12 AP Summer Reading 1
Cranston Public Schools
029 12 AP English Literature and Composition
Required Summer Reading 2015
As a senior Advanced Placement English student, it is expected that upon entering the AP
classroom you are an active reader and are willing to demonstrate your reading proficiency
very early in the first semester and plan to further develop that proficiency throughout the
year. It is our hope that beyond helping you to sharpen your analytical reading and critical
thinking skills, this summer reading assignment will keep your mind active and challenged
while encouraging a love for reading.
Required Texts:
The Namesake – Jhumpi Lahiri
The Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
Poetry – See Attached List of Choices with additional instructions
Assignment: You can expect to write at least one in-class essay in response to the required
readings. In addition, your teacher will create and assign supplementary alternative
assessments during the first week of school to further measure your reading and learning.
To prepare for these assessments, it is recommended that you take detailed notes regarding
how specific literary elements contribute to meaning, focusing particularly on the social and
historical values presented. Some literary elements you may want to focus on include:
structure, point-of-view, style, tone, narrative voice, selection of detail, and characterization.
You may use these notes when you write your in-class essay(s). You will need to have copies of
all texts available for your use.
12 AP Summer Reading 2
12 AP Summer Reading – Poetry Assessment (adapted from Ms. Stormont, AP
English teacher at St. Paul’s Preparatory School, St. Paul, Minnesota)
1. Choose at least five poems from the list below.
2. Read each poem closely and annotate thoroughly paying special attention to answering the question,
“How does the author use literary devices to create meaning?” Note that you will need to find and
print copies of each poem you choose to analyze. You may use the attached “poetry explication”
worksheet to generate ideas.
3. Once you return to school, be ready to create either a short (4-5 minutes), online generated
presentation such as PowerPoint, Glogster, Google slides, Prezi, etc. or a written report (teacher
discretion) that informs your classmates and teacher of your analyses.
Your presentation/report should include:
a. Names and representative poetic movement of each poet and the titles of their poems
b. Hallmarks of the poet’s style (i.e. what was/is he or she known for?)
c. Copy of each poem with a brief discussion of how it displays the stylistic hallmarks of
the author and the representative poetic genre (metaphysical, romantic, Victorian,
modern, Harlem Renaissance, etc.). Be sure to discuss how the author makes use of
his/her genre’s characteristics.
d. Comparison and contrast of the style and themes of your chosen poems to one or both
of the required novels. After reading both novels and reading and annotating five poems,
include in your presentation how each piece treats a similar theme. That said, you must
choose your poems carefully to ensure that you will be able make some connections
among the readings. After all, the College Board wants to see that you are able to read,
analyze, and interpret a variety of forms and styles of poetry and to make
connections/comparisons among the works you’ve read.
4. Be prepared to answer questions from your classmates and your teacher about your presentation
and/or report. You will be given an assessment rubric once you return to school. Over the summer, you
should concentrate on choosing and analyzing your poems. Your teacher will give you additional criteria
for the presentations/report, so there is no need to begin that process until classes resume.
AP English Literature and Composition poems that frequently appear on the AP Literature Exams
1. Matthew Arnold: “Dover Beach”
14. John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
2. Elizabeth Bishop: “In the Waiting Room”
15. Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress”
3. Gwendolyn Brooks: “We Real Cool”
16. Wilfred Owen: “Dulce et Decorum Est”
4. Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess”
17. John Crowe Ransom: “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter”
5. Emily Dickinson: “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” 18. William Shakespeare: Sonnets (Choose one)
6. John Donne: “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” 19. Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ozymandias”
7. T.S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
20. Wallace Stevens: “Sunday Morning”
8. Carolyn Forché: “The Colonel”
21. Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night”
9. Robert Frost: “Mending Wall”
22. William Carlos Williams: “Danse Russe”
10. Robert Hayden: “Those Winter Sundays”
23. William Wordsworth: “The World is Too Much With Us”
11. A. E. Housman: “When I Was One-and-Twenty”
24. William Butler Yeats: “The Second Coming”
12. Langston Hughes: “Let America Be America Again”
13. Samuel Johnson: “To Sir John Lade, On His Coming of Age” (‘A Short Song of Congratulation’)
12 AP Summer Reading 3