Norris Language Department

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Summer Reading Requirements

Mrs. Boon

nicole.boon@norris160.org

“The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.”
-Rene Descartes

Welcome to AP Literature!  In order to be prepared for the academic rigor that this Advanced Placement class requires, it is imperative that you begin reading some classic literature over the summer.   The choice books listed below are recommended by the College Board as books of literary merit that will prepare you for the Advanced Placement test, should you choose to take it at the end of next year.  Summer is an excellent time to read- so grab a lawn chair, head outside with a book, and enjoy the riches offered by the great masterpieces of literature.

Requirements:                                                                                                                                

You must choose three books to read from the attached list.  You may, of course, choose to read more than three.  You are responsible for obtaining the books on your own; I suggest you use a library.  To receive credit for reading the books, you must complete the assessment requirement listed.  Many of the books listed below contain mature themes.  If a book makes you feel uncomfortable, choose a different book.  It may be beneficial to read summaries of the books and plays before you begin reading, but at no time should these summaries take the place of the reading.  Finally, not all books of literary merit are listed here.  If you should wish to read a different book, please e-mail me the title and author, and I will let you know if the quality of the book meets the standards of the AP class.  Happy reading!

Choice Books:  (Updated through 2009)

The number of times the book has appeared on the AP Literature Test is in parentheses after the title.  The titles that have appeared on the AP Literature Test five or more times are in BOLD print.  Please take these factors into consideration when choosing a title.

Author                                                  Title                                                                                       Assessment

Achebe, Chinua                                                Things Fall Apart  (4)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Aeschylus                                            Orestia (1)                                                                          Dialectical Journal

Albee, Edward                                  The Sandbox (1)                                                                               Dialectical Journal

Albee, Edward                                  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (5)                       Dialectical Journal

Albee, Edward                                  The Zoo Story (2)                                                              Dialectical Journal

Alcott, Louisa May                           Little Women                                                                     Accelerated Reader

Alexie, Sherman                               Reservation Blues (2)                                                      Dialectical Journal

Alvarez, Julia                                      In the Time of the Butterflies (1)                                                Accelerated Reader

Aristophanes                                     Lysistrata (1)                                                                      Dialectical Journal

Arnow, Harriet                                  The Dollmaker (1)                                                            Dialectical Journal

Atwood, Margaret                          Alias Grace (3)                                                                   Accelerated Reader

Atwood, Margaret                          The Blind Assassin (1)                                                     Dialectical Journal

Atwood, Margaret                          Cat’s Eye (3)                                                                       Accelerated Reader

Atwood, Margaret                          The Handmaid’s Tale (1)                                               Accelerated Reader

Atwood, Margaret                          Surfacing (1)                                                                      Dialectical Journal

Austen, Jane                                      Emma (2)                                                                            Dialectical Journal

Austen, Jane                                      Mansfield Park (2)                                                           Accelerated Reader

Austen, Jane                                      Persuasion (3)                                                                   Accelerated Reader

Austen, Jane                                      Pride and Prejudice (5)                                                 Accelerated Reader

Baldwin, James                                 Another Country (1)                                                       Dialectical Journal

Baldwin, James                                 Go Tell It on the Mountain (4)                                    Accelerated Reader

Baraka, Amiri/Jones, Leroi           Dutchman (2)                                                                    Dialectical Journal

Beckett, Samuel                               Waiting for Godot (7)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Brecht, Berthold                               Mother Courage and Her Children (3)                     Dialectical Journal

Bronte, Charlotte                            Jane Eyre (14)                                                                    Accelerated Reader

Bulosan, Carlos                                 America is in the Heart (1)                                            Dialectical Journal

Camus, Albert                                   The Fall (1)                                                                          Dialectical Journal

Camus, Albert                                   The Plague (2)                                                                   Accelerated Reader

Camus, Albert                                   The Stranger (4)                                                                               Dialectical Journal

Cao, Lan                                               Monkey Bridge (2)                                                           Dialectical Journal

Cather, Willa                                      O Pioneers (1)                                                                    Accelerated Reader

Cervantes, Miguel de                     Don Quixote (4)                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Chaucer, Geoffrey                          The Canterbury Tales (1)                                               Dialectical Journal           

Chekhov, Anton                               The Cherry Orchard (5)                                                  Dialectical Journal

Chopin, Kate                                      The Awakening                (11)                                                        Dialectical Journal

Congreve, William                           The Way of the World (1)                                             Dialectical Journal

Conrad, Joseph                                 Heart of Darkness (13)                                                  Accelerated Reader

Conrad, Joseph                                 Lord Jim (7)                                                                        Accelerated Reader

Conrad, Joseph                                 Victory (1)                                                                           Dialectical Journal

Crane, Stephen                                                The Red Badge of Courage (1)                                    Accelerated Reader

Dante Alighieri                                  The Divine Comedy (1)                                                   Dialectical Journal

Davies, Robertson                           Fifth Business (2)                                                              Accelerated Reader

De Balzac, Honore                           Pere Goriot (1)                                                                  Dialectical Journal

De Crevecoeur, J. Hector              Letters from an American Farmer (1)                      Dialectical Journal

DeFoe, Daniel                                   Moll Flanders (5)                                                             Accelerated Reader

Dickens, Charles                               Bleak House (4)                                                                 Accelerated Reader

Dickens, Charles                               David Copperfield (3)                                                     Accelerated Reader

Dickens, Charles                              Great Expectations (15)                                                                Accelerated Reader       

Dickens, Charles                               Hard Times (2)                                                                   Accelerated Reader

Dickens, Charles                               Our Mutual Friend (1)                                                    Accelerated Reader

Dinesen, Isak                                     Out of Africa (1)                                                                               Dialectical Journal

Doctorow, E. L.                                  Ragtime (2)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Dostoevsky, Fyodor                        The Brothers Karamazov (2)                                       Accelerated Reader

Dostoevsky, Fyodor                        Crime and Punishment (14)                                        Accelerated Reader

Dostoevsky, Fyodor                        Notes from the Underground (1)                                              Dialectical Journal

Dreiser, Theodore                           An American Tragedy (4)                                              Accelerated Reader

Dreiser, Theodore                           Sister Carrie (3)                                                                 Dialectical Journal

Edwards, Kim                                     The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (1)                         Dialectical Journal

Eliot, George                                      Adam Bede (1)                                                                  Accelerated Reader

Eliot, George                                      Silas Marner (1)                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Eliot, George                                      Middlemarch (4)                                                              Accelerated Reader

Eliot, George                                      A Mill on the Floss (3)                                                     Accelerated Reader

Eliot, T.S.                                             Murder in the Cathedral (5)                                        Accelerated Reader

Eliot, T.S.                                              The Wasteland (1)                                                           Dialectical Journal

Ellison, Ralph                                    Invisible Man (22)                                                           Accelerated Reader

Erdrich, Louise                                   Love Medicine (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Erdrich, Louise                                   Tracks (1)                                                                            Dialectical Journal

Euripedes                                            Medea  (5)                                                                          Dialectical Journal

Faulkner, William                             Absalom, Absalom (2)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Faulkner, William                           As I Lay Dying (9)                                                             Accelerated Reader

Faulkner, William                             The Bear (2)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Faulkner, William                           Light in August (10)                                                        Accelerated Reader

Faulkner, William                           The Sound and the Fury                (6)                                          Accelerated Reader

Fielding, Henry                                  Joseph Andrews (1)                                                        Dialectical Journal

Fielding, Henry                                  Tom Jones (4)                                                                    Accelerated Reader

Flaubert, Gustave                           Madame Bovary (6)                                                       Dialectical Journal

Ford, Ford Maddox                         The Good Soldier (1)                                                       Dialectical Journal

Forster, E.M.                                      A Passage to India (7)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Forster, E.M.                                      A Room with a View (1)                                                 Dialectical Journal

Frazier, Charles                                 Cold Mountain (2)                                                           Dialectical Journal

Friel, Brian                                           Dancing at Lughnasa (1)                                              Dialectical Journal

Fugard, Athol                                     Master Harold…and the Boys (2)                              Dialectical Journal

Gaines, Ernest                                   A Gathering of Old Men (1)                                         Accelerated Reader

Gaines, Ernest                                   A Lesson Before Dying (1)                                             Accelerated Reader

Garcia, Cristina                                  Dreaming in Cuban (1)                                                  Accelerated Reader

Glaspell, Susan                                  Trifles (1)                                                                             Dialectical Journal

Goethe, Johann                                               Faust (2)                                                                              Dialectical Journal

Greene, Graham                              Brighton Rock (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Greene, Graham                              The Heart of the Matter (1)                                         Dialectical Journal

Greene, Graham                              The Power and the Glory (1)                                       Accelerated Reader

Goldsmith, Oliver                             The Vicar of Wakefield (1)                                            Dialectical Journal

Guterson, David                               Snow Falling on Cedars (1)                                          Accelerated Reader

Hamilton, Alexander                      The Federalist (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Hansberry, Lorraine                       A Raisin in the Sun (7)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Hardy, Thomas                                 Jude the Obscure (8)                                                       Accelerated Reader

Hardy, Thomas                                 The Mayor of Casterbridge (5)                                   Dialectical Journal

Hardy, Thomas                                  Return of the Native (1)                                                                Accelerated Reader

Hardy, Thomas                                 Tess of the D’Ubervilles                (5)                                          Accelerated Reader

Hawthorne, Nathaniel                   The House of the Seven Gables (1)                           Accelerated Reader

Heller, Joseph                                  Catch-22 (11)                                                                     Accelerated Reader

Hellman, Lillian                                  The Little Foxes (2)                                                          Dialectical Journal

Hellman, Lillian                                  Watch on the Rhine (1)                                                  Dialectical Journal

Hemingway, Ernest                         A Farewell to Arms (3)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Hemingway, Ernest                         For Whom the Bell Tolls (2)                                          Accelerated Reader

Hemingway, Ernest                        The Sun Also Rises (6)                                                    Accelerated Reader

Homer                                                  The Iliad (1)                                                                        Accelerated Reader

Homer                                                  The Odyssey (2)                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Hughes, Richard                               A High Wind in Jamaica (1)                                          Dialectical Journal

Hurston, Zora Neale                       Their Eyes Were Watching God (9)                          Accelerated Reader

Huxley, Aldous                                  Brave New World (2)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Hwang, David Henry                       M. Butterfly (1)                                                                 Dialectical Journal

Ibsen, Henrik                                    A Doll’s House (7)                                                            Accelerated Reader

Ibsen, Henrik                                    An Enemy of the People (6)                                         Dialectical Journal

Ibsen, Henrik                                     Ghosts  (2)                                                                          Dialectical Journal

Ibsen, Henrik                                    Hedda Gabler (6)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Ibsen, Henrik                                     Peer Gynt (1)                                                                     Dialectical Journal

Ibsen, Henrik                                     The Wild Duck (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Irving, John                                         Prayer for Owen Meany (1)                                         Accelerated Reader

Ishiguro, Kazuo                                 The Remains of the Day                (2)                                          Accelerated Reader

James, Henry                                     The American (2)                                                              Dialectical Journal

James, Henry                                     Daisy Miller (2)                                                                  Accelerated Reader

James, Henry                                     The Golden Bowl (1)                                                       Dialectical Journal

James, Henry                                    Portrait of a Lady (6)                                                      Accelerated Reader

James, Henry                                    The Turn of the Screw (6)                                              Accelerated Reader

James, Henry                                     Washington Square (1)                                                 Accelerated Reader

Jen, Gish                                              Typical American (3)                                                       Dialectical Journal

Johnson, James Weldon                               Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (2)                             Dialectical Journal

Jonson, Ben                                       Volpone (1)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Joyce,  James                                     A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (11)       Accelerated Reader

Kafka, Franz                                       Metamorphosis                (2)                                                         Accelerated Reader

Kafka, Franz                                       The Trial (3)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Kesey, Ken                                         One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1)                       Accelerated Reader

Kingston, Maxine Hong                 The Woman Warrior (2)                                                                Accelerated Reader

Knowles, John                                   A Separate Peace (2)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Kogawa, Joy                                       Obasan                (6)                                                                         Accelerated Reader

Lahiri, Jhumpa                                   The Namesake (1)                                                           Dialectical Journal

Laurence, Margaret                        The Diviners (1)                                                                 Dialectical Journal

Laurence, Margaret                        The Stone Angel               (2)                                                         Accelerated Reader

Lawrence, D. H.                                                Sons and Lovers               (2)                                                         Dialectical Journal

Lee, Chang-Rae                                                A Gesture Life (2)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Lee, Change-Rae                              Native Speaker (5)                                                          Dialectical Journal

Lewis, Sinclair                                    Main Street (1)                                                                  Accelerated Reader

Maclean, Norman                            A River Runs Through It (1)                                          Dialectical Journal

MacLeish, Archibald                        J.B. (2)                                                                                  Dialectical Journal

Mailer, Norman                                                The Armies of the Night                (1)                                          Dialectical Journal

Malamud, Bernard                          The Fixer (1)                                                                       Dialectical Journal

Marlowe, Christopher                   Doctor Faustus (4)                                                          Dialectical Journal

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia               One Hundred Years of Solitude (2)                            Accelerated Reader

Marshall, Paule                                 Praisesong for the Widow (1)                                     Dialectical Journal

McCarthy, Cormac                           All the Pretty Horses (5)                                                Accelerated Reader

McCarthy, Cormac                           The Crossing (1)                                                                                Dialectical Journal

McCullers, Carson                            The Member of the Wedding (2)                                               Accelerated Reader

McEwan, Ian                                      Atonement (1)                                                                  Dialectical Journal

Melville, Herman                             Benito Cereno (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Melville, Herman                            Moby Dick (15)                                                                 Accelerated Reader

Melville, Herman                            Billy Budd (11)                                                                  Accelerated Reader

Melville, Herman                             Redburn (1)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Miller, Arthur                                     All My Sons (2)                                                                  Dialectical Journal

Miller, Arthur                                    The Crucible (7)                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Milton, John                                       Paradise Lost (2)                                                              Dialectical Journal

Mistry, Rohinton                              A Fine Balance (1)                                                            Dialectical Journal

Moliere                                                                The Misanthrope (1)                                                       Dialectical Journal

Moliere                                                                Tartuffe (1)                                                                         Dialectical Journal

Momaday, N. Scott                         House Made of Dawn (2)                                             Accelerated Reader

Morrison, Toni                                  Beloved                (7)                                                         Accelerated Reader

Morrison, Toni                                  Song of Solomon (8)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Morrison, Toni                                  Sula (6)                                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Morrison, Toni                                  The Bluest Eye (2)                                                             Accelerated Reader

Mukherjee, Bharati                        Jasmine                (1)                                                                         Dialectical Journal

Murakami, Haruki                            Kafka on the Shore (1)                                                   Dialectical Journal

Nabokov, Vladimir                           Pale Fire (1)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Nabokov, Vladimir                           Pnin (1)                                                                                                Dialectical Journal

Naipaul, V.S.                                      A Bend in the River (1)                                                    Accelerated Reader

Naipaul, V.S.                                      Middle Passage (1)                                                         Dialectical Journal

Naylor, Gloria                                    The Women of Brewster Place (1)                             Dialectical Journal

