Summer Reading Assignment 2016 AP English Language & Composition (Robinson)

Reminder: Schedule change requests for the 2016-2017 school year will end June 17. Therefore, any student registered for AP English 11 after June 17 is responsible for completing the summer reading assignments.

The Assignment:

1. Select and read ONE memoir from the list provided on the back of this handout. No substitutions. If you would like to know more about the books, you can find a synopsis of each one on websites such as Amazon, Books-a-Million, and Barnes and Noble. Choose wisely. Pick something you have not already read. You can purchase a copy of the book, borrow it from a friend or family member, or check it out of the local library. The book that you read for your AP English assignment should be the same one you read for your AP US History assignment.

2. Complete the Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment (100 points): a. The Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment, which is a 100-POINT homework/reading grade, is DUE on the FIRST DAY of class. NO EXCEPTIONS! Late assignments will be penalized 10 points PER DAY for each day it is late. b. Please correctly and completely fill out all the boxes on the Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment for your selected memoir. c. You may type the responses if your handwriting is either too large or not legible. d. Before you begin reading, look over the Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment to see what type of information you will need to look for in reading the memoir. e. As you are reading, identify and fill in the information for the boxes that ask you about the opening/closing chapters/significance, author’s style, and significant passages/quotes of the memoir. f. After you have finished reading, be sure that you have completed each part of the assignment, including the final thoughts/comments section at the end. g. Make certain that wherever you are asked to include text quotations and page numbers, you do so. You will be counted off for failing to use quotes and show text citations. h. NO half-efforts or excuses: Don’t throw this together at the last minute. Don’t copy information from others—from either online (That’s plagiarism, and it will get you a zero on the assignment) or from other students in the class (That’s cheating, and it will also get you a zero on the assignment). i. Remember: This is our first impression of you. Make it a good one!

3. Compose a 5-paragraph ESSAY on the memoir (50 points): You will use your completed Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment and your knowledge of the memoir you have read to complete an essay prior to the first day of class. Make sure you have done your work and that you bring it with you! Bring the essay and assignment with you on the first day of school regardless of if you have your AP English class that day or not. Sometimes students’ schedules change over the summer. We want you to be prepared.

4. A word of caution: The books on this list are adult texts written about the real world from a mature perspective. You need to carefully investigate the books you are interested in prior to choosing one to read. Get your parents’ approval for whatever book you choose. Also, please be aware that AP English Language & Composition is a class for mature students who can read and discuss topics with critical minds. Some of the texts we read in class (and that are on this list) explore adult themes and issues while, in some cases, utilizing adult language and scenarios. Reading works that investigate difficult ethical choices and actions does not ever condone or celebrate the choices that characters make. Instead, AP classes are designed to allow students to see how the English language is used to convey the human experience in a vivid, dramatic, and unforgettable manner. We expect our students to be mature readers (or at least on their way to being so). Choose your book for the summer carefully.

5. If you have Dr. Busbin, please remember you must also complete his assignment. However, you do not need to read an additional book. To be clear, you are reading ONE of the selected memoirs on the back of this page and completing TWO different assignments on that book—one for AP US History and one for AP English.

---Please feel free to contact Mrs. Robinson with any questions at [email protected]

Summer Reading 2016 - AP English 11 and AP US History Choose ONE memoir from this list that you will read for BOTH classes’ summer work (no substitutions):

Second Great Awakening/Emergence of American Identity Vietnam War Walden by Henry David Thoreau If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O’Brien Civil War In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert S. Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War by Sam Watkins McNamara The Passing of Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes of the Potomac by Joshua Chamberlain The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War by Frederick Downs The Civil War Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant Dispatches by Michael Herr A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo Westward Expansion A Pioneer’s Search for an Ideal Home by Phoebe Goodell Judson Civil Rights Movement A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Tim Tyson Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody American Indian Wars Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt Civil Rights Revolution by Tara Willis Why We Can’t Wait by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Progressive Era/Immigration Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy (autobiography) with Michael D’Orso Twenty Years at Hull-House by Jane Addams All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael MacDonald

1920s/Expatriate Experience American Indian Movement A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog & Richard Erdoes Ojibwa Warrior by Dennis Bank & Richard Erdoes Great Depression Children of the Dust: An Okie Family Story by Betty Grant Henshaw Women’s Liberation Movement Anneville: A Memoir of the Great Depression by Thomas G. Robinson In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution by Susan Brownmiller Growing Up by Russell Baker My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem The Growing Season: An American Boyhood Before the War by Samuel Hynes 1960’s Radicalism Outlaw Women: A Memoir of the War Years (1960-1975) by Roxanne WWII Dunbar-Ortiz and Jennifer Baumgardner Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War by William Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen by Mark Rudd Manchester Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Space Race Helmet for My Pillow: From Parise Island to the Pacific by Robert Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 Leckie by Gene Kranz With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa a by E.B. Sledge Flights of Passage by Samuel Hynes Cold War Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department by Dean Japanese Internment Acheson Nisei Daughter by Monica Itoi Sone From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents Looking Like the Enemy by Mary Gruenewald and How they Won the Cold War by Robert Gates Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s 1950’s Migrant Labor Daughter by Sara Taber Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child by Elva Trevino Hart Iraq and Afghanistan 1950’s American Experience The Forever War by Dexter Filkins An American Childhood by Annie Dillard The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson The African American Experience Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston (autobiography) Black Boy by Richard Wright Korean War I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Colder than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir by The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Neshi Coates Joseph R. Owen Between the World and Me by Ta-Neshi Coates

