SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT:

11th GRADE ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

Welcome to the first St. Joseph High School AP English Language and Composition class.  A reminder - this class is a college level class.  The emphasis in this class is on the reading and writing of primarily nonfiction works such as journals, letters memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, editorials, and essays.  The goal is to help you become better critical readers, writers, and thinkers.  You will learn about using language effectively and persuasively.  To this end, you will be learning about rhetorical analysis which is breaking down the ‘whole’ of a text into the sum of the various “parts” (use of various  writing strategies) to achieve an author’s purpose.  

For your summer reading assignment you will read and annotate the following required books with the following ISBN numbers and publishers.  You are only to purchase these specific editions which were chosen because there is room in the margins for annotations and, when we review the texts in class, we can all refer to the same page numbers.

Books required:
1) Hiroshima by John Hersey  ISBN 0-679-72103-7  Vintage Press
2) Silent Spring by Rachel Carson  ISBN -13: 978-0-618-24906-0; ISBN-10: 0-618-24906-0        Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Company
3) Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich  ISBN 0-8050-6389-7 Owl Books, Henry Holt and Company,  New York
4) Complications A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande   ISBN 13:978-0-312-42170-0, ISBN-10: 0-312-42170-2 Picador, Henry Holt and Company New York

Assignment:  Annotations
As you read each book you are required to make frequent, copious marginal written notes (textual annotations. You may use ‘post it’ notes.  You underline and then you need to have a note beside it in the margin with a brief explanation.  When you come to class in August, I will collect all your books – you will be receiving a test grade on your annotations in these books.  Your annotations, of course, must be written legibly and neatly.

Required  annotations:
- Vocabulary - Each word you come across that you do not know the definition of, look it up in the dictionary and write a brief definition
- Write in the margins of the book your reactions to what the author has written in all parts of the book – hurt, scared, shocked, informed, sad, happy, etc.  and why
-Underline important and interesting passages to you.  Particular vivid images – what effect do they have on the writer’s purpose? Why are they important or interesting?
-Identify rhetorical strategies and techniques used by the author- underline them  and write in the margins the effect - if the technique    helped bring the author’s point across

The following are part of rhetorical strategies:
- The organization of the book – chronological, particular to general, broad to specific?
- Does  the author appeal to your emotions, logic, ethics or tradition – How does it vary in the book?  
- Word choices – big words, everyday word
- Sentence structure – use of fragments, run-ons, short, long, compound, compound-complex, unusual punctuation marks
- Use of dialogue, statistics, footnotes, or quotations.  What effect does this have?
- Author’s tone – angry, sad, bitter, humorous, sarcastic?  How does it change, vary in the book/
-Author’s use of metaphors, similes, alliteration, repetition of words, analogies

Your books must be purchased:
-Book stores (Education Central in Plaza, Sion Farm Shopping Center)
-Online (shipping will take several weeks, so please plan accordingly)  amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com; ecampus.com; mediaplay.com .
-For your convenience, the required book titles are linked directly to amazon.com from  the St. Joseph High School Affiliate Store. Try the St. Joseph High School Amazon.Com Affiliate Store.
Sincerely,
Ms. Brajovic