Loch Raven High School: Summer/First Quarter Reading
During the next few months, students enrolled in English will be expected to complete the grade-appropriate assignment below.
Students are encouraged to complete their reading during the summer as they will have assigned reading for the school year beginning
in September. Prioritizing will allow students to complete the summer reading during the summer and avoid additional work during
the school year. All students are to be prepared to write an essay, participate in class discussions, submit critical reading activities,
and/or demonstrate reading comprehension in other English class activities. G&T/AP students are expected to have their works ready
immediately upon their return to school.
Reading requirements for novels/plays:
 Notes are optional for all students and may be used on the assessment. Only handwritten notes will
be permitted; nothing typed, which could have been printed from the internet, will be accepted.
 Each book has been chosen for its relevance to the curriculum. These books are readily available in
local libraries and book stores.
 All works require a completed Reading Record Card. See subsequent pages for guidelines.
 G&T and AP students may have specific requirements for reading and/or note taking and should see
subsequent pages for guidelines.
Honors Assignments
Students will be assessed beginning October 1.
Any student who does not complete the assignments will receive zeroes. Students who complete the assignment on
something other than that which the directions indicate will receive reduced credit. Students must choose only
ONE of the books for their assigned class and complete ONE Reading Record Card for that book.
English 9 Honors
English 10 Honors
The Contender by Robert Lipsyte
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
OR
OR
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
OR
OR
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
English 11 Honors
Read a 200+ page biography on one of the
following Founding Fathers.
(The following men are considered by most
historians to be the Founding Fathers: John Adams,
Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander
Hamilton, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, George
Mason, Thomas Paine, and George-Washington.)
English 12 Honors
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
OR
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
GT/ AP Assignments
Students will be assessed immediately upon returning to school.
Students taking GT English 9 or 10, or AP English 11 or 12 are expected to read special literary works
related to the GT/AP curriculum. Students may use completed notes for each of the assigned readings
below. Students must consult any attached directions/examples for their assigned class and
complete ONE Reading Record Card for the assigned book(s).
GT English 9
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Poetry Assignment.
AP English 11
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
A biography/Autobiography of an American
Political Figure (150+pages) with dialectical
journals.
GT English 10
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Online discussion questions and vocabulary.
AP English 12
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
Poetry Assignment.
Reading Record Card
You will be assigned to submit a reading record card (RRC) for all works read.
Each RRC must contain the following:
1. Title and author (underline the title)
2. Brief Bio of author (date/place of birth, date of death)
3. Date of original copyright
4. Setting
5. Themes
6. Brief Plot Summary
7. Character Identification
8. Major Symbol and what each represents
9. Distinguishing features (What is unique about this particular text? Format? Style? Etc.)
10. Personal reaction
All cards are to be submitted on 4x6 index cards in ink and handwritten.
Be sure to provide specific details and explanations.
All requirements must be HIGHLIGHTED. See the bolded topics in the sample below.
Reading record card, example* Real RRCs must be handwritten in ink on 4x6 index cards only. You should write on the front and
back of the 4x6 card.
The Joy Luck Club
Author: Amy Tan
Biography: b.1952/ l. in San Francisco Bay Area, California
Copyright: 1989
Setting: San Francisco, California, 1980s,
Theme: the relationship between mothers and daughters, learning from experience, hope, obedience to one’s parents
Characters: Suyuan Woo (founder of the San Francisco Joy Luck Club, June’s mother) An-mei Hsu (Roses’ mother,
wanted Rose to save her marriage), Lindo Jong (Waverly’s mother, wanting Waverly to take advantage of American
Opportunities), Ying-ying St. Clair (mother of Lena, lead a secret life) Jin-mei “Jane” Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly
Jong, Lena St. Clair
Plot: The book is divided into four parts, two devoted to the mother’s lives, two to that of the daughter’s. The first
section describes the mothers’ childhoods in China. The second describes the daughter’s childhoods. The third section
describes the daughter’s lives recently. The fourth section describes what happened after the mother’s childhoods in the
US and how the mothers see themselves in the daughters and try to help them balance their lives. Jane, being encouraged
by her dad, joins the Joy Luck Club after her mother’s death. Here she learns previously unknown stuff about her mother.
