Summer Assignment: Advanced Placement English Language and Composition

Summer Reading Assignment

Welcome to AP Language and Composition. This will be different from any other English class you have taken before. We will be predominately reading nonfiction texts throughout the school year, holding daily discussions about current issues of society, and reflecting on historical speakers to analyze rhetoric. As required summer reading for AP Language, you are to complete three tasks.

Task #1: Learning How to Annotate

Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book (Annotate)

Books are a fantastic way to gain knowledge. With books, one can learn new techniques, gain new skills, and learn from role models who have been to where one wants to be and can show the way. There are many different ways to read books and just as many ways to remember their salient points. One of the most effective ways to get the most out of a book is to mark it up. There is no standard way to markup a text, but below are a few ways that students have found effective in marking up a textbook so that one can see the important points quickly, make it more memorable, and make it easy to pick up years later and re-acquaint oneself with the major concepts.

What Not To Do

• • Don’t use a highlighter – Quality marking isn’t done with a fat-tipped highlighter. You can’t write, which is an important part of marking the text, with a large marker. Get yourself some fine point colored pens to do the job.

  • Don’t mark large volumes of text – You want important points to stand out. Although we all know that everything can’t be important, we often highlight all of the text on the page. You want to find the 20% of the text that is important (remember Pareto?) and mark that.

  • Don’t take the time to mark up items that you read on a daily basis – (e.g., magazines, newspapers), unimportant or irrelevant items.

  • Don’t mark the obvious – Don’t waste time marking up things that are already in your knowledge-base or skill set. If you already know it, you don’t need to mark it.

What To Do

• • Mark the text with a pencil, pen, or, even better, colored fine-tipped pens – Remember, you are not highlighting, you are writing.

  • Know your preferences – Some of you have an aversion to mark directly in the text. Books are precious things to many people and they want to protect them from damage and even the wear and tear of everyday use. If this describes you, grab some Post-It brand notes and do your marking and writing on them. This also gives you the advantage to move and re-organize them should you see fit. As for me, I like to mark directly on the page. I find that my books become more valuable to me when I add my contributions to the information that they contain.

  • Underline the topic sentence in a passage – Remember, each paragraph has one topic sentence. The rest is supporting information and examples. Identify the topic sentence to find it easier.

  • Use codes – Flag text with codes (e.g., Question marks to indicate disagreement, Exclamation marks to note agreement or to flag a strong statement, triangles to indicate a change in thinking, or a star for the topic sentence).

  • Write the passage topic in the margin as a reminder – Just a word or two.

  • Write questions in the margin – When you don’t understand something or when you don’t understand the author’s thought process on a particular topic, write the question in the margin as a reminder to settle the question.

  • Circle new and unfamiliar words – Look them up as soon as possible.

  • Add your or other author’s perspectives in the margins – Other authors have surely written on the same subject. What do they say? Do they agree with this author? If not, what do they say. Add these ideas in the margins.

  • Add cross-reference notes to other works on the same topic – Use the author’s name and a shortened version of the other book’s title.

  • Add structure to a narrative text – Use 1, 2, 3, 4…or an outline format I. A. B. C. 1, 2, 3, a, b, c…to add a structure that you understand.

  • Draw arrows to related ideas – Or unrelated ideas…

  • Summarize – Add your own summary after the last paragraph. That simple exercise will crystallize your thinking on the topic. If you can’t write it, you don’t understand it.

Extras

Post-It Brand Notes are a great way to also mark locations within books, much like bookmarks do. With Post-It Brand Notes, however, you can mark on them so you can see where you are turning before you start flipping through the pages. One can also use colored paper clips to identify pages or chapters that are important.

Conclusion

The idea is to enter, by way of your markings, into a conversation with the author so that his knowledge is added to yours so that a synthesis occurs and you gain a new understanding.

A new — or new looking — book is a treasure. In my experience, however, I have found that a well-marked book becomes more like a treasured friend — one that you enjoy seeing again and again. It becomes much more enjoyable than a sterile copy that comes straight from the bookstore. Don’t be afraid to mark up the books that you love.

