2011 Summer Reading List

SOUTH COBB 2011-12

 

Greetings South Cobb families! Below you will find the list of reading options for the 2011-2012 school year. Please note that for each grade level, we suggest students read at least 2 of the reading selections (each selection should come from a different genre) [fiction, informational fiction, drama, poetry]. Students in Honors and Advanced Placement courses are expected to read a minimum of 3 selections.

 

Rising 9th Graders	Rising 10th Graders	Rising 11th Graders	Rising 12th Graders
9th Grade Literature   Fiction - The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Beloved by Toni Morrison (Honors) - Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper - The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper - The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake - Ironman by Chris Crutcher - Twilight (any of the series) by Stephanie Meyer - Jesse by Gary Soto - Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes  -The Odyssey by Homer - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -My Sisters Keeper by Jodie Piccoult -The Book Thief  by Marcus Zusak -A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin -"The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol -"The Gift of the Magi," by O. Henry     Poetry: -"Sonnet 73" by William Shakespeare -"Song" by John Donne -"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley -"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe -"We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" by Emily Dickinson -"Loveliest of Trees" by A.E. Houseman -"Lift Every Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson   Drama: -The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by  William Shakespeare -The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams     Informational Text - 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Stephen Covey - The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence - To Be a Slave by Julius Lester -The Declaration of -Independence by Thomas Jefferson -"Speech to the Second Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry -"Second Inaugural Address" by Abraham Lincoln -"State of the Union Address" by Franklin Delano Roosevelt -"I Am an American Day Address" by Learned Hand -"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou -"Hope, Despair and Memory" by Elie Wiesel Nobel Lectures in Peace 1981--90 -"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" by Dee Brown -"Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn" by Evan S. Connell -"The Story of Art" by 16th Edition, E.H. Gombrich -"Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World" by Mark Kurlansky -"Black, Blue and Gray: African Americans in the Civil War" by Jim Haskins -"The Longitude Prize" by Joan Dash -"The Illustrated Book of Great Composers" by Wendy Thompson -"Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491" by Charles C. Mann	World Literature   Fiction - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - Siddhartha by Herman Hesse or Narcissus and Goldmund by Hesse - A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway - Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper - The Color Purple- by Alice Walker - Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Stowe - Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - Native Son by Richard Wright - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishamael Beah - Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini -The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan -In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Álvarez -Angela’s Ashes Frank McCourt     Drama: - The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles -Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco -Master Harold . . . and the Boys by Athol Fugard     Informational Text - Wouldn’t Take Nothin’ for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou - In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden  by Alice Walker - It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong - Daily Newspaper   (Current Events) -Remarks to the Senate in Support of a Declaration of Conscience by Margaret Chase Smith -Elements by Euclid -Classifying the Stars Annie J. Cannon -Biography of an Atom by Millicent Selsam and Jacob Bronowski -Amusement Park Physics by Jearl Walker -Life by the Numbers by Keith Devlin -The Race to Save Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose -The Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim -Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe by Nicholas Nicastro	American Literature   Fiction - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd    - Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller - Moby Dick by Herman Mellville - Every Time a Rainbow Dies by Rita Williams-Garcia - Slam! by Walter Dean Myers - The Afterlife by Gary Soto -The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald -As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner -Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Huston -The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow -The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison -Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia     Drama: -Death of a Salesman  by Arthur Miller -A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry     Poetry: -“A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne -"Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman -"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson -"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost -"The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica" by Judith Cofer Ortiz     Informational Text - Daily Newspaper (Current Events) - Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser - African American Troops in WWII by Alexander Bielowski - They Tell Me of a Home by Daniel Black -The American Language, 4th Edition, H.L. Mencken -Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville -Declaration of Sentiments by the Seneca Falls Conference -What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?: An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on 5 July 1852," Frederick Douglass -Education by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann -What They Fought For 1861—1865 by James M. McPherson -America's Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar -1776 by  David McCullough -Mirror of the World: A New History of Art by Julian Bell -FedViews by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco -Black Boy by Richard Wright -Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth by Richard Hofstadter -Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. -The Crisis by Thomas Paine -Walden by Henry David Thoreau -Society and Solitude by Ralph Waldo Emerson -Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln -Lee Surrenders to Grant, April 9th, 1865 by Horace Porter -The Fallacy of Success by G.K. Chesterton       AP Language and Composition   - Brave New World by  Aldous Huxley - The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (Yale) –See attached assignment - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser (with new afterword), - Life of Pi by Yann Martel	All Senior Literature   Informational Text: Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulos -Gravity in Reverse: The Tale of Albert Einstein's 'Greatest Blunder by Neil deGrasse -Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching 2nd Edition, Rael Dornfest and Tara Calishain The Mysteries of Mass by Gordon Kane -Working Knowledge: Electronic Stability Control by Mark Fischetti -The Coming Merger of Mind and Machine by Ray Kurzweil Untangling the Roots of Cancer by Wayt W. Gibbs -The Cost Conundrum: Health Care Costs in McAllen, Texas by Atul Gawande -Politics and the English Language by George Orwell     British Literature   Fiction - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen - The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy - David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Beowulf by Seamus Heaney - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde -The Tragedy of Macbeth byWilliam Shakespeare -The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats     Multicultural Literature - The Chosen by Chaim Potok                  - Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko                 - Life of Pi by Yann Martel - Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez      -The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri  -Home by Anton Chekhov -Mother Tongue by Amy Tan -Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry by Rudolfo Anaya         AP Literature - The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - 1984 by George Orwell - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

 

The South Cobb High School English department aligns its summer reading list with the Common Core Standards derived from the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.  Additional texts have also been added per teacher recommendation.

Top Ten Project List: One project is suggested for each reading selection.  If you are enrolled in an Advanced Placement class you should engage in one of the assignments at the bottom of the sheet specifically given for your class.

 

1. 1.       Book Summary - Write a summary of the novel from one character’s point-of-view (500- 700 words).  At the end of the summary, a personal critique should be offered.
2. 2.       Compare/Contrast - Write an essay in which you compare and/or contrast this novel with the film version of this book OR with a novel by the same or different author (300-500 words).  Consider why certain scenes were left out of added, and why things were presented in the movie differently than you imagined when reading the book
3. 3.       F.Y.I. - Research a topic connected to your novel and create an informational brochure. Be sure to include a Works Cited page (found on Cobb County District Website: Research Paper) of your sources.
   1. 4.       Interview - After studying a written interview in a newspaper or magazine, write a fictional interview between you and a character from the book (two pages).
   2. 5.       Letter - Compose a letter to the author of the book. Use business letter format and address specifics from the novel (250-500 words).
   3. 6.       Newspaper Article - Study a news article to familiarize yourself with the format and write a detailed news article about an event from the book. Include a heading and the 5 W’s—Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
   4. 7.       Review - Write a book review of your summer reading selection. Find examples of other book reviews in a newspaper, magazine, or on-line to use as a template for your work (300-500 words).
   5. 8.       Storyboard - Create a story board that depicts important scenes from the book as they might be included in a film.
   6. 9.       X-ray - Look beyond the literal meaning and write an essay about the theme, specific symbolism, imagery, figurative language, and/or allegory of your summer reading selection (300-500 words).

 

AP Language

Summer Reading Projects:

*The projects listed below should be completed in place of the projects listed above.

   

1.  The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (Yale)

Project: Keep a journal, summarizing each chapter, and explaining the style, structure, and techniques of the writer.  Each entry should be 2-3 well-developed paragraphs.

2.  The Kiterunner by Khaled Hosseini

Project: Keep a journal, summarizing each chapter, and explaining the writer's style, structure, and techniques. Each entry should be 2-3 well-developed paragraphs.

3.  Read 5 speeches of your choice from the "Top 100 Speeches" on the website, AmericanRhetoric.com.

Project: Write several paragraphs, explaining the content and strategies used by each writer/speaker.  Then write a 1-2 page typed essay, explaining which of the 5 speeches was most effective and why (be specific).

.

 

NOTE: You should wait to purchase other novels for the class, which will be read during the semester, until the school year starts, and your teacher confirms them.

 

South Cobb families…here are a few tips to help your child(ren) have a successful summer in reading:

 

• For vocabulary development, ask your child to keep a word log to record unfamiliar and/or interesting words discovered while reading the book:

 

•  
  1. Write each word
  2. Using context clues, try to figure out the meaning of the word.
  3. Look up the dictionary definition.
  4. Identify the parts of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.).
  5. Write an original sentence with each new word using context clues.

 

• For help with reading comprehension, ask your child to think about the book  and talk to you about any, or all, of the following:

1. Which character do you like the best and why?
2. Which character did you like the least and why?
3. Why did the author use this setting for the story?
4. What more do you know after reading the story?
5. What do you feel about what you read?
6. What else does it make you think about?
7. What questions do you have for the author?

• For other reading tips in addition to these, please visit these websites:

www.readingrockets.org/org/article/385

www.seedsofknowledge.com/reading4.html