Randallstown High School First Quarter ReadingAssignment 2017-2018
To encourage reading outside of school, Randallstown High School students participates in a First Quarter Reading Assignment. Each summer, all students who attend Randallstown will receive a reading assignment that will be due on September 29, 2017. The books have been specifically chosen for each grade based on their content and their relationship to their English course and Social Studies course. The books are available online, through GooglePlay, through iBooks, from the school’s website, from Randallstown’s Library, or through the Baltimore County Public Library System. In addition to reading the book, students will be required to complete the assignment below, and students will be assessed upon returning to school.
First Quarter Reading Assignment (each part is explained in detail below):
Pick up a copy or download your book(s) (see the list below). Students in GT 9 and GT 10 are required to read both books for their grade level.
As you read, complete 30 dialectical journal entries that demonstrate your personal connection to the text.
After you read, complete a SOAPSTone Analysis.
GT ONLYCompose FIVE higher level questions for the GT specific bookthat will be used in a book club/Socratic seminar when we return.
When your assignment is due, you will have an in-class assessment that tests your familiarity of the novel.
Title / Author / Book Description9House on Mango Street / Sandra Cisneros / The remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero. Told in a series of vignettes - sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous - it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. AD, AUD, ON, GO, IBKS
9 GT A Lesson Before Dying / Ernest Gaines / Set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins has returned to the plantation school to teach. As he struggles with his decision whether to stay or escape to another state, he is persuaded to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson before his death. AD, AUD, ON, GO, IBKS
10 Things Fall Apart / Chinua Achebe / Two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society.AD, AUD, ON, GO, IBKS
10GTCrime and Punishment / FydorDostoyevsky / Drawing upon experiences from his own prison days, the author recounts in feverish, compelling tones the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished student tormented by his own nihilism, and the struggle between good and evil. Believing that he is above the law, and convinced that humanitarian ends justify vile means, he brutally murders an old woman — a pawnbroker whom he regards as "stupid, ailing, greedy…good for nothing." Overwhelmed afterwards by feelings of guilt and terror, Raskolnikov confesses to the crime and goes to prison. AD, AUD, LANG, GO, IBKS
11The Crucible / Arthur Miller / A classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. AD, AUD, ON, GO, IBKS
12The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot / Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poorblack tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more.
AD=Adult / AUD= Audio Available at Public Library / YA=Young Adult / NF =Nonfiction / BIO= Biography
LANG= Racially Charged or Mature Language / ON=Available online / GO= Available through Google Play / IBKS=Available through iBooks
Book descriptions by Bristol Public Schools: High School English Recommended Reading – 2011, bcplonline.org, and/or Amazon.com
Part I: Dialectical Journals
Directions: A dialectical journal is used to arrive at the “truth” of a written work through a written response to quotations from that work. As you complete your assigned reading, choose passages that standout to you, record them, and evaluate each with your ideas, insights, questions, reflections, and/or comments. Record your responses in a T-chart as in the example provided.
What do I record?
Quotation (page #) / Reaction / ResponseSentence, line, phrase, or paraphrase that:
1. May remind you of something; make you think or question
2. May reveal insight about theme, character development, etc.
3. May be an example of pleasing or disturbing writing style / Explanation of why you chose the quotation/passage:
• Question/Predict: Ask questions while you read and try to predict.
• Making a Connection: to personal experiences, life, other literature, etc.
• Interpret/Evaluate: Determine the meaning of what you’ve read; Form opinions both while you’re reading and after you’ve finished. Develop your own judgments about the characters and your own ideas about events.
• Extend the Meaning: What does the quote say about all people and humanity?
• Challenging the Text: Form questions about the validity of implied/explicit connections or claims, reliability of narrator, development of plot, character, style, etc.
Part II: SOAPSTone Analysis
Directions: After you finish reading House on Mango Street, complete a SOAPSTone organizer to analyze the text. In your response, you should write between 2-5 sentences for each aspect of SOAPSTone, and utilize textual support in your responses.
ExplanationS / Subject: What is the context of the text?
O / Occasion: What has prompted the novel, book, or play to be written? There are two occasions: the larger occasion, which is the broad issues or topic which has inspired the text, and there is the immediate occasion, which is the moment in time or culture in which the author is focused.
A / Audience: Toward whom is the text directed? Who is the assumed audience and what are the characteristics of that audience? How do you know?
P / Purpose: What is the author’s purpose for writing the text? Does the author have more than one purpose? Why type of reaction is the author trying to evoke from the audience and how does the author try to accomplish that? What is the intended effect of the article?
S / Speaker: Who is the speaker? Are there assumptions you can safely make about the speaker? Be careful – the speaker and the author are not always the same. What is the point of view of the text? Does the speaker display any bias?
Tone / Tone: What is the author’s attitude toward the subject? How has the author used syntax and diction to display that tone? Where is the tone the strongest?
Part III GT ONLY: Discussion Questions
Directions: Compose FIVE higher level questions that will be used in a book club/Socratic seminar when we return. You will be in charge of leading the discussion so make sure you are able to answer your own question with evidence from the text in order to facilitate discussion. Consider using the words below when forming your questions.
1 Randallstown High School: First Quarter Reading Assignment
acquire
adopt
apply
assemble
capitalize
construct
consume
demonstrate
develop
discuss
experiment
formulate
manipulate
organize
relate
report
search
show
solve
consequences
analyze
arrange
break down
categorize
classify
compare
contrast
deduce
determine
diagram
differentiate
discuss
causes
predict
conclude
criticize
dissect
distinguish
give reasons
order
separate
sequence
survey
take apart
test for
why
synthesize
challenge
1 Randallstown High School: First Quarter Reading Assignment