Summer Assignments

Dear Soon-to-be Honors English 9 Student:

The 2024-25 Honors 9 English teachers wish for students to read over this coming summer. This desire is based on the English department’s philosophy that students will, among other things: 

• Read multiple perspectives to deepen insights into both new and familiar cultures
• Develop a lifelong appreciation and enjoyment of reading
• Challenge themselves with appropriately rigorous texts

Assignment: choose one memoir from the list below to read and write three paragraphs about your book per the description below. In your writing, be specific! Saying a lot about two details is better than briefly mentioning seven details. Format your document according to MLA format guidelines. For a title, use “Honors English 9 Summer Reading.” 

In the first paragraph, reflect on the reading, including personal connections you have or can make to the figures and events in the book as well as what you learned from the book, whether that is something about yourself, about people, or about an aspect of history/geography/culture/etc.

In the second paragraph, share 3-5 pieces of information about the author and the culture(s) portrayed in the book. Use the internet or library resources to research details about the author’s own background and learn more factual information about people, places, traditions, or history presented through the narrative(s) in the book. 

In the third paragraph, explore one or more of the questions below. Use what you learned from your research and your reading of the book to generate your ideas.

• How authentically does the author portray multiple perspectives? How do you know? 

• How multidimensionally does the author portray culture(s)? How do you know?

• In what ways does the author integrate cultural details? Are the details accurate and current?

Your schedule will be released late in the summer and could always shift, so we strongly recommend you complete your reading and writing before the school year begins no matter what your schedule says. A memoir is a first-person nonfiction narrative, usually focusing on a specific time period or particular aspect of the author’s life. The books you may select from are below:

Book Options:

• I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda

• Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

• El Deafo by Cece Bell

• A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly

• The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Boy Erased by Garrard Conley

• Finding Me by Viola Davis

• A Drop of Midnight by Jason Diakite

• A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Lee Dugard

• Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes

• Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

• Return to Auschwitz by Kitty Hart

• Fifty Miles from Tomorrow by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley

• Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill

• The Kikuchi Diary by Charles Kikuchi

• All But My Life by Gerda Weisman Klein

• Stolen by Ann-Helen Laestadius

• H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald

• The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

• Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

• Tomboy by Liz Prince

• Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card by Sara Saedi

• A List of Things that Didn’t Kill Me by Jason Schmidt 

• Stitches by David Small

• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

• I Love Yous Are for White People by Lac Su

• Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado

• How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

• Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

• Educated by Tara Westover

• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson

• Black Boy by Richard Wright

Do Not Read list (memoirs that are already in the EP curriculum):

• Night by Elie Wiesel

• Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah

• Apple by Eric Ganson

• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

• When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

• Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

• The Color of Water by James McBride

• Persepolis I or II  by Marjane Satrapi

• Solito by Javier Zamora

In class we will read Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night about his experiences during the Holocaust and write a short narrative that may be memoir-based. Your summer reading will tie to both of these units in the course.

We hope you enjoy your book and encourage you to read more beyond this assignment. We look forward to meeting all of you next school year.

Sincerely,

Alex Bauer, Kelsey Cornwell, and Linda Wallenberg, Honors English 9 Teachers

abauer@edenpr.org, kcornwell@edenpr.org, lwallebenberg@edenpr.org 

***Many of these titles are available at the EPHS Media Center and Hennepin County Library.

Summer Reading Assignment
Honors English 10 & AP Seminar
2024-2025

The purpose of reading the novel over the summer is to prepare you to make connections to literature we will read and discuss throughout the course.  After the first few weeks of Honors English 10, you will write a short comparison essay about your choice novel and another text read in class, noting similarities and/or differences. You will have time to prepare notes that will help you compare these texts.  You will be given one class period to write two paragraphs comparing the two novels.

Assignment: Read a BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE

1. Cannot be a novel you have previously read
2. 200 pages MINIMUM
3. Lexile level of 800 or greater (Google or Amazon search the title to find this information)
4. ABSOLUTELY NO BOOKS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE INTO MOVIES!
5. NO GRAPHIC NOVELS

Questions can be directed to any of the following Honors English 10 teachers:

Mrs. Beutz - Kari_Beutz@edenpr.k12.mn.us

Mr. Organ - Todd_Organ@edenpr.k12.mn.us

Mr. Yun - Joseph_Yun@edenpr.k12.mn.us

Dr. Fullmer - Kathryn_Fullmer@edenpr.k12.mn.us (AP Seminar)

Summer Reading for English: AP Language and Composition (2024-2025)

Read Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs

How to get the book: You can check out a copy of Thank You for Arguing at the media center front desk before the end of the year. Additionally, you could buy a copy of your own, borrow one from a former student, or check a copy out from another library. There are multiple editions of the book, but you do not have to have the most current edition.

ADDING THIS BOOK TO YOUR FUN SUMMER PLANS IS WORTHWILE BECAUSE . . .
Please get some sunscreen and some camping dirt on your book—that will mean that you opened it during the summer. The reading will open some mental doors for your own exploration of persuasive communication, and you will have a better experience in the class if you learn about verbal jujitsu from Heinrichs now. When we start class, you will already be observing the world through a rhetorical lens, and we’ll all be able to jump in with some common vocabulary.

TASK #1 Read and summarize the book

• For each of the four main categories—Offense, Defense, Advanced Offense, and Advanced Agreement—write a ½ page summary. You will write four summaries. Do not summarize each chapter; instead, write an overview capturing the main ideas of the entire category.

TASK #2 Choose one chapter from each category and write a ½ page reflection (four total)

• Use any combination of the following to reflect on applications for Heinrich’s ideas about persuasion: your strengths and weaknesses, your personal experience, how you could apply the information to your writing, what makes sense, what is still confusing, and what you want to explore further.

Your assignment should be typed as a single document. A work cited page and parenthetical references are not required, but you do need to reference specific ideas and examples from the text to support your summary and reflection. Your work will be due the second day of class. If you have class 2nd semester, your work will be due on the second day of 2nd semester. The grading for this work is formative.

If you have questions about the reading or the assignment, you can email Mrs. Nebeker (lnebeker@edenpr.k12.mn.us). She will check email at least once a week during the summer.

We look forward to a great semester!
Mrs. Nebeker & Ms. Strand

The following are the two required novels for AP Literature English 12:

1. REQUIRED NOVEL FOR ALL: Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
2. CHOICE NOVEL OF THESE TWO: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving OR Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

HOW TO ACCESS THE NOVELS:

You need to use actual book copies of the novels. You may check out the two novels prior to the end of the school year in the EPHS Library OR purchase your own copies at a local bookstore or online. You may choose any edition of these novels.

The following documents are needed for the 2024-2025 AP English summer assignment:

• AP Literature Letter of Introduction to the Course and Explanation of Summer Assignment
• AP Summer Reading Rubrics
• AP Lit Short Answer Questions and Writing Sample (WORD doc.)
• Dobie's Reading & Writing article
• WA 1 Quote Pondering Journal

---

DUE DATES AND HOW TO TURN IN THE SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENTS:

Regardless if your AP Lit course runs first or second semester, the following assignments are due the FIRST FRIDAY of your assigned class.

2024-2025 DEADLINES:

• First semester: September 6, 2024
• Second semester: January 31, 2025

a. The two annotated AP Lit Summer Reading Novels (and any accompanying notes):

1. REQUIRED NOVEL FOR ALL: Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
2. CHOICE NOVEL OF THESE TWO: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving OR Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

b. WA 1 Quote Pondering Journal

c. AP Lit Short Answer Questions and Writing Sample (WORD doc.)

---

Contact: Linda Wallenberg.