2016-17 Summer Reading Assignments for Language A1 (Senior Level)

The Stranger, The Time of the Doves, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Complete all of the following exercises in a MS Word Document as you read each novel. Each assignment must be on a separate MS Word document (this means you will have 3 separate documents, one for each book). Make sure each assignment begins on a new page of your document. Your work will be emailed to the teacher () for a grade the first day of class. Use one email and attach all three documents to the one email. No hard copies will be necessary. Your exercises will also be used in class discussions during the first six weeks. If you have questions about the summer assignment you may text me at 940-337-0981 (please use your first and last names to identify yourself in the text).

  1. Consider as you read each assigned novel the following questions taken from The Principles of Literature by Christina Myers-Shaffer, M. ED. Have detailed answers prepared for class in your reading journal. You must answereach bulleted question in noless than 3 sentences of commentary. You must include quotes with MLA parenthetical documentation.
  1. Meaning
  2. What is the work about? What is the theme?
  3. What effect or impression does the work have on the reader?
  4. What is the argument or summary of the work?
  5. What is the writer’s intent?
  6. Form
  7. How has the writer organized the literary work to achieve the effect or express the meaning?
  8. How is the work structured or planned? As prose or poetry? As topics or scenes? As a long narrative, several short stories, or episodes? Discuss.
  9. Into what genre (type or category) could the work be placed? Why?
  10. What method of organization or pattern of development was used within the structure of the work? And, how does it affect the meaning of the novel or the author’s intent?
  11. Voice and Tone
  12. Who is telling the story and how is the speaker or narrator characterized (his or her character revealed)? By action or description? Expressed or implied?
  13. From what perspective is the story told? By a person outside of the story or by someone actually involved in the narrative?
  14. Is the speaker (the one telling the story) and the author or writer of the work the same person?
  15. If the writer and the speaker are two different individuals, are their attitudes toward the subject, events, and readers the same or different?
  16. What is the author’s attitude toward the material, subject or theme?
  17. What is the speaker’s attitude (if different from the author) toward the material, subject, or theme? Toward the reader?
  18. Is the tone playful? serious? angry? formal? pleading? joyful? etc. Explain why the tone is important. Also, does the tone remain static or is there a shift in tone?
  19. What is the atmosphere of the work (the way in which the mood, setting, and feeling blend together to convey the prevailing tone)?
  20. Characterization
  21. Who are the major characters in the work? Who is the principal character?
  22. What is the principal character’s motivation?
  23. Is the character’s personality revealed directly by the speaker telling the reader or indirectly by the character’s own words and deeds (requiring the reader to come to conclusions about the character based on dialogue and action)?
  24. How do dialogue (what he or she says) and action (what he or she does) reveal a character’s personality traits?
  25. Language
  26. Does the selection include any imagery (the use of sensory images to represent someone or something)? Identify and explain.
  27. What figures of speech does the writer use, and what effect do they have on the meaning of the selection?
  28. How does the writer use diction (word choice) to convey meaning?
  29. What is the impact of the words, phrases, and lines as they are used in the selection?
  30. Did the writer intend the words used to convey the meaning normally assigned those words (the denotation)? How?
  31. Did the writer intend that some words would imply additional, associated meanings for the reader (connotations)? Explain.
  32. What is the significance of those implications to the meaning of the selection and the intent of the writer?
  33. How does the use of denotation, connotation, and syntax (how the words are structured and grouped to form meaningful thought units) relate to the style of the selection?
  34. What elements of propaganda does the language of the selection include? Explain.
  35. Setting
  • Identify the setting of each novel and explain how the author reveals the setting?
  • How is the setting important to the story?
  1. Assemble biographical/cultural research on each author/book including personal,cultural, and artistic background information that will increase your understanding of the work.
  • Cultural background includes information about the author’s country of major influence and the book’s setting.
  • Personal information includes life events that greatly impact the author’s writing.
  • Artistic information refers to Camus, Rodoreda, and Solzhenitsyn as writers: what are common images, motifs, themes and ideas that emerge in their artistic creations. During what literary period were they writing and how did it affect their work?
  • Keep an annotated bibliography (MLA style).

Remember that these three books will be used for your Interactive Oral Presentations, Supervised Writing Assignments, and World Literature papers; therefore, all the preparation you do here will help you as you develop your group presentations and your thesis for your World Literature Assignment. Take the work seriously; develop useful information. Include MLA documentation for all work.