English I Honors Summer Reading
Mr. Clifford and Mrs. Stewart
Welcome incoming Wildcat English I Honors students! Although middle school isn’t quite over, there is no
time to waste in preparing for our next school year together. This packet is designed to guide you during the
summer as you read three books (a “beach read” and two required texts) and complete the three assignments
designated for the English 1 Honors Summer Reading Program. In this packet you will find these items:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
This cover letter
Letter: English I / English I Honors Summer Reading Program, from the Language Arts Division
Article: “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler
Annotation Sample: Of Mice and Men pages 1-3
Assignment A: Introductory e-mail to E1H teachers
Assignment B: Of Mice and Men Focus Questions
Assignment C: To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Prompt
These Summer Reading assignments will not be graded, but will be used by Mr. Clifford and Mrs. Stewart as
samples of your reading, writing, argument, and analysis skills, which will play a key role in helping them build
the best educational plan for the upcoming school year.
Please keep in mind that helpful information and all materials (this packet, contact information, letters from the
language arts division regarding AP/Honors and Summer Reading, etc.) can be found on the school’s website:
http://www.d94.org, and more specifically on the language arts division website:
http://www.d94.org/domain/36.
Specific information about each assignment can be found in this packet. Assignment A will need to be
electronically submitted this summer, but Assignments B and C will be printed out as a hardcopy, stapled (if
necessary), and turned in on the first day of class.
Regarding Summer Reading, be sure to do your best work. Your effort on these assignments will be evident,
and this is your opportunity to make a positive first impression. It is understandable to want to take a (summer)
break from academics, but it also makes sense for you to read some good stuff, exercise your brain, and walk
into high school experience rested and ready to academically work out. Put something of yourself into these
assignments; to do less would be a waste.
During the summer, you should also feel free to contact your English I Honors teachers, Mrs. Stewart and Mr.
Clifford. They will monitor their school e-mail, so if you have specific questions, concerns, etc., contact them.
As you are about to learn, Assignment A for Summer Reading is to contact the teachers via e-mail. Though we
are not quite there yet, truly enjoy your summer and do your best to complete the Summer Reading
assignments. We are looking forward to meeting and working with every one of you!
West Chicago Community High School
Language Arts Division – “Find Your Voice”
May 2016
Dear WEGO Class of 2020 and Families,
The West Chicago Community High School Language Arts Division congratulates you on your upcoming graduation and
welcomes you to WEGO! Next month, our annual Summer Reading program begins.
ALL WCCHS students participate in summer reading, and all 9th graders are required to read one book from the grade
level list below.
This year’s freshman list includes some familiar titles such as Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Absolutely True
Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, in addition to other fiction and non-fiction options. Many of the titles
examine “Coming of Age,” which is a conceptual focus for the year.
West Chicago Community High School Freshman Required Reading 2016
Fiction
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (600L*), Sherman Alexie
Speak (690L), Laurie Halse Anderson
Monster (670L),Walter Dean Myers
The Old Man and the Sea** (940L), Ernest Hemingway
Non-fiction
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (920L), Ishmael Beah
Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design (1110L), Chip Kidd
The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir*** (970L), Gaby Ramirez
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir, Liz Prince
Choose ONE book.
Read it!
Bring it to class.
Be ready to talk
and write
about your
book.
This fall English classes will include activities and writing based upon these summer books, so please plan to bring your
copy to class with you in September. Students are encouraged to read their book of choice for pleasure; consider it a
“beach read” that can be enjoyed anywhere at any time! They are also strongly encouraged to read more than one book
from the list – and/or books of their choice. Students who read consistently during the summer months maintain or
improve their reading ability while non-readers often regress, which can cause or increase an achievement gap.
Students enrolled in English 1 Honors have an additional reading assignment. They must complete a close reading of
two canonical novels, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, after reading a book
from the grade level list. Details about the summer reading and writing expectations for English 1 Honors students are
available on the language arts page of the school website.
Please visit http://www.d94.org/domain/36, for additional information or contact me at [email protected].
Best,
Mary Howard
Language Arts Division Chair
*Lexile ratings approximate the level of difficulty of a text based upon vocabulary and sentence length. See the Lexile website for details. Visit www.lexile.com.
**The Old Man and the Sea is available as a free eBook, pdf, or through Project Gutenberg at
http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/hemingwaye-oldmanandthesea/hemingwaye-oldmanandthesea-00-t.txt.
***Mature subject and content
How to Mark a Book
By Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D.
From The Saturday Review of Literature, July 6, 1941
You know you have to read "between the lines" to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something
equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to write between the lines. Unless you do, you
are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.
I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love. You shouldn't mark up a book
which isn't yours.
