AP Literature 2016 Summer Reading
Welcome to English IV AP Literature and Composition! The summer work is an introduction to the type of rigorous studies we will be doing during our year together. It will require you to go deeper into the text summaries on Spark Notes, Cliff Notes, or Shmoop will. We will be discussing the summer works in more detail in September.
Required:
Old School by Tobias Wolff
“The protagonist of Tobias Wolff’s shrewdly—and at times devastatingly—observed first novel is a boy at an elite prep school in 1960. He is an outsider who has learned to mimic the negligent manner of his more privileged classmates. Like many of them, he wants more than anything on earth to become a writer. But to do that he must first learn to tell the truth about himself” (Amazon.com).
Old School acts as a nice primer for our year of studying literature. Wolff introduces us to a group of students who care about writing and literature. He also suggests that our reading lives impact our living lives. I like this. My hope is that you will begin to see that our reading lives matter. How do you want your wisdom delivered?
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement” (Amazon.com)
The New York Times called Beloved the best piece of American fiction in the last quarter of the 20th century. Indeed, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and is a novel that is particularly helpful on the AP Exam in May. Therefore, your close attention to this novel is crucial. Morrison’s language is poetic and her narrative is not necessarily linear. This novel is typical of the type of complex reading and discussing we will have during the school year.
Student Choice:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Assignment 1: Read and annotate each novel.
See the How to Annotate a Book handout attached. I will be collecting your novels to see how well they are annotated. I do not expect you to underline every sentence, but I do expect you to engage with each novel. Be an active reader. Ask questions, note patterns, etc.
How to Annotate a Novel
Assignment 2: Reading Reflections
As you read, please keep a reading journal recording pages read, date, etc. The purpose of this journal is for you to become more reflective about what you are reading. Perhaps there are certain questions that you begin to ask. Write them down, ponder, and explore. Maybe a certain quotation stuck out to you. Why? What does this quotation have to say about the work as a whole? Were there any key images in the section you read? Did any character’s development change? Was there a significant shift in the plot? Do not summarize what happens.
I will be collecting the journals on the first day of school. They will be worth 100 points. Keep them as a Word document as you will be submitting them to Turnitin.com.
Assignment 3: Essay (In Class)
The elephant in the room in any English class is the ability of students to use online resources instead of reading the actual text. It is my goal to make sure that anyone who does not read the works receive a grade of a D or lower. I have adjusted my assessments accordingly.
Summer Meeting
In addition to Summer Reading, I strongly suggest you attend one summer session in August. During this two hour session, I will be introducing some key aspects of reading poetry. I will also provide some helpful context to Toni Morrison's Beloved.
Choose one:
Tuesday August 9th 2:30-4:30
Thursday August 11th 2:30-4:30
_______________________________________________________________________
Submission Deadlines:
Old School : July 8th
Choice Novel : August 11th
Beloved: September 5th
TURNITIN.COM
CLASS ID: 12692593
PASSWORD: APLITSUMMER
www.rbrforrest.weebly.com
Required:
Old School by Tobias Wolff
“The protagonist of Tobias Wolff’s shrewdly—and at times devastatingly—observed first novel is a boy at an elite prep school in 1960. He is an outsider who has learned to mimic the negligent manner of his more privileged classmates. Like many of them, he wants more than anything on earth to become a writer. But to do that he must first learn to tell the truth about himself” (Amazon.com).
Old School acts as a nice primer for our year of studying literature. Wolff introduces us to a group of students who care about writing and literature. He also suggests that our reading lives impact our living lives. I like this. My hope is that you will begin to see that our reading lives matter. How do you want your wisdom delivered?
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement” (Amazon.com)
The New York Times called Beloved the best piece of American fiction in the last quarter of the 20th century. Indeed, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and is a novel that is particularly helpful on the AP Exam in May. Therefore, your close attention to this novel is crucial. Morrison’s language is poetic and her narrative is not necessarily linear. This novel is typical of the type of complex reading and discussing we will have during the school year.
Student Choice:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Assignment 1: Read and annotate each novel.
See the How to Annotate a Book handout attached. I will be collecting your novels to see how well they are annotated. I do not expect you to underline every sentence, but I do expect you to engage with each novel. Be an active reader. Ask questions, note patterns, etc.
How to Annotate a Novel
Assignment 2: Reading Reflections
As you read, please keep a reading journal recording pages read, date, etc. The purpose of this journal is for you to become more reflective about what you are reading. Perhaps there are certain questions that you begin to ask. Write them down, ponder, and explore. Maybe a certain quotation stuck out to you. Why? What does this quotation have to say about the work as a whole? Were there any key images in the section you read? Did any character’s development change? Was there a significant shift in the plot? Do not summarize what happens.
I will be collecting the journals on the first day of school. They will be worth 100 points. Keep them as a Word document as you will be submitting them to Turnitin.com.
Assignment 3: Essay (In Class)
The elephant in the room in any English class is the ability of students to use online resources instead of reading the actual text. It is my goal to make sure that anyone who does not read the works receive a grade of a D or lower. I have adjusted my assessments accordingly.
Summer Meeting
In addition to Summer Reading, I strongly suggest you attend one summer session in August. During this two hour session, I will be introducing some key aspects of reading poetry. I will also provide some helpful context to Toni Morrison's Beloved.
Choose one:
Tuesday August 9th 2:30-4:30
Thursday August 11th 2:30-4:30
_______________________________________________________________________
Submission Deadlines:
Old School : July 8th
Choice Novel : August 11th
Beloved: September 5th
TURNITIN.COM
CLASS ID: 12692593
PASSWORD: APLITSUMMER
www.rbrforrest.weebly.com