Ng, Fae M.                                          Bone: A Novel (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Oates, Joyce Carol                           We Were the Mulvaneys (1)                                        Dialectical Journal

O’Brien, Tim                                       Going After Cacciato (2)                                                               Accelerated Reader

O’Brien, Tim                                       In the Lake of the Woods (1)                                       Accelerated Reader

O’Connor, Flannery                        Wise Blood (4)                                                                   Dialectical Journal

Okada, John                                       No-No Boy (1)                                                                   Dialectical Journal

Ondaatje, Michael                           Coming Through Slaughter (1)                                   Accelerated Reader

O’Neill, Eugene                                 Desire Under the Elms (1)                                             Dialectical Journal

O’Neill, Eugene                                 The Hairy Ape (2)                                                             Dialectical Journal

O’Neill, Eugene                                 Long Day’s Journey into Night (3)                             Dialectical Journal

Orwell, George                                 1984 (4)                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Pamuk, Orhan                                   Snow                                                                                     Dialectical Journal

Paine, Thomas                                  “The Crisis” (1)                                                                  Dialectical Journal

Paton, Alan                                        Cry, the Beloved Country (6)                                       Accelerated Reader

Petry, Ann                                          The Street (1)                                                                     Dialectical Journal

Pielmeier, John                                 Agnes of God (1)                                                              Dialectical Journal

Pinter, Harold                                    The Birthday Party (2)                                                    Dialectical Journal

Pinter, Harold                                    The Caretaker (1)                                                             Dialectical Journal

Pinter, Harold                                    The Homecoming (2)                                                      Dialectical Journal

Potok, Chaim                                     The Chosen (1)                                                                  Accelerated Reader

Potok, Chaim                                     My Name is Asher Lev (1)                                             Dialectical Journal

Proulx, Annie                                     The Shipping News (1)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Racine, Jean                                       Phaedre (2)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Rhys, Jean                                           Wide Sargasso Sea (5)                                                  Dialectical Journal

Richardson, Samuel                        Pamela (1)                                                                          Dialectical Journal

Richler, Mordecai                             Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1)                        Accelerated Reader

Rushdie, Salman                               The Moor’s Last Sigh (1)                                                               Dialectical Journal

Salinger, J.D.                                      The Catcher in the Rye (2)                                             Accelerated Reader

Sapphire                                              Push (1)                                                                               Dialectical Journal

Sartre, Jean Paul                              No Exit  (1)                                                                          Dialectical Journal

Shaffer, Peter                                   Equus (6)                                                                             Dialectical Journal

Shakespeare, William                     Anthony and Cleopatra (2)                                          Dialectical Journal

Shakespeare, William                     As You Like It (3)                                                               Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                     Henry IV, Parts I and II (3)                                            Dialectical Journal

Shakespeare, William                     Henry V (1)                                                                         Dialectical Journal

Shakespeare, William                     Julius Caesar (4)                                                                               Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                   King Lear (13)                                                                    Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                   Macbeth (5)                                                                       Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                   The Merchant of Venice (5)                                         Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                     Much Ado About Nothing (1)                                     Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                   Othello (8)                                                                          Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                     Richard III (1)                                                                     Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                   The Tempest (6)                                                                Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                     Twelfth Night (3)                                                              Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                     Midsummer Night’s Dream (1)                                  Accelerated Reader

Shakespeare, William                     Winter’s Tale (4)                                                               Accelerated Reader

Shaw, George Bernard                  Candida (1)                                                                        Dialectical Journal

Shaw, George Bernard                  Major Barbara  (4)                                                          Accelerated Reader

Shaw, George Bernard                  Man and Superman (1)                                                 Dialectical Journal

Shaw, George Bernard                  Mrs. Warren’s Profession (4)                                      Dialectical Journal

Shaw, George Bernard                  Pygmalion (3)                                                                    Accelerated Reader

Shaw, George Bernard                  Saint Joan (1)                                                                    Accelerated Reader

