English III Honors Summer Reading Assignment

Transcription

1 English III Honors Summer Reading Assignment Dear Rising Juniors, Welcome to English III Honors! This year our summer reading is divided into two categories: a Sacred Heart Community selection and your English course selections. See the document included in this packet for an introduction to Left to Tell, the Sacred Heart community selection and write brief annotations as directed. The recommended editions for our English course summer reading texts are listed above; please purchase new copies. When we meet in August, we will incorporate your summer reading into the first unit of study with reading quizzes, writing and analysis activities, and class discussion. Read this letter and assignment instructions carefully before you begin reading to make sure you understand and meet the expectations. The first text you will read, How to Read Literature Like a Professor (HTRLLAP) is not a novel, it is a nonfiction work. This instruction manual offers new ways to think about what you read in order to understand the deeper meaning in a text. Read HTRLLAP first, and complete the assignment described below. The second text, Lord of the Flies, is one of the most widely read novels in the world. The novel is both an adventure story of a group of boys who are stranded on a tropical island, and an exploration of some of the themes we will discuss this year including the journey of a hero, humanity s flaws, and the consequences of power abuse. Important: read the author s biography and Introduction documents before you read Lord of the Flies. When you finish reading this text you will complete the second assignment. [Note: You can read Left to Tell before or after reading HTRLLAP and Lord of the Flies. The assignments for these two works have been abbreviated to accommodate the addition of Left to Tell to our summer reading.] It is important for you to carefully read all directions and materials before beginning your summer reading assignments. If you have a question that is not addressed in these directions, me at kcaruso@shslou.org Enjoy a safe, relaxing summer, and I look forward to meeting you in August! On the first day of class, bring the How to Read Literature text and assignment. Sincerely, Kimberly Caruso English Department Sacred Heart Academy Introduction and Assignment for Left to Tell Each year, students are asked to complete a summer reading requirement as a way to prepare for the next school year and foster a lifelong love of reading. This summer, Sacred Heart Academy is asking all students and faculty to read one common book, as we believe this experience will be another factor that will bring us together as a community. As we strive to grow from learners to leaders, we hope this year s selection will strengthen our commitment to our Ursuline Core Values of community, reverence, service and leadership. This year s selection is Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, a memoir by Immaculée Ilibagiza. This book tells of Immaculée s struggle to survive during the bloody civil war that engulfed Rwanda during the early 1990s. As the country descended into a bloody genocide that would eventually claim the lives of Immaculée s family, she was able to escape their fate by hiding in a bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. Her reliance on her faith and her belief in the power of prayer are powerful lessons for all those who read her memoir. Immaculée s story is a reminder of the importance of forgiveness and compassion in our world today. 2

2 When you come to school in August, you will engage in discussion with students, faculty, staff, and alumna of Sacred Heart on the importance of Immaculée s message. You will also have the opportunity to work with your fellow Valkyries in school-wide campaigns that focus on the acceptance of others, regardless of differences. In your English class, you will be assessed on your reading through quizzes, an in-class writing assignment, and your end-of-chapter notes. At the end of each chapter, you are asked to respond with two-three sentences of personal thought or reflection. Assignment for How to Read Literature Like a Professor 1. Read the Introduction plus these chapters (chapters found in the revised edition, ISBN ) Introduction (xxiii); Ch. 1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22. Counting the Introduction, you will read a total of 11 chapters. 2. Create a document and complete the following for the Introduction plus each of the chapters listed above: Chapter title A quotation from the chapter to capture one of the chapter s most important or interesting ideas. A novel, film, play, or television show that you can connect to the chapter. For example, for Ch. 1, Every Trip is a Quest, I could write as my connection: Nick s journey in The Great Gatsby. This is all you need to do for this text; we will expand on these connections in class discussion. Save this document on your ipad and have the document and your HTRLLAP text on the first day of class. Assignment for Lord of the Flies Lord of the Flies is a challenging novel. On the surface it is an adventure story, but you will soon discover the story takes an unexpected turn, and the real meaning lies well below the surface. We will unpack this meaning together in class so you ll need to come well-prepared for discussion of the characters, their actions, and the significance of their choices. You will complete two assignments as you read the novel: Annotations and a Character Catalog. All of your work must be your own. Websites or sources including Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, Shmoop, Book Rags, and other short cuts are unacceptable for academic study. Do not read them and/or use them for this or any other assignment for this class. Important: Before beginning the novel, read the author s biography and the introduction to the novel; these are included with this packet. Assignment 1 - Annotations. Active reading and margin noting are essential skills expected of all honors level students. Attentive reading and thoughtful notes will also help prepare you for discussions, novel quizzes, and a summer reading essay. Read carefully and actively, responding to the story in the margins or on post-it notes. I expect to see at least one brief note every 1-2 pages; some scenes will naturally generate several annotations. Throughout the novel you can write notes on anything you think is important or interesting. A. Suggestions for notes include observations or inferences about: Author s choices: do you notice details, metaphors, dialogue, unusual or unexpected words, or styles? Make a note of some of these, and the EFFECT of the choice: the meaning you interpret. characters: personality qualities and/or descriptions of their feelings character interactions conflict: within a character or between characters setting details: what is significant about a particular place? narrative point of view: who is speaking? Narrator s attitude? symbols: see below for explanation; comment on the larger significance or meaning you see in some objects or places throughout the novel motifs: see below for explanation questions: what is confusing? 3

3 You do not need to note all of these on every page! These are suggestions for a variety of comments you can make throughout the novel. There is no required number of annotations; however, I expect to see consistent evidence that you are actively thinking about what you are reading throughout the novel. B. At the end of each chapter : write three comments. The first comment should focus on a character: what do you think is most interesting or significant about what this character has done or experienced? The second comment should focus on an aspect of setting, or a motif, or a symbol. What did you notice and can you connect this to one of the novel s themes? The third comment should be a question you would like to discuss in small groups and/or with the class. When I review your annotations I will look for these qualities: consistency; completed as directed awareness of characterization inferences or assertions about the characters and their relationships awareness of symbols, motifs, and themes evidence of thoughtful responses to the text SYMBOLS: Fire; Piggy s glasses; Conch shell; the Beast; the Lord of the Flies; Stick sharpened at both ends; Huts, the Island MOTIFS: Biblical allusions; Beauty of the natural world; Elements of violence, savagery PRIMARY THEME TOPICS Responsibility Loss of Innocence Authority Value of intellect Need for structure within society Man s capacity for good Individuality vs. community Descent into savagery Man s capacity for evil Leadership Power Civilized vs. savage Democracy Tyranny Assignment 2 - Character Catalog You will find this document after the author s biography and the Intro to the Novel pages. Save the character list in Notability to type your responses or you can write them. Follow the directions given at the top of the Character Catalog document. 4

4 Golding, William, Biography Born: 1911 Died: British novelist, poet From: Encyclopedia of British Writers, 20th Century, vol. 2. William Gerald Golding was born and died in Cornwall, England. His father, Alec Golding, was descended from a long line of schoolmasters, whose ranks his son would join. His mother, Mildred Golding, was an early suffragist. At age 12 Golding began writing a historical novel that he projected would fill 12 volumes. His first published work, Poems 1930 (1935), was like Georgian poetry in style. Considering his work a failure, though, he abandoned poetry. Educated at Marlborough Grammar School, where his father was a master, Golding entered Oxford intending to become a scientist, but after two years he switched his focus to literature, specializing in Anglo-Saxon. In 1939 he married Ann Brookfield, a chemist; the couple had a son and a daughter. Upon leaving Oxford, Golding worked for the theater for several years as a writer, actor, and producer. The discipline of playwriting contributed to the economy and structure of his novels. Golding then taught English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth School, Salisbury, from 1939 to 1940 and again from 1945 until 1961, when he became a full-time writer. The author was 43 when his first novel, Lord of the Flies (1954), was finally published after having been rejected by 21 publishers. The book at first received mixed reviews, particularly in England, where it was compared unfavorably to a charming but more literal tale of life on a tropical island, Richard Hughes's A High Wind in Jamaica. However, Golding's dark tale found favor on the college campus, becoming a world classic: It was translated into 26 languages and had sold 7 million copies by In 1966 Golding was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and in 1988 he was knighted. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Critical Analysis Golding is an author whose work deals with a different subject in a different time and place. His techniques are distinctive, and his novels are intensely visual, highly patterned, and well articulated. They possess allegorical elements and mythic qualities. The theme they illustrate most powerfully is that of Man s Fall from Innocence, as described in the story from Genesis in which Adam and Eve, representing humanity, lose their innocence while gaining knowledge of good and evil. A major influence on Golding's writing were classic boys' adventures, such as those written by R. M. Ballantyne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jules Verne, which he read in youth. He was also influenced by the Greek classics and by his experience serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. He said that war taught him that "man produces evil as a bee produces honey." Golding's examination of the Fall is the central focus of Lord of the Flies. This novel, which tells the story of British schoolboys wrecked on a tropical island during a global war, can be read from a sociological, psychological, political, or religious perspective. It is a powerful parable of the evolution of human society and parodies Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1858), in which three shipwrecked English boys, Ralph Rover, Jack Martin, and Peterkin Gay (Golding uses similar names for his central characters) set up a model society on a South Sea island. In Golding's novel, the society formed by his castaways is presided over by "the Lord of the Flies," or Beelzebub, and reveals the innate depravity of human nature. Ralph, a representative of reason, and Piggy, who stands for intellect, are overcome by the brute violence and bloodlust of Jack and his henchmen before Ralph's last-minute reprieve. As critic Stephen Medcalf has noted, Golding's novels draw readers deep into their protagonists' perceptions; engulfed or embedded in this experience, readers are abruptly brought back to reality through a sudden, sharp shift of point of view. Medcalf observed of the end of Lord of the Flies that "the naval officer and his cruiser remind us... (like the crash landing of the boys at the beginning and the fall of the airman in the middle) that the boys themselves are escaping from a world war." But, as Golding asked, "Who will save the adult and his cruiser?" Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener, eds. "Golding, William." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 20th Century, vol. 2. Facts On File, Inc., Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 5

