Dear potential student,
Welcome to the exciting world of English II Pre AP! It is our mission to
prepare you to challenge some of the most difficult tests available to all American
students, the AP English Literature and AP English Language test. To that end, our
classes are some of the most rigorous that you will encounter. We will be reading
and critically analyzing a number of literary works, developing a powerful
vocabulary, and focusing on the organization and development of the multiparagraph analytical essay.
Students in our classes should expect:
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6.
7.
In-class reading assignments
Nightly reading
In-class essays
Short-term weekly projects
Long-term projects
Classical literature readings
And totally awesome teachers who totally know everything. Ever.
Students in our classes are expected to:
1. Submit work on time. Late work will not be accepted. Period.
2. Read assigned text. You will not pass without it.
3. Refrain from academic dishonesty. Cheating, plagiarism, and copying may
cause you to be removed from the English Pre AP program.
Your hard work and determination will be rewarded with a number of skills and
talents that will enhance your abilities across all academic disciplines, and a love of
literature that can enhance the examination and analysis of your day to day life.
Plus you get to hang out with us every day.
Sincerely,
E.L. Garcia IV
Vanessa Silva
Summer Project #1
Book of your Choice
Guidelines for the Dialectical Journal
Dialectic means “the art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation
involving question and answer.” The “dialectic” was the method Socrates used to teach his
students how to be actively engaged in the struggle to obtain meaning from an unfamiliar
and challenging work. A dialectical journal is a written conversation with yourself about a
piece of literature that encourages the habit of reflective questioning. You will use a
double-entry form to examine details of a passage and synthesize your understanding of
the text.
There is to be NO collaboration with other students. Any assistance from
the Internet, movies, or secondary sources such as Sparknotes or Cliff Notes will be
viewed as cheating. If you have questions about format, e-mail me! This project
will be due on the first day of classes and will count as one of your first major
grades which are worth 60% of your 6 weeks average.
Instructions:
(1) Purchase a spiral bound notebook or composition book
(2) Fold pages in half vertically or draw a vertical line down the middle of the page
(3) Label the top of each column: left TEXT and right RESPONSE
(4) In the TEXT column cite passages verbatim from the novel, including quotation
marks and page numbers
a. Choose two passages from each chapter
b. When should you write passages down?
i. Details that seem important to you
ii. You have an epiphany
iii. You learn something signficant about a character
iv. You recognize a pattern (overlapping images, repetitions of idea, details,
etc.)
v. You agree or disagree with something a character says or does
vi. You find an interesting or potentially significant quotation
vii. You notice something important or relevant about the writer’s style
viii. You notice effective use of literary devices
(5) In the RESPONSE column reflect upon the passages
a. Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text
b. Give your personal reactions to the passage, the characters, the situation
c. Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character
d. Tell what it reminds you of from your own experiences
e. Compare the text to other characters or novels
f. Write about what it makes you think or feel
g. Argue with or speak to the characters or author
h. Make connections to any themes that are revealed to you
i. Make connections among passages or sections of the work
j. Make predictions about characters’ futures
k. DO NOT MERELY SUMMARIZE THE PLOT
(6) Each RESPONSE must be at least 60 words (include word count at the end of each
response)
(7) Write down your thoughts, questions, insights, and ideas while you read or
immediately after reading a chapter so the information is fresh
(8) As you take notes, you should regularly reread the previous pages of notes and
comments
(9) First person is acceptable
in the RESPONSE column.
(10) Remember that quotations do not have to be dialogue!
Quotations &
Plot Details
Interpretation
Literary
Elements
Questions and
Connections
Coverage of
Text
Presentation
Grading Dialectical Journals
Level 4 (90 –
Level 3 (80 – 89 Level 2 (70 – 79
Level 1 (50 –
100 points)
points)
points)
65 points)
Detailed,
Less detailed
Few good
Hardly and
meaningful
but still good
details
good details
Thoughtful,
Intelligent,
Vague,
Plot
avoids clichés
discusses
unsupported, summaries and
theme
plot summary
paraphrases
Discusses
Includes them
Lists literary
Few literary
diction, imagery,
but doesn’t
elements but
elements,
syntax, etc and
explain how
little discussion
almost no
how these
they contribute
of meaning
discussion of
contribute to
to meaning
meaning
meaning
Insightful,
Some personal
Few
Few
personal
connections,
connections,
connections,
connections,
questions arise
obvious
no questions
thoughtfrom text
question
provoking
questions
Covers text
Covers
Covers most
Way too short
thoroughly
important parts
parts, but
thoroughly
quickly
Neat, organized,
Neat and
Neat but hard
Hard to read,
looks
readable,
to read, doesn’t doesn’t follow
professional,
follows
follow
directions
follows
directions
directions
Summer Reading List
English II Pre AP
All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
Antigone – Sophocles
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Enders Game – Orson Scott Card
Freakonomics – Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
The Inferno – Dante Alighieri
Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemmingway
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare
Much ado About Nothing – Shakespeare
The Odyssey – Homer
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kessey
Our Town – Thorton Wilder
Paradise Lost – John Milton
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austin
Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry
A Separate Peace – John Knowles
Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
The Sun also Rises – Ernest Hemmingway
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Summer Project #2
East of Eden
Objective: Read and complete the following assignment before school starts. The
assignments below are due on the second day of class. You will be required to read East
of Eden by John Stienbeck (includes some mature content)
Book Purchase: You may purchase the novel on your own in print format. If this is an
issue, you may pick up a copy of the novel from one of the English II Pre AP teachers
before the last day of school.
Annotation: If you have the habit of asking a book questions as you read, you are a
better reader than if you do not. However...merely asking questions is not enough. You
have to try to answer them. And although that could be done, theoretically, in your
mind only, it is easier to do it with a pencil in your hand. The pencil then becomes the
sign of your alertness while you read. Full ownership of a book only comes when you
have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it–which
comes to the same thing—is by writing in it. Why is marking a book [questioning and
responding as you read] indispensable to reading it?
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First, it keeps you awake—not merely conscious, but wide-awake.
Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in
words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but
cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.
Third, writing (i.e. marking, underlining, etc.) your reactions down helps you to
remember the thoughts of the author.
For these reasons, among others, you will be asked to annotate as you read the novel
East of Eden.
Tips for annotation!
1.
2.
3.
4.
Read the text.
READ THE TEXT!
Don’t start with Sparknotes or any other summary
Decided the method you will use to take notes: directly on the page, on a
separate sheet, on post-it notes etc.
5. Take a note anytime something important happens and why it is significant
6. How many notes per chapter? That’s up to you, but there should be more than
10
7. Once you have finished reading each chapter you will come up with a title for
that chapter.
Things to focus on:
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Biblical Allusions
America as Eden
Genesis and the Story of Creation
Characters: all the “C” Characters and all the “A” Characters
Cain and Abel
Good vs. Evil
“Timshel” (Thou mayest)
Changes in the weather or the land
Animal imagery