12th grade AP English Literature and Composition

2016 Summer Reading

This assignment is designed to help you prepare for college and the AP exam, where skills developed by avid
reading are essential. Only the well-read student can respond intelligently to the open essay question on the
AP exam; therefore, summer reading is vital to your success. This summer assignment packet contains
directions, assignment descriptions, and notes. Assignments are due on the first day of school. They need to
be submitted in a two-pocket folder with your name on the outside. Remember to pace yourself accordingly
during the summer break. The summer assignment for AP Literature not only indicates your willingness to
work hard, but it also measures your commitment to the course. Other reasons for the summer assignment
include time constraints during the school year (there just isnt enough time to read during the course of a
school year all of the material necessary to adequately prepare for the AP English Literature and Composition
Exam), as well as the need for continuous brain exercise during the summer months. NO ONE can afford the
cost of having their brain in stand-by mode for the three months of summer. One of the main differences
between an AP English class and a regular English class is the amount of effort students are required to put
into their work. An AP student is expected to always put all of their thinking and effort into assignments and
readings. This kind of effort is expected on every aspect of the summer assignment.

Students are to read all of the following works.

Students are asked to purchase their own copy of How To Read Literature Like a Professor. The
school does not own copies to lend, nor could students annotate school copies.
Students may find the chapters from Bullfinchs Mythology online at
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gulf
The Biblical passages can be found in any version of the Bible, including online sources.
Students are to annotate selected sections of their copy of How To Read Literature Like a Professor
as well as complete the assignments for selected sections (directions attached).
How To Read Literature Like a Professor Thomas C. Foster
Biblical passages (selections attached)
Selected chapters from Bullfinchs Mythology (selections attached)

These assignments are due the first day of class in August.

Each student will also take exams on the passages from the Bible and mythology chapters as well as have class
discussions. We will also discuss How To Read Literature Like a Professor.
If you have questions, please e-mail Mrs. Romero at deidra.romero@bcsdk12.net until June 5, 2016. You may
also text my cell phone at 478-972-0348. If you choose to text, please identify yourself.
My signature below indicates a commitment to complete the AP English Literature and Composition Summer Reading
Assignment. I understand that there will be three assessment grades given for these assignments. I understand that these
assignments are non-negotiable and cannot be made up at a later time. I understand that I may receive college credit if I
perform well enough on the AP exam in May and will, therefore, treat this course as a college level course and am prepared to
conduct myself accordingly.
Parent signature_______________________________________ Date__________________________
Print Parent name_______________________ Phone number__________________ email_______________________
Student signature ______________________________________ Date__________________________
Print Student name______________________ Phone number__________________ email________________________

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Assignment

We will be referring to this book and reading it throughout the first semester. While you are certainly
allowed to read the entire book, you are only responsible for the intro and the assigned chapters. As you
read, please annotate, making notes and comments that will guide our conversations in class. In addition,
please respond to the prompts for chapters 4, 5, 8, 22. Your responses should be typed, adhering to MLA
format; each response should be approximately 200-250 words. These assignments are to develop your skills
of literary analysis and reflection, as well as to help you apply Fosters ideas to your own reading.
Intro (no response necessary; annotations only!)
Ch. 4 Choose a sonnet and discuss how the meaning is enhanced by its form. Please include the sonnet.
Ch. 5 Explain intertextuality in your own words, citing examples from your own history as a reader.
Ch. 6 (no response necessary; annotations only!)
Ch. 7 (no response necessary; annotations only!)
Ch. 8 Using your own reading experience or new research, identify a contemporary poem that alludes to a
fairy tale. Explain the significance of the allusion. Does it create irony, expand the theme, deepen your
appreciation, etc.?
Ch. 9 (no response necessary; annotations only!)
Ch. 10 (no response necessary; annotations only!)
Ch. 13 (no response necessary; annotations only!)
Ch. 22 Choose any song lyrics without explicit language that develops a character that is blind in a literary
way. Name the song and include the authors use of sight and blindness.

Ideas for annotating Literature

Every Text is a lazy machine asking the reader to do some of its work.

-Umberto Eco
Use a pen so you can make circles brackets and notes. If you like highlighters use one for key passages,
but dont get carried away and dont only highlight.
Look for patterns and label them (motifs, diction, syntax, symbols, images, and behavior, whatever).
Mark passages that seem to jump out at you because they suggest an important idea or theme or for
any other reason (an arresting figure of speech or image, an intriguing sentence pattern, a striking
example of foreshadowing, a key moment in the plot, a bit of dialogue that reveals character, clues
about the setting etc.).
Mark phrases, sentences, or passages that puzzle, intrigue, please, or displease you. Ask questions and
make comments; talk back to the text.
At the ends of chapters or sections, write a bulleted list of key plot events. This not only forces you
think about what happened, see the novel as whole, and identify patterns, but you also create a
convenient record of the whole plot.
Circle words you want to learn or words that jump out at you for some reason. If you dont want to
stop reading, guess then look the word up and jot down the relevant meaning later. You need not
write out a full dictionary definition; it is often helpful to put the relevant meaning in your own words.
If SAT prep has dampened your enthusiasm, reconsider the joy of adding to your word hoard as the
Beowulf poet calls it.

Biblical passages and Mythology Chapters

Below you will find lists for Biblical passages and chapters on mythology that you are to read this summer.
Remember, there will be an exam during the first two weeks of the semester that will cover your familiarity
with and knowledge of those passages.
To clarify the notation of Biblical passages: Chapter numbers are placed before the colon, verse numbers
follow the colon. Genesis 6:9 means Genesis, chapter 6, verse 9.
Biblical Passages
1) Genesis, Chapters 1-4 (Creation, Adam &
Eve, The Fall, Cain & Abel)
2) Genesis, 6:9-9:7
(This means chapter
6, verse 9 to Chapter 9, verse 6) (Noah, The
Flood)
3) Genesis, 11:1-9
(The Tower of Babel)
4) Genesis, Chapter 19 (Sodom & Gomorrah,
Lots Wife)
5) Genesis, 22:1-18
(Abraham & Isaac)
6) Exodus, 3:1-10
(The Burning Bush)
7) Exodus, 14:5-31
(The Parting of the
Sea)
8) Exodus, Chapter 32 (The Golden Calf)
9) Judges, 11:29-40
(Jephthah)
10) I Samuel, Chapters 17 & 18 (David &
Goliath/Saul)
11) 2 Samuel, Chapter 11 (David & Bathsheba)
12) I Kings, 3:16-28
(Solomons Wisdom)
13) Job, 1:1-2:10
(God and Satan
discuss Job)
14) Matthew, 5:1-13
(The Beatitudes)
15) Matthew, 14:1-21
(John the Baptist / 5
Loaves of Bread and 2 Fish)
16) Matthew, 19:16-24 (Wealth and
Salvation)
17) Matthew, 26:14-56 (Thirty Silver Coins /
Gethsemane / Betrayed With a Kiss)
18) Matthew, 27:27-31 (Mocked By Soldiers)
19) Luke, 6:24-31
(Wealth / Turning
the Other Cheek)
20) Luke, 10:25-37
(The Good
Samaritan)
21) Luke, 15:11-32
(The Prodigal Son)
22) John, 2:1-11
(Water into Wine)
23) John, 8:1-11
(The First Stone)
24) John, 11:1-44
(Lazarus)
25) John, 20:24-31
(Doubting Thomas)
26) Revelations, Chapter 6 (The Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse)

Chapters from Bullfinchs Mythology

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/bulf
Chapter II. Prometheus and Pandora
Chapter XI. Cupid and Psyche
Chapter XIV. Minerva-Niobe
Chapter XXIV. Orpheus and Eurydice- AristaeusAmphion- Linus- Thamyris- Marsyas- MelampusMusaeus
Chapter XXVIII. The Fall of Troy- Return of the
Greeks- Agamemnon, Orestes and Electra
Chapter XXIX. Adventures of Ulysses- The Lotuseaters- Cyclopse- Circe- sirens- Scylla and
Charybdis- Calypso
Chapter XXXI. Adventures of Aeneas- The HarpiesDido- Palinurius
Chapter XLII. Beowulf