LTHS Summer Reading Study Packet English I Pre-AP 2017/18 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; ISBN: 0-446-31078-6 Please read this packet in its entirety (by doing so you may save yourself some work in the long run). Read the novel in its entirety. That is a REQUIREMENT. You will be be assessed on your comprehension and ability to draw inferences about the reading. However, the tasks in this p acket are NOT for a grade; they are only STRONGlY RECOMMENDED. Why Summer Reading? Summer reading is an invaluable part of education at Lake Travis High School. Students will read the novel during the summer and then participate in an study of the novel during the school year. We will build off of reading skills that students have mastered as eighth graders and use the novel to begin developing analysis skills. In other words, we will use the novel to review the reading skills of making inferences based off events in the text, the what-got-said before we move on to the ninth grade skill of analyzing the author s craft--the how -it-got-said. Failure to read the summer reading texts will place a student behind other students and require him/her to catch-up during the first few weeks of school. Because the transition to high school is difficult for most students, starting in a position where one has to play catch-up makes the entry into a new campus even more overwhelming. It is also important to keep the brain active over the summer. This eases the transition back to school and also creates a starting point in the school year. What students may expect in terms of assessment: A socratic seminar style discussion that assesses your comprehension of the reading as well as your ability to draw inferences from a text. Writing/analysis assignments (your ninth grade teacher will teach the writing skills) that will ask you to apply your knowledge of the text. A summer reading test that also assesses comprehension and ability to draw conclusions. As part of the test, you will be given a passage from the book to annotate, and the teacher will assess your ability to make inferences/conclusions on what is significant about a passage. (We will practice annotating, and models will be provided.)
Basic Tips: In order to be successful in your summer reading, please consider the following tips: Do not read the book at the beginning of the summer and not look at it again. Avoid Spark Notes, Cliffs Notes, Shmoop, and other online resources. If we are analyzing text, and your ideas come from these websites, that actually constitutes plagiarism. Besides, looking at these sites is not a substitute for reading the book, and relying on them will not increase your chances of demonstrating your reading skills. Do not rely on the movie version. It is not the complete text. Form a study group: Meet with other people who are taking Pre-AP and discuss the book. Create questions beforehand regarding the book and have discussions using the questions. Actively read. This means do not try to read between commercials. Make sure you are focused on your reading. Even if there are not a lot of distractions around, sometimes we end up looking at the words rather than truly reading; annotating will help you avoid this loss of focus. So, read with curiosity, and with a pen or pencil in hand, ready to annotate. Make summary notes after each chapter of: major characters involved, words that describe them, major plot events and conflicts, thematic ideas, what you think the author s purpose may be. And, consider giving each chapter a creative title this will help you remember and review each chapter s content. Take advantage of any opportunity provided by the ninth grade teachers to come in and review with the teacher (before school starts or in tutoring once school starts) Annotation Do s and Don ts: DO: Have your own book so that you may write in it. Use post-it notes or a notebook if you cannot write in your book. Write notes in addition to highlighting/underlining. See the next page for the type of things you should note. Look for and heavily annotate passages/paragraphs in the text that reveal the most important moments in the novel in terms of character development, conflict, and theme. Read the pages that follow and use the suggestions to help you in your annotation. DON T Underline/highlight without writing notes (that s not really annotating). Heavily annotate every. single. page. You will drive yourself crazy. Focus on important passages/paragraphs as mentioned above.
