AP Language and Composition/IB English 3
2015 SUMMER ASSIGNMENT
for 11th & 12th Grade
McCarthy
Anderson
For AP Language and IB English 3 Students/Parents:
Welcome to your college-level IB/AP English course! The purpose of this course is to
“enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose of sufficient
richness and complexity to communicate effective with mature readers.” (AP Course
Description-College Board). You will read a wide variety of prose styles from different
disciplines and historical periods: letters, diaries, speeches, biographies, autobiographies,
and essays from fields including nature, science, politics and history. You will also write
weekly and in a variety of forms: narrative, exploratory, expository, and argumentative.
The purpose is to help you write across the curriculum as preparation for college and for
your profession. Because this course’s aims are proficiency in college-level reading and
writing skills, we need to begin during the summer to deepen and maximize our
understanding of rhetoric, voice, and non-fiction in general
The following is a description of your summer assignments. Both of the responses are
essays. You must support your claims/responses with examples from the text, using
parenthetical documentation after quote with page number(s). As for format, use MLA: a
strong, succinct introductory paragraph with a thesis statement proceeded by as many
paragraphs needed to answer the question; end with a conclusion which restates your
purpose and offers some insight. As for length, each essay should be approximately 2-4
pages. Each essay should be typed, using 12 point Times New Roman font. Please use
standard margins. These essays will serve as a springboard for our coursework and will
be integral part of our curriculum. All essays must be submitted by the first day of school.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this procedure, please see me before the
end of the school year (rather than the first day of class). One final word: “homework”
during the summer may not be appealing, but reading and learning can be. Look at this
assignment as an opportunity to look at the world differently and grow as a writer and
thinker. Enjoy!
This class requires a major commitment of your time and effort. Over the summer you
will read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and ONE of the nonfiction
books selected from the list provided. Then, write TWO Essays: one on The Scarlet
Letter and one on the selected nonfiction book.
1. You may borrow the book from libraries or purchase it online through Amazon.com,
which has new or used copies (reasonable prices).
2. The summaries of the books are included below to help you decide on a book. These
are not “teen lit” books, but nonfiction books with different styles of writing and subjects.
3. Due to the realism of some contemporary books, you are advised to preview the books
before making a selection.
4. Read The Scarlet Letter and the nonfiction book over the summer and complete the
TWO essays for both books. Instructions are provided.
5. Turn in this assignment during the first day of school. NO EXCUSES! (If you have
any issues about buying a book, DO NOT wait until school starts; talk to either one of us
or e-mail us):
mccarthtk@mail.okaloosa.k12.fl.us
AndersonAsh@mail.okaloosa.k12.fl.us
Nonfiction List (Select ONE):
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah
Summary: “... lshmáel Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a powerfully gripping story. At the age of
twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen,
he’d been picked up by the government army and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of
truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff
at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.”
(from book jacket)
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern Warfare
Mark Bowden
Summary: “... brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the
Vietnam War. On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopters into the
teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a
Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned
down through a long and terrible night, fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following
morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy badly injured.” (back cover)
Flags of Our Fathers
James Bradley
Summary: “the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and
indomitable will of America.” (back cover) Recommended by Stephen Ambrose who said about the book
“The best battle book I ever read. These stories, from the time the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima
enlisted, their training, and the landing and subsequent struggle, fill me with awe.”
Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope
Jenna Bush
Summary: “She is Ana, and this is her story. It begins the day she is born infected with HIV, transmitted
from her young mother. Now she barely remembers her mama, who died when Ana was only three. From
then on, Ana’s childhood becomes a blur of faint memories and secrets—secrets about her illness and about
the abuse she endures. Jenna Bush has written a powerful narrative nonfiction account of a girl who
struggles to break free from a vicious cycle of abuse, poverty, and illness....”
102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
Kevin Flynn
Jim Dwyer and
Summary: The dramatic and moving account of the struggle for life inside the World Trade Center on the
morning of September 11, when every minute counted. At 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people
were inside the twin towers -- reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World.
Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the
people who lived it -- until now. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn rely on hundreds
of interviews; thousands of pages of oral histories; and phone, e-mail, and emergency radio transcripts.
They cross a bridge of voices to go inside the infernos, seeing cataclysm and heroism, one person at a time,
to tell the affecting, authoritative saga of the men and women -- the 12,000 who escaped and the 2,749 who
perished -- who made 102 minutes count as never before.
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Atul Gawande
Summary: In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and the limits of
medicine, offering an unflinching view from the scalpel’s edge. Complications lays bare a science not in its
idealized form but as it actually is—uncertain, perplexing, and profoundly human.” (back cover) First lines
of book: “I was once on trauma duty when a young man about twenty years old was rolled in, shot in the
buttock. His pulse, blood pressure, and breathing were all normal. A clinical assistant cut the clothes off
him with heavy shears, and I looked him over from head to toe, trying to be systematic but quick about it. I
found the entrance wound in his right cheek, a neat, red, half-inch hole. I could find no exit wound. No
other injuries were evident.”
Where Men Win Glory
Jon Krakauer
Summary: Pat Tillman walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to join the Army and
became an icon of post-9/11 patriotism. When he was killed in Afghanistan two years later, a legend was
born. But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable and considerably more complicated than the
public knew…. This book is a stunning account of a remarkable young man’s heroic life and death.
Freakonomics
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Summary: “Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo
wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really
matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like
typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven 0. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a muchheralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and childrearing—and whose conclusions turn the conventional wisdom on its head... . Freakonomics establishes
this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics
represents how it actually does work... It will literally redefine the way we view the modem world. (Back
cover)
The Life and Legend of Chris Kyle: American Sniper, Navy SEAL
Michael J. Mooney
Summary: A brutal warrior but a gentle father and husband, Chris Kyle led the life of an American hero.
His renowned courage and skill in military service earned him two nicknames--The Devil among
insurgents and The Legend among his Navy SEAL brethren--but his impact extended beyond that after he
came home from combat and began working with fellow veterans.
Journalist Michael J. Mooney reveals Kyle's life story, from his Texas childhood up through his death in
February 2013. Mooney interviews those closest to the late SEAL and also sheds light on the life of the
suffering veteran who killed Kyle. The Life and Legend of Chris Kyle is a candid, essential portrait of a
celebrated warrior--a man about whom a movie has only added to the legend. (Barnes and Noble overview)
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson (With)
Summary: Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July, 2005 for the mountainous
Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al
Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those
Navy SEALS made it out alive.
This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the
extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His teammates
fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his
pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled
for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep
him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors.
A born and raised Texan, Marcus Luttrell takes us from the rigors of SEAL training, where he and his
fellow SEALs discovered what it took to join the most elite of the American Special Forces, to a fight in
the desolate hills of Afghanistan for which they never could have been prepared. His account of his squad
mates' heroism and mutual support renders an experience for which two of his squad mates were
posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for combat heroism that is both heartrending and life-affirming. In
this rich chronicle of courage and sacrifice, honor and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers a powerful
narrative of modern war.
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Summary: Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero
whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace
Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quartercentury of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political
drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid
movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He
is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. LONG WALK TO
FREEDOM is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest
memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the
extraordinary story of his life--an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.
The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien
Summary: “They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles,
each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of nightmarish war that history
is only beginning to absorb.... The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament
...and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and
soul.
Get in the Game
Cal Ripken, Jr. with Donald Phillips
Summary: “Throughout his legendary baseball career, Cal Ripken, Jr. inspired fans on and off the field
and broke countless records, including Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played. In this book,
Ripken shares his 8 Elements of Perseverance, telling stories about his exhilarating career in baseball and
sharing insights on his life and work....” Excerpt: During my twenty-one years in major league baseball, I
played at six feet four inches and 225 pounds. But, I wasn‘t always that big. As a freshman in high school,
when I tried out for the varsity baseball team, I had to stand on a scale and be weighed in front of
everybody. It was embarrassing for me not only because I was clothed only in my underwear, but because I
was the smallest guy in the locker room. The older players laughed, and the coaches grinned when my stats
were read aloud: ‘Ripken, five feet seven inches, 128 pound...”
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Eric Schlosser
Summary: “Fast food has hastened the mailing of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and
poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That’s a lengthy
list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first- rate reportage, wry wit, and
careful reasoning. (back cover) Excerpt: “In the early years of the twentieth century, hamburgers had a bad
reputation. According to the historian David Gerard Hogan, the hamburger was considered “a food for the
poor,” tainted and unsafe to eat. Restaurants rarely served hamburgers; they were sold at lunch carts parked
near factories, at circuses, carnivals, and state fairs. Ground beef, it was widely believed, was made from
old, putrid meat heavily laced with chemical preservatives. ‘The hamburger habit is just about as safe,’ one
critic warned, ‘as getting your meat out of a garbage can.’” (Schlosser 197)
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
Summary: The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look
into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and
charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to
embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit
who abhorred the ideas of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Walls’ children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another and
eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as
their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of
a peculiar, but loyal, family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of
self- pity.
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Yousafzai (Author), Christina Lamb (Contributor)
Malala
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused
to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen,
she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home
from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an
extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New
York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for
the Nobel Peace Prize. I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of
the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his
daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a
society that prizes sons. I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to
inspire change in the world.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand
Summary: In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his
defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But
when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed
flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean,
against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of
miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.
Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with
hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be
suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought
vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. (Barnes and Noble overview)
Man's Search for Meaning
\
Viktor E. Frankl
Summary: Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of
life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in
four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on
his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we
cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with
renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos "meaning"-holds that
our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we
personally find meaningful.
At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in
twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a
"book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential
books in America. (Barnes and Nobel overview)
Outlier: The Stories of Success
Malcolm Gladwell
Summary: There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on
intelligence and ambition. Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we
want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time lookingaround them-at such
things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. And in revealing that hidden logic, Gladwell
presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. (Barnes and
Noble overview)
Summer Assignment: Two Essays
1. Essay Prompt for The Scarlet Letter: The Scarlet Letter explores the effects of
sin, guilt, punishment, and revenge. Below are some themes that run throughout
the novel: Choose One and write an essay explaining how this theme is
predominant throughout the novel and select textual evidence to support
your claim! You must support your claims/responses with examples from the
text, using parenthetical documentation after quote with page number(s).
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Guilt can destroy a person, body and soul.
The punishment imposed on us by others may not be as destructive as the guilt we
experience.
True repentence must come from within.
Revenge destroys the victim and the seeker.
Even well-intended deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction.
One must have the courage to be true to one’s self.
It is by recognizing and dealing with their weaknesses that people grow stronger.
The choices people make determine what they become.
Within each person is the capacity for both good and evil.
2. Essay Prompt for the non-fiction novel: This essay will focus on the Rhetorical
Triangle: In your essay answer the following questions by formulating a
thesis/claim. You must support your claims/responses with examples from the
text, using parenthetical documentation after quote with page number(s). What is
the author's intention/argument? What prompts the author to write the piece? Who
is his/her audience? What does the writer want the audience to do? Is the author
credible? How do you know this? What feelings does the author appeal to?
TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS: (50 x 2) 100 pts.
YOUR TOTAL SCORE: _________