Pre-IB 10^th Summer Reading

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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

Required Texts:

            Students are to read the following work:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

Summer Reading Breakdown:

            1) Read and annotate your book.

            2) Complete Summer Reading Journal activities: journal due first day of class Journal assignments should be typed:  Font/size – Times New Roman/12; 1” margins; double spaced. If this is a problem, you may neatly handwrite your responses.

3) Be ready for a Summer Reading Test on the first day of class as well.

I. Reading Directions: Annotate your novel thoroughly (mark 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 context or by using a dictionary. You can write the definitions right in the text for yourself.

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

4)Highlight and mark for yourself any conflicts that occur with the main character (protagonist). Note your ideas about these conflicts in the text (who/what is involved, attempts to resolve conflicts, etc.).

5) Don’t mark too much. If your mark everything, nothing will stand out!

II. Summer Reading Journal Directions:

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

A. Materials:

            -brad folder

            -two dividers with appropriate labels

B. The Process:

1. First Divider –Label – Interesting/Valuable Quotes/To Kill a Mockingbird

            Find at least 3 significant quotes (no more than 1 in any chapter/act). Quotes can be phrases, clauses, sentences or passages that you feel represent some universal or important statement that the book is making. Include page numbers for all quotes, and explain why you find the quotes interesting or valuable (give extended commentary analysis of at least a developed paragraph in length for each quote and not a hastily written, generic mess of a sentence or two).  Your commentary should be insightful and original (we know what Uncle Sparky and Cliff have to say as well), 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 – Label Significant Thematic Statements in To Kill a Mockingbird

            Find examples of at least 3 significant Thematic Statements (use the thematic Statements 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 textual quote you select;

(b) name the theme that you are discussing;

(c) provide at least 2 sentences of apt commentary that analyzes and explains the effect/impact of that device in the passage (you may, of course, write more than 2 sentences of commentary – good answers will discuss an ideal thoroughly).

Please note:  in regards to commentary length and numbers of examples – I have given you minimum requirements.  In IB, minimum = 70%.  Make sure your responses and findings are thoroughly covered, meaningful, and your own if you want higher than a minimal grade.

A Summer Reading Test will be given on the first 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 (e.g. metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, metonymy, synecdoche, etc.)

2. detail: concrete elements of the text 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 and 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 _________________.

4) An individual can develop methods for judging right from wrong.

5) _______________ kind of government is effective.

6) Society must contend with the dichotomies presented by freedom and equality.

7) An individual can experience redemption through____________.

8) A society can experience redemption through___________.

9) The accumulation of money and power leads to a loss of spirituality.