Rationale (used for novels only)

Summer Reading Unit 1 Book Title: Lord of the Flies

Grade Level and Audience / Age Plot Summary: Appropriateness: Marooned on a tropical island, a group of British schoolboys are left to fend for themselves, unsupervised by any adults. At first, the boys enjoy their freedom, playing and exploring the island, but soon the group splits into 10th grade Pre-AP and Academic English two factions -- those who attempt to preserve the discipline and order they had learned from society, and those who choose to give in to every instinct and impulse, no matter how barbaric. Literary Merit: Lord of the Flies has been a perennial favorite since its first publication in 1954, and this excellent novel is a deserved staple of school reading lists. Golding keeps his prose unadorned and straightforward, and the result is a page-turning entertainment, as well as a highly thought-provoking work of literature.

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Objections: Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal with sensitive subject matter. If a Brief Scenes of Violence parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following: Bullying Death  read the novel in its entirety  meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel will be taught in the class (phone or in person)

If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration.

Learning Goals: Alternative Texts Must:  Students will be able to analyze message that Lord of the Flies  Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher. delivery about the importance of a  include vigorous vocabulary system of law and order for  be a dystopian literature of at least 200 pages maintaining civilization?  Address the following thematic ideas: identity, power, youth, fear, and morality

 Students will discuss the significance of the universal truths about human nature present in The Lord of the Flies.

 Students will identify the characteristics of leadership are unveiled in Lord of the Flies and use evidence of these characteristics to support the evaluation of different leaders in the text.

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 2 Book Title: A Long Way Gone Current ISBN: 978-0-374-53126-3

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness: Plot Summary: This is how are fought now: by children, hopped-up on 10th grade Pre-AP and Academic English drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. used to be one of them.

What is like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

Literary Merit: Riveting yet readable, unimaginable yet unforgettable, A Long Way Gone is sure to become a classic: a unique autobiography about the civil war in , as recorded by one who took up an AK-47 at the age of twelve. Now in his mid-twenties, Beah is both eloquent and perceptive in his account of fleeing attacking rebels, searching for his lost relatives, seeking out food and shelter in the bush, and wandering a land rendered unrecognizable by brutality and violence. Yet once he’s been picked up and recruited by the government army, Beah, a gentle boy at heart, finds that he, too, is capable of truly terrible actions. Told with real literary force, ample insight, and heartbreaking candor, A Long Way Gone is a rare, mesmerizing work that addresses a twenty-first- century, and international, nightmare: the collision of war and childhood.

(www.alongwaygone.com)

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections: How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Students will be exposed to a lot of violence and content very graphic in Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal nature. Beah depicts the reality of his experiences and holds nothing back. with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the Reasons to object include: subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:

Vulgar language  read the novel in its entirety Sexual references  meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel will be taught in the class (phone or in person) Drug use Murder If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the Violence students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the Bad grammar, African dialect student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss Gun violence opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and War collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working Child soldiering independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel Governmental corruption being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful students are exposed to a former child soldier in the , consideration. Ishmael Beah. He recounts his time as a child soldier, in rehabilitation facilities, and in life in New York City.

The themes presented in the memoir involve difficult topics that students at West Allegheny will most likely never experience first-hand. Beah details his experiences in desensitizing himself as a soldier through the constant use of drugs, which is a difficult subject matter for teenagers.

Some students may struggle with the violence he recounts as well, with several graphic depictions of raids on towns of civilians as well as him witnessing the deaths of several children and people around him and his own near death-experiences.

Learning Goals: Alternative Texts Must:  Students will identify how the author address the idea of the loss of  Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher. innocence and will trace its repercussions throughout the memoir.  include vigorous vocabulary  Students will determine how writing from a child’s perspective helps  be a memoir of at least 200 pages to comprehend and understand the child soldier experience.  Address the following thematic idea: resiliency, grief, loss of  Students will learn about grief and how we often silence it in our innocence, and survival society.  Stemming from the previous goal, students will address Beah’s commentary on grief (the why’s, what is healthy about it, is there a Some similar texts include: right or wrong way to cope) and identify what messages he sends I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai through his openness about his experiences. First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung I Am Najood, Age 10 and Divorced by Najood Ali

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 3 Book Title: Slaughterhouse-Five Current ISBN: 978-0-440-18029-6

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness: Plot Summary: Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy 10th grade Pre-AP and Academic Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.

