Summer Preparation Assignment: English 1H BATA 2016-2017
Reading Assignment
The summer reading list comes from an online source. I have edited the choices, however, so
you want to refer to this document when selecting a book. Choose a book that you and your
parents believe will be relevant and interesting to you. Please get started early so that you have
time to read the book and write the essay.
Dialectal Journal
While reading the book, you will respond to each chapter using the dialectal journal format. (An
example is included below.) Write 2-4 responses per chapter. The number of responses should
be decided based on length of chapter, your ability to respond to the chapter. A shorter chapter
will probably mean fewer responses, a longer one, more. You will relate to or enjoy some
chapters more than others. Some chapters will offer more insight than others. These factors will
also determine which chapters you write more responses to than others. You don’t necessarily
need four responses for every chapter, but I do expect that not every chapter will have one 2
responses.
In the end, you should have a balance of the different types of responses.
Response Types
2. Interesting or important point and why you find it so.
3. Literary device at work and explanation of it and its effect for you the reader.
4. Fact or idea and why you question or disagree with it.
5. Fact of idea and something similar from your own experience or another piece of literature.
(See sample Dialectal Journal at the end of this document.)
Reflective Essay
Write an essay about yourself that will serve as your introduction to me. The essay should have
an introductory paragraph, some body paragraphs and a concluding paragraph. The
questions below can guide your body paragraphs. I do not expect or want you to respond to all
of them. Choose three.
Your essay should be in MLA format. (See sample and directions below). Your spelling,
punctuation, sentence structure, and other writing conventions should be correct. Your tone and
voice should be natural but semi-formal. You are writing a school assignment and your
audience is your English teacher. Avoid slang and overly casual words, but don’t try to sound
like an old professor either.
What led you to join BATA?
What ideas do you have about a career or career options?
What personality strengths do you have that lend themselves to success in school and will help
you get where you want to go?
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How are you similar to or different from a character or characters in the book you read for this
assignment?
Who has been an influential person in your life? In what ways has he or she inspired you?
Complete your assignments using a computer, save them, print out the Dialectal Journal
and the Reflective Essay and bring them to class on the first day of school. Both should
have a heading (see the samples).
If you have questions during the summer, email me: kathy.glasmeier@oushd.
I will check my email on Mondays, so be patient if I don’t respond right away.
Great Books for Teenagers
If you are trying to understand yourself and the world around you as a teenager, one of
the best things you can do is read. You can learn a tremendous amount from the lives,
experiences and advice of others. You will gain different perspectives on the world and
the people in it. You will find that to nearly every problem there is a solution. You will
also discover that you are not alone.
The following list shows you 25 great books (I, Mrs. Glasmeier, have taken out 2 of the
categories) to read as a teenager. There are three places for you to get copies of these
books:
1. Try your school or local library. This is usually the best approach because at the
library the books are free and you will often find other related books as you look
for the books listed below.
2. Purchase the books on-line. This page has been produced in association with
Amazon.com, an Internet bookstore. Each title links to an appropriate page at
Amazon.com where you can order the book immediately.
3. Go to a local bookstore. Bookworm: 93 E. Daily Drive is an excellent choice. They
have been long-time supporters of ACHS.
Biographies and Autobiographies
If you want to be successful, one of the best things you can do as a teenager is read about
the lives of successful people. You will discover that successful people are normal people
who simply never give up. One of the most interesting things you will discover is that
successful people often have rather spectacular failures in their past. For example, Conrad
Hilton (Hilton Hotels) lost his first hotel chain. Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) lost his first store.
By reading these books and other books like them, you learn about these failures and see
how people bounce back.
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Dave's Way by R. David Thomas
Written by the founder of Wendy's restaurants, this is a fantastic book for teenagers.
Dave Thomas tells his story in down-to-earth language and you will be amazed at his life.
He talks about starting work at age 12 and what he did during his teen years to learn his
way in the world. The book contains countless simple tips on how to be successful in
today's business environment, but more importantly shows you how to take a dream and
make it a reality.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
This is a book full of incredibly good autobiographical stories by a small-town country vet
in England right after he gets out of college. You will learn a tremendous amount about
animals and veterinary medicine, as well as about people and yourself.
