Advanced Placement English Literature Summer Reading

M. Fredeking Beyer High School

“We work by wit [our intelligence]”—Shakespeare, Bill

(Please Note: important additional guidelines and information are available in

Schoology Groups (NOT Courses). The join code: ZPK5-8XBP-PDBQN. Make sure to click on “Resources” on the left-hand side to access your folder.)

Welcome to your senior year of AP English! You’ve worked hard and deserve

congratulations for having dedicated yourself to obtaining the finest quality of language arts

education. Your senior year will be a busy one, full of exciting activities and responsibilities.

Success with senior AP English will depend much on your dedication to remain organized

and consistently involved with the course’s requirements. Below is a concise description

from the College Board lucidly explaining the demands for AP Lit/Comp English. Please read

them carefully in order to appreciate fully the requirements of senior AP English:

AP Senior English is a college-level course that “engage[s] students in the careful reading and critical analysis

of imaginative literature.” This class will explore mature, adult-level, thought-provoking works of high literary

value which encompass a variety of genres, time periods, and language usages. All students are expected to “read

deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity, to absorb its richness of meaning, and

to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form.” Intelligent interpretation and evaluation of the

literature is absolutely required. “In short, students in an AP English Literature course should read actively. The

works taught in … [this] course… involve students in learning how to make careful observations of textual detail,

establish connections among their observations, and draw from those connections a series of inferences leading to

an interpretive conclusion [a thesis] about the work’s meaning and value.”

Quality writing is a must and “should be an integral part of an AP English Literature and Composition course…

Writing assignments… focus on the critical analysis of literature and… include expository, analytical, and

argumentative essays. … Critical essays… make up the bulk of student writing.” The approaches to writing will

vary, from notebook-type responses and full in-class essays to an in-depth research paper. Most assignments will

be relatively brief, but thorough. In essence, the goal of this course “is to increase students’ ability to explain

clearly, cogently, even elegantly, what they understand about literary works and why they interpret them as they

do. To that end, writing instruction… includes attention to developing and organizing ideas in clear, coherent, and

persuasive language.” Moreover, writing is a shared experience as students work together to develop and refine

their critical-thinking skills: “Much writing should involve extended discourse in which students can develop an

argument or present an analysis at length.” (Advanced Placement Course Description, English,

May 1999. The College Board. 1997. 39-42).

Finally, AP Senior English obviously prepares students for the Advanced Placement

Literature and Composition exam (held in May). Learning to read and respond and write

intelligently under time constraints remains essential. Effective practice and

classroom discussion concerning timed reading and writing approaches will be

emphasized.

Please remember: College Board expectations for reading analysis exist well

beyond any high school CP or honors-level curriculum. AP Lit/Comp is specifically

designed ONLY for sincerely serious students who possess the MATURATION TO

ENGAGE AND SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE THE STRICT AND RIGOROUS and TIME-

CONSUMING DEMANDS of UC-level college work while in high school. Students must

provide approximately 30 to 60 minutes of UNINTERRUPTED READING TIME, 2-3 TIMES

PER WEEK, MINIMALLY, in order to thoughtfully engage the literature examined

during the summer and academic school year. Thus, EXTERNAL SOCIAL

DISTRACTIONS (computer/internet time, texting, extra-curricular activities, etc.)

must be CAREFULLY BALANCED AGAINST TIME SPENT READING AND MEANINGFULLY

ENGAGING THE LITERARY TEXT FOR ANY REASONABLE SUCCESS WITH THE COURSE’S

REQUIREMENTS. In short: be prepared to spend the time and do the work necessary

in order to demonstrate consistent competence with demands of college

expectations.

Summer Reading, What you Must DO: Preparation for the fall semester begins in the summer with ALL students engaging ONE (1) reading assignment. The College Board no longer requires literature for an AP class to be defined

solely by “literary merit” (i.e. high-end traditional and/or recently published award-winning literature.) Instead, the main focus is a story’s “complexity” (i.e. the development of multiple characters and ideas/themes, often in subtle, nuanced, or understated ways.) Thus, the summer reading now offers you three (3) different options.

NOTE: the first two options will receive automatic extra credit

when we engage the first essay next year.