About Annotating ( TaraBantonPaulson, 2013) I. Learning to annotate is a process be patient with yourself, your reading, and me. II. Annotating is supposed to make information stand out d o not mark everything because, when looking for information later, you just have to reread everything again. Also, when you mark too much, it actually gets in the way of comprehension because it breaks up the flow of the content. There s a fine line between too much and too little. III. Annotating is very important. It does two things: 1) it makes you focus on the text when your mind might want to drift, thus improving comprehension and leading to processing on a deeper level, and 2) it makes it easier for writing later because it really cuts down on having to reread or search for information that you may want to use as evidence in your writing. IV. Not all annotating is alike. There are purposes for annotating just like there are purposes for writing. A. If you are reading something for the first time, for general understanding, then you would annotate it as a first reading. This means reading and marking items that stand out as being significant. This takes practice, and the better you become at analysis, the more those important things will stand out. These could be movements in plot, touching and very cool use of language, repetition of symbols (motifs) or diction, and so on. B. Write major plot points at the tops of pages so that they are easy to find later, if needed for writing. C. Recognize the difference between what is called bridging material and crafted material. Bridging material refers to those pages in a major work that bridge between major scenes. When an author wants to simply advance plot, the reading moves rather quickly, and the readers feel as if they are moving quickly with the reading. When an author has carefully crafted a section, the reading all but stops. The text becomes so rich in meaning and language becomes so complex that the reader is forced to slow down and pay attention. These sections within a large work are going to have a lot of annotations versus the bridging sections. Crafted passages can be and are often isolated as pieces for close reading and analysis.
D. Annotating for nonfiction means reading and marking what I call testable information. For each of your teachers/professors, depending on their focus, this will be different. This means that you need to get good at reading your instructors. For some subjects (for example, history), dates, specific names and places, and other more detailed information may be the focus and therefore testable. For others (like English), categorical and thematic concepts might be the focus. Part of becoming a strong student is learning to understand purpose, whether in reading, writing, speaking, or annotating. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What should you mark in your book? - Questions : If you wonder why something happens or what the purpose of something is, write the question in the margin. - Interpretations : When reading a tricky passage, it is best to re-phrase the meaning in just a few words. - Foreshadowing : If an event in the book helps you to predict what may happen later, make a note of it. - Tone : The author s attitude toward something. How a character feels. - Mood : How a scene or description makes you (the reader) feel. - Symbols: Does any object in the book have a figurative meaning? i.e.: the color red is symbolic of festivities and good fortune, or life and energy. - Literary Devices : You will learn many more literary device terms next year, but you can look for what you already know i.e.: simile, metaphor, imagery, personification, repetition, parallelism, etc. And ALWAYS consider what the purpose of this device is. Emphasis is NOT a great answer. Your annotations should include why the author chose to write that statement THAT way. - Basic Plot : At the top of each page, write 2-5 words summarizing what happens on that page. This will allow you to easily scan your book to find quotations and/or specific parts of the book we are discussing or writing about in class. - Theme : A message, lesson or idea that is apparent in the book. Most works have several themes. For example, loyalty, injustice, prejudice, courage, etc. - Traits that make the characters stand out (physical, emotional, intellectual, etc.)
Characters: To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that is particularly rich in character development. One of the best ways to remember everything that happened in the novel is to keep track of all the characters, major and minor, who they are and what they stand for. Here is a list for you to make notes: Atticus Finch Scout Finch Jem Finch Miss Maudie Aunt Alexandra Mr. Underwood Mr. Nathan Radley Miss Caroline Mr. Heck Tate Link Deas Grace Merriweather Dill Zeebo Uncle Jack Walter Cunningham Walter Cunningham, Jr. Miss Stephanie Crawford
Mr. Avery Mr. Gilmer Tom Robinson Robert Ewell Calpurnia Cecil Jacobs Arthur Boo Radley Mrs. Dubose Mayella Ewell Judge Taylor Helen Robinson Burris Ewell Reverend Sykes Lula Francis Miss Gates Miss Rachel Dolphus Raymond
Theme & Thematic Ideas: A THEME is a universal truth implied by a novel. We will try to identify some of these truths in our study of To Kill a Mockingbird. Your ninth grade teacher will also review/teach you how to craft theme statements once the school year starts. A THEMATIC IDEA (not the same as theme) is a big idea word/concept that will help lead us to theme. Thematic ideas are easy to identify and a good start towards understanding theme. For instance, Individuality is thematic idea/concept in Lowis Lowry s novel The Giver. (You cannot say, though, that Individuality is a theme in The Giver. A theme in The Giver goes something like this: In The Giver, Lowry warns that when a society seeks safety and harmony through removing individual choice, it also removes all the joy of living. In the space below, list thematic ideas/concepts that emerge in To Kill a Mockingbird. We can use these words later as we work on constructing theme statements.