Advanced Placement 11:
English Language and Composition
Welcome to AP 11! In this course, we take the reading and writing skills you have learned in ninth and tenth grade, and we
take these skills to the next level, using a mix of American literary classics and contemporary fiction and non-fiction.
The Advanced Placement 11 course is taught at the college level and requires extensive reading, writing, research, and
discussion. You will study authors’ styles and uses of rhetoric, learning to apply those techniques to your own writing. To
qualify for this course, you are expected to have earned A’s and B’s in honors-level courses in ninth and tenth grades.
Be forewarned… this course is labor-intensive. This course is the equivalent of E110 (Freshmen Composition) at the
University of Delaware. I highly recommend that you consider Honors English 11 if you will not be able to give me 110%
effort. Please also be aware that you are expected to take the AP test in May.
Failure to complete your summer reading by Wednesday, August 1, 2011, will mean that you will be reassigned to Honors
English 11 AND you will be responsible for the Honors English 11 summer reading in September.
For your AP English 11 summer assignment, you will be reading two (2) books, taking notes as you read, and writing two
(2) essays based on specific prompts.
Please be sure to send an email to Mrs. Wagner before leaving for summer vacation
(leslie.wagner@bsd.k12.de.us). Include your:
•
•
•
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Name (first and last),
Current English teacher,
Contact phone number and
Email address.
Due Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2012
• Your work must be received in the main office by this date.
• I do not accept work via email submission.
• Please clearly label your work as follows (in the upper left-hand corner):
Your First and Last Name
Mrs. Wagner
AP English 11 Summer Work
1 August 2012
• You should be turning in the following:
1. Your notes taken while reading Blink.
2. A 2 to 3 page essay based on the prompt for Blink.
3. Your notes taken while reading How To Read Literature Like A Professor.
4. A 2 to 3 page essay based on the prompt for How To Read Literature Like A Professor.
Questions?
• Contact Mrs. Wagner via email if you have questions: leslie.wagner@bsd.k12.de.us
• Please feel free to contact me at any point over the summer; however, allow extra time for a response!
A note about academic honesty:
I want to read your opinions and reactions to your reading. If I want to read what Pink Monkey, Cliff, or Monarch has to
say, I can easily track down the information. I find that, when a student resorts to such methods, it is because he or she
lacks confidence in his or her abilities. Perhaps the student is attempting to impress me and feels that he or she cannot do
so on his or her own merits. I am not impressed by those who plagiarize someone else’s thoughts. I do not expect
perfection in your writing assignment, but I do expect you to be authentic and honest. I simply want to see what your
current strengths and weaknesses are as a writer, so please do not look to others to express your own thoughts.
Part I: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
A. Note-taking Assignment. Directions: Please title this assignment: Blink Notes. Take notes as you read this
nonfiction book. See the attached review guide to assist you. As you take notes, write down page numbers as
you go. Also, writing down your thoughts and reactions while you read will make the end-of-book essay
easier to write.
B. Essay Assignment. Directions: Please title this assignment: Blink Essay. Write a two to three page essay
(typed or written in blue or black pen; double-spaced), answering this prompt: Has Malcolm Gladwell
convinced you that rapid cognition is valid form of rational thought? If yes, what examples and evidence were
most convincing? If no, what examples and evidence did you find problematic?
C. What is this book about? In the words of the author himself:
“It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you
meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences
of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, Blink is a book about
those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really
important and, occasionally, really good.”
“You could also say that it's a book about intuition, except that I don't like that word. In fact it never
appears in Blink. Intuition strikes me as a concept we use to describe emotional reactions, gut feelings-thoughts and impressions that don't seem entirely rational. But I think that what goes on in that first two
seconds is perfectly rational. It's thinking--its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more
mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking."
In Blink I'm trying to understand those two seconds. What is going on inside our heads when we engage in
rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to
make our powers of rapid cognition better?”
Part II: How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster
A. Note-taking Assignment. Directions: Please title this assignment: HTRLLAP Notes. Take notes as you read
this nonfiction book. I have not attached a reading guide for this novel. As you read, write down the
information that will help you understand the basics of a theory he is suggesting in each chapter. As you take
notes, write down page numbers as you go. Also, writing down your thoughts and reactions while you read
will make the end-of-book essay easier to write. Specifically, think about books you have read in and out of
school to see if you can apply Foster’s literary analysis to those works.
