DSST GVR: Rising 9th Grade Summer Assignment
Name:
Rationale
It is imperative that we maintain over break the hard-won reading skills we gained throughout 8th grade. The only
way to do this is to read during the summer. The 9th grade includes a LOT of reading at home—you can expect 15-30
pages of at-home reading per night your freshman year. In order to build your at-home reading habits and maintain
your reading skills, we assign summer reading projects. You will have a summer reading assignment every year you
attend DSST: GVR HS.
Overview
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Your journals and essay are due by 5pm Monday, August 18th , NOT THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. You may turn your
assignment in from between 9am and 5 pm.
How to turn in your assignment:
1. Go to the main DSST:GVR HS Building and walk to the front desk. Hand your journals and essay (they must be together
with a clip or staple) to the member of the English Department behind the desk accepting assignments.
2. The member of the English Dept. will check your name off the class roster and have you sign beside your name.
3. The member of the English department will give you a receipt indicating the time you turned your assignment in and
who accepted it from you. Keep this receipt as your proof that you’ve completed your assignment.
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4. Any assignments turned in on the first day of school (August 20 ) will be marked late and receive a 20% deduction in
credit. Any student who does not complete a summer assignment will be issued a zero and required to make the grade
up in Saturday School.
You will read a minimum of two books this summer. You may choose the books from the list below.
For BOTH these two books, you will complete reading journals.
For ONE of these two books, you will complete and essay. You may choose the prompt from the list provided. This essay
will be your first major high school grade.
Book Choices
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
Black Like Me, John Griffin
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
The Killer
Angels, by Michael Shaara
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
Watership Down, by Richard Adams The AutoBiography
of Malcom X, by Alex Haley
Emma, by Jane Austen
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Silent
Spring, by Rachael Carson
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
The Secret Life of
Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou Sold, Patricia
McCormick The First Last Part, Angela Johnson Congo, Michael Crighton
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
Roots, Alex Haley Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare Rebecca, Daphne DeMaurier
Fences, August Wilson On the Road, Jack Kerouac A lesson before Dying, Ernest Gaines, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret
Atwood One flew over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie
What is the What, Dave Eggers
You may buy these at a bookstore or get them from the library. I recommend the library because it’s free!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What if I don’t do it?
A: You will receive Saturday school and a deduction on your grade for turning your journals and essay in late. You will still have to do it at
Saturday school. If you turn it in the first day of school, it will be late and you will have to attend Saturday School.
Q: What if I technically do it, but my journals and essay are of low quality?
A: Saturday school. Make sure you follow directions carefully and complete every piece of the assignment. As with all work you turn in at
DSST, this should reflect your very best effort. If we can tell your effort was cursory, or if your work is sloppy or incomplete, you will redo
your assignment in Saturday school until you produce work that reflects your true abilities. Short or meaningless sentences meant to
defraud the length requirement will land you in summer school.
Q: How should I get these books?
A: The GVR public library (Located at 4856 N. Andes Court in GVR) is your BEST resource. The library is free, the librarians can order you
copies of whichever book you’d like, and they have computers available to type your journals and essays before turning them in. The
library’s hours and contact info is below:
Alternately, you may purchase books from a bookstore or online. I recommend half.com, where you can purchase used books very cheaply.
Purchasing books allows you to have your own copy, so you may annotate as you go.
Journal Assignment Requirements
For each of the two books, you must complete 10 journal entries as you read. Divide the pages of the book into 10 roughly equal (you can
come up with logical starts and ends yourself) sections and write a journal entry for each.
At the top of each journal entry, record the section you read. Each entry must contain a paragraph (6-10 sentences) of summary and a
paragraph (6-10 sentences) of analysis. Analysis must be inferential. You sentences must be complete and well-written. It’s ok to handwrite
the journals.
Some ideas for what to focus on in your analysis paragraph:
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Analyze the motivations behind a character’s actions in that section
Choose a very important quote / piece of evidence and analyze its significance
Analyze a complex relationship from that section—what are the contradictory elements of the relationship?
Analyze an unreliable character in that section—why is the character’s perspective dishonest?
Analyze a literary devices from that section (metaphor, irony, etc). Explain the significance of the literary device.
Compare and contrast who characters—what is the same or different about their perspectives, experiences, personalities, etc?
Make a connection—how did something in this section relate to another text we’ve read at school?
Essay Assignment Requirements
This essay is an important assignment—therefore it must be typed and printed out to look professional. Use the local library if you need a
computer and / or printer. You may write about either of your books—your choice.
This essay must be 3 pages long, 12 point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced. Margins must be standard. Use evidence from the novel
to defend your ideas. Cite evidence correctly.
Your essay must address one of the following prompts. You may choose:
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2.
3.
Choose an important character from your novel. How does this character change over the course of the novel? What are the
important turning points in this character’s evolution? What are the causes of this character’s change?
Analyze the author’s purpose of your novel. What was the author criticizing / observing about society? What message did the
author want the reader to take away?
Analyze a relationship between two characters in your novel. How does each character feel about the other? Why? How does the
relationship change over the course of the plot?