ENG IV
Summer Reading Assignment
Directions: Choose ONE book to read over the summer and answer FOUR
questions using our Google classroom. EACH QUESTION HAS A DIFFERENT DUE
DATE running from July 15 – August 24. Be sure to join the classroom ASAP to
access the questions and stay on top of the assignment.
Step 1: Join our Google classroom
 Go to classroom.google.com
 Sign in using your SHRINE SCHOOLS Google account (the same username and
password you use to access your school email and other google apps)
 Click on the + in the upper right-hand corner (where it says, “Join your first
class!”)
 Enter the class code: co7ill
 Preview each of the four questions and write the due dates on your calendar.
Step 2: Choose a book
 A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Step 3: Read the book
 Annotate as you read using the ANNOTATION GUIDE below
 Annotate with the four questions in mind
 Annotate the entire book
Step 4: Answer the questions
 Login into our Google classroom and post an answer to each question on or
before the due date (be sure to read and follow the directions for each
question)
Grading: 50 classwork/homework points
 10 points for each answer (40 points possible) based on the following: 1)
answer was posted on or before the due date; 2) answer is complete, follows
directions, is thoughtful, and provides support in the form of specific reasons
and examples; 3) answer is free from distracting errors in grammar, spelling,
punctuation
 10 points for annotations based on the following: 1) annotations show
sustained effort/thought throughout the entire book; 2) annotations
demonstrate use of the ANNOTATION GUIDE
DUE DATES: July 15; July 29; August 12; August 24
Annotation Guide
Annotating, as the definition above indicates, is the act of ADDING NOTES that
explain or offer commentary. Annotating is NOT underlining and highlighting.
Underlining and highlighting are just that, underlining and highlighting. They are
meaningless acts UNLESS you annotate as you underline and highlight to offer an
explanation or comment that indicates WHY you underlined and highlighted what
you did.
How to Annotate:
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Have a conversation with the text. Talk back to it.
Comment on lines / quotations you think are especially significant, powerful,
or meaningful.
Mark key lines: Any time you read a passage that is significant to the plot or
character development, underline it and write a brief note to yourself in the
margin describing the passage and/or why it is important.
Ask questions: If a passage or scene is confusing, or if you want to know more
about what is occurring, bracket the passage or scene and jot your question in
the margin.
React to what you read: If something in the text strikes you, surprises you,
troubles you, or even makes you laugh, mark it and write your reaction in the
margin.
Express agreement or disagreement.
Track themes: As you read, you will begin to discern the text’s threads or
themes. Once you notice them, you can begin marking them every time they
occur.
Summarize key events by making notes at the end of each chapter that list its
4-5 most important plot events.
Make predictions.
Connect ideas to each other: What relates to other parts of the text? What
relates to other things you’ve read? What relates to current events? What
relates to your own experiences?
Explain the historical context or traditions/social customs used in the passage.
Note how the author uses language and its significance if you can.
Look for literary techniques used by the author. See list below.
Ways to Annotate:
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If you are a person who does not like to write in a book, you may want to
invest in a supply of post it notes.
If you feel really creative, or are just super organized, you can even color
code your annotations by using different color post-its, highlighters, or pens.
Brackets: If several lines seem important, just draw a line down the margin
and underline/highlight only the key phrases.
Asterisks: Place an asterisk next to an important passage; use two if it is really
important.
Marginal Notes: Use the space in the margins to make comments, define
words, ask questions, etc.
Underline/highlight: Caution! Do not underline or highlight too much! You
want to concentrate on the important elements, not entire pages (use brackets
for that).
Use circles, boxes, triangles, squiggly lines, stars, etc.
Literary Techniques
Alliteration – the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the
same sound: e.g., “The twisting trout twinkled below.”
Allusion – a reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing: e.g.,
“He met his Waterloo.”
Flashback – a scene that interrupts the action of a work to show a previous event.
Foreshadowing – the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action
Hyperbole – a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration; it may be used
for either serious or comic effect: e.g., “The shot heard ‘round the world.”
Idiom – an accepted phrase or expression having a meaning different from the literal: e.g.,
to drive someone up the wall.
Imagery – the words or phrases a writer uses that appeal to the senses.
Irony – there are three types;
-verbal irony – when a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the
opposite; sarcasm is a form or verbal irony: e.g., “It is easy to stop smoking. I’ve
done it many times.”
-situational irony -- when a situation turns out differently from what one would
normally expect; often the twist is oddly appropriate: e.g., a deep sea diver
drowning in a bathtub is ironic.
-dramatic irony – when a character or speaker says or does something that has
different meaning from what he or she thinks it means, though the audience and other
characters understand the full implications: e.g., Anne Frank looks forward to
growing up, but we, as readers, know that it will never be.
Metaphor – a comparison of two unlike things not using “like” or “as”: e.g., “Time is
money.”
Mood – the atmosphere or predominant emotion in a literary work.
Oxymoron – a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual
expression: e.g., “sweet sorrow” or “cold fire.”
Paradox – occurs when the elements of a statement contradict each other. Although the
statement may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have a coherent
meaning that reveals a hidden truth: e.g., “Much madness id divinest sense.”
Personification – a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human
characteristics: e.g., “The wind cried in the dark.”
Simile – a comparison of two different things or ideas using words such as “like” or “as”:
e.g., “The warrior fought like a lion.”
Suspense – a quality that makes the reader or audience uncertain or tense about the outcome
of events.
Symbol – any object, person, place, or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands
for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value: e.g., a tortoise
represents slow but steady progress.
Theme – the central message of a literary work. It is expressed as a sentence or general
statement about life or human nature. A literary work can have more than one theme, and
most themes are not directly stated but are implied: e.g., pride often precedes a fall.
*Tone – the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject, character, or audience; it is
conveyed through the author’s choice of words (diction) and details. Tone can be serious,
humorous, sarcastic, indignant, etc.
*Understatement (meiosis, litotes) – the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that
deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is: e.g., “I could
probably manage to survive on a salary of two million dollars per year.”