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WARREN HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT Warren Hills Regional High School 2014 Required English Summer Assignment

Grades 9-12 [with the exception of Honors and AP] Directions:

1. Choose one book from the list on page two. Make sure you are choosing a book for the grade you will be entering next year.

2. As you read, keep a Reader’s Journal. For this journal you will create 5 entries that will be collected and graded by your English teacher the first week of school. Each journal entry will be worth 10 points. The assignment as a whole will be worth 50 points.

What is a Reader’s Journal?

A Reader’s Journal is basically a series of responses in which you relate to or interact with the text in some way. For example, you may choose to relate something in the book you are reading to yourself, another book, a current event, a movie, the world in general, etc. Your journal entries should reflect different parts of the book to show a complete reading.

Example (The following is an example of a Reader’s Journal entry.):

While reading page 198 in Catcher in the Rye where Holden starts talking about never wanting to go home again, it made me feel sad. Holden did not want to face the consequences of his parents discovering that he was kicked out of school. This reminds me of the time that I broke my mother’s favorite vase and tried to hide the pieces, so she wouldn’t know. I was so upset about breaking something important to her that I did not know what to do. When I look back at it now, I know I should have admitted it and faced the consequence. You have to own up to your mistakes and be brave about it; I wish Holden would realize that.

Format:

Each journal entry should be a fully developed paragraph (about 1/3 to ½ a page in length double-spaced if typed). Refer to the rubric on page 3 for specific grading criteria.

Due Date:

The summer assignment’s Reader’s Journal is due the first day of school.

If there are any questions on the summer assignment, please contact Mr. Dennison, Supervisor of English and Social Studies, at [email protected]. 2

WARREN HILLS REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL BOOK LIST

Students entering Ninth Grade, choose one of the following:

1. The Help – Kathryn Stockett - Three extraordinary women's determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women–mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends–view one another. 2. The Bottom of the 33rd – Dan Barry - On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. What began as a modestly attended minor-league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings became not only the longest ever played in baseball history, but something else entirely. 3. Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog – John Grogan - Labrador retrievers are generally considered even-tempered, calm and reliable; and then there's Marley, the subject of this delightful tribute to one Lab who doesn't fit the mold. Dog lovers will love this account of Grogan's much-loved canine. 4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selnick - Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy.

Students entering Tenth Grade, choose one of the following:

1. Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dream – H.G. Bissinger - The classic, best-selling story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas, with a new afterword that looks at the players and the town ten years later. 2. Dreamland – Sarah Dessen - After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous. 3. Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America – Steve Almond - A self-professed candy freak, Steve Almond setout in search of a much- loved candy from his childhood and found himself on a tour of the small candy companies that are persevering in a marketplace where big corporations dominate. Candyfreak is the delicious story of one man’s lifelong obsession with candy and his quest to discover its origins in America. 4. Maus – Art Spiegelman - A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself. 3

Students entering Eleventh Grade, choose one of the following:

1. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom - Albom traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life. 2. Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser - An award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. 3. Girl with the Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier - the story of 16-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius, even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil. Through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Griet, the world of 1660s Holland comes dazzlingly alive in this richly imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings. 4. Rocket Boys – Homer J. Hickman, Jr. - Inspired by Werner von Braun and his Cape Canaveral team, 14-year-old Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets. He grew up to be a NASA engineer and his memoir of the bumpy ride toward a gold medal at the National Science Fair in 1960--an unprecedented honor for a miner's kid--is rich in humor as well as warm sentiment.

Students entering Twelfth Grade, choose one of the following:

1. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – Mary Roach - Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies after death. 2. Please Stop Laughing at Me – Jodee Blanco - While other kids were daydreaming about dances, first kisses, and college, Jodee Blanco was just trying to figure out how to get from homeroom to study hall without being taunted or spit upon as she walked through the halls. 3. Accomplice – Eireann Corrigan - High school juniors Chloe and Finn have been best friends since fourth grade, when city-girl Chloe moved from the city to Finn's small hometown. Now that they are ready to apply for college, they are learning that all of the good grades, clubs, and volunteer hours may not be enough to get them accepted to a prestigious university, and they come up with a plan for a different way to get noticed -- they will fake Chloe's kidnapping. 4. Payback Time– Carl Deuker - Daniel True is invisible at his high school. No one even calls him by his real name. The fact that he is overweight has earned him the nickname "Mitch," short for Michelin Man. Mitch is a journalist, covering sports for his school paper, and even getting a few bylines in the local paper. When he uncovers a scandal involving one of the varsity football players, his investigative journalism reaches new levels of danger and intrigue, and he is are determined to get to the bottom of the story. 4

WARREN HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

2014 Required English Summer Assignment Rubric

Grades 9-12 [with the exception of Honors and AP]

STUDENT: ______

1. Five journal entries were completed.

2. Each journal entry was at least one fully developed paragraph, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 a page in length.

3. The journal entries were relevant to the text and showed an attempt to connect and to interact with the text. (Refer to the example on page one for ideas.)

4. The journal entries were from different sections of the book and reflect a full reading of the text.

TOTAL POINTS AWARDED: ______

TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE: 50______