AP Language & Composition Summer Activities
    (11th and 12th graders)

    2010-2011 Teachers: 

     Summer Reading Brochure 

    Text #1:    “She Would Have Enjoyed It” 

    Task: Adopting the voice of one of the “friends” Shaw refers to in the last line of the letter, write back to Shaw as if you are his contemporary. Be sure to indicate what you “understand about one’s mother” in your response to him.  You may be as creative as you like, but your letter should mimic Shaw’s tone and style and be approximately the same length.

    Text #2:   “Remarks to Wellesley College Class of 1996” 

    Task: Read and annotate Ephron's address.  See two links for annotation samples (Annotations #1 - Annotations #2).  Then, identify Ephron’s thesis statement (overall idea/purpose of writing) in her address.  Then bullet 6-10 major claims (assertions) she uses to support her thesis.

    Text #3:    “Science Fiction From Below”  

    Task: Complete both parts below and participate in the discussion board on turnitin.com 

    • Senior Enrollment Password is qohs2011 and the Class ID is 3300521 
    • Junior Enrollment Password is cougars and the Class ID is 3302018 

    Task A - Read Mark Engler’s “Science Fiction From Below” and consider the questions below.  Post both original comments and responses to peers totaling 4 entries.  Please be sure that your comments are engaging, relevant, and appropriate.

    • What are the moral implications of  his idea “of a remote worker”  (“telecommuting immigrant”)?
    • “What kind of social order would that produce?”
    • “What kind of communities would that produce?”
    • Discuss Engler’s comment “that fantasies of what the future will be in the North must always be creating a second, nightmare reality somewhere in the South...development and underdevelopment go hand in hand.”

    Task B - Go to one or more of the video links listed and comment on the reflections of the future represented in the visual texts.  Post both original comments and responses to peers totaling 4 entries.  Please be sure that your comments are engaging, relevant, and appropriate.

    • Compare/contrast the futuristic visions presented in the clips
    • Identify the futuristic visions as utopian or dystopian
    • Discuss the moral implications presented