Upper School Summer Work

Overview:

Read and annotate Kwame Alexander’s Swing. As you read, complete the four tasks below.

Your work will be submitted in hard copy (a printed version) and in Google doc (a digital version). Please bring a printed copy of your work to class on the first day of school. When you arrive in class on the first day, you will share the document with your teacher and submit it to TurnItIn, a plagiarism checking software.

Steps:

1. Annotate: While reading Kwame Alexander’s novel, Swing, track your responses, thoughts, feelings, and questions as you read. This “tracking” is called annotation. Annotation is a method used to help you engage directly and deeply with a text. Use a pencil and/or highlighter to underline, comment, and take notes in the book itself. You will be expected to annotate all texts read in English IX. Ultimately, this will help you move from being a passive reader to an active reader.

2. Create a Google Doc, and name it like this: [Last Name] Summer Reading (example: Turner Summer Reading). You will place tasks 3 and 4 inside this shared Google Doc.

3. Choose three poems, one from the beginning, one from the middle, and one from the end (to demonstrate that you read and understood the novel). For each of the three poems you have selected, write a one-paragraph reflection on why the poem stands out to you.  Questions you might consider in your paragraph: What is the tone/mood? What language is being used to help convey the mood? Why is this piece important to the overall text? What figurative language is used?  What does this piece tell us about the character or plot? Why did you choose this poem?  Why is it important to you? (You do not need to answer all of these questions; consider them as a guideline for your writing).
4. Write your own narrative poem, inspired by the style of Alexander in Swing. Your poem should include one experience, interaction, or moment from your summer. Just as Alexander’s poetry captures his lived experiences, your poem should provide your teacher with a window into one or more things that you are feeling at a moment in time. You may be asked to share some or all of this poem in class.

English X

You are required to read one book:

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

• You will take a test (potentially including multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and quote analysis) on this book, and you should expect to discuss the book and write about it during the first weeks of school. It is recommended that you annotate the text, including notes on each chapter.

English X: Environmental Focus

Students in this class will read a set of readings including writing by Bernrd Heinrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Frederick Franck and Kate Davies. In addition to carefully reading these texts, students will follow up the readings with reflective writing, conversations or actions. These readings and experiences will form the foundations for opening discussions and be used to help to establish the goals and habits of the class when we begin the class in September. 

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge
• The Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (pp. 3-47)
• Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times by Kate Davies (pp. 73-87)

• Summerworld by Bernd Heinrich: "Wood Frogs" (29-43), "Mud Daubers and Behavior," "The Blues" (67-81), and "The Hummingbird and the Woodpecker" (141-152).

English XI Students

You are required to read An American Marriage by Tayani Jones.

As you read, consider the following questions:

• How does the book explore and develop ideas of family, home and sense of place? 
• How does the book portray the structures and systems that maintain this power? 
• How do race, stereotyping, and systems of power and privilege affect the characters, their decisions and their responses to the situations that they are confronted with?
• What is justice? What are the causes of injustice? What are the effects of injustice, both for individuals and for groups of people? 
• How do characters’ aspirations and the promise of America exist in relation to the challenges and tensions of the worlds in which they live?

There will be an assessment (potentially including short-answer questions, timed writing prompts, and quote analysis) on this book, and you should expect to discuss it and write about it during the first weeks of school. It is recommended that you annotate the text, including notes on each chapter. 

American Studies Students

You are required to read two books and create a personal/individualized response. 

1. Disgruntled by Asali Solomon

2. Parts of Difficult Conversations

Writing assignments and details are here.

AP English Students

You are required to read three books:

1. An American Marriage by Tayani Jones
2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Begin by reading The Grapes of Wrath, paying particular attention to how Steinbeck depicts the similarities and differences, the connections and disjunctions, between characters and communities. Note the images and symbols associated with migrants and those used to describe characters with power. Question how characters react when they encounter systems of power and how ideological beliefs and practical considerations affect decisions and attitudes. When you read An American Marriage, compare and contrast Jones’ depictions of individuals with Steinbeck's by considering the following questions: How do characters in both texts define "home"? How is the "other" or "outsider" depicted? How are characters affected by notions of home, identity and success in search of a better life?

Next year, we will focus on how authors use literary techniques to further his or her meaning and to explore key concepts connected with the American experience. In preparation for this study, please note how Steinbeck and Jones use literary strategies to accomplish their narrative and thematic goals. Pay particular attention to their use of description (especially figurative language), motif and theme.

There will be assessments (potentially including short answer questions, timed writing prompts, quote analyses, and/or essays) on these books, and you should expect to discuss them and write about them during the first weeks of school. It is recommended that you annotate the texts, including notes on each chapter.
 

AP U.S. History

Part I 

Read and take notes on chapters 1 and 2 from your textbook, Nancy A. Hewitt and Steven F. Lawson, Exploring American Histories (3rd edition). 

While there is no required form for notetaking, students must have titles of chapters and all subheadings clearly written and underlined, as well as some space in the margin or between headings for additional in-class notes. Students' notes should also include definitions of all terms in bold throughout the text. Students should come prepared with a hard copy of their notes on the first day of class. 

Part II 

Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, (New York: Vintage Books, 1999). Paperback form of this text can be from Amazon. 

Students should annotate this book as they read. Specifically, I should see evidence of your thinking, beyond highlighting and underlining, throughout the book. Write ideas or questions in the margin and write brief summary statements at the end of each chapter. 

Answer the following questions with textual evidence (include page numbers even if you are not using a direct quotation). 

1. How did the relationship between the Wampanoag and English settlers change over time? What role does perception play in the evolution of this relationship? 

2. How is national identity constructed? According to Lepore, what role do war and memory play in the construction of national identity? 

3. How does Lepore's treatment of 17th century New England, specifically King Philip's War, compare to that of Exploring American Histories? 

English XII

Students in English XII are required to read and, where stipulated, write:

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

• There will be an assessment (potentially including short-answer questions, timed writing prompts, and quote analysis) on this book, and you should expect to discuss it and write about it during the first weeks of school. It is recommended that you annotate the text, including notes on each chapter. 

• Read with a pen in hand; as you read, underline and annotate key passages, ideas and character developments.  

• Additionally, you will discuss this book in class, and you will write an essay about it.

• To prepare for discussion and the essay, select one of the following ideas below and track it as you read. In doing so, collect (and type up) two quotations per major character – Henry, Mike, Pella, Owen, Guert (10 quotations total that will be collected the first day of class) – that relate to your chosen idea:  

  • the good life/meaning of life

  • relationships: friendship/platonic/love/lust

  • the pursuit of perfection

  • to what extent does each character’s definition of what’s important/success change?

  • the individual quest for truth or happiness

  • the idea of “thoughtless being”

  • what do we owe ourselves and what do we owe other people?

  • the outward self/inward self and seems vs. is

Advanced English XII

Students in Advanced English XII, you are required to read three books and, where stipulated, write:

1. Camus, The Stranger [ISBN: 9780679720201]

2. Kafka, The Metamorphosis [ISBN: 0553213695]

3. Sartre, No Exit [ISBN: 9780679725169]

Please note the ISBN numbers and get the correct versions; this is important as these are works in translation.

As you read, be sure to annotate your texts carefully, as you will be assessed on your textual notes.  In addition to your standard annotations, be sure to track the following in detail:

• Questioning existence

• Time

• The individual vs being part of a whole of humanity

• Importance of setting

• Notions of regret and remorse