AP Literature and Composition Summer Assignment 2015
Welcome to AP Literature and Composition. This course will be challenging yet rewarding for those of
you who are willing to engage in the exploration of literature through prose and poetry.
This course will require a commitment to work, read and write in vast quantities on a daily basis. It will
also require a willingness to participate in intellectually engaging and informed discourse.
The short-range goal of this class is to have you pass a difficult national exam next May. The mid-range
goal is to develop your analytical skills for contemplation and precise written expression. The long-range
goal is to instill in you a lifelong enjoyment and appreciation of complex literature. Are you on board?
If so, this summer assignment is designed to start preparing you for the demands of this advanced
placement class as well as to cultivate the habit of close reading and reflection. These assignments are
not optional. You are expected to have the first four required components placed in a binder and
ready to turn in the first day of class. The suggested assignments for #5 and #6 will be due by the
end of the first quarter but you are strongly recommended to start the suggested assignments
during the summer.
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Read and annotate Great Expectations
Read a “Choice” Novel and annotate
Complete Notecards for all Literary Terms
Read and explicate three poems
*Annotations for Biblical and/or Classical Allusions
*Annotations of past works of literary merit
1) Read and Annotate Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Published serially in 1860 and 1861, this is one of Dickens' last – and many critics believe greatest – novels. It tells
the story of the childhood and growth to adulthood of Pip, a poor orphan boy who hopes to achieve greatness.
IMPORTANT NOTE about Great Expectations: this novel has two endings. Be sure the edition you read contains
both; some editions omit the original ending. You should check-out the book from the English Office prior to the
end of the 2014 school year.
As you read, consider the following as you annotate:
 In many nineteenth-century novels, the characters easily can be pegged as either good or bad. Is that the
case here? Try listing all of the novel’s many and varied characters in two columns, good and bad. Any
complications?
 This novel is often referred to as a bildungsroman. Look up the term and then think about what you learn
by applying it.
 An older, wiser Pip narrates the story of his growth from childhood to young adulthood. Notice when he
interrupts his story to comment on its meaning.
 Dickens was known for his moral outrage at social injustice. Note examples.
 What kind of place is London? The other settings?
To help you annotate: Divide your book into fourths. After you finish reading each fourth, either place your post-it
notes on the reader response sheet for each section or write directly on the sheet. All notes on these response
sheets should be handwritten and limited to the space provided. Please do not write a plot summary. Naturally, you
will include some plot, but annotations should really include your reactions to what is happening in the novel and
to the characters, their personalities and motivation.
2) Read one ‘Choice’ novel and Annotate Pick a novel from this list that you will enjoy reading in
summer, as well as re-reading and using as a basis for an analysis paper during the first semester. Take some
time to learn about the novels and sample them before you settle on one. Making a careful, informed selection
is an important part of this assignment. Use the reader response sheets for your annotations. Novels with an
‘*’ may be checked out from the English Dept. Office.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
*One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
*All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
Blindness Jose Saramago
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
*East of Eden John Steinbeck
More notes on annotating:
 Think of annotation as part of active reading—something you do for yourself to stay engaged and to
create a record that will help you think and write about the novel later. Learn to do this in a way that
leaves a useful record of your reading but that does not interfere with the experience. Achieving that
balance takes practice.
 Use post-it notes to mark passages that jump out at you because they suggest an important idea or
theme – or for any other reason. Note things that puzzle, intrigue, please or displease you. Note
patterns such as repeated images or phrases. Note vocabulary you don’t know. Ask questions, make
comments – talk back to the text.
3) Complete Note Cards for All Literary Terms – Create notecards to help you learn, study, and
identify the following literary terms. Number each card 1 – 50. On each card, write the term on one side.
Write the definition and give an example on the other.
