How to Read Philosophy CUT ME OUT!!!!

Swampscott High School English Department
Expectations for Summer Reading 2014
CUT ME
OUT!!!!
How to Read
Philosophy
The Swampscott High School English Department presents its
summer reading selections for the 2014-2015 school year in
accordance with Swampscott High School’s Mission Statement
and Academic Expectations which state: "The mission of
Swampscott High School is to prepare students to succeed in a
diverse and evolving global society by promoting academic and
personal excellence…” and, “Students will communicate
effectively through multiple forms of expression and solve
problems through analytical and critical thinking.” Summer
reading plays a vital role in maintaining students’ close reading
skills and allows students to prepare for the challenges of the
upcoming curriculum.
Expectations
1) Purchase a copy of the required text for your English
class. If you cannot purchase the required book, please
contact Joanna Ganci, Department Chair of English at
[email protected] as soon as possible.
You are not required to purchase the other summer
reading texts; however, it is a good idea to buy them if
you can.
2) Bring the summer reading text to class on the first day
of school with specific annotation assignment for your
grade. Your teacher will instruct you on the first day on
how you will be tested.
3) Annotate your text either by writing in it or using sticky
notes. You will mark your book for the specific literary
device assigned to your book.
4) Assessments will take place in the first few days of
English class. Your teacher will assess you through
critical reading, writing, thinking, and speaking.
5) Complete a creative project on the list provided and
hand it in the first day of school.
Be an active reader
and annotate (mark
your book) as you
read!
You annotate by
underlining, circling,
and writing in the
margins or on sticky
notes.
“Some books are to
be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some
few to be chewed and
digested: that is, some
books are to be read
only in parts, others
to be read, but not
curiously, and some
few to be read wholly,
and with diligence
and attention.” Sir
Francis Bacon
Resources:
Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Used Book Superstore (Danvers), The Spirit of 76’ Bookstore, The
Swampscott Public Library
Swampscott High School English Department
My Responsibilities
for Summer Reading:
TAKING HONORS
BRINGING
ANNOTATED
REQUIRED TEXT
TO CLASS ON THE
FIRST DAY
BRINGING ONE
CREATIVE
ASSIGNMENT FOR
SECOND CHOICE
TEXT ON THE FIRST
DAY
BRINGING THIRD
CHOICE TEXT TO
CLASS FIRST DAY
FOR GUIDED
DISCUSSION
My Responsibilities
for Summer
Reading:
TAKING CP1
BRINGING
ANNOTATED
REQUIRED TEXT
TO CLASS ON
THE FIRST DAY
BRINGING ONE
CREATIVE
ASSIGNMENT FOR
SECOND CHOICE
TEXT ON THE FIRST
DAY
X
My Responsibilities
for Summer
Reading:
TAKING FOUNDATIONS
BRINGING
ANNOTATED
REQUIRED TEXT
TO CLASS ON
THE FIRST DAY
BRINGING ONE
CREATIVE
ASSIGNMENT FOR
SECOND CHOICE
TEXT ON THE FIRST
DAY
X
SWAMPSCOTT HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER READING LIST FOR SOPHOMORES: 2014
The Swampscott High School English Department presents its summer reading selections for the 2014-2015 school year in accordance with Swampscott High
School’s Mission Statement and Academic Expectations which state: "The mission of Swampscott High School is to prepare students to succeed in a diverse and
evolving global society by promoting academic and personal excellence…” and “Students will communicate effectively through multiple forms of expression and
solve problems through analytical and critical thinking.” Summer reading plays a vital role in maintaining students’ close reading skills and allows students to
prepare for the challenges of the upcoming curriculum. Students taking 120 must read the required text plus two additional choice books from the list provided.
Students taking 121 must read the required text and one additional choice book from the list. Please see the page entitled “Expectations for Summer Reading” for
more information.
