9th Grade Summer Reading Assignment:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Please read this classic novel – To Kill a Mockingbird – over the summer. Before you respond to the below questions, review these literary terms. Note: This is a two-page document.

Literary Terms

  1. Characters- Individuals in a story.
  2. Point of View – Vantage point from which a writer tells a story. There are 3 types: omniscient, third-person limited, and first-person.
  3. Setting – Time and place of the story, including any historical significance for this time period
  4. Plot – A series of related events that make up a story (cause and effect relationships).
  5. Complications – problems and/or obstacles the main characters must (attempt to) overcome
  6. Conflicts– The BIG problems the characters encounter. Their conflicts can be:
  1. External conflict- a struggle with an outside force. Examples: Man vs. Man or

Man vs. Nature

B. Internal conflict – a struggle between the main character’s opposing needs, desires or emotions, such as a moral conflict. For example, the main character is struggling with guilt, fear, remorse, etc.

7. Climax – is the most intense moment in the plot, the moment at which something happens that reveals how the conflict will turn out. This event usually appears right before the resolution. (This is different for a drama).

  1. Resolutionor denouement – all the problems have been resolved, and the story has been brought to a close.
  2. Theme – The central idea, message, or insight revealed by a work of literature.
  3. Bildungsroman – A novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character.
  4. Symbol– Person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and something beyond itself. For example: a RED rose (stands for itself) and is a symbol of LOVE.

Assignment

-Please type your responses to the below questions using Times New Roman, size 12 font.

-Please single space this assignment, skipping one line between questions.

-Please type your full name at the top of this assignment and number your responses (1-11).

-These questions are designed to help increase your comprehension of this novel. When I ask you to “explain,” please do so in 2 to 3 sentences – no more.

-These questions will be discussed in class, so have your typed responses with you on the first day of school.

-Bring both pages of this assignment with you as well, so I can use the below rubric.

If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Maryann Minnier at . Have a wonderful summer and happy reading! 

Rubric for 9th grade summer reading assignment

1. List 6 main characters in the novel and give a very brief description of them. (2 sentences for each)

2.Point of view: This novel is told from whose perspective? How do you know this?

3. What is the setting? Please include the place, time period, and historical significance (Google the place and time period if you need to find the historical significance).

4. Explain three complications the main character(s) needs to deal with at school.

5.Explain the main external conflictin the book?

6. Looking at the main character, what is her/his main internal conflict? Explain.

7. How are these conflicts (internal and external) resolved? Are all of the conflicts resolved?

8. What is the climax of the novel? Explain.

9.What is the message or theme of the novel? Explain.

10.Explain why this is a bildungsroman novel. Look back at the definition.

11. What is the most predominate symbol(ism) in this novel? Explain.

Student’s name: ______

______/66 points