Summer Reading Assignments and information for students taking
11AP: Language and Composition
The turnitin.com class name, ID, and password can be found under
"English 11AP: turnitin.com information."
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11AP: Language and Composition
Summer Reading 2025
The assignments for the first and second required readings must be submitted to www.turnitin.com no later than 20 August 2025. Try to finish early and submit to avoid last-minute problems. If there is a problem, email the completed assignment to avoid late points, then submit to turnitin.com as the issue, if there is one, is resolved. Make a schedule that works best for you organizing how you would like to complete this work.
After you sign into turnitin.com, you will find a listing for each assignment. Please do not wait until the last moment to submit. Since this is a long-term assignment, 20 points will be deducted for each day after 20 August 2025.
Create a class account for yourself on turnitin.com; please write down your ID and password. The ID and password for your class are listed on my homepage, so BEFORE you leave for the summer, create an account for yourself using the ID and password; this way if there are problems creating the account, it can be solved more easily. Use 12 pt Times New Roman for all typed work. Read over the assignments and make sure you understand what is being asked. Please be mindful that plagiarized or AI-written or assisted text will receive a zero. If you have any questions, please try to email me BEFORE the school year ends so I can answer any major questions; this will prevent any delays in your work since responses over the summer may not come as quickly. If you do have questions over the summer and the directions do not address them or you need clarification, email me.
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Complete these reading and assignments in the following order
1st Required Reading and assignment: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster;
2nd Required Reading and assignment: The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
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I. First required reading and assignment:
How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Revised Edition) by Thomas C. Foster.
(Due by 20 August 2025; submit to turnitin.com)
This assignment will count as one test and one quiz grade.
Assignment #1: Reading Journal for How to Read Literature
This will be done for each of the required chapters listed below.
After reading a chapter, write a minimum of 10 lines single-spaced.
Note: For these assignments the minimum number of lines required is based on 1” margins on all sides and 12pt times New Roman font; it is not sentences but complete lines from margin-to-margin that will make up the 10 lines, not the number of sentences.
What you write will include 1) your understanding of the chapter followed by 2) an example or examples that you find; the examples may not come from How to Read Literature Like a Professor. The example(s) you provide will come from literature, film, or television and will support the focus of the chapter along with explanations and, if you had a question about the reading, answers you find upon further investigation or reflection. While you may use film/tv for some examples, the majority of your examples must come from literature.
So if the chapter is about metaphors, you would 1) first explain what you’ve learned from the chapter about metaphors, then 2) think of an example of a metaphor from something you’ve read or from something you’ve watched, like a metaphor from a film or a tv show, for example. The content of what you write will be an explanation of what you’ve learned from the chapter, then apply it by presenting a metaphor (or two) from literature, film, or tv and explain the metaphor.
Journal for the following: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 19, 26
Here are the Chapter titles just in case you get a different edition:
Chapter 1: “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)
Chapter 2: “Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion”
Chapter 3: “Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires”
Chapter 4: “Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?”
Chapter 5: “When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare…”
Chapter 6: “…Or the Bible”
Chapter 8: “It’s Greek to Me”
Chapter 9: “It’s More than Just Rain or Snow”
Chapter 11: “…More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence”
Chapter 12: “Is That a Symbol?”
Chapter 13: “It’s All Political”
Chapter 19: “Geography Matters…”
Chapter 26: “Is He Serious? And Other Ironies”
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II. Second required reading and assignment: The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
(Due by 20 August 2025; submit to turnitin.com)
This assignment will count as two test grades.
Overview: “A haunting tale of romantic self-deception, The Return of the Native focuses on mismatched lovers who see in each other only what they want to see, and decidedly not what is actually there. Clym Yeobright, the native of the title, returns to Hardy’s fictional Egdon Heath determined to be a force for social progress. Dazzled by the beauty of Eustacia Vye, he imagines they’re soul mates, woos and wins her, and enters into what is at first a passionate marriage. He soon discovers that what she really wants is a passport to a more exciting and sophisticated life, away from provincial England. Surrounding them are Clym’s mother, strongly opposed to his marriage; Damon Wildeve, in love with Eustacia but married to Clym’s cousin, Thomasin; and the oddly ambiguous observer Diggory Venn, whose frustrated love for Thomasin turns him into either a guardian angel or a jealous manipulator—or perhaps both.
