Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
Summer Homework for 2011-2012
The following activities are due on the first day of class. If you neglect to complete the summer assignment, you will not
be allowed to change your class schedule, but a zero for your first assignment (out of 100 points) will likely have a lasting
and serious impact on your semester grade. Let’s start the year well! Don’t save summer homework for Labor Day
weekend. 
Part I - Reading Actively: We will spend lots of time both in class and out of class reading and reading actively
(meaning with a pen in hand). Please read the section in the Thresholds textbook about active reading (pages 1-7) and then
attached article by Sherman Alexie, “Superman and Me.” Try your hand at active reading on the article. (See the sample
essay on pages 5-7 in the textbook for ideas about how to respond to the text (see page 4 in the book). Your annotations
will be graded for effort only.
After reading Alexie’s essay, write me a one-page description of your own childhood reading experiences. You may
include specific titles and individuals who were instrumental in your growth as a reader.
Part II - Reading Essays: The focus on Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is non-fiction. We’ll
read essays, letters, pamphlets, speeches, and sermons and discuss how writers use language to achieve their purposes. In
Thresholds, please read the following essays and short stories. Each of the questions is required, but you should choose
only one of the writing activities (essay prompts) from the chart below. (Read below for specific directions on the format
and length of the essay.) Please clearly label each question with the author, title, and question number. Your responses
must be typed (double spaced).
Page
95
106
137
186
232
268
360
448
451
491
Author
Sandra Cisneros
Maxine Hong Kingston
E. B. White
Dick Gregory
Malcolm X
Gary Soto
George Orwell
Susan Sontag
Neil Postman
Annie Dillard
Title
Monkey Garden
No Name Woman
Once More to the Lake
Shame
Homemade Education
The Concert
Shooting an Elephant
Beauty
Euphemisms
Living Like Weasels
Questions
(required)
1, 5
2, 5
3, 5
2, 5
4, 5
4
1, 5
1, 3
3, 5
3, 5
Writing
Activities
(choose one)
Writing Activity 2
Writing Activity 2
Writing Activity 2
Writing Activity 1
Part III: Writing about Reading:
Your choice of one of the writing activities must be typed, double spaced, and not longer than two pages (approximately
500 words). Be sure to label your response with the author and title of the selection. Your essay should reflect your
writing strengths (use imagery, dialogue, anecdotes, etc. as appropriate).
If you are “stuck” or struggling with part of the assignment, please email Mrs. Ferris, Julie.Ferris@tumwater.k12.wa.us.
Superman and Me
The Joy of Reading and Writing
Sherman Alexie is the author, most recently, of "Indian Killer."
Editor's Note: The following essay by Sherman Alexie was
included in a recent anthology published by Milkweed Editions,
entitled "The Most Wonderful Books: writers on Discovering the
Pleasures of Reading."
I learned to read with a Superman comic book. Simple enough, I
suppose. I cannot recall which particular Superman comic book I
read, nor can I remember which villain he fought in that issue. I
cannot remember the plot, nor the means by which I obtained the
comic book. What I can remember is this: I was 3 years old, a
Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. We
were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or
another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a
combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.
My father, who is one of the few Indians who went to Catholic school on purpose, was an avid reader of
westerns, spy thrillers, murder mysteries, gangster epics, basketball player biographies and anything else he
could find. He bought his books by the pound at Dutch's Pawn Shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army and Value
Village. When he had extra money, he bought new novels at supermarkets, convenience stores and hospital gift
shops. Our house was filled with books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms and living
room. In a fit of unemployment-inspired creative energy, my father built a set of bookshelves and soon filled
them with a random assortment of books about the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Vietnam War and the
entire 23-book series of the Apache westerns. My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an
aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.
http://www.fallsapart.com/superman.html