GT/AP English
Summer Reading for
2017-2018 School Year
Welcome to GT/AP English! Below you will find a list of novels that are a part of each grade’s GT/AP curriculum. In order to prepare yourselves fully for the upcoming school year, it is suggested that you begin reading these works over the summer. Copies of each book have been reserved at Barnes and Noble in the Long Gate Shopping Center. Consider looking for used copies online (i.e. half.com or amazon.com). If you use a library copy, remember to renew your book so as not to incur late fees. Be prepared to complete assignments associated with the novels.
Please complete an AP-style prep guide for each of the novels that you are reading. Directions may be found on the back of this page.
**9thand 10thGraders: Please complete only Part I of the prep guide. Do not complete Part II.
English 9 GT – Please read BOTH of the following.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Due in October)
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Due in October)
English 10 GT – Please read BOTH of the following.
Animal Farm by George Orwell (Due in October)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Due in October)
English 11 AP – Please read the following. Remember to annotate each novel when reading; note its symbolism, themes, stylistic elements, writing style, and arguments about society. Be prepared for a test, intense text-dependent discussion, a creative assignment, connection to class-wide literature/reading, and a formal written assignment for each novel.
The Crucibleby Arthur Miller (Due in October)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Due Third Quarter)
Choose ONE of the following (Due Second Quarter):
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
English 12 AP – Please read the following. Remember to annotate each novel when reading; note its symbolism, themes, stylistic elements, writing style, and arguments about society. Be prepared for a test, intense text-dependent discussion, a creative assignment, connection to class-wide literature/reading, and a formal written assignment for each novel.
**One of these novels and accompanying assignments will be addressed in the first semester, at which time you will be immersed in the college application process. Please do not waste the opportunity to read ahead of time.
Choose ONE of the following (Due in October):
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Due after Winter Break)
AP Prep Guide
In order to better prepare for the AP open essay, you will need to create a study guide for each of the novels you read in your English class. This will allow you to access information readily when you begin your concentrated study for the AP Literature Exam.
Part I: Each prep guide should contain the following:
- Plot – Although you should avoid plot summary in your essay, it is still important to remember what happens and, more importantly, why. Chapter by chapter or scene by scene, note what happens, but focus on the major conflicts of the book. The details help you remember the specific chronology of the narrative; thinking about the larger conflicts puts the story into perspective.
- Character – Who’s who? This list will help you remember not only how to spell the main characters’ names, but also how to identify and describe them in detail. Please be thorough in your explanations.
- Themes – What is the message or the moral of the story? Avoid oversimplification. Please be thorough in your explanations.
- Symbols – Scarlet letters, green lights, white whales: what do they stand for and how do they help the author achieve his or her purpose? Please be thorough in your explanations.
- Quotations – In the open essay, it is important to provide support for your assertions (and even more important to avoid plot summary). Quoting your chosen work and explaining how the quote relates to the prompt demonstrates to the reader that you know and understand the work. Memorizing the quotes – and understanding what each means – allows you to write with more confidence. Please be thorough in your explanations.
**The novel details above should be no longer than one page in length.
**It should be understood that the novel details you compile are your work and your work alone. We are fully aware that online study guides such as SparkNotes, CliffNotes, and Pink Monkey provide similar information. However, the information you compile is meant to be your own study guide that can be used for test preparation. Please do not do yourself a disservice by plagiarizing from these sites.
Part II: In addition to creating the prep guide, you will also write a first paragraph of an open essay in response to a prompt of your choice. Please use the website address below or Google “AP Open Essay Questions” to view past open essay free response prompts from actual AP exams.
Include the prompt that you have chosen at the top of your page. Your opening paragraph should follow. Please see the example below.
Sample Open-Essay Question
1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
The overt nature of Nurse Ratched’s villainy allows Kesey to criticize the severity of societal conventions in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In his novel, Kesey uses Nurse Ratched’s character to comment on the harsh and unnatural implementation of rules both in the ward and in the outside world. Nurse Ratched’s serene and all-powerful nature in her tyrannical and psychological abuse of the patients illustrates that societal conventions often quash freedom and humanity.