Smiley, Jane                                       A Thousand Acres (1)                                                     Dialectical Journal

Silko, Leslie Marmon                     Ceremony (9)                                                                     Dialectical Journal

Sinclair, Upton                                  The Jungle (7)                                                                    Dialectical Journal

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander                               A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1)                   Dialectical Journal

Spark, Muriel                                     The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (2)                             Dialectical Journal

Steinbeck, John                                                East of Eden (1)                                                                                Accelerated Reader

Steinbeck, John                                                The Grapes of Wrath (4)                                                               Accelerated Reader

Sterne, Laurence                             Tristram Shandy (1)                                                        Dialectical Journal

Stoppard, Tom                                  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (6)        Dialectical Journal

Stowe, Harriet Beecher                 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1)                                                    Accelerated Reader

Strindberg, August                          The Father (1)                                                                    Dialectical Journal

Swift, Jonathan                                                Gulliver’s Travels (5)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Tan, Amy                                             The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2)                                   Dialectical Journal

Tan, Amy                                             The Joy Luck Club (2)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Thoreau, Henry David                    “Civil Disobedience” (1)                                                 Dialectical Journal

Tolstoy, Leo                                       Anna Karenina (7)                                                           Accelerated Reader

Tolstoy, Leo                                        The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1)                                          Dialectical Journal

Trollope, Anthony                           The Warden (1)                                                                 Dialectical Journal

Trollope, Anthony                           The Way We Live Now (1)                                             Accelerated Reader

Turgenev, Ivan                                  Fathers and Sons (1)                                                      Dialectical Journal

Tyler, Anne                                         Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1)                   Accelerated Reader

Updike, John                                     The Centaur (1)                                                                 Dialectical Journal

Valdez, Luis                                        Zoot Suit (1)                                                                       Dialectical Journal

Villarreal, Jose Antonio                  Pocho (2)                                                                             Dialectical Journal

Virgil                                                      Aeneid (1)                                                                           Dialectical Journal

Voltaire                                               Candide (8)                                                                        Accelerated Reader

Vonnegut, Kurt                                 Slaughterhouse Five (2)                                                                Accelerated Reader

Walker, Alice                                    The Color Purple (8)                                                        Accelerated Reader

Warren, Robert Penn                    All the King’s Men (5)                                                    Accelerated Reader

Waugh, Evelyn                                  The Loved One  (1)                                                           Dialectical Journal

Welch, James                                    Winter in the Blood (1)                                                   Dialectical Journal

Welty, Eudora                                   Delta Wedding (1)                                                           Dialectical Journal

Welty, Eudora                                   The Optimist’s Daughter (1)                                        Accelerated Reader

West, Nathanael                              Miss Lonelyhearts (1)                                                     Dialectical Journal

Wharton, Edith                                 Age of Innocence (4)                                                      Accelerated Reader

Wharton, Edith                                 Ethan Frome (6)                                                               Accelerated Reader

Wharton, Edith                                 The House of Mirth (2)                                                   Accelerated Reader

Wideman, John Edgar (1)             Sent for You Yesterday (1)                                            Dialectical Journal

Wilde, Oscar                                       Lady Windermere’s Fan (1)                                          Dialectical Journal

Wilde, Oscar                                       The Picture of Dorian Gray (1)                                    Dialectical Journal

Wilder, Thornton                             Our Town (3)                                                                     Accelerated Reader

Williams, Tennessee                       Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1)                                              Dialectical Journal

Williams, Tennessee                     A Streetcar Named Desire (7)                                     Accelerated Reader

Williams, Tennessee                     The Glass Menagerie (8)                                              Accelerated Reader

Wilson, August                                  Fences (4)                                                                            Accelerated Reader

Wilson, August                                  Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (2)                                               Dialectical Journal

Wilson, August                                  The Piano Lesson (4)                                                       Accelerated Reader

Wolff, Tobia                                       Old School (1)                                                                    Dialectical Journal

Woolf, Virginia                                 Mrs. Dalloway (5)                                                           Accelerated Reader

Woolf, Virginia                                  Orlando: A Biography (1)                                             Dialectical Journal

Woolf, Virginia                                  A Room of One’s Own (1)                                             Accelerated Reader

Woolf, Virginia                                  To the Lighthouse (4)                                                     Accelerated Reader

Wright, Richard                                 Black Boy (2)                                                                      Accelerated Reader

Don’t wait!  Choose a book to begin reading right away so that you are not overwhelmed with reading at the end of the summer.  There are lots of GREAT choices here!  Have fun!

