Summer Reading Assignment

So, you've had a week off and you're eager to start your summer reading. You can't wait to crack open those books and see what literary goldmines you can discover. But wait! You've misplaced that oh so helpful summer reading assignment sheet! What will you do? WHAT WILL YOU DO???

Never fear lads and lassies, I've got you covered. I can't attach a word doc here, so forgive the L O N G post that follows. I've cut and pasted the summer reading handout for your perusal. Enjoy!

P.S. I just finished Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides and I cannot recommend it enough if you're still thinking about your 3rd book. Of course, its 647 pages might turn you off, but I promise you won't be able to put it down.

GACS AP LITERATURE / Summer Reading 2011

You are required to read three books for this class over the summer.

1. How to Read Literature Like an English Professor (HTRLLEP) by Thomas Foster. (Read this one first. It’s an easy read and will help set the stage for important elements in The Natural.)
2. The Natural by Bernard Malamud (This is a book about baseball that’s not really about baseball. Ask your dad, or better yet, your grandpa about what baseball used to be like in its heyday of the 30s and 40s.)
3. Any book of your choosing that you have not previously read. Yes, I said any book. You may read fiction or non-fiction. Something challenging or something captivating. Feel free to try a classic that you’ve always heard about or a contemporary novel that sounds interesting.

For the first two books:

• Annotate according to the instructions on the following pages
• Go back into HTRLLEP and place post it notes on the chapters where you found application of the principles in The Natural. Provide an example and a page reference. Ex. In the chapter Geography Matters, your post it note might read: City = dirty money and temptation for Roy (p.???). Not all chapters will have notes, but you will find many connections to the novel from Foster.
• Prepare for class discussion as well as written assessments for both books

For your third book:
Just enjoy. You will do some writing about this book, why you chose it, and what you learned from it, but for now just sit back, relax, and remember why you used to like to read.

You can reach me with any questions at jrunkel@greateratlantachristian.org. You can also visit our class blog at www.runkelaplit.blogspot.com to post comments or questions about the books to your classmates.

Annotating a Text
Adapted from AP LITERATURE / Rock Canyon High School
From How to Read a Book (Mortimer Adler & Charles Van Doren)

READ THIS PART! IMPORTANT!

If you have the habit of asking a book questions as you read, you are a better reader than if you do not. But . . . 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.

When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. 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 indispensable to reading it?
• 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 your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author.
• Fourth, if you choose to go to college, you will most often be told to read a book or a chapter and show up to discuss it. If you have not worked through the material on your own, you will have a tough time benefiting from discussion; you’ll be three steps behind because you’ll be worried about getting the gist of the reading rather than using the reading to advance your understanding and insight about a particular topic. This exercise helps you be prepared in this class, other classes, and future classes.

Note: If you find annotating while you read to be annoying and awkward, do it after you read. Go back after a chapter or assignment and then mark it carefully. You should be reading assignments twice anyway, so this isn’t any less efficient than marking as you read and then rereading the material.

Instructions:
Annotating novels: For the sake of standardization of annotating for class and for grading purposes, your book notes should follow this format:
• Inside Front Cover: Character list with small space for character summary and for page references for key scenes, moments of character development, etc. Use your best judgment—you do not need to take notes on every minor character.
• Inside Back Cover: Themes, allusions, images, motifs, key scenes, plot line, epiphanies, etc. List and add page references and/or notes as you read.
• Bottom and Side Page Margins: Interpretive notes, questions, and/or remarks that refer to meaning of the page. Markings or notes to tie in with information on the inside back cover.
• Top Margins: Plot notes -- a quick few words or phrases which summarize what happens here (useful for quick location of passages in discussion and for writing assignments).
• At the End of Each Chapter: Bullet points of plot development/summaries. This will tell you whether you understand what you’ve read.
• Additional Markings:
o underlining: done while or after reading to help locate passages for discussion, essays, or questions.
o brackets: done while or after reading to highlight key speeches, descriptions, etc. that are too long to underline easily.

Marking and Notetaking tips (optional):
• Use one color ink to do initial marking while reading; then go back with another color or colors to mark more thoroughly once you have finished a larger section, have had time to think about it and are able to see development of images, etc. more clearly.
• At chapter or section ends, stop to index page numbers on your front cover list of character information and traits as well as on your back cover list of themes, images, allusions, etc.
• Do underlining as you read and side margin notes as you finish a page or two.
• Add to side margin notes during class discussion also.

I know this seems like a lot of information and may even appear to be a royal pain in the rump the first few times you do it. But I PROMISE you, it will become second nature to you and it will pay HUGE dividends in your academic future.

Grading: You will turn in the first two books for a summer reading grade on the first day of school. Since everyone's notes will be similar in format yet somewhat different in content, book grades will be based on thoroughness, clarity, neatness, and apparent effort ("apparent effort" because I will obviously not read all the notes on every page of everyone's book).

Adapted from: Wendy Lerolland and Kristi Rathbun, Instructors



Levels of Questioning


Open class discussion about your reading is an almost daily practice in AP Literature. Writing, and then asking, Level One, Two, and Three Questions in class about any reading assignment offers you a way to participate in class even when you are unsure about the meaning of a work, and also allows you to better understand the meaning of a work. With your summer reading assignments, practice writing these questions about specific passages in your books; also attempt to write questions about the meaning of the books overall.

Literal Questions/Comments (Level One)
The Questions
• Factual—only one correct answer
• Address key elements
• Bloom’s Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension

The Answers
• Found directly in text
• Lead to a complete and accurate summary of the text

Examples: How many items did the speaker have in his pocket?
What did the mother tell the girl to do?

Interpretation Questions/Comments (Level Two)
The Questions
• Inferential and require analysis—“read between the lines”
• Require opinion, supported by text
• There is usually more than one right answer
• Bloom’s Taxonomy: analysis

The Answers
• Found by following patterns and seeing relationships among parts of the text
• Good answers lead to an identification of significant patterns, themes: the underlying message or issue

Examples: Why did the speaker put the orange on the counter?
Why does the girl ask the question?
How is tone revealed through the man’s speech?

Experience-Based Questions/Comments (Level Three)
The Questions
• Open-ended and go beyond the text
• Link text to prior knowledge, other texts or experiences
• Apply themes, ideas, readings to life

The Answers
• Found by testing the ideas of a text against readers’ knowledge/schema
• Good answers lead to an appreciation of the text and further discussion

Examples: Can an embarrassing situation ever be educational?
When does a girl become a woman?
What do you know about Italian culture?