AP III Summer Assignment

AP English Language and Composition – Grade 11 Summer Reading and Writing Assignments

AP English Language and Composition, a college-level elective exploring the uses and power of language, challenges students to develop habits of analytical reading, critical thinking, and persuasive writing. It is actually two courses for the price of one, in that the journey we take toward becoming “effective citizen rhetoricians,” as the College Board intends, travels along the road of literature. Everything we study in some way touches on the two essential questions: “How and why do writers do what they do to say what they say?” and “What is American?” Your summer assignments will introduce you to the fundamental reading and writing processes we will continue to develop throughout the course, as preparation for the AP English Language and Composition Exam next May, as well as for rich and rewarding lives using and enjoying the power of language.

Major Works
Animal Farm by George Orwell. You are to read and annotate this novel and use it as your basis for the essay prompt. You are expected read actively and analytically, which will be demonstrated by the notes you take in your copy of Animal Farm. Simply underlining sections of the novel is not sufficient.

Essay
As we will explore this year, much of our study of literature and rhetoric revolves around the idea that America is itself an argument, both as an idea as well as a tension arising from the conflict between competing ideas. Choose one of the following prompts and compose an essay (not to exceed two typed, double-spaced pages) in which you articulate your argument.

1. George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In a well organized essay, defend, challenge or qualify the validity of this statement. Use examples from your own reading, observation, or experience to support your position.
   
   
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson an American rhetorician and essayist wrote, “The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” In a well organized essay, defend, challenge or qualify the validity of this statement. Use examples from your own reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

All assignments are due on the first day of class in August. No exception or any excuses will be accepted. Obviously, since you enrolled in this course, you already enjoy language and ideas. In addition to the above, we hope you will also read books of your own choosing for pleasure anyway this summer (which we strongly encourage you to do).

For questions about your assignment or the course, please contact:
Mr. Mikesell: cmikesell@dallasisd.org

"What Drives Your Dream?" Essay

Prompt: What drives your dream? (Your thesis should answer this question, but don't forget to develop the idea of "what your dream is" to begin with.)

As you share your thoughts about what drives your dream, think about

• What inspires your dream; who or what inspires you to achieve it; what motivates you and gives you the extra drive to move forward even in difficult moments;
  
  
• How your dream will positively impact others; and
  
  
• What you are doing or will do this school year to achieve your dream.

Come to class on Wednesday with ideas for revising/editing your draft (2nd period, you'll do this Thursday, due to the assembly).

Expository Essay PDF/Powerpoint

Follow this link for the presentation we took notes on in class. If you were absent, please make sure you take notes on pages 5 through 8.

Once you have the notes, please run through the sample theses and essays beginning on page 9.

Summer Assignment Thesis Paragraph Generator

Consider using the following as a thesis paragraph for your Summer Assignment essay.

If you are going to defend or challenge Mr. Hickey's assertion, use this template:

Mr. Hickey, author of "Why I Hate Ender's Game," is
choose a thesis
correct
incorrect
when he claims that "[n]obody ever grows or changes during the course of [the novel]." This becomes clear when you look at Card's use of
choose a literary device
metaphor
allusion
tone
simile
anaphora
paradox when considering
choose a character
Ender
Valentine
PeterGraffBernardAlai .

If you are going to qualify Mr. Hickey's assertion, use this template:

Mr. Hickey, author of "Why I Hate Ender's Game," is partially correct when he claims that "[n]obody ever grows or changes during the course of [the novel]." This becomes clear when you look at how Card's use of
choose a literary device
metaphor
allusion
tone
simile
anaphora
paradox when considering
choose a character
Ender
Valentine
Peter
Graff
Bernard
Alai shows a lack of character development, but on the other hand, how his use of
choose same literary device
metaphor
allusion
tone
simile
anaphora
paradox does show some development of
choose a secondary character
Graff
Bernard
Alai
Rackham
Petra
Bonzo .

Feel free to use the exact wording, punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc., above. You may choose other characters or other literary devices if you prefer.

Ender's Game Essay Prompt

Prompt
In his article, “I Finally Figured Out Why I Hate Ender’s Game,” Walter Hickey claims that one of the flaws of the novel is that “[n]obody ever grows or changes during the course of Ender’s Game.”  In a well-organized essay, defend, challenge, or qualify the validity of this statement. Use examples from your own reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

Due date
9 Sept. 2013 (if you had Pre-AP English I last year); otherwise, 23 Sept. 2013. The due date is the LAST day I will accept your paper. If you finish early, I will do my best to give you feedback that you can use to improve your paper before the deadline.

Requirements
Your thesis paragraph should be two sentences long. Your first sentence will simply state your thesis. Your second sentence will specify the literary or rhetorical strategies you will analyze to explain your thesis.

Regardless of your thesis, you must include six (6) pieces of evidence to support your essay. As your essay will cover the entire book, your evidence should cover as much of the text as possible: Two of your pieces of evidence must come from different chapters in the set of Chapters 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15. Although you can use your own observation and/or experience, the bulk of the essay should come from analysis of the text.

Do not use first-person perspective in writing the essay. You don’t need to say “In my opinion/experience” or “I believe.” You’re the one writing the paper, I will expect that all the opinions, experiences, and beliefs belong to you.

Do not use second-person perspective, either. Don’t say “you should know” or “you now understand.” You’re not the boss of me. If your essay is persuasive, I will naturally agree with you.

This is not a research paper. Stay off the Internet.

Standard spelling, grammar, punctuation, please.

Article: Why I Hate Ender's Game

This is the article referenced in the Summer Assignment Essay Prompt: Why I Hate Ender's Game. The essential part of the article is

This also leads to another thing I realized.

Nobody ever grows or changes during the course of Ender's game.

Sure, people get new jobs, or go to different schools, or grow in prestige. But at no point over the course of the novel do we see a demonstrable growth or change in any of the characters, despite the fact that Ender ages from six to roughly eleven.

I'm willing to grant Card the "exceedingly young hero" just because every science fiction novel geared toward young adults — and many that aren't — runs into this problem.

But to see no demonstrable character growth just sort of removes the stakes from it. Card in many ways suffers from the same problem that Asimov faced in some of his great novels, the fact that he had a rocking plot concept but his characters were two-dimensional cardboard cutouts just going through the motions to make that awesome plot happen.

Any other part of the article dealing with static characters is fair game to add to your essay, but avoid bringing in other points like "lack of futurist vision" or "sexism." They may (or may not) make for a poor book, but they don't belong in your essay. Read more: Business Insider.