English Language Arts

All grade levels should read and annotate their assigned text according to the guidelines in the “Criteria for Successful Annotation” handout included with this document. IB Prep 10 has an assignment included in this document. Each course will have an assessment when school resumes in the fall.

World Languages

IB Prep English II

Summer Reading Assignment

For school year 2025-2026, IB Prep English II sophomores are to read Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In addition to reading the text, students are to annotate the text and respond to the questions below. The typed (12 pt., Times New Roman), printed responses will be due on the first day of class and will be graded.

Each response should be a well-developed paragraph, with supporting text evidence correctly cited in MLA format. Responses should show that the student has closely read the text and reflect deeper insights about the text. The summer reading will play a major role in the first weeks of school and will be referenced throughout the year.

Please answer the following questions after reading Lord of the Flies:

1.       Who are the protagonists of the story? What are the conflicts - physical, intellectual, moral, or emotional? Decide whether the main conflict is between sharply differentiated good and evil or is more subtle and complex. How is the conflict developed?

2.       Does the plot have unity - how are the episodes relevant to the total meaning or effect of the story? Does each incident grow logically out of the preceding incident and lead naturally to the next? How would you describe the ending’s impact on the reader?

3.       Does the story have a theme? What is it? Does the theme reinforce or oppose popular notions of life? Does it furnish a new insight or refresh or deepen an old one? Explain your reasoning.

4.       What point of view does the story use? Is it consistent? Whether consistent or otherwise, how is the point of view justified?

5.       What symbols does the author use? How do the symbols carry or reinforce the meaning of the story?

6.       How does the author incorporate figurative language? Is figurative language employed to express some deeper truth? If so, what truth?

Criteria for Successful Annotation

Why Should You Annotate?

·         It is a good idea to annotate any text that you must know well, in detail, and from which you might need to produce evidence that supports your knowledge or reading, such as a book on which you will be tested or be studying in depth.

·         However, don't annotate other people's property, which is almost always selfish, often destructive, rude, and possibly illegal. For a book that doesn't belong to you, use adhesive (sticky) notes for your comments, removing them before you return the text.

Helpful Tools

1. Highlighter
A highlighter allows you to mark exactly what you are interested in. Equally important, the yellow line emphasizes without interfering. While you read, highlight whatever seems to be key information. At first, you will probably highlight too little or too much; with experience, you will choose more effectively which material to highlight.

2. Pencil 📝
A pencil is better than a pen because you can make changes. Even geniuses make mistakes, temporary comments, and incomplete notes. While you read, use marginalia—marginal notes—to mark key material. Marginalia can include check marks, question marks, stars, arrows, brackets, and written words and phrases (I do this often – asking questions of the text, making predictions, and generally jotting down my thoughts as the story progresses).

3. Sticky Notes 🗒️
Use sticky notes for longer annotations. These might be related to things such as setting, plot, character, conflict, or theme, to name a few.

Other Suggestions for Marking a Text

Inside Front Cover: Major character list with small space for character summary and for page references for key scenes or moments of character development, etc.

Inside Back Cover: Build a list of themes, allusions, images, motifs, key scenes, plot line, epiphanies, etc. as you read. Add page references and/or notes as well as you read. Make a list of vocabulary words on a back page or the inside back cover if there’s still room. Possible ideas for lists include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words.

Beginning/End of Each Chapter: Provide a quick summary of what happens in the chapter. Title each chapter or section as soon as you finish it, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections.

Top margins: provide plot notes—a quick few words or phrases that summarize what happens here. Go back after a chapter, scene, or assignment and then mark it carefully. (Useful for quick location of passages in discussion and for writing assignments).

Bottom and Side Page Margins: Interpretive notes (see list below), questions, and/or remarks that refer to meaning of the page. Markings or notes to tie in with notes on the inside back cover.

Interpretive Notes and Symbols:

Ø  Underline or highlight key words, phrases, or sentences that are important to understanding the work.

Ø  Write questions or comments in the margins—your thoughts or “conversation” with the text.

Ø  Bracket longer, important ideas or passages (so that you don’t have to highlight/underline long sections of text).

Ø  Connect ideas with lines or arrows.

Ø  Use a star, asterisk, or other consistent symbol in the margin to emphasize the most important statements in the book.

Ø  Use ??? for sections or ideas you don’t understand.

Ø  Circle words you don’t know. Define them in the margin; include a synonym to help you understand.

Ø  Use !!! when you come across something new, interesting, or surprising.

Ø  And other literary devices (see below).

Other things to look for:

Ø  Use SE for Story Elements: These would be notes about the story in general like setting, rising action, characters (i.e. how they develop and when new ones are introduced), conflicts, climax, falling action, etc.

Ø  Use SY for Symbols: A symbol is a literal thing that also stands for something else, like a flag, or a cross, or fire. Symbols help to discover new layers of meaning.

Ø  Use FL for Figurative Language: identify and name devices other than the symbols you have noticed and look for aspects of imagery (simile metaphor, personification, sensory details, hyperbole etc.) How do these choices reinforce an author’s message and attitude toward a subject?

Ø  Use T for Tone: Tone is the overall mood or atmosphere of a piece of literature. Tone can carry as much meaning to the story as the plot does and is created by the writer's word choices or diction.

Ø  Use Th for Theme: In literature, a theme is a broad idea in a story, or a message or lesson conveyed by a work. This message is usually about life, society, or human nature. Themes explore timeless and universal ideas. Most themes are implied rather than explicitly stated.

Ø  Use D for Diction: (effective or unusual word choice). If a writer makes a choice with their
words and that choice helps convey connotative meaning (meaning beyond the literal, e.g.
“scurried” -like a rat- instead of “ran”), it’s useful to annotate. Also notice the sounds the words
make—alliteration, repetition, onomatopoeia etc.

Make Your Own Observations
As you mark, you begin to notice patterns the author has or where he or she deviates from a pattern and much of the work of a critical or analytical reader is noticing these patterns and variations. Notice that annotations are meant to be more than a “scavenger hunt” for literary techniques and rhetorical devices. Along with marking these you should comment on the effectiveness or significance of the device. It’s great if you can detect alliteration in a passage, but that in and of itself is useless unless you can tell that this alliteration demonstrates the mental breakdown of the character, for example. It’s amazing if you recognize the hubris of a character, but how does this instance differ from those occurring previously in the novel? Ultimately, literary analysis focuses on author’s intent/purpose as well as the story.

We’ll return to author’s intent/purpose throughout the entire year!

Adapted from “An Annotation Guide: How and Why to Annotate a Book” by Nick Otten, and an AP annotation guide by Christina Baulch.