KERR HIGH SCHOOL
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE
SUMMER READING
2015
Welcome to the lovely world of fiction! Oh, the places we will go with short stories, novels,
plays, and poetry! I’m thrilled to have you join me on the literary journey of a lifetime. Let’s get
started.
This summer you will read several pieces having to do primarily with the American Dream.
Exactly what is the American Dream? When did the concept of the good life and all its
accoutrements begin? Does it go all the way back to John Winthrop and the Puritan dream of a
shining city upon a hill? Exactly what does it mean to be successful in America? Has the
American Dream changed? Can everyone achieve it? Your summer reading pieces will provide
you a glimpse of individuals and families in their pursuit of this dream.
Each piece has been carefully chosen after a great deal of thought. I also made sure each novel,
play, short story, and poem is available in PDF online. If you choose to use the online
documents, be certain you are able to annotate and have quick access to the annotated text for
class discussions. I have decided to skip a blogging component as part of your assignment. The
only AP 4 summer writing you will do is five reading record cards , TPFASTTs of the required
11 poems, and your own version of Langston Hughes’ poem “Theme for English B.” It is my
expectation that you earnestly read, annotate, and ponder each of the required pieces and be
ready to launch into discussion after your summer reading exam. You are expected to print a
hard copy of each poem and its completed TPFASTT. Reading record cards, TPFASTTs, and
your “Theme for English B” are due Tuesday, August 25, by 3:00 pm.
The summer reading exam is a three hour AP test specially made by yours truly, and it will
include multiple choice questions and timed writing prompts over passages from most, if not all,
of your assigned reading. The first portion of the test is on Tuesday, August 25, during one class
period, and the second portion of the exam will be on Tuesday, August 25, after school
beginning at 2:30. You will be finished in time to catch the late bus at 4:15. Students who have
AP Literature in the Spring Semester will need to make arrangements to attend the first portion
of the exam which takes place during the school day. All Fall and Spring students must attend
the after school session for the second portion of the exam.
I look forward to a great year with you. Just think, this is your last summer reading assignment!
If you have any questions about this assignment, feel free to contact me at
harrisonhouse@windstream.net.
Happy reading!!! Enjoy your summer holiday!
Required pieces:
Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger ---- published in 1868
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald --- published in 1925
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck --- published in 1937
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller --- published in 1949
“Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni --- published 1995
Required poems: (see attached TPFASTT template)
“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
“To the Confederate Dead” by Kevin Young
“The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden
“since feeling is first” by e e cummings
“Curiosity” by Alistair Reid
“Formal Application” by Donald Baker
“Sound and Sense” by Alexander Pope
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman
“A Myth of Devotion” by Louise Glück
“Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church” by Emily Dickinson
“A Man Said to the Universe” by Stephen Crane
READING RECORD CARDS
One of the major problems that confront students taking the Advanced Placement Examinations
in Literature is the Free Response question, which requires that the student choose a work from
his own reading experience to support his answer. Reading Record Cards are one means that you
can use to prepare for this event.
Your grade on these five cards will count as one major grade. Feel free to use this summer’s four
required novels and play in your group of five. Do NOT include Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger
Games, Divergent, or Fault in Our Stars in your group of five cards.
FORMAT
Student name
TITLE
AUTHOR (date born-date died/where lived)
PUBLICATION date of work (original, not current edition)
IMPORTANT EVENTS IN TIME PERIOD (events that may have influenced the text)
SETTING-place/time and how it affects the overall theme
THEME OR MAIN IDEA: in one declarative sentence
Brief PLOT SYNOPSIS:
CHARACTERS (with brief descriptions - identify protagonist and antagonist)
Major SYMBOLS, MOTIFS, and/or ALLUSIONS present
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS of the work (why you remember it)
FOUR QUOTATIONS from the work which are representative of the theme of the work as a whole, with page
number and who’s speaking
****NOTE: Brief means BRIEF: you should not use more than one large 5 x 8 index card (front and back) for each
work. You may abbreviate but use standard abbreviations, so you don't forget what they mean.
****NOTE: Submitting summaries from or based on Web sites such as Spark Notes constitutes plagiarism, which is
cheating. This is NOT acceptable and will earn you a zero.
Theme for English B by Langston Hughes
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Knopf and Vintage Books. Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston
Hughes. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you're older—and white—
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.