Christ the King Cathedral School
Required Summer Reading Program
Students entering 9th Grade
2016-2017
Imagine a football player who never picks up a ball or lifts any weights until
the first game of the fall. Imagine a dancer who never practices until the week
before the recital. Imagine a car mechanic who never practices putting a motor
together until a customer comes. Does the word “unsuccessful” come to mind?
Here at Christ the King High School, we know that students needs some time
to rest and relax for the summer. However, we also know that a student who stops
practicing the gains they have made in reading and thinking will lose the momentum
they have achieved in the past year. Therefore, we require summer reading of all
students entering grades 9 through 12 in the coming year as well as assignments
that will help students further prepare for college no matter their interests.
All students need to read two novels or nonfiction works over the summer
and complete the accompanying assignments by the first day classes meet which
will be August 16 for one-half day. At that time there will be additional tests and
writing assignments using this summer work. If you read any additional novels from
the choice lists with additional assignments, you will receive extra credit.
9th grade Required Novels Left to Tell by Immaculee Illabagiza A Separate Peace by John Knowles Additional Choices for Extra Credit: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 1 Assignments for 9th Grade Summer Reading
For each book that you read, choose two of the following activities. These must be
complete and ready to turn in on the first day of class in August. Remember that
as soon as school begins, you will also be taking a test over each book. Please note
that plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any paper or project that is copied or
pasted so that it is not your own will receive a zero.
Choose one from this column for each
book:
1. Create a Power Point for the book
with the required slides listed in
the direction page that is
attached.
3. Create a collage with the required
information listed in the direction
page that is attached.
Choose another from this column for
each book:
2. Complete the literary elements
graphic organizer attached with
these paper.
4. Write the letters as described on
the direction page for the letter
writing project.
1. Power Point Project Directions
a. Create a Power Point for your novel with 10 or more slides. You
may choose any background, theme, or font for your Power Point
that you think best represents the book.
b. Your ten slides must include the following:
i. Title of book and author
ii. One slide for each major character with an image or symbol
to represent them. Be ready to explain why this image or
symbol fits with this character. This slide must have a
sentence identifying the character and what the symbol says
about the character.
iii. One slide for each chapter of the book. Each of these
slides needs to state in one sentence the main occurrence of
the chapter. Use clip art.
iv. One slide that explains the message of the book for people
in today’s world.
c. Be ready to present your Power Point in class. (That means save it
on a flash drive to bring it to school!)
2. Literary Elements Graphic Organizer Project
Fill in the graphic organizer on the next page. Bring it to school and be ready to
write an essay using this organizer.
2 Literary Elements Graphic Organizer
For
______________________________________
By____________________________
Name of
Element
Setting =
Time and
Place
Example (Give actual sentences from
the book that show the element. Put
quotation marks around them and
include the page number from the book
in parentheses after the quote.)
a. Quote about the place
Explanation (Tell how this element
helps the reader understand the
book.)
Why are the time and place
important in this book?
b. Quote about the time
Conflict is
the struggle
between two
opposing
forces.
Character vs.
character
conflict
_______________ vs. ____________
Quote that shows this:
How does this conflict get resolved?
Character vs.
Nature
Conflict
_______________ vs. ____________
Quote that shows this:
How does this conflict get resolved?
Character vs.
Self Conflict
(The
character
must make a
big decision.)
Climax (What
is the most
important
moment in
the story?)
_______________ vs. self when they
have to decide___________________
How does this conflict get resolved?
Quote that shows this:
Quote from the climax:
How was this the most important
moment?
3 Plot is all the
events that
happen in a
literary work.
Quote from the beginning of the book:
What is the first thing that
happens that shows there will be a
problem?
Plot #2
Quote from the middle of the book:
What things have happened since
the beginning of the book?
Plot #3
Quote from the end of the book:
What happens to solve the
problems, or are the problems still
there?
Theme is the
message the
author has
about life on
this planet.
Quote that shows this message:
What do you think is the message
the author has? Why?
3. Collage Directions:
a. A collage is a poster with many pictures and words covering it that
tell about the subject. They sometimes even overlap.
b. Start saving pictures and drawings from online or various
newspapers or magazines that might be used to tell the story of
your book.
c. Using a large poster board, lay out all the pictures and words on
the poster before beginning to glue them on.
d. Be prepared to explain your collage to the class when school
begins.
e. The following information must be in the collage:
i. Title of the book and author
ii. Pictures for each character in the book and/or symbols for
them. Be ready to explain your choices.
4 iii. One picture, cartoon, or drawing for each chapter of the
book that will show what the chapter is about. Be ready to
explain your choices.
iv. One picture, cartoon, drawing, or symbol that would
represent the message the author has about life. Be ready
to explain your choices.
4. Letter Writing Project Directions
a. Choose two characters from your book.
b. Write three letters from the first character to the second. One
letter should talk about the beginning of the book, the next should
talk about the middle of the book, and the third should talk about
the end of the book. Each letter should have 100 or more words.
They may ask the second character questions.
c. Write three letters from the second character to the first
character. One letter should talk about the beginning of the
book, the next should talk about the middle of the book, and the
third should talk about the end of the book. Each letter should
have 100 or more words. They may answer the questions of the
first character and/ or ask the other character questions. Below
is a sample letter. Please use it as a pattern to write your
letters.
June 19, 2014
Dear Tom Sawyer,
I can’t believe how hot it is here, Tom. I wish you had done everything the
teacher told you, and then you might be here right now to go fishing with me. I was
walking down the street last week, and I saw that you were running down the street
to talk to me. However, I was so frustrated about everything going on around here,
I just ran off. Aunt Polly keeps telling me to be polite. I try and I try, but
somehow things don’t seem to go just right. At least when you were here, I knew
that I wasn’t the only one in trouble.
When are you coming home, Tom?
Yours truly,
Huck Finn
5 Summaries of the Books
1. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
by Immaculee Ilibagiza
Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in
1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s
family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives
of nearly a million Rwandans. Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and
seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while
hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of
unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of
death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom
hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able
seek out and forgive her family’s killers.
2. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate
Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely,
introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between
the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their
world.
6 3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
In what may be Dickens's best novel, humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the
forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day, under sudden and enigmatic
circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." In this gripping tale of crime
and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include Magwitch, the fearful and
fearsome convict; Estella, whose beauty is excelled only by her haughtiness; and the embittered
Miss Havisham, an eccentric jilted bride.
4. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (35th Anniversary Edition)
“I pray that God forgive them...”
Corrie Ten Boom stood naked with her older sister Betsie, watching a concentration camp matron beating a prisoner.
“Oh, the poor woman,” Corrie cried. “Yes. May God forgive her,” Betsie replied. And, once again, Corrie realized
that it was for the souls of the brutal Nazi guards that her sister prayed.
Both woman had been sent to the camp for helping the Jews. Christ’s Spirit and words were their guide; it was His
persecuted people they tried to save—at the risk of their own lives; it was His strength that sustained them through
times of profound horror.
Here is a book aglow with the glory of God and the courage of a quiet Christian spinster whose life was transformed
by it. A story of Christ’s message and the courage woman who listened and lived to pass it along—with joy and
triumph!
7 5. The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
**Please note:
These books are available online at places like Amazon.com for pennies if one chooses to
purchase a used book. They will also be available at Barnes and Noble in town. Students may
borrow these books from the public library or from past students. Please contact me at any
time during the summer with questions at my school email address:
[email protected]
***Please note also:
If a student chooses to read one of the extra credit books, they must also complete two of
the activities from the graphic organizer to receive the extra credit. I will give the extra
credit to help the student’s grade at the end of the first nine weeks in whatever area I would
determine to be most appropriate. This would also be dependent on the effort put into the
assigned activities.
Time Management
In order to have the summer reading complete by the beginning of school, you
need to plan your time carefully.
1. IF you read one chapter a day of Left to Tell beginning July
1, you will complete it by July 23.
2. If you read one chapter a day of A Separate Peace beginning
July 24, you will complete it by August 4.
3. From August 4 until school begins on August 17, you would
then be able to complete the assigned project for one of the
books. Remember that you will take a test over both.
8