5 Introduction to the Novel Setting: Both the time and place are deliberately ambiguous, they are not named. Golding wrote the novel in the 1950s during the Cold War era when the United States and the U.S.S.R. were competing for nuclear supremacy. The action of the novel takes place on an uninhabited tropical island in the Pacific Ocean when, we assume, the world is at war. Golding deliberately borrows the setting from a novel called Coral Island by Robert Michael Ballantyne and published in Ballantyne s story is an idealized view of how survivors create their own vision of a utopia on the island. Golding creates a similar setting in order to emphasize the contrasting view he presents in Lord of the Flies. In Lord of the Flies, the marooned schoolboys have survived a plane crash during war time, making them the innocent victims of adult violence. Golding probably modeled this scenario on actual events in Britain during WWII. When Germany began bombing London, the British government required all children to be evacuated from the city. The children went to live with foster families in small villages in the countryside for the duration of the war. We can assume that in this novel, a similar scenario occurs: the boys have been evacuated from their private boarding school and were enroute to a safe place when their plane was either shot down or had a mechanical failure. We do not know for certain but can assume the pilot and some of the passengers were killed, but the ones who survived gather and try to organize a civilized society modeled on the world they knew. The island at first seems to offer the boys sufficient food, water, shelter, and even the possibility of eventual rescue. They elect a leader, collect fruit to eat, and build a signal fire on the island s highest spot, hoping to attract the attention of any vessels or aircraft that might venture into the vicinity. But as the novel progresses, the island takes on a malevolent quality. An evil force seems to reside within it, threatening the boys lives. The novel can be read as an allegory. This means many of the characters and objects have symbolic meaning and the story as a whole presents a moral judgment commenting on the flaws of individuals and society. Consider the possibilities for symbolic significance in the characters, places, and objects as you read the novel. - excerpted from Beacham s Guide to Literature for Young Adults Golding uses several objects symbolically; each has a significance beyond its surface meaning. Some of these objects include: the Shell, Piggy s glasses, the fire, the huts, face paint, the pig dances, and the island itself. For example, Piggy complains he got caught in the creeper things (7). He means the tropical vines trailing along parts of the island, but the word creeper implies something sinister, as if an evil lies in wait to trap the boys. As you read, consider the possibilities for deeper meaning and record your ideas in your margin notes. The title of Lord of the Flies, according to one author, derives from the narrative itself: Lord of the Flies is a translation of Beelzebub, the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Ba alzevuv, which in Judaism and Christianity denotes the principle of evil personified: the Devil, Satan, or Mephistopheles. Golding equates the Lord of the Flies with a demonic force within humankind (Dick). When we discuss the novel we will explore reasons why Golding chose this as the title for his novel. - excerpted from Literature and Its Times, Vol. 4. 6

6 Character Catalog These descriptions will help you understand the significance of each character in the novel. One-two sentence responses for 1, 2, and 3. For each character: 1) Identify the group the character belongs to on the island + one significant personality quality. 2) Describe what the character does his role in the group. Hint: can you connect the character to one of the themes listed as a Primary Theme topic on p. 3? 3) Write one significant quotation from the text. Choose either something a character says, or quote a description of the character. Include the page number in a parenthetical citation after the quotation! Choosing the quotations requires you to think about what is important about a character; this will help you remember his role in the novel. For major characters with an asterisk*: choose two quotations. *Ralph: *Jack Merridew: *Piggy: *Simon: Roger: Maurice: Sam and Eric: Littlun with the birthmark: Henry: