Purpose for Summer Reading
Reading during the summer is important for
everyone! It helps readers keep and improve
the reading skills they developed during the
school year. Stephen Krashen, author of
The Power of Reading, concludes that “reading
is the most powerful tool available for
building vocabulary as well as the ability
to read, write, spell, and comprehend.”
In addition, voluntary reading has a major
impact on literacy development.
Independent Reading DOES make a
difference
Percentile Rank
on
Standardized
Tests
Minutes of Text
Reading per Day
Estimated Number of Words
Read per Year
98
90.7
4,733,000
90
40.4
2,357,000
70
21.7
1,168,000
50
12.9
601,000
20
3.1
134,000
10
1.6
51,000
Assignments for
Summer Reading
are linked on the
Allen ISD
Summer Reading
SECONDARY SUMMER
READING REQUIREMENTS
Allen Independent School District
FOR MORE INFORMATION!
Please visit the Summer Reading link available on
each campus homepage.
Curtis Middle School
Ereckson Middle School
Ford Middle School
Lowery Freshman Center
Allen High School
Campus websites can be
found through the district website.
www.allenisd.org
There is perhaps
No greater
Avenue to
Learning
Than
Through
Reading!
Please visit the Summer Reading link available on
each campus homepage.
Campus websites can be found through the district website:
www.allenisd.org
*CHOOSING BOOKS
Students choose at least one school appropriate and age
appropriate book (fiction or nonfiction) that has not been
previously read. The book(s) may be chosen from book
lists that are widely available on the Internet. For ideas
of titles that may interest you, refer to the following
sites:
www.fmsenglish.com
www.amazon.com
www.librarybooklists.org
www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller
www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists
www.slcolibrary.org
www.txla.org/groups/yart/tayshaslists.html
Grade-Course
(In-Coming)
7th Grade Reading
Free Choice*
8th Grade English
Free Choice*
ESL I (High School)
Free Choice*
English I
On Level
Free Choice*
English I Pre AP/IB
Consider accessing the City of Allen Library, Overdrive,
and/or local book stores. New, used, or electronic
books are acceptable.
Note: It is not required that the book be purchased.
Library checkout is an acceptable option.
AS YOU READ
Readers should consider these questions as they read:
Why did I choose this book?
What about it holds my interest? What about
it did I like?
How/why would I recommend this book to
someone?
How could I summarize this text to share it
with others?
WHEN SCHOOL BEGINS
When school begins, students will need to know:
Title
Author
Genre
Summary of the text
Summer Reading
Requirement
Summer Reading Assignments are
linked on the
Allen ISD
Summer Reading
website:
Tracy McMillan Cottom
The Shallows: What the Internet is
Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas
Carr
Proofiness: The Dark Arts of
Mathematical Deception by
Charles Seife
List #2 for Assignment #2
(Choose only 1):
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Hiroshima by John Hersey
I’m Down by Mishna Wolff
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Devil in the White City by Erik
Sleeping Freshman Never Lie
by David Lubar
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
English I Pre AP/IB
GT Phoenix
Great American Short Stories by
Wallace & Mary Stegner:
“Rip Van Winkle,” “Young Goodman
Brown,” and “The Fall of the House of
Usher,” plus 3 stories of the student’s
choice from the remaining selections
ESL II
Free Choice*
English II
On Level
Free Choice*
English II Pre AP/IB Select ONE of the following books:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Breaking Night by Liz Murray
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and
Sweet by Jamie Ford
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah
Rodriguez
Larsen
Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara
Ehrenreich
Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
AP/GT English III
Phoenix
The Signet Book of American Essays
IB English III
And
IB/GT English III
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight:
An African Childhood by Alexandra
English IV
On Level
AP English IV
English II Pre AP/IB Anthem by Ayn Rand
GT Phoenix
ESL III
Free Choice*
English III
On Level
Free Choice*
AP English III
List #1 for Assignment #1
(Choose only 1):
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes
Affect Us and What We Can do by
Select ONE of the following books:
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron
Hall and Denver Moore
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
When We Wake by Karen Healey
The Color of Water by James McBride
* Free Choice: Please see CHOOSING BOOKS above.
AP English III
CONTINUED
by Jerry Weiss plus two student
choice books of literary merit
Fuller
Free Choice*
Read ONE of the following epics:
Aeneid (Virgil)
Iliad (Homer)
Inferno (Dante Alighieri)
Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
Paradise Lost (John Milton)
Read How to Read Literature Like a
Professor
Read one Free Choice*
Choose one book from List #1
AND one book from List #2.
Students will complete an assignment for each book (2 books/
2 assignments).
AP/GT English IV
Phoenix
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
IB English IV
And
IB/GT English IV
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Plus two student choice books for
sheer enjoyment