1
Walter Williams High School
May 2014
English IV A.P. Literature – Summer Reading Assignment
When we return to school in August, you should have bought the following three books and
completed the assigned summer reading. You will need your copies of these books during the
first several weeks of school. The best option is to buy your own; note taking in the margins
and underlining are essential for the kind of close reading we will be doing. I will let the local
bookstore know that students will be looking for these works; however, don’t overlook used
bookstores. Greensboro, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham all have well-stocked used
bookstores.
1) 1984 – George Orwell
2) Othello – William Shakespeare
3) AP English Literature and Composition Crash Course. (See link) http://www.amazon.com/EnglishLiterature-Composition-AdvancedPlacement/dp/0738607827/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401472518&sr=8-1fkmr1&keywords=3%29+AP+English+Literature+and+Composition+Crash+Course.
Texts we will be reading this semester (in addition to those you will be working on over the summer):
Perrine’s Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry Structure (This will be provided for you)
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Anthem – Ayn Rand (this will be provided for you).
Beowulf (Seamus Heaney Edition)
Grendel – John Gardner
The Tempest – William Shakespeare
Fences – August Wilson
Arcadia – Tom Stoppard
The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
.
Do not use Cliff’s or SparkNotes or any similar publication (in print or on the web) with your summer reading.
The entire purpose of the A.P. course is to develop your ability to discern the writer’s method. Memorizing or
repeating what some graduate student has written for Cliff does not help you develop the skills you will need to
be successful in this course and, eventually, on the A.P. test.
In order to help you read more carefully, make notations in your book about the topics below -(You may do this
in any way you please; flagging with Post-It notes, highlighting, underlining, and writing in the margins are
some suggestions [for more on note-taking, please go here –
(http://www.tc.umn.edu/~jewel001/CollegeWriting/READSPEAKTHINK/READ/ReadingLit.htm or
http://slowreads.com/ResourcesHowToMarkABook-Outline.htm). Make certain that you do this, because you
will use this information when class begins. Anything that you have written or stuck to your copy of the book
may be used].
You may want to use the following color-coded structure for your notes –

Personal response/questions
(color =
)
2
For all annotations, include MARGINALIA—labels/comments in the margin, or on your sticky notes,
revealing the substance of the marked passages (―Substance‖ = what type of device did you find, or what
key idea does this passage pertain to, or what question do you have about this highlighted part?)

Literary & rhetorical devices —any/all types
(color =
)
(Examples: metaphor, hyperbole, irony, paradox, understatement, repetition, distinctive syntax,
allusions, symbols, etc.)

Motifs/key ideas—
(color = _________________)
(Examples: individual vs. society, life vs. death, journey from innocence to awareness, oppression,
corruption, freedom vs. slavery, etc.
Questions? Email me at school – I promise I will read it. I hope you have a wonderful summer.
Stuart Ringwalt
Stuart_Ringwalt@abs.k12.nc.us