Required Reading: 

Of Mice and Men  by John Steinbeck

            Read the novel thoroughly, annotating the text as you read. You may neatly write these notes in the margins of your book (if you own the book) or you may use Post It notes (or a facsimile) and stick them on the pages as you read. 

The quality of these notes will be assessed during the first day of school.

 Information on annotating a text as well as a copy of the rubric that will be used for this assignment can be accessed via additional links under NHS Summer Assignments on the NHS Website.

Additional novel:

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

or

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

            Read and annotate one of these novels. 

Be prepared to complete an in-class essay assignment involving your annotations.  The topic and format of the essay will be assigned by your teacher on the first or second day of school.

Links for the summer assignment:

http://slowreads.com/ResourcesHowToMarkABook-Outline.htm     OUTLINE of Adler’s “How to Mark a Book”

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/adler.html          copy of Adler’s ESSAY, “How to Mark a Book”

For your last blog of the school year, please write on the following:

1. Having blogged for a year as part of this class, do you think you will continue to blog (either on this one or elsewhere on the web)?  Why or why not?

2. Having read classmates’ blogs for a year as part of this class, are there any blogs you would continue to visit if their authors continued to post on them?

As always, don’t forget to comment on two classmates’ blogs.

For this week’s post, I want you to rank the books/plays that we read this school year from your favorite to least favorite (or most bearable to least bearable).  Feel free to provide comments about what you liked or didn’t like about the works (length, topic, style, etc.).  Don’t forget to comment on two classmates’ entries!

My List: (Though I like everything we read to some degree, I, too, have favorites.)

1. The Glass Menagerie
2. Speak
3. Fahrenheit 451
4. Animal Farm
5. Cold Sassy Tree
6. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7. Ender’s Game
8. 1984
9. Great Expectations
10. Romeo and Juliet
11. The Odyssey
12. Whirligig

No post necessary, but post if you feel moved to do so!

On Wednesday we will be starting our final unit, which is about style and voice in writing.  For this week’s entry, share an author you enjoy who has a unique style in his/her writing.  Explain what you like about his/her style.

Don’t forget to comment on two classmates’ entries!

For this week, I want you to think about the final weeks of the semester.  We have 5 weeks left before finals (and one of those weeks is the week of EOCTs!), so you have limited time left to either keep your grades up or bring them up!  For your entry, describe one specific plan you have to bring up or maintain your grade in one specific class (it doesn’t have to be lit).  An example:  “I plan to maintain my lit grade by getting an awesome grade on my research project.  Here’s how…. blah blah blah, plans for project.”

Don’t forget to comment on two classmates’ entries.

Don’t forget to comment on two classmates’ entries.