Summer Reading Assignments

Students // by Eileen Johnstone

Summer 2024

There is no required summer reading for incoming freshmen. However, incoming freshmen are encouraged to get a library card (if they do not have one already) and find books/audiobooks that interest them to read over the summer. When students enjoy their reading materials, they spend more time reading, which benefits them academically in every subject area.
For help finding books that interest them, students can use websites like Goodreads and the Libby app, which have lists of books by genre and subject, or talk to a local librarian, who can direct them to books according to their interests.

Your assignment will be collected on the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Please be advised…you are to do your own work. Plagiarism or academic dishonesty of any kind (including use of AI, copying directly from the internet, copying from a friend, etc) will not be tolerated and will result in academic consequences. This assignment is your first chance to make a good impression as you start your career in English 10 Honors. Due dates and integrity are important!
Materials Needed

  1. Physical copy of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.: While there are many options for a digital copy online, please make sure you have a physical copy for when you return to school. We will use these the first couple weeks of the semester and you will need to use it to find quotes, complete analyses, etc.
  2. Notebook: You will write your summer work in a notebook to be turned in on the first day of school. You may use this notebook for class during the year as we will return them to you in the first couple days.

Assignment

  1. Read The Great Gatsby – as you read, make notes, annotate, mark with sticky notes as you consider things like setting, character development, recurring themes, possible symbols, etc.
  2. Complete a journal entry in your notebook for each chapter. The instructions for each chapter are listed below. Each response should be at least 1 paragraph (7-8 sentences), but you could write more if you like!
    • Chapter 1 – Select and write down a passage that describes the setting of the novel. Be sure to include the page number. Explain how the language used in the passage makes the setting clear. In other words, are you able to picture the setting based on the passage you selected? Why or why not?
    • Chapter 2 – Select and write down a passage that develops a character. Be sure to include the page number. What do you learn about this character by reading this passage? After learning about this character, what is your reaction to them? How do you think this character will impact the story? Why?
    • Chapter 3 – One of the most famous things about The Great Gatsby are the party scenes. For chapter 3, select and write down a passage that describes the party. Be sure to include the page number. How do you think the description of the party represents the larger culture of America in the 1920s?
    • Chapter 4 – Select and write down a passage that gives the reader background information about Gatsby. Be sure to include the page number. Which words used in the passage do you think are the most important in explaining Gatsby’s background? Why? After learning about Gatsby’s background, what is your reaction to him? Do you think he is a good person? Why?
    • Chapter 5 – Select and write down a passage that shows the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Be sure to include the page number. Given the information about Gatsby’s background in chapter 4, is this description of their relationship surprising? Why or why not? How does this description of their relationship shape your reaction to both Daisy and Gatsby as individuals?
    • Chapter 6 – Select and write down a passage that reveals the nature of the narrator. Be sure to include the page number. What do you think is the narrator’s purpose in this chapter? How do you know? What effect does the narrator have on your reactions to the events and characters in this chapter? Why?
    • Chapter 7 – A symbol in literature is when an object, a person, a setting, a word, or a situation is used to represent another thing. For example, rain in stories often indicates a time of change or rebirth for a character. Select and write down a passage from chapter 7 that you believe uses symbolism. Be sure to include the page number. What is the symbol? What do you think it represents? How does the use of this symbol contribute to your interpretation of the book as a whole? Why?
    • Chapter 8 – Select and write down a passage that reveals Nick’s (the narrator) attitudes towards the situation or towards other characters. Be sure to include page number. What is Nick’s attitude based on this passage? What words or phrases indicate this? How does this attitude contribute to your interpretation of the book as a whole? Why?
    • Chapter 9 – How does the ending of the book shape your overall interpretation of the book? What theme or themes stand out to you? Why do you think this book is an American classic that is still studied and remembered?

Questions? Contact Mrs. Hilton at khilton@bishopchatard.org

One of the key elements of AP Language & Composition is being knowledgeable about the world around you AND being able to form a well-educated position about a topic. This assignment is intended to give you a foundation about themes that we will discuss throughout the year. The goal is not just for you to read a nonfiction text but to increase your rhetorical analysis skills, expand your vocabulary, and provide background information on the topics we will cover throughout the school year.
Summer Required Reading

  • Read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
  • Submit the written assignment on Day 1 of class
  • Participate in a Socratic Seminar and group discussions during the first few days of class.

The Assignment

  • Do a close reading of the text.Although you do not need to annotate the text, please read closely so that you understand Gladwell’s main points as well as the evidence he presents. Look up words that are unfamiliar; reread passages that are unclear; pause at times to reflect on what he is saying.
  • As you read, concentrate on Gladwell’s unique definition of success. Notice how he uniquely defines and presents this abstract concept through his chapter titles, research, personal stories, and observations. You will be surprised how much you will learn from this original perspective on success.
  • For each chapter you will use the following format:
    1. Label each chapter.
    2. In 3-4 sentences you will write the main claim of that chapter. What point is Gladwell trying to make? What is his argument?
    3. After you have decided on Gladwell’s main claim, list a minimum of 3 pieces of evidence that support his main claim. That support may be a quote, a story he has told, research, etc. Each piece of evidence should be a “brief” summary (1-2 sentences at most).
    4. Discuss any fallacies you see in his evidence. In other words, are there any problems with the evidence? Are there areas that you don’t quite think are true, or do you personally know instances that disprove Gladwell’s main claim?
    5. Finally, what is your opinion of the chapter? What did you find interesting? What did you learn? If you found a chapter uninteresting or confusing, say so and discuss why.

    Outliers has 9 chapters, an Introduction, and an Epilogue, so you should have a total of 11 entries, with each entry having the 5 parts outlined above. You may either type your responses into a Google doc that you will submit on the first day of school, or you may handwrite your answers into a notebook that I will collect.

    If you have any trouble at all with the assignment or have questions, please do not hesitate to email Mrs. Marx over the summer at jmarx@bishopchatard.org or see her in room 308 before school ends this spring. Do not try to do this assignment the night before school starts. A good plan might be to do a couple of chapters a week to spread out the work. You will really enjoy this book!!

AP Literature

  • Choose one of the books listed below to read and analyze for your summer reading assignment. In addition, complete the following literary analysis assignment for your chosen text.
  • Before the start of the school year, students should analyze a character’s development throughout the novel by completing the following:
    1. Double-entry journal: Write down 10 quotations from the novel that demonstrate your chosen character’s development throughout the novel. After each quote, provide three or more sentences that analyze the character at that moment. In other words, what does the reader learn about the character from this quote? How is the character developing/changing throughout the course of the plot?
    2. Below your double-entry journal, write 4-6 sentences summarizing your analysis of the character’s development, and what message you believe that the author is attempting to portray through the character’s development.
The assignment is due the first day of school and should be completed electronically. You should also be prepared for a timed writing on your summer reading text during the first week of school.

Questions? Email Ms. Day at mday@bishopchatard.org. She looks forward to having you in class!

Published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads — driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.

Published in 1849, Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

Few creatures of horror have seized readers’ imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (published in 1818). The story of Victor Frankenstein’s terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. With Frankenstein, she succeeded admirably in the task she set for herself: to create a story that, in her own words, “would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror — one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens.

Published in 2018, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. Published in 1985, this is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
*Book summaries are from Amazon.com

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