Summer reading list for 11th grade
More summer reading |
This comes from the "Professional Readings" section of the May 10, 2008 National Council of Teachers of English Chronicle:
"Although he says there's not a lot of research on the point, Richard Allington cites a study by Jimmy Kim that found students should read at least four to five books over the summer months in order to keep their skills strong. If they read any fewer than that, they will probably lose ground, summarizes Allington, who is professor of education at the University of Tennessee and author of What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs and co-author of Classrooms That Work: They Can ALL Read and Write."
With this in mind, here is the summer program that we would like to see our juniors-of-next-year follow:
Read a minimum of (four) 4 books and a maximum of any number of well-read (not skimmed or surfed or partially read) books.
Three of the books must come from the lists that follow. But one must be of your own choosing.
Keep a reader's journal on all books for reader interaction. (Imagine you will be asked to write an essay or present orally on any ONE of the books in September and will need the notes to help you.) Do a final reflection for each book that you read that evaluates the book on a higher level than mere like/dislike (Why is the book important? How does the writer accomplish/fall short of effectiveness? etc.).
Audio Versions are available for many of these books. Please inquire at your local library or iTunes.
Reading Choices
Any of the choice books that were offered in class this year that you didn't read for class credit:
- All Quiet on the Western Front — Erich Remarque
- Red Badge of Courage — Stephen Crane
- Animal Farm — George Orwell
- Nervous Conditions — Tsitsi Dangaremba
- Cry, the Beloved Country — Alan Paton
- Dry White Season — Andre Brink
- Kaffir Boy — Mark Mathabane
Mostly American literature to coincide with the Literature of the Americas curriculum:
- Native Son — Richard Wright
- Invisible Man — Ralph Ellison
- Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Scarlet Letter — Nathaniel Hawthorne
- My Antonia — Willa Cather
- The Sun Also Rises or Farewell to Arms — Ernest Hemingway
- Their Eyes Were Watching God — Zora Neale Hurston
- Color Purple or Possessing the Secret of Joy — Alice Walker
- Separate Peace — John Knowles
- To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee
- Reservation Blues or any novel or short stories collection by Sherman Alexie
- Ceremony — Leslie Marmon Silko
- Joy Luck Club, Hundred Secret Senses or anything by Amy Tan
Books from other Americas:
- One Hundred Years of Solitude or Love in the Time of Cholera — Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Any Garcia Marquez short story collection: Leaf Storm, No One Writes to the Colonel, Collected Stories
- House of Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna or Daughter of Fortune — Isabel Allende
International books that are connected to IB curriculum:
- A Thousand Splendid Suns — Khaled Husseini (sequel to Kite Runner)
challenging:
- A Passage to India — E. M. Forster
- Teach Us to Outgrow our Madness — Kenzaburo Oe
- From Sleep Unbound — Andree Chedid
Personal choice books and last guidelines:
Students are welcome to check out books from the beautiful classroom library in Ms. Jones room that was donated by Lisa Clark, a BIHS parent. These books are all recommended readings for AP as well as IB courses. Otherwise, students are on their own to locate copies of books they would like to read and are encouraged to read current popular books that are high school level or above (Harry Potters are off the list now :-)
Readers' aids such as Sparknotes should NOT be used, nor should movies be substituted for the books (they may be watched AFTER reading as a comparison/contrast exercise). Readers should be using skills, not crutches, to tackle books. Students should be choosing books that are slightly out of reach but not impossible to read in order to grow.