Welcome to AP English 11! We’re delighted you’ve chosen to take on the challenge of this exciting and rewarding course. It’s different from any English course you’ve ever taken before, and we will be asking a lot of you, even before the school year begins. There are three parts to your assignment for over the summer, and while they will take some time and effort, we hope you will find the experience intellectually stimulating and engaging. One of our themes for the year is “entering the conversation” — being aware of what’s going on in the world around you and learning to comment and argue intelligently on important issues.
Part 1 – Current Events Project
Directions: During the summer holiday*, choose a columnist from a major news publication to follow. Look in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and The Economist to find a columnist you will consistently read. Some columnists who regularly appear at least once or twice a week in national publications are Bob Herbert, Gail Collins, Maureen Dowd, Charles Krauthammer, Eugene Robinson, George Will, and Peggy Noonan. There are, of course, many other columnists from whom you can choose. You can even ask your parents if there is a columnist they would recommend. Once you choose your publication and columnist, you can follow his or her pieces in the traditional format of a newspaper or magazine as well as online. Be sure to read over the course of the summer at least six pieces by your chosen columnist and retain a copy of each. Highlight what you believe to be the thesis or central idea of each piece. Bring these six opinion pieces with you on the first day of school.
*To get the most out of this assignment, it is important to not leave it until the last week of vacation. It is hoped that as you follow your columnist, you will read news stories about the debated issue.
Part 2 – Contemporary non-fiction
Directions: Look at the list of books on the back of this page. All are books published in the past few years that address an important issue of our society. Sometime during the first semester, you will be researching and writing a persuasive argument on a contemporary issue, and this is your opportunity to begin to become familiar with what has been written about it. Choose one of the titles; all should be available at your local library or accessible elsewhere. As you read, make notes about the author’s argument. Consider keeping a reading journal that will record your reactions not just to the “story” the author tells but to the real-life information you are learning.
David Barker, Rushed to Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion, and American Political Behavior
Edward Castronova, Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality
Todd DePastino, Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America
Dexter Filkins, The Forever War
Thomas Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America
Simson Garfinkel, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century
Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Michael Gates Gill, How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
Richard N. Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars
Alfred McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror
Greg Mortensen, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Jacqueline Olds, Richard S. Schwartz. The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-First Century
Joe Scarborough, The Last, Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America’s Promise
Simon Schama, The American Future: A History
Claire Shipman, Katty Kay, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Charlotte A. Twight, Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans
Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World
Part 3 – The Great Gatsby
While our focus throughout the year in AP English Language will be primarily on non-fiction, we will also be exploring the way novelists and playwrights craft their imaginative creations using the elements of style. No author says “style” like F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose greatest novel, The Great Gatsby, is one of the most popular books taught in high schools across the country. You get to have a head-start on exploring the wealth of material this jewel of literature contains for the careful reader.
**You may sign this book out from the school before or during the summer; stop by room C238 or the main office to borrow a copy, which you will be responsible for returning after the school year starts.**
CLICK HERE to download the supplementary information for hints on ways of getting the most out of your reading of this novel.