From Publishers Weekly

Literary Merit: Slaughterhouse-Five provides the students with a unique sense of post-traumatic situations. It tells the reader of the price of war and details the struggles people experience after a traumatic event like war. It also is unique in the sense that the author, Kurt Vonnegut, did not want to have his novel labeled a specific genre. Therefore, the students will be able to conduct a thorough genre-study (continuing their work from 9th grade) and determine what genre Vonnegut’s novel fits best. Slaughterhouse-Five is a frequently challenged novel for its

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections: How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class:

War Sexual references Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal Drug use with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the Murder (due to war) subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following: Violence Vulgar language  read the novel in its entirety Mental illness  meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel will be PTSD taught in the class (phone or in person) Graphic images If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration.

Learning Goals: Alternative Texts Must:  The students will identify and analyze how irony functions in  Be selected by parent and child and approved by teacher storytelling.  Be an age appropriate satirical novel of at least 175 pages  The students will determine how the author’s presence in the novel  Address the following thematic ideas: resiliency, fate versus free impacts the reader reaction in the story. will, morality and ethics  The students will determine what makes a satire effective. Options include:  Catch-22  1984  Brave New World

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit: 5 Book Title: The Joy Luck Club Current ISBN: 978-0-14-303809-2

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness: Plot Summary: The Joy Luck Club weaves the stories of four Chinese immigrant mothers and 10th grade Pre-AP and Academic English their four daughters into a richly satisfying novel. The mothers' experiences in China inform how they bring up their daughters in America, and the girls must figure out how to navigate their own lives, drawing on what they have gleaned from their Old World mothers and their American childhoods. Four Chinese immigrant women form a mahjong club in the late 1940s in San Francisco, dubbing themselves The Joy Luck Club. Over the course of 40 years, their stories unfold as they raise their daughters in a country quite different from their own. Mothers and daughters learn to navigate relationships as they imperfectly translate one another and the opposing cultures. Seeking to find their identities as women, mothers, daughters, and wives, they find joy in the lives they create. Literary Merit: The Joy Luck Club skillfully explores the often-tense relationships between mothers and daughters. The novel does not perfectly solve all the problems presented within the pages, but brings hope to the characters as they work to resolve and learn from their relationships. The Joy Luck Club has been translated into many different languages. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1989. It received the 1990 Bay Area Reviewers Award for Fiction. For months The Joy Luck Club was on The New York Times bestseller list, and the rights to the paperback edition were sold for over one million dollars. The book has also been made into a film for which Amy Tan helped to write the screen play. Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections: How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Drug Use Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal Sex with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:

 read the novel in its entirety  meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel will be taught in the class (phone or in person)

If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration.

Learning Goals: Alternative Texts Must:

 Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher.  include vigorous vocabulary  be contemporary fiction of at least 200 pages  Address the following thematic ideas: family relationships, cultural differences, and perseverance

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 6 Book Title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Current ISBN: 978-0-618-71165-9

Grade Level and Audience / Age Plot Summary: Appropriateness: A year after losing his father on 9/11, 11-year-old Oskar Schell longs for an answer to make sense of a world rendered 10th grade Honors and Academic fearsome and confusing. His mother is tormented with grief. His grandmother, who indulges him and his late-night English walkie-talkie check-ins, can't make it all better. But one day as Oskar snoops in his father's closet, left intact by his mother, he topples a blue vase in which a small envelope marked with the word "Black" hides. In it is a key, and Oskar -- who enjoyed many adventures concocted by his inventive father when he was alive -- is convinced it's literally the key to his questions about "the worst day" (9/11). Literary Merit: Foer's depiction of Oskar's reaction to phone messages left by his father as he awaited rescue in the burning World Trade Center, his description of Oskar's grandfather's love affair with Anna and his experiences during the bombing of Dresden - these passages underscore Mr. Foer's ability to evoke, with enormous compassion and psychological acuity, his characters' emotional experiences, and to show how these private moments intersect with the great public events of history. -The New York Times Sensitive Subject in the How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Text/Possible Objections: Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal with sensitive subject matter. If a  Language parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:  Death  Terrorism  read the novel in its entirety  Mention of Disabilities  meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel will be taught in the class (phone or in person)  Sex If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration. Learning Goals: Alternative Texts Must:

 Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher.  include vigorous vocabulary  be contemporary fiction of at least 200 pages  Address the following thematic ideas: relationships, communication, grief and perseverance