SPHS English 1 Honors Summer Reading List
Required Novel: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
SPHS English 2 Honors Summer Reading List
English 2 Honors (Class of 2023)
Required novel: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Note: Honors students are also required to write a two to three page paper analyzing one aspect of The Hobbit, which will be due the first week of school. Choose one of the following four prompts on which to write your paper.
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
Summer Reading Assignment 2020
Mrs. Annesley: jannesley@stpaulhs.org
Text: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (ISBN 978-0679732761)
Assignment Title: Motive in Ellision’s Invisible Man
Assignment Length: Between two to three typed MLA formatted pages
Assignment Due Date : The first day of the SECOND week of class
Assignment Description:
Read and annotate the text. Your annotations will not be graded, but they will serve you well in the completion of this assignment. Annotating is a form of recording your questions, observations, insights, and other reactions you develop while reading. Annotations are a way of “talking back” to the text while you read it, and they provide a roadmap to your initial response to the text. You may later review these notes and find they form a goldmine for essay material! A highlighter, a pencil, and some Post-its may be of use to you for this part of the assignment.
Next, in a thoughtfully written college-length essay, clearly state your claims regarding Ellison’s intent in composing Invisible Man and support your claims with evidence from the text. What are his motives, and how does he illustrate them for us in this work of fiction? What is Ellison trying to show or teach us, his readers? Do you think he successfully communicates this/these message(s)?
While supporting your claims, you must carefully select and share different passages from the text to show you’ve completed the reading. Please include an in-text citation for every passage you refer to in your essay, whether you are quoting or merely paraphrasing a section of the text. Do not merely summarize the text; instead, weave parts of the novel into your essay. You are using the plot of the novel as support for your claims about the author’s worldview and motives for writing such a novel.
Please only use your own understanding of the novel, and the novel itself to complete this assignment.
MLA format resource: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
Definitions provided by the Merriam-Webster dictionary
Annotation: a note added by way of comment or explanation
Claim: to assert in the face of possible contradiction
TO: Incoming AP English Literature Students
FROM: Miss Frausto
DATE: May 2020
Dear St. Paul Senior:
Here we go with your last year. As you move in the direction of your Life After St. Paul, I know that you are serious about what you need to accomplish by next May. And I couldn’t be more serious about AP English Literature.
I teach the AP English Literature course in the belief that there are some students who are well prepared for greater depth to their studies—not just AP credit on their transcripts. I love literature deeply. I want you to feel the same awe about what the greatest writers can do with words and ideas. I am serious about teaching, and I want my students to be serious about learning. I believe in academic rigor. Please think carefully about everything I have said in this paragraph.
It is my hope that you have already gone through that important transformation that changes students from ordinary readers who understand English into informed, experienced, critical readers, people whose understanding of a text derives from their sensitivity to its art and their ability to deal intelligently with all its elements.
It is important to me (and I hope to you) that you succeed in AP English Literature. Yes, you should be ready for college-level work in the study of literature, but that is not all. First, you will find it extremely difficult to succeed if you have poor attendance. I need my AP students in class every day. If it is your habit to miss a lot of school or you casually take days off whenever you like, you had better think twice before taking this class. I cannot stress this enough. Secondly, you’re going to have to make time in your life to READ. The key to success on the AP exam is how much you have read and understood a wide range of all types of literature. And finally, I expect your writing skills to be well above average. You should already have a firm grasp on the skills I teach in Essay-Term Paper.
I want to know that each of you has read this letter carefully and thoughtfully. So I am requiring you to write me a reply. Please email me at jfrausto@stpaulhs.org no later than July 1, 2020. Also, if you have any questions about the class or your summer reading assignment, please feel free to email me any time during the summer. I will be happy to answer any questions you have.
And finally, here is your summer reading requirement:
How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Revised Edition) Thomas C. Foster
Don Quixote de la Mancha Miguel de Cervantes
Be prepared to discuss both works when school begins. Also, please make sure you read the revised edition of Foster’s book, not the earlier one. And yes, you must read both parts of Don Quixote.
God Bless You
Happy Reading!
TO: A.P. US HISTORY STUDENTS
FROM: MR. SCHRADER
RE: SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS/REQUIREMENTS
Due to the intensity of AP courses and the sheer volume of material to be covered, it is necessary that students order/purchase their books ASAP and complete the following requirements by the first day of school. A test covering the unit will be administered on the second week of school.
Guidebook assignments will be turned in for grading on the first day of class FULLY COMPLETED.
*Assignments are to be completed in pen only.
Textbook: The American Pageant AP Edition (15th Edition) (ISBN – 13: 978-1-111-83106-6)
Guidebook: A Manual for Students for the Advanced Placement Program to accompany the American Pageant (ISBN – 13:978-0-8400-2904-1)
Failure to meet the expectations stated above will result in the removal of the student from the AP course and transfer into the college prep US History course.
We understand the requirements for this course and acknowledge that the requirements must be met for the student to continue enrollment in the A.P. US History course in the 2020-2021 school year. In addition, students enrolled in the AP course are REQUIRED to take the AP Exam given by the College Board in May 2021.
TO: A.P. Government STUDENTS
FROM: MR. MCNEIL
RE: SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS/REQUIREMENTS
The book we will be using is American Government: Stories of a Nation by
Scott Abernathy and Karen Waples. (AP edition)
The ISBN number is: 978-1-319-19536-6
2019, Bedford/St. Martin's Press
Please read the following article, as well as ALL other articles linked to this:
"Eliot Engel's Hot Mic Moment" by Shane Goldmacher, NY Times, June 2, 2020
Questions related to the article(s) will be coming soon. Replies should be sent to my personal email: RJM1600@aol.com
Your response will be due on June 25. (The primary is June 23).
Also, you will need to subscribe to the NY Times. (Try to get if for $4.00/month, or less). Your subscription should begin when we return in August, if not sooner.
I didn't mention this, but you will also need to watch "Meet The Press", every Sunday, on NBC. You can go to their site, or Youtube, and watch it when you have time. However, you will frequently be quizzed on "Meet the Press" on Monday's. So, be sure to watch it. You can start this week. It has a moderator, Chuck Todd, a group of reporters, and usually an assortment of political leaders from Washington and around the country.
Finally, the College Board would like you to become part of a campaign. Due to the circumstances this year, all campaigns are likely to be different. However, they will all need lots of energetic and enthusiastic workers. As I mentioned while we were Zooming, you don't need to work on a national campaign. There are many other important races that are local. From your Congressman, to the Mayor, or City Council, or perhaps a proposition that will be on the ballot that you feel strongly about. At this point, all you need to do is think about what you'd like to do. I'll know more about the guidelines that the College Board wants us to follow when we return.
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