Poetry
1. Epic poetry
2. Sonnet
3. Lyric
4. Ballad
5. Epigram
6. Allegory
7. Diction
8. Syntax
9. Tone
10. Mood
Figures of Speech
11. Simile
12. Metaphor
13. Personification
14. Synecdoche
15. Metonymy
16. Hyperbole
17. Understatement
18. Paradox
19. Oxymoron
20. Apostrophe
21. Litotes
Sound Patterns Literary Devices
22. Assonance
23. Blank Verse
24. Consonance
25. Enjambment
26. Euphony
27. Cacophony
28. Free Verse
29. Rhyme
30. Rhythm
31. Anaphora
32. Pun
33. Allusion
34. Analogy
35. Imagery
36. Symbolism
37. Flashback
38. Synecdoche
39. Dialect
40. Suspense
Story Elements
41. Characterization
(protagonist/antagonist)
42. Plot (in medias
res/deus ex machina)
43. Theme
44. Motif
45. Point of view (firstperson/third-person
limited, third-person
omniscient
46. Narrator
47. Flat character
48. Round character
49. Soliloquy
50. Monologue
4) Read and Explicate Poetry
Each student is expected to read and explicate 3 poems. ‘Explicate’ meaning analyze - make notations by
jotting down observations about patterns, imagery, juxtapositions, and what the poem evokes; be prepared to
discuss these observations and teach a poetry lesson related to these poems. All of the poems can be found
on the web.
If your last name begins with A – E, read 3 of the following 5 poems. Take notes on: 1) What you do and
don’t understand about the poem 2) Examples of Literary terms found within the poems 3) Explication of
significant/meaningful phrases
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Matthew Arnold: “Dover Beach”
Elizabeth Bishop: “In the Waiting Room”
Gwendolyn Brooks: “We Real Cool”
Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess”
Emily Dickinson: “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” (124)
If your last name begins with F – L, read 3 of the following 5 poems. Take notes on: 1) What you do and
don’t understand 2) Examples of Literary terms found within the poems 3) Explication of
significant/meaningful phrases
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John Donne: “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
T.S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Carolyn Forché: “The Colonel”
Robert Frost: “Mending Wall”
Robert Hayden: “Those Winter Sundays”
Langston Hughes: “Let America Be America Again”
If your last name begins with M – R, read 3 of the following 5 poems. Take notes on: 1) What you do and
don’t understand 2) Examples of Literary terms found within the poems 3) Explication of
significant/meaningful phrases
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John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress”
Wilfred Owen: “Dulce et Decorum Est”
John Crowe Ransom: “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter”
William Shakespeare: Sonnets
If your last name begins with S – Z, read 3 of the following 5 poems. Take notes on: 1) What you do and
don’t understand 2) Examples of Literary terms found within the poems 3) Explication of
significant/meaningful phrases
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Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ozymandias”
Wallace Stevens: “Sunday Morning”
Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night”
William Carlos Williams: “Danse Russe”
William Butler Yeats: “The Second Coming”
5) Annotations for Biblical and/or Classical Allusions
STRONGLY SUGGESTED
These are great texts to bolster your familiarity and understanding of allusions. We will be addressing
this material in various ways throughout the year. Use the response sheets to help you annotate.
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, Edith Hamilton
Bible, King James version or New Revised Standard version (e-texts available online)
(The KJ is classic; it sounds like Shakespeare. The NRSV is most widely used for “scholarly” pursuits.
Obviously, you will probably want to pick and choose which books to read. Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, and the
Gospel of Luke would be a solid start.)
6) Notes for Previously Read Literary Texts of Merit
SUGGESTED
You have probably studied many of the texts below. You will build on this foundation throughout the
year. While you will not be formally assessed on these titles, it will certainly enhance your preparation for the
AP exam if you re-familiarize yourself with these works. Use the response sheets to note character roles,
thematic statements/universal truths, significant points/passages in each work.
Foundations of Western Literature
The Odyssey, Homer
Antigone, Sophocles
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
Macbeth, Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare
Modern British/World Tradition
1984, Orwell
Animal Farm, Orwell
Lord of the Flies, Golding
Brave New World, Huxley
Cry the Beloved Country, Paton
Night, Weisel
American Tradition
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain
A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
The Jungle, Sinclair
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
Glass Menagerie, Williams
The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Black Boy, Richard Wright
Reader Response Sheet
Name____________________________________
Book Title_____________________
Book Author_________________________ Publication Year________ Page Count_________
PART I Pages ____ to ____
PART II Pages ____ to ____
PART III Pages ____ to ____
PART IV Pages ____ to ____