Summer Reading Titles and Assignments 2011-2012
Crossroads- (8th grade Honors) - Rebecca by du Maurier
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 particular quote. (Do not use outside sources like
Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addition, create 10 original multiple choice questions (with five options 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 questions should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylistic elements.
(Students should already know what stylistic/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes
assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Questions will be graded based
on grade-level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy
English I – Beowulf
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 particular quote. (Do not use outside sources like
Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addition, create 10 original multiple choice questions (with five options 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 questions should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylistic elements.
(Students should already know what stylistic/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes
assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Questions will be graded based
on grade-level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy.
English I Pre-AP- Beowulf and The Book of Job (the Biblical text)
Read selected works and choose 10 quotes/passages from each novel that are the most significant.
Write a brief statement explaining why you chose the particular quote. (Do not use outside sources like
Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addition, create 10 original multiple choice questions (with five options 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 questions should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylistic elements.
(Students should already know what stylistic/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes
assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Questions 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 questions- 10 for each text.)
Eng II- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - ISBN-10:0345277600
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 particular quote. (Do not use outside sources like
Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addition, create 10 original multiple choice questions (with five options 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 questions should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylistic elements.
(Students should already know what stylistic/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes
assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Questions will be graded based
on grade-level appropriate academic rigor, originality and accuracy.
Eng II Pre-AP- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
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 particular quote. (Do not use outside sources like
Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags etc… as a guide.)
In addition, create 10 original multiple choice questions (with five options 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 questions should be based on plot, five on character, and three on stylistic elements.
(Students should already know what stylistic/literary elements include; part of the assignment includes
assessing student understanding and use of terms previously studied.) Questions 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 questions- 10 for each text.)
Eng III- The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
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 suggesting
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.)
Eng III Pre-AP- The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald and Bartleby the Scrivener by Melville
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 suggesting
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 Introduction by Andrew S.
Trees and The Jungle by Sinclair
For each text explore how the author uses imagery, diction, structure, etc. to accomplish his purpose for
writing the text. For example, what does Hersey accomplish by writing 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 Composition for examples and ideas for this assignment. (If possible, use the
Norton Edition 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 selection 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 particular attention to
sentence variation and diction.
AP Lit-King Lear by Shakespeare and On Beauty by Zadie Smith- 2 assignments
1. Assignment for King Lear: Respond to the following prompt: Literary and cultural critic Edward Said
has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the
unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home:
its essential 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 alienating and
enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not summarize
the plot.
2. Assignment for On Beauty:
Write an essay in which you identify and explore an aspect of beauty in the “contemporary”
world as found in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty.
AP English Lit students:
Please adhere to the following directions 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
quotations into the grammar of your sentences so that you can maintain the integrity of
your voice throughout.
The essay itself should be carefully edited after you have composed it. The two
processes – one creative and one critical – are entirely different. A poorly edited essay,
regardless of the grandness of the idea, will earn no higher than a “B-” grade.
***Any edition is fine; these are not ISBN specific since they are summer reading***
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