The Southern Experience All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

NOTE: The book you choose should be used to complete both Mrs. Robinson’s and Dr. Busbin’s separate assignments. AP© Language & Composition (Mrs. Robinson) NOTE: If you cannot fit the required information in the designated boxes, you may attach additional pieces of paper Name: ______to complete the assignment. Block: ______

MAJOR WORK DATA SHEET (Non-fiction) Title: ______Author: ______Date of Publication: ______Total Pages: ______Significance of Opening Chapter/Section: Significance of Closing Chapter/Section:

Author’s Style (Write a few sentences describing the author’s style):

Sample passage(s) that demonstrates the style* (with page #s) – WRITE THE PASSAGE:

* “Style” includes diction, syntax, tone, and any other rhetorical strategies. Important Quotes / Passages (5-10) Quotation and page # Significance / Explanation Select 5 quotes that demonstrate the writer’s perspective on a Explanation of quotes about perspective of a major life event: major life event.

(1) (1)

(2) (2)

(3) (3)

(4) (4)

(5) (5)

Explanation of quotes about major theme: Select 5 quotes that demonstrate a major theme of the entire memoir. (1) (1)

(2) (2)

(3) (3)

(4) (4)

(5) (5)

What are your final thoughts/opinions on the memoir as a whole? ______

AP ENGLISH SUMMER ASSIGNMENT ANALYSIS ESSAY

DIRECTIONS: Upon completing your memoir reading as well as the Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment, compose a five-paragraph essay answering the following prompt. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, and utilizing size 12 Times New Roman font and MLA format for heading/header and citations of the text. Do not copy anyone else’s work, as this is cheating and will result in a ZERO for the assignment.

AP English 11 Summer Reading Essay Test (100 points)

A memoir is explained by William Zinsser in the following manner: “Unlike autobiography, which moves in a dutiful line from birth to fame, memoir narrows the lens, focusing on a time in the writer’s life that was unusually vivid, such as childhood or adolescence, or that was framed by war or travel or public service or some other special circumstance.”

Select one of the following essay prompts, and use your reading of your selected memoir as well as your completion of the Major Works Data Sheet for Nonfiction assignment to respond according to the guidelines below.

Essay prompt 1: To what extent did the author’s experiences in his or her memoir contribute to a fresh perspective (for the author or for others)? Make certain to identify that new perspective. Examples may include (but are not limited to) identifying a changed perspective in regards to coping with tragedy, examining/understanding an event(s) in the past, a new view of oneself or others, and/or an original way of looking at life in general. Use specific references to the text and a minimum of one textual quotation per body paragraph to support your response.

Essay prompt 2: First, select ONE of the important quotes/passages that you identified from your Major Work Data Sheet. Then, respond thoroughly to the following questions: To what extent does the selected quotation or passage contribute to the memoir as a whole? How does the passage contribute to a major theme/idea, claim/argument, or stylistic technique the author employs? Be sure to incorporate at least a portion of the quotation or passage into your response and thoroughly explain its significance.

Your essay needs to include the following: ü An introduction paragraph, which helps set the context of the essay. ü A thesis statement, which indicates your position on the question presented, and is located at the conclusion of the introduction paragraph. ü Three body paragraphs that each focus on a specific and separate argument related to your thesis. o Each body paragraph should open with a sentence stating the theme or argument of that paragraph. o Ideally, each body paragraph has a MINIMUM of 2-3 points (accompanied by analysis) it makes to solidify its argument or purpose. o Specific evidence (quotations) taken from the memoir to support your arguments. § Please include appropriate parenthetical citations for each quotation (cite page number). § Do not over-rely on quotations. You should only quote key words, phrases, or sentences that aid in proving your points or demonstrating your theories about the text. o Each body paragraph should strive to conclude with a closing sentence that either summarizes the argument in relation to your thesis and/or helps transition to the next paragraph. ü A closing paragraph that revisits the arguments provided as well as stresses the importance or significance of the topic of the selected memoir.

If you have Dr. Busbin, please remember you must also complete his assignment. You do not need to read an additional book, however.