Honors 10
Summer Reading
In
Honors 10 English class, we will read American literature that complements the
events the students will study in American history class. To prepare for these, we have a suggested reading
list for the summer.
Read a work of literary
merit from the following list.
Native
Son, Richard Wright
The
Sound and the Fury, Willliam
Faulkner
Moby
Dick, Herman Melville
An
American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
For
Whom the
The
Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Look
Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
House
of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Sula, Toni
Morrison
Death
Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
The
Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The
Awakening, Kate Chopin
Bury
My Heart at
Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
The
Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The
House of Mirth, Edith
Wharton
Their Eyes Were Watching
God, Zora Neale Hurston
Black Boy, Richard Wright
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Other
highly recommended activities:
Have
an opinion. Read the news, letters to the editor, and editorials or other
nonfiction articles about events happening in
AP Language
and Composition Summer Reading
The
AP Language and Composition test has three essays: argumentation, rhetorical
analysis, and synthesis. To prepare for
these, we have a required reading
assignment students must complete by the first day of class.
Required:
Read a memoir from the
following list.
An American
Childhood
by Annie Dillard
A
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Year of
Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
NOTE:
A memoir is a story written by an author about his or her own life; it is NOT
an autobiography. Instead, a memoir
reads more like a novel, focusing in on one specific slice of life for that author
or one theme from that life. Literary
merit implies complexity of ideas and notable writing styles.
Assignment: Practice active reading by underlining
memorable quotes and writing notes in the margins as you go. An
in-class essay and objective test will be based on these readings on the first
week of school. Be prepared.
Highly
recommended:
Have
an opinion. Read the news, letters to the editor, and editorials or other
nonfiction articles about an interest of yours or some current world event. Try to determine the bias of the author toward
the subject. You could even take notes,
using evidence or examples to support your position. Practice arguing for what you want over
summer, and tell your parents it is required for AP Language.
Suggested
Activity:
Read
anything that amuses you, because English is fun.
AP
Literature and Composition Summer Reading
The
AP Literature and Composition test has three essays: poetry, a prose passage,
and an open-ended question about a novel of choice. To prepare for these, we have a required
assignment and some suggested assignments for the summer.
Required:
Read
a novel or play of literary merit by an author that you have read before in
class. Literary merit implies
complexity of ideas and notable writing styles. Practice active reading by underlining
memorable quotes and writing notes in the margins. An in-class essay will be based on these
readings on the first week of school.
For
instance, if you have read Of Mice and
Men, you might read Grapes of Wrath
or East of Eden by Steinbeck, or Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway could
be paired with For Whom the Bell Tolls. The
Crucible could lead to Death of a
Salesman by Arthur Miller. The
possibilities are limitless. Here are
some more pairings: Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter and House of the Seven Gables, Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise, and Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Song of
Solomon. Some books have sequels
that work well, for example, Knowles’ Separate
Peace and Peace Breaks Out, or Potok’s The Chosen
and The Promise.
Highly
recommended:
Read
whatever fiction, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction catch your
attention. The reading required for this
class is extensive, so it would be useful to have a reading habit before you
begin class.
Suggested
Activity:
Reading
the Bible, mythology, and Shakespeare will help you recognize allusions in the
texts we read during class.