S.R.A

Choose **FOUR TOTAL WORKS**—//one play and three novels//. The contemporary list includes works published in the last ten years. Works published before the 1990s are included in the second list.
 * __ [[image:reading_tent.gif width="495" height="325" align="left"]]Texts from Which to Choose: __**

// Snow Falling on Cedars // (David Guterson) // Angela’s Ashes // (Frank McCourt) // The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay // (Michael Chabon) // A History of Love // (Nicole Krauss) // Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close // (Jonathan Safran Foer) // Atonement // (Ian McEwan) // White Teeth // (Zadie Smith) // The Kite Runner // (Hosseini) // Perfume: The Story of a Murderer // (Patrick Süskind) // The Hours // (Michael Cunningham)*
 * __ Contemporary Works (Select one or two): __**

// Fences // (August Wilson) // Death of a Salesman // (Arthur Miller) // For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf // (Ntozake Shange) // The Glass Menagerie // (Tennessee Williams) // Pygmalion // (George Bernard Shaw) // Top Girls // (Caryl Churchill)
 * __ Drama (Select one): __**

// My Ántonia // (Willa Cather) // Things Fall Apart // (Chinua Achebe) // Native Son // (Richard Wright) // Pride and Prejudice // (Jane Austen) // Frankenstein // (Mary Shelley) // Wuthering Height // s (Charlotte Bronte) // Slaughterhouse Five // (Kurt Vonnegut) // Catch-22 // (Joseph Heller) // The Bluest Eye // (Toni Morrison) // The Inferno // (Dante) // Invisible Man // (Ralph Ellison) // The Color Purple // (Alice Walker) // 1984 // (George Orwell) // Catcher in the Rye // (J.D. Salinger) // Mrs. Dalloway // (Virginia Woolf) // Grapes of Wrath // (Steinbeck)
 * __ Other Works (Select one or two): __**

There are three assignments to accompany your reading. **All assignments must be bound in a notebook or stapled together neatly, compiled in the order they appear below.**

**1.** **__Vocabulary compiled from all 4 works:__** As you read, compile a list of unfamiliar vocabulary and define each word. Note the work and page number where you find each word. Define at least 40 words total from all four works (it’s okay if more come from one work than another). Submit one list all together that identifies the source text for each. Please number each entry in your list and identify the text in which you found your words. **2. __A Text Review Guide completed for each work:__** The AP exam takes place in spring, and you’ll need to do some active processing now to develop notes that will assist you studying for the exam. For each work you read, complete a Text Review Guide (see handouts attached). **3. __Pivotal Passage and Response (one from each work):__** I chose this assignment because I thought it would invite you to think about what’s important in your texts and would avoid some of the busy, sometimes mindless page-filling that too often serves as the writing accompanying summer reading assignments. You do not have to produce a bajillion notecards or fill a spiral notebook. You just have to read well and think deeply. Here’s what to do: · **__For each text, find one pivotal passage to reflect upon__**. It may be as short as a few lines or as long as a page or so. The passage should be interesting, thought-provoking, and significant to the work’s meaning(s) as a whole. Here are some features you might look for in a pivotal passage:

 **How does the passage**  //* develop central **theme(s) or conflicts**?//  //* use **images or symbol(s)** to convey meaning?//  //* develop **character** in a rich, significant way?//  //* use **setting** details to convey important themes, conflicts, or meanings?//  //* exhibit important **shifts or** **turning points** instrumental to the work?//  There are certainly other features you may write about—these questions are intended to help you think critically about the passage. Center your analysis on a few key elements in the passage—this will help you produce an organized analysis rather than a random reflection. As you read, you should get ideas and make mental notes about important passages as you’re reading. You may be tempted to stop and whip out your response in a fit of passion. But hold off, precocious one: Read through the entire text before choosing your passage—you have to be able to connect it to the work as a whole. · **__Get past the beginning:__** Choose a passage that occurs **//at least//** one quarter of the way into the work (approximately). · **__Copy (photocopy, write, or type) the entire passage__** and include it at the beginning of your response. · **__Write a thoughtful, detailed discussion__** of your passage. Include a clear **__thesis statement__** that addresses the reasons the passage is particularly significant. Each response should be at least 350 words, double-spaced (typed or handwritten neatly in pen, on the front of the page only). Your response should analyze the passage specifically and discuss its most important elements, and you should demonstrate in your response that you have read the entire work. Do not merely summarize or translate the passage. Instead, address important elements in the passage and how they convey important meanings that are significant to the work as a whole. · **__Pick a passage you will enjoy writing about.__** This is designed to be interesting and not a chore. Make this assignment belong to you.

Here is the reading guide handout for those that have lost the email sent last May! -A