11th Grade Pre-AP Summer Work 2012

May 2012

Dear Upcoming Honors Juniors,

Congratulations! You’ve survived another English course this year. We look forward to having you this fall in honors American literature.

When you return to school in August, you should have completed your reading of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair These books are readily available and very inexpensive at bookstores like Barnes and Noble or on the Internet. You should purchase your own copies because you will need to be able to make notes in the margins and highlight important quotes and passages in the books. You will be tested on The Scarlet Letter sometime during the first two weeks of school. You should complete that book first. The date for the test on The Jungle will be announced as soon as we return to school.

You should complete the summer assignments for each of the novels as you read, and The Scarlet Letter assignments will be due on the same day as the test.  Please see the attached page for complete directions on completing the major works analysis form.

As you know, as teachers we are very familiar with Cliff’s Notes, Barron’s, Sparknotes, E-notes, etc., and we recognize when you have simply “cut and pasted” information. This “lifted material” from such online sources are subject to VERY LOW grades.

In addition to the two summer selections, we will also read The Crucible by Arthur Miller, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the other major pieces in this course.

Should you have any questions before school is out or over the summer, please do not hesitate to call the English department head, Mrs. Kathy Haley. Her home phone number is 706-624-9649. If she is not home, please leave a message and she will return your call or you may e-mail her at khaley@gcbe.org or omah57@comcast.net.  Be aware that she may be out of town at times, so she may not respond to your message immediately. She will also be in and out of school all summer, so call her if you have a question or problem, and she will set up a meeting time if necessary.

Nathan Smith, the class instructor, can be reached through e-mail at nsmith@gcbe.org.

Have a great summer, and enjoy Hawthorne and Sinclair!