Advanced Placement English
Mrs. Lindsay
Garfield Heights High School
Garfield Heights, Ohio
[email protected] Twitter: @EnglishHooray
Yippee!
I am so glad you chose to take on the challenge of AP English next year! This class is designed
to help you prepare for the expectations of college-level work and to help you earn college credit
in high school. We will expand our focus to world literature next year and we will continue to
extend the depth and breadth of our analysis skills. I absolutely can not wait to keep working
with you!
Summer Reading Requirements and Activities:
Summer reading assignments will be submitted on two due dates during the summer: August 1
and August 17. Your journal will be due on the first day of school. I understand that your free
time is valuable so I’ve designed a reasonable amount of work that will still permit you to do the
things you want to, yet prepare you for the rigorous curriculum of AP English.
You will read three books and complete two essays over the summer. You will take notes and
journal. During the first week of school, you will be assigned additional work which ties both
novels together. We’ll have at least one Socratic Seminar in that first week.
Part I: Summer Reading Novels and Essays:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Essay due August 1)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Essay due August 17)
Essay Prompt Options:
Do not use the same essay prompt for both novels.
A. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” Choose a character
from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well
developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the
character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.
B. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the
country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in
which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country
setting functions in the work as a whole. Hint: for Catch-22 you can change the word “country” to
something else to fit your needs. Run it by me if you have questions.
C. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist Edith Wharton states the following: At every stage in the
progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and
emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction,
its vistas on infinity.
Choose a novel or play that you have studied and write a well-organized essay in which you describe an
“illuminating” episode or moment and explain how it functions as a “casement,” a window that opens onto
the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
D. In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor.
Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a welldeveloped essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about
the perpetrator and/or victim.
Essay Guidelines:
 Essays will be submitted to me via email. Copy and paste the essay into the body of the email to
avoid complications with opening files.
 Select one prompt for each novel. Do not use the same prompt twice.
 Essays should be approximately two-three pages in length, double spaced, 12 pt. font, Times New
Roman.
 Include a standard MLA heading on your first page (your name, my name, class name, date).
 Include an introduction and a conclusion paragraph. How you construct the body of your essay is
up to you.
 Essays should include direct quotes from the novel (with page numbers! In MLA format!) as
support.
 Additional criticism or support is not required, but you may use it if you wish. If you do, make
sure you include a works cited page (even if you do not directly quote the text).
 Please copy the essay prompt you have chosen and paste it beneath the title of your essay.
 Essay rubric will be the same basic rubric as the JELA but without the criticism requirements.
 And of course, even the slightest smidge of plagiarism will result in a ZERO for your entire
summer assignment.
Part II: Nonfiction selection:
Pick one of these books to read. Write me a letter about what you found most interesting in the book
and put that letter in your summer journal. In addition, be prepared to present the key ideas of your
nonfiction selection during the first week of school and be able to discuss the ideas in the book.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell – about making decisions in a …blink. If you liked Outliers, you’ll
probably like this.
A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon – looks at
physiological and psychological elements of love, the effects it has on us, etc. This one has more
hard science in it than the Gladwell works.
A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink – about how creative thinkers will have an edge in the future.
Each of the main chapters has exercises and resources you can use to help get your own creative
juices flowin’ and that’s fun even if you don’t struggle to be creative. This book does give a lot
of examples from the business world, so if you are into business, you might like this one too.
Part III: The Journal
This is your chance to be fun and creative! And it’s my favorite part to grade!
Get a notebook/journal/composition book (it doesn’t matter as long as it’s something you’ll be comfortable
carrying around and writing in all summer.)
What goes inside:
Notes on your reading.
Quotes or page number that you think are significant
Brainstorming/notes for your essays
Cultural event write up: Attend one cultural event over the summer and write about it in your
notebook. If you are not sure if something counts as a cultural event, shoot me an email. Some free
ideas: Parade the Circle, Free Shakespeare Festival (cleveshakes.org for details), trips to the
Cleveland Museum of Art, etc. In your write up for this event, you can describe what you did
briefly, but I'm mostly interested in what it made you think about, what opinions you had about the
production, any emotions it stirred up in you, anything it inspired you to do, say, or think about, or
even why you decided to go to it. In short, I'm more interested in your reaction to it than merely a
summary of the event itself. Because YOU are the ones I care about =)
One Dialectical Journal over your nonfiction read. You know the drill. Make your response part
at least 200 words.
At least five other entries. They should be at least a page worth of writing (if you were writing on
loose leaf. That’s roughly 200-250 words.).
These can be: Additional dialectical journals rants about ideas or issues you care about Personal
sagas of love, loss, friendship, ice cream, yard work, (often the most profound truths come to light
in the most mundane activities!) Responses to writing prompts I send you if you need help to get
your juices flowing (just email or holler on twitter, seriously!). Get personal! You do not have to
be serious and academic here! Have fun!
