Dear Future Pre AP, Honors American Literature Students,

            Congratulations on making the choice to take Honors American Literature, which is VRHS’s course that leads to the Junior and Senior level AP coursework (and hopefully college credit).  I am excited to be your teacher next year.  Summer Reading is a valuable use of your time these two months away from school for both Honors American Literature in building your reading skills, comprehension skills, and knowledge of the cannon of literature that college professors will expect you to know.

Students are required to read two novels: all students must read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1070 Lexile score). For the second novel, students may choose from the following list a novel that peaks their interest:

            *Killer Angels (Battle of Gettysburg), Michael Shaara (610 Lexile)

            *The Things They Carried (Vietnam Memoir), Tim O’ Brien (880 Lexile)

            The Awakening, (Women’s Issues), Kate Chopin (960 Lexile)

Any Tennessee Williams Play:  The Glass Menagerie, *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, *Streetcar Named Desire

            *Cold Mountain, Larry Frasier (1210)

            Look Homeward Angel (play) Thomas Wolfe

            *Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (1400…particularly difficult read)

Shoeless Joe, (Field of Dreams) Kinsella (1020)

            *The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (Academic Decathlon Students) (680)

*PG 13 content

Those of you who are in band, football, cheerleading, softball, volleyball -- might want to consider also reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  It is our first novel in the fall (August), and as the evenings get busy, reading that additional text over the summer would help in “time management.”

The Assignment:

Please dedicate a spiral notebook (1 subject) to each of the books that you read.

Create a journal for your reading, and read with that notebook in hand. I encourage you to purchase the texts, so that you may write in them. In the journal, define any term that you do not know (without using the term in the definition), and notate key passages, summarize.  There will be an open journal paper topic given the first week of school on the texts.

Questions:  heather.miller@carrollcountyschools.com

AP Language Summer Required Assignments

H. Miller

Heather.miller@carrollcountyschools.com

AP Language:

Option 1

Read 20 articles from leading and credible (reliable) news source magazines (periodicals) and complete an informational card on each.

Credible magazines would include, but are not limited to:

New Yorker

Life

Time

Newsweek

Harper’s Weekly

Atlantic Monthly

Informational Note cards must include:

Bibliographic entry for periodical/article. Google the correct format if you are unsure.

Brief summary of thesis/claim of the piece.

Personal opinion of student to the piece that is more than simply agree or disagree.  Think more about why you feel the way you do.

Vocabulary words from the piece and their definitions.

Information should fill a 4x6 note card (probably front and back)

Option 2

Choose one of the following authors and read one non-fiction work by one of these authors

            Dave Barry

            Carl Sagan

            Ellen Goodman

            Sandra Cisneros

            Annie Dillard

            Rachel Carson

            Tim O’Brian

            Tom Standage

            Malcolm Gladwell

            Mitch Albom

            John Grogan

George Plimpton

George Will

John Krakauer

(Or others as approved via email)

Some of these may have mature content/adult topics.  Please discuss your selection with your parents.  

Choose one question from the list of 10 questions below that is most applicable to the content in the book you read,  and write a 300-400 word, typed, double-spaced, 12 point font, MLA formatted essay in reflection to how the author you chose answers one of the questions below.  Only deal with one of these questions that relates to the predominant theme of your book:

1.)    What is the nature of the relationship between the citizen and the state?

2.)    What is our responsibility to nature?

3.)    To what extent does pop culture reflect our society’s values?

4.)    How are advances in science and technology affecting the way we define our humanity?

5.)    How does the language we use reveal who we are?

6.)    How do the values of sports affect the way we see ourselves?

7.)    What is the impact of the gender roles that society creates and enforces?

8.)    What is the relationship of the individual to the community?

9.)    How does our work shape or influence our lives?

10.)            To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?

11.)            How does dogma and faith influence culture?

Option 3 

AP World History assignments may count for both courses:  AP World History and AP Language.  See attached assignment sheet.

Failure to complete this assignment will not enable you to drop this/these courses.  Summer reading for AP courses is recommendation by the College Board, not just Villa Rica High School.  Don’t give up; you can accomplish this in 2 months (even the World Religions book!).

The chosen assignment will be taken/accepted the first week of school only.  This counts as a test grade for the first nine weeks.

Question/Problems/Concerns should be addressed to heather.miller@carrollcountyschools.com