AP English
Summer Reading Project 2011
Welcome! I hope that you enjoy a refreshing and relaxing summer as you prepare for your last year of high school. I am about to make that summer even better by providing you with some excellent reading material.
You need to read only three books for class during the summer—Thomas Foster’s How to Read like a Professor, a novel of your choice from the attached list, and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. How to Read Like a Professor and Les Miserables are available in the school office at a cost of approximately $9 for the first and $7 for the latter. Please pick them up at your convenience. IMPORTANT: Please be sure you get the edition of Les Miserables we are selling at school. It is an abridgement of the full novel. (The full novel runs several thousand pages; the abridgement is only 595.) Furthermore, the original work is in French, so we need to be working out of the same translation. The third book you may buy or borrow from a library.
Each book as pre-, during, and post-reading activities. All writing should be typed.
The following assignments are due the first day of class.
How to Read Literature like a Professor Assignments
You will be required to read the introduction and five chapters this summer, but we will return to this book through the year for more chapter reading.
Pre-reading activities
1. Look through the Table of Contents. Get some idea of how the book is organized and where Foster is going with it.
2. Write and type a 150 word paragraph on what you think constitutes good reading. What makes a reader a good reader? What skills are involved? Do you consider yourself a good reader? Why or why not?
Reading Activities
*Warning: this book will make reference to many works of literature you have never read. DO NOT be discouraged. Foster is good at writing about these works in a way that you can follow his point even if you haven’t read the literature he uses as examples. As you read, just work to understand the ideas being presented—not to gain a complete knowledge of the canonical literature of the English language.
1. Please read the following:
· Introduction, “How’d He Do That?” pgs. xi-xviii
· Chapter 1, “Every Trip is a Quest” pgs. 1-6
· Chapter 2, “Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion” pgs. 7-14
· Chapter 3, “Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires” pgs. 15-21
· Chapter 10, “It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow” pgs 74-81
· Chapter 12, “Is That a Symbol?” pgs. 97-107
2. As you read, underline important ideas. Write notes in the margins. Make connections to stories you already know.
Post-Reading Activity
After each chapter that you read, type (double-space please) a journal response to the prompts below. Your answers should be about 200 words long.
Introduction: How'd He Do That?
How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern.
Chapter 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 3-5.
Chapter 2 -- Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.
Chapter 3: --Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work you have read or viewed.
Chapter 10 -- It's More Than Just Rain or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.
Independent Novel Assignments
Choose a book from the Independent Novel Reading List attached to the end of this packet. Do NOT choose a book that is not on this list, and do NOT read a book that you have already read.
Pre-reading activity
1. What enticed you to choose the novel you did? Write a 100-150 word paragraph that explains your choice. Was it the book cover? A brief synopsis of the book you read? Someone’s recommendation? The length? Just be honest and straightforward here. I’m trying to get some insight into your thoughts when it comes to literature.
Reading Activity
1. As you read the novel, create a double-entry quote log. (See template near the end of this packet.) On the left-hand side, list quotes (and their page numbers) from the novel that you found interesting, meaningful, or revealing about the characters, plot, and theme. On the right-hand side of the page, opposite each quote, explain in your own words what the quote means to you or reveals to you. You may make connections to yourself and to other things you have read. You might discuss themes you see developing, or just interesting characters or plotlines. Your quote log must be typed, and it must run at least 3 pages in length. Your quote log should reflect all parts of the novel, so you may want to split it into quarters or thirds to be sure you cover the entire work.
Post-reading Activity
1. Think about your book in connection to the chapters that you read from How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Write a 200 word journal entry that applies some of Foster’s principles to the novel that you read. Explain yourself thoroughly and use specific examples from the book to support your assertions. Your response should be typed, double-spaced.
Les Misérables Assignments
Pre-reading activity
Read the introductory material below:
The book which the reader now holds in his hands, from one end to the other...treats the advance from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsity to truth, from darkness to daylight, from blind appetite to conscience, from decay to life, from bestiality to duty, from Heaven to Hell, from Limbo to God. Matter itself is the starting point, and the point of arrival is the soul.
—Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Twenty years in the conception and execution, Les Misérables was first published in France and Belgium in 1862, a year which found Victor Hugo in exile from his beloved France. Enemies and admirers throughout the world devoured his works—poetry, political tracts, and fiction—and the effect of these works upon the public was always sensational. On the morning of 15 May, a mob filled the streets around Pagnerre's book shop, eyeing the stacks of copies of Les Misérables that stretched between floor and ceiling. A few hours later, they had all—thousands of books—been sold. Hugo's critics were quick to condemn him for making money by dramatizing the misery of the poor, while the poor themselves bought, read, and discussed his book in unprecedented numbers. True to Hugo's political stance, he had written a book about the people that was for the people, a book that demanded a change in society's judgement of its citizens.
The story is set between 1815 and 1832, the years of Hugo's youth. The descriptions of Paris, the characterizations of Gavroche and other Parisian stock characters, and such statements as, "To err is human, to stroll is Parisian" all attest to Hugo's unswerving adoration of his home city. Exile no doubt encouraged the romantic meanderings of Hugo's prose. The protagonist of Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, is also in exile from the world of men because of the desperate crime he committed in his youth. Liberated from prison, Valjean hides his identity and becomes a successful man, as charitable as he is rich and powerful. His altruism leads him to promise Fantine, a dying prostitute, that he will seek out her exploited young daughter Cosette after her death. The ensuing love between "father" and "daughter" (Cosette) is miraculous, redeeming Valjean and bestowing happiness on his otherwise grim life. To some extent, Hugo also was seeking redemption, having, for much of his youth, ignored the populist concerns of Republican France. He sacrificed his lifestyle in Paris for justice, and Les Misérables, "the Magna Carta of the human race," is a testament of this humanitarian awakening.
The Revolution and Republic of France had failed to redress the unconscionable social conditions in which many French citizens languished. Les Misérables became an expression of and an inspiration for that attempt. Hugo initially entitled his work, Les Misère ("the poverty"), but changed it to Les Misérables, which, in Hugo's time, denoted everyone from the poor to the outcasts and insurrectionists. In Hugo's lifetime, the schism between "haves" and "have-nots" was vast; an unbalanced economy made jobs scarce for those who earned their living by work. This was an era without a welfare system, unemployment benefits, or worker's compensation. The closest thing to a homeless shelter was prison, a macabre dungeon where inmates slept on bare planks and ate rancid food. To this place the disabled, insane, hungry, or desperate citizens of France eventually found their way. The one hope of the poor for relief was charity from those who were, if not indifferent to their plight, outright hostile to it.
Les Misérables vindicates those members of society forced by unemployment and starvation to commit crimes—in Jean Valjean's case, the theft of a loaf of bread—who are thereafter outcast from society. It is fairly common parlance today to suggest that prison creates more hardened criminals than it reforms, but the idea was radical to Hugo's contemporaries. "Perrot de Chezelles, in an 'Examination of Les Misérables,' defended the excellence of a State which persecuted convicts even after their release, and derided the notion that poverty and ignorance had anything to do with crime. Criminals were evil." Jean Valjean morally surpasses characters working on behalf of this excellent State. The poor and the disenfranchised understood Hugo's message, accepted the affirmation he gave them, and worshipped him as their spokesman. Workers pooled their money to buy the book not one of them could afford on their own. The struggling people of France had found an articulate illustration of the unjust forces arrayed against them.
Hugo's gift to the people simultaneously affirms that every citizen is important to the health of the nation and emphasizes how that fact gives each individual responsibility for the conditions we all share. Hugo sees the world as a convoluted pattern: "Nothing is truly small...within that inexhaustible compass, from the sun to the grub, there is no room for disdain; each thing needs every other thing." He illustrates a system full of injustice, but in that same sphere, a single gesture of kindness redeems the world; he shows us a civilization based on self-interest and profit, but in one generous act the possibilities of a better world become manifest; he portrays people who regard their neighbors with suspicion and contempt, but with one vow of love, humanity's faith is born anew. Les Misérables is one of history's greatest manifestos of hope for humankind.
The immense popularity of this story has not diminished over time. Since the original 1935 film version, there have been several other international films entitled Les Misérables including a Spring 1998 release starring Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman. The "most popular musical in the world" has toured the globe several times and has been running on Broadway since March 1987. Why does this story continue to charm and inspire audiences and readers? In our time, as there was in Hugo's, there is cause for despair: greed and violence undermine true progress; human life is rendered meaningless through materialism and nihilism; children the world over suffer neglect, poverty, and ignorance. Who does not identify with Jean Valjean's arduous journey through the sewers, and who does not long for an escape like his emergence into the pristine Parisian dusk? Hugo illustrates how the most profound revolution takes place in our individual consciences, how every moment we are faced with decisions to do right or wrong, and how to make in our hearts pitched battles against our own worst impulses. Les Misérables incites us to make the best fight of our lives the fight to become authentically good people and gives us hope that our efforts will not be in vain. Time cannot change the necessity or urgency of that message—only people can.
(borrowed from readinggroupguides.com)
During Reading Activity
1. When you come to school in August, you must have read through section four of the book (page 466). You are free to read further and finish the book if you’d like, but you must have read at least as far as assigned when school begins. We will have a test on the first 466 pages at the beginning of the school year.
2. As you read the novel, create a double-entry quote log. On the left-hand side, list quotes (and their page numbers) from the novel that you found interesting, meaningful, or revealing about the characters, plot, and theme. On the right-hand side of the page, opposite each quote, explain in your own words what the quote means to you or reveals to you. You may make connections to yourself and to other things you have read. You might discuss themes you see developing, or just interesting characters or plotlines. You quote log must be typed and it must run at least 4 pages in length. Your quote log should reflect all parts of the novel, so you may want to split it into quarters or thirds to be sure you cover all 466 pages that have been assigned.