Her ‘aunties’ tell her much, including the two daughters her mother left in China are still alive. June tells of her childhood,
unwillingly being smart and playing piano for her mother. When she grows up, he mother throws a big dinner for her. She
learns her mother does not favor Waverly over her, and receives a jade necklace to enforce that rationale. After her
mother’s death, June takes her father’s and “Aunties”’ advice, and goes to China to see her sisters. The mothers of the
character list all are in the Joy Luck Club and have daughters with whom they share their life with, and give lessons they
have learned to. The daughters eventually realize the mothers are right.
Major symbols: Feathers from 1000 li away represents the mothers’ special stories of childhoods in China. 26 malignant
gates represent lack of understanding between mother and daughter. American Tradition represents what the daughters
take from maternal advice, be it correct or not. Queen Mother of the Western Skies represents stories of lost innocence
and how the mothers try to help. The Joy Luck Club represents the characters’ pretending it is a new year every week and
forgetting past wrongs and hopes that weeks would be lucky.
Distinguishing Features: This work has excellent real-life plots for each character. The characters are very realistic and
express universal characteristics. Each story is written in great detail and they incorporate fact and fiction.
Personal Reaction: I enjoyed reading this book. It was very realistic and because my mother is Asian also, I could
especially relate to many of the experiences the girls had. However, the format of the book was a little jumbled, thus hard
to match the names with the correct story. Overall, it was well written, and I thought it to be quite interesting.
GT 9 Additional Summer Reading Assignment Directions
The 9GT curriculum incorporates poetry reading and analysis throughout, but most especially in Unit I. The
English GT/AP track includes significant work on poetry, and the AP Literature & Composition Exam, for
which students in this track prepare during their senior year in BCPS, is comprised of substantial prose and
poetry reading and analysis. The TP-CASTT organizing method for poetry analysis provides students a stepby-step guide for analyzing and appreciating poetry at a deeper level. In order to prepare students for this more
intensive study of poetry required in their coming coursework, incoming 9GT students are asked to complete a
TP-CASTT for the following poem. (LRHS teachers chose this Walt Whitman poem for its accessibility, levels
of message, range of literary and poetic devices, and themes connected to Unit I. Whitman wrote this poem
sometime during the period of the American Civil War.)
Poetry analysis work is meant to help students develop their skills of assessing a poet’s message, tone, and
purpose—plus identifying and thoroughly explaining HOW each of the poet’s choices deliberately serves to
deliver message, tone, and purpose to the reader.
Assignment:
In addition to reading (and optionally taking notes on) Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man
and the Sea, complete a TP-CASTT organizer for the following poem, “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray
and Dim,” by Walt Whitman. Annotation and markup of the poem are recommended, and students should
submit their copies of the poem with their TP-CASTT’s. Directions for the TP-CASTT are on the Loch Raven
High School web site.
Do your TP-CASTT on the organizer or on notebook paper, and do a GT-level complete job. (Generally
speaking, this means more than one sentence in each field of the TP-CASTT.)
IMPORTANT: In the critical “Connotation” section, identify and include at least FOUR language devices—
whether poetic or literary or even rhetorical—and explain HOW each device works in the poem to reveal
tone or develop theme or serve another purpose.
Paraphrase is NOT summary. For this short poem, paraphrase line for line.
All GT and AP English summer assignments are due on the first day of school.
[Poem on next page—or look up online.]
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim
by Walt Whitman
A sight in camp in the daybreak gray and dim,
As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless,
As slow I walk in the cool fresh air the path near by the hospital
tent,
Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended
lying,
Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen blanket,
Gray and heavy blanket, folding, covering all.
Curious I halt and silent stand,
Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest the first just
lift the blanket;
Who are you elderly man so gaunt and grim, with well-gray'd
hair, and flesh all sunken about the eyes?
