POP High School Summer Reading Titles and Assignments 2012-­‐2013
**Titles are available for purchase on the POPCS website via FolleE. Click on the FolleE link and search for the required reading books for your student by grade level.
Crossroads-­‐ (8th grade Honors) -­‐ Rebecca by du Maurier and one novel of choice
Read selected novels and choose 10 quotes/passages from each novel that are the most significant. Write a brief statement explaining why you chose the par@cular quote. (Do not use outside sources like Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addi@on, create 10 original mul@ple choice ques@ons (with five op@ons as possible answers) based on each summer reading text. Include an answer key with page numbers from the text where the answers can be found. Two ques@ons should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylis@c elements. (Students should already know what stylis@c/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Ques@ons will be graded based on grade-­‐level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy
English I – Edith Hamilton’s Mythology
Read selected text and choose 10 quotes/passages from each novel that are the most significant. Write a brief statement explaining why you chose the par@cular quote. (Do not use outside sources like Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addi@on, create 10 original mul@ple choice ques@ons (with five op@ons as possible answers) based on each summer reading text. Include an answer key with page numbers from the text where the answers can be found. Two ques@ons should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylis@c elements. (Students should already know what stylis@c/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Ques@ons will be graded based on grade-­‐level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy. English I Pre-­‐AP-­‐ Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound
Read selected works and choose 10 quotes/passages from each text that are the most significant. Write a brief statement explaining why you chose the par@cular quote. (Do not use outside sources like Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addi@on, create 10 original mul@ple choice ques@ons (with five op@ons as possible answers) based on each summer reading text. Include an answer key with page numbers from the text where the answers can be found. Two ques@ons should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylis@c elements. (Students should already know what stylis@c/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Ques@ons will be graded based on grade-­‐level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy. (Students required to read two texts will turn in a total of 20 quotes and 20 ques@ons-­‐ 10 for each text.)
Eng II-­‐ Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
Read selected novel and choose 10 quotes/passages from each novel that are the most significant. Write a brief statement explaining why you chose the par@cular quote. (Do not use outside sources like Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addi@on, create 10 original mul@ple choice ques@ons (with five op@ons as possible answers) based on each summer reading text. Include an answer key with page numbers from the text where the answers can be found. Two ques@ons should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylis@c elements. (Students should already know what stylis@c/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Ques@ons will be graded based on grade-­‐level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy. Eng II Pre-­‐AP-­‐ Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Read selected novel(s) and choose 10 quotes/passages from each novel that are the most significant. Write a brief statement explaining why you chose the par@cular quote. (Do not use outside sources like Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addi@on, create 10 original mul@ple choice ques@ons (with five op@ons as possible answers) based on each summer reading text. Include an answer key with page numbers from the text where the answers can be found. Two ques@ons should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylis@c elements. (Students should already know what stylis@c/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Ques@ons will be graded based on grade-­‐level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy. (Students required to read two texts will turn in a total of 20 quotes and 20 ques@ons-­‐ 10 for each text.)
Eng III-­‐ The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
The theme for the year is Exploring the American Dream; write a paper explaining how the main character(s) pursue(s) the “American Dream” and the ending result of the pursuit. How does the outcome of the pursuit illuminate the meaning of the novel as a whole? (What is the author sugges@ng about The American Dream?) Avoid mere plot summary. Suggested length is 2-­‐4 pages typed, double spaced. (Pre-­‐AP Students should write a separate answer for each text.)
AP Lang-­‐ Hiroshima by Hersey, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin with an IntroducVon by Andrew S. Trees and The Jungle by Sinclair For each text explore how the author uses imagery, dic@on, structure, etc. to accomplish his purpose for wri@ng the text. For example, what does Hersey accomplish by wri@ng Hiroshima and how does he accomplish it? Does he wish to convince his audience of something? Does he simply inform us and of what? Etc. Then explore: what rhetorical strategies does he employ to accomplish this purpose? Write a 2-­‐4 pages typed, double spaced response for each of the works you read. Avoid mere plot summary; instead focus on what the author is trying to accomplish and how he accomplishes it. Feel free to access your text The Language of ComposiBon for examples and ideas for this assignment. (If possible, use the Norton Edi@on of Sinclair’s The Jungle.)
Eng IV-­‐ King Lear by Shakespeare
The theme for the year is Making an Impact: Choices and Consequences: Vice and Virtue. Write a paper explaining the choices presented to the main character(s) in each selec@on and the ending result of their choices. How does the outcome of the choices made reflect the meaning of the work as a whole? Avoid mere plot summary. Suggested length is 2-­‐4 pages typed, double spaced. Students should pay par@cular aZen@on to sentence varia@on and dic@on.
AP Lit-­‐King Lear by Shakespeare and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad-­‐ 2 assignments
1. Assignment for King Lear: Respond to the following prompt: Literary and cultural cri@c Edward Said has wriZen that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable ri\ forced between a human being and a na@ve place, between the self and its true home: its essen@al sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also noted that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.
Write an essay in which you analyze how King Lear’s experience with exile is both aliena@ng and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not summarize the plot.
2. Assignment for Heart of Darkness:
Write an essay in which you iden@fy and explore what Conrad suggests about “progress” in the modern world.
AP English Lit students:
Please adhere to the following direc@ons for both:
• Comment about and interpret what you quote, not allowing any of the other voices in
the essay to make your point for you. Avoid using any block quotes; rather, integrate
quota@ons into the grammar of your sentences so that you can maintain the integrity of
your voice throughout.
• The essay itself should be carefully edited aKer you have composed it. The two
processes – one creaBve and one criBcal – are enBrely different. A poorly edited essay,
regardless of the grandness of the idea, will earn no higher than a “B-­‐” grade.
***Any ediEon is fine; these are not ISBN specific since they are summer reading***