11 AP English Language and Composition 2016-17
Summer assignment
Welcome to Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. You will need to read three books:
One book on language and grammar ( a comical book on punctuation): Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss, ISBN-13: 9781592402038
Two non-fiction reads :Both texts are classic man vs. nature narratives of true events and, like all great narratives, they represent the nature of the human spirit. Overviews of the books are provided.
· Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, ISBN-13: 9780385486804
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.How McCandless came to die is the story of Into the Wild.
· Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, ISBN-13: 9780465062881
Ernest Shackleton defined heroism in 1915 when his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in ice and then destroyed on its way to Antarctica. This tense week-by-week, month-by-month reconstruction charts the incredible journey undertaken by his crew of 27 men through 850 miles of the southern Atlantic's heaviest seas. Lansing’s account of the ordeal is astounding. Rich in detail, exhausting and thrilling in description, this book brings the ice, cold, and danger of Shackleton’s adventure to pulse-pounding life.
(You may purchase the books online or download books onto an e-reader or Kindle. Printed copies are available at the Barnes and Noble store at Bay Shore. 20% discount with a Brentwood student I.D. You can personally order copies from Barnes and Noble and have the books sent to your home address. )
You are required to complete the following assignments:
Assignment for Eats, Shoots & Leaves: For each chapter, choose one question to answer and support with evidence (a paragraph each).
1. Which example in this chapter is most effective for making the point that punctuation is important? Why?
2. What was the punctuation’s original purpose? Support with evidence from the text.
3. Give one example of Truss using sarcasm or humor to make a point and explain its effectiveness.
4. What is her main point in this chapter and what kind of evidence does she give to support it?
5. What do you feel is one of the most valuable concepts discussed in the chapter and how will it be applied to your future coursework?
6. Explain an analogy offered for punctuation. Which do you think is most accurate and why?
7. What does the chapter’s title refer to? Explain how chapter’s content exemplifies the title.
Activity: Research and collect 3 examples of non-standard (improper) usage from English speakers. Look for examples of improper grammar, spelling and usage in the world around you. For each example, identify what you found, describe the “problem” of non-standard usage, and then assess what you think the reasons for the non-standard usage might be. Copy and paste it, but be sure to cite where it came from. Try to collect your examples from native English speakers (books, magazines, Internet, conversations, etc). It’s easy to find “goofs” from places where English isn’t the primary language. Try to avoid judging the speaker (as in, “Ralph used this phrase because he is a moron.”)
Part One: Double-Entry Discovery Journals for Into the Wild and Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
To create this double entry journal, you will draw a horizontal line halfway down each page and use the top half to write out the question along with evidence from the text that answers the question. On the bottom half, you will comment on the textual evidence, answering HOW the evidence answers your chosen question, HOW the textual passage is written, and WHY the author wrote the passage that way.
Questions:
1. How would you describe the writer’s style? (sentence constructions, word choice, rhetorical devices used, organization, imagery, details) in this section?
2. How does the author use language to create an effect? What is it about the language that stands out and makes the passage distinctive?
3. How does the passage reveal larger themes at work?
4. What is the most important part of the section you read today? Why would you classify it as important?
5. What did you like about the section you read today? Discuss in detail why you liked (or disliked) this part — be as specific as possible.
6. As you read today, what feelings did you experience in response to events (e.g. irritation, wonder, disbelief, recognition, etc.) and why do you think you responded this way?
7. What startling/unusual/effective words, phrases, expressions, or images did you come across in your reading today that you would like to have explained or clarified? Which ones would you like to use in your own writing? Why do you think the writer used them?
8. Do you agree, disagree or qualify (you agree with some, but not all) with the writer’s viewpoint in this section? Why?
9. What techniques did the author use to make his argument? What makes them effective?
Answer one of the above after every 40-50 pages you read. Do not read the entire book and then go back and complete your entries. You are not expected to respond to all of the questions, but to one of your choosing for each 40-50 page section.
Keep in mind that you should focus your journal entries on the three key aspects: the writer and his style, the audience and how the writer is addressing them, and the writer’s purpose in writing this book.
Your answers should be between 100-150 words in length. This will mean 4 entries for Into the Wild and 6 entries for Endurance.
Sample Journal Entry
QUESTION: How would you describe the writer’s style in this section? How did the author use these devices to create meaning?
“I will see the city poured rolling down the mountain valleys like slag, and see the city lights sprinkled and curved around the hills’ curves, rows of bonfires winding. At sunset a red light like house fires shines from the narrow hillside windows; the houses’ bricks burn like glowing coals.” (Prologue 3)
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In this entry, Dillard uses many metaphors and similes to describe her hometown, making it into a living thing. By saying that the city resembled “slag,” “bonfires,” and “glowing coals,” she shows that the city has a fire within it that makes it live. None of the comparisons are completely negative, though. She uses the verbs “rolling,” “sprinkled,” “winding,” and “shines” to describe how the fires behave and lastly, she says the coals are “glowing.” So, while coal warms the city, it also engulfs it. All of these descriptions also relate to the fact that Pittsburgh was a town that thrived on coal mining in the 1950s.
****Note that none of this is a summary or a paraphrase of the text. Analyzing is writing about the HOW and the WHY.
Part Two: Vocabulary
On the first page of your journal, record 10 words that you discover in your reading that are new to you, or words that you don’t know the meaning of. Look up their definition and record it and the part of speech. Remember to include the page number where the word is located.
For example: Vagrancy (pg.137) — noun — the state or act of being vagrant (wandering from place to place)
Grading Rubric-
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Chapter questions (10 points each): 70 points in total
Activity: 10 points each/ 30 points in total
Non-fiction reads
PART 1 Discovery Journal (10 points each/ 100 points total) - Journal entry significant in substance and length for every 40-50 pages of text.
____/100 – Quality journal responses (adequate number of questions, valid responses, and sufficient analysis of how/why author makes choices)
PART 2 Vocabulary (10 points) –
______/10 – word list with words defined and page number citations for each book
Contact Information and Expectations-If you have questions about any part of this project, you should contact your AP teacher, Ms. Bellino via email at .