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2024 - 2025 SUMMER READING REQUIREMENT  

12th Grade

AP Literature & Composition (AP Students)

  • Step A: Reading

    • 1. Closely read Article 1, “How to Write a Personal Essay for Your College Application” by Amy Allen.

    • 2. Annotate and highlight the areas you found most relevant and/or to which you have personal connection to. (Have a minimum of 5 annotations).

    • 3. For Article 2, “14 College Essay Examples From Top-25 Universities (2024-2025), read and annotate the 14 samples and highlight places where you experience “sparks” of ideas to relate to your own life, or pique your interest and annotate.

  • Essay Composition:

  • Step B: Writing -- After considering the advice found in the 2 articles, it is your turn.

    • 1. Write 2 essays: Ensure that each essay is structured, engages, and features your personality, experiences, and goals effectively.

    • 2. Choose 2 peers, parents, or adults to provide handwritten feedback on both essays.

    • 3. Revise essay based on feedback and KEEP the drafts (you will need these for submission).

    • 4. Submit typed FINAL copy and drafts in class on August 20th or August 21st.

  • Writing Workshops:

    • June 11th 2pm - 4pm: Planning the Essay

    • June 18th 2pm - 4pm: Planning the Essay

    • August – TBA Refining Ideas: We will announce on the Class of 2025 Teams page when the details have been finalized.

AP/IB Readings (IB Students)

  • The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood

  • Things Fall Apart by Achebe

  • The Awakening by Chopin

11th Grade

AP English Composition (AP Students)

  • AP English Lang:  Elements of Style (4th edition) by Strunk & White

    • On Writing by Stephen King

AP English Composition (IB Students)

  • Essays that Worked for College Applications (2003)

  • Candide

10th Grade

  • The Odyssey

9th Grade

  • English / Language Arts

How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Foster)
All Quiet on the Western Front  (Remarque)

  • AP World

Unit 0 Review and Scavenger Hunt (Research these using the internet or academic sources…will be discussed and due day 2 in all AP World classes)

  1. Define the following thematical terms as they relate to “history”:

  • Social

    • Political

    • Interaction with the Environment

    • Culture

    • Economic

    • Technology

  1. Build a socio-political connection for the term (as in how is this concept social AND political together)

  2. What countries make up “East Asia”?

  3. What is the “Mandate of Heaven”? 

  4. List a few economic “greatest hits” for East Asia…pre 1200 CE.

  5. If you had to discuss social issue in East Asia pre-1200…what would you discuss?

  6. Describe the 5-6 most important elements of Confucianism and Buddhism.

  7. When I say “South Asia” you say _______________.

  8. Name 2 empires that united large chunks of area in South Asia pre-1200…and 3-5 innovations between them.

  9. Refer to the main (2-3 minimum) socio-cultural legacies of pre-1200 South Asia that are still influential today.

  10. How does South Asia connect economically to Afro-Eurasia?

  11. Explain what a caliphate is and how they happened pre-1200.

  12. Europe…pre-1200…write me 2 paragraphs of summary of the “story of Europe”. Start with Alexander the Great. P.S. this “story” should include 5-6 themes in it.

  13. America…what is stopping America from being more of a “thing” pre-1200?

  14. What is going “well” for the Americas pre 1200…as in explain the important review type of items.

  15. In Africa, why is North more “advanced” than the South pre-1200?

  16. Why is 15 not true and demonstrate that through some details.

  17. Time to define:

  • Diaspora

  • Filial Piety

  • Dharma

  • Nirvana

  • Moksha

  • 5 Pillars

  • Animism

  • Patriarchal

  • Trans-Saharan

  1. Reflect and connect

  1. Discuss 3 “general” causes for the “Classical Civilizations” to collapse pre-1200

  2. In what ways are the 3 monotheistic religions alike?

  3. Describe how trade networks cause religions/belief systems like Islam or Buddhism to spread.

  1. Pre-essay set up:

  1. Define the term contextualization

    • Define the term thesis

    • Define the term complexity

    • Define the terms groupings AND sourcing

    • Define the term analysis

    • Define the term point of view

    • Define the term purpose

World Languages

  • French AP/IB HL

    • Colonel Chabert, by Honoré de Balzac

    • Carmen, by Prosper Mérimée

  • Spanish AP Literature

    • Read “La casa de Bernarda Alba”. List and describe each character. In your opinion, who is the protagonist?