Summer Work for APES 2009

Welcome to your blog! Hope you all enjoy discussing your summer reading...

Here's the complete text of the summer work, just in case you misplaced it...

Summer Fun for APES(AP English Students) 2009
You’ve got some fun ahead of you this summer! Here’s the complete list of what you have to do:

1. Read and take one page of two column notes(see attached template) for each chapter of How to Read Literature Like A Professor. Yes, that’s something like 27 pages of notes, but you’ll thank us later. This will be a resource that we will use all next year, so you really want to do a good job on it. This will be turned in on the first day of school.

2. Read the three required summer reading books:Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. For The Remains of the Day and Things Fall Apart, you need to post to the blog three times. There is a posting area for each third of the book(no worries about spoilers) – you post in the comments section. If you haven’t done this before, you will need to create a Google account to post with. Please do not use your last name anywhere in your username, but do give us some clue as to who you are. Your comments should be your questions, your observations, and your opinions about your reading. You should read all of the other comments in a thread before responding. You may include agreement with the comments of others, but your posts must include some original thinking or observation about the text; we need to know that you have read it! The use of specific textual evidence or passages to discuss is encouraged. Please do pay attention to your spelling, grammar, conventions, etc.; over 30 people will be reading this blog, so it’s common courtesy.

3. For Heart of Darkness, we would like you to take notes that will be used in an assignment in the beginning of the year. You should have 8-12 pages of notes for the book, using a two column format with quotations on one side, the reasons you chose them on the other. Please draw from the following categories:
· Rich vocabulary that enhances the setting and characterization
· Phrases (3-5 words) that catch your attention with their meaning, their elegance, their ability to reveal something deeper about a character or event
· Complete quotations that demonstrate character development
On the second day of school, you will be writing an in-class, timed essay on one of the novels, for which you will also need information from How to Read…so take good notes and read carefully…don’t be afraid to re-read!

Still looking for more? Here’s some books you might like…

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
The River Why by David James Duncan
Laughter in the Dark or Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein
My Life by Lyn Hejinian
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

The Remains of the Day Part 1

Welcome to the world of Stevens! First he's going to make you want to smack him (all that convoluted syntax...) and then he's going to make you sad...Post comments here for the first third of the book.

The Remains of the Day Part 2

So Stevens has now embarked upon his literal and figurative journey...where will it take him? Will he ever be able to look at anything directly?

The Remains of the Day Part 3

So what, exactly, are we supposed to do with the remains of our day? How has Stevens transformed?

Things Fall Apart Part 1

So here's your space to comment on the first part of Things Fall Apart. What do you find challenging about this text? What are your reactions to this time and place?

Things Fall Apart Part 2

The middle...how do you foresee his decisions playing out?

Things Fall Apart Part 3

So here's the space to comment on the last third of the book. Spoiler: it does not end well. What do you think the root causes of Okonkwo's tragedy are?