Summer Reading for AP Senior English Literature & Composition with Mrs. Burks

Transcription

1 Summer Reading for AP Senior English Literature & Composition with Mrs. Burks SUMMER READING OBJECTIVE: Challenging imaginative literary fiction helps your brain consider alternative scenarios and fosters your creativity, no matter what field of study you are pursuing. A well-read person is a more effective reader and writer, having more confidence in educated social situations with more matter for conversation and the ability to recognize numerous references to these works in pop culture. REQUIRED READING:! A) How to Read Literature Like a Professor (REVISED EDITION) - Thomas C. Foster Reading log (instructions attached) must be submitted on the 1 st full day of school.! B) Frankenstein - Mary W. Shelley Major Works Data Sheet (MWDS*) due on the 1 st full day of school. OPTIONAL READING ENRICHMENT (extra credit Connections test, taken in primetime or before school during first week of school) These works will challenge your endurance and digitally-decreased attention span while growing your vocabulary.! C) CHOOSE ONE or MORE, if you have the time: Pride & Prejudice OR Sense & Sensibility Jane Austen Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas Invisible Man Ralph Ellison Moby Dick Herman Melville The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde *VERY IMPORTANT AND HELPFUL INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING YOUR MWDS!!! " As you read Frankenstein, post-it note crucial thematic quotations for reference during the creation of your Major Works Data Sheet. Remember, theme is the message the author is conveying to the reader. " Major Works Data Sheet [MWDS] form is included in this packet. " All quotations must be short and to the point and include MLA parenthetical citations (page number for printed novel, location number for Kindle). " Themes (at least 3) must be universal thematic statements making a complete sentence followed by at least 2 sentences that explain the specific relevance of the thematic statement to the novel. See AP Theme handout. " Character page should include vital characters (usually 5-7). " Years that the novel showed up in the AP Exam questions (section called Old AP Questions): Frankenstein: 1989, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2015 SUPPLY LIST for this school year: Beowulf and A Pocket Style Manual needed by first full day of school! Immediate Assignments!!!! Kleenex: 1 rectangular box please have within first week! 1 3-Prong Poly Pocket Folder (for AP Exam Review Folder) needed first week of school! 2 composition notebooks (for reading log & power vocabulary)! A Pocket Style Manual 7 th edition with 2016 MLA update by Diana Hacker & Nancy Sommers ISBN# (You will have daily lessons/quizzes on the content of this book.)! Beowulf Seamus Heaney translation (epic) ISBN# ! Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, OR David Copperfield by Charles Dickens any edition! Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky any edition QUESTIONS: Please me at burkse@rcschools.net, and I will respond as soon as it is possible for me to do so.

2 Mrs. Burks Name: How To Read Literature Like a Professor (Revised Edition) by Thomas C. Foster ISBN Reading Log for AP Senior English Summer Reading! Use a Composition Notebook and black or blue PEN for this assignment. Objective: Thinking thematically about literature enables you to view each piece of literature as a human experience and discover the human connections that make literature relevant, regardless of time and place. The universal theme of each piece provides the requisite glue that holds ALL AP essays together. Many students find it difficult to empathize with characters in literature. It is my hope that this reading will give you an advantage in discovering and conveying this crucial element of literary analysis. The idea of this book is not to make English professors out of everyone, but, instead, to help readers to better understand how we can find a deeper meaning in reading along with how writers create that deeper meaning. It is likely that you have not read many of the examples that are referenced; you do not need to have read them. He discusses and explains them well enough. Your Assignment: Using what you learn as you read, create a chapter-by-chapter reading log that tracks your thinking about the different archetypes addressed in the chapters. This log will A) quote a sentence or passage from the chapter that then is B) related to anything that you have ever read. You may provide more than one quotation/relevance response, but only ONE response PER chapter is required. See the example below: How to Read Lit. Like a Professor Chapter 1: The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge (3). My Example Scout s journey in To Kill a Mockingbird. She doesn t necessarily go anywhere, but her story is a journey that leads to her discovering things about herself. She especially demonstrates this at the end when she puts on the dress. She is discovering what it means to be an adult. Expectations: Place this instruction sheet inside the front cover of your composition notebook You must handwrite it in PEN, and it should be neatly organized. Like the example above, make sure the parenthetical citation for each quotation follows MLA format. You may use one novel/play to provide the examples for more than one chapter (not to exceed 2 chapters). Try to stay within novels/plays for this. Though short stories and films will work, the majority should be novels/plays. Due the first full day of school!

3 AP English Literature and Composition Page 1 Title: Author: Date of Publication: Genre: Historical Information about the period of publication MAJOR WORKS DATA SHEET Biographical Information about the Author Characteristics of the Genre Plot Summary

4 Describe the author s style An example that demonstrates that style Quotation Memorable Quotes Significance -2-

5 Characters Name Role in the Story Significance Adjectives -3-

6 Setting Significance of opening scene Significance of ending/closing scene Symbols Old AP Questions Possible Themes -4-

7 Mrs. Burks AP English Literature and Composition AP Theme The theme of a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story. To derive the theme of a story, we must determine what its central purpose is: what view of life it supports or what insight into life it reveals. 1. Theme should be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and predicate. It is insufficient to say that the theme of a story is motherhood or loyalty to country. Motherhood and loyalty are simply subjects. 2. The theme should be stated as a generalization or universal observation about life. In stating theme we do not use the names of the characters or refer to precise places or events, for to do so is to make a specific rather than a general statement. 3. We must be careful not to make the generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the story. Terms like every, all, and always should be used very cautiously; terms like some, sometimes, and may are often more accurate. 4. Theme is the central and unifying concept of a story. Therefore (a) it accounts for all the major details of the story. If we cannot explain the bearing of an important incident or character in the theme, either in exemplifying it or modifying it in some way, it is probable that our interpretation is partial and incomplete, that at best we have got hold only of a subtheme. Another alternative, though it must be used with caution, is that the story itself is imperfectly constructed and lacks unity. (b) The theme is not contradicted by any detail of the story. If we have to overlook or blink at or force the meaning of some significant detail in order to frame our statement, we may be sure that our statement is defective. (c) The theme cannot rely upon supposed facts facts not actually stated or clearly implied by the story. The theme exists inside, not outside the story. The statement of it must be based on the data of the story itself, not on assumptions supplied from our own experience. 5. There is no one way of stating the theme of a story. The story is not a guessing game or an acrostic that is supposed to yield some magic verbal formula that won t work if a syllable is changed. It merely presents a view of life, and, as long as the above conditions are fulfilled, that view may surely be stated in more than one way. Here, for instance, are three possible ways of stating the theme of Miss Brill : (a) A person living alone may create a protective fantasy life by dramatizing insignificant activities, but such a life can be jeopardized when she is forced to see herself as others see her. (b) Isolated elderly people, unsupported by a network of family and friends, may make a satisfying adjustment through a pleasant fantasy life, but when the cold claw of reality punctures their fantasy, the effect can be devastating. (c) Loneliness is a pitiable emotional state that may be avoided by refusing to acknowledge that one feels lonely, though such avoidance may also require one to create unrealistic fantasies about oneself. 6. We should avoid any statement that reduces the theme to some familiar saying that we have heard all our lives, such as You can t judge a book by its cover or A stitch in time saves nine. Although such a statement may express the theme accurately, too often it is simply a lazy shortcut that impoverishes the essential meaning of the story in order to save mental effort. When readers force every new experience into an old formula, they lose the chance for a fresh perception. Beware of using clichés when attempting to summarize a story s theme. Adapted from AP Summer Institute handout shared by Danny Lawrence From Perrine s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 8 th edition, Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson, 2002, pp

8 Academic Calendar AUGUST 2017 Wednesday, August 2: Administrative day (No school for students) Thursday, August 3: In-service day 1 (No school for students) Friday, August 4: In-service day 2 (No school for students) Monday, August 7: First day for students (abbreviated, two hours) Tuesday, August 8: Teacher work day (No school for students) Wednesday, August 9: First Full Day for students SEPTEMBER 2017 Monday, September 4: Labor Day (Schools closed) Tuesday, September 5 - Thursday, September 7: Progress Reports Thursday, September 14: Early Dismissal (3 hour, 15-minute day for students) Friday, September 29: End of first nine weeks OCTOBER 2017 Monday, October 2 - Friday, October 6: Fall Break (Schools closed) Thursday, October 12: 1 st nine weeks report card Tuesday, October 17: Parent / Teacher conferences (grades PK-5) Thursday, October 19: Parent / Teacher conferences (grades 6-12) Thursday, October 26: Early Dismissal (3 hour, 15-minute day for students) NOVEMBER 2017 Tuesday, November 7 - Thursday, November 9: Progress reports Wednesday, November 22 - Friday, November 24: Thanksgiving Break (Schools closed) DECEMBER 2017 Thursday, December 21: Abbreviated day for students and teachers (2 hours); End 2 nd nine weeks Friday, December 22 - Friday, January 5: Winter Break (Schools closed)

9 JANUARY 2018 Friday, January 5: In-service day (No school for students) Monday, January 8: Students return from Winter Break Thursday, January 11: 2 nd nine weeks report card Monday, January 15: MLK Holiday (Schools closed) FEBRUARY 2018 Thursday, February 1: Early Dismissal (3 hour, 15-minute day for students) Tuesday, February 6 Thursday, February 8: Progress reports Monday, February 19: President s Day (Schools closed) MARCH 2018 Thursday, March 8: Early Dismissal (3 hour, 15-minute day for students) Friday, March 9: End of 3rd nine weeks Thursday, March 15: 3rd nine weeks report cards Tuesday, March 20: Parent / Teacher Conferences (grades PK-5) Thursday, March 22: Parent / Teacher Conferences (grades 6-12) Monday, March 26 - Friday, March 30: Spring Break (Schools closed) APRIL 2018 Tuesday, April 10 Thursday, April 12: Progress reports MAY 2018 Tuesday, May 1: Election Day (Schools closed) Thursday, May 24: Teacher work day (No school for students) Friday, May 25: End 4 th nine weeks; 4 th nine weeks report cards Last day for students: two-hour day