Here's Your Summer Homework!

The AP English Language 

Summer Homework Assignment 2018

The Turnitin.com Class ID for AP English 2018-19 is 18245998 

and the password is “fletch508”

The blog address is apbloggers2018-19.blogspot.com

My email address is afletcher[at]busd.k12.ca.us

Sign up for text message notifications by texting @aplangi to 81010
Print the assignment here.

Homework Summary at a Glance

WRITING

• Blog Assignment — informal, academic writing:
• Pursue themes and questions raised by any text in the summer homework -- also, posts covering relevant news items, podcasts or other media are also welcome
• BEFORE YOU START BLOGGING, you have to send an email to Ms. Fletcher and ask for a blog invitation.  Our blog is a semi-closed blog, which means anyone can read it, but only invited guests can post writing to it.
• Notebook Assignment — writing as thinking; writing to learn; ancillary purpose is to build fluency and speed while maintaining/improving legibility:
• Chapter tasks for Wu/Carr
• Analysis of ten different issues found at “Room for Debate” @ NYTimes
• Turnitin.com — formal academic writing: summary and analysis:
• Academic summary - Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death
• Analytical essays - Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

READING

• Core Texts, read both:
• Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman
• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
• Only One:
• The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, Tim Wu (A-M)
• The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brain, Nicholas Carr (N-Z)
• Everybody reads Room for Debate, New York Times:   Ten debates total:  Fletcher picks five; you pick five

Welcome to the Class of 2020 (aka Class of 2024),  born in 2002

Your ticket to a seat in AP English Language and Composition is the successful and timely completion of the summer homework assignment

All homework is due by 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 10.  I will not accept any homework after 3:00 p.m. on August 10 unless you have a legitimate reason and you have cleared a new deadline with me in advance. 

Students who do not complete the summer homework are transferred to College Prep Junior English during the week of August 13.  If, during the summer, you realize that you would prefer to be in College Prep English, simply send me an email and I will see to it that you are transferred.  There is no shame in transferring out!  You have to set your own priorities.

IMPORTANT!  PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND:  If your summer homework does not demonstrate the appropriate level of thought, care, or effort for successful completion of an AP class, or if it is incomplete, I reserve the right to transfer you out of the AP class, depending on available seats.

Explanation of Assignments

Part I:  Create Writer’s Notebook

The writer’s notebook is an important part of our year together; it is created during the summer.

The requirements for the notebook are specific:

• Three subject, college-ruled, spiral bound, and sturdy; buy a high quality notebook, as it must withstand a year of heavy use.  Don’t buy a small notebook with pages that are smaller than 8.5 x 11; we tape handouts into the notebook, so it must be the same size as a photocopied handout.  On the other side of the spectrum, don’t buy a gigantic five-subject notebook either, since you’ll be carrying it to class every day next year, or I will be carrying it home in a big bag to read/grade.  Make sure the pages don’t fall out easily. Make sure the wire spiral won’t smash flat or stab me.  If your notebook makes me bleed (yes, it has happened), we will have words.
• If decorating notebooks to personalize them makes you happy, please feel free to do so.  It is not required; if you do decorate, I must insist that you avoid feathers and glitter and those cushy 3D stickers. 
• What is required:  write your full name in bold letters using dark Sharpie on the outside back cover.  (I have never had 100% of incoming students follow this simple requirement.  Let’s go for 100% this year.)
• Please write in dark ink (blue or black), and write on both sides of the page.  Do not use an ink pen that “bleeds through.”  Sharpies, bad.  Ballpoint ink, good.

Part II:  Read three books.  Write.

The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading...is indistinguishable from deep thinking.

~excerpted from “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr

For AP English this summer, you’ll read two nonfiction texts, and one novel — (a total of three books, for those of you who are challenged by narrative math).  I recommend that you read the two nonfiction texts first, and save Brave New World for dessert.   It’s the weirdest.

[FLETCHER LECTURE HERE]:  Nonfiction texts require a different style of reading than what you are used to when reading narrative fiction.  In nonfiction, you must slow down, annotate, and attend to HOW ideas and arguments develop over time, and build upon one another.  You must read actively.  That is, you should sit up in a chair, and turn off your phone and your music, and avoid your computer or any device that dings, beeps, buzzes, trills, or sings when an incoming message arrives.  And read with a pencil in your hand.  Make notes.  Track your thinking.  Notice where you get lost.  Notice where you lose focus.  This happens to everyone.  The difference between successful readers and unsuccessful readers is simple:  successful readers track their own comprehension and thinking, notice when they get lost, go back and re-read.  They persist.  They are actively thinking as they read, not merely passing their eyes over words.  If you cannot think and engage your own mind as you read, your intellectual growth will be severely hampered.  You’ll be faking it; maybe you’ll successfully fool people for a while, but eventually, faking it does catch up with you.

CORE TEXT #1:

Postman, Neil.  Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.  New York: Penguin (USA), 1985. Print.

This book has legs.  (That means it continues to be of interest.)  Published in 1985 (10 years before the internet browser was widely available), it surveys and analyzes the effects of television on various forms of public discourse: news, religion, political discussion and campaigning, and education. Postman notes that television’s contribution to educational philosophy is the idea that teaching and entertainment are inseparable — an idea he finds lethal to students’ ability to develop critical thinking.

When reading this book, I want you to slow down, and develop the patience it requires to read, absorb, and assimilate a new idea.  Postman writes very clearly; however, his ideas are dense and may be unfamiliar.  You cannot whip through this book.  You are going to have to read slowly, stop, reflect, go back, re-read.  This kind of close, reflective reading is essential for success in AP Language and in college.

I will test you on this book.

Create a document on your computer (I use Google Docs for almost everything these days), and write three sentences for each chapter (there are eleven) that encapsulate Postman’s main point for that chapter.   What is his thesis? What kind of evidence does he use to support his claim? In other words, you need to practice writing ACADEMIC SUMMARY.

Writing academic summary is a skill to develop and practice — focus on big ideas, main points, important cause and effect relationships; write in clean, clear, well-constructed sentences. No fluffy stuff.  No "Basically, what Postman is trying to say," introductions.  Just get to it.  This work will be submitted to Turnitin.com. 

CORE TEXT #2:

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1998, ©1932.

Consistently listed as one of the top ten novels of the 20th century, Brave New World is a science fiction classic; like most science fiction, it creates a world that challenges us to reconsider our own world anew.

Choose any three from the following prompts and craft your best analytical response of between 500-750 words, and submit to Turnitin.com:

Prompt 1:  An individual’s struggle toward understanding and awareness is the traditional subject for the novelist.  Apply this statement to Brave New World.  Organize the essay according to the following plan:   1.  Compare the protagonist as we see him in an early scene with how we see him in a scene near the end of the novel.  2.  Describe the techniques the author uses to reveal the new understanding and awareness that the protagonist has achieved.

Prompt 2:  In many novels and plays, minor characters contribute significantly to the total work.  They often have particular functions, ie., as instruments in the plot, foils to the main character, or as commentators on the main action and theme.  In a well organized essay, consider how two minor characters function in Brave New World.

Prompt 3:  The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is a recurring theme of many novels.  Select a character from Brave New World who is in opposition with society.  Analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society.

Prompt 4:   An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes.  In the view of some critics,  work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault.  A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty.  Discuss the ending of Brave New World.  Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work.

Prompt 5:  Many novels seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes and traditions.  Note the particular attitudes or traditions that Aldous Huxley apparently wishes to modify.  Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s views. 

An effective analytical response generally has a few key features: rigorous attention to the text, an interpretation of the work, and a convincing argument for that interpretation.  Writers argue for their interpretation not so much to convince readers to adopt it, but rather to convince them that the idea is reasonable and based on imaginative, thoughtful analysis of the work. They must demonstrate to reader how they “read” the work, pointing out specific details and explaining what they think these details mean.  

These three essays will be submitted to Turnitin.com as one document.  Three essays, one document.

TEXT #3  - Read only one:

• If your last name begins A-M, you will read:
• The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, Tim Wu
• If your last name begins N-Z, you will read:
• The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brain, Nicholas Carr

In your notebook, please go through the following procedure, outlining each part so I can follow your reading process.  Put together this section of your notebook carefully; following this process will assist you in navigating and following a lengthy complex text, and will enable me to evaluate your work.  Take notes as if you had to present this material to your peers on the other side of the alphabetical divide.  [By the way, I have not read this book yet either, so I will be doing this same thing.]

PREREADING:
BEFORE YOU BEGIN READING. YOU ONLY DO THIS ONCE! THIS PREREADING ASSIGNMENT COVERS THE ENTIRE BOOK.

• Look at the book’s cover