Summer Learning

Freshman Choice Courses: Belonging and Becoming, Threads of Loyalty, Mirrors and Shadows, and Reimagining the Future

Choose your own book. We expect that you will choose a book that meets the following criteria:

• It must be fiction.
• The book must be one that you have not already read for another class and will not be reading during the upcoming school year. The following list includes all 9th grade choice texts that will be taught throughout the year. Please note that the books are not grouped by course but are presented as one complete list:
  • Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
  • I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
  • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen
  • Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
  • Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
  • Maus by Art Spiegelman
  • Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
  • Scythe by Neal Shusterman
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

If you need guidance in selecting a book, here are possible book choices compiled by Mrs. Gorman and Mrs. Lopez, our librarians. However, you are not required to choose a book from this list.

Sophomore Reading

Accelerated English

Choose your own book:

• It must be a book you have not read before.
• It can be fiction or nonfiction.
• It must be a book that is not a movie.
• It must be a book that you have not read for another class, or will not read in the upcoming year. Books for the upcoming year include Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, Macbeth, American Like Me, When the Emperor Was Divine and A People's History of Heaven.

Here is a link to possible book choices for Sophomore Accelerated English for those who prefer to choose from a list. However, you are not required to choose a book from this list.

Whether you pick a book from the list or not, please fill out this Google form.

College Prep English and Instructional English

Choose your own book:

• It can be fiction or nonfiction.
• It must be grade-appropriate.
• It must be a book that you have not read for another class, or will not read in the upcoming year. Books for the upcoming year include Fahrenheit 451, Dear Martin, and Fresh Ink.

Here is a link to possible book choices for Sophomore College Prep English compiled by Mrs. Gorman and Mrs. Lopez, the SHS librarians. However, you are not required to choose a book from this list.

Whether you pick a book from the list or not, please fill out this Google form.

Junior Reading

11 AP Language and Composition - Choose One

• Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

• Educated by Tara Westover

• Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (free version available online)

Guiding questions as you read:

• How does family/community shape our sense of belonging?
• What factors contribute to someone's identity?
• What contributes to a person's growth and what limits it?

AP American Studies 

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (free version available online)

Your summer learning assignment is to read The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and keep track, with 12-15 annotations across the text (that’s 1-2 annotations per chapter) of the impact of Douglass’s literacy, for example:

• Describe Douglass’s situation before he learns to read; what did his illiteracy prevent and promote and impact how he navigates the world?
• What was gained, and what was the cost, of his literacy?
• How would Frederick Douglass answer these questions: What is the purpose of education? Why read? What is the relationship between reading and a thriving democracy?

Click here to access the American Studies summer reading assignment.
Note: All students will need a hard copy in class of the text either that’s purchased or borrowed from their local library with their annotations.

Accelerated English - Choose One

Choose your own book. We expect that you will choose a book that meets the following criteria:

• It can be fiction or nonfiction.
• It must be a book that you have not read for another class or will not read in the upcoming year.

College Prep English and Instructional English

Choose your own book. We expect that you will choose a book that meets the following criteria:

• It can be fiction or nonfiction.
• It must be a book that you have not read for another class or will not read in the upcoming year. Books for the upcoming year include The Poet X and The Things They Carried. 

Here is a link to possible book choices for Junior College Prep English compiled by Mrs. Gorman and Mrs. Lopez, our librarians. However, you are not required to choose a book from this list.

Senior Reading

12 AP Literature and Composition

• Life of Pi by Yann Martel | Annotation Guide

World Literature, Media Analysis, Mythology & Folklore, Creative Writing, Public Speaking, Political Thought, and Instructional English

Choose your own book:

• It can be fiction or nonfiction.

• It must be a book that you have not read for another class, or will not read in the upcoming year. Books for the upcoming year include 1984, The Road, The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, Into the Wild, The War on Normal People, Hillbilly Elegy, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Young & Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions, Justice, The New Jim Crow, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Things Fall Apart, The History of Love, Homegoing, In the Time of the Butterflies, All the Light We Cannot See, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Life of Pi, The Librarian of Auschwitz, and Pachinko.

Here is a link to a list of possible choices for those who prefer to choose from a list. The list is organized by genre, and was compiled by Mrs. Gorman and Mrs. Lopez, the SHS librarians. However, you are not required to choose a book from this list.

AP European History

Students enrolled in aP European History should have received a PDF copy of Chapter 3 of the course textbook, A History of Western Society for the AP European History Course, by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. You are to read and annotate Chapter 3, “European Exploration and Conquest, 1450-1650” in the textbook before the first day of class in August.Be prepared for an assessment on Chapter 3 on the first day of school so we can measure astarting point for your learning journey and celebrate your growth over time.

Here are some guidelines to follow as you read Chapter 3:

• The chapter is divided into five sections with red headings to break down the material into smaller units. Each heading comes with a Focus Question that you should specifically answer in the margin after reading the section. When you are done reading Chapter 3, you should be able to answer the Focus Questions and be familiar with the bold terms.
   
• You are expected to highlight and annotate as you read. For the PDF, you can annotate digitally or print a copy and annotate on paper. As a general rule, highlight the most significant idea from each paragraph. Be selective; if you highlight too much it may indicate more active thinking is needed to process what information is most significant. At least once for each column of text, write an annotation that explains how specific ideas from the passage connect to the broader themes of the textbook section. Finally, write an annotation for every image, map, or chart that makes a connection between the image and ideas in the related text.
   
• Most importantly, you should be able to explain (in your own words, and using specific examples) the answer to the following question: “Between 1450 and 1650, how did global power shift from the trading world of the Indian Ocean to Europe and the Atlantic Ocean?” This chapter is all about “change,” so look for which countries and groups of people gained and lost power. Also consider how those changes affected attitudes about culture, gender, social class, and race. These questions are crucial to understanding the origins of European history in our period of focus.

Mathematics

Some students seek to practice prerequisite skills over the summer. In general, students can access sites such as IXL Math and Khan Academy to practice previous coursework and skills. The following courses offer a targeted review of prerequisite skills: Algebra 1, Geometry AB/BC, AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC. In the Fall, all students will have support from their teacher and ICL/ELC tutors.