Summer Reading

The purpose of a journal is to record your interactions with the text as you progress through the book. It is a way of recording your responses, positive or negative and tracking your reading. The idea is not to summarize what happens in the story but to respond, reflect, and track your thoughts.

Select a minimum of ten passages or quotations from your book to respond to, either in a notebook or in a computer document;

Copy the passage/quotation and the page number it is found;

Respond to the passage/quotation; try using the prompts provided below:

“The imagery reveals…”

“The setting gives the effect of…”

“The author seems to feel…”

“The tone of this passage is…”

“The character feels…”

“This is ironic because…”

“Something I noticed and appreciated about this part is….”

“This reminds me of…”

Your assignment is to rewrite the last chapter of the book you have chosen to read. Rewrite the ending of the story, changing what happens. Your new ending must be original, credible, and realistic for your book. For example, if your book is about the American Revolutionary War, you cannot suddenly introduce space travel or characters who would not have been alive then.

Your new ending must be written in the same style and tone as the author;

Include the use of dialogue

Be at least 2-typewritten, double-spaced pages using 12-font

You must include a final paragraph explaining why you chose to change the ending the way you did and why this new ending is plausible for the book.

Your assignment is to choose a character from the book you have read to create diary entries for your chosen character. The diary entries for that character depict events in the story – both seen and unseen in the book. You are writing it as if you were the character, from their point of view and perspective, in the first-person narrative form. Each entry should be a paragraph in length, and the diary should be two typed-written pages, double-spaced. Diary entries should be in three categories:

Descriptive: This writing style will use visual and sensory images to create a lasting impression on your reader. You can describe a place, a room, an object, a person, or any event significant to your character;

Reflective: This style of writing will describe in detail what a significant event meant to your character personally, how it has changed them personally, what lessons were learned, and how will they apply the experience in the future.

The assignment is to analyze the plot, characters, and setting of the book you choose to read. Here are questions to be addressed in your essay:

What was the story’s primary conflict? Identify and describe the protagonist and antagonist in the story and what problem existed. What did you learn from the conflict and the resolution of the story?

Describe the main characters in the book – their personality, behaviors, and relationships with other characters. Which character did you most identify with and why?

What was the story’s setting? Describe when it took place and where. Describe the story’s mood or attitude. Is it cheerful or pessimistic?

Would you recommend this story, and why/why not?

Students may choose to make an oral presentation to their English class at a time convenient for the teacher.

The oral presentation must be approximately five minutes long and include the following components: a summary of the plot, a description of the setting, a description of the main characters, and an explanation of the theme. The conclusion must include the student’s personal opinion of the book. Students must submit a written presentation outline to the teacher three days before the presentation. Students must arrange with the English teacher to schedule a date and time for this oral presentation. Students may use PowerPoint slides with appropriate graphics for their oral presentation. Students must inform their teacher that they wish to present by the end of the first week of class.

Students may present using technology and other available media. Students may complete a videotaped presentation and submit it to their English teacher. A video presentation must be approximately five minutes long and include the following components: a summary of the plot, a description of the setting, a description of the main characters, and an explanation of the theme. The conclusion must include the student’s opinion of the book.

• Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Riggs
• Rocket Boys, Hickam
• The Good Earth, Buck
• Kindred, Butler
• The Outsiders, Hinton
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith
• The Fault in Our Stars, Green
• Speak, Anderson
• Life of Pi, Martel
• Black Boy, Wright
• The Blind Side, Lewis
• Hillbilly Elegy, Vance
• A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry
• The Scarlett Letter, Hawthorne
• Revolutionary Summer, Ellis
• The Other Wes Moore, Moore
• Hoops, Myers
• Miracle on 49th Street, Lupica

• Invisible Man, Ellison
• Brave New World, Huxley
• Sense and Sensibility, Austen
• The Natural, Malamud
• The Book Thief, Zusak
• Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, Bruni
• The Boys in the Boat, Brown
• The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Haley
• A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson
• Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury