English IV Gifted

BE A MIGHTY LION...READ!          SUMMER READING FUN ~ Seniors 2010-2011 It is probably to your advantage to keep a reading journal. You will need this information later in the year and your journal may be checked. You may have a reading check test on all of your summer readings as soon as you return. Do not limit your reading to just this list. What is most important is that you read as much literature as you can which at once stirs your imagination and challenges your intellect! Long experience with College Board examinations has shown that success in college, even for mathematics and science students, depends largely on “verbal skills” – ability to understand and use words. Starred(*) books are required reading. Plus(+)books will be studied during your senior year. READING THE PLUS(+)BOOKS DURING THE SUMMER WILL ELIMINATE SOME OF THE STRESS YOU WILL HAVE DURING YOUR SENIOR YEAR. All of these novels are wonderful! * BEOWULF – Burton Raffel Translation  We will begin your senior year studying this. THIS IS A MUST FOR ALL SENIORS IN GIFTED ENGLISH IV. Read just before school begins. An epic tale of a warrior. * HAMLET or KING LEAR By William Shakespeare. Only one required .   Hamlet comes to term with life, keeps his integrity....Lear...our only hope is to be kind to one another. THE STRANGER  by Albert Camus    A pointless murder forces the narrator into a existential search for meaning. * JANE EYRE By Charlotte Bronte.   A plain governess finds love in this suspenseful gothic melodrama.  CONFESSIONS  by St. Augustine. Believed to be the first Western autobiography. * THE POWER AND THE GLORY By Graham Greene. Explores corruption and atonement. Incredible! CAT’S EYE By Margaret Atwood. Explores childhood friendships and artistic creativity and much, much more! OF HUMAN BONDAGE By W.Sommerset Maugham. GREAT! An orphan, though thinking himself a blighted outsider, moves toward love and success. +FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley. Does the pursuit of knowledge have limits? WURTHERING HEIGHTS By Emily Bronte WOW! Passion, revenge, and the supernatural arise on the harsh Yorkshire moors. REBECCA By Daphine duMarier SPINE TINGLING! TOM JONES By Henry Fielding DELIGHTFUL…YOU WILL LOVE IT! The adventures of a flawed English Everyman show the customs of the era. + CRIME AND PUNISHMENT By Feodor Dostoevsky. Does the extraordinary man have to play by the same rules as everyone else? DR. ZHIVAGO AND/OR ANNA KARENINA By Boris Pasternak Life torn apart! By Leo Tolstoy TIME magazine named this novel "the greatest novel ever written." MADAM BOVARY By Gustave Flaubert. Emma, bored in the provinces, disastrously plays out her romantic ambitions. THE PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN  or ULYSSES By James Joyce A semi-autobiographical novel. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE By Jane Austen. Two independent spirits tangle with society's expectations. PARADISE LOST By John Milton– A wonderful read! It may stir your thought process! This reading list brings wishes for a wonderful summer for each of you. We hope next year, 2010-11, will find each of you wise and wonderful, bright and beautiful, diligent and delightful.  Remember WHITE RABBIT on Monday, June 1; Wednesday,July 1; Saturday, August 1.

SUMMER READING ESSAY  From your Summer Reading Fun List you are to complete a writing assignment. Select a novel(not Beowulf OR The Power and the Glory) from the English IV list. This essay will  be due the FIRST DAY of school. WE DO NOT accept late papers(only students who have just entered the program may arrange for a later due date). We have included several topics for your essay writing pleasure. The choice is yours. Your paper must have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE A PLOT SUMMARY. Use support (direct quotations) from the novel for the points you wish to make. Document quotes according to MLA requirements. DO NOT WRITE ABOUT BEOWULF or THE POWER AND THE GLORY. We have made the topics as simple as possible.   I. Examine an author’s treatment of relationships with emphasis on friendship. II. Select a novel and discuss the symbolic aspects of the work  III. Discuss the setting of a novel and how it parallels the development of the main character. IV. Select one novel and discuss the use of foils to develop the main characters. V. Name and discuss at least two conflicts in a novel. Include the cause and result of each conflict as well as details about each. VI. Show how the theme “a man can be destroyed but not defeated” applies to a particular novel. These give you a wide variety of choices for one essay. Happy Reading and Writing! See you in August with your essay in hand.    BE SURE TO DOUBLE SPACE. Use support correctly. Any Charles Dickens’novels would be a good book for you to read this summer or a Shakespeare comedy or history! HEART OF DARKNESS by Conrad would be a good choice. Most of the novels will be discussed in class. Write good book briefs that will “refresh” your memory. REMEMBER, reading these books during the summer will eliminate some of the STRESS you will have during your Senior year. In the Spring Time, seniors choose to miss class time for various activities. So read NOW! The Senior year is an extremely busy one. You will be working on college deadlines and scholarship applications as well as all of the activities at school. Leisure time does not exist and we take no prisoners! READ NOW!     A good source for literary awareness as you read -- Reading Log Page (see pull down menu above) and the questions recommended by the National Council of Teachers of English http://lionsread.com/id14.html