AP English Literature Summer Reading 2015-2016

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Reading in AP Lit is both wide and deep and allows you to consider a work’s artistry and social and historical context. Being a mature reader and exposing yourself to various forms of literature will provide you with a foundation and skills essential for college success. As a dedicated AP-level student, you will need to embrace the challenges that will ultimately lead you to a passion for reading, writing and learning that will cross curriculum lines and offer high achievement in all courses, not just English. Vital exposure combined with intense analysis of literature and writing will cultivate a rich understanding of literary works and writing that you will appreciate throughout your education and your chosen profession.

There are three components to Summer Reading for AP Literature:

  1. The Novel - To complete the required assignment, you must annotate as you read.
  2. The Play - To complete the required assignment, you must annotate as you read.
  3. The Film - see the list included at the end of this document.

Instructions and Information:

  • The complexity of the texts and assignments correlates to the associated grade range.
  • By choosing a particular collection of works, you are committing to a particular grade range.
  • If you submit all parts of your choice, the base grade will begin at the bottom ofthe assigned range and increase or decrease based on the quality and quantity of work you submit.
  • If you submit only parts of a collection, the grade will begin at the bottom of the range and decrease substantially. In other words, your grade will drop below your chosen grade range if you submit work that does not meet the standards, displays a serious lack of effort, and omits parts of the assignment or any partial/incomplete work.
  • You can fail this assignment even if you choose a high-level grade range. Remember that the grade is dependent on the quantity and quality of the work, not your choice of works.
  • Please see the included rubric on the last page of this document.

Use this LINK to access the graphic organizers and film worksheets to complete your assignments on Blackboard. You may also access Blackboard through my blog at

To Earn an A
90-100 / Instructions: Choose ONE of the works for the Novel and Play categories and complete the assignment listed. Follow the instructions listed for the Films section.
Works of Literature / Assignment:
All forms found on Blackboard (link provided above)
Novels /
  1. Atonement by Ian McEwan
  2. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier**
  3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen**
/ Annotation Log
Plays /
  1. TwelfthNight by William Shakespeare
  2. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw**
  3. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
/ Sociogram
Films / Movie options are listed at the end of this document.
Watch three of the movies based on works in American Literature / Complete one analysis worksheet per video for a total of three worksheets.
It is your choice which video you want to complete with which worksheet.
Videos may be found at the public library, on Netflix, Amazon or other streaming service.

** availablein the MHS bookroom

To Earn aB
80-89 / Instructions: Choose ONE of the works for the Novel and Play categories and complete the assignment listed. Follow the instructions listed for the Films section.
Works of Literature / Assignment
All forms found on Blackboard (link provided above)
Novels /
  1. The American by Henry James
  2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding ** (See Ms. Doar in Dobbs 201 for this novel)
  3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen**
/ Examining the Literary Elements Graphic Organizer
Plays /
  1. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  2. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw**
  3. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
/ Annotation Log
Films / Movie options are listed at the end of this document.
Watch three of the movies based on works in American Literature / Complete one analysis worksheet per video for a total of three worksheets.
It is your choice which video you want to complete with which worksheet.
Videos may be found at the public library, on Netflix, Amazon or other streaming service.

** availablein the MHS bookroom

To Earn aC
74-79 / Instructions: Choose ONE of the works for the Novel and Play categories and complete the assignment listed. Follow the instructions listed for the Films section.
Works of Literature / Assignment
All forms found on Blackboard (link provided above)
Novels /
  1. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien**
  2. Silas Marner by George Eliot
  3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
/ Sensory Notes Graphic Organizer
Plays /
  1. Othello by William Shakespeare**
  2. Medea by Euripides
  3. Equusby Peter Shaffer
/ Annotation Log
Films / Movie options are listed at the end of this document.
Watch two of the movies based on works in American Literature / Complete one analysis worksheet per video for a total of two worksheets.
It is your choice which video you want to complete with which worksheet.
Videos may be found at the public library, on Netflix, Amazon or other streaming service.

** availablein the MHS bookroom

To Earn aD
70-73 / Instructions: Choose ONE of the works for the Novel and Play categories and complete the assignment listed. Follow the instructions listed for the Films section.
Works of Literature / Assignment
All forms found on Blackboard (link provided above)
Novels /
  1. Daisy Miller by Henry James
  2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe**
  3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
/ Literary Reactions Graphic Organizer
Plays /
  1. Othello by William Shakespeare**
  2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
  3. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
/ Annotation Log
Films / Movie options are listed at the end of this document.
Watch two of the movies based on works in American Literature / Complete one analysis worksheet per video for a total of two worksheets.
It is your choice which video you want to complete with which worksheet.
Videos may be found at the public library, on Netflix, Amazon or other streaming service.

** availablein the MHS bookroom

To Earn an F
0-69 / Novels / Failure to submit any work listed in the choices above.
Submitting incomplete work products
Submitting work that shows little or no effort at analytical thought or depth of ideas.
Plays / Failure to submit any work listed in the choices above.
Submitting incomplete work products
Submitting work that shows little or no effort at analytical thought or depth of ideas.
Films / Failure to submit any work listed in the choices above.
Submitting incomplete work products
Submitting work that shows little or no effort at analytical thought or depth of ideas.

