SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT: 10th GRADE HONORS ENGLISH
Welcome to the St. Joseph High School 10th Grade Honors English class. The goal is to help you become better critical readers, writers, and thinkers. You will learn about using language effectively and persuasively.
For your summer reading assignment you will read and annotate all four of the following required books with the following ISBN numbers and publishers. In addition, you will be doing a journal on the one book, Mythology. You are only to purchase the specific editions which were chosen because there is room in the margins for annotations and, when we review the texts in class, we can all refer to the same page numbers.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL THE BELOW BOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT MEKTRON THE PRICES, GIVE OR TAKE A $1.00, ARE LISTED BELOW (IN GREEN) AFTER THE BOOK’S AUTHOR.
BOOK REQUIRED: 1) Mythology by Edith Hamilton $13.99 ISBN 0-316-34151-7 Back Bay Books, Little Brown & Company
Also go to the internet. Next – on the internet again go to HYPERLINK "http://www.timelessmyths.com" www.timelessmyths.com . Go to the left steps and click on “Classical Mythology”. Scroll down and then go through the Greek myths starting with the “Pantheon” and the details there – browse – look at what interests you. Then go back and scroll further down to “All Things Roman” . Once you have finished go to this web site, a subsidiary of Timelessmyths which is HYPERLINK "http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/roman" www.timelessmyths.com/classical/roman to find out about Roman mythology.
2) The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer $10.00 (Translated by Nevill Cohill) ISBN 0-140-42438-5 Penguin Books
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ ONLY THE FOLLOWING DURING THE SUMMER: Introduction pages xi-xvii; Prologue pages 3-26; The Nun’s Priest’s Tale pages 214-231; Pardoner’s Prologue pages 241-243; Pardoner’s Tale pages 244-257; Wife of Bath’s Prologue pages258-281; Wife of Bath’s Tale pages 281-291. You are also required to read the all the informational notes in the back on pages 490-504 that refer to the required reading. If there is a note in the back there will be an asterisk (*) after the word in the text. You then go to the notes in the back that refer to the page number. Example: Page 3, The Prologue, after the word “martyr,*” there an asterisk. You then go to page 490, and it shows “Page 3 Martyr. St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury”.
We will be reading the rest of the tales during the school year.
You are also required to go to the following web site also: HYPERLINK "http://www.luminarium.org/" www.luminarium.org. At the home page scroll to the bottom to Medieval on the left side.. Then click on Geoffrey Chaucer under Medieval. When you get to this page on the right hand side click “Life of Geoffrey Chaucer” and after that go to “Works of Geoffrey Chaucer”. At “Works of Geoffrey Chaucer” click CT Study Resources (bottom part) and view some of this. It is the original Old English version with many notes, translations. See how many words you see that you basically know and that are familiar. Then go back to “Works of Geoffrey Chaucer” and near the top click onto Composite Edition, Librarius written in blue. Here you can view the Old English and modern translation text, side by side. (Forget ENotes – really not worth it – smile).
3) Beowulf A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney $13.95 ISBN -0- 393-32097-9 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (Make sure to read the Introduction)
Then go to Google and type in Beowulf on Steorarume (Beowulf in Cyberspace) – Main Page/Index and click on this site. Scroll all the way down on the left side – it’s a wealth of information about Beowulf.
4) Grendel by John Gardner $11.95 ISBN 9780679723110, Vintage Books, Division of Random House
Note that this is the same monster Grendel that you will read about in Beowulf except this is his side of the story.
ASSIGNMENTS DETAILS: As you read these books you are required to make frequent, copious marginal written notes (textual
annotations). You may use ‘post it’ notes. Anywhere you underline you need to have a note beside it
explaining why or the answer. When you come to class in August, I will collect all your books and your journal – you will be receiving a test grade on your annotations in these books and your journal on Mythology.
ANNOTATION REQUIREMENTS (ALL 4 BOOKS) :
Vocabulary - Each word you come across that you do not know the definition of underline it, look it up in the dictionary, and write a brief definition in the margin of the book
Underline important and interesting passages to you. Write in the margin briefly why it was important/interesting to you
Your annotations, of course, must be written legibly and neatly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR JOURNAL – REQUIREMENTS FOR MYTHOLOGY BY EDITH HAMILTON Purchase a spiral notebook for the journal on the Mythology book only
For each ‘PART’ (there are seven parts) write in your journal your reaction to each subsection. On the top line write PART ______, I, __________.
By reaction I mean tell what was most interesting to you and why. What did you learn about the Greeks, the Romans from this section. Each entry should be at least a half a page long. Tell about ideas that came to your mind when you read about the adventures of the gods. Do not just write facts from the book. If you think of an adventure that you were inspired to write from reading about the myths, write the outline of it. If you want the draw your image of a god, do so – but write about the drawing also. I am looking for your opinion, thoughts. How do the Greek/Roman myth beliefs compare with your beliefs?
For instance, Part One has four subsections – I, II, III, & IV
Write your reaction to Part One, I, The Gods.
You will have twenty-three entries in your journal
Sincerely,
Ms. Brajovic