World of Inquiry School Summer Reading Assignment 8th grade

Teachers: Ms. Gabrielle Graves

Email: [email protected]

Ms. Graves Cell: 585-319-1462

All World of Inquiry 8th grade students are expected to complete two summer readings. Both readings this summer are independent reads, which should be selected from the list provided to you. Each student must read a fiction and non-fiction text this summer. Summer reading novels may be checked out of the library as well as purchased new or used. If asked early enough, I would gladly lend families books. Be prompt in getting a copy of the novel in order to complete your reading and assignments before returning to school in the September.

A. Mandatory: One Fiction Novel and one Non-fiction Book

 During Reading:  Complete 3 Independent Reading journal entries for each book.  Take notes and plot important details as you read your selected books.

 After Reading:  Complete a Book Talk for each of the 2 books you’ve read. See assignment attached. B. Fiction and Non-fiction Book Choices – Choose books from list that follows and complete three “journal” entries as described below.

INDEPENDENT READING JOURNAL ENTRY OPTIONS – CHECKLIST

Directions: Select any 2 independent reading books from the list of options provided to you. One must be a non-fiction text and the other can be a work of fiction. After completing approximately 20-25 minutes of Independent Reading, please fulfill one of the following tasks. This is designed to actively engage you with your reading. You may only complete each task one time. Each written entry should be at least 8-10 sentences. Please include the date, which entry you are doing and how many pages you read as a heading for your journal entry. You must complete at least 3 entries for each book before returning to school in September.

Dates Completed Options: You may write a… Checklist: Book1 Book2  Summary

 Letter to the author

 Letter to a character from the book

 Prediction – What will happen next?

 Set of at least 7-10 questions… create your own quiz

 Close reading analysis – pick 1 paragraph to discuss

 Pick 5 literary terms and connect to the novel

 Quick write on a topic you choose

 Character analysis

 KWL – 5 things per column

 Choose 7-10 unknown words from the reading and find definitions

 Draw and explain a scene from the reading

 Compare/Contrast paragraph with another book you have read

 Comic Strip  Quote from the book – identify subject & speaker, explain the meaning

 Create dialogue between two characters

 Diary entry as a chosen character

 “Dear Abby” – offer advice to a character

 Advertisement/commercial for the book

 Plot-structure – (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution)

 Alternative part – re-write any section of the book

 Poem or song lyrics (can be original) that relate to the book

 Collage of pictures, photos, or words depicting the book

 Re-design the book cover

 Mock newspaper or magazine article about the book

 Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, Text-to-World

 Any other ideas? Let me know!

*Be creative and insightful!* Possible Independent Reading Book List for incoming 8th Grade

Roc Read Selections . How to Beat the Bully Without Really Trying, Scott Starkey . Hunger Games (Any title from Series), Suzanne Collins . The Limit, Kristen Landon . The Midwife’s Apprentice, Karen Cushman . The Pirates (Any title from Series), Gideon Defoe . Ruby Red, Kerstin Geir . The Scorpio Races, Maggie Steifvater

Fantasy . Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini . Summerland by Michael Chabon . The Warrior Heir by Cinda Chima . The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman . Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen by Garth Nix . Airborne, Skybreaker, and Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel . The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud . Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer . Three Wee Men and Nation by Terry Pratchet . Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones . The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart Science Fiction . The Ender Series by Orson Scott Card . Feed by M.T. Anderson . The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick . Little Brother Cory Doctorow . The Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson . Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson . Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements Realistic Fiction . 13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher . Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd . Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli . A Step from Heaven by An Na . Skellig by David Almond . The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Brashares . Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech . When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt . Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl . Pinned, by Sharon G. Flake . Bronx Masquerade, by Nikky Grimes . Ambitious: A premiere High School Novel, by Monica McKayhan . Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers . Monster, by Walter Dean Myers . Sunrise Over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers . Stuck in Nuetral, by Terry Trueman Historical Fiction . Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper . The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Vol. I & II by M.T. Anderson . Black Duck by Janet Lisle . The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak . True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi . The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara . Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell . A Long Way From Chicago, by Richard Peck

Non-Fiction . The Pact, by Drs.Samson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt . Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, by Ben Carson . Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass . African Princess: The Amazing Life of Africa’s Royal Women . We Beat the Streets, by Drs.Samson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt . Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe . The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson . Escape from Camp 14, by Blaine Harden . A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer . Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson . In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson . Up from Slavery, by Booker T. Washington . Black Boy, by Richard Wright . The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley and Malcolm X . Why We Can’t Wait, by Martin Luther King Jr. . Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, By Susan Cain . I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou . Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan . Unbroken, by Laura Hillebrand . Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser . Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of Mt. Everest, by Jon Krakauer . The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester . Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester . Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection, by Simon Winchester . The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan . We Are All the Same: The Story of a Boy’s Courage and a Mother’s Love, by Jim Wooten . The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank . The Whole Shebang, by Timothy Ferris . Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger . Breaking Through, by Francisco Jimenez . Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai . Discovering Wes Moore, by Wes Moore . What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, by James Paul Gee . Rookie Year One or Rookie Year Two, by Tavi Gevinson . The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell . Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, by H.D. Bissinger . Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell . American Sniper, by Chris Kyle Book Talk Assignment and Rubric Grade 7 going into 8th

