Summer Reading Assignment

Transcription

1 1 HONORS ENGLISH I - Jaskiewicz Summer Reading Assignment In order to maintain knowledge gained throughout your 8th grade year and to enhance learning in your freshman year, you will complete a summer assignment for your Honors English class. The assignments are to be completed in their entirety by the first day of instruction because you will need them to complete in-class work during the first week of school. *Completing the summer reading and assignments set the tone for a successful freshman year, and failure to complete the reading and assignments will negatively impact your success in this course. Step 1: Choose 1 book that interests you from the list below! The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom Sarah s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Refugee by Alan Gratz Additionally, you will be required to read BOTH of the following titles: The 57 Bus By Dashka Slater (non-fiction) Hotel of the Corner of Bitter and Sweet By Jamie Ford (fiction)* *This novel will have a separate assignment. Do NOT follow steps 2-3 for this particular novel. Please see page 5 for additional information. Step 2: Read ACTIVELY and complete the quote journal entries for the novel of your choice and for The 57 Bus. These notes will serve as your preparation for the in class essays that you will be required to write during the first week of school. You will be able to use these quote journals during the in-class essay writing. The essay prompts are included here, but you should not compose these before you are asked to do so in class! A. Many times, the flaw/strengths that people have are what make the book itself interesting. Choose a person from the text and compare him/her to another person. This may be a person you know well or simply someone about whom you have heard. Explain all the ways that those people are similar/different. Who have these individuals become because of their ability/inability to overcome their flaws and/or use their strengths? B. Authors sometimes write in order to convey a greater message about life or to warn the reader not to make a mistake or error. Discuss the message that the author conveyed in the book or the error that he/she is trying to save the reader from committing. How and why does the author convey this?

2 2 C. What is the main conflict or problem within the novel? Explain why this problem exists and what the character(s) must undergo in order to overcome this conflict. If the conflict is not resolved, explain why not and explore what would have to happen for the conflict to be resolved. Step 3: As you read your books, keep a quote journal of the important aspects in each book. These quotes should be used to help you write your essays upon your return to school. You must have a total of 10 entries PER BOOK, but you may complete more! Questions to ask yourself when looking for quotes: Prompt A: How do people demonstrate strengths and weaknesses? Look for examples each character s strengths or a weaknesses. How do these strengths or weaknesses affect the individuals? Think about what happens to the individuals, how their lives changes, what becomes of them, etc What are some examples of when strengths and weaknesses lead individuals to grow and learn something new? What does this text say regarding weaknesses, strengths, and ultimate success? Prompt B: What are the main ideas presented in this text? What do you think is the main message of this text? What quotes do you think provide wisdom for the reader? What quotes do you think teach a moral lesson? Prompt C: What are the main conflicts within the book (human vs. human, human vs. nature, human vs. society, etc...)? How are these conflicts resolved? If they remain unresolved, speculate as to why the author chooses to do so.. What point(s) are made in the novel through the conflict?

3 3 Quote Journal Format Title of Book: _ _Author: Page # Quotes (write down the quote itself and who said it) Notes: How does this quote help you answer prompt A, B, or C?

4 4 Page # Quotes (write down the quote itself and who said it) Notes: How does this quote help you answer prompt A, B, or C?

5 5 Honors English I Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet By: Jamie Ford Name: Please note that these are dense, multi-layered questions designed to get you thinking about the novel s most important issues. Your responses should be far more developed than a sentence or two. Instead, they should be thoroughly developed in multiple paragraphs on separate pieces of paper (typed responses would be ideal but are not required). Your comprehension and views will be used to build our whole-class understanding of the novel. This is your initial opportunity to demonstrate your writing and critical thinking skills. Use those wonderful skills to the best of your ability! Choose one question to respond to per section. This means you should have a total of five written responses upon completion. 1) Why does Henry s father refuse to allow his son to speak Cantonese at home, but require him wear a button that reads I Am Chinese whenever he is out of the house? Do you believe Henry s father s attitudes toward his Japanese American neighbors are determined by his view of Japan as an enemy of China? How does Henry s father s identity as a Chinese nationalist come into conflict with his desire to have his son, Henry, live life as an American? 2) How does Keiko Okabe s arrival as a fellow scholarship student at Rainier Elementary change Henry s feelings about his job in the school kitchen? What accounts for their unusual bond? What do the unkind comments made by their classmates reveal about the mistrust many Americans felt toward Asian Americans during World War II? 3) Keiko surprises Henry when she reveals to him that she doesn t understand or speak Japanese; like Henry s parents, her parents want her to speak only English. What do the aspirations the Okabes and Lees have for their American-born children suggest about the collective desire of immigrants from all walks of life to assimilate or fit in to their new homelands? 4) When Henry and Keiko attend Sheldon s jazz performance at the Black Elks Club, Henry observes patrons of different races mingling together. What does jazz represent to Henry and Keiko, individually, and how do their families feel about their appreciation for it? What is it about jazz, specifically, that allows Henry and Keiko to bend rules in their own lives? 5) When Chaz Preston s father needs Henry s father s support to advance his plans for developing Japantown, why does Henry intentionally deceive his father? What does the internment of ethnically Japanese U.S. citizens threaten to do to the character of Seattle s Nihonmachi? What does Henry s behavior reveal about his loyalties to his father and to his classmate, Keiko?

6 6 6) Why does Henry agree to conceal the Okabe family s photo albums in his parents apartment? Why are the Lees worried about their son s possession of hidden mementos belonging to an interned Japanese family, and to what extent can you understand this concern? When Henry justifies his actions on the grounds that Keiko is an American, why does his father disagree? 7) If you walk out of that door now, you are no longer part of this family. You are no longer Chinese. You are not part of us anymore. (p. 185) so speaks Henry s father. Compare and contrast Henry s mother s and father s treatment of him in the wake of his concealment of Keiko s family s photographs. Why do Henry s actions threaten his very identity in the eyes of his family? 9) What do the conditions Henry witnesses at Camp Harmony suggest about the government s treatment of the Japanese American internees? Why does Mrs. Beatty recruit Henry to accompany her on her trips to the camp? How sympathetic does Mrs. Beatty seem to Henry and Keiko s plight? 10) How does Henry s physical appearance enable him to gain access to parts of Camp Harmony that would normally be off-limits for civilians? How does he benefit from this same confusion to gain access to the belongings of Japanese families in the Panama Hotel? To what extent do you think his acts of deception are justified? 11) Compare and contrast Henry s relationship with his son, Marty, to the relationship he had with his father. In what ways is Henry s relationship with his father healed by his engagement to Ethel Chen? How does Marty s engagement to Samantha impact his relationship with his father? 12) Why does Henry s father make a deathbed confession about preventing the delivery of Henry s letters to Keiko? To what extent is his father s interference indirectly responsible for Henry s relationship with Ethel? What does Henry s decision to go to China in spite of his father s dishonesty reveal about his sense of filial obligation? 13) His father had said once that the hardest choices in life aren t between what s right and wrong but between what s right and what s best. (p. 204) How does this statement apply to some of the choices Henry makes in his behavior toward Keiko and her family during the war?

7 7 14) What is the significance of the Panama Hotel in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet? In what ways does the Panama Hotel function like a character in its own right in the novel? How does the hotel participate in both the bitter and the sweet of the book stitle over the course of Henry s life? 15) The narration of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet shifts between Henry Lee s perspective as a 56-year-old retiree in the mid-1980s, and his perspective as a schoolboy living in Seattle during World War II. Why do you think the author chose to write a novel from two different periods in his protagonist s life, spanning some 40 years? What does the adult Henry have in common with his younger self, and in what ways does his character change over the course of the novel?