At least one of these entries must be visual. You can draw a chart, sketch a stranger at the bus
stop, replicate a painting at the art museum, make a map of where you go for walks when you’re
mad, illustrate your ideal date, draw the inside of your mind, chart the frequency of your younger
sibling’s tantrums … the possibilities are endless. If you aren’t sure if something is a good idea,
shoot me an email and check! (Chances are good that I will tell you your idea is fine. Take risks!
Be creative!)
Your letter to me about your nonfiction read. I want to know how you can see information from
the book applying to your own life. What did you find most interesting? Which advice or
information do you plan to use to help guide you in your own life?
Resources:
My email:
[email protected]
College Board:
www.collegeboard.com
Information on the AP test. This site also has some good SAT/ACT prep resources.
MLA:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
More than you ever wanted to know about MLA format.
Diversion:
www.wherethehellismatt.com
Really interesting podcasts, some of which you will be required to listen to next year:
http://www.radiolab.org/
Recommended Reading:
Not sure what to read this summer? Some really cool stuff we won’t get to next year:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a post-apocalyptic story about a dad trying to survive with his son (who
is somewhere between ages 4 and 10). It’s beautiful and gripping and might only take you a few days to
read.
Into the Wild by John Krakauer is a journalistic nonfiction read about a guy in his early 20’s who goes, you
guessed it, into the wild to find himself and never returns. Krakauer does a bunch of research and
interviews and retraces the steps of our young hero to figure out where he went and what happened to him.
A short, compelling read.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a beautiful coming of age type of story about an
African American woman growing up in the south and how she goes through a series of relationships to
find real love. This book is poetic like woah. Just ask Andrianna.
ANYTHING BY THOMAS HARDY.
Part IV: The Future
I know this first quarter is going to be crazy busy for many of you. This year’s AP class has a record
number of class officers and NHS officers (congrats again!). I try to work around busy times like
homecoming, and so on as much as I can so you are not more overwhelmed than you have to be. There
also some proactive steps you can take over the summer to ease your burden during that hectic first quarter.
First, start reading your first independent novel now, take good notes so you don’t forget what you read,
and if you’re a real go-getter, write your dialectical journals ahead of time! Four weeks into the school
year, you’ll have a set of dialectical journals due (one journal for every fifty pages of novel. For most of
these, there will be 5 journals).
Independent Reading for First Quarter:
Great Expectations OR A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
1984 by George Orwell
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Your essay for this novel will not be due until about six weeks into the school year.
Books to buy for next year:
I will provide copies of some of the novels and texts we will study next year. You do, however, need
to buy two things for sure:
Sound and Sense 11th edition. Yes, the edition matters. Yes, you have to buy it. We’ll be using it all year
and you can’t use a library book. No, DO NOT BUY IT NEW!! This book is crazy expensive. Buy it
used on Amazon for 2-3 dollars now while all the college students are selling off their books for partying
money!
Crime and Punishment by Fodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Sidney Monas. Yes, the translation matters.
We’re going to be annotating the holy heck out of this book, so just buy one. It’s pretty cheap.
Grading Scale for summer essays will be the AP English Literature and Composition rubric. It’s
widely available on line in various forms too if you’d like more detail or clarification.:
Grading Rubric:
AP essays are graded on a nine point scale. Below are the requirements for each category.
9 - 8 papers demonstrate ►originality and imagination. They are accurate and perceptive
analyses of literature. These papers leave the reader convinced of the soundness of the
discussion, impressed with the quality of the writing style, and stimulated by the intelligence
and insight of the writer. These essays contain effective references to stylistic elements and
demonstrate maturity by effective command of sentence structure, diction and organization.
These essays reveal a writer's ability to choose from and control a wide range of the elements
of effective writing.
9 - A+ 8 - A
7 - 6 papers demonstrate ►solid, logical and persuasive discussion, but they lack the originality
of the "9" papers. The development of the essays lack the grace and style of the "9" papers and
may seem predictable and plodding. These essays possess an articulate thesis and sufficient
detail to support the thesis. The command of language, vocabulary and sentence structure is
acceptable. Ideas are presented clearly and some sentence variety exists.
7 - B+ 6 - B
5 papers demonstrate ► a thorough but not convincing discussion of the topic, marked by the
sense that the writer has not understood the literature. The writer makes superficial or
inaccurate generalizations. The treatment of stylistic devices is vague or mechanical. The essay
is adequately written but demonstrates inconsistent control over the elements of composition.
Organization is evident but is not particularly effective or fully realized.
5-C
4 - 3 papers demonstrate ► that an attempt has been made to organize the essay but the
structure is flawed and the supporting detail is weak. The writer may make valid observations
about the literature but does not adequately support those observations. Sentence patterns are
simplistic and weak, and the writing rambles. Serious problems with standard written English
may exist.
4 - D 3 - D2 - 1 papers demonstrate ► a lack of understanding of the task or the process of writing. These
essays lack a thesis. They do not discuss the literature or they fail to address the question.
They draw obscure or irrelevant conclusions and are deficient in the conventions of English.
2 and 1