Summer Reading and Writing Assignments
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Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Summer Reading and Writing Assignments The following assignments are required for the course. If you cannot complete them, go to the guidance office right now and arrange to take another English course. If you do not complete these assignments, you cannot take the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition course. AP Language and Composition is a prerequisite for AP Literature and Composition IF AND ONLY IF YOU ARE TAKING BOTH COURSES FOR RACC CREDIT. Part 1: READING The lists below are suggestions only. If you would like to read a title not included on these lists, clear it with me first. In all, you will read 6 pieces and complete a poet study. 1. Shakespearean Tragedy -- Hamlet is required unless you have read it for another class. If so, choose Macbeth, Othello, or King Lear . 2. Modern Drama (Choose one.) The Children's Hour or The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman Suddenly Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, or Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Pygmalion or Major Barbara by G.B.Shaw Equus by Peter Shaffer The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill The Crucible or Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansbury Our Town by Thornton Wilder The Odd Couple by Neil Simon The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Miss Julie by August Strindberg The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre Endgame by Samuel Beckett The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco 3. Classic British novel (Choose one.) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Lord of the Flies by William Golding Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Moll Flanders or Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Dracula by Bram Stoker 1984 by George Orwell Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift The Time Machine by H.G. Wells Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (con’t on next page) Silas Mariner, Middlemarch by George Eliot The Once and Future King by T.H. White Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Watership Down, The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens On the Beach by Nevil Shute 4. Classic American novel (Choose one.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury My Antonia by Willa Cather Walden by H.D. Thoreau The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Awakening by Kate Chopin The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton The Turn of the Screw by Henry James On the Road by Jack Kerouac Catch-22 by Joseph Heller The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane Moby Dick, Billy Budd by Herman Melville The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner 5. and 6. Contemporary literature (Choose two.) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey The Color Purple by Alice Walker I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Beloved, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Mama Day by Gloria Naylor The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, Roots by Alex Haley Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris A Lesson before Dying, A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines Native Son by Richard Wright The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler Crime and Punishment by Dostoievsky The Stranger by Albert Camus Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Collector by John Fowles The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (con’t on next page) One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn She's Come Undone, I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb Hotel New Hampshire, The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules by John Irving Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell The Witches of Eastwick, Rabbit Run by John Updike The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx The Postman by David Brin I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart A Gracious Plenty, Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Grendel by John Gardner (companion piece to Beowulf) Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold The Firefly, Circle of Friends, etc. by Mauve Binchy The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells Ordinary People by Judith Guest Blessings, Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ( an interesting companion piece to Jane Eyre) Foe by J.M. Coetzee ( an interesting companion piece to Robinson Crusoe) Contact by Carl Sagan 7. Poetry -- Choose a poet. Read ten poems by that poet. Become an expert on him/her. Choose carefully. Find a poet who really speaks to you. Part 2: WRITING A double-entry journal of 8 x11 1/2 (notebook) sized pages is required. Each journal must cover the entire book . Include a minimum of ten pages (one side of the paper only) per work read. Be sure to go beyond the plot. Don’t retell the story. Respond to the text. Be critical. Discuss theme, personal connections, characterization, setting, style, mood, the film version. Try to develop your voice in this assignment. Use the left side for recording character information, quotes, details, and summaries that you’d like to remember. Use the right side for personal reactions, thoughts, predictions, and questions. Complete the journal as you read. A good plan would be to write in your books, use post-it notes, or stop after a period of reading and write. Date and label your entries. Include page numbers or chapters. For the poetry, include copies of the poems that you read. Write a reflection about your chosen poet/poems. Include information on sounds devices, forms, poetic terms, etc when applicable. Write an original poem that defines who you are. This section has no minimum length requirement. DUE DATE(S) AND MISCELLANY The summer reading journal will be due on the first Friday in September that we have school. If you are taking Advanced Placement Language and Composition in addition to the Lit. course, your summer reading assignment will be due the first Friday in December. It is your responsibility to deliver your journal to me in Room N103 or to ask the office personnel to put it in my mailbox. It's very important that you complete the summer reading in a timely manner. Responsibility is expected from you when you sign up for an Advanced Placement course. No late work will be accepted in this course. If you fail to complete the summer reading requirement, you should immediately inform guidance to make a schedule change for you. Check out popular book sites like The College Board, Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc. for other suggestions. You are not bound by titles or authors as long as you meet the requirements and you can justify the credibility of the work and/or author. Err on the side of caution, however; contact me if you would like to read something NOT on this list. We all love Stephen King and John Grisham, but they are not acceptable authors for this assignment. Be wary of popular fiction. I’d like you to read materials which are more challenging than your usual leisure reading choices. If in doubt about your choices, or if you have a question about anything regarding the course, feel free to email me at [email protected] or contact me through facebook. Also, If you would like to send me an email attachment with a sample journal entry (to make sure you are on the right track), feel free to do so. I will respond with comments. You are not required to do this, but it might provide some confidence if you are unsure about your efforts. If you have any problems or concerns, please, please contact me. I am here to help you in any way possible. .