Option One: Our own library bookroom has many quality literary pieces (listed below

with brief descriptions) any of which constitute worthwhile reading. (* = popular reads)

Contemporary Works focusing on “wounded,” struggling and/or young protagonists who are “coming of age” and learning about life’s complexities and unfairness:

Plainsong (Kent Haruf) Bless Me, Ultima (Rudolfo Anaya) * Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien) Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) Peace Like a River (Leif Enger)

* Painted House (John Grisham) * Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) * Secret Lives of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)

Dystopian stories focusing on individuals struggling against oppressive/unfair societal rules:

* 1984 (George Orwell) Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

* Handmaids Tale (Margaret Atwood) Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

Classic 20th century American literature using straightforward, direct sentence

structure:

Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)

A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway)

Beloved (Toni Morrison) Traditional Classic 19th century/historical literature: Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)

Option Two: If you do not like any of the above library books, please feel free to

choose another piece of quality literature you find interesting. Any traditional or recently

produced book is ok, esp. award-winning efforts (Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, etc.).

Not sure about the quality? First, if the actual book has numerous praiseworthy comments and

quotations from various critics and news outlets, then it’s usually a quality piece of literature.

Also, feel free to contact me through my school email if you have any concerns/questions about

any book or novel you want to read.

Option Three (No extra credit): For students who might be a bit “nervous”

or apprehensive of interacting with an AP Lit. curriculum, this third option will offer a more

“user-friendly” approach. Remember, the College Board has approved of using more “general

fiction” for the AP thematic essay, so you may now choose a more “casual” book to read. Yes,

that means works such as Lord of the Rings or The Hunger Games series. While popular fictional

works like these do not constitute great literary merit, the AP’s new emphasis on “complexity”

does provide an opportunity for students who want to “ease” into literary analysis by engaging

more “comfortable,” less intimidating books to read.

NOTE: Macbeth and Hamlet (Shakespeare) and Pride and Prejudice (Austen) are class

requirements and thus DO NOT qualify for the summer reading. Also, ANY school-assigned

literary piece from previous years (e.g., Of Mice and Men or Romeo and Juliet, etc.) is NOT

acceptable for summer reading unless directly cleared from the teacher!

Final Note: Essay Writing will occur in class AFTER we return to school for the upcoming fall semester. For the first week of school we will

explore and discuss how a character (major or minor) develops and how specific scenes/moments provide relevant insight into a story’s central ideas and themes. ALL students will have ample time to prepare and develop appropriate notes. However, as you read this summer, please feel free to develop, create, maintain your own notations and ideas, esp. focusing of characters, scenes, chapters you find particularly interesting and meaningful toward the story as a whole.

PLAGIARISM: All papers submitted for any class assignment are

expected to be the student’s own work. That is, ALL writing is created by you and applies textual examples you have read and engaged, thus providing meaningful insight/support for all relevant observations. Any student who submits any type of work or a central/key interpretive idea not of his/her own effort is potentially guilty of plagiarism and will immediately receive a “0” and parent notification. (Note: Three or more significant words/phrases in a student’s work found in outside/secondary sources may be considered as plagiarized. Students are responsible to keep ALL rough-draft work; further, the teacher may

request rough draft evidence and/or an oral review exam any time during the academic term to determine the legitimacy of a student’s work and to maintain the absolute integrity of the AP program.) Repeated violations may result in failure of the course for the semester or the entire school year! So, please, be careful, be honest, and most

of all, BE YOURSELF and learn to value your own thoughts, ideas and opinions! Student samples of quality literary analysis/writing: Below are two good student samples of explication using “close, textual reading” from a student response to the novel, Cold Mountain. (The first sample represents a solid B+ to A- level response; the second equals a solid A-effort respectively.) Please note how the writers have applied actual text in order to lucidly support and clarify their opinions. Both paragraphs justify their interpretations with worthwhile specific observations/commentary, validating an intelligent engagement with the actual text on several meaningful levels.

