Summer

ENGLISH  9

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, by Edith Hamilton 
The archetypes in Greek mythology and mirrored in ancient world literature are foundational to understanding literature and by extension to understanding and interpreting the world around us. While many people – students included – have working knowledge of mythological characters and themes, there is no text better at moving students from basic knowledge to a deeper and functional understanding. 

English 9 ASSIGNMENT – Herron & Riverside High Schools
Read and annotate designated excerpts from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, and complete the chart linked here. 
Excerpts: "The Gods" pages 17-50,  Cupid and Psyche, Pyramus and Thisbe, and Orpheus and Eurydice (pages 135-142) and Daedalus, Perseus, and Theseus (193-223).  As you do so, consider the following:

●      Who is the protagonist? Antagonist? Minor characters?

●      What is the conflict? 

●      How does the writer move the story forward? 

●      Connections you can make (text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world)  (See descriptions below)

●      How do these stories reflect the values of the culture?

●      How do these stories reflect commonalities between cultures?

Text-to-Text:  Connections made  between this text & another text you’ve read.  
Text-to-Self:  Connections made between this text and your own life.
Text-to-World:  Connections made between this text and the world including (issues & events happening now or in the past.

ENGLISH 10 

(This assignment is for Herron-Riverside High School scholars only - if you have another scholar attending Herron High School, please visit their website to find assignment details!)

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
What is the nature of our lives? What are the factors that are in our control, versus those that are thrust upon us but still shape our lives? To what extent do we have personal agency, and how do the choices of others affect our own lives?

English 10 ASSIGNMENT – Herron-Riverside
Read and annotate passages that are particularly vivid, meaningful, or align with the central idea of the course (fate vs. free will), additionally, as you annotate and highlight, pay special attention to things like Characterization, Foreshadowing, Symbolism, Imagery, Plot development, and your emotional reaction to passages of the text.

ENGLISH 10 

(This assignment is for Herron-Riverside High School scholars only - if you have another scholar attending Herron High School, please visit their website to find assignment details!)

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
What is the nature of our lives? What are the factors that are in our control, versus those that are thrust upon us but still shape our lives? To what extent do we have personal agency, and how do the choices of others affect our own lives?

English 10 ASSIGNMENT – Herron-Riverside
Read and annotate passages that are particularly vivid, meaningful, or align with the central idea of the course (fate vs. free will), additionally, as you annotate and highlight, pay special attention to things like Characterization, Foreshadowing, Symbolism, Imagery, Plot development, and your emotional reaction to passages of the text.

ENGLISH 11

The Color of Water, by James McBride
Looking back on our family upbringing and contending with what made us who we are is a central aspect of growing up. Memoir is a literary  genre that is useful in leveraging one person’s experience as a lens through which to explore one’s own. The Color of Water has become a modern classic for this reason, navigating cultural, racial, economic, and family dynamics that are both informative and instructive as students mature and begin examining – in the junior year – who they are, distinct from their parents, and how they want to shape their own lives.

English 11 ASSIGNMENT 
Please review the assignment linked above. 

AP LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
“But even the worst decisions we make don’t necessarily remove us from the circle of humanity” (Moore xiii).  Wes Moore’s 2010 novel The Other Wes Moore delicately unfolds two plots  – the journey of two young boys in Baltimore who bear the same name, but find themselves in vastly different fates. Through his unique parallel storytelling, Moore  demonstrates the nuance of how family, friendship, community, and personal choice intertwine in one’s own life experiences, culminating in a testament to the power of perseverance and second chances. This novel serves as a catalyst for scholars to consider how both personal choice and environment can influence and direct an individual’s future, and is our starting point for our understanding of the themes of  humanity and identity in Q1.

AP Language & Composition ASSIGNMENT 
Read and annotate passages from the text that align with the themes of family, friendship, community, and personal choice/responsibility.

ENGLISH 12

 Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
HCS aims to raise students who are world-class citizens – students who navigate the world in such a way that contributes to a just and ethical society. One way of examining justice is to examine injustice; Bryan Stevenson’s book – part memoir, part message – looks at criminal justice, racial disparity, and generational oppression while also sparking though as to how our generation can make our society better and more just.

English 12 ASSIGNMENT 
Please review the assignment linked above. 

AP LITERATURE & COMPOSITION

Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor
This text is a helpful tool for understanding the broad archetypes, symbols, and motifs associated with all literature. With a fundamental knowledge of writers’ motifs in one’s proverbial toolbox,  the reading and analysis process becomes more natural (and engaging). We will refer to the concepts in this text regularly throughout the year. 

In addition to the core text, choose ONE of the following contemporary novels to read and analyze in terms of how they fit the patterns established in Foster’s text:

1.     There There by Tommy Orange

2.     Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

3.     Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

4.     A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

5.     The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
 

NOTE: Please be mindful of potentially sensitive topics in the novel you choose to read; Book Trigger Warnings and Trigger Warning Database are helpful resources. The reasoning behind an additional text for Summer Reading is the rigorous nature of the AP Literature exam, as well as the personal and academic benefit to students to be as widely read as possible and have engaged with a wide variety of literary analysis.

AP Literature and Composition ASSIGNMENT – Herron & Herron-Riverside
Read and annotate passages from your chosen novel that align with the patterns identified in How to Read Literature like a Professor. Additionally, as you annotate and highlight, pay special attention to things like Characterization, Foreshadowing, Symbolism, Imagery, Plot development, and your emotional reaction to passages of the text. 

AP AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES 
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, & You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

AP African American Studies is an interdisciplinary course examining the diversity of African American experiences through direct encounters with rich and varied sources. Students explore key topics that extend from early African kingdoms to the ongoing challenges and achievements of the contemporary moment. To prepare us for the start of class,   read our anchor text (see above) as well as a non-fiction text or a fiction text listed below:

Supplemental books: 

1.     Iola Leroy (Fiction)

2.     The Bluest Eye (Fiction)

3.     Between the World & Me (Nonfiction)

4.     White Fragility (Nonfiction)

AP AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES  ASSIGNMENT
Please review the assignment linked above.