REQUIRED: Maus I by Art Spiegleman: “The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his
son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story of survival during the Holocaust. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of
any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in 'drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust'". (The New York Times).
CHOICES:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: In this classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don’t put out fires; they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury’s
vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal – a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.
Shoeless Joe Jackson by W.P. Kinsella: In this story, a baseball announcer’s voice very clearly says to the narrator, “If you build it, he will come.” He does
(shoeless Joe Jackson, that is) and says, looking around the ball fields, “This must be heaven.” “No, it’s Iowa,” the narrator replies. At this point, the story is a
curiosity more than anything else, its significance archival more than aesthetic, but it is the piece that will draw readers to the collection.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult: Nineteen Minutes recounts a deadly high school shooting rampage, its causes, and its aftermath.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd: Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life
around one devastating, blurred memory - the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four.
About a Boy by Nick Hornby: Due to a happy accident of birth, Will has never had to work; but, as his friends have drifted away into meaningful marriages and
careers, he finds himself, at 36, mostly alone, desperately hip, and leading the quintessential unexamined life.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: First published in 1965, The Bluest Eye is the story of a black girl who prays -- with unforeseen consequences--for her eyes to
turn blue so she will be accepted.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards: Haunted by the memory of growing up with a chronically ill sister, David makes a split-second decision. He
asks Caroline to take his infant daughter to an institution, and when Norah wakes, he tells her that the second child was stillborn.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale is a frightening look at a not too distant future where sterility is the norm, and fertile woman are
treated as cattle, to produce children for the upper class who cannot have any.
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: The novel is filled with scientists and G-men and even ordinary folks caught up in the game. These assorted characters chase
each other around in search of the world's most important and dangerous substance, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature.
11 Seconds by Travis Roy: Within the 11 seconds that inspired this memoir, Travis Roy realized his dream, and then smashed into his nightmare. On an October
night in 1995, Roy, a talented young hockey player, skated onto the ice for his varsity debut with Boston University. Eleven fateful seconds later, he was
paralyzed from the neck down.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer: When twenty-four-year-old Chistopher McCandless walked into the Alaskan wilderness alone, never to be seen alive again, he left
behind a storm of controversy and conflicting emotions over this odyssey. A remarkable true story of idealism, naïveté, and the deeper questions of where the
individual fits into society.
City of Thieves by David Benioff: Two teenage boys encounter cannibals, murderers, prostitutes, and assassins as they struggle to complete an impossible task
during the freezing Siege of Leningrad in this funny, shocking, and briskly written tome.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: This is a classic fantasy of the future where babies are produced in bottles and people exist in a mechanized world without a
soul.
Sophie’s World by Joestein Gaardner: Sophie is about to turn 15 when she receives a letter and as she answers; she learns about major schools of thought, and
philosophers: Socrates, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hegel, Locke and Hobbes. This is an exploration of time, God, science and politics through all of the great
philosophical concepts.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has
just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to
freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American
dreamscape: the comic book.
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates: Ever make a stupid comment or joke, or say something you obviously didn't mean? Of course you have -- we all
have. Was it ever taken out of context? Written in the wake of some highly publicized school shootings, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl takes a look at the shock waves
that emanate from an overheard comment muttered in sarcasm, and the overzealous reaction of the school and surrounding community that follows.
Black Mass by Dennis Lehr and Gerard O’Neill: In the spring of 1988, Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill set out to write the story of two
infamous brothers from the insular Irish enclave of South Boston: Jim "Whitey" Bulger and his younger brother Billy. Whitey was the city's most powerful
gangster and a living legend--tough, cunning, without conscience, and above all, smart.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is an unforgettable story of a mental ward in which the despotic Nurse
Ratched reigns over the doctor and all the inhabitants. She exercises a somewhat cultic tactics to render her patients completely submissive.
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen: When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense
for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of
contrary perceptions.
