Summer 2017 Assignment AP English Literature & Composition

Dear Students (IMPORTANT -- PLEASE READ): 

Welcome to AP Lit! It is a very rewarding course!  Because of the high level of skill and knowledge we want to reach during the school year, this summer assignment is designed to prepare you in advance so we can hit the ground running. It is also important that you demonstrate the strong work ethic that will be required to succeed in the course; therefore, all elements of this summer assignment must be completed and turned in on the first day of class.  

To provide you with some helpful tips and background info on the novels, I will share a Google Doc with you -- check your school e-mail by June 16. 

If you have any questions during the summer, feel free to contact me at lmaffei@lawrencewoodmere.org. Good luck with your quest! χ “Every trip is a quest. (Except when it’s not.)” - Thomas Foster

Sincerely, Ms. Maffei

Part 1: Analyzing Fiction & Drama

A. Buy, read, and annotate How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster. Especially annotate for key ideas and connections you can make to literature you have read. {Note: Do not worry that you haven’t read all the books or stories he refers to. Neither have I. He makes his points understandable anyway.} Create a set of notes from How to Read Literature Like a Professor. These should be in outline form and typed, 1-3 pages. Think of it as a “cheat sheet” you are creating for yourself so that you remember the concepts from the book.

B. Buy, read, and annotate The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Especially annotate for any connections you can make to concepts in Foster’s book. Write a brief analysis (1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced, 12pt Cambria or Times New Roman) in which you apply one of Foster’s concepts to The Great Gatsby. Use at least two direct quotations to support your point. Paraphrase other specific evidence.

C. Buy, read, and annotate A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Especially annotate

for any connections you can make to concepts in Foster’s book. Write a brief analysis (1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced, 12pt Cambria or Times New Roman) in which you apply one of Foster’s concepts to The Great Gatsby. Use at least two direct quotations to support your point. Paraphrase other specific evidence.

PLEASE CONTINUE →

Part 2: Analyzing Poetry

I’ll teach you a lot about how to read poetry during the school year. For now, dip your toes by doing this brief practice analysis on the poem “Out, out--” by Robert Frost. (Do your analysis on the attached page, to hand in.)

A. First, just read the poem twice to get used to it. Tip: Keep reading until you hit a period -- don’t pause at the end of every line or it won’t make sense.

B. Then read it and annotate it for any of the following poetic devices you might notice--and feel free to point out any you see in the poem that are not on this list:

Alliteration - repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds at the beginnings of words

Allusion - direct or indirect reference to something commonly known Diction - choice of words (for denotative or connotative meanings) Imagery - sensory details: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste Onomatopoeia - word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning Personification - giving human attributes to animals or inanimate objects Understatement - ironic minimalizing of fact; presenting something as less significant

than it is.

C. Finally, write a paragraph describing the effects of these devices and how they help convey the meaning of the poem, as you understand it.

Part 3: Beginning Your Ongoing Glossary of Terms

You’ll be building a personal glossary of literary terms throughout the year. I recommend creating your glossary as a Google Doc so you can easily add to it later. Let’s start it off with five interesting ones you may or may not have heard of. Keep them in alphabetical order for now -- later, when you have more, you can arrange them into categories if you wish. Look them up; include a definition and an example: apostrophe (not the punctuation mark), enjambment, metonymy, synecdoche, synesthesia

SUMMARY/CHECKLIST — Turn in on the first day of class:

Books: ▢ Annotated How to Read Literature Like a Professor ▢ Annotated The Great Gatsby ▢ Annotated A Raisin in the Sun

Writing--In a 2-pocket folder, please: ▢ Typed notes on How to Read Literature Like a Professor ▢ Typed analysis of Gatsby ▢ Typed analysis of Raisin ▢ Poem annotations & analysis ▢ Glossary (printout of your Google Doc)

AP Lit Summer Poem Analysis  Name:_________________________  

Out, Out— by Robert Frost (American, 1916) The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, As it ran light, or had to bear a load. And nothing happened: day was all but done. Call it a day, I wish they might have said To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work. His sister stood beside him in her apron To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap— He must have given the hand. However it was, Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh, As he swung toward them holding up the hand Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all— Since he was old enough to know, big boy Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart— He saw all spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off— The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’ So. But the hand was gone already. The doctor put him in the dark of ether. He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright. No one believed. They listened at his heart. Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it. No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

 

⇑Annotate on this page. Write your analysis paragraph on the back (or attached it typed, if you prefer.) ⇒