Canvas page.
Over the summer, I will post, on Canvas, discussion boards (due by August 29th) for the two main
novels on the following subjects:
1. The role of the narrator (and the fictional conceit in which the narrator operates
within the novel);
2. The effect of the ending on how we understand the author’s intentions in the novel;
3.
Winners and losers in the novel (and why);
4. The way the author uses settings in the novel;
5. The meaning and uses of certain characters in the novels;
You also need to draw three maps – one for Heart of Darkness; one for Great Expectations; one of
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – of the geography of each work so that you, the discerning reader,
can get a full, bird’s-eye sense of the journey the main character in each novel makes. Feel free to
use crayons and markers.
Honors
1. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens—Sean Covey
This book will be discussed in Religion classes; those students participating in the Xavier
Leadership Institute are asked to read the book prior to XLI.
2. Beowulf—trans. Seamus Heaney
The “oral tradition” can adequately be described as the tradition of passing down cultural stories
by word of mouth. Beowulf, which comes to us via the Exeter book (recorded in as a codex at
some point in the late 10th century), is one story that was originally communicated this way.
After reading Beowulf, write a 2-3 page essay that summarizes the cultural beliefs promulgated
by this story. In other words, answer the question: What have you learned about early English
values and beliefs through your reading of Beowulf? Additional questions that might guide
your essay include:
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How did Anglo-Saxons view their world?
What were the dominant cultural expectations of tribe members?
over
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How did tribe members communicate with one another socially? What did they value?
What were the Anglo-Saxon’s religious beliefs?
How was Anglo-Saxon society constructed? What form of government did they use?
What did tribal members fear?
What did they embrace or value?
For specific guidelines on MLA formatting, visit the following link:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.
Accelerated
1. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens—Sean Covey
This book will be discussed in Religion classes; those students participating in the Xavier
Leadership Institute are asked to read the book prior to XLI.
2. Frankenstein—Mary Shelley
This book will be discussed in English classes. Students are encouraged to keep a reading journal
and take notes as they read. In their notes, students should identify major characters, setting, key
plot details, as well as any significant/though-provoking passages and/or questions the text raised.
College Preparatory
1. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens—Sean Covey
This book will be discussed in Religion classes; those students participating in the Xavier
Leadership Institute are asked to read the book prior to XLI.
2.
Lord of the Flies—William Golding
This book will be discussed in English classes. Students are encouraged to keep a reading journal
and take notes as they read. In their notes, students should identify major characters, setting, key
plot details, as well as any significant/though-provoking passages and/or questions the text raised.