Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
AP English Literature & Composition/Honors English IV
Summer Reading Assignment
2019-2020 School Year
Ms. Williams [email protected]
Ms. Morris [email protected]
Welcome to your senior year of English Literature. Your teachers are excited to lead you on this
reading adventure as you complete college level assignments while working toward the
conclusion of your high school career. The skills you will learn in this class including close
reading and literary analysis are skills that will serve you well over the course of your lifetime.
The demands of the AP English Literature and Composition course as well as the Honors
English IV course are such that we must use the summer months to jumpstart our study of
literature. The goal is to help you become better readers, writers, and thinkers. We would like for
you to venture outside of your comfort zone and find a novel or play that excites you and commit
to reading it well.
We will also be reading lots of poetry. To get us started, use the selected poems and annotate
(mark text extensively) as well as complete the attached SOAPSTone for each poem in order to
practice and increase skills in the use of language and the development of writing styles. In your
annotations, consider such literary devices as tone, imagery, diction, metaphor, and selection of
detail.
You will read the following 3 books:
1. Kindred by Octavia Butler;
2. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster; and
3. An independent novel of your choosing from the list provided.
- During and after your reading of Kindred, you will record the important aspects of the novel
using the attached Majors Works Data Sheet.
- After you have read, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, you will choose one chapter to
prepare for an in-class Book Talk on your “independent novel” at the start of the school year.
Book Talks helps you to recognize how expert readers use patterns to help create meaning.
- In preparation for your Book Talk, each person will formulate an open-ended question that
connects to their chosen chapter from How to Read Literature Like a Professor (HTRLLAP). He
or she will then articulate a response to the question on the floor by discussing the independent
novel.
- Students will engage in a roundtable discussion that focuses on 1 question at a time. Each person
should begin the discussion by:
A. Posing the question,
B. Identifying the text and author,
C. Identifying the passage or incident from text that responds to the question,
D. Discussing the text in relation the chapter from HTRLLAP, providing insight and
analysis,
E. And Ending with something profound–something that connects the meaning of the text.
- Choose a text of literary merit from the list provided, read it and record the important
aspects of the novel using the attached Majors Works Data Sheet.
Kindred
1A) Prose Analysis - Complete the attached Major Works Data Sheet for Kindred (use the
accompanying rubric for guidance). Due: 8/26/19 - No late work will be accepted. This will be
your first graded assignment; start the year off strong.
IB) In-class Essay: Upon your return, during the first week of school, you will be given a
written assessment on Kindred. I will announce from which of the following prompts you will
write on the day of the assessment.
a. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological
sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an
epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author’s manipulation of time
contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
b. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary
merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-
organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete
work. Avoid plot summary.
How to Read Literature Like a Professor & Independent Novel
1C) Independent novel Prose Analysis - Complete the attached Major Works Data Sheet (use
the accompanying rubric for guidance). Due: Monday September 9, 2019 - No late work will be
accepted.
1D) Book-Talk – Book Talks will be scheduled upon your return, during the first week of
school.
Adichie, Chimamanda: Americanah
Alexie, Sherman: Reservation Blues
Allende, Isabel: Daughter of Fortune
Alvarez, Julia: In the Time of the Butterflies
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid’s Tale
Austen, Jane: Emma
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert: The Stranger
Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness
Danticat, Edwidge: The Farming of the Bones
Lehane, Dennis: Mystic River
McCarthy, Cormac: The Road
McEwan, Ian: Atonement
McMillan, Terry: Mama
Melville, Herman: Billy Budd
Morrison, Toni: Sula
Naylor. Gloria: The Women of
Brewster Place
Paton, Alan: Cry the Beloved Country
Phillips, Delores C: The Darkest Child
Rand, Ayn: Anthem
Diaz, Junot: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar
Woo
Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment
Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo
Edwards, Kim: The Memory Keeper’s
Daughter
Ellison, Ralph: Invisible Man (English IV
only)
Eliot, George: Middlemarch
Esquivel, Laura: Like Water for Chocolate
Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
Gaines, Ernest J.: The Gathering of Old Men
Garcia-Marquez, Gabriel: Love in the Time of
Cholera
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night Time
Hardy, Thomas: Jude, the Obscure
Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest: The Sun Also Rises
Hosseini, Khaled: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Ibsen, Henrik: A Doll’s House
Ishiguro, Kazuo: Never Let Me Go
James, Henry: The Portrait of a Lady
Jen, Gish: Typical American
Kingsolver, Barbara: The Poisonwood Bible
Knowles, John: A Separate Peace
Silko, Leslie Marmon: Ceremony
Smith, Zadie: On Beauty
Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath
Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club
Tolstoy, Leo: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
Ward, Jesmyn: Salvage the Bones
Warren, Robert Penn: All the King’s Men
Wharton, Edith: The Age of Innocence
Whitehead, Colson: Underground Railroad
Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Wilson, August: The Piano Lesson
Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway
Wright, Richard: Native Son
2) Poetry Annotation & Analysis
Read and Annotate each of the three poems included in this packet. Next, select 1 (one)
poem and use it to complete the SOAPStone Graphic Organizer.
Poetry Overview (Excerpt from Perrine’s Literature)
Reading poetry
Read slowly, carefully, and attentively
Read the poem all the way through on the first read—let yourself experience the poem as
a whole
Use the punctuation—pause where the poet wants you to pause—at commas—and stop at
periods rather than at the end of each line
Read aloud
Good poems yield more if read twice and the best poems after ten, twenty or a hundred readings!
— so on your second read:
Look up any words that you do not know—keep a dictionary handy.
Look up any allusions that might be obvious.
Any sentence or line that is not in normal word order, place it in normal word order
Paraphrase the poem as a whole and sections that are difficult
At times, you may not have access or permission to use a dictionary or have the ability to
look up allusions. When this is the case, use context clues, or simply work around
that particular word. It is not necessary to understand every word in every line of poetry.
Poetic Devices in Annotating Poetry:
Figurative language: metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, hyperbole
Imagery: words and/or phrases which have sensory appeal: sound, smell, taste, touch,
sight
Diction: euphonious, cacophonous, concrete, vivid direct words, abstract words,
denotation and connotation of words
Sound devices: alliteration, onomatopoeia
Symbols, motif and allusions: figure out the meaning
Tone: ironic, sarcastic,
Notice shifts: what is the change and how is it developed--ask why
Structure of the poem: lines, stanzas, punctuation and syntax—ask why
SOAPSTone Document Analysis
The SOAPSTone Document Analysis allows students to trace an examination of a document
using the components listed. Remember, all components of this approach MUST be supported
from the text and MUST be backed up by the words from the text.
S Who is the Speaker? Who do you believe to be the speaker of this piece? What assumptions
can you make about the speaker? (i.e. age, gender, race, religion, class, emotional state, etc.) Do
not confuse the speaker with the poet. You must be able to cite evidence from the text that
supports your answer.
O What is the Occasion? In other words, the time and place of the piece. What is the context of
the piece? When and/or where is the poem taking place? Is it a memory, a description, an
observation, a valedictory, an argument, etc.? What may have prompted the author to write this
piece? What event(s) may have led to its publication or development? How important might
any of this be to the text? You must be able to cite evidence from the text that supports your
answer.
A Who is the Audience? The audience refers to the group of readers to whom the piece is
directed. The audience may be one person, a small group or a large group; it may be a certain
person or a certain people. What assumptions can you make about the audience? Is it a
particular race/group/gender? Does the speaker use language that is specific to any particular
audience? You must be able to cite evidence from the text that supports your answer.
P What is the Purpose? In other words, what is the reason behind the text? In what ways does
the speaker convey this message? How does the speaker attempt to spark a reaction in the
audience? How is the poem supposed to make the reader feel? You must be able to cite
evidence from the text that supports your answer.
S What is the Subject? What is the subject of the document? The general topic, content, and
ideas contained in the text (theme)? What does the poet want readers to consider or
understand? You must be able to cite evidence from the text that supports your answer.
TONE: What is the attitude of the author towards the subject? Tone is created with diction,
details, imagery, and syntax. Is there a shift in tone? At what point? Why? What does this
accomplish?
SOAPSTone
Directions: Complete this graphic organizer for your selected poem. All responses
should be written in complete sentences.
Speaker
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Subject
Tone
Major Works Data Sheet
Title:
Author:
Date of Publication:
Genre:
Biographical Information about the Author:
Historical Information:
Characteristics of the Genre:
Plot Summary:
Identify the Author’s Style:
Provide an example that demonstrates the style:
Memorable Quotes
Quotes:
Significance of each Quote:
Setting Significance of Opening Scene
Significance of Ending or Closing Scene
Symbols Meaning of Symbols
Possible Themes
Name: ___________________ Major Works Data Sheet Rubric
Title: ________________________________
Box Criteria Possible
Points
Actual
Points
Title (1), Author(1),
Pub. Date(1), Genre(2)
Lists all correctly; Genre label is standard and
appropriate
5
Historical Information
about Period of
Publication or Setting
Discusses world events which may be relevant to
the purpose or meaning of the work.
5
Author Biography
Succinct summary of the main conventionally
accepted facts, including dates and places.
5
Genre Characteristics Gives appropriate reason why text belongs to genre
in box 1, referencing conventional definition of the
genre. Alternatively, may list 3 or more important
features of the genre.
5
Plot Summary Has key events from the text, including significant
events referenced; includes significant plot points;
not just a list. Paragraph format—max. two
paragraphs
20
Author’s Style Mentions prominent literary techniques
5 total
10
Style Example Gives a specific quotation or describes a specific
passage which accurately represents the technique(s)
listed in “Author’s Style.”
5 total
10
Memorable Quotes 5 quotes of a sentence or more with page or
act/scene/line #s (5x2.5). Significance is related to
meaning or effect of the work as a whole (5x2.5).
Cite using MLA
25
Characters All major or important are listed; role is in terms of
social or human type or archetype; significance is
related to meaning or effect of the work as a whole.
Three adjectives to describe each.
40
Setting Accurate identification and description of all major
settings with their significance
20
Symbols Accurate identification and description of major
symbols with their significance
20
Significance of Opening Goes beyond summary to significance to the
meaning or effect of the work as a whole.
10
Significance of Ending Goes beyond summary to significance to the
meaning or effect of the work as a whole.
10
Themes Three or more themes are phrased as statements
rather than simply topics.
Must be expressed as a sentence or general
statement about the human condition.
15
TOTAL 200
Poetry Option A
Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owens (1920)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Note: Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s
country.”
Poetry Option B
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
By Dylan Thomas (1951)
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Poetry Option C
Out, Out
Robert Frost (1916)
1 The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
2 And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
3 Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
4 And from there those that lifted eyes could count
5 Five mountain ranges one behind the other
6 Under the sunset far into Vermont.
7 And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
8 As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
9 And nothing happened: day was all but done.
10 Call it a day, I wish they might have said
11 To please the boy by giving him the half hour
12 That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
13 His sister stood beside him in her apron
14 To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
15 As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
16 Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
17 He must have given the hand. However it was,
18 Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
19 The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
20 As he swung toward them holding up the hand
21 Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
22 The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
23 Since he was old enough to know, big boy
24 Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
25 He saw all spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—
26 The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’
27 So. But the hand was gone already.
28 The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
29 He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
30 And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
31 No one believed. They listened at his heart.
32 Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
33 No more to build on there. And they, since they
34 Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
*This is an intentional single stanza poem, numbered here for your convenience.