Summer Assignment
AP LANGAUGE SUMMER
ASSIGNMENT 2013
A. Required Reading
Each student
will be required to read two of the following titles:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
1776 by David McCullough
Nickled and Dimed in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
1776 by David McCullough
Nickled and Dimed in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
** There are
other approved titles on an additional list in the GHS library.
B. Double Entry Journals
B. Double Entry Journals
In preparation
for the AP Test, we will be reading a variety of nonfiction as part of our
summer reading. Students will complete a reader's response journal of thoughts and
reactions as they read. This journal will be a double-entry journal that will contain (15) significant passages from each of the books. The passages can be of various lengths, but each
must be a minimum of three sentences and will be written on the left-hand side of your
page. The passages should be reflective of the entire text.
summer reading. Students will complete a reader's response journal of thoughts and
reactions as they read. This journal will be a double-entry journal that will contain (15) significant passages from each of the books. The passages can be of various lengths, but each
must be a minimum of three sentences and will be written on the left-hand side of your
page. The passages should be reflective of the entire text.
A significant
passage can illustrate: insight into the author or character, prominent themes,
or the use of tone, imagery, symbolism, or irony or other rhetorical devices.
*Why is it
significant?
Reading and reflection helps you become a better writer and increases your
vocabulary!! Please analyze the passages you find relevant in your reading. Also
include vocabulary words that seem unfamiliar to you by making a vocabulary list. Look
up these words.
Reading and reflection helps you become a better writer and increases your
vocabulary!! Please analyze the passages you find relevant in your reading. Also
include vocabulary words that seem unfamiliar to you by making a vocabulary list. Look
up these words.
The right side
of the page is the student response to the passage.
Some questions
you may wish to consider in composing these responses are:
What is the author trying to tell you that is not written on the page?
How does the passage make you feel?
Can you predict what might happen next?
What insight have you gotten from this particular book?
What tone does the essay contain? Why?
What rhetorical devices are creating this tone?
What purpose is the purpose of the writing ... expository, persuasive, personal
narrative?
What specific devices can you pick out that this author tends to use in these to
shape the tone and style?
What is the author trying to tell you that is not written on the page?
How does the passage make you feel?
Can you predict what might happen next?
What insight have you gotten from this particular book?
What tone does the essay contain? Why?
What rhetorical devices are creating this tone?
What purpose is the purpose of the writing ... expository, persuasive, personal
narrative?
What specific devices can you pick out that this author tends to use in these to
shape the tone and style?
Students will
turn in a Double Entry Journal and Vocabulary list for each book they choose. Each
journal response should be a minimum of 50 words. THESE MUST BE TYPED!
You can set
these up using a table inserted into a word document.
C. Participation in New York Times Annual Summer Reading Contest.
Students will submit
the ten links to their ten responses to the Contest.
**See rules at http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/the-fourth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest/
The submission
below is an exemplar.
- June 28, 2012 2:54 pm Link
I, like many
of my fellow adrenaline pumped and easily excitable Americans, look forward to
the Olympic games every year. The energy of competition and revelry of global
rivalry does its job of tugging at my patriotic heartstrings. But the topic of
grass? Not so many feelings there. What interested me in “Wimbledon’s Guardians
of Grass Face a Challenging Summer” was the dramatization of the critical role
grass really does, in fact, play. Grass, in its general context, is considered
among the most mundane of subjects, a topic of some jest within the article.
However, as I continued to read, the dull stereotype of “watching the grass grow,” transformed into a story of adversity and growth (even if the adversity was a struggle between different varieties of rye grass- it’s irrelevant). This change evidences the real appeal of journalism: real life story telling in which any topic can become relevant and moving. I was also very interested to read about the environment of care and consideration going into the grass. The Trueness meter, for example, proved to me that grass enthusiasts (or greenskeepers, as they’re conventionally called), are willing to pay $18,700 in order to maintain a constant and level ground. Or on the other hand, how the construction of the retractable roof had to be altered in order to fit the grass’ needs.
In other words, the grass, in fulfilling its role as a modern botanical diva, thrives under careful care, just as any other living being must also be nurtured. And, even world-class experts on grass have trouble with that task. So, as the Olympic Games draw closer and closer, let the grass be a symbol of universal human effort. Someone will win that turf, and crowds will cheer, inevitably. But in the end, as Eddie Seaward puts it, “It’s just grass,” and we’re all just human.
However, as I continued to read, the dull stereotype of “watching the grass grow,” transformed into a story of adversity and growth (even if the adversity was a struggle between different varieties of rye grass- it’s irrelevant). This change evidences the real appeal of journalism: real life story telling in which any topic can become relevant and moving. I was also very interested to read about the environment of care and consideration going into the grass. The Trueness meter, for example, proved to me that grass enthusiasts (or greenskeepers, as they’re conventionally called), are willing to pay $18,700 in order to maintain a constant and level ground. Or on the other hand, how the construction of the retractable roof had to be altered in order to fit the grass’ needs.
In other words, the grass, in fulfilling its role as a modern botanical diva, thrives under careful care, just as any other living being must also be nurtured. And, even world-class experts on grass have trouble with that task. So, as the Olympic Games draw closer and closer, let the grass be a symbol of universal human effort. Someone will win that turf, and crowds will cheer, inevitably. But in the end, as Eddie Seaward puts it, “It’s just grass,” and we’re all just human.
—
LainieMHS2012
posted by MrGarland at 8:59 AM
