Summer Reading Assignment 2015-2016 School Year

READ THIS OR YOU WILL PERISH! Reading extensively provides the key to becoming a great reader, and exposure to great writing naturally underscores your evolution into a great writer. You should not simply read during the school year when we require you to do so; life-long learners are life-long readers. Just as an athlete or musician practices his or her skills for peak performance, a student must likewise participate in cultivating his or her reading and writing proficiency to engage in thoughtful discussion and intelligent debate.

We have listed your assignment below. Please note that you must complete BOTH portions of the assignment, 1) the reading and 2) the annotating.

ASSIGNMENT, Part I: Read a novel from the list below. In order to facilitate class discussions and daily class assignments such as turning the universal topics below into theme statements for your novel, you should purchase a clean (not annotated or highlighted) copy of the novel. An electronic copy of the novel will not work for this assignment.

·  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (fiction) by Betty Smith

·  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (historical fiction) by Jamie Ford

·  I am Malala (autobiography) by Malala Yousafzai

·  Into the Wild (nonfiction) by Jon Krakauer

Assignment, Part II: As you read the novel, annotate for the following universal topics:
·  The impact of personal/familial relationships
·  The importance of loyalty even at significant personal cost
·  Effects of poverty
·  The importance of education
·  The significance of determination and perseverance
·  Doing what is right regardless of what others think
·  Fate versus free will
·  Misunderstandings (such as stereotypes) as the catalyst for societal conflict
·  Implications of cultural/social barriers
*some topics may not apply to all novels

Definition of “annotate” à to make notes of explanation; thus to “annotate” your novel for the above-mentioned universal topics is to make notes of explanation about how excerpts, ideas, evidence, characters, setting, plot, etc. exemplify the topics.

Consider the following question stem as you annotate: “What is the author saying about ______?” Your annotations should answer this question throughout your novel based on almost all of the given topics. Feel free to color-code.

Contact information: If you have any questions over the summer, we want you to feel free to contact a 10th grade Pre-AP/IB teacher for assistance. Please email . Mrs. Castillo may not be your English teacher next year, but she can help you with questions about the assignment.

We look forward to teaching the class of 2018! Happy Reading!

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