Be My Guest by Conrad Hilton
Conrad Hilton is the founder of the massive Hilton Hotel chain, one of the largest and most
prestigious hotel chains in the world. He started out as a boy in the absolute middle of
nowhere helping his father run a store. This autobiographical book describes the steps he
took as he changed from a boy into a world-famous hotelier. [This book can often be found
in the nightstand at Hilton Hotels around the world.]
Iacocca, an Autobiography by Lee Iacocca and William Novak
This autobiographical book by Lee Iacocca was written at the height of his fame and
power. You will learn about the transformations that made him great.
Sam Walton : Made in America : My Story by Sam Walton, John Huey
The Sam Walton Story by Austin Teutsch
Sam Walton started the Wal-Mart chain from nothing. These books trace his life from
boyhood through his first store and then through his rise to the richest man in the United
States.
The Road Ahead by Bill Gates
The majority of this book is about technology and technological change, but much of the
beginning of the book is an autobiographical account of Bill Gates' teen years. You will
learn that he was a normal teenager in high school no different from you, and yet he built
one of the most successful companies in the world and defined an entire industry.
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The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
This book offers a biographical account of the life of the artist Michelangelo starting in his
teen years.
Self-Improvement
The Teenager's Guide to the Real World by Marshall Brain
"The Teenager's Guide to the Real World" starts from the central reality that teenagers
get to design their own lives. Many of the choices that teenagers make as teenagers will
affect them for the rest of their lives. This book is helps teenagers see the amazing freedom
they have to control their lives and their destinies, and to then help them make good
decisions about the future. After reading this book teenagers understand a great deal
more about themselves and the world around them. They are able to think about their
choices with a new clarity and understanding, and are therefore able to begin planning a
path toward success.
A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech
An incredibly good and easy-reading book on the whys and hows of creativity. You will
see how the search for creative solutions to problems is often the single difference between
success and failure.
Seeds of Greatness by Dennis Waitley
Now out of print but easily found in any library, this book describes the ten attributes of
all successful individuals in a light, easy-to-read style. The book is loaded with real-life
examples. It is an unbelievably important book to read as a teenager.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People : Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by
Stephen R. Covey
This book talks about habits that help lead to personal fulfillment and professional
success.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This classic book was written back in the 1920's and is still important today. Tens of
millions of copies have been sold. The title tells you exactly what the book is about.
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Books on Money, Business and Jobs
The Wealthy Barber : Everyone's Common-Sense Guide to Becoming Financially
Independent by David Chilton
This book offers a fantastic, easy-to-understand introduction to the "world of finances." It
discusses saving, retirement, mutual funds, the stock market and so on.
Adams Streetwise Small Business Start-up by Bob Adams
If you are interested in starting and running your own business, you must read this book.
It talks about every single aspect of business start-up and will save you from making
thousands of mistakes.
The Millionaire Next Door : The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas
J. Stanley, William D. Danko
This book reveals a surprising secret: all sorts of people around you are millionaires, and
they have built their fortunes with ordinary jobs and careers. The book discusses seven
common denominators among these people.
Create the Job You Love (And Make Plenty of Money) : More Than 550 Ways to
Escape the 8 to 5 Grind by Barbara Johnson Witcher
This book discusses hundreds of good jobs and shows you the path to get to each one.
In Search of Excellence, Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies Thomas J.
Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.
This book describes the things that make the difference between a company and
a great company.
Interesting books
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
If you have ever wanted to learn how to draw, this book uses extremely simple examples
that truly teach you how. This book also offers a great introduction to how your brain
works based on the most recent scientific research into left-brain/right-brain differences.
It is a fascinating lesson in how to use the different parts of your mind effectively.
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A Simple Path by Mother Teresa
This book explores a different, but very interesting, path to happiness and enlightenment.
It also gives you another way to look at the world and the people around you.
Industrial Light & Magic by Thomas G. Smith
This book is pricey so you will want to find it at the library, but it is a great book to read if
you like the special effects in movies like Star Wars and ET. The book also offers a
collection of biographical sketches that show how many of the most important people at
ILM came to be a part of the company. Many of these sketches show the steps these people
took as teenagers to find their way to ILM.
The Americans: The Democratic Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin
Boorstin is a historian. He tells great stories about the people who made our country and
our world great. In The Americans he describes many of the people and trends that led to
the U.S. as we know it--the invention of grocery stores, canned goods, urban areas,
commercialism and so on. A fascinating account of how the U.S. became what it is today.
