Cleveland Heights High School Library
Summer Reading

Eleventh Grade English 3 Ungrouped
Summer 2008

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Directions: Students enrolling in 11th grade Ungrouped English for the 2008-2009 school year

A. Read two of the following books:
 
Title
Author
  The Book Thief Zusak, Markus
  The Covenant with Black America Smiley, Tavis
  A Lesson Before Dying Gaines, Ernest
Read with purpose. Read for detail. Read for meaning. Read for clarity. Be able to describe the characters. Be able to relate the specific sequence of events that transpire in both works. Be ready to share your attitudes, opinions, and input surrounding issues that are discussed in the books.
B. Assignment - Reader's Response Writings Click here for a Microsoft Word document of these instructions.
  For each of the two books you read this summer, you will select two of the following prompts. Each response should be at least one page long. This assignment will be collected Thursday, August 28, 2008.

Choice One - Make connections to your own experience. Describe an event or a character from the book that reminds you of a situation from your personal life. Explain the similarities between the event or person from the novel and your personal example.

Choice Two - Identify the author’s tone, his or her attitude toward what he or she is saying. Copy the passage and explain how the words written indicate a specific attitude.

Choice Three - Make connections with other texts or concepts or events. Do you see any similarities between this material and other books that you have read? Does it bring to mind other issues or incidents or people or descriptions that are somehow related?

Choice Four - Identify at least two possible themes the book addresses. What issues does the book raise? Are there struggles the characters grapple with that can be viewed as universal?

Choice Five - Can you identify a specific message the author seems to convey through any of the characters or through the story itself? Can you make any links between the author himself and his choices he has made as a writer writing the book you read?
  Culminating Activities
  A. Be prepared to use your reader response writings to become involved in a panel discussion, to conduct a small group meeting, and/or to present to the class.
  B. Be prepared for an individual or small group presentation that highlights the most insightful aspects of your reader response journals
  C. Be prepared to take a multiple choice quiz on both books.
     
 
Evaluation
  A. Summer reading scores will be averaged into the quarter one grade
  B. Teachers will be provided with the following rubric with which they may choose to evaluate the summer reading work:
    Rubric: Each facet of the written work may be assigned point values based up on following criteria
    1. Accuracy
  a. Does the writing adhere to the rules of Standard English?
b. Is the writing free from repetitive grammatical or syntactical errors that impede comprehension?
c. Is the work written using MLA guidelines if sources are cited?
d. Does the work correctly address the questions raised in the prompt?
    2. Completeness
  a.
 Does each response meet the minimum length requirement?
b. Does each response fully answer questions raised in the prompt? Do they go beyond mechanical “yes” “no” answers? In other words, did the writer create commentary?
c. Have all the prompts been attempted?
d. Are the paragraphs fully developed? Do they each contain a specific topic sentence and adequate support?
e. Do any concluding paragraphs exhibit an appropriate sense of closure?
    3. Imagery
      a.
 Does the writing include sensory imagery?
b. Has the writer used enough proper nouns, and proper adjectives to convey a clear image in the mind of the reader?
c. Has the writer used specific quoted material taken directly from the novel to support his or her opinions about what he or she has read?
d. Does the writing avoid using clichéd expressions and informal or ambiguous language that prevents the reader from forming a specific impression?
 
General Directions
   
  • If you handwrite your assignments, skip lines. Use dark blue or black ink only. Use loose-leaf paper. If you word process your assignment, use 12-point type and Arial or Times New Roman font type only. Double space.
  • Leave margins of one inch at the top, the bottom and on both sides of the text.
  • Write or type your assignments on one side of the paper only.
  • Write your last name one inch from the top and one inch from the right margin. The page number appears one space after your last name.
  • Title each section of the assignment. Center the title near the top of the page where each section begins.
  • Write the page on which each detail and each quotation is found. Use the Modern Language Association format.
  • Use the literary present to discuss the events of a novel.
  • Proofread and edit for grammar, spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
  • Use staples to fasten the pages.
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