Eng. 9 GT First Quarter Reading Assignment: 2015

Below is the Summer Reading Project for the GT 9 program in English at Sparrows Point. The reading and essay is required of all Sparrows Point High School GT English 9 students. Additional assessments may be administered based on the reading.

Failure to submit the assignment on the due date will have a negative effect on the first quarter grade.

Please note that your English teacher is very familiar with the description of each text as listed on SparkNotes (and similar websites), and you will receive a zero on the entire project should you choose to use ideas and/or language that are not your own.

GT ENGLISH 9

Read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and write a 5 paragraph essay as a response to the following prompt:

What is Bradbury’s purpose for writing Fahrenheit 451? How does he fulfill that purpose through his specific literary choices? Your essay should not merely summarize plot.

Your rubric will be based on the following criteria:

Introduction contains relevant background information about the novel, including the title, author, and genre, as well as a brief (one to two-sentence) explanation of the plot; introduction should also include a clear thesis statement that identifies Bradbury’s purpose.

Each body paragraph gives one specific reason how Bradbury fulfills his purpose.

Each body paragraph contains support from the text in the form of a direct quotation (taken from dialogue or narration).

Each quote should be followed by a citation. This includes the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses. It should look like this: “But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else” (Bradbury 31).

Each quote is accompanied by an adequate explanation of how it supports Bradbury’s purpose.

Conclusion restates thesis statement and offers an analysis.

Grammar, spelling, and mechanics are correct.

There will be a penalty for any first or second person pronouns in the essay. (Do not use I, me, my, you, your, etc.)

Essay does not summarize plot.

Essay is written in standard MLA format: 12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins, and black ink. NO pictures/clip art. Your own title should be plain font with no formatting.

The final draft of this assignment will factor into the student’s first quarter grade.