MIAMI CORAL PARK SR. HIGH
SUMMER READING LISTS & ASSIGNMENTS
FOR INCOMING STUDENTS 2009—2010

Ninth Grade Summer Reading List and Assignment:

Speak by Laura Halse Anderson                    Iron Man by Chris Crutcher
Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury           The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
Gifted Hands by Ben Carson (required)      To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

All of the following strategies will help you in completing the two required assignments. 

1. Keep a response log after each third of the book.
2. Make a list of characters and their most important traits.
3. Make a list of details for the setting.
4. Create a plot outline.
5. List ideas that relate to the theme of the book.

All students are to read, regardless of level, TWO (2) selections from the list for the English class you will take in the upcoming school year. All assignments should be typed or written on loose-leaf notebook paper in blue or black ink.   All work should be neat and should reflect thorough reading of the books. Complete one (1) assignment for each book you read.

Assignment: Complete all five of the reading response lead-ins which follow.  Write one well-developed paragraph for each lead-in using specific, related passages from the book.  The final product should be 2 1/2 to 3 pages. 

a. The character, (name of character), reminds me of someone I know because... 
b. A part of the book I found unrealistic/realistic was ...because... 
c. I think the relationship between...and...is interesting because... 
d. A situation in the book which reminds me of a similar situation in my own life is...because... 
e. If I were (name of character) at the end of the book, I would...

* A student may replace a summer reading selection (excluding the required text) with a selection from the Superintendent’s Summer Reading list. This list is available on www.dadeschools.net

Tenth Grade Summer Reading List and Assignment:

All students entering English II are to read, regardless of level, TWO (2) selections from the list below.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez             Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A Time to Kill by John Grisham (required)                                                A Child Called It by David Pelzer
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

 

Assignment (all levels):
Complete and type the assignment below for each book read (two for English II, three for English II Honors and English II Gifted Honors).  Respond to each of the following questions in a complete paragraph. (You will write a total of seven paragraphs for each book).

  1. Describe the main character(s).
  2. Describe the setting of the book:  time, place, location, etc.
  3. Write a short summary of the plot (How does the book begin?  What is the challenge for the main character?  How does s/he overcome this obstacle?)
  4. Analyze how the main character changes as a result of meeting the challenge. 
  5. Describe your favorite part of the book, and explain why it is your favorite.
  6. Write your opinion of the book.  Provide reasons and examples to support your opinion.
  7. Analyze the title of the book.  Why do you think the author chose that title?

* A student may replace a summer reading selection (excluding the required text) with a selection from the Superintendent’s Summer Reading list. This list is available on www.dadeschools.net

 

Eleventh Grade Summer Reading List and Assignment:

All students entering English III are to read, regardless of level, TWO (2) selections from the list below.

 

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin                            Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Things They Carried by Tim O’ Brien                           My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (required)
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

 

Assignment—All levels:
Complete and type the assignment below for each book read (two for English III and three for English III—Honors and Gifted Honors). Respond to each of the following questions in a complete paragraph. (You will write a total of seven paragraphs for each book).

  1. Describe the main character(s)
  2. Describe the setting of the book: time, place, location, etc.
  3. Write a short summary of the plot (How does the book begin? What is the challenge for the main character? How does s/he overcome this obstacle?)
  4. Analyze how the main character changes as a result of meeting the challenge.
  5. Describe your favorite part of the nook, and explain why it is your favorite.
  6. Write your opinion of the book. Provide reasons and examples to support your opinion.
  7. Analyze the title of the book. Why do you think the author chose that title?

 

* A student may replace a summer reading selection (excluding the required text) with a selection from the Superintendent’s Summer Reading list. This list is available on www.dadeschools.net

 

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION                                   

For each of the literary works that you choose to read, please record the following information in a Reader’s Response Journal. (A folder is required with a section dedicated to each piece of literature—you will continue to use this folder throughout the academic year.) This assignment must be TYPED.

  • Title & Author
  • Abstract
    • A summary of no more than 150 words
    • For the autobiography, consider the major turning points in the individual’s life
  • Identify 6 quotations from the work that interest you the most, (include page #), and fully explicate each one in terms of
    • The quote’s significance to you
    • The quote’s significance to the work as a whole
  • What is the primary message that you learned from the work?
  • How would you describe the writer’s style? What are the characteristics or features of this style?
  • What, if any, were the obstacles to your reading comprehension of this work? (i.e.—vocabulary, dialect, sentence structure, plot structure, etc.) How did you overcome these obstacles?

 

READ J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner  

Nonfiction:
Select an article from each of the sources listed below and complete the following for each:

  • type written synopsis
  • identify biases of the writer (evidence of personal feelings or opinion)
  • your opinion of the subject matter

Sources:
Article from NPR.org “Politics and Society” http://www.npr.org/templates/topics.php?topicId=1012
Article from The New Yorker online http://www.newyorker.com/reporting
Article from www.theonion.com

 

Twelfth Grade Summer Reading List and Assignment:

All students entering English IV are to read, regardless of level, TWO (2) selections from the list below.