Librarians (or your friends) who lend you books expect you to keep them clean, and you should. If you decide that I am
right about the usefulness of marking books, you will have to buy them. Most of the world's great books are available
today, in reprint editions.
There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you
pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when
you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may
make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. But you do not own the
beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too,
must be absorbed in your blood stream to do you any good.
Confusion about what it means to "own" a book leads people to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type -- a respect
for the physical thing -- the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a
man to acquire the idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without staking his claim by pasting his
bookplate inside the cover. Having a fine library doesn't prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves
nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.
There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and best sellers -- unread, untouched. (This
deluded individual owns woodpulp and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books -- a few of them read
through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would
probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a
few books or many -- every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and
scribbled in from front to back. (This man owns books.)
Is it false respect, you may ask, to preserve intact and unblemished a beautifully printed book, an elegantly bound
edition? Of course not. I'd no more scribble all over a first edition of 'Paradise Lost' than I'd give my baby a set of
crayons and an original Rembrandt. I wouldn't mark up a painting or a statue. Its soul, so to speak, is inseparable from its
body. And the beauty of a rare edition or of a richly manufactured volume is like that of a painting or a statue.
But the soul of a book "can" be separate from its body. A book is more like the score of a piece of music than it is like a
painting. No great musician confuses a symphony with the printed sheets of music. Arturo Toscanini reveres Brahms, but
Toscanini's score of the G minor Symphony is so thoroughly marked up that no one but the maestro himself can read it.
The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores -- marks them up again and again each time he
returns to study them--is the reason why you should mark your books. If your respect for magnificent binding or
typography gets in the way, buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.
Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don't mean merely
conscious; I mean awake.) In the second place; reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express
itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps
you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed. Let me develop these three points.
You may have one final objection to marking books. You can't lend them to your friends because nobody else can
If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active. You can't let your eyes glide
across the lines of a book and come up with an understanding of what you have read. Now an ordinary piece
of light fiction, like, say, Gone with the Wind, doesn't require the most active kind of reading. The books you
read for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is lost. But a great book, rich in ideas and
beauty, a book that raises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the most active reading of
which you are capable. You don't absorb the ideas of John Dewey the way you absorb the crooning of Mr.
Vallee. You have to reach for them. That you cannot do while you're asleep.
If, when you've finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your notes, you know that you read actively.
The most famous "active" reader of great books I know is President Hutchins, of the University of Chicago.
He also has the hardest schedule of business activities of any man I know. He invariably reads with a pencil,
and sometimes, when he picks up a book and pencil in the evening, he finds himself, instead of making
intelligent notes, drawing what he calls 'caviar factories' on the margins. When that happens, he puts the book
down. He knows he's too tired to read, and he's just wasting time.
But, you may ask, why is writing necessary? Well, the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings
words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your memory. To set down
your reaction to important words and sentences you have read, and the questions they have raised in your
mind, is to preserve those reactions and sharpen those questions.
Even if you wrote on a scratch pad, and threw the paper away when you had finished writing, your grasp of
the book would be surer. But you don't have to throw the paper away. The margins (top as bottom, and well as
side), the end-papers, the very space between the lines, are all available. They aren't sacred. And, best of all,
your marks and notes become an integral part of the book and stay there forever. You can pick up the book the
following week or year, and there are all your points of agreement, disagreement, doubt, and inquiry. It's like
resuming an interrupted conversation with the advantage of being able to pick up where you left off.
And that is exactly what reading a book should be: a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he
knows more about the subject than you do; naturally, you'll have the proper humility as you approach him. But
don't let anybody tell you that a reader is supposed to be solely on the receiving end. Understanding is a twoway operation; learning doesn't consist in being an empty receptacle. The learner has to question himself and
question the teacher. He even has to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying.
And marking a book is literally an expression of differences, or agreements of opinion, with the author.
There are all kinds of devices for marking a book intelligently and fruitfully. Here's the way I do it:







Underlining (or highlighting): of major points, of important or forceful statements.
Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already underlined.
Star, asterisk, or other doo-dad at the margin: to be used sparingly, to emphasize the ten or twenty most
important statements in the book. (You may want to fold the bottom comer of each page on which you use such
marks. It won't hurt the sturdy paper on which most modern books are printed, and you will be able take the
book off the shelf at any time and, by opening it at the folded-corner page, refresh your recollection of the
book.)
Numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the author makes in developing a single argument.
Numbers of other pages in the margin: to indicate where else in the book the author made points relevant to
the point marked; to tie up the ideas in a book, which, though they may be separated by many pages, belong
together.
Circling or highlighting of key words or phrases.
Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page, for the sake of: recording questions (and perhaps
answers) which a passage raised in your mind; reducing a complicated discussion to a simple statement;
recording the sequence of major points right through the books. I use the end-papers at the back of the book to
make a personal index of the author's points in the order of their appearance.
The front end-papers are to me the most important. Some people reserve them for a fancy bookplate. I reserve
them for fancy thinking. After I have finished reading the book and making my personal index on the back endpapers, I turn to the front and try to outline the book, not page by page or point by point (I've already done that
at the back), but as an integrated structure, with a basic unity and an order of parts. This outline is, to me, the
measure of my understanding of the work.
If you're a die-hard anti-book-marker, you may object that the margins, the space between the lines, and the endpapers don't give you room enough. All right. How about using a scratch pad slightly smaller than the page-size
of the book -- so that the edges of the sheets won't protrude? Make your index, outlines and even your notes on
the pad, and then insert these sheets permanently inside the front and back covers of the book.
Or, you may say that this business of marking books is going to slow up your reading. It probably will. That's
one of the reasons for doing it. Most of us have been taken in by the notion that speed of reading is a measure of
our intelligence. There is no such thing as the right speed for intelligent reading. Some things should be read
quickly and effortlessly and some should be read slowly and even laboriously. The sign of intelligence in
reading is the ability to read different things differently according to their worth. In the case of good books, the
point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through you -- how
many you can make your own. A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances. If this be your aim, as it
should be, you will not be impatient if it takes more time and effort to read a great book than it does a
newspaper.
You may have one final objection to marking books. You can't lend them to your friends because nobody else
can read them without being distracted by your notes. Furthermore, you won't want to lend them because a
marked copy is kind of an intellectual diary, and lending it is almost like giving your mind away.
If your friend wishes to read your Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare, or The Federalist Papers, tell him gently but
firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat -- but your books are as much a part of you as
your head or your heart.
This model from the inside cover of the
novel Of Mice and Men offers an example
of a legend or key created by students to
organize annotations throughout the
book. Readers may use symbols,
notations, color, etc. to “mark the text”
and record their thinking.
In this sample annotation, the reader asks questions
about the setting and author’s techniques.
Unknown vocabulary words are identified and
defined, and the reader identifies patterns.
On pages two and three above, the reader begins to examine the
characterization of the protagonists and identifies a contrast or juxtaposition
between the two. It is also noted that one component of the characterization of
Lennie uses animal imagery to imply or impart qualities onto the “follower”
(Steinbeck 3). These images are highlighted in yellow to allow the reader to trace
similar illustrations and comparisons so that he or she can draw a conclusion
about the author’s purpose in utilizing this technique and drawing the character
in this way.
The annotations also include questions, new vocabulary and even an
examination of the authors’ word choice or diction including “follower,” “huge,”
and “scummy” (3). These notes will enable the reader to trace these techniques
throughout the chapter or book as a whole.
Each reader’s annotations will be unique yet serve the same purpose – to enable
the student to analyze or deconstruct the text at a sophisticated level, record
thoughts, questions, definitions, etc., and preserve his or her thinking at the
time. As readers become more proficient, the kind of notations and notes may
change and develop, which is a positive sign that the reader is engaging in some
“fancy thinking” (Adler 3).
Summer Reading Assignment A: Introductory E-mail
Directions:
You may start your Summer Reading assignments whenever you like. Ideally, you would email both English I
Honors teachers in June:
Mr. Clifford: [email protected]
Mrs. Stewart: [email protected]
We would like you to introduce yourself. Please tell us who you are, where you come from, what you like to do
in your spare time, what questions/concerns you have about high school and English I Honors, specifically.
Tell us about why you chose your specific book for the “beach read” book of choice.
That’s it. It’s that simple. Consider this kind of a “hello and a handshake” before school even starts. We really
look forward to meeting you.
Summer Reading Assignment B: Focus Questions
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Directions:
Upon completion of at least one reading of the novella, spend no more than a combined 90
minutes responding in writing to the following questions about Of Mice and Men. Please keep
in mind that although your written responses will not be graded, they will be used formatively
by your teacher as a sample of your writing and literary analysis skills, and you will receive
class credit for completing the task.
The assignment is based on a text written by Pulitzer Prize-winning, twentieth century U.S.
author John Steinbeck:
The first of Steinbeck's works to focus in detail on migrant field workers, Steinbeck represents
the unattainable but exceedingly attractive nature of the American dream in light of the lonely,
shiftless lives of migrant workers. A strong desire for the stability and refuge of companionship
motivates most of the action in the novella. The close friendship between the two men and the
simplicity and tenderness of their dream makes Of Mice and Men a compelling psychological
glimpse into the lives of migrant field workers, setting the novella apart from Steinbeck's later,
far more encompassing work, The Grapes of Wrath. Published in 1937, Of Mice and Men was
Steinbeck's attempt to experiment with the form of the novella, a form which lends itself to film
and stage adaptation. The same year the novella was published, Steinbeck wrote its stage
adaptation.
- from http://www.steinbeck.org/pages/of-mice-and-men-synopsis
1.) Read and annotate the text thoroughly and thoughtfully.
2.) As you read / annotate, consider the essential questions and targets that you will
examine in English I Honors:
Essential Questions
Skill Targets/Objectives

Do I owe anything to
anyone else?

I can understand what the text says literally, explicitly, right there
in the text.

What does it mean to be a
tragic hero?

I can understand what the text implies “between the lines”.

I can analyze characterization in a short story.

I can evaluate the meaning (theme) of the work as a whole.

I can write a clear and convincing claim.

I can support my claim with specific evidence.

I can analyze/explain how my specific evidence supports my
claim.


How does genre impact a
text?
What am I willing to do in
order to get what I want?
Summer Reading Assignment B: Of Mice and Men Focus Questions
L1
1. What is Lennie’s most prominent reason for not wanting to “do bad things” and make George mad at
him?
2. Throughout the story, Lennie asks George to recite a mantra-like description of the dream they share.
Name three essential components of the dream that are included in that description every time.
L2
3. Why did Lennie’s Aunt Clara stop giving him rabbits to pet?
4. Why did George and Lennie leave their last job in Weed?
L3
5. The night spent camping by the water, why does George tell Lennie to say absolutely nothing when
they get to the ranch the next day?
6. Why is it important for Lennie to be able to remember the exact spot where they camped by the water
that night?
7. Why does George get Lennie a puppy?
8. Why does Crooks have more “stuff” in his living quarters than any of the other ranch workers?
L4
9. George tells Lennie that he chose to camp by the water instead of heading in to the new ranch for
supper because he liked the spot and the next day they would be back to doing hard manual labor,
bucking grain bags. Why did George really choose to camp there?
10. Why did George stop playing jokes on Lennie a while ago?
11. Why doesn’t Curley get George and Lennie fired by telling everyone that Lennie crushed Curley’s
hand?
12. Why did Curley’s wife marry him?
L5
13. George has long been Lennie’s guardian, in a sense. What is George’s motivation for his actions
toward Lennie in the last scene with Lennie by the water?
14. Why does Curley’s wife meet Lennie in the barn?
15. Why can’t/won’t George fulfill his dream without Lennie?
16. Compare/contrast the characterization of Crooks with that of Candy. How are they similar, and how are
they different?
L6
17. In Of Mice and Men, what is Steinbeck’s meaning of the work (or, theme) on the topic of ____(choose a
topic from below)____ ?
a.
b.
Dreams
Friendship
d.
e.
f.
Man’s ability to understand others
Responsibility
Other
L7
18. In Of Mice and Men, how does Steinbeck use __________ , __________, and __________ (choose
three from below) in order to help convey the meaning of the work (or, theme)?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Allusion
Archetype
Characterization
Conflict
e.
f.
g.
h.
Diction
Figurative Language
Foreshadowing
Mood
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
Setting
Structure
Symbolism
Syntax
Other
English I Honors Summer Reading Assignment C:
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION
Directions: The essay prompt (question) below is known as an AP Literature and Composition “Question 3
Free-Response” question. After completing at least one reading/annotation of Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, you
will write a complete essay in response to the below prompt (in bold type). Write your essay by hand in blue or
black ink, on one side of each page of your own lined paper, and skip lines. In the upper left-hand corner of
each page, write your full first and last name, your teacher’s name, the class name (English I Honors), and the
date that the essay is written. Please make certain that your essay is legible.
There is no length requirement for this essay, as an essay’s quality is not determined by its length;
simply compose your best written response to the prompt. Though you may annotate for and brainstorm/plan
your essay as you read the novel, and you may use your annotation / planning as you write the essay, please
spend no more than a one-hour single session actually writing the essay. You may also use your To Kill a
Mockingbird novel as you compose. Please be certain that you answer the question. Good luck!
PROMPT 2011. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.”
Choose a character from To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, 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. Do not merely summarize the plot.
NOTE: Your finished essay will be turned in to your teacher on the first day of class. Please have a complete
heading already written in the upper left-hand corner of every page, and please have your essay stapled in the
upper left-hand corner before class (if there are multiple pages). Your essay will receive a completion grade
that will count toward your class grade, but please keep in mind that as you have not yet been taught how to
respond in writing to this type of prompt, this essay will not be graded. This essay will be used by your teacher
as an initial writing sample to identify strengths and weaknesses in student literary analysis, argument-making
skills, and writing ability. Further, this essay will help form the way(s) in which your teacher plans lessons for
writing instruction, which is why your best effort will help ensure that you receive the best learning experience
this coming school year in English I Honors.
Please feel free to contact either E1H teacher with any questions:
Mr. Clifford: [email protected]
Mrs. Stewart: [email protected]