Classics: (1940-1969)

Movie / Year / Actor(s) / Genre / Author
The Grapes of Wrath / 1940 / Henry Fonda / Novel / John Steinbeck (novel)
Nunally Johnson (screenplay)
The Rose Tattoo / 1955 / Anna Magnani
Burt Lancaster / Play / Tennessee Williams
The Long Hot Summer / 1958 / Paul Newman
Joanne Woodward / Short stories – “The Hamlet” / William Faulkner (story)
Irving Ravetch (screenplay)
How Green Was My Valley / 1941 / Walter Pidgeon
Maureen O’Hara / Novel / Richard Llewellyn (novel)
Philip Dunne (screenplay)
The Heiress / 1949 / Olivia de Haviland
Montgomery Clift / Novel – Washington Square / Henry James (novel)
Augustus and Ruth Goetz (screenplay)
The Old Man and the Sea / 1958 / Spencer Tracy / Novel / Ernest Hemingway (novel)
Peter Viertel (screenplay)
For Whom the Bell Tolls / 1943 / Gary Cooper
Ingrid Bergman / Novel / Ernest Hemingway (novel)
Dudely Nichols (screenplay)
A Farewell to Arms / 1957 / Rock Hudson
Jennifer Jones / Semi-autobiographical novel / Ernest Hemingway (novel)
Ben Hecht (screenplay)
Giant / 1956 / Rock Hudson
Elizabeth Taylor / Novel / Edna Ferber (novel)
Fred Guiol (screenplay)
The Country Girl / 1954 / Bing Crosby
Grace Kelly / Play / Clifford Odet (play)
George Seaton (screenplay)
A Place in the Sun / 1951 / Elizabeth Taylor
Montgomery Clift / Novel – AnAmerican Tragedy / Theodore Dreiser (novel)
Michael Wilson, Harry Brown (screenplay)
Hud / 1963 / Paul Newman
Patricia Neal / Novel – Horseman, Pass By / Larry McMurtry (novel)
Irving Ravetch , Harriet Frank, Jr. (screenplay)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn / 1945 / Dorothy McGuire / Novel / Betty Smith (novel)
Tess Slesinger (screenplay)
The Good Earth / 1937 / Paul Muni / Novel / Pearl S. Buck (novel)
Talbot Jennings (screenplay)

Moderns: (1970-)

Movie / Year / Actor(s) / Genre / Author
The Joy Luck Club / 1993 / Ming-Na Wen / Novel / Amy Tan (novel and screenplay)
The Last of the Mohicans / 1992 / Daniel Day-Lewis
Madeleine Stowe / Novel / James Fennimore Cooper (novel)
John Balderston (screenplay)
Death of a Salesman / 1985 / Dustin Hoffman
John Malkovich / Play / Arthur Miller
Turn of the Screw / 1999 / Colin Firth / Novel / Henry James (novel)
Nick Dear (screenplay)
House of Mirth / 2000 / Gillian Anderson
Dan Aykroyd / Novel / Edith Wharton (novel)
Terrence Davies (screenplay)
Age of Innocence / 1993 / Daniel Day-Lewis
Winona Ryder / Novel / Edith Wharton (novel)
Jay Cocks, Martin Scorsese (screenplay)
Slaughterhouse-Five / 1972 / Michale Sacks
Ron Leibman
Perry King / Semi-autobiographical novel / Kurt Vonnegut (novel)
Stephen Geller (screenplay)
Catch-22 / 1970 / Alan Arkin
Orson Wellss / Novel – historical fiction / Joseph Heller (novel)
Buck Henry (screenplay)

NAME ______DATE ______block ___

AP Literature Summer Reading Rubric

Novel / Play / Films
A
90 - 100 / Annotation Log
Atonement Rebecca Pride and Prejudice / Sociogram
TwelfthNight Pygmalion Our Town / Watch three of the movies based on works in American Literature
B
80 - 89 / Examining the Literary Elements Graphic Organizer
The American Lord of the Flies
Pride and Prejudice / Annotation Log
Macbeth Pygmalion
The Importance of Being Earnest / Watch three of the movies based on works in American Literature
C
74 - 79 / Sensory Notes Graphic Organizer
The Things They Carried
Silas Marner The Kite Runner / Annotation Log
Othello Medea Equus / Watch two of the movies based on works in American Literature
D
70 - 73 / Literary Reactions Graphic Organizer
Daisy Miller Things Fall Apart
The Kite Runner / Annotation Log
Othello The Glass Menagerie
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead / Watch two of the movies based on works in American Literature
F
0 - 69 / Failure to submit any work listed in any genre in the choices above.
Submitting incomplete work products from any grade range.
Submitting work that shows little or no effort at analytical thought or depth of ideas from any grade range.
See Instructions and Information section on original assignment for details
AP Grading Criteria / High End of the Grade Range
Analysis is exceptional and insightful beyond the literal level that shows an understanding the complexities of the literature.
Apt and specific-to-the-text evidence; concrete details, references and quotes.
Strong use of diction and variety of sentence structures
Attempts to address complex elements that lead to an epiphany and a deduction that may have not been considered before.
Writing is free of spelling, grammar, mechanics errors
Uses vocabulary that is precise, sophisticated and engaging representing AP-level thoughts. / Middle of the Grade Range
Slightly better than average.
Superficial generic or vague references or analysis with lack of details; may have some significant insight into the literature
Attempts to analyze only obvious literary elements Accurate interpretations of text that sometimes goes beyond the literal level
Uses some textual evidence to support ideas, but needed in some places
Acceptable style and diction; carefully written but average in its sophistication / Lower End of the Grade Range
Addresses the main idea of the assignment, but lacks depth of analysis; generic or vague references
Weak in content and lacks concrete details that should be present for chosen assignment
Plot summary overshadows analysis in places
Too brief with insufficient textual support
Sentence structure is awkward or ambiguous, confusing
Slightly below average writing style; less sophistication in diction and syntax for this level
Uses clichés, colloquial language with little variety in vocabulary