Assignment #2: The Return of the Native is divided into five sections called Books. For Books I-V (Sections1-5) in Return of the Native respond in a Dialectical Journal (Two-Column Notes/ Reader-Response Notes). There will be twenty entries made for this Dialectical Journal, four for each of the five sections/”books” in the novel The Return of the Native; these entries must cover the book from different points, from the first to the final chapter. (Ex. Book I: select any four from a, b, or c from the “Types of Quotes/Responses” section that follows; Book II: select any four from a, b, or c the “Types of Quotes/Responses” Section that follows; etc.)
Keep the order of sections a, b, and c, but you decide which chapters will go in each section.
Each response in column two must be at least ninety words, with the word count noted in parenthesis at the end of each response. Choose significant moments and provide more detail if you see it; parts of this will be used in 11AP: Language and Composition and others will be used if you elect to continue next year in 12AP: Literature and Composition. This journal will show a written dialogue between you and the novel/author and provide a map of this ongoing discussion. On the left side of the Dialectical Journal you will identify the type of quotes/ commentary then place the quotation from the text that is an example for the entry.
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PAGE SETUP FOR DIALECTAL NOTES (MAKE A TWO COLUMN TABLE)
Focus/ Quote/ citation (Page number) Commentary/ Analysis
M: “Quote from the novel" (236). Your written response of no fewer than ninety words
with the word count at the end in parenthesis.
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The example above shows an “M” on the left side because what is being quoted will explore a motif. Identify the focus of the quotation by using the identifiers in bold found below in section b: Analysis/ Response or (Prof) for section "A" entries.
Your comments/analysis will appear on the right side in column two, and each response in column two must be at least ninety words; you can use the word count from the menu of the word program you are using. Place the word count in parenthesis at the end of each response in column two. This feature should be under “tools” when typing. (Word count)
For the example below since a motif is being explored, the writing would be an analysis of the motif as it is in the quoted section and can also look at its development in the novel.
Dialectical Journal (Two-Column Notes) for The Return of the Native
TYPES OF RESPONSES
A. 10 Chapters: CONNECT The Return of the Native to How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
(The first 10 entries): This section (a) should be completed first. Ten of the responses you write about
must relate to any of the chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
Ten different chapters must be represented from any point in the novel. Write the chapter title on
the left side after the identifier (Prof) to signify that it is coming from How to Read Literature Like a Professor followed by the
quotation and page number.
Setup for journal:
(Prof) Chapter number/title
" Quote from novel" (citation). Response (word count).
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B. 7 Chapters: ANALYSIS AND RESPONSE
(The next 7 entries): In the left column of the dialectical journal label what the
quote/analysis will focus on from the list below, and in the right-hand column
write your analysis/commentary.
-- (Sig) Significant: This appears meaningful or significant and could be in reference to theme,
characterization, etc.
-- (Con) Confusion: Note lines/passages that confuse you. Try to identify what it is that you find confusing
as you read, then come back to it later and explain what has helped to clarify it. Is there
information later in the novel that helps? Did you do research and now have the information
needed? etc.
-- (T) Trope(s): Figurative language (ex. metaphor, symbol, simile, personification, hyperbole, etc.)
-- (Syn) Syntax: Identify syntax that, for whatever reason, draws your attention, then analyze and
explain what is significant about how it communicates. (ex. anaphora, parallelism, repetition, etc.
-- (M) Motifs: Examples of types of motifs and meaning as each develops or evolves;
-- (P) Personal: Something that resonates with you for whatever reason. Explain its importance to you.
Setup for journal:
M: “Quote from the novel" (citation). Your written response of no fewer than ninety words
with the word count at the end in parenthesis.
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C. 3 Chapters: CONNECT TO POETRY/ LYRIC
(The final 3 entries)
For three of the chapters identify something that you feel connects precisely to a song or a poem
of your choice. At least two of your choices must be poetry. Copy the poem/lyrics into the left-side
of the dialectical journal, and write at least a ninety-word analysis where you bring together specifics
of the poem with specifics of the lyric/poem.
Setup for this section of the journal:
Write P or L OR Poem or Lyric: / Your written response of no fewer than ninety words
Title and author with the word count at the end in parenthesis.
“Quote from the song/poem" (citation).
Have a great summer.