English 12 IB

Summer Assignments

OVERVIEW:

I. The Great Gatsby Reading and Responding (required)

Select version:

EITHER: Check out from ERC and use sticky notes to mark text for commentary

OR: Purchase your own copy if you wish to mark text directly

NEW edition – page numbering slightly different

Books West or Borders (ISBN 0743273567) $13.95

USED edition – same page numbering as ERC version

Amazon or Alibris.com (ISBN 0020198817) $4.00 and up (used, incl. shipping)

Buy ruled "Composition" notebook for this and other 12IB assignments.

Read novel:

Read once for enjoyment, for the story, with a cool glass of iced tea in the shade.

Re-read/review with sticky notes, highlighter, and/or response journal at hand.

DUE: READING to be completed by Thursday, August 28.

Response journal:

Complete Compo entries as detailed on Page 2.

Assignment will be graded and should reflect your close reading of the text.

DUE: RESPONSES to be completed by Tuesday, September 2.

II. Passage of Choice (required)

In addition to the assigned novel, we hope you will explore works of your own choosing—from short stories to novels to plays to poetry to songs and more—and ask that you choose a short passage to share with the class.

DUE: Typed or photocopied PASSAGE by Friday, August 29.

III. World Lit (optional)

Remember that you can be revising your WL Assignment 1 over the summer and can be developing ideas for your WL Assignment 2. While the final versions won’t be due until late in the semester, the works on which they’re based are fresh in your mind now!

With that, we hope you have a great summer

filled with recreation, reflection, friendship and reading.

We very much look forward to our class together next fall as we continue our English A1 studies!

ASSIGNMENT DETAIL: GATSBY

I. The Great Gatsby Reading and Response Journal

As you would expect, we want you to interact with the novel through reader response journal entries! We will be doing close reading commentaries on this novel, as well as all of the works for Semester 1 of English 12 IB. In preparation for those commentaries, we’re asking that use the following format in each of your nine reader response entries, one per chapter.

For each chapter:

A. Choose a 30- to 40-line passage that meets the criteria listed for that chapter (see below).

B. Make a photocopy of the passage and note its page number/s. You are encouraged to color-mark, highlight, or otherwise make notes on the passage. (If you have no copier when reading, note page number and start/end of the passage, then insert the copy before turning in Compo.)

C. Paste/tape the copied passage onto the left-facing page of your Composition notebook.

D. Write your observations about each passage, as directed below, on the right-facing page.

IMPORTANT: IB places a value on your original thinking. Secondary sources such as InfoTrac or SparkNotes are NOT recommended for this assignment—but if you use one, you MUST cite it!

Complete the following entries. Remember to discuss literary features + text evidence + effect in each response.

1. Chapter 1 – select a passage that describes the setting. Respond to the passage by identifying the stylistic devices* used by the author and comment on their effect on the creation of the setting in your mind.

2. Chapter 2 - select a passage that develops a character. Respond to the passage by identifying the strategies* employed by the author to develop this character and comment on the effect these strategies have on your reaction to this character.

3. Chapter 3 - select a passage that describes the party. Respond to the passage by identifying the stylistic devices* used by the author to describe the party, and comment on the effect these strategies have on your own reaction to this party and its participants.

4. Chapter 4 - select a passage that gives the reader background information about Gatsby. Respond to the passage by identifying the strategies* employed by the author to reveal Gatsby and comment on the effect these strategies have on how you feel about this character.

5. Chapter 5 - select a passage that develops the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Respond to the passage by identifying the strategies* employed by the author to show this relationship and comment on the effect these strategies have on your own reaction to both Daisy and Gatsby.

6. Chapter 6 - select a passage that reveals the nature of the narrator. Respond to the passage by identifying the narrator’s tone and how it is created*; comment on the narrator’s purpose in this chapter, as well as the effect the narrator is having on your reactions to the events and characters.

7. Chapter 7 - select a passage that utilizes symbolism. Respond to the passage by identifying the symbolism and commenting on the effect of the symbol/s on the overall meaning of the novel.

8. Chapter 8 - select a passage that reveals Nick’s attitudes. Respond to the passage by identifying the strategies* employed by the author to reveal these attitudes and comment on the role they play in your own reaction to the ending and to the novel as a whole.

9. Whole book - Speculate on why this novel, taken as a whole, is an American classic that is still studied and remembered

ASSIGNMENT DETAIL: Passage of Choice

II. Passage of Choice

To encourage you to explore the world of words on your own terms...

For the second day of class (Friday, August 29), bring a piece of writing that you love.

v 10 to 40 lines

v Excerpt from poem, song lyrics, novel, other

v Typed or photocopied

v Author and source cited

v Your name

Choose a passage you find powerful and well-written. You don't have to understand everything about it, though; one paradox of literature is that text can be both meaningful and mysterious.

Ms. Bowen offers one of her favorites as an example...

from "Isn't That What Friends Are For?"

I've been scraping little shavings off my ration of light

And I've formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it

I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache

Under a loose board in the floor

And I blow across it and I send it to you

Against those moments when

The darkness blows under your door

Isn't that what friends are for?

Bruce Cockburn, singer-songwriter

Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu

Rykodisc, 1999

APPENDIX: LITERARY FEATURES

Selected Literary Features – Fiction

Adapted from a list compiled by Laura Bokesch, Library Media Teacher http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm

Think of literary features as an interactive "web" where one feature can affect another (e.g., symbolism affecting character) as well as the reader's reaction to the work as a whole.

IMAGERY

Visual

Auditory

Kinesthetic

Tactile

Olfactory

Gustatory

DICTION

Register (formal, informal, colloquial, dialect, nonstandard)

Denotation/connotation

FIGURATIVE & STYLISTIC DEVICES

Simile

Metaphor

Symbol

Motif

Alliteration

Personification

Hyperbole

Onomatopoeia

Paradox

Allusion

Oxymoron

Mood

Tone

Overstatement

Understatement

IRONY

Verbal Irony

Situational Irony

Dramatic Irony

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE

Monologue, dialogue, interior monologue

Point of view

First Person

Third-Person Objective

Third-Person Limited

Omniscient

SYNTAX

Sentence length

Word order

Punctuation

Phrases and clauses

CHARACTER

Types of character:

Major vs. Minor

Static vs. Dynamic

Flat vs. Round

Protagonist/Antagonist

Foil

Stock/Archetypal

Character development

Statements by narrator (explicit or implicit)

What character says and does

How character looks and lives

What other characters say about or to the character

How other characters interact with the character

SETTING: Time and Place

Time: Century, decade, year, season, day of week, time of day

Historical context

Place: Planet, continent, nation, state/province, urban/rural, indoors/outdoors, geography, terrain, lighting, atmosphere

PLOT

Types of conflict

Character vs. Character

Character vs. Nature

Character vs. Society

Character vs. Self

Character vs. Fate

Plot Arc (Freytag's Pyramid)

Exposition

Foreshadowing

Inciting Force, Incident, or Event

Rising Action

Crisis

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution (Denouement)

THEME: "Universal" human issues such as:

Ambition Jealousy

Beauty Loneliness

Betrayal Love

Courage Loyalty

Duty Fear

Prejudice Freedom

Suffering Happiness

Truth Illusion

The final objective is to see the story as a whole and to become aware of how the parts are put together to produce a unified effect.

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