The Da Vinci Code- by Dan Brown                                                              A Man Named Daveby Dave Pelzer
Waiting for Snow in Havana- by Carlos Eire                                    Black White Jewish- byRebecca Walker
Memoirs of a Geisha- by Arthur Golden (required)
The World is Flat:  A Brief History of the 21st Century- by Farrar Strauss

 

Writing Assignment: All levels

Make a book jacket for the book selected.
Write a 150- word summary of the book.
In one paragraph explain the theme of the work.  How does the author express his theme?
In one paragraph, describe any obstacles that impacted your reading comprehension (e.g., vocabulary, dialect, sentence structure, plot structure, etc.)

 

* A student may replace a summer reading selection (excluding the required text) with a selection from the Superintendent’s Summer Reading list. This list is available on www.dadeschools.net

 

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION

As part of your preparation for Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition exam, you are required to read two books this summer, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudiceand Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

You will be required to do several assignments with the books you read. You will be required to take a short test on both Pride and Prejudice and Cuckoo’s Nest. Additionally, you will select one of the questions below and write an AP-style essay using one of the works you read this summer as the source. The essay should be detailed and specific, but most importantly it should answer the question, not summarize the novel.

1. The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is the recurring theme of many novels, plays, and essays. Select a fictional character from a work of recognized literary merit who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society. Do not summarize the plot or action of the work you choose.

2. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.

3. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

4. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.

5. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

6. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.


                                                Helpful (Okay, mandatory!) AP Literature terms to know

    We will begin the year with an assumption of this knowledge.  Though terms will be reviewed, they will not be re-introduced.  Study them well, and learn to love (okay, tolerate!) them.

Alliteration—the repetition of beginning consonant sounds.
Allusion—an indirect reference to a mythological. literary or historical person, place or thing.
Apostrophe—a form of personification in which the absent or dead persons, concepts or ideas, inanimate objects are spoken to directly as if they were present, real persons.
Assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words.
Conceit—very elaborate comparisons between unlikely objects. The metaphysical poets such as John Donne were criticized for blending outrageous items.
Consonance—the repetition of a consonant sound with a series of words to produce a harmonious effect.
Diction—word choice. Formal or informal? Slang or a dialect? If so, what is the purpose?
Enjambment—the running-on of the sense/meaning of one line of poetry into the next.
Hyperbole—a deliberate, extravagant and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used for either serious or comic effect. “I’ve told you 10,000 times, don’t exaggerate.”
Imagery–the use of sensory words/descriptions to represent things, actions, or ideas.
Irony— the contrast between the apparent meaning and the suggestion of a different meaning. It occurs in three varieties:

  • Verbal irony is the result of a statement saying one thing while meaning the opposite. Its purpose is usually to criticize. “You look wonderful today!” when you look awful.
  • Situational irony is when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect, though often the twist is oddly appropriate.
  • Dramatic irony is when a character says or does something that has more or different meanings from what he thinks it means, though the audience and/or other characters do understand the full ramifications of the speech or action. You know that Juliet will awaken soon; Romeo doesn’t.

Metaphor—a comparison between two things without the use of like or as. The poet states that one thing is another. It is usually a comparison between something concrete and something abstract.
Metonymy—representing something by the name of another thing closely associated with it (e.g. the Oval Office to mean the President, The Hill to indicate Congress.)
Onomatopoeia—the use of words in which the sounds seem to resemble the sounds they describe.
Oxymoron—a form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. It usually serves the purpose of shocking or surprising the reader into awareness.  G. Carlin: “Jumbo shrimp”
Paradox—a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense. Donne: “Death, thou shalt die.”
Persona—the “character” the writer assumes for the purpose of the work.
Personification—giving inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics or feelings.
Pun —a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings. Puns can have serious as well as humorous uses: the acupuncturist said it was a jab well done. HA!
Sarcasm—a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it. Its purpose is usually to injure, to hurt or, if satirical, to change.
Simile—a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words like or as. It is a definitely stated comparison in which the poet says one thing is like another.
Symbolism—the use of one object to suggest another hidden object or idea.
Synecdoche—a form of metonymy in which a part of something is used to signify the whole or the whole can represent a part.
Syntax—the ordering of words into a particular pattern (sentence structure, order, variety, etc.)
Tone—the attitude of the speaker. Remember that the voice need not be that of the author. Is the tone angry, sad, conversational, abrupt, wheedling, cynical, affected, satiric, etc.
Understatement—the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is.
Voice—the “sound” of the author’s or narrator’s voice.

All summer reading assignments are due Monday, August 24, 2009 (the first day of classes).