Scotthigh School

ScottHigh School

A School of Excellence

3400 Old Taylor Mill Road

TaylorMill, Kentucky 41016

Dear Students and Parents:

This summer, each student at ScottHigh School has a reading assignment. Literacy is a key component in being successful in high school, and our Summer Reading Program is designed to help students maintain—and even sharpen—the skills they already possess.

This summer’s assignment allows students to choose high-quality books that appeal to their interests. In addition to reading the book, students must prepare a presentation about the book. (Advanced students have additional assignments, too.)Presentations will be given the first week of English class; all other advanced-class assignments are due on the first day of school.

The presentation assignment, rubric and list of acceptable booksare available on the school’s web site and in the school office. For Advanced, Honors and Advanced Placement students, the required texts are:

Incoming Freshman Advanced English: Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, plus a presentation on a book from the A.P. list

Incoming Sophomore Advanced English: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, plus a presentation on a book from the A.P. list

Incoming Junior Honors English: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck; Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller; plus a presentation on a book from the A.P. list

Incoming Senior Honors English: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley,Lord of the Flies, by William Golding;and a presentation on a book from the A.P. list

Incoming A.P. English Literature: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; and The Kite Runner, by KhaledHosseini; and a presentation on a book from the A.P. list.

Incoming A.P. English Language:The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White, and a presentation on a book from the A.P. list.

Students searching for a book should read the plot synopses and reviews posted at amazon.com. All of these books may be borrowed at local libraries or purchased at local bookstores. Many can be found at stores specializing in used books, such as The Book Rack and Half-Price Books in Florence, and the used book service on amazon.com. Some students may benefit from using unabridged editions of the books on tape or CD.

We encourage all students to make time in their summer for these assignments. Students who fail to complete the work will earn a 0—which is not the best way to begin a new school year. If you have questions regarding the assignments, please email me at ; I’ll respond as quickly as possible.

Happy reading!

Tom Clark

Chair, English Department

Summer Reading Assignments

AP English Language and Composition

All assignments will be due on the first day of the first trimester. Please place all work in a pocket folder with your name on the cover.

1. Read a novel of your choosing from the AP list (attached). Complete a Major Works Data Sheet on the novel (attached). Prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the novel according to the rubric (attached). Submit a printout (6 slides per page) of your PowerPoint presentation.

2. Using a literary database, (such as Bloom’s Literary Reference Online, available on the Scott Media Center web site—user “scotths”; pw “eagles”), locate a critical essay of at least 2,000 words (about 4 pages) concerning the novel you read for assignment #1. Read the essay. Write a 500-word essay that supports or rejects the thesis of the essay. Your essay must include at least 6 direct quotes from the novel and the essay (see Note below). Submit both your essay and a copy of the published essay. (Literary databases may also be found through the country public library.)

3. Choose an author from the list of columnists that follows. Collect at least 6 columns by the writer, published during the year 2010. Write an essay of at least 750 words explaining the political philosophy of the writer, as his/her philosophy is revealed in the columns you read. Your essay must include at least 10 direct quotes from the collected columns (see Note below). Submit your essay and copies of the six columns.

The eligible columnists are: (from The New York Times, Paul Krugman, David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas D. Kristol, Frank Rich, (from The Washington Post, Kathleen Parker, Charles Krauthammer, Eugene Robinson, Steven Pearlstein, George Will (also Newsweek), and (from The Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts. (Many of these writers also appear in The Cincinnati Enquirer, although the texts of their columns may be shortened.)

4. Purchase and read the book The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White (4thed.). Memorization of the authors’ advice is not required, but recommended.

(If you are uncertain of your grammar and punctuation skills, I strongly recommend the purchase and devouring of a handbook for writers. There are dozens of such volumes available; one classic is The St. Martin’s Handbook, but there are many, many others.)

NOTE: Your essays will be graded for quality of content and adherence to conventions (including grammar, spelling and punctuation). You should follow MLA style in citing your source material within the essay and in a Works Cited section at the end of your essay. (For details on MLA style, see the website

Should you have questions regarding these assignments, you may contact me by email throughout the summer at .

Scott High School 2010 Summer Reading Project

forA.P. Language and Composition Students

Directions

Choose a novel or play from the AP List. This should be a book that you must physically bring with you on the day of your presentation. Do not select any novel or play you have previously read for class, nor any others on the summer reading list or ones we will read in class this year.

• Note: This should be a book that you have not read before. (We are English teachers. We pretty much know what your past teachers have assigned.)

Read the book! As you read, use post-it notes, index cards, or paper inserts in order to mark significant passages/quotes that you find particularly interesting or important. On your insert, write a brief explanation (1-2 sentences) of the chosen important passages. (Why did you choose this passage? How do you know it is important?)You must have one annotation/insert per chapter. Be able to defend your choice!

(Those of you who choose books without chapters must make an annotation every ten pages, for a total of at least twenty annotations.)

When you are finished with your chosen book and your annotations, design a 2-3 minute PowerPoint presentation for your class in which you inform your peers regarding whether or not they should purchase the book based on your own evaluation. (Consider the strengths and weaknesses of the book.) If you liked the book, “sell” it to the class. If not, use your presentation to convince students to avoid the book – still, of course, thoroughly covering the characterization and the themes. Get creative and make this PowerPoint presentation reflect your personality and style. Remember—this will be one of the first impressions we have of you! The presentation requirements are specified on the attached rubric – which you must read thoroughly before you even choose your book.

Know and understand that this assignment will be worth 10% of your course grade in your first trimester English class. You must take it seriously.

Due Date: Your teacher will explain on the first day how/when to submit this PowerPoint presentation. Presentations will take place during the first week of class.

Definitions

Theme – author’s lesson/moral/message shared with the reader through the novel

Ex: Spiderman II – “There’s a hero in all of us who helps us to be noble, even if we have to give up the thing we want the most.”

Characterization – author’s portrayal of the character, particularly the character’s personality, through the author’s narration, the character’s actions, and the character’s words

Ex: Napoleon Dynamite – The movie opens with Napoleon, dressed in tapered jeans, moon boots, an early 90’s t-shirt, toting a Trapper-Keeper, getting on the bus and throwing an action figure on a string out the window. This gives viewers clues to Napoleon’s idiosyncrasies and general attitude toward life.

Summer Reading Presentation

Rubric****(No Rubric: -5) Rubric must be brought to class on presentation day

Category / 15 / 10 / 5 / 0
Themes / Student discusses at least two themes and shows how these themes are represented in the novel, with full explanations of examples from the reading. / Student discusses two themes from the novel and shows how they are represented in the novel. There was good explnation of how these themes are presented in the novel, but more explanation or clarification would have been helpful. / Student discusses one to two themes from the novel, but examples and explanations are unclear or shaky. Student does not demonstrate that they understand the reading. / Student does not discuss a theme of the book.
Characterization / Student thoroughly discusses author’s portrayal of at least two characters, particularly the characters' personality, through the author’s narration, the character’s actions, and the character’s words. / Student discusses the characterization of two characters in the novel, but does not do so thoroughly, leaving questions about the characerization of one or both of the characters. / Student discusses one or two characters in the novel, but the discussion is shaky or unclear. / Student does not discuss the characters in the book.
Visual Aid / The visual aid for the presentation is an accurate and attractive representation of the novel and helps with the presentation of the book. / The visual aid for the presentation is accurate and attractive, but did not enhance or assist in the presentation of the book. / The visual aid is somewhat accurate, but does not demonstrate much effort or time and does not assist in the presentation of the book. / No visual aid was used in the presentation of the book.
Text / Student brought the book in on presentation day and had one annotation for each chapter or, if chapters don't exist, one annotation is written for every ten pages. / Student brought the book in on presentation day and had annotations for most chapters or every 15 pages if chapters did not exist. / Student brought the book in on the day of the presentation, but very few annotations were included in the book. / Student did not bring in the book on the day of the presentation and no or very few annotations were brought in for the book.

Total:

______/ 60

AP English: Literature and CompositionName______

Major Works Data Sheet

Major Works Data SheetPage 2

Major Works Data SheetPage 3

Characters

Name

/ Role in the story / Significance / Adjectives

Major Works Data SheetPage 4

Book List for Advanced/Honors/A.P. Students

Students signed up for Advanced English 1, Advanced English 2, Honors English 3, A.P. English Language or A.P. English Literature must select a book from the list below to complete their Summer Reading Assignment. This list, adapted from an original list compiled by Norma K. Wilkerson, includes novels referred to on recent A.P. Literature exams. (The specific years the book was mentioned on the A.P. Literature test are listed in the parentheses.) Students intending to complete the Advanced English program are encouraged to draw their recreational reading from this list.

A
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner (76, 00)
Adam Bede by George Eliot (06)
The Aeneid by Virgil (06)
Agnes of God by John Pielmeier (00)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (97, 02, 03, 08)
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (00, 04, 08)
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (00, 02, 04, 07, 08)
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (95, 96, 06, 07, 08)
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (95)
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (81, 82, 95, 03)
The American by Henry James (05, 07, 10)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (10)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (80, 91, 99, 03, 04, 06, 08)
Another Country by James Baldwin (95, 10)
Apprenticeship of DuddyKravitz by Mordecai Richler (94)
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 04, 06, 07, 09)
As You Like It by William Shakespeare (92, 05, 06, 10)
Atonement by Ian McEwan (07)
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (02, 05)
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 04, 07, 09)

B
Beloved by Toni Morrison (90, 99, 01, 03, 05, 07, 09)
A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul (03)
Billy Budd by Herman Melville (79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 99, 02, 04, 05, 07, 08)
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (89, 97)
Black Boy by Richard Wright (06, 08)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (94, 00, 04, 09)
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya (94, 96, 97, 99, 04, 05, 06, 08)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (07)
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (95, 08)
Bone: A Novel by Fae M. Ng (03)
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan (06, 07)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevski (90, 08)

C
Candide by Voltaire (80, 86, 87, 91, 95, 96, 04, 06)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (06)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (82, 85, 87, 89, 94, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (00)
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (94, 08, 09)
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (94, 96, 97, 99, 01, 03, 05, 06, 07)
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (71, 77, 06, 07, 09)
The Chosen by ChaimPotok (08)
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (06, 08)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 05, 08, 09)
Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje (01)
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (85, 87, 91, 95, 96, 07)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski (76, 79, 80, 82, 88, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 09, 10)
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (09)

D
Daisy Miller by Henry James (97, 03)
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (01)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (78, 83, 06)
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (97)
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (97)
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (06)
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (95)
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (79, 86, 99, 04)
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (10)
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen (71, 83, 87, 88, 95, 05, 09)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (01, 04, 06, 08)
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia (03)
Dutchman by Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (03, 06)

E
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (06)
Emma by Jane Austen (96, 08)
An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (76, 80, 87, 99, 01, 07)
Equus by Peter Shaffer (92, 99, 00, 01, 08, 09)
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (80, 85, 03, 05, 06, 07)
The Eumenides by Aeschylus (in The Orestia) (96)

F
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (99, 04, 09)
The Father by August Strindberg (01)
Faust by Johann Goethe (02, 03)
Fences by August Wilson (02, 03, 05, 09)
A Fine Balance by RohintonMistry (03)
Fifth Business by Robertson Davis (00, 07)
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (07)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (03, 06)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (89, 00, 03, 06, 08)

G
A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines (00)
A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee (04, 05)
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen (00, 04)
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (71, 90, 94, 97, 99, 02, 08, 09)
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (01, 06)
The Golden Bowl by Henry James (09)
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford (00)
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (83, 88, 90, 05)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (87, 89, 01, 04, 06)

H
The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill (89, 09)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (03)
HeddaGablerby Henrik Ibsen (79, 92, 00, 02, 03, 05)
Henry IV, Parts I and II by William Shakespeare (80, 90, 08)
Henry V by William Shakespeare (02)
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (08)
House Made of Dawn by N Scott Momaday (95, 06)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (04, 07)

I
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (06)
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien (00)
In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (05)

J
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (78, 79, 80, 88, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 00, 05, 07, 08, 10)
Jasmine by BharatiMukherjee (99, 10)
Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson (00, 04)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (97, 03)
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (71, 76, 80, 85, 87, 95, 04, 09, 10)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96)

K
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (08)
King Lear by William Shakespeare (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10)

L
Lady Windermere’s Fan (09) A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines (99)
Light in August by William Faulkner (71, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 95, 99, 03, 06)
The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (10)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (08)
Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill (90, 03, 07)
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (77, 78, 82, 86, 00, 03, 07)
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (95)

M
Macbeth by William Shakespeare (83, 99, 03, 05, 09)
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (80, 85, 04, 05, 06, 09, 10)
Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (79, 96, 04, 07)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (03, 06)
Master Harold...and the Boys by Athol Fugard (03, 08)
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (94, 99, 00, 02, 07, 10)
M. Butterfly by David Henry Wang (95)
Medea by Euripides (82, 92, 95, 01, 03)
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (97, 08)
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (09)
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (85, 91, 95, 02, 03)
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (78, 89)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (95, 04, 05, 07)
Middle Passage by V. S. Naipaul (06)
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (06)
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (90, 92, 04)
The Misanthrope by Moliere (08)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 89, 94, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09)
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe (76, 77, 86, 87, 95)
Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao (00, 03)
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie (07)
Mother Courage and Her Children by Berthold Brecht (85, 87, 06)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (94, 97, 04, 05, 07)
Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw (87, 90, 95, 02)
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (97)
Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot (76, 80, 85, 95, 07)
My Name is Asher Lev by ChaimPotok (03)

N
The Namesake by JhumpaLahiri(09)
Native Sonby Richard Wright (79, 82, 85, 87, 95, 01, 04)
Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (99, 03, 05, 07, 08)
1984 by George Orwell (87, 94, 05, 09)

O
Obasan by Joy Kogawa (94, 95, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10)
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (77, 85, 88, 00, 03, 04)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (01)
Old School by Tobia Wolff (08)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (05, 10)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (89, 04)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (01)
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (06)
The Orestia by Aeschylus (90)
Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (04)
Othello by William Shakespeare (79, 85, 88, 92, 95, 03. 04, 07)
The Other by David Guterson (10)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (86, 97, 09)
Out of Africa by Isaak Dinesen (06)

P
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (01)
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster (71, 77, 78, 88, 91, 92, 07)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (85, 86, 10)
Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen (06)
PèreGoriot by Honore de Balzac (02)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (90, 05, 07)
Phaedre by Jean Racine (92, 03)
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (96, 99, 07, 08)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (02)
The Plague by Albert Camus (02, 09)
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (97)
Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal (02, 08)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (10)
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ( 88, 92, 96, 03, 05, 07)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (76, 77, 80, 86, 88, 96, 99, 04, 05, 08, 09, 10)
Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall (96)
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (09) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (83, 88, 92, 97, 08)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (90, 08)
Push by Sapphire (07)
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (03, 05, 08)