B. Essay Assignment. Directions: Please title this assignment: HTRLLAP Essay. Write a two to three page
essay (typed or written in blue or black pen; double-spaced), answering this prompt: Think of a novel you
have read in the last two years that relates to one of the chapters in Foster’s book. Explain how the novel you
have selected matches the key ideas of one of Foster’s chapters. For example, have you read a book in which
the protagonist goes on a quest as explained by Foster? Explain how the novel you have selected illustrates the
five aspects of a quest.
C. What is this book about? A review from a reader at amazon.com:
“The author is an English professor at the University of Michigan, and it becomes apparent quite quickly
that he is one of those popular professors who is chatty and has lots of students signing up for his introductory
courses on literature. The language is friendly and the examples are entertaining as well as informative. If I
lived in Flint, I'd take his classes.”
“There have been many times I've read a book and just *known* the author is trying to impart more than
I am taking away from the prose, and I hear about symbolism in literature, yet I have very little success finding
it on my own. One time in high school I had a very good English teacher who would point out the symbolism
in stories and novels, but he never told us how to do it, as this book does. With chapters on a wide range of
topics (journeys, meals, poetry, Shakespeare, the Bible, mythology, fairy tales, weather, geography, violence,
politics, sex and illness, among others) and a wide variety of examples, I found myself learning A LOT.
Certainly this would not be of much value to a literature graduate student or professor, but for the rest of us
this is a great introduction to getting more out of our reading (or viewing, as the author also touches on film,
though to a lesser extent).
Blink Review Guide
IMPORTANT NOTE: I strongly recommend that you take notes on the suggested items included
below. There is also a detailed study guide/discussion guide at the end of book. You are welcome
to answer those questions if you so choose.
“Introduction”
1.
2.
Be able to define: adaptive unconscious and rapid cognition
Be sure to understand the following concepts:
a.
“Fast and frugal” (cognitive psychology term)
b. Malcolm Gladwell’s three “tasks” of his book
“Chapter 1”
3.
4.
Be able to define: fist and thin slices
Summarize the following thin-slicing experiments: Love Lab, Morse Code “fist” recognition, dorm room experiment, and medical malpractice
prediction. As you write your summary, consider:
a.
5Ws and an H (who, (did) what, where, when, why, and how)
b. If you had to summarize the experiment to someone who has not read the book, what would you write down?
c.
What was the experimenter looking for?
d. What were the results (or findings) of the experiment?
“Chapter 2”
5.
6.
Be able to define: locked door, priming, and snap decisions
Summarize the following (use the same criteria as mentioned in “Chapter 1” above):
a.
Aronson and Steele study
b. Damasio (neurologist) study
c.
Iyengar/Fisman study (speed-dating)
d. Braden’s study of athletes (tennis, Ted Williams)
“Chapter 3”
7.
8.
Be able to define: first impression and IAT test
Summarize the following (use the same criteria as mentioned above):
a.
The “Warren Harding Error”
b. “Male, Female, Family, Career” test
c.
“European American, African American, Bad, Good” test
d. The “Warren Harding Error” in the car-selling business
“Chapter 4”
9. Be able to define: frugality and Operational Net Assessment
10. Summarize the following (use the same criteria as mentioned above):
a.
Millennium Challenge
b. Improvisation comedy group, Mother
c.
Cook County Hospital’s heart attack assessment experiment
“Chapter 5”
11. Be able to define: blind taste test, sensation transference, and sip test (CLT)
12. Summarize the following (use the same criteria as mentioned above):
a.
Kenna’s fading music career
b. Pepsi Challenge
c.
The Aeron chair
“Chapter 6”
13. Be able to define: “mind-blind” and mind reading
14. Summarize the following (use the same criteria as mentioned above):
a.
The Diallo shooting
b. Ekman and Friesen’s “taxonomy of facial expressions”
c.
Ronald Reagan’s assassination attempt
“Chapter 7”
15. Be able to define: prejudice
16. Summarize the following (use the same criteria as mentioned above): National Symphony Orchestra’s “blind screen” auditions