Pre-IB English II

Summer Reading Assignment

Listed below are the requirements and expectations for your summer reading assignment. Be prepared to work with, discuss, and test over these selections on the first day of class.

Required Text:

Girls with a Pearl Earring – by Tracy Chevalier

Summer Reading Breakdown:

1. Read and annotate your book

2. Complete the Summer Reading Journal activities; journal due 1^st day of class. Journal assignments should be typed: Font/Size – Times New Roman; 12 font; 1 “ margins; double-spaced throughout. If there is a problem with typing, you may neatly handwrite your responses.

3. Be ready for a Summer Reading Test on the 1^st day of class

I. Reading Directions: ANNOTATE your novel thoroughly (mark lines to identify important events, characters, stylistic devices, recurring themes, etc.), for we will be working extensively with specific details and passages.

Moreover, you will be able to use your novel as a resource on the timed summer reading test, and an annotated book will allow you to quickly locate important information without having to painstakingly search for details. Methods of annotation include the use of post-it-notes, symbols and abbreviations used to mark common elements and ideas, highlighting of important passages (highlighting DOES NOT work well by itself), and any other way that you have been taught or have picked up; however, the single best method is the writing of notes in the margins of the book.

Suggestions for Annotating

1. At the top of the page or on a post-it, mark the important plot events. Every page will NOT necessarily be marked.

2. Be sure to figure out any unfamiliar words through the context or by using a dictionary. You can write the definitions in the text yourself.

3. Highlight and mark words and phrases that help describe the personality of the characters. Note your ideas about the characters right in the text (personality, motivation, fears/dreams, etc.)

4. Highlight and mark any conflicts that occur with the main character (protagonist). Not your ideas about these conflicts in the test (who/what is involved, attempts to resolve conflicts, etc.)

5. Don’t mark too much. If you mark everything, nothing will stand out.

II. Summer Reading Journal Directions:

Remember, the Journal is due on the 1^st day of class. It will be scored as a major test grade and will seriously affect your grade should you not put much thought into it, not complete it, or fail to turn it in altogether.

A. Materials: Folder with brads, 2 dividers with appropriate labels

B. The process:

1. First Divider labeled – Interesting/Valuable Quotes

Find at least significant quotes (no more than 1 per chapter/act). Quotes can be phrases, clauses, sentences, or passages that you feel represent some universal or important statement that the book makes. Include page numbers for all quotes, and explain why it was interesting or valuable. This means to give extended commentary analysis of at least a developed paragraph in length for each quote (not a sentence or two). Your commentary should be insightful and original (not from publishers!), and to spark such insight you must choose passages that are central to a theme or the dramatic action of the story.

2. Second Divider labeled – Significant Thematic Statements

Find examples of at least 3 significant thematic statements (use the thematic statement list) that add to the meaning of particular passages throughout the novel (no more than 1 in a given chapter). Follow this process for each example:

a. Write out the quote/textual evidence and provide proper parenthetical citation with the quote you select

b. Name the them that you are discussing

c. Provide at least 2 sentences of apt commentary that analyze and explain the effect/impact of that device in the passage (you may write more; good answers will discuss an idea thoroughly).

Please note: in regard to commentary length and numbers of examples, you have the minimum requirements. In IB, minimum = 70%. Make sure your responses and finding are thoroughly covered, meaningful, and original (your own) if you want a higher than minimal grade.

A Summer Reading Test will be given on the 1^st day of class. BE PREPARED; BRING YOUR NOVEL TO CLASS!!

Stylistic Elements:

1. Figurative language/figures of speech: language that describes one thing in terms of something else (metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, metonymy, synecdoche, etc.)

2. Detail: concrete elements of the test relating to such matters as setting, plot, character. Items would be details that contribute significantly to such elements as revealing character, establishing tone, and communicating meaning.

3. Point of view: the vantage point from which a story or poem is told

4. Organization: how an author groups or orders his/her ideas

5. Theme: a life insight, issue, or lesson

Thematic Statements:

1. A just individual has obligations toward society.

2. A just society has obligations it owes to an individual.

3. Individual freedom is limited by ______.