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May 2014
Dear Parents:
Your student has requested Pre-AP English II for the upcoming school year. The purpose of this course is to offer promising students challenging work that will prepare them for Advanced Placement courses.
In the Alvin Independent School District, Advanced Placement English courses are offered to eleventh and twelfth grade students. Upon successful completion of course work, students may take AP examinations administered each year in May, and if successful, they will be awarded college English credit accepted by most universities. The Pre-AP courses offered in grades 6-10 develop reading, writing, and thinking skills necessary for success in AP courses. Reading selections for these courses represent concepts and/or reading selections frequently cited on Advanced Placement examinations.
Alvin ISD assigns summer reading to begin the year with a common dialogue, to expose students to high-quality authors and texts, to inspire critical thinking, and to maintain the standard of an advanced curriculum.
Please encourage your child to complete this reading assignment in order to be prepared for an assessment at the beginning of the school year.
Thank you for your cooperation and continuing interest in your student’s education.
Sincerely,
Kevon Wells Kristi Piper
Executive Director of Secondary Education English Lead Teacher
Please sign and return to your student’s current English teacher.
My child and I have received notice of the summer assignment for Tenth Grade Pre-AP and will comply. We understand that the completion date for this assignment is September 3, 2014, one week after the first day of school.
In the fall of 2014 my child will attend:
_____ Alvin High School
_____ Manvel High School
Parent Printed Name ______
Parent Signature ______
Student Printed Name ______
Student Signature ______
Date ______
Current English Teacher’s Name ______
Current Campus ______
*** NOTE: If you do not wish to have your child enrolled in Pre-AP or AP English Language Arts, please contact the guidance counselor at your child’s school.
2013
10th grade Summer Reading Assignment
We believe that our students should read different genres and transfer what they know and understand about patterns and traits of fictional texts to nonfiction. In doing so, they will be able to recognize and explain the techniques an author uses to further his/ her purpose for writing the book.
Assignment
As you read, think about the author’s purpose for writing this book. What is he/she trying to make you as the reader believe, think, or feel? Mark passages that lead you to this conclusion with sticky notes. On these notes, write your thoughts and ideas for each passage. (See example provided.)
There is no set amount of annotations that should be made because each book differs in content and length. However, if you are reading and analyzing thoroughly, you should be able to have a minimum of 10. If you have trouble making at least 10 annotations, then the book you are reading may not be up to the caliber of text expected for Pre-AP, and you may need to choose another title. The more annotations you are able to make in your book, the easier the follow up class work will be in the fall.
Suggestions for Finding a Title
● Ask people you know about nonfiction books they have read.
● Google keywords like “nonfiction books for teens about baseball players,” “biographies for teens,” OR search for nonfiction books about topics of interest to you. You do not have to limit your choices to teen selections.
There are also websites dedicated to reading that can help you narrow down your choices:
● Good Reads
● Barnes and Noble: Click on “Books” then “Nonfiction” you can also search specifically for books geared toward teens (click on “Teens” and then scroll down to “nonfiction” on the left hand column).
● New York Times Bestseller List - nonfiction
***Not all nonfiction books are not suitable choices for this assignment. Students who choose self-help, cookbooks, how-to, or specialized encyclopedias will face considerable difficulty in successfully completing the summer assignment, as well as in class assignments based on the reading.
Sample Annotation for a Nonfiction Book
Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
Passage / Annotations“By one-thirty P.M., I had reached the area where I would camp and was scanning the trees past the edge of the debris for a protected campsite when a thousand-foot-long plume of snow came cascading over the lower cliffs of the East Buttress of South Maroon Peak, less than a quarter mile in front of me. On the quick draw with my camera, I took a series of pictures as the avalanche overwhelmed the forest in a cloud that rose five hundred feet off the valley floor. The sound waves hit me on a time delay. Splintering crashes punctuated the bellowing growl of the snow as it pounced from the upper cliffs onto eighty-foot-tall trees that snapped under the devastating momentum. ...The pines and firs didn’t have a chance. Nor would I” (142). / Here Ralston reveals his love of nature. He appreciates its beauty and devastation, and how it can show both at the same time. He is bringing us, as readers, to the mountain side where we see and feel the power of the avalanche. The personification of the sound waves hitting him and the snow growling and the strong verbs (such as hit, crash, punctuate, pounced, snapped) makes nature seem as if it is a potentially dangerous beast. The last sentence in the paragraph stands out because it is only 3 words long. It is a stark reminder that foreshadows the event that is the major physical conflict in the book. It also hints at how the mood will change as the suspense builds, approaching the time when he falls into the giant crevice and gets pinned.
Extra Credit:
Fifth Annual New York Times Summer Reading Contest
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/our-fifth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-ReadMore&version=Blog%20Main&action=Click&contentCollection=U.S.&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=0#more-145149
See this website for contest details.
Ø If one of your comments in this contest is published by NYT as a winner for the week, you will earn a pass to replace any quiz grade with a 100. (Replace doesn’t mean skip.)
Ø If you participate, at least 5 times, and PROVE it, you will earn a coupon for 5 points on a test grade/ 10 points on a quiz or daily grade. To PROVE it, see NYT comment below.
Q. How do I prove to my teacher that I participated?
A. We’re not going to lie: Finding individual submissions in the Learning Network commenting system is cumbersome. Our advice: Within 24 hours of posting to the blog, check back to find your entry in our comments section and take a screenshot.
Paste the screen shots to a single Google Document and share it with me. Title the document NYT Summer Extra Credit_ Your Name. Turn this in during the first week of school. Note, you may only enter once a week per NYT rules, so this isn’t something you can do at the last minute. To complete 5 entries, you must read and comment on one article at least 5 times over the summer.
GOOD NEWS!! English III AP is offering the same extra credit, so you can earn points in both classes with one assignment!