English 12 IB
Summer Assignments
2013-2014
I. The Great Gatsby Reading and Responding (required)
Select version:
EITHER: Check out from ERC and use sticky notes to mark text for commentary
OR Purchase your own copy if you wish to mark text directly (ISBN 0743273567)
(Bookworks in Kalispell & Whitefish stock these in quantity for your convenience.)
Buy ruled "Composition" notebook for this and other 12IB assignments.
Read novel:
Read once for enjoyment, for the story and its personal meaning to you, with a cool glass
of iced tea in the shade.
Re-read/review with sticky notes, highlighter, and response journal in hand.
DUE: READING to be completed and ready to discuss by Friday, August 30.
Response journal:
Complete all Compo entries as detailed on Page 2 of these instructions.
Assignment will be graded and should reflect your close reading of the text.
DUE: RESPONSES to be completed (& ready to turn in by class time) Tuesday, September 3.
The criteria that will be used to score your entries are the following:
1. How effectively does the entry demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the work as a whole?
2. How effectively does the entry demonstrate your appreciation of the effects or the author’s choices of
language, structure, literary, and stylistic devices on other literary elements of the novel (i.e., plot,
character, theme, etc.)?
3. How effectively does the entry demonstrate your appreciation of the effects of the author’s choices on the
reader’s response to the story?
4. How effectively have you selected, cited and integrated evidence from the text as support in your
response? Citations for a novel should be page number followed by chapter number – (57; ch. 3).
II. Passage of Choice (required)
In addition to the assigned novel, we hope you will read, read, read works of your own
choice—from short stories to novels to plays to poetry to songs and more. From this
exploration, please choose a short passage to share with the class.
DUE: Typed or photocopied PASSAGE by Thursday, August 29.
With that, we hope you have a great summer
filled with recreation, reflection, friendship and reading.
We very much look forward to our class together next fall as we continue our
IB English Literature studies!
Ms. 'Asta Bowen: www.astabowen.com, bowena@sd5.k12.mt.us
Mrs. Sue Brown: browns@sd5.k12.mt.us
I. The Great Gatsby Reader Response Journal
As you would expect, we want you to interact with the novel through reader response journal entries! We will be doing close
reading commentaries and guided discussions on this novel and all of the works for Semester 1 of English 12 IB. In preparation
for those commentaries and discussions, use the following format to write nine reader response entries, one per chapter.
For each chapter:
A. Choose a 30- to 40-line passage that you appreciate as meaningful to the work as a whole
and relevant to the literary feature assigned for that chapter (setting, characterization, style,
etc.).
B. Make a photocopy of the passage and note page number/s or copy from the etext available at
Chapter #__
Chapter #__
PASTE PROMPT
PASTE
PHOTOCOPY
OF PASSAGE
WRITE
COMMENTARY
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/gatsby/ . (If you have no copier or etext when reading,
note page numbers and start/end of the passage, then photocopy passages this fall & insert the copies
before turning in your Compo.)
C. Paste/tape the prompt & the copied passage onto the left-facing page of your composition notebook. Use a LAPS protocol, colormark, highlight, annotate, or otherwise make notes of your close reading on the passage to aid in the analysis for your response.
D. Write your response to each passage, as directed below, on the right-facing page/s that follow. Be sure to develop your
responses fully!
IMPORTANT: IB places a value on your
original thinking. Secondary sources such as
EBSCO
Host
or
SparkNotes
are
NOT
recommended for this assignment—but if you
use one, you MUST cite it!
Complete the following entries. Remember to discuss literary & stylistic features + text evidence + effect in each response.
1. Chapter 1 – select a passage that describes the setting. Discuss how this passage contributes to your interpretation of
the work as a whole, including stylistic devices* that affect the creation of the setting in your mind.
2. Chapter 2 - select a passage that develops a character. Discuss how this passage contributes to your interpretation of the
work as a whole, including literary strategies* that affect your reaction to this character.
3. Chapter 3 - select a passage that describes the party. Discuss how this passage contributes to your interpretation of the
work as a whole, including stylistic devices* that affect your reaction to this party and its participants.
4. Chapter 4 - select a passage that gives the reader background information about Gatsby. Discuss how this
passage contributes to your interpretation of the work as a whole, including literary strategies* that affect your
feelings about Gatsby.
5. Chapter 5 - select a passage that develops the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Discuss how this
passage contributes to your interpretation of the work as a whole, including literary strategies* that contribute to
this relationship and shape your own reaction to both Daisy and Gatsby.
6. Chapter 6 - select a passage that reveals the nature of the narrator. Discuss how this passage and the narrator
contribute to your interpretation of the work as a whole. Identify the narrator’s tone and literary strategies that
shape it*; comment on the narrator’s purpose in this chapter, as well as the effect the narrator is having on
your reactions to the events and characters.
*Some
examples of
literary
features,
stylistic
devices, and
strategies are
listed on the
last page.
7. Chapter 7 - select a passage that utilizes symbolism. Discuss how this passage contributes to your interpretation of the
work as a whole, and comment on the effect of the symbol/s on the overall meaning of the novel.
8. Chapter 8 - select a passage that reveals Nick’s attitudes. Discuss how this passage contributes to your interpretation of
the work as a whole, including strategies* employed by the author to reveal these attitudes. Comment on the role they
play in your own reaction to the ending and to the novel as a whole.
9. Chapter 9 - How does the ending shape your overall interpretation of the novel? What theme/s stand out to you?
Speculate on why this work is an American classic that is still studied and remembered.
II. Passage of Choice
To encourage you to explore the world of words on your own terms...
For the second day of class (Thursday, August 29), bring a piece of writing that you love.





10 to 40 lines
Excerpt from poem, song lyrics, novel, other
Typed or photocopied
Author and source cited
Your name
Choose a passage you find powerful and well-written. You don't have to understand everything about it,
though; one paradox of literature is that text can be both meaningful and mysterious. You will be
sharing your selections orally with the rest of the class, explaining what you found to be so powerful.
Here’s one of Mrs. Brown’s favorites…
And one from Ms. Bowen...
Love after Love
from "ISN'T THAT WHAT FRIENDS
by Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
~ Derek Walcott "Love after Love" from COLLECTED
POEMS 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott. Copyright © 1986 by
Derek Walcott.
ARE FOR?"
I've been scraping little shavings off my ration
of light
And I've formed it into a ball, and each time I
pack a bit more onto it
I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from
its secret cache
Under a loose board in the floor
And I blow across it and I send it to you
Against those moments when
The darkness blows under your door
Isn't that what friends are for?
Bruce Cockburn, singer-songwriter,
Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu Rykodisc, 1999
Selected Literary & Stylistic
Features of Fiction
(Adapted from a list compiled by Laura Bokesch, Library Media
Think of literary & stylistic features as an
interactive "web" where one feature can
affect another (e.g., symbolism affecting
character) as well as affecting the reader's
reaction to the work as a whole.
Teacher
http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm)
IMAGERY
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Tactile
Olfactory
Gustatory
DICTION
Register (formal, informal, colloquial, dialect, nonstandard)
Denotation/connotation
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Simile
Metaphor
Symbol
Motif
Personification
Hyperbole
Paradox
Allusion
Oxymoron
Mood
Tone
Overstatement
Understatement
LANGUAGE SOUND DEVICES
Alliteration
Assonance
Euphony
Cacophony
Onomatopoeia
IRONY
Verbal Irony
Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Monologue, dialogue, interior monologue
Point of view
First Person
Third-Person Objective
Third-Person Limited
Omniscient
SYNTAX
Sentence length
Word order
Punctuation
Phrases and clauses
The final objective is to see the story
as a whole and to become aware of
how the parts are put together to
produce a unified effect.
CHARACTER
Types of character:
Major vs. Minor
Static vs. Dynamic
Flat vs. Round
Protagonist/Antagonist
Foil
Stock/Archetypal
Character development
Statements by narrator (explicit or implicit)
What character says and does
How character looks and lives
What other characters say about or to the
character
How other characters interact with the character
SETTING: Time and Place
Time: Century, decade, year, season, day of week,
time of day
Historical Context
Place: Planet, continent, nation, state/province,
urban/rural, indoors/outdoors, geography,
terrain, lighting, atmosphere
Occupation & Daily Manner of Living
General Environment (religion, class, culture, etc.)
PLOT
Types of conflict
Character vs. Character
Character vs. Nature
Character vs. Society
Character vs. Self
Character vs. Fate
Plot Arc (Freytag's Pyramid)
Exposition
Foreshadowing
Inciting Force, Incident, or Event
Rising Action
Crisis
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution (Denouement)
THEME: "Universal" statements about human issues
such as:
Ambition
Jealousy
Beauty
Loneliness
Betrayal
Love
Courage
Loyalty
Duty
Fear
Prejudice
Freedom
Suffering
Happiness
Truth
Illusion