RISING 11th GRADE SUMMER READING LIST
Rationale:
According to a study by professors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students who received books for summer reading at home demonstrated a significantly higher level of reading achievement. Furthermore, the study concluded that students who do not read in the summer can [over time] fall a year behind students who do (Allington, McGill-Frazen, 2010).
Goals of Summer Reading:
- To increase student literacy and prepare students for Honors English III
- To neutralize summer learning loss by keeping students’ minds actively engaged while on summer break
- To promote independent learning, personal responsibility, and deep thinking in students
- To allow students a level of choice in their learning and to promote a deeper understanding of overarching themes within and across texts
- To promote an understanding and appreciation of the stylistic art of prose
Expectations for Summer Reading:
- Make brief annotations throughout your book: highlight and label important character descriptions and events, comment on interesting descriptions and your reactions, keep track of possible themes and other patterns you notice.
- Your marginalia should include some writing, labeling, defining, response, and reaction – annotation is more than simply highlighting. Jot down keys events and write a brief summary of each chapter at the start/end of the chapter – a few bullet point notes is sufficient.
- While annotation is not expected on every page, and it should not be a tedious process, you need to actively engage with the book and write down notes to help you remember your reading when school begins. Aim for a couple of annotations every 3-4 pages and at the end of each chapter.
- Note that some extra credit options may be listed, and you will have to complete extra tasks in addition to reading the listed book.
HONORS ENGLISH:
Theme: Love and Relationships
Essential Questions: How are love and relationships currently defined? How dependent is the current definition on our past? Are our defining ideas about love and relationships consistent or contradictory? Are there some messages about love and relationships that appear more frequently than others? How does love change over time? Or does it? Can love end like relationships sometimes can end? If so, then is that real love? What are the roles of love in our lives? Can love be used for nefarious purposes? For control for instance?
Summer Reading Requirement and Selections: Carefully read and annotate the required novel, your choice novel, and your extra credit play. Your summer reading consists of one novel everyone will read, one novel of your choice from the list below, and if you so choose an extra credit play.
***Required Novel 1***
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell
(British, twentieth century)
“Big Brother is Watching You!” Posters with this slogan are perennial reminders that in Orwell’s imagined future there are no freedoms. However, like all dystopian worlds there is one person who searches for truth: here that person is Winston Smith, a cog in the governmental wheel that controls and crushes all opposition. In a work that has been described as prophetic, Orwell creates a dark vision for the future in which all personal privacy and personal choice have been removed. Love, freedom, happiness, friendship, family. All of these givens have become anachronistic reminders of what once was and what never will be again. Orwell’s novel stands testament as a stark warning against apathetic living and allowing the unbridled spread of totalitarian ideas throughout the world.
As you are reading and annotating think about the essential questions above. In the margins, note the relationships in the texts. Note also the basis for these relationships. These reflections will help you to begin to see how relationships and love are defined by others. Remember that there are different kinds of love (familial, romantic, platonic) that form the foundations for the relationships that Orwell creates. Pay close attention to each of these relationships. Are they based on love or are they based on what someone defines as love? Think particularly about outside forces and how characters react to those forces. Remember too, the titles of the book: What is their meaning to the texts as a whole? Happy Reading!!
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***Choice Novel 2***
Choose a novel from the list below. Carefully read and annotate with the essential questions in mind. I encourage you to form book club groups so that you will have a couple other people to talk to while reading. Be sure to choose a novel you have not studied in class before or read on your own.
Jane Eyre
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My Antonia
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Brontë creates a moving and poignant tale of an outcast, Jane Eyre, whose character and courage are tested as she finds love, explores mysteries, and experiences heart ache. Readers will laugh, cry, and cheer as they travel with Jane though her journey. Will she find happiness and fulfillment? Will she rise to her true potential? Will she find love? Will she find a family? Or will all be for naught? Read this stirring tale of one young woman’s challenges to discover the answer to these and other questions.
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As an immigrant, Antonia Shimerda travels westward to find the American Dream. In the process she also finds Jim Burden. It is his voice that narrates this tale of courageous passion and strength. Antonia remains as one of the most memorable literary characters. Be ready for beautiful descriptions and sentimental portraits of interesting people from a reflective narrative voice. Each of these support characters breathe magic and memorable mystery into Cather’s narrative.
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***For EXTRA CREDIT please read:***
For extra credit you may choose to read one of the following plays.
Read your choice play carefully and annotate with the essential questions in mind.
An Ideal Husband
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Pygmalion
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AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE:
Theme: Love and Relationships
Essential Questions: As you are reading and annotating, think about the essential questions above. In the margins, note the relationships in the texts. Note also the basis for these relationships. These reflections will help you to begin to see how relationships and love are defined by others. Remember that there are different kinds of love (familial, romantic, platonic) that form the foundations for the relationships that both Orwell and your choice author create. Pay close attention to each of these relationships. Are they based on love or are they based on what someone defines as love or on something else? Think particularly about outside forces and how characters react to those forces. Remember too, the titles of the book: What is their meaning to the texts as a whole? Happy Reading!!
***ALL READ:***
Carefully read and annotate the following two works
In his novel, Huxley created a dystopian world in which people experience no pain, no suffering, and no worries. The rulers of the World State have created a drug, soma, which eliminates all feelings of worry and suffering. In his haunting prediction of what the world could become, Huxley paints a portrait of a future where people are genetically altered, psychologically conditioned, and morally manipulated so that those in power can remain in power. The strength of the human will is systematically controlled so that no one born within the World State presents a threat to the status quo.
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“Big Brother is Watching You!” Posters with this slogan are perennial reminders that in Orwell’s imagined future there are no freedoms. However, like all dystopian worlds there is one person who searches for truth: here that person is Winston Smith, a cog in the governmental wheel that controls and crushes all opposition. In a work that has been described as prophetic, Orwell creates a dark vision for the future in which all personal privacy and personal choice have been removed. Love, freedom, happiness, friendship, family. All of these givens have become anachronistic reminders of what once was and what never will be again. Orwell’s novel stands testament as a stark warning against apathetic living and allowing the unbridled spread of totalitarian ideas throughout the world.
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***REQUIRED CHOICE BOOK: SELECT ONE***
For the third required book, you may choose to read one of the following works. Read your choice book carefully and annotate with the essential questions in mind. You will have a separate assessment for this work. Do not choose a work that you have read or studied before. You will be writing about both works.
An American Childhood
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Jane Eyre
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Persuasion
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Dust Tracks on the Road
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We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.
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DOWNLOAD US SUMMER READING LIST HERE:
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