Attn:  All Chugiak High School students taking Honors English 10 2009

From: Honors English instructor Mrs. SJ Cook

 

The following is a reading/study plan for the summer. Please understand that ALL students of Honors English 10 are responsible for this required reading, journaling, and researching.   I expect that students who decide to participate in this class will read thoroughly, write with effort and excellence in mind, and above all keep in mind: Powerful students are ready to allow critique to further their educational fervor and curiosity.

Required Summer Reading and Journaling

A.  Read: Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

 

        Journal:  After every 5th chapter, stop and think about what social issues

                       Twain is exploring.  If at any point, he repeats an issue/theme, make

                       note of it; give yourself some story details that will aid in your

                       remembering your thought process when school starts in August.

 

         Journal:  in another section of your journaling, keep a running list of character

                        names as well as a few thoughts of what each character does/says.

                        This will help you remember some of those minor characters who only

                         appear once (or just a few times) in the narrative.

 

B.    Research and procure a piece of American non-fiction that is important to the   American educational process.  Your parents/grandparent could be       helpful:  ask them what non-fiction they studied as a student.  Your local            librarian would be helpful too.  Please limit your search between the years          of 1800 to present.  (The trick here is finding something of literary merit, not cultural entertainment.)

 

Here are some worthy names in case you are stumped where to start:

Benjamin Franklin           Thomas Paine                         Sojourner Truth                      Henry Adams         

Jonathan Edwards           Thomas Jefferson                    Chief Seattle                           Theodore Roosevelt

George Washington          St. John de Crevecoeur          Abraham Lincoln                     James Baldwin

Phillis Wheatley               Ralph Waldo Emerson           Truman Capote                                       Patrick Henry              

Frederick Douglass          Chief Joseph                           Martin Luther King Jr.          Gloria Steinem

John F. Kennedy             Lorraine Hansberry                Robert Rodriguez                     Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau      Robert Rodriguez                    

 

            Familiarize yourself with the piece so you can inform the class what the gist of

                        the piece is and why it is important.

 

C.    Research and procure an American poem that somehow encapsulates the                                             sentiments of Huckleberry Finn.  Look at your list of social                                                themes/issues and begin your search for a poem that echoes

                              a similar feel.  The internet is an enormous resource for poems,

                              but you might find yourself overwhelmed unless you already know

                              which poet or poem your are seeking.  Your local librarian also

                              may be able to point you in the right direction. 

     

Here are some worthy names in case you are stumped again:

The fireside poets               Stephen Crane           Carl Sandburg                                   Arna Wendell Bontemps    

Edgar Allen Poe                 Vachel Lindsay          Edna St.Vincent Millay                     Dudley Randall         

Walt Whitman                    Archibald Macleish    Claude McKay                                 Ezra Pound

Harlem Renaissance poets                                     Jean Toomer                                    Maya Angelou              

Paul Lawrence Dunbar      John Crowe Ransom    T.S. Eliot                                         Robert Frost              

 

Familiarize yourself with the poem in order to explain to the class how/why this

                              poem is a match for Huck Finn. 

 

 

 

D.    Upon the first week of class, expect to be doing a variety of these things:

                              *taking a traditional-style test over Huck Finn

                              *giving the teacher your journaling work

                              *sharing your non-fiction and supporting its relevance to American Lit.

                              *sharing your poem and explaining your choice

 

Begin this in May/June and read and write at a leisurely pace.  Don’t be cruel to yourself! Make August as wonderful as June!

 

For those of you who are voracious readers and desire to get some worthy literature under your belt, here are some venerable titles:

 

Suggestions for Summer Reading

For those of you who are just giddy about being an educated human!

Leaves of Grass by W Whitman                                    Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Walden by Henry David Thoreau                       The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

The Red Badge of Courage  by S Crane                       Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe  The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

East of Eden by  Steinbeck                               The Old Man and the Sea by  Hemingway

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by  Twain        Puddin’Head Wilson by  Twain           

Stride Toward Freedom by M L King, Jr.           I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by M Angelou

 

Throughout the year, your having read something “extra” would be invaluable for you and your classmates!!!                                

As our friends “down under” say,

“Good on ya, mate!”