ERWC &
AP Language
Suggested/Recommended Titles for Summer Reading
Both AP English Language & Composition (11th and 12th grade) and Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (12th grade only) have an emphasis on non-fiction.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of titles; it's merely a starting point for those that feel overwhelmed.
Your essay questions may ask you to use your experiences and observations as evidence in an argumentative essay. To this end, we suggest you watch the news and pay attention to the world around you.
Additionally, we don't want you to lose those reading muscles you've been working so hard on in E1/1A ,E2/2A, and English 3. However it is strongly recommended that you read non-fiction titles in anticipation for this class:
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom (Qanta Ahmed)
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced (Nujood Ali)
Dr. Mutter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Medicine (Cristin O’Keefe Aprowica)
A Long Way Gone (Ishmael Beah)
Friday Night Lights (H.G. Bissinger)
Visit Sunny Chernobyl (Andrew Blackwell)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Katherine Boo)
The Killing Season (Miles Corwin)
And Still We Rise (Miles Corwin)
102 Minutes (Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn)
Nickel & Dimed (Barbara Ehrenrich)
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Deckle Edge)
The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand)
Farewell to Manzanar (Jeanne Houston)
Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding (Ben Jealous)
Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison (Piper Kerman)
Where Men Win Glory (Jon Krakauer)
Ghettoside (Jill Leovy)
A Long Walk to Water (Linda Sue Park)
Drive (Daniel Pink)
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (Mary Roach)
Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris)
Homicide (David Simon)
I Love Yous Are for White People: A Memoir (Lac Su)
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education (Malala Yousafzai)
A Special Note about APLang
AP English Language and Composition is an introductory, college-level, rhetorical analysis course. Students cultivate their understanding of nonfiction through reading and analyzing texts as they explore concepts like the rhetorical situation, argument, synthesizing evidence, reasoning, and writer's style in the context of expository works.
All students who are interested in reading, studying, and analyzing non-fiction (including articles, speeches, memoirs, and images as forms of text) are encouraged to take APLang during their junior or senior year at IHS.
The three types of writing we will be focusing on throughout the year:
Q1: Synthesis
Q2: Rhetorical Analysis with an emphasis on American documents
Q3: Argument