Senior English

Required Reading for Twelfth Grade College Prep and Honors Students (L304 and L404)

All students must read one book from the list below.  An in-class assessment will be required during the first week of school.  You are expected to take notes on the characters, plot, and author’s writing style while reading the selected books.  Include at least three reflections that document your personal reaction to the novel.  This will be checked upon your return to school in September.

ANGELS AND DEMONS  by Dan Brown 

LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold

THE GLASS CASTLE  by Jeannette Walls 

THE LIGHT OF FALLING STARS by J. Robert Lennon

Required Summer Reading for Honors Twelfth Grade Students (L404)

In addition to a book chosen from the list above, all twelfth grade Honors students must read one of the following three books by J. Maarten Troost

• Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid
• The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
• Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu

A test/writing assignment on the book will be given during the first week of school.  You are expected to take notes on the characters, plot, and author’s writing style while reading the selected books.  Include at least three reflections that document your personal reaction to the novel.  This will be checked upon your return to school in September. 

*Students must complete the summer reading assignment to remain in Honors English.

Required Summer Reading for Senior Advanced Placement Literature (L548)*

The following three reading selections are required reading for the summer.

MACBETH by William Shakespeare

THE LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

THE ODYSSEY by Homer (We recommend the edition written by Preston Epps, published by Macmillan, 1965, or the new translation by Robert Fagles, published by Penguin Books, 1996.  There are many other good translations and some that are very difficult to read.  If you try one, and it seems too hard, you may want to look for a better translation—all are long, however.  Be prepared.)

 As you read both books, keep a JOURNAL of your responses to the readings.  In your journal, record the main events, but only as those events relate to the theme and the author’s writing style.  Avoid strict plot summary!!! Also include comments on the characters, your personal evaluation of the work, and most importantly, note the writing style, literary techniques used, and concerns of the author.  You should record enough details so that you can remember important names and events. You should type and save the journals for submission to Turnitin.com when you return to school.  You will use these journal entries for review and as notes for the assignments for the books in September.

When you return in September, you will have a test on details from the three required readings.  This will be a simple check test to see that you have done the reading.  Then you will write essays on the books.  They will be typical AP essay questions. 

*Students who do not complete the summer assignments will be dropped from the AP class.