Your Book Talk assignment involves delivering a 3 minute book talk to the class about the novel you have read for independent reading. The object of a book talk is to convince the listener to read the book you are recommending. This book talk is essentially a persuasive speech to convince the listener that they should read a specific book. A book talk is very similar to a trailer for a film, which shows you just enough information to convince you that you should watch the movie

Your presentation must include a visual aid, such as a drawing, collage, map, original book cover, etc to present to the audience. You may use notes to make your presentation. The book talk will cover the some elements of the novel, but you should focus much of your time on the plot and conflict of the novel.

Introduction: Find an interesting, exciting, or mysterious quote to start off your presentation. This quote will get the reader’s attention. Don’t just pick any old quote… choose carefully and deliberately to try to capture the attention of the audience Also explain why you chose the quote.. Clearly introduce your book by giving the name and author of the book.

Middle: The middle of the presentation will cover the setting, characters, and plot of the book without giving too much away of the story. Tell a little where the book is set, what kind of action or conflict is involved in the book, and what it is about in general. See if you can mention the theme of the novel. Under no circumstances should you give away the ending of the novel. Do not just list the characters and the setting and don’t give a drawn out summary of the book. .

Resolution: Without giving away the ending, convince the reader that you loved this book and that this is the book they want to read next. Make some predictions which student in the class would enjoy the book.

An example of a short book talks on The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

1. “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”

So begins the story of Nobody Owens, known as Bod. On the night his parents are brutally murdered, 2 year old Bod calmly climbs out of his crib and toddles out of the house and into a nearby cemetery. There he is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens (childless and dead for 250 years!) who gladly care for the child and protect him from harm.

With loving ghostly parents, teachers, friends, and protectors, Bod grows from age two to fifteen in the graveyard. He learns to read and do numbers, and he also learns some ghostly skills. But not all the residents of the graveyard are friendly. There are witches, ghouls and creatures and let’s not forget Jack – the evil fiend who is out to finish the job he started.

Filled with great illustrations, this is a funny, exciting and suspenseful story. How will Bod survive? Or will he? Can his loving family and friends really protect him from the evil Jack? This delightfully gruesome and very English tale will certainly appeal to both boys and girls who like adventure stories, suspense and some action. The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Award in 2009, and the awards said that the book is a “delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humour and human longing,” according to Diane Ferbrache, Hazen High School Librarian for The Washington Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, 2011. Name:______College:______Rubric for Book Talk

Criteria Excellent Above Average Average Below Average 20 - 16 15 - 10 10 - 7 0 - 6 Introduction Exceptional Creative Not a very Not a very good attracts audience creative beginning with a creative or beginning with no beginning with an good quote interesting quote excellent quote beginning with a quote Maintains eye Always maintains Almost always Sometimes Never maintains contact eye contact and maintains eye maintains eye eye contact engages audience contact contact Discusses the plot, Thorough and Somewhat Average summary Does not setting, and interesting thorough and of the elements summarize these characters summary of these interesting elements or is elements. summary of these missing a elements component. Discusses the Correctly Correctly Discusses theme Does not discuss theme discusses theme discusses theme but is incorrect or theme or makes a and makes an but fails to not very thorough very general educated elaborate on the in their statement about argument for the importance elaboration of the theme. theme of the novel theme Conclusion makes Very enticing Somewhat Concluded but Very boring us want to read conclusion – interesting did not draw the conclusion or no the book (or not draws the listener conclusion- listener to read conclusion at all. read the book) to read the book listener might the book want to read the book Demonstrates Very enthusiastic Somewhat Shows average Not enthusiastic enthusiasm for and enthusiastic and enthusiasm and at all the book knowledgeable knowledgeable understanding Audible Voice is clear, Voice is mostly Sometimes hard Spoken word is words are clear and audible, to understand or too soft, mumble, pronounced Pronunciation is hear the student. speaking much correctly and mostly correct. Mispronounces too fast or slow. tempo is good. common words. Visual aid Visual aid is well Visual aid is Visual aid is Visual aid is not done, colorful, colorful, and completed and done or very and very helpful helpful to the might be helpful poorly done to the presentation to the presentation presentation Stays within time Within time limit Too short or too limit 3 minutes long

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