English Department Summer Reading
Watchung Hills Regional High School Summer Reading Philosophy
2009-2010
As educators, it is important to guide and support students based upon direct communication, academic considerations, and educational research.
The research on education extant at this time promotes using summer reading as a means to support and enrich students' reading and language development. With this desire to extend the academic calendar into students' “vacation” time, we are aware that burdening young people with work is not synonymous with inspiration. Vision and passion come from multiple contexts in students' lives, and we believe teachers are a great source of reliable, humanitarian, and intelligent guidance for students. Therefore, our decision to have a common title required summer reading for all students is based upon the aspiration to aid their academic and personal growth without placing an excessive burden on their time.
Our process will ask all students to read one book specific to their grade level. This required work will have a small note-taking assignment over the summer and will be a springboard for an author, genre, or thematic study at the beginning of the school year. These discussions about the work's connection to the course will be followed with an essay on the text three weeks into the first quarter. This timeframe will allow students to read the work and hand in their notes if they were not able to complete this assignment during the summer. This shared reading experience enables teachers to generate a more meaningful assessment for their classes.
Along with the one required text, students will be asked to read a second work. This second work can be chosen from a diverse list of literature that spans the intellectual, emotional, and cultural gamut. It can be a work that a student has always wanted to read. This second text will be used as a point of comparison to the required reading. Assessment for this text will be done through the aforementioned summer reading essay the third week of September.
Students electing to take an AP English course will be required to read two additional texts for a total of four books during the summer. These two books will frame an author or genre study relating to the AP curriculum and will tie directly into the year's syllabus.
The English Department wants to help students discover themselves through literature. We want to assist in their journey as life-long learners. With this summer reading program, we encourage them to listen to other people's interests and to express their own interests as a means toward continual personal growth and lifelong learning.
Watchung Hills Regional High School Summer Reading Assignment
2009-2010
o Read two books. Each grade level has one required book. The second book is one of your choice from your grade level's list or any book to your liking that you feel you can write about with detail and precision.
o As you are reading your required book, take notes on details, ideas, plot development, characterization, and theme. (Many books are not fiction and you should be looking at ideas, issues, essential ideas forwarded by the genre you are reading.) Minimum of three pages of NOTES - Roman numeral outline or bullets outline or paragraphs for the notes. Students should not use outside sources for these notes. They should be self-generated while reading.
Expectations for the second day of class
o You should bring the following materials with you:
o The one required book;
o A chosen theme or main idea for the work
o At least three pages of typed, self-generated notes (no outside sources) on your book. This could include analysis, summary, questions, and comments you had as you read the book.
o Include at least one specific quote (including the page number from the book) per page of your notes.
Culminating Assessment
In the third week of September, you will write an in-class essay that discusses ideas, themes or issues that connect the required book to your optional text or possible other source. This essay will count as your first major grade.
Watchung Hills Regional High School Summer Reading List 2009
In-coming Freshmen:
All in-coming freshmen must read the following text and complete the note-taking task as explained above:
The Color of Water James McBride (Memoir)
Choose either a book from the list below to read or any other book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to school.
1. Nine Stories J.D. Salinger
2. House of Spirits Isabelle Allende
3. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America Firoozeh Dumas
4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
5. Feed M. T. Anderson
6. Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya
7. Goddess of Yesterday Caroline Cooney
8. Home of the Braves David Klass
9. Hoops Walter Dean Myers
10. The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros
11. 19 Minutes Jodi Picoult
12. Hoot Carl Hiaasen
13. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
14. Summer of My German Soldier Bette Greene
15. Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas James Patterson
16. Dear Miss Breed Joanne Oppenheim
17. I am the Messenger Markus Zusak
18. King Dork Frank Portman
19. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee Dee Brown
20. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
English I M (9th grade) -
The House on Mango Street- Sandra Cisneros
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In-coming Sophomores:
All in-coming sophomores must read the following text and complete the note-taking task as explained above:
Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt (Memoir)
Choose either a book from the list below to read or any other book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to school.
1. The Trial Franz Kafka
2. Breathing Underwater Alex Flinn
3. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
4. I Am the Clay Chaim Potok
5. Linden Hills Gloria Naylor
6. Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
7. Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy
8. The Rule of Four Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
9. 700 Sundays Billy Crystal
10. The Body of Christopher Creed Carol Plum-Ucci
11. The Cobra Event Richard Preston
12. Cut Patricia McCormick
13. Elsewhere Gabrielle Zevin
14. The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
15. Sound of Waves Yukio Mishima
16. Trinity Leon Uris
17. Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
18. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
19. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl Joyce Carol Oates
20. The Year of Secret Assignments Jaclyn Moriarty
English II M (10th grade) -
The Red Pony - J. Steinbeck
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In-coming Juniors:
All in-coming juniors must read the following text and complete the note-taking task as explained above:
Outliers Malcolm Gladwell (Nonfiction)
AP students must also read the following two texts:*
The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers Kwame Anthony Appiah
Choose either a book from the list below to read or any other book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to school.
1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks
2. Ever Since Darwin Stephen Jay Gould
3. Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi
4. Thinking in Pictures Temple Grandin
5. The Devil in the White City Erik Larson
6. All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein
7. Life from Death Row Mumia Abu-Jamal
8. The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls
9. Friday Night Lights H. G. Bissinger
10. An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore
11. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy Pietra Rivoli
12. Life of Cells Lewis Thomas
13. Losing Matt Shepard Beth Loffreda
14. Reading Like a Writer Francine Prose
15. The Language Instinct Stephen Pinker
16. The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad
17. The Stand Stephen King
18. Picturing Will Anne Beattie
19. The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor
20. The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
English III M (11th grade) -
Scratch Beginnings - by Adam Shepard
*AP students will read a total of four books.
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In-coming Seniors:
All in-coming seniors must read the following text and complete the note-taking task as explained above:
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
AP students must also read the following two texts:*
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction Jonathan Culler
The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy
Choose either a book from the list below to read or any other book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to school.
1. Blink Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
3. Rite of Passage Richard Wright
4. Gandhi: An Autobiography Mohandas Ghandi
5. Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh
6. The Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys
7. The War with the Newts Karel Capek
8. Angels and Demons Dan Brown
9. The Iron Heel Jack London
10. The Breakable Vow Kathryn Ann Clarke
11. Native Speaker Chang-Rae Lee
12. Crank Ellen Hopkins
13. Pop Goes the Weasel James Patterson
14. Salt: A World History Mark Kurlansky
15. Chango's Fire Ernesto Quinonez
16. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera
17. The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
18. A Million Little Pieces James Frey
19. Way of the Peaceful Warrior Dan Millman
20. Palace Walk Naguib Mafouz
English IV M (12th grade) -
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
*AP students will read a total of four books.
Watchung Hills Regional High School Summer Reading List 2009
English - LLD Program
Oh, The Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss
The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein