English Department Summer Reading
Summer Reading Philosophy
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 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 up with an essay on the text three weeks into the first quarter. This time frame will allow students to read the work if they did not 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 list of diverse literature that spans the intellectual, emotional, and cultural gamut or just be a work that a students 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 interests as a means toward continual personal growth and lifelong learning.
Summer Reading Assignment
Read two books (at minimum -- please read as many as you can this summer):
- one required book and
- 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.
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 - Roman numeral outline or bullets outline or paragraph notes.
Expectations for the first day of class
o You should bring the following materials with you:
o The one required book;
o A chosen theme (or the author's/text's guiding idea) for the work regardless of the genre;
o At least three pages of notes on your book.
Culminating Assessment
In the third week of September, you will write an in-class essay that discusses ideas that connect the novel and your free read book. This essay will count as a grade for the first marking period.
Summer Reading List 2008
Freshman:
All students must read the following text:
The Color of Water James McBride (Memoir)
Students should 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. Fences August Wilson
18. King Dork Frank Portman
19. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee Dee Brown
20. Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chobsky
Summer Reading List 2008
Sophomore:
All students must read the following text:
Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt (Memoir)
Students should 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 Franza 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
Summer Reading List 2008
Junior:
All students must read the following text:
Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich (Nonfiction)
AP students must read the following two texts:*
The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
The Tempest William Shakespeare
Students should 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. East of Eden John Steinbeck
2. My Antonia Willa Cather
3. A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley
4. Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
5. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
6. Eye of the Needle Ken Follett
7. I Know This Much Is True Wally Lamb
8. White Oleander Janet Fitch
9. Friday Night Lights H. G. Bissinger
10. The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd
11. Catalyst Laurie Halse Anderson
12. The Complete Stories Flannery O'Connor
13. A Widow for One Year John Irving
14. Sophie's Choice William Styron
15. The Stand Stephen King
16. Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth
17. A Child Called It David Pelzer
18. Picturing Will Anne Beatttie
19. The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor
20. The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
*AP students will read a total of four books.
Summer Reading List 2008
Senior:
All students must read the following text:
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz (Novel - 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winner/Visiting Author in 2008-2009)
AP students must read the following two texts:*
Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke
The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy
Students should 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. Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk
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
*AP students will read a total of four books.