Who are you my dear comrade?
Then to the second I step—and who are you my child and
darling?
Who are you sweet boy with cheeks yet blooming?
Then to the third—a face nor child nor old, very calm, as of
beautiful yellow-white ivory;
Young man I think I know you—I think this face is the face
of the Christ himself,
Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.
Poetry Analysis: TP-CASTT
T
TITLE
P
PARAPHRASE
C
CONNOTATION
A ATTITUDE
S SHIFTS
T TITLE
T THEME
Before you even think about reading the poem or trying to analyze it, speculate
on what you think the poem might be about based solely upon the title. Often,
authors give clues and conceal meaning in the title. Jot down what you think the
poem will be about.
Before you try to analyze the poem, first consider the literal or surface meaning
of the poem. One of the biggest mistakes that students often make in poetry
analysis is jumping to conclusions before understanding what is taking place in
the poem. When you paraphrase a poem, write in your own words exactly what
happens in the poem. Look at the number of sentences in the poem—your
paraphrase should have about the same number. This technique is especially
helpful for poems written hundreds of years ago or poems that carry unfamiliar
diction and structure. Sometimes your teacher may allow you to summarize
what happens in the poem. Be sure to know the difference between summarizing
and paraphrasing.
Although this term usually refers solely to the emotional overtones of word
choice, for this analytical approach the term refers to any and all poetic devices,
focusing on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both of a
poem. You may consider imagery, figures of speech (simile, metaphor,
personification, symbolism, etc.), diction, point of view, and sound devices
(alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.). Also consider more advanced techniques, such
as metonymy and litotes. It is not necessary that you identify all the poetic
devices within the poem. The ones you do identify should be seen as a way of
supporting the conclusions you are going to draw about the poem.
Having examined the poem`s devices and clues closely, you are now ready to
explore the multiple attitudes that may be present in the poem. Examination of
diction, images, and details suggest the speaker`s attitude and contributes to
understanding. [Be sure to distinguish between the speaker in the poem and the
poet who wrote the poem. They are not the same thing.] Remember that,
generally speaking, the tone or attitude cannot be named with a single word.
Rarely does a poem begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. As is
true of most of us, the poet`s understanding of an experience is a gradual
realization, and the poem is a reflection of that understanding or insight. Watch
for the following keys to shifts:
 Key words (but, yet, however, although)
 Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipses)
 Stanza divisions
 Changes in line or stanza length, or both
 Irony
 Changes in sound that may indicate changes in meaning
 Changes in diction
Now consider the title again, but this time on an interpretive level. What new or
deeper insight does the title provide in understanding the poem?
What is the poem saying about the human experience or the human condition, or
motivation? What subject or subjects does the poem/poet address? What do you
learn about those subjects? A new perspective? What message about a subject is
the poet putting out into the world through his or her poem? Are there multiple
messages—or multiple interpretations? Remember that the theme of any work
of literature seldom can be stated in a single word—you usually need a sentence.
Poetry Analysis: TP-CASTT
T
TITLE
P
PARAPHRASE
C
CONNOTATION
A
ATTITUDE
S
SHIFT
T
TITLE
T
THEME
GT 10 Additional Summer Reading Assignment Directions
“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Welcome to GT English 10. You are about to embark on an engaging, challenging, and enlightening journey, which
begins this summer with your first assignment, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Your challenge is not to
“just read” but to engage with this psychological drama through a series of discussion posts.
This novel has appeared on the Advanced Placement literature examination fifteen times including this past year.
Obviously the College Board (who administer the AP Exams) think highly of this work! This work is NOT EASY TO
READ, so please read at least 10 pages each day. Do not try to read the work during the last week of summer. If you
are having difficulty understanding this novel, please go on-line and check any of the novel review websites to make sure
you understand what is happening, but do not use these as a crutch unless you truly need them.
Reading Assignment
Over the course of the summer, you should read Crime and Punishment by Fyoder Dostoevsky and participate in a series
of online discussions about the book (outlined below).
Vocabulary Assignment
Expanding your vocabulary is essential to understanding more difficult texts. Attached is a list of 30 words that you
should be able to identify and define by the first day of school. The list is located on the Wikispace.
Discussion Assignment
During the summer, we will use WikiSpaces to discuss Crime and Punishment. Please find our class Wikispace account
by using the following information
Wiki Website: http://bresnahanworldlit.wikispaces.com/
Link to Join: https://wikispaces.com/join/RF4HHJ4
Code: RF4HHJ4
Introductory Post: For the introductory post, please tell me who you are, something exciting you are doing this
summer, and either your favorite book or magazine to read.
Discussion Posts:
For each of the six parts of Crime and Punishment, you are responsible for answering the discussion questions
provided for each section. The discussion questions for each part of the book will be posted by me, Ms.
Bresnahan. All students must respond with a post to every section.
To receive full credit for your responses, you should reply in well-developed paragraphs that use specific
textual details to support your interpretation. You should use the same standards for spelling and grammar that
you would in any assignment for a class. You should end each of your discussion posts with a question that
you have or a question that furthers the conversation in that particular section. Your discussion post should be at
least 200 words long.
Comment Posts: Once you have finished your discussion post, you are responsible for responding to two of your
peers’ discussion posts. Your comment posts can either comment on something that they wrote in their post, or it
can help answer the question that they have posed. Your comment posts should be at least 75 words long.
Quality Points
Quality points are earned by going beyond the required assignments. Here are some of the ways you can
earn quality points:
• Responding to someone else’s comment in a discussion post or engaging in an extended back-and-forth
discussion
• Commenting on someone’s reflection post
• Showing good time management by getting work done early
• Other creative ways that you come up with to contribute
Responsibility
You are expected to finish all discussion posts by the first day of class. If you know that you will be away without
internet access for part of the summer, I suggest printing the discussion post questions, responding to them as you
read, and uploading them when you have internet access again. It is your responsibility to make sure your work is
completed.
Point Breakdown
Introductory post (10 points)
Participation in six discussion posts (10 points each)
Comment Points (18 points)
Quality points (12 points)
Crime and Punishment Vocabulary
abstemiousness
spurious
supercilious
trepidation
sardonic
abscond
brazen
casuistry
ignominious
opulently
effrontery
disseminate
bilious
inexorably
fortuitous
timorous
equivocation
libertine
commensurate
malevolent
capricious
tenuous
affable
dissemble
indelible
torpor
causticity
lugubrious
repugnant
assiduous
AP Language and Composition 11 Additional Summer Reading Assignment Directions
Directions: Complete a dialectical journal as you read you chosen biography or autobiography of an American
political figure. As you read, consider the following question:
Is/was your political figure a significant figure in American history? Why/why not?
(Hint: Significance does not mean benevolence. A good person might not necessarily be significant, and a
malevolent person might be incredibly significant. Significance depends on the lasting impact an individual has
had on American society.)
Each entry should serve as evidence to answer this question. You can have evidence for both sides of the
argument. You need a minimum of 10 numbered entries (quote + explanation). Explanations must be a
minimum of 100 words. Include word count below each entry. Any assignment with evidence of plagiarism
will result in a zero.
SAMPLE DIALECTICAL JOURNAL ENTRY:
Quote with MLA citation
1. “About this time I wrote a Paper . . . on
the different Accidents and
Carelessnesses by which Houses were
set on fire, with Cautions against them,
and Means proposed for avoiding
them. This was much spoken of as a
useful Piece, and gave rise to a Project
which soon followed it, of forming a
Company for the more ready
Extinguishing of Fires, and mutual
Assistance in Removing & Securing
Goods when in Danger. . . One new
Company being formed after another,
till they became so numerous as to
include most of the Inhabitants who
were Men of Property; and now at the
first time of my Writing this, tho’
upwards of Fifty Years since its
Establishment, that which I first
formed, called the Union Fire
Company, still subsists and flourishes.
. .” (Franklin104-5).
Explanation (100 words minimum each)
Whenever Benjamin Franklin encountered a
problem, he was driven to find a solution.
When an existing solution was not apparent,
he would invent his own solution. For
example, when Franklin noticed a frequent
issue of homes being vulnerable to fires, he
wrote a paper about then issue, then generated
the idea that resulted in America’s first fire
department. These departments gained
popularity and many communities adopted the
idea of having their own fire stations. Franklin
is a significant American figure because of his
various innovations—such as the local fire
department—that not only bettered American
society but also remain important facets of
America today.
(word count: 105)
(Create your own charts on notebook paper that are modeled after the above sample.)
AP12 English Literature and Composition Additional Summer Reading Assignment Directions
The AP English Literature and Composition course focuses on close, thoughtful reading of; hands-on analysis
of; and advanced-level writing about novels, plays, short stories, nonfiction, and, significantly, poetry. To help
you prepare for the more intensive study of poetry required for success on the AP Lit Exam, which includes
poetry, sample the following poems by the fall.
Assignment: In addition to reading (and optionally taking notes on) Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and
Richard Preston’s The Wild Trees, read and complete a TP-CASTT organizer for 5 poems: Choose any 4 from
the 10 below, and choose 1 more on your own. It must be at least 14 lines and from a poet NOT on the list
below—but of equal literary merit. Important: For your chosen poem, DO NOT CHOOSE any poems
from previous years, which are listed on the reverse side. Then, print out each poem and mark up the
poems as you read. The assignment is mainly the TP-CASTTs, but submit your copies of the poems at the
same time. Directions for the TP-CASTT are on the Loch Raven High School web site.
Do your TP-CASTTs on notebook paper, and do an AP-level complete job. (Generally speaking, this
certainly means more than one sentence in each field of the TP-CASTT. IMPORTANT: You must identify
and include at least FOUR poetic devices in the “Connotation” section, and be sure to explain HOW the
devices work in the poem to reveal tone or develop theme or serve another purpose. Familiar devices
(metaphor, imagery) are fine, but also try to identify more advanced techniques, perhaps synecdoche or
inversion. Or, you might try to identify the meter (iambic, anapestic, dactylic) and analyze how the rhythm of
the poem is related to its message. Take note of any rhyming scheme, especially focusing on how the poet’s
deliberate choices were integral to the poem’s impact.
Paraphrase is NOT summary, but paraphrase does not have to be word for word.
All GT and AP English summer assignments are due on the first day of school.
Read, mark up, and TP-CASTT four of these ten:
1. Julia Alvarez
“Ironing Their Clothes”
2. Robert Frost
“Mending Wall”
3. John Donne
“Song”
4. Theodore Roethke
“Root Cellar”
5. Alice Walker
“I Will Keep Broken Things”
6. Christopher Marlowe
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
7. Emily Dickinson
“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church”
8. Dorothy Parker
“The Danger of Writing Defiant Verse”
9. Langston Hughes
“Peace”
10. Pablo Neruda
“Clenched Soul”
Then, select one poem—at least 14 lines, from a poet of equal literary merit to this list, BUT WHO IS NOT ON
THIS LIST—AND NO POEMS from previous years’ lists (on reverse side).
Do
NOT choose any of these poems (from previous summer lists) as your fifth poem.
Any of the many other works by these poets is fine—as
long as the poet is NOT
also on this summer’s list, of course.
Maya Angelou
“Woman Work” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
Gwendolyn Brooks
“The Explorer”
Lewis Carroll
“The Jabberwocky”
Emily Dickinson
“One need not be a Chamber—to be Haunted”
Emily Dickinson
“I know some Lonely Houses off the Road”
Robert Frost
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Kahlil Gibran
“On Children”
A. E. Housman
“To an Athlete Dying Young”
Denise Levertov
“Contraband”
Michael McFee
“In Medias Res”
Marianne Moore
“Poetry”
Pablo Neruda
“The United Fruit Co.”
