HISP 11th grade Summer 2010 Reading Assignment
This summer, you will read:
Tortilla Curtain, by TC Boyle, and The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.

Effective readers interact with a text, actively questioning and taking note of their own reading process. An efficient method of tracking your experience with the complexity of a novel is to keep a journal of responses. Writing about quotes from a novel is not easy; it requires practice, and is not always a self-evident way to generate your own ideas about fiction. The chart that follows is a structured guide to develop, or reinforce, this skill of “close reading.” If you have any questions regarding this assignment during the summer, e-mail us:

What you are to do:

1)While reading, select FIVE quotations from The Jungleby Upton Sinclair, representatively taken from throughout the story, beginning to end. List, then respond, to your passages as explained below.

2)While Reading, select FIVE quotations in the same manner from The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle.

Quotations Clarified

• a quote is any word, sentence, or passage taken from a written text
• the words can be but are not necessarily spoken dialogue
• whatever appears between quotations marks should be exactly what the text/person wrote or said /

Qualities of a Good Quote

• it is meaningful: to you, to the author, or to the characters
• it is about something important: an event, person, idea
• you know that you can write about it
• invites/helps you make connections between the book and yourself

Quote

Quote and page # here /

Questions/

Comments

(done during reading)
3-5 questions or comments that will help you write well about the quote /

Responses

(done after reading the segment that prompted the question or comment)
Use the questions to help you write about the quote here
Use this area to summarize, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate the quotation you have chosen
Possible question/comment “starters”:
• I keep wondering why….
• What caused….
• I think….
• This is similar to….
• This is important because….
• What do they mean by….
• What I find confusing is….
• What will happen next is….
• I can relate to this because….
• This reminds me of….
• As I read, I keep wanting to ask….
• (others of your choice) / Possible response “starters”:
• The important idea is….
• This point is important because….
• The author wants me to think….
• At this point the story is about….
• I still don’t understand because….
• What interests me most is….
• The author’s purpose here is….
• A good word to describe (tone, character, plot, etc.) is…because….
• This idea is similar to…and is significant because….
• (others of your choice)
Sample Quote (from the Young Adult novel Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman)
• “I can change that. Can change it big. Better to put my time into that than moaning about the other all day. That little grammar-school girl showed me that.” (p. 16) / Sample Questions / Comments
• What can’t he change — “the other” — and why can’t he change it?
• Should he change it? If yes, what might happen?
• What does he “moan” about?
• How did Kim, the “grammar-school girl,” show him this? /

Sample Response

• This is an important moment for Gonzalo: he begins to look at the glass as “half-full” instead of half-empty. By this I mean he begins to focus on what he CAN do instead of what he can’t do. I can’t change the attitudes or mistakes others will make. Already we see what happens if you change things: Kim’s seeds started a chain reaction that is beginning to change the neighborhood and the people in it. She showed people — without meaning to or even realizing it — that anything is possible if you have courage.

3) Based on your charted responses to The Jungle and The Tortilla Curtain, be prepared to write a well-developed essay that explores what you feel is the most meaningful comparison or contrast between the two books. They may at first seem to have nothing in common nor have a meaningful connection, but consider the traditional literary elements — plot, character, setting, tone, themes, style — and find a way to discuss both books, even if your point is how different they are. A possible starting place (but not a required one) is to consider how the author and/or the characters experience what it means, within these stories, to be an American.

These notes will be collected in the first several days of class in September, followed by a quiz simply for accountability. Make an effort to avoid the SparkNotes approach in which familiar quotations are easily downloaded, without reflection on your part. Do your own thinking, without fear that there is a “wrong” response to your novels — avoid only the writing of an unsupported response. Make whatever arrangements are necessary to have these two novels with you for at least the first two weeks of class.

In summary: 1) read The Jungleand The Tortilla Curtain; 2) chart your responses to both novels as formatted here

(If you are downloading this assignment, the hard copy handout has three full pages formatted in blank columns for note-taking, like the page following this one. For more writing space, you may simply draw columns on your own stationery.)

Reminder: all components of this assignment must be typed.

Quote

Quote and page # here /

Questions/

Comments

(made during reading)
3-5 questions or comments that will help you write well about the quote /

Responses

(after reading a segment)
Use the questions to help you write about the quote here
Use this area to summarize, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate the quotation you have chosen