The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal by Desmond Morris
This book is written by a zoologist and studies the human animal like a zoologist would
study any other animal. It therefore offers a completely different look at what it means to
be human.
The next pages are the examples. The dialectal journal can be set up by inserting a “Table” with
two columns. You can add rows as you need them using the “Tab” key.
Hitting the “Tab” while curser is in this cell
will add another row.
Single spacing is fine for the dialectal journal. Include a citation for your book. A citation will
have the following:
Author’s last name, first name. Title Capitalized Correctly and Italicized. City of publication:
Publishing Company, Publishing Year. Print.
The punctuation in the sample is exact. Use the same punctuation. I have bolded the punctuation
marks in the directions above to help you see them. Do not bold them in your citation.
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Dialectal Journal Sample
Name
Mrs. Glasmeier
English 1H
August 2016
Dialectal Journal: Take the Stairs
Citation:
Vaden, Rory. Take the Stairs. New York: Penguin, 2012. Print.
Quotes: Chapter 1
Something Similar
“Our friends, families, and companies are
losing to distraction, temptation, creative
avoidance, indulgence, apathy, and
procrastination” (11).
Responses
This is similar to the classroom. Students are
distracted by cellphones, some students
aren’t interested in learning, some
procrastinate or try to find ways around
doing their work. I, too, procrastinate and
indulge in “creative avoidance”: I sometimes
start cleaning the house when I don’t have
the mental energy to grade papers. I have
learned to limit this to one quick task, then
set to working.
Vaden uses a metaphor here: “tested in the
fire” which means going through difficult
times. He wants readers to understand that
people don’t fall into success, they achieve
success through hard work and finding
solutions to problems or facing challenges.
We feel proud of accomplishments because
we worked for them.
Learning to get the most out of the place we
are in life right now is important. I also think
this means enjoy and experience the process,
instead of just caring about the result. We
may have our focus so fixed on a goal that
we aren’t present in the moment and may not
even realize that what we are currently doing
isn’t even getting us to that goal. In school
we focus on a grade sometimes instead of
what can be skills we can develop, what
knowledge we can gain.
Literary Device
“The Truth is that success comes from being
tested in the fire, being pushed to your
limits, and having your character shaped by
challenging circumstances” (22).
Important Point
“Most of us live our lives chasing after an
invisible finish line. We are constantly in
search of the next destination, living under
the falsehood that something awaits us there
that will give us a sense of fulfillment we
currently don’t have….Of course…the
feelings we seek never actually last….as the
legendary philosopher Hannah Montana
said, ‘It’s all about the climb’” (25).
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Modern Language Association (MLA) Essay Guidelines
Organized by Miss Resnik, Teacher Librarian, revised by Mrs. Glasmeier
Reference: http://www.csus.edu/owl/index/mla/mla_format.htm
Formatting papers correctly is vital to its readability. The following guidelines are the
standardized format for most academic and professionally published papers.
Below is a checklist to assist you in understanding the requirements:
o
set all margins to 1” (top, bottom, right, left)
o
set margins to Align Left (justified left, ragged right)
o
set spacing to 0 pt. (Open the Paragraph menu and set spacing before and after to “0”.)
o
set line spacing to 2.0 (ctrl + A then ctrl + 2 will format the entire document for you.)
o
use Times New Roman as the font, set the Header font to this as well.
o
use a 12-point font (including the header)
o
type the heading, double-spaced in its proper order: Student’s name, teacher’s name,
class, full date (either international or standard American is acceptable)
o
o
create a header: student’s last name and page number located in the upper right corner
of the paper (Use Insert, select blank, hit ctrl+R to move it to right-align, type your last
name hit the spacebar, then select page numbers, pick current position then plain.)
center and capitalize the title of the essay. Do nothing else to the title.
o
to indent, strike the Tab key one time
o
at the end of a paragraph, strike the Enter key ONCE (no extra space between
paragraphs!)
Last Name 1
Your Name
heading is double-spaced
Teacher’s Name
Class Title
Date
no extra space before or after title
Center and Capitalize the Title of the Essay
Begin your paragraph one double-spaced line below your centered title;
the paragraph should begin with a ½” tabbed indent. The paper’s heading goes
1”
1”
in the upper-left corner. Double-space all text. Do not add more spaces between
the title and the first paragraph.
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Double-spacetext