Sylvia Plath
“Child”
Edgar Allen Poe
“The Raven”
Ezra Pound
“The Garden”
Christina Rossetti
“Sleeping at Last”
William Shakespeare
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”
William Shakespeare
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds…”
Dylan Thomas
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Alice Walker
“Be Nobody’s Darling”
Walt Whitman
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
William Wordsworth
“I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud”
“Out, Out—”
“Miracles”
Things to remember:



Do complete AP-level work on all sections of the TP-CASTT. A rushed, superficial, or incomplete job
will not earn full points!
Paraphrase is not summary, and although I do not require a line-by-line paraphrase, yours should be
appropriate to the length of the poem.
Most importantly, DO NOT LOOK FOR “HELP” ONLINE or elsewhere. Instead, put your energies
into your own best authentic shot. Give yourself credit and take a risk. (I have found plagiarized analysis
and “paraphrase” on these TP-CASTTs in other years. This would be a reportable offense to honor
societies, sports teams, and faculty.)
Poetry Analysis: TP-CASTT
T
TITLE
P
PARAPHRASE
C
CONNOTATION
A ATTITUDE
S SHIFTS
T TITLE
T THEME
Before you even think about reading the poem or trying to analyze it, speculate
on what you think the poem might be about based solely upon the title. Often,
authors give clues and conceal meaning in the title. Jot down what you think the
poem will be about.
Before you try to analyze the poem, first consider the literal or surface meaning
of the poem. One of the biggest mistakes that students often make in poetry
analysis is jumping to conclusions before understanding what is taking place in
the poem. When you paraphrase a poem, write in your own words exactly what
happens in the poem. Look at the number of sentences in the poem—your
paraphrase should have about the same number. This technique is especially
helpful for poems written hundreds of years ago or poems that carry unfamiliar
diction and structure. Sometimes your teacher may allow you to summarize
what happens in the poem. Be sure to know the difference between summarizing
and paraphrasing.
Although this term usually refers solely to the emotional overtones of word
choice, for this analytical approach the term refers to any and all poetic devices,
focusing on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both of a
poem. You may consider imagery, figures of speech (simile, metaphor,
personification, symbolism, etc.), diction, point of view, and sound devices
(alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.). Also consider more advanced techniques, such
as metonymy and litotes. It is not necessary that you identify all the poetic
devices within the poem. The ones you do identify should be seen as a way of
supporting the conclusions you are going to draw about the poem.
Having examined the poem`s devices and clues closely, you are now ready to
explore the multiple attitudes that may be present in the poem. Examination of
diction, images, and details suggest the speaker`s attitude and contributes to
understanding. [Be sure to distinguish between the speaker in the poem and the
poet who wrote the poem. They are not the same thing.] Remember that,
generally speaking, the tone or attitude cannot be named with a single word.
Rarely does a poem begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. As is
true of most of us, the poet`s understanding of an experience is a gradual
realization, and the poem is a reflection of that understanding or insight. Watch
for the following keys to shifts:
 Key words (but, yet, however, although)
 Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipses)
 Stanza divisions
 Changes in line or stanza length, or both
 Irony
 Changes in sound that may indicate changes in meaning
 Changes in diction
Now consider the title again, but this time on an interpretive level. What new or
deeper insight does the title provide in understanding the poem?
What is the poem saying about the human experience or the human condition, or
motivation? What subject or subjects does the poem/poet address? What do you
learn about those subjects? A new perspective? What message about a subject is
the poet putting out into the world through his or her poem? Are there multiple
messages—or multiple interpretations? Remember that the theme of any work
of literature seldom can be stated in a single word—you usually need a sentence.
Poetry Analysis: TP-CASTT
T
TITLE
P
PARAPHRASE
C
CONNOTATION
A
ATTITUDE
S
SHIFT
T
TITLE
T
THEME