American Literature s1

English 11 American Literature Summer Assignment

Student Name: ______

Need help? [email protected] (917) 828-3914 Hello!

Hello future juniors! What a year you have coming up! Please read this packet carefully, as it contains several deadlines for you. The first deadline is before you even leave school for this year.

All of these grades will be tracked and entered into the gradebook as your first grades for Trimester 1. If you don’t believe me, ask a current senior. Do this summer work! It is easy stuff that should introduce us to each other and should be a nice little boost for you to start your year off well. 100% on summer work is a great boost to start your grade for the year, 0% is a terrible hole to dig yourself out of.

You are juniors now, and I expect that you will behave with personal responsibility. If for any reason submitting work by the deadlines below is a problem you need to see me, text me, or email me at least 48 hours before the deadline. If you have a last minute panic and tell me on the deadline or after the deadline that something went wrong with your technology, you didn’t know about it, etc, I will point to this paper.

Due Date Checklist:

By June 16 (this year!!!!) – sign up for an edmodo account and have me confirm that you have joined the group. (+5 bonus points if this is done by June 12, +5 bonus points if you come introduce yourself to me before the end of the school year and ask me a question).

Summer Dates

July 7 – 1st personal reflection July 14 – 2nd personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work July 21 – 3rd personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work July 28 – 4th personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work July 4 – 5th personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work August 11 – 6th personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work August 18 - 2 comments on other scholars’ work, reflection if you took an off week August 25 – reflections/comments if you took any off weeks

1st day of school 2017-2018 – summer reading due and summer reading test. Assignment 1: Student Blog/Journal

Personal Reflections (6 – 1 per week with 2 off weeks):

Each week, you will write a personal reflection that is 300-500 words long responding to the question:

Topic and Outline: What does it mean to be an American?

1. Your responses will be due each Friday. After the Friday of each week the assignment will be locked. 2. You have 6 responses and 8 weeks total, so you may choose two off weeks.

Grading: Your writing should be of the same quality that I expect in class. While this is a more relaxed atmosphere and there is some room to be creative, creative and poor quality are not the same thing.

You will be graded on the following.

____The response addresses the question. ____The response is new and thoughtful (the response is not a repeat from a previous week). ____The response has been edited for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. ____The response meets length requirements without being repetitive, superfluous, or off topic.

Suggestions:

Stuck on your writing? Some places to get started might be…

1. Where does your family come from? Are they/you “Americans”? 2. What does race, history, ethnicity, skin color, or heritage have to do with being American? 3. Has the definition of American changed? 4. What do our leaders/politicians/public figures/celebrities have to do with being American? 5. What are things you like or don’t like about being American? 6. What happened today to make you think about this? (Did you see someone homeless? Visit a new place in America? Enjoy some American foods? Enjoy some American freedoms, etc?) 7. What is happening in the news right now that is important to being an American or important to defining what an American is?

Responses to Me/Your Peers (12 – 2 per week with 2 off weeks):

Each week you will also choose two posts to respond to with a comment that is at least 50 words long.

Grading: ______Comments are positive or constructive. ______Comments are specific. ______Comments are new and thoughtful (without repeating others or the original poster)

Suggestions: Agree or disagree and explain why. Compare it to your own experience. Ask clarifying questions about the response. Assignment 1: Student Blog/Journal

Getting Started:

Go to https://www.edmodo.com/index?pcode=8wr4xx - you will then get the following screen.

Make sure you are trying to sign into a student account. Provide the following information (email is optional). Usernames should be school appropriate and it should be clear who you are/what your real name is (it’s tough to give you credit if you don’t use your real name).

From your home screen make sure you are in the Class of 2019 Summer Work group.

Your assignment for the week can be written directly in the box or type a word document and attach it. Under each assignment that is turned in, you can type a reply – this is where your responses to classmates will go.

Due Dates

By June 16 (this year!!!!) – sign up for an edmodo account and have me confirm that you have joined the group. (+5 bonus points if this is done by June 12).

Summer Dates

July 7 – 1st personal reflection July 14 – 2nd personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work July 21 – 3rd personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work July 28 – 4th personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work July 4 – 5th personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work August 11 – 6th personal reflection and 2 comments on other scholars’ work August 18 - 2 comments on other scholars’ work, reflection if you took an off week August 25 – reflections/comments if you took any off weeks Assignment 2: Summer Reading

Required reading this summer is both novels The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Other Wes Moore

Grading

In your first week back at school next year you will have a test on both of the novels. During the test you may use any notes or annotations that you take on the book. So, while there is no official assignment that goes with the text for the summer, it would be smart to annotate or keep a book journal.

Smart things to look for

______Main Characters ______Summary of the plot ______Major Themes ______Symbols and Motifs

Other things worth thinking about

How do these novels fit into our themes from this year about being an outcast/outsider/monster/a part of the minority or subordinate culture?

How do these novels fit into our themes for next year of what it means to be an American?

Plagiarism: I am only concerned with your responses. You cannot improve your reading or thinking skills if you rely on others to do the thinking for you. Do not take someone (person or internet) else’s ideas or analysis and try to pass them off as your own ideas.

If you use another source to support your thinking or as an inspiration point, you must give the source due credit by citing it properly using MLA style. Additionally, the source must then be supported and explained by your own thinking.

If you use another source to complete your summer work and do not credit it properly or attempt to pass it off as your own work, you will receive a failing grade and be suspended. Short Intro to Ms. Wright

Hello!

Your friends know me as Ms. Wright but by the time you and I are together in the classroom I will be Mrs. Hartley. Some things will be new for all of us!

I teach because I love books and I love sharing them. Although I loved studying English at university, I didn’t like the idea of being a professor because I thought it would be too isolating. I really wanted to get a chance to know the people that I would be teaching, so instead of teaching at university I chose to teach high school.

I teach at Bronx Prep because I know I was incredibly lucky in my own public school education, and I think it’s unfair that I have to consider myself “lucky” that I got a good education. When I graduated from university my first job was teaching in a psychiatric hospital, for kids who had some mental health problems to work through and who were out of school for extended amounts of time. Working in the hospital made me realize how different my educational experience was from some people who grew up in some of the surrounding towns. I was angry and disappointed that the high schoolers I saw could not write a complete sentence or complete basic math equations. I felt that they were being cheated out of opportunities that had just been handed to me. Working in the hospital changed where I wanted to teach. I had thought I wanted to teach in a nice quiet town like the one I grew up in, but meeting all the teenagers at the hospital I saw that I couldn’t be happy knowing that I ignored and allowed this cycle to continue.

I’m spending my summer getting my master’s degree and marrying this goof (hence the name change). I can’t wait to meet all of you and see you in August!

Sincerely, Ms. Wright