AP Humanities

Dear Future Humanities Student,

Welcome to Humanities! As a member of the AP English Language and Composition class, you will study and practice the art of rhetoric. Additionally, to enrich your perspective of the American experience, you will analyze American literature. The design of the course will be different from the structure of your previous English classes; however, if you embrace the challenges that the course aims to provide, then you will surely grow as a reader, writer, and thinker.

To prepare for a successful year together, you will complete the following assignment over the summer. Please complete the assignment by the first day of school.

Summer Task: Please select and read one nonfiction book (or play or collection of poetry) that captures the story of an underrepresented American voice. For the purpose of the assignment, we will adopt a flexible definition of the word “underrepresented,” but please strive to pick a story that broadens your understanding of the American experience. As you read, please complete a dialectical journal with at least 50 responses (details regarding the journal and success criteria are at the end of this packet). Please do not read a book that you've read before, or books that have been adapted into films. Be prepared to share your thoughts and reflections on the story in September.

We understand the summer assignments could be described as a challenge, but the challenge is exactly why you should cherish the opportunity to complete the assignments with pride and self-reliance. As teachers of AP Lang/Humanities, we love working with students who have a positive mindset about reading, writing, learning, and reflecting. We think this project is a great way to start the year with a little bit of all of those. We look forward to meeting you in September; enjoy the beautiful sounds, sights, and smells of summer.

Most Sincerely,

Gary Baier Jordan Garbarino

gary.baier@fairport.org jordan.garbarino@fairport.org

DIALECTICAL JOURNALS

The term “Dialectic” means “the art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation involving question and answer.” Think of your dialectical journal as a record of the conversation you have with your text.

The process is meant to help you develop a better understanding of the interplay between a writer and a reader. Use your journal to incorporate your personal responses to the texts or your ideas about the themes. You will find that the journal is a useful note-taking strategy that will prepare you for adequate textual analysis.

PROCEDURE:

As you read, choose passages, claims, or insights that stand out to you and record them in the left column of a two-column chart that you create in your notebook (ALWAYS include page numbers). You may want to do this in a digital format that can easily be submitted to google classroom, which we will have. Digital submissions, therefore, will be the preferred, but not the only accepted, format.
In the right column, write your response to the text (ideas/insights, questions, reflections, and comments on each passage)
Try to categorize your responses using the following codes:
- (Q) Question – ask about something in the passage that is unclear or unfamiliar
- (C) Connect – make a connection to your life, the world, or another text
- (P) Predict – anticipate what will occur based on what’s in the passage
- (CL) Clarify – answer earlier questions or confirm/reverse a prediction
- (R) Reflect – think deeply about what the passage means in a broad sense. What conclusions can you draw about the world, about human nature, or just the way things work? Which of your prior beliefs or understandings are exposed to you or even called into question?
- (E) Evaluate - make a judgment about what the author is trying to say

CHOOSING PASSAGES FROM THE TEXT:

Look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought-provoking or puzzling. For example, you might record:

Effective &/or creative use of stylistic or literary devices
Passages that remind you of your own life or something you’ve seen before
Structural shifts or turns in the plot
A passage that makes you realize something you hadn’t seen before
Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs.
Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary
Events you find surprising or confusing
Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting

Your dialectic journal can respond to the text in a variety of ways. The most important thing to remember when responding to the text is that your observations should be specific and detailed. You can write as much as you want for each entry.

“Dialectical Journals .” Houston ISD , www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/TX01001591/Centricity/Domain/16378/Pre-AP%2010%20Dialectical-Journal-Handout.pdf

RECOMMENDATIONS:

We thought it could be helpful to share some titles that we think could work well for our summer assignment. Above all, we hope that you pick a nonfiction book that interests you and captures the story of an underrepresented American voice.

Here is a list of books that could work well but that you are not limited to:

The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee

Educated by Tara Westover

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Forward: A Memoir by Abby Wambach

Maid by Stephanie Land

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs

An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jamison

Life on Mars by Tracy K Smith

From the Outside by Ray Allen

Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass