(See .PDF posted at the bottom of this message)

Class of 2024: 

Be sure to have all of your summer reading and work completed by day one of next school year!  The assignment is a great starting point for the year. 

Do not make any assumptions about the summer work.  Read the directions carefully.  The assignment accounts for points in Quarter 1 and it is meant to help boost your grade and give you a baseline of knowledge to build upon throughout the year.  Get it done.  Our advice is to do it early and not wait till the end of summer.  If you have a question about how to complete the work, be sure to email Mr. Hebert or Ms. Borgquist for clarification.  Both teachers want this to be an assignment that helps you start your year off right. The assignment is the same for both AP Lit. teachers at WLC.  Multiple students from previous senior classes have expressed that the summer assignment is helpful and useful throughout the school year.  Be sure to follow the directions.  Choose stories that you have the least amount of experience with in order help strengthen your understanding overall. You may not completely understand Dr. Thomas C. Foster's book, but having a basic understanding of the main idea of each chapter is key. Be sure to annotate the book.  You do NOT need the course textbook (Literature: An Introduction spanning over 1300 pages long) to complete the summer work.  You can pick up the literature textbook when you arrive in the fall. 

Tip:  Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor first and then your summer novel.  Doing the work in this order will make annotating the novel much easier.

Here are some tips from the Class of 2021: 

"Do not procrastinate this work. It may seem like a lot, but is not a lot of work to do. It gets challenging if you procrastinate the work and then have to cram to finish it all at the last minute. Do not overthink your annotations for "How to Read Literature like a Professor". This novel may seem difficult to annotate, but just make comments on things you notice/learn. For the independent novel, pick a book you will enjoy reading and not just the shortest book to get it done quicker."

"Actually do your summer homework, even if it feels tedious. I suggest breaking them into parts and doing a little everyday. You'll review everything in class, so don't worry if you don't 100% get it."

"You actually learn some things from the HTRLLP, things that make you look back on other books/stories/even movies you've read/watched before and think "OH that's what that means!" or "Oh, that's kind of cool."

If you pick the right book summer novel, you'll find that reading and annotating it will not be so bad -or bad at all for that matter. I recommend picking from a genre you enjoy, for example: if you enjoy reading dystopian —> a Handmaid's Tale. If you like historical fiction — … you get the idea. It made the thought of reading bearable when first starting out, and then it make it "ooooh" once I got into it.

And regarding annotations, I wouldn't worry too much about how in-depth or 'good' those are. You learn to do just that in that class, so just try your best for those first two books. I can tell you for me- it felt good having my own space to jot down my thoughts, opinions, critiques, questions, and whatnot. And all those pass as annotations too."

"ABSOLUTELY spend a solid amount of time on "How to read literature like a prof". This is the holy grail to starting the year, and is one of the books that set up a foundation that i built upon the remainder of the year in analysis and essay commentary.

For the indep. novel, read it AFTER how to read lit like a prof. Some people I knew read it before, and they completely missed so much of the annotation value throughout it. It is for practicing these skills- so don't go into feeling too overwhelmed (and start it early!!). Also, if you like reading or want a solid jump on the class, I recommend reading more than just one novel on the list given (but still annotate one). I ended up reading all of them, and I cannot stress enough how much it helped me in having context and synthesis skills in the class.  "