Posted by Bert Webb in Books | Permalink

http://hwebbjr.typepad.com/openloops/2006/02/twelve_ways_to_.html

Task #2: Nonfiction Analysis + Application of Task #1

Read closely the following nonfiction piece:

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Buy, read, and annotate the physical book or download, read, and annotate this PDF Freakonomics: (https://hrammal.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/freakonomics.pdf)

Note: PDF Annotation tools for can be found online and will be useful for those creating annotations directly upon the PDF version of texts.

As you read, remember that good readers read closely and interact with their texts by annotating. Follow the attached guidelines (at the top of this document), “Twelve Ways to Mark Up a Book,” to aid in your annotations. If you do not literally mark up your text, then please use Post-It notes. Remember, good readers are active readers, and annotation is a requirement for all texts read in AP Language.

The authors of Freakonomics have included this Reader’s Guide. There are many readers who would benefit from a structured Reader’s Guide while other students enjoy moving through and annotating according to the reading process as whole.

IF you choose to use a guide of this form, please make sure that you closely read the section titled as to have the greatest opportunity for the Guide to actually guide you in your reading and annotating as well as making sure that you use the

sections for each chapter (the average number of questions per chapter is 12) as to know that you know the core areas for each chapter.

Assignment -

Respond to the following prompt for Freakonomics:

Though Levitt and Dubner write about some highly-charged topics, they write in a manner that does not offend most readers. How do they use language and style to achieve this balance?

Note: Style elements include (but are not limited to) diction, organization, syntax, tone, and voice

Expectations of your final product:

• Avoid a formulaic 5‑paragraph essay.

• Use MLA (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/)formatting.

• Blend and document direct quotes to support your argument.

• • Make certain to discuss how specific studies mentioned in the text altered your conventional wisdom and thinking about your world.

  • Reflect on assumptions you bought into this reading and then how this same assumption was challenged during the reading.

  • Learn this phrase, “to what extent” and then make additions in your writing, which reflects the “to what extent” your thinking has been challenged, changed, and/or altered.

• Keep the word count between 1000-1500 words.

Task #3: Argument Analysis in The New York Times: Room for Debate

Students must have a context for answering impromptu questions on topical issues. The opinion essay clusters will also help generate possible ideas for forming a balanced argument, a component of the research/synthesis unit. Additionally, the article clusters provide close reading of contemporary essays.

Follow these steps for the assignment:

1. Go to: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate

2. The home page has topics posed in the form of a question. Select a topic that interests you or look at the right side of the page for the specific “discussion topics” section as to make choices specific to your interests.

3. When you click on a topic title, a list of debaters and their essay titles will appear. Click on “Read the Discussion” to access the first article in the grouping.

4. Click on each of the essay titles to read the other essays in the grouping.

5. You must read all of the articles in the grouping. Be sure to read the entire article, not just the excerpt!

6. Complete the journal assignment (outlined below).

7. Repeat this procedure for two (2) to three (3) other topic groupings; you will read two (2) to three (3) different topics in all.

For each article grouping, you must complete the following:

1- Create an MLA citation (works cited entry) for each article in the cluster.

Note: Use the MLA entry information for an article (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/07/)

from an online newswire or newspaper:

Give the author, the title of the article, in quotation marks; the title of the newspaper, italicized; the sponsor or publisher of the site (use “N.p.” if there is none); the date of publication; the medium; and your date of access.

Example:

Smith, Andrew D. “Poll: More than 70% of US Workers Use Internet on the Job.”

Dallasnews.com. Dallas Morning News, 25 Sept. 2008. Web. 29 Oct. 2009.

2- In one typed page, on a separate sheet from the MLA citations:

• • Identify the different issues presented regarding this topic.

  • Discuss how each side presents its argument.

  • Discuss which side you feel is more convincing in its argument and why.

  • Utilize at least 2 quotes from the articles for support.

  • Keep a digital copy of your work.

Final Thoughts and Checklist

These written pieces will be turned in during the first week of the semester, and you must submit your writing as one file to turnitin.com (once school starts--directions will be given during our first few classes).

Make sure you have completed the following:

Annotate the book of choice- Freakonomics

Purchase 50 Essays 5th Edition

Written response to the book of choice (1,000-1,500 words)

Room for Debate journal assignment- 2-3 written responses to 2-3 different topics of debate

If you have questions regarding this assignment, you may contact me via email.

I look forward to seeing you this fall--

Mr. Carpenter (mbcarpen@jeffcoschools.us)