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Post date: Jun 19, 2014 1:32:19 PM
To: AP Literature and Composition students for the 2014-2015 school year.
From: S. Shurtleff (AP Literature and Composition Instructor)
Re: Summer Reading
In AP Literature and Composition, we will be working with and enjoying a variety of writers and genres from the British cannon as well as a selection of authors from cultures the world over. As you will be taking the AP Literature and Composition exam towards the end of the school year which, depending on your score, can count for college credit, this course will be operated at a college level. It will require a higher level of commitment and dedication throughout the school year than any previous course. In addition, it is required for each student to complete advanced reading over the summer in preparation for this course. Your assignments are as follows:
1). Essay prompt: Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel or play from the list on the back and read it. Then, identify a central question the work raises. Considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze that central question and the extent to which the work offers any answers. In addition, explain how an author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. Three pages. No more, no less. Choose your words wisely.
2). Read a second, different novel of fiction. This novel must be a British or Canadian prize-winning (or short-listed) novel (Man-Booker, Whitbread, Governor-General's Award, or the like). Check with me for approval of your novel. It must be of AP quality. Do not choose a young adult novel. Once you have read it, research the historical and societal factors that were present in our world while the author composed that work. How do you see these factors influencing the work? This will require a fair amount of research into the society in which the author exists/existed. For example, "How did the educational and psychological factors effecting women display itself in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's writing?" Discuss your findings and ideas in detail in three pages.
3). Read a collection of one British or world poet’s works. What theme or set of ideas seems to be present within these works? Do they build off of each other? Do they in some way connect and form a larger meaning? Explore these and other connections in at least three pages, citing at least five different poems from the collection. Use specific examples from the texts.
4). Go to http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/ and choose one of the 130 poems from the anthology to memorize for the first day of school Choose a poem that will be worthwhile and rewarding to you. You will be graded upon your delivery, accuracy, and depth of emotion conveyed. Study, memorize, and understand your poem. Do not just read it out loud, deliver it so that your aduience understands what is indended.
5). Remedial Reading: This section pertains to any student who did not take honors or AP in freshman, sophomore, or junior year or who may have attended another school during that time. So we are all on the same page, review the following list. If you have not read these works, you will need to do so before beginning school in the fall. These books represent the novels or plays that your fellow AP Lit students have read while at Boardman High School. In order to be able to participate in discussions and understand allusions, it is necessary to read these books.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Jamie Ford
The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
The Coffin Quilt Ann Rinaldi
Mississippi Trial 1955 Christopher Crowe
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls
Black Boy Richard Wright
Outliers Malcolm Gladwell
Tuesdays with Morrrie Mitch Albom
The Essential 55 Ron Clark
Submitting Essays:
All Essays will be turned in through Google Docs. See the attached instructions for signing up for a Google Docs account and sharing essays with my account. Due Dates for the essays are below. You must have each essay posted by the set dates or they will be considered late and one letter grade will be taken away for each day after the original due date. Share documents with me following the attached instructions. My e-mail address to do so is Steven.Shurtleff@BoardmanSchools.org You can also view a tutorial video that explains the process which can be found on my website. Once you have set up your account, please share with me your choice for your memorization poem. I will respond that I have received your subissions within three days. If you do not hear back from me, I did not receive your essay and you need to try again. If for some reason Google Docs does not work for you, an email submission is acceptable as well.
Due Dates: Essay 1: June 30, 2014
Essay 2: July 31, 2014
Essay 3: September 2, 2014
With consideration to the above specifications, please choose works that you believe you will sincerely expect to appreciate and enjoy. Do not read Sparknotes, or anything of that ilk. If you do so, you are crippling your self mentally for this class. You may want to view a variety of films as well—classic and modern —which will inevitably work their way into class discussions. See the list on the reverse for viewing options. I expect this coming year to be both rewarding and challenging. This course is designed for individuals who truly enjoy literature. This sampling of literature is indicative of what we will be studying this year. If, when reading the assigned works, you are not enjoying yourself, this course may not be for you. I will use all of the tools and enthusiasm at my disposal to make this an enjoyable and informative course. However, if you do not love poetry and prose, nothing I can do will seriously alter that fact. Please keep this in mind before beginning this course in the autumn.
Respectfully,
Mr. Steven Shurtleff
AP Literature and Composition Instructor
Boardman High School
Steven.Shurtleff@BoardmanSchools.org
Class Web Site:https://sites.google.com/a/boardmanschools.org/mr-shurtleff-s-english-web-site/
.Novels for Question 1
Alias Grace Orlando
All the King’s Men Middlemarch
Candide A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Crime and Punishment The Poisonwood Bible
Oedipus Rex Sister Carrie
The Sound and the Fury All the Pretty Horses
The Sun Also Rises Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Things They Carried The Turn of the Screw
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Major Barbara
Don Quixote A Gesture Life
Ghosts Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels Heart of Darkness
Invisible Man Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
King Lear Obasan
High Fidelity Angela's Ashes
The Lovely Bones A Long Way Down
Things Fall Apart The White Tiger
Madame Bovary A Passage to India
The Quiet American One Hundred Years of Solitude
Blood Meridian Out Stealing Horses
Lush Life American Pastoral
The God of Small Things White Teeth
The Bonesetter’s Daughter The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mrs. Dalloway A Woman in Jerusalem
Film Suggestions
12 Angry Men Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Graduate The Life of Brian
The Godfather Pan's Labyrinth
Seven Samurai The Sting
Casablanca Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Memento On the Waterfront
North by Northwest The King's Speech
Citizen Kane Blazing Saddles
M Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Das Boot Shawshank Redemption
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The Thin Man
Cool Hand Luke
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