Sample #1 In Cold Mountain, Chapter Three’s title, “the color of despair,” immediately sets the harsh tone of the many challenges Inman faces trying to return home safely. The images of a “viper sliding flabby” across the roadway and that Inman views “nothing but trash trees” and recognizes only “mean towns” allows us to understand his personal travels are surrounded by unfriendly environments (69). We’re told directly that “the threat of Home Guard [is] out prowling and the gloom of the cloudy nights made for nervous wayfaring” as Inman tries to find his way home without serious incidents (71). However, it doesn’t work that way. After stopping by a general store, buying some meager food supplies and minding his own business, Inman must fight for his very life against three “layabouts, drunk maybe” who literally try to try to kill him, one using a scythe (74). Although Inman defeats the three men (ironically forced to use the scythe itself as a deadly weapon and thus reminding us of his military prowess in battle) we learn how bluntly dangerous his journey home has become. And, of course, it doesn’t get any better. Later in the chapter, after thinking/dreaming about and hoping for a better life being with Ada while living in his homeland cabin on Cold Mountain (85), Inman must cross a horrible, almost “unnatural” river, appropriately called Cape Fear, that pushes out “greasy bubbles” and is polluted with “foul water” as if describing some waterway—like the River Styx-- from Hell itself (87-89). In fact, even though Inman has made an honest payment for the crossing, some of the townspeople shoot after him with a high powered Whitworth rifle forcing him to tear the “cuff of his shirt” as he tries to plug the bullet holes in the small boat (89). The

boat overturns anyway, and now the current takes him away reminding us again of what little control Inman has in his precarious life. Indeed, in describing Inman’s struggle in the water, Frazier uses specific words like “venomous” to convey a negative, threatening tone while images such as “floating in a great void plane bounded by a dark jungle” help us see the horrific environment that surrounds Inman’s experience. In all, his life adds “up to no more than catfish [a bottom dweller] droppings on the bottom of this swill trough of a river” (90), ending the chapter--even though Inman does eventually make it safely to shore--on a very negative, almost disgusting note and unquestionably telling us the way home for Inman will be quite a demanding and arduous task. Sample #2 If there’s an almost ideal moment when Ada shows how much she’s grown in her sense of

personal responsibility to herself, Ruby and the farm, it’s in the beginning pages of Chapter 14,

“a satisfied mind.” Ada, “working with apples” during autumn, feels quite satisfied with her

efforts; it is “pleasant clean work” as she handles the various fruit and the labor gives a

“peaceful still picture in Ada’s mind” when she rests at night (implying, perhaps, that Ada now

thinks about the farm and its survival more than anything else). To further make his point

about Ada’s change of character, Frazier tells us that Ruby now trusts Ada enough to have her

“burn the brush” to clear out a neglected section in the lower field and to “split the six rounds

of an old black oak log” (324). This type of heavy, hard, and physically demanding labor is

certainly not any type of work Ada would have been able to complete at the beginning of the

story. Ada now understands that this approach to her farm is how life really operates; she now

knows that you “do just as much as you could do and still be able to get up and do again

tomorrow. Nor more, and no less” (324). Indeed, as she chops up the wood with the relatively

heavy seven-pound maul, the work for Ada remains “calm despite all the pounding,” and she

feels “a great sense of accomplishment” as her dress is “soaked through the shoulders and back

with sweat” (325). Ada’s work ethic now seems complete: regardless of the difficulty, she

willingly takes on any challenging requirements the farm puts in front of her. Nonetheless,

Frazier drives the point home about Ada’s growth and maturation as a complete person when

she writes to her Southern Belle cousin, Lucy, in Charleston (who obviously represents Ada’s

former lifestyle) telling her in blunt, no nonsense words:

you would not know me; . . . I cannot begin to recount all such rough work that I have

done in the time since Father died. It has changed me. It is amazing the physical

alterations that can transpire in but a few months of labor. (326)

When we first meet Ada, she realizes with the death of her father, Monroe, she is “living in a

new world,” grossly incapable of running a productive farm (Chapter Two, 33). But, in Chapter

14, her mastery of the Black Cove farm clearly emerges. Gone are her worries about which

type of picture would produce the best watercolor painting; now, Ada has earned her “satisfied

mind,” becoming a fully realized woman, one quite capable of not just surviving, but thriving

on her own.