Honors English II Summer 2018 Assignment Due Friday, August 17
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Honors English II Summer 2018 Assignment Due Friday, August 17 Emerson Work Read “An American Scholar” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (available at www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm). Write a brief essay (around 500 words) about your status as an American scholar. How do you meet Emerson’s criteria? On what aspect of scholarship do you most need to work? Please note that this assignment is not a summary of Emerson’s speech. It is an essay about you and your understanding of your journey to becoming an American scholar. Purposes: For your instructor to learn more about you, how you think, what you value, your hopes and expectations For your instructor to appraise your gifts of written expression and to begin to assess areas of focus for honing your skills For you to think about, formulate, and express ideas about both content and the writing process For you to engage in intellectual conversation with peers Format: Word-process in 12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced Name in upper right corner of page one—no cover page Additional specific instructions for full submission will be given the first week of school Choice Novel Read an independent novel of literary merit that you have not read before and that is written by an American author. Your instructor’s decision about what constitutes literary merit is final. Minimum of 300 pages (may be two books to total over 300 pages). The TWHS English Department recommends that you actually read about 200 pages a week of challenging material to continue growth in reading over the summer; however, we’re just requiring 300 pages for the entire summer. The Scarlet Letter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or The Great Gatsby will NOT count for credit for this project. -over, please- You will need access to the books during that first week or so of school. Must be one of the following approved authors . Any American winner of one of the following major literary prizes o Pulitzer Prize for fiction o Nobel Prize for literature o National Book Award for adult fiction . One of the following other major American writers o Amy Tan Willa Cather o James Baldwin Ralph Ellison o Edith Wharton Zora Neale Hurston o Pearl Buck Eudora Welty o Truman Capote Elizabeth Strout o James Fenimore Cooper Herman Melville o Stephen Crane Kurt Vonnegut o Tim O’Brien Richard Wright o Geraldine Brooks Washington Irving o Louisa May Alcott Barbara Kingsolver o Anne Tyler Julia Alvarez Write a one-page response to the book (typed double-spaced Times New Roman 12-font) in which you discuss an important theme of the work and your response to that theme. Do not summarize the book. You may want to make sure that you have access to the book as school begins; additional work with the novel will be assigned in August. Do not use supplementary materials to understand the text. Select a new book if it’s that hard. Your use of supplemental materials will earn you a zero for this grade. QUESTIONS? Email Ms. Kelsten at [email protected] if you have any questions about your summer assignment. Please allow up to one week for a response. .