English 10H (Pre-AP)
Summer Reading and Analysis
PART 1:​
FICTION ­ ​
Guided Analysis Choose ONE of the short stories: ● Silver Water​
by Amy Bloom ● The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas​
by Ursula LeGuin ● The Swimmer ​
by John Cheever Assignment:​
While you are reading, you should formulate answers to the following questions. Please cite ​
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES​
(w/ pg#). Each response should be at least a FULL­PAGE.​
Typed responses are preferred but not mandatory. 1. Who are the main characters in the story? ​
How are they developed?​
Are they believable/reliable? If you could have a conversation with them, what would you say/ask? 2. What are the ​
specific conflicts​
in the story? Which characters are involved? How are the characters and conflicts connected? Are the ​
conflicts internal or external​
– both? Explain. 3. Identify the specific stylistic devices that the author uses throughout the story. ​
Explain WHAT device was used, HOW it was used, and WHY (or to what effect?)​
. ● Diction – word choices ● Imagery – word pictures ● Detail, Foreshadowing, Flashback ● Symbols, Archetypes ● Figurative Language devices (i.e. metaphor, personification) 4. What are your reactions to the story? Do you like it? Why or why not? What did the story leave you with? What do you believe ​
the author’s purpose was in writing the story​
? English 10H (Pre-AP)
Summer Reading and Analysis
PART 2: PARAPHRASE X (TIMES) 3
HOW TO DO IT
1. Use the excerpt from Emerson’s ​
Self-Reliance​
(see below).
2. Find synonyms for all of the key terms.​
Don’t just go for the gist, a loose approximation of what was
said. Substitute language virtually word-for-word to produce a parallel version of the original
statement.
3. Repeat the paraphrasing THREE times.​
This will produce a range of possible implications that the
original passage may possess. ​
You will have THREE separate paragraphs.
4. Return to the original passage and answer the following questions: W​
hat do you now recognize
about the passage on the basis of your repeated restatements. What does it appear to mean?
What else might it mean?
Paraphrasing is one of the simplest and most overlooked ways of discovering ideas and stimulating
interpretation. Once you begin paraphrasing regularly, you will swiftly understand why: paraphrasing
inevitably discloses that what is being paraphrased is more complicated than it first appeared. And so it will
get you to start questioning what important passages and key details mean rather than assuming you
understand them.
The word paraphrase means to put one phrase next to (para) another phrase. When you recast a
sentence or two-finding the best synonyms you can think of for the original language, translating it into a
parallel statement – you are thinking about what the original words mean. (Paraphrasing stays much closer
to the actual words than summarizing.) ​
The use of “X” 3 (times 3) in our label is a reminder to paraphrase
key words more than once, not settling too soon for a best synonym.
Excerpted from: ESSAY II ​
Self­Reliance​
by Ralph Waldo Emerson I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good­humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to­morrow a stranger will say with masterly English 10H (Pre-AP)
Summer Reading and Analysis
good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
PART 3: Identify Claim – Agree/Disagree/Both – Explain
1. Take notes as you view the TED talk:
Arthur Benjamin - ​
Teach Statistics Before Calculus
http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_s_formula_for_changing_math_education
2. Identify the speaker’s CLAIM (what is Mr. Benjamin trying to prove?)
3. Restate the speaker’s claim in your own words (paraphrase).
4. Do you Agree – Disagree – Both? Respond to the speaker’s claim with your own commentary.
Use specific ​
evidence​
from their talk in your response.
Starting With What Others Are Saying
When it comes to constructing an argument, we offer you the following advice: remember that you
are entering a conversation and therefore need to start with “what others are saying,” and then
introduce your own ideas a response. Specifically, we suggest that you summarize what “they say” as
soon as you can in your text, and remind readers of it at strategic points as your text unfolds.