English 2 Advanced

DIRECTIONS: You are responsible for completing BOTH Assignment #1 AND Assignment #2.

Both assignments are due on Wednesday, August 21.

English 2 Advanced has a “no-late work policy."

Assignment 1: How to Read Literature Like a Professor and Short Story Pairings

Acquire a copy of How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. Read the Introduction. Choose one short story and chapter pairing from each of the categories below. As you read, highlight and annotate (add explanatory notes to) each chapter and story. Your annotations should consist of: questions, comments (reactions), objections/arguments, connections, etc. You should also annotate anything you wish to discuss further when we analyze the stories in class.

Both How to Read Literature and the short fiction selections will be discussed during the first weeks of class. Failure to complete the summer assignment will hinder your ability to participate in class and affect your first quarter grade.

All of the short stories are available online by searching the story title and pdf. Thomas C. Foster’s text is also available in full online, or you may purchase a copy of the book to annotate. You are required to have printed copies of the assigned chapters and the short stories on the first day of class. No electronic annotations will be accepted.


Category 1: Plot

  1. Introduction - Everyone reads!
  2. Chapter 1: Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not), Short Story: “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
  3. Chapter 11: . . . More than It’s Gonna Hurt You, Short Story: “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston

Category 2: Character

  1. Chapter 3: Nice to Eat You, Short Story: “Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence
  2. Chapter 22: He’s Blind for a Reason, Short Story: “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
  3. Chapter 23: It’s Never Just Heart Disease and “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin

Category 3: Symbol

  1. Chapter 7: Or the Bible, Short Story: “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  2. Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol?, Short Story: “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
  3. Chapter 15: Flights of Fancy, Short Story: “A Horseman in the Sky” by Ambrose Bierce
  4. Chapter 18: If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism, Short Story: “How Far She Went” by Mary Hood


Assignment 2: Choice Book

Choose a book from the list below. All of the books included on the list are of literary merit, and the list covers a wide variety of genres. You should be able to find something that interests you, and you are free to choose almost anything from the list. What is off-limits? The novel should not be something that you have read before (for another class or on your own), and the novel should not be something in the English 2 Advanced curriculum: Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. We study these in-depth throughout the year!. Lastly, some of the books included on the list have mature themes. Please get approval from your parents or guardians before proceeding with your choice.


http://www.alevel-sz.com/sites/default/upload/1/files/201505/college_board_recommended_books_1431003022.pdf

If the link does not work, a simple Google search of “College Board 101 Books for the College Bound” will.

Upon completing your reading, you will also create a “One Pager” over the book. Please review the expectations for this assignment before selecting your book, in order to understand what to focus on in your reading. Expectations are included on the next page. If you would like to see examples, do a quick internet search for “One Pager.” This is due the first day of school. Failure to complete the assignments will negatively impact your first quarter grade.


What is a One-Pager?

  1. A one pager is a single-page response to your reading. It is a way of making a pattern of your unique understanding of the text. It is a way to be creative and experimental. It is a way to respond imaginatively and honestly. It is a way to be brief and compressed.
  2. The purpose of a one-pager is to own what you are reading. We learn best when we can create our own patterns.
  3. A one-pager connects the verbal and the visual; it connects the ideas in what you read to your thoughts. It connects words and images. The one-pager becomes a metaphor for the reading you have done.
  4. When you do a one-pager, do any or all of these:
    • Use visual images, either drawn or cut from magazines, to create a visual focus and/or symbolism used in the book
    • Cluster around a dominant impression, feeling or thought you have while reading.
    • Make a personal statement about what you have read.
    • Ask “big” questions and attempt to answer them.
    • Create the one-pager so that your audience will understand something about the reading.
    • Write the title of the piece and the author’s full name.
    • Use quotations from the book and explain their significance.
    • Create a border using a key phrase.
    • Select a main idea and relate it to your own life. This can be done as a word cluster or an image cluster if you wish.
    • Define 2 important words from the book.
    • Quote a phrase or line from the book and explain how you relate to it
    • Use color to liven up the images.
    • Get creative! Think outside the box!
  5. What not to do:
    • Do not merely summarize.
    • Do not be restricted by the lines on the paper. Use unlined paper.
    • Do not think a half a page will do—make it rich with quotes and Images.
    • Do not copy specific projects from the internet.