Weekend Reading Assignment

"Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?"  ~Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

Read the following article: "Why You Should Read Poetry...Yes, Poetry"

Due: Monday, December 12

Test One Study Guide

Know the following terms/concepts:

Creation story/origin myth, oral tradition, observational journal, hyperbole, Puritan Plain Style, constitution, autobiography, bias, subjectivity vs. objectivity, lyrical poetry, Puritanism, writer’s purpose/goal, description, self help narratives, plot, inciting incident, plot complication, rising action, climax, falling action, Freytag’s Pyramid, resolution, conflict (internal and external), characterization (direct and indirect), flat characters, round characters, stock characters, stereotypes, dynamic characters, static characters.

Know the following works of literature:

The Iroquois Constitution

The Navajo Creation Story

Anne Bradstreet, “To My Deare and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of Her House”

Christopher Columbus, The Journal of the First Voyage to America

Ben Franklin, The Autobiography

John Smith, The General History of Virginia

Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World

Arthur Miller, The Crucible

Quarter Reading Assignment (100 Points Per Quarter)

All of the studies suggest that students who read frequently tend to read, write, and converse on a level that infrequent readers struggle to reach.  For this reason, you are required to read at least 600 pages on your own each quarter.  As a part of this requirement, you need to read one classic each quarter which is at least 100 pages in length. 

With the exception of the classic requirement, the books that you read are entirely up to you.  However, I will not accept children’s books, magazines, comics, graphic novels (there are a few exceptions), technical manuals, film novelizations, or books from other classes.  When in doubt, clear your book with me!

Procedure/Book Talks:

When you finish a book you must meet with me to discuss the reading.  You must bring your book with you to this meeting so that I can record your pages and enter your book into Accelerated Reader.  In this brief meeting (four to five minutes), I will ask questions related to plot, characterization, setting, and, of course, your reaction to the story. I will occasionally allocate class time for book talks, but do not count on it!  I am usually available before school, at lunch, and after school. 

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!

Junior Reading List: American Classics

The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper*

This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald*

The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway*

The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck*

The Call of the Wild or White Fang, London*

In Cold Blood, Capote

Moby Dick, Melville*

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving

The House of the Seven Gables or The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne*

My Antonia or Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather*

Huck Finn, Twain*

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey

Invisible Man, Ellison

Walden or “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau

The Red Badge of Courage, Crane

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston

The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe

Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut

The Age of Innocence, Wharton

The Ox-Bow Incident, Clark

The Jungle, Sinclair

Little Women, Alcott

Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury

The Things They Carried, O’Brien

The Good Earth, Buck

As I Lay Dying, Faulkner*

Daisy Miller, James

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe

Housekeeping, Robinson

A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry

The Glass Menagerie, Williams

Black Boy, Wright

Go Tell it on the Mountain, Baldwin

Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson

Band of Brothers, Ambrose

All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy

Killer Angels, Shaara

The Bean Trees, Kingsolver

The House on Mango Street, Cisneros

*Anything by this author will be counted as a classic