Class of 2016 Summer Reading

(Entering 10th graders, 2013)

eSTEM Academy has a summer reading project for every student grades 9 -11 to assist in keeping them current with critical thinking and confidence in academic learning. We believe that independence in learning should be fostered and as such have developed projects that can easily be completed in a 10 week summer time frame.

Each student transitioning between 9th and 10th grade must complete the following summer reading project before the end of the first week of school on August 23rd. Each part should be typed with the student’s name in the upper right corner of each page with the page number. This will be the first assignment for the first grade in English 10 and will be marked as late if turned in any day after the first day of school regardless of the term in which the course is taken.

Part 1 Content of the Book

Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacksby Rebecca Skloot. As you read, underline important facts that may help you demonstrate your understanding of the story as a whole. Make margin notes about connections you are making between what you have read earlier in the story.

For each chapter, complete the following guiding questions each on a separate sheet of paper (typed):

Name of Student ______

Chapter Number ______Chapter Title ______

Three important facts that happened in this chapter:

How did the facts in this chapter make the story connect to things that you know or think you know about the story?

What do you think will happen in the next chapter?

Part 2Story Analysis

After reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, consider the numbered prompts and answer the following questions. This should be marked at the top of the paper “Part 2, Story Analysis” with your name in the top right corner. Copy and paste the question before beginning an answer. Be sure to answer every question completely, in sentence form and using proper grammar and sentence structures.

  1. Start by unravelling the complicated history of Henrietta Lacks's tissue cells. Who did what with the cells, when, where and for what purpose? Who benefited, scientifically, medically, and monetarily?
  2. What are the specific issues raised in the book—legally and ethically? Talk about the 1980s John Moore case: the appeal court decision and its reversal by the California Supreme Court.
  3. Follow-up to Question #2: Should patient consent be required to store and distribute their tissue for research? Should doctors disclose their financial interests? Would this make any difference in achieving fairness? Or is this not a matter of fairness or an ethical issue to begin with?
  4. What are the legal ramifications regarding payment for tissue samples? Consider the RAND corporation estimation that 304 million tissue samples, from 178 million are people, are held by labs.
  5. What are the spiritual and religious issues surrounding the living tissue of people who have died? How do Henrietta's descendants deal with her continued "presence" in the world...and even the cosmos (in space)?
  6. Were you bothered when researcher Robert Stevenson tells author Skloot that "scientists don’t like to think of HeLa cells as being little bits of Henrietta because it’s much easier to do science when you dissociate your materials from the people they come from"? Is that an ugly outfall of scientific resarch.or is it normal, perhaps necessary, for a scientist to distance him/herself? If "yes" to the last part of that question, what about research on animals...especially for research on cosmetics?
  7. What do you think of the incident in which Henrietta's children "see" their mother in the Johns Hopkins lab? How would you have felt? Would you have sensed a spiritual connection to the life that once created those cells...or is the idea of cells simply too remote to relate to?
  1. Is race an issue in this story? Would things have been different had Henrietta been a middle class white woman rather than a poor African American woman? Consider both the taking of the cell sample without

her knowledge, let alone consent... and the questions it is raising 60 years later when society is more open about racial injustice?

  1. Author Rebecca Skloot is a veteran science writer. Did you find it enjoyable to follow her through the ins-and-outs of the laboratory and scientific research? Or was this a little too "petri-dishish" for you?
  2. What did you learn from reading The Immortal Life? What surprised you the most? What disturbed you the most?

Part 3Author’s Style of Writing

After reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, consider the following prompts and answer the questions regarding: setting, character, plot, point of view of the author, and imaginative development of the story.

Setting

•Select a passage from the first chapter that describes the setting. Discuss how this passage contributes to your interpretation of the work as a whole, including stylistic devices (simile, metaphor, symbol, motif, personification, paradox, allusion, mood, tone…) that affect the creation of the setting in your mind.

Character

•Are the characters convincing? Do they come alive for you? How would you describe them — as sympathetic, likeable, thoughtful, intelligent, innocent, naive, strong or weak? Something else?

•Do you identify with any characters? Are you able to look at events in the book through their eyes — even if you don’t like or approve of them?

•Are characters developed psychologically and emotionally? Do you have access to their inner thoughts and motivations? Or do you know them mostly through dialogue and action?

•Do any characters change or grow by the end of the story? Do they come to view the world and their relationship to it differently?

Plot

•Is the story plot-driven, moving briskly from event to event? Or is it character-driven, moving more slowly, delving into characters' inner-lives?

•What is the story’s central conflict—character vs. character...vs. society...or vs. nature (external)? Or an emotional struggle within the character (internal)? How does the conflict create tension?

•Is the plot chronological? Or does it veer back and forth between past and present?

•Is the ending a surprise or predictable? Does the end unfold naturally? Or is it forced, heavy handed, or manipulative? Is the ending satisfying, or would you prefer a different ending?

Point of View

•Who tells the story—a character (1st-person narrator)? Or an unidentified voice outside the story (3rd-person narrator)? Does one person narrate—or are there shifting points of view?

•What does the narrator know? Is the narrator privy to the inner-life of one or more of the characters...or none? What does the narrator let you know?

Imaginative Development

•What about theme—the larger meanings behind the work? What ideas does the author explore? What is he or she trying to say?

•Symbols intensify meaning. Can you identify any in the book—people, actions or objects that stand for something greater than themselves?

•What about irony—a different outcome, or reality, than expected. Irony mimics real life: the opposite happens from what we desire or intend...unintended consequences.

eSTEM Academy @ Reynoldsburg High School 8579 Summit Road, Reynoldsburg OH 43068

Marcy Raymond, PrincipalPhone (614)501-2310 Fax (614)501-2250