SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT:

11^th GRADE ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

 

Welcome to the St. Joseph High School senior AP English Language and Composition class.

 

Please remember - this class is a college level class.

 

For your summer reading assignment you will read in their entirety and annotate the following required books with the following ISBN numbers and publishers.  You are only to purchase these 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.  Books required:

 

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL THE BELOW BOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT MEKTRON 

THE PRICES, GIVE OR TAKE A $1.00, ARE LISTED (IN GREEN) AFTER THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK.

 

Books required:

1) Hiroshima by John Hersey $6.95 ISBN 0-679-72103-7 Vintage Press

2) Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich $13.00            ISBN 0-8050-6389-7 Owl Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York

3) Complications A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande  $14.00     ISBN 13:978-0-312-42170-0, ISBN-10:0-312-42170-2 Picador, Henry Holt and Company, New York

4) The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama $14.95 ISBN 13:9780307237705, Crown Publishing Group

5) Socrate’s CafÈ,  A Fresh Taste of Philosophy  by Christopher Phillips $13.95 ISBN 9780393322989 Note:  During the first week of the school year this August you will be assigned an essay topic based on this book.

6) Silent Spring by Rachel Carson $14.00 ISBN13:978-0-618-24906-0;ISBN-10:0-618-24906-0 Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Company  Read only the following parts:  Introduction – pages x-xix; Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 – pages 1-83; Chapter 16 – pages 263-297; Chapter 17 – pages 277-297 and the Afterward – Page 357-363.  Also read the epigraphs (quotes from Keats and E.B.White at the very beginning of the book).  YOU WILL COMPLETE THE READING OF THE BOOK THE FIRST SEMESTER AS YOU WILL BE DOING A RESEARCH PAPER BASED ON IT.

7) The Intellectual Devotional, Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class  by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim $24.00  Rodale Press  ISBN 13: 9781594865138 -  Note:  You are to read by August through page 42 ONLY for just this text .  In connection with Silent  Spring also read page 130 on Charles Darwin which relates to Chapter 16 of Silent Spring and read page 184 on Robert Frost and his poem “The Road Not Taken”.  Be prepared during the first week of school to compare this poem with Chapter 17, “The Other Road” in Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring.

We will read the balance of The Intellectural Devoltional book during the school year.

 

Assignment:  Annotations

As you read books 1, 2, 3 & 4 you are required to make frequent, copious marginal written notes (textual annotations). You may use ‘post it’ notes.  Underline important points, literary techniques and then write notes beside them in the margin with a brief explanation.  When you come to class in August, I will collect all your books – you will be receiving a test grade on your annotations in these books.  Your annotations, of course, must be written legibly and neatly. 

 

(Continued on Page 2)

 

 

                        

 

 

 

 

REQUIRED FOR ANNOTATIONS OF BOOKS 1,2,3 & 4:

Vocabulary - Each word you come across that you do not know the definition of, look it up in the dictionary and write a brief definition

Underline important and interesting passages to you.  Particular vivid images – what effect do they have on the writer’s purpose? Why are they important or interesting?

Note questions you have about the writing.

Identify rhetorical strategies and techniques (specified below) used by the author- underline them† and write in the margins the effect - how the technique†helped bring the author’s point across.

IMPORTANT:   You should access an online “literary terms” glossary on the internet.  One that is good is  HYPERLINK "http://helponenglish.hometead.com/terms.html" http://helponenglish.hometead.com/terms.html .

 Also at the bottom of this page they have a list of other “Dictionaries of Literary Terms’.  If you click on the second one in the list “Literary Terms” you will get to the following:  HYPERLINK "http://www.tnellen.com/cyberneng/lit_terms/" http://www.tnellen.com/cyberneng/lit_terms/  which gives you more terms and at the bottom it also leads you to other very good online dictionaries.

For books 1, 2, 3, & 4 identify the following rhetorical strategies:

The organization of the book – chronological, particular to general, broad to specific?

When does the author appeal to your emotions, logic, ethics or tradition – How does does the appeal vary in the book? †

†Word choices – big words, everyday words

†Sentence structure – use of fragments, run-ons, short, long, compound, compound-complex, unusual punctuation marks

 Use of dialogue, statistics, footnotes, or quotations.† What effect does this have?

 Author’s tone – angry, sad, bitter, humorous, sarcastic?† How does it change, vary in the book

Author’s use of metaphors, similes, alliteration, repetition of words, analogies

WE WILL BE DOING MAJOR WORK WITH THESE TEXTS.  YOU WILL BE DOING RESEARCH PAPERS IN THE FIRST SEMESTER BASED ON THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS.  THEREFORE, READ THEM CAREFULLY. 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Ms. Brajovic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AP 11 Language and Composition

2008-9 Summer Reading                             

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