Dialectical Journals

In order to receive credit for choice books that are not available through Accelerated Reader, you will need to complete dialectical journals.  The dialectical journals should be completed AS YOU READ.  The dialectical journal gives you an opportunity to react to and reflect upon the text you are reading.  These reflections will be personal in nature- and should not mirror what is available through on-line resources. (i.e. Spark Notes)

I would like these journals to be completed and turned in to me when you return to school in the fall.  As you might imagine, reading is an important part of an AP Literature class, so these journals will be a significant part of your grade.  Take your time, think, and complete these journals thoroughly.  Please peruse the attached rubric so that you understand how these journals will be scored.

The dialectical journal should be formatted as follows:

Please provide a quotation (word for word) from the text on the left hand side.  The page number should be included in the middle.  Then, take time to reflect upon why you found this quotation interesting or important and write your response on the right hand side. 

Choose quotes that you find interesting, but be sure that you are choosing quotes from throughout the book- the beginning, the middle, and the end.

How should you respond to the text?

*Question- why did the author do this? (Be specific, and pose possible reasons)

*Clarify- I think the author is trying to convey… (Be specific, and give your reasoning)

*Discuss characterization (I don’t know if the author wants me to like this character or not because…)

*Discuss theme (This quote speaks to the theme of this work because…)

*Challenge (I think this author is off base- she doesn’t seem to understand that…)

*Discuss structure or style (This author is proving interesting because of his use of…)

*Discuss figurative language, imagery, symbolism, or tone (I find this passage fascinating because the author painted a picture of the setting when she…)

*React emotionally- but dig into how the author accomplished this.  (I was so sad after reading this passage.  The author really brought me in to the tragedy in her life by …)

*Your own way- as long as it is thought provoking and shows a close reading of the text

In this class it is imperative that you are an active reader.  It is not enough to read the words on a page and summarize what is happening.  You must dig in to the literature.  Think about it.  Talk about it.  React to it.  Question it.  And focus on what the author is doing stylistically to accomplish his/her desired effect.

A dialectical journal is a place for you to record this active reading.  In class we will discuss the texts that we read with each other.  Think of this journal as the conversation you are having with the text- because your classmates aren’t available to you over the summer, nor are they reading the same text as you.

The simplistic form of the grading scale is:

A = 15 entries per book

B= 12-15 entries per book

C= 9-12 entries per book

D or F = 8 entries or fewer

However, I say this is the simplistic form because, while the number of journal entries is important, the quality of the entries will also significantly impact your grade.  Please read the attached rubric carefully, and let me know if you have any questions.  I would like your dialectical journals to be submitted to me when you return in the fall so that I can see what reading you have completed over the summer.

Name: __________________________                                Reading: ___________________________

Total Points__________/30

Accelerated Reader

If a book that you choose to read for your summer reading requirement is available through Accelerated Reader, you may opt to take an Accelerated Reader test to earn credit.  Each book will still be worth 30 points toward your first quarter grade.  If you wish, you may complete a dialectical journal instead of taking the Accelerated Reader test. 

Accelerated Reader tests will be scored in the following manner:

100% = 30 points

95% = 29 points

90% = 28 points

85% = 26 points

80% = 25 points

75% = 23 points

70% = 22 points

65% = 20 points

Below 65% = 0 points

Accelerated Reader tests will need to be completed during the first week of school.