APC Adams Team
Eighth Grade Supply List and Summer Reading
Welcome to the Adams Team. Below you will find a list of school supplies that you will need for the start of the school year as well as some helpful hints. The Suggested Summer Reading List is online at http://quincypublicschools.com/ . In addition, your required summer reading is April Morning by Howard Fast. We have reserved 25 copies for you at the Thomas Crane Library. Please see Ms. McCauley’s summer assignments below.
• (6) two-pocket folders
~ (5 for core subjects and 1 for notices)
• (4) 2” three ring binders
• Loose leaf filler paper (for three ring binders)
• 6 dividers for three ring binder
• Pens, pencils, highlighters, glue sticks and a calculator, colored pencils
• A marble composition notebook for science lab work
• (2) one subject notebooks
• Index cards
• A combination lock for your locker!
The following items may be donated to your homeroom and would be greatly appreciated: Tissues, Lysol wipes and hand sanitizers.
Helpful hints:
• Practice opening your combination lock!
• Color code folders for each of your classes.
• Backpacks with wheels do not fit in lockers!
Enjoy your summer vacation!
The Adams Team:
Mrs. Tomasini, Math
Mr. Eldridge, Science
Mr. Cordero, Spanish
Mrs. McCauley, English /Language Arts
Mr. Pavao, Social Studies
Summer 2013 Grade 8 ELA APC/Honors Required Reading
1. All students who are entering the eighth grade APC or Honors ELA classes are required to read April Morning by Howard Fast and any other classic book of their choice from the classics reading list below.
The study of literature is not like the study of math or science, or even history. While those disciplines are based largely upon fact, the study of literature is based upon interpretation and analysis. There are no clear-cut answers in literature outside of the factual information about an author's life and the basic information about setting and characterization, and as is the case for historical fiction like April Morning, the inclusion of accurate historical information. The rest is a highly subjective reading of what an author has written, and each reader brings a different set of values and a different background to the reading. As a result, no two people see the piece of literature in exactly the same light, and few critics agree on everything about a book or an author.
Literature is simply not a black or white situation; instead, there are many gray areas that are open to varying analyses. Your task is to come up with your own analysis that you can logically defend. However, we ALL use the same basic skills to come to that analysis, and the practice of applying those skills is what makes us master-readers! Therefore, TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THIS PROCESS OF LITERARY ANALYSIS, PLEASE RETURN TO SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER WITH COMPLETED BOOKMARKS FOR EACH OF YOUR BOOKS. (See backside of this paper for details.) Please use blue or black ink only; no pencil. Your book mark should stay in your book at all times. Fill it out as you go. We will use it to help prepare for your first literary analysis thesis paper. You will also need to use “stickies” to comment on any one of the five reading skills we are working on this year. Label the skill category and page on your sticky notes. No smaller that 3”X3” notes please. You may create as many as you like but must have at least one from each category.
Sticky note categories include:
Questioning (for predicting and clarifying) What are you wondering about?
Does what you read make sense?
Connecting (text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world) In what ways are you
connecting to what you are reading? Thinking is linking.
Inferring (reading between the lines and drawing conclusions from
evidence in the text)
Visualizing (using text imagery) Which passages create the best pictures in
your mind’s eye?
Summarizing main ideas and themes (author’s big ideas and reasons for
writing)
Using stickies and your book mark will help you avoid “fake” reading and improve your “active” reading skills. Please pass them in with your active reading bookmark. You will be working on your active reading bookmark WHILE you read the book. ( I can spot a last minute bookmark a mile away!!!) It should STAY with the book you are reading at all times, like any bookmark. It will help to keep your brain engaged in your reading and sharpen your thinking skills. Feel free to use both sides of the index card and add cards as needed. The following novels are excluded from the free choice list, as we will be reading them together in class: Across Five Aprils, Johnny Tremain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Lyddie.
Active Reading Bookmark (see sample below)
Your name Summer Reading Assignment
Book Title
Author Genre
Predictions: Predict what you think will happen after finishing the first few chapters.
Setting: Give some details about the location or setting of the book.
Characters: Identify each character as they are introduced.
New Words: Include word, page number, and dictionary definition for five new words.
If you can’t find five, your book is below your reading level.
Summarize important ideas and themes: What was the author’s purpose in writing this book?
Plot development that differed from your predictions: Explain with reasons.
What was your favorite quotation from the book and why?
Would you change the ending in any way? Explain with reasons.
Classic free choice options: Any book by any of these authors is also acceptable.
The House of Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Billy Bud by Herman Melville
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Any biography of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth,
Any collection of poems, short stories, or essays by H.D.Thoreau,R.W. Emerson, E.A.Poe, Emily Dickinson, H.W. Longfellow, W.Whitman, Washington Irving