Sold by Patricia McCormack: The book is written in poetic free verse in a very personal way through the main character’s eyes. Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about
the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she grabs a chance to work as a maid in the
city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution.
Swallow me Whole by Nate Powell: This graphic novel is a complex tale of two adolescent step-siblings struggling not only through the usual teenager problems
of identify, family and friends but also mental illness, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: The chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The
bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw. He says, "I think the world is a series of broken dams and
floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats." He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon
finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team.
Blankets by Craig Thompson: Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the
isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the
origins of faith.
Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian: Forced to watch his father escorted out of their lives by Turkish police, his brothers shot to death in their backyard, his
grandmother murdered by a rock-wielding guard, and his sister take poison rather than be raped by soldiers, 12-year-old Vahan Kendarian abruptly begins to learn
what his father meant when he used to say, "This is how steel is made. Steel is made strong by fire."
Looking for Alaska by John Green: Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what
the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead
sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Summer Reading Annotation for Characterization and Conflict
Incoming Sophomore Assignment
Annotate Maus by Art Spiegelman for both characterization and for conflict. Please see definitions of both
literary concepts below to clarify your thinking.
Characterization: is the act of creating or developing a character. No work of fiction can be effective
unless the author creates sympathetic characters to people it. Through them, the fictional conflict
arises and is resolved, the theme revealed, and the reader entertained and enlightened.
Terms associated with characterization: direct and indirect characterization, protagonist, antagonist,
foil, round, flat, dynamic, static, archetypal
Conflict: Main ideas (themes) are often revealed through a tension or conflict between two forces in a
work of fiction. Basically, six types of conflict dominate the world of fiction:
o
Human beings in conflict with nature
o
Human beings in conflict with one another
o
Human beings in conflict with themselves
o
Human beings in conflict with society or the law
o
Human beings in conflict with fate
o
Two universal forces in conflict (ex. good and evil, passion and reason, vengeance and
compassion)
Definitions provided by Laying the Foundation
See the sample annotation for 10th graders provided on this website.
Please contact Joanna Ganci, Department Chair at [email protected] with any questions about this
assignment.
Swampscott High School English Department
Summer Reading Creative Options
English Department 2014
The English Department presents creative project choices for students in accordance with Swampscott High
School’s Mission Statement and Academic Expectations which state: "The mission of Swampscott High School is
to prepare students to succeed in a diverse and evolving global society by promoting academic and personal
excellence…” and, “Students will communicate effectively through multiple forms of expression and solve
problems through analytical and critical thinking.” Summer reading plays a vital role in maintaining students’
close reading skills and allows students to prepare for the challenges of the upcoming curriculum.
Expectation: Students must complete a creative project from the list below for one non-required reading. This
project is due the first day of classes. If you have questions about the projects, please email Ms. Ganci
[email protected]
CHOICES:
Soundtrack --Your project will have:
1. A list of at least 10 songs each with explanations of connections to the themes, mood, character, and/or plot of
the novel that is at least a page. These explanations will cite specific examples/quotations from the text and from
the song in your analysis.
2. An attractive and visually relevant cover for your CD case.
Artistic Response --Your project will have:
1. A work of art in response to your book using charcoal, pastels, oil, ink, paper, etc.
2. A one-page reflection on why in the text inspired you to create this piece that includes specific examples from
the text in your reflection.
Graphic Novel --Your project will include:
1. A four-page comic book adaptation of a chapter or important scene from your novel that includes words and
images.
2 A one-page explanation of why you choose this moment in the novel. Use specific details and evidence from
the novel in your explanations.
Film Adaptation --Your project will include:
1. Three important passages from the novel that you would include in your film version with explanations of why
you chose these moments and how they are connected to your thematic vision of the film.
2. A one-page explanation of your casting choices including images of actors you will cast.
Original Creative Writing --Your project will include:
1. Either a collection of shorter works that equal three – four pages OR a longer written piece that is a total of
three – four pages.
Swampscott High School English Department