This 3 Page Reading History Will Be Worth 75 Points

SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT and READING LIST FALL 2013 Ms. DiSavino

Welcome to English 12H!

I look forward to a great year of reading classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction. Your summer reading assignments consist of reading two books and completing one writing assignment.

Part One

All students will read How Reading Changed my Life by Anna Quindlen and compose a personal reading history which will be collected on the first day of school - September 9, 2013.

This 3 page reading history will be worth 75 points.

This assignment will serve a number of purposes – it will allow me to get an immediate sense of who you are as a reader and a writer. It will also provide you with an opportunity to reflect on your relationship with the written word.

As you write your reading history, you may use the following guiding questions as entry points. Feel free to choose the ones that appeal to you.

 Inquire. Our relationship with written language begins long before we can read or write. Ask family members about your connection with books before you started to read. Did you have a favorite read aloud book? Do you still own it?

 Investigate. Can a family member remember any specific anecdote(s) about your relationship with books pre-kindergarten?

 Recall. Attempt to remember what it was like to first crack the code of the written word. How did it feel to understand that letters symbolize sounds, which in turn, represent objects and concepts and narrative? What was it like for you to experience the paradigm shift of becoming literate?

 If you had to choose one word to describe your relationship with the written word, what would that be?

 What portion of your childhood did the act of reading inhabit, and how did it shape the young adult you have become?

 Who were the most memorable characters to populate the novels you loved, and how have you climbed inside their minds and imagined their experiences?

 Weigh in on Sven Birkerts’ assertion that “technology has interfered with our essential understanding of a complex text.” Do you agree or disagree? How has technology affected your relationship with traditional paperback and hardcover books?

 To what exotic (or pedestrian) destination did you travel in your reading adventures?  To what degree does the paradoxical nature of reading (making “immigrants of us all” while “finding homes for us everywhere”) inform your intellectual life?

When drafting, consider your organizing principle – for example, would you like to sequence your history chronologically, or structure it by books read in and out of school, or consider books given to you by particular people? The possibilities are endless. Just be sure to consider which organizing principle will best serve your purpose. Feel free to put your personal stamp on this composition.

Finally, let me exhort you to resist the urge to leave this assignment for the evening of September 8th. Do your best work. Give yourself a week between writing and revision, and revise meticulously.

In addition to the task outlined above, begin preparing a short list (like Quindlen’s lists, but five books instead of ten). Your list can be based on any principle you choose, and will be shared with the class for our first blog post. The more original, the better. More on this during the first week of school.

Part Two

In addition to reading Quindlen, you will select a memoir from the following list. Be prepared to demonstrate understanding of your chosen text.

Books with an asterisk are either about or by a writer we will read in class:

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

*Mary Shelly by Muriel Spark

*Vindication by Frances Sherwood

*Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

*Remembering the Bone House by Nancy Mairs

The Winged Seed by Li-Young Lee

Just Kids by Patti Smith

This Boy’s Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff

*If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien

*Dust Tracks on the Road by Zora Neale Hurston

*Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf

*Hunger of Memory : The Education of Richard Rodriquez by Richard Rodriquez

*In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

*Cooked by Michael Pollan I wish you all a relaxing summer filled with adventures on and off the page. See you in September!