Summer Reading List

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Why Read Over the Summer?

(Courtesy of the sociology department at Johns Hopkins University Professor Karl Alexander)

Not reading has a negative impact on your reading comprehension scores on college entrance exams:

• First, less than 5 hours of academic engagement all summer equals -4 below national average on ACT

• Between 5 and 30 hours of a.e. all summer equals -1 below national average on ACT

• 30 hours plus equals +7 above national average on ACT

Another benefit is the increase in your depth of word knowledge: via Nagy and Herman (1987) argue in their research:

• 25 minutes a day reading at a rate of 200 words per minute for 200 days out of the year=a million words of text annually

• Encountering between 15,000 and 30,000 unfamiliar words

• 1 in 20 of these words is learned

• Yearly gain in vocabulary is between 750-1,500 words.

Critic Roland Barthes claims, "Literature is the question minus the answer." While completing each of the assignments below, consider Barthes' observation. As you read, ponder the central questions the works raise and analyze the extent to which each work offers answers. Realize that the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.

For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the many questions Harper Lee raises is to what extent must a person defend others in the face of overwhelming dissent? In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald raises questions including if the exploitation of others is a necessary component to achieving desires and if there is such a thing as a moral accumulation of wealth. William Shakespeare asks of his audience in Romeo and Juliet if defying the conventions of society can be advantageous or merely reckless? There are a multitude of such questions located in every piece of fiction.

Click here for the 2020 Summer Reading Assignment

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