Freshman Summer Reading: What are our responsibilities to ourselves and others as members of a community?

All Freshman Summer Reading is focused on a single, essential question: What are our responsibilities to ourselves and others as members of a community?  This open-ended essential question invites you to think about your own identity your role in your community. Who are the members of our community? What are our obligations to them? Exploring the resources on this site will help you begin to answer these questions. 

Our English Department has worked to create a curated list of resources related to our essential question.  These resources are presented here in a variety of modes: narratives, poems, articles, videos, and podcasts.  Each of these resources is accessible to all students through the links on these pages. We encourage each student to explore at least FIVE of these resources, one from each category (short stories, poems, articles, videos, and podcasts).  Of course, students are encouraged to work with more.  Along with each category, there is a supplemental activity that students can use if they choose.  We have found these activities helpful for students to take notes and engage more closely with the sources.  These are similar to activities that many teachers will use in class. 

At the beginning of the Fall semester, all 9th grade English classes at all grade levels will spend the first couple of weeks working with this essential question "What are our responsibilities to ourselves and others as members of a community."  Teachers will use some of the resources included here along with other supplemental activities and resources.  The daily assignments and early assessments during the first few weeks of school will focus on the essential question. 

Along with these resources, Samohi students are encouraged to continue reading on their own over the summer.  Parents, please help your student make time to read -- a half-hour a day is perfect -- and ask your child regularly about what they've read or encourage them to write about it.