ESUMS English Department - Summer Reading, 2020-21 

 

  Welcome! In an effort to encourage reading over the summer, all students are expected to read the book assigned to their “entering grade” (page 2). During the first month of school, students will be assessed on the book assigned; this assessment will count toward their Quarter One English grade.    

Book Access:  On Page 2, accompanying each title and author, you will find a link to a free PDF version of the book and a suggested link to Audible, where auditory versions of each book are available. PLEASE NOTE: You must be logged in to an NHPS Google account to access PDF links provided.  

Active Reading Suggestions:  We strongly encourage you to read actively and take notes on literary elements, as well as your reactions, connections, visualizations, predictions, and questions. Attached you will find an active/close-reading guide (pages 3 - 4) and an OPTIONAL note-taking organizer (pages 5 - 7).  

*AP and ECE Students: Summer reading expectations are posted on Ms. Connolly’s and Ms. Wickam’s class pages on the ESUMS website. Please note: You must confirm receipt of expectations by emailing your respective teacher: Ms. Connolly, AP Language and Composition or Ms. Wickam, ECE UConn English. Any student failing to complete summer requirements will be unenrolled from the course, once school begins. 

 Books Assigned by Grade: 

 Students entering 9th grade: 

● Street Love - Walter Dean Myers PDF Audible 

 Students entering 10th grade: 

● Kindred - Octavia Butler PDF Audible 

 Students entering 11th grade: 

● American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang  PDF Audible (not available) 

 

* Students entering AP Language and Composition (11th grade): ● Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell  

PDF Audible 

 Students entering 12th grade: 

● The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman PDF Audible 

 

* Students entering ECE UConn English (12th grade): ● Othello- William Shakespeare 

PDF  Audible 

 

● I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou PDF  Audible  

 

Active/Close Reading Guidelines   

1. Interact with the Reading:  

Questions ???? ~ What questions come to mind as you read? Write down answers as they uncover themselves in the reading. Support your questions and answers with quotations.   Visualizations (Imagery) ~ What do you see, hear, taste, touch, smell? Draw it, or describe it. Include quotations.   Predictions ~ What will happen next? Support your guesses with specific details and quotations.   Connections ~ What personal, cultural, historical, and/or contemporary connections can you make with the events, people, and ideas that the reading explores? Support with specific details and quotations from the reading.  

~ What connections can you make between one part of the reading and another?   Responses ~ What are your thoughts, feelings, and reactions AS you read? Why? Include quotations, when applicable.   

  2. Embrace New and Key Words:  

Vocabulary ~ Define words that you don’t know or understand. Note the word, context, and page.   Key Diction ~ Identify and define words that are important or repeated.   ~ Consider both connotative and denotative word meanings.  

 

3. Identify and Explain Literary Elements:  

Setting ~ place: country, city/town, buildings, inside/outside, etc. ~ time: year, month, week, day, time of day, era, decade, future, past, etc. ~ weather conditions ~ mood / atmosphere: how characters feel at this time and in this place   Character ~ personality traits ~ physical description ~ speech ~ actions ~ interactions and relationships with others  

 Plot (sequence of events) ~ What are the major events in the story-line? ~ exposition/introduction ~ rising action ~ foreshadowing and flashback ~ climax ~ falling action ~ conclusion/resolution    Point of View ~ Who is telling the story? Identify the point of view. (first or third person) ~ Why has the writer selected this narrator / narrative stance? ~ What is the narrator’s emphasis? bias?    Conflict ~ What tensions and oppositions lie at the center of the work? ~ What is each side’s stance? ~ How is the tension/opposition resolved by the end?    Symbolism ~ What concrete items represent bigger, important, abstract ideas? Identify/explain.    Figurative Language ~ How does the author use figurative language: metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, etc.? Identify and define this language.    Style / Tone/ Diction ~ How does the writer use words to enable the reader to imaginatively enter the text?  ~ What is the writer’s (or character’s) attitude (tone) toward events in the reading, and how is that attitude conveyed?    Title ~What is the title (and subtitle, epigraph, dedication, if applicable) of the reading?  ~ Why does the author select these words for the title? ~ How does the title reflect the motifs in the reading?   Theme ~ What motifs (recurrent ideas) exist in the reading?  ~ What does the reading say about life and people, about how life and people really are? ~ How does the writer use literary elements to convey the theme?  

Active Reading Organizer 

Title:_______________________________Author:__________________  Your Name:__________________________________________________  

QUESTIONS 

 

RESPONSES/REACTIONS 

 

PREDICTIONS 

 

VISUALS 

 

CONNECTIONS                 

 

Vocabulary        

  

Setting        

 

Plot        

 

Character        

 

Point of View                   

   

 

Conflict        

 

Figurative Language/Symbolism        

 

 

Style/Tone/Diction        

 

Title        

 

Theme