Welcome to AP English Lit! While I have had the pleasure of meeting some of you in the hallways and classrooms of BHS, my first order of business is to get to know you a little better.  Your AP Summer Assignment will reflect the three facets of the relationship that we will work together to build during the course of your senior year.

To begin building that foundation, I found this really cool site through NPR that will be a great way for us to get better acquainted by creating Six-Word Memoirs.  Check out the slide show!  I thought this might be a creative and fun way for us to introduce ourselves to one another.  I’m already pondering the one that I will create.

We must also build upon the foundation that will enrich our literary discussions.  Thomas C. Foster has written a delightful book entitled How to Read Literature Like a Professor that will assist us as we build upon all that you learned in AP English Language but will also help  you to make the transition from rhetorical reading and thinking to literary reading and thinking.

Finally, we need to begin working on getting you ready for the most important aspect of next year–Graduation!  Next year will come and go much more quickly than you realize, and between now and then, you have lots of planning and prepping for life after high school.  I’d like to hit the ground running by building a cadre of ideas for college application and scholarship essays.  And while I spend relatively little time stalking the NPR website, another interesting possibility presented itself to me there.  Apparently since the 1950s, NPR has broadcast a series called This I Believe, and the site contains essays that were written from the likes of the average joe as well as the notable and notorious.  One essay in particular caught my attention because it addressed the nature of the college application.  Making Life’s Grade attacks the nature of using the high school or college transcript as a window into a the worth of a person. 

You have three tasks that you must complete during your summer, and you’ll find the links to each task listed below.  For the sake of your sanity and mine, try not to procrastinate too much when meeting a deadline.   If all else fails, send me an email with an attachment or make a hard copy, cram it into an envelope and mail it to me.  My point–don’t just fail to do the work if technology fails you.  These assignments will be included in the “Major Compositions and Tests” category of your first quarter, a category that is worth 50% of the overall average.  So, on order to start the year off in good shape, you must complete the assignment to the best of your ability.  Be careful to do all of your own work.  While I expect your work to reflect careful reading and insight, I am more likely to grade less viciously when a student refuses to give in to the lure of the cut and paste feature of the keyboard.

Remember: If you do not complete the summer assignment, you will not be allowed to be in AP English Literature next year.

Task 1:  Registration!

• Due Date: Thursday, May 28
• Send me your email address so that I can register you on this site!

Task 2: Six-Word Memoirs

• Due Date:  August 9th

Task 3:  How to Read Literature Like a Professor

• Introduction thru Interlude–Does He Mean That?–June 14th
• Chapter 11 thru Interlude–One Story–July 12th
• Chapter 21 thru Chapter 26–August 16th

Task 4:  This I Believe:  Wordsworth Discussion Forum

• Due Date:  August 23rd
  

I am so looking forward to next year!  We’re going to have a great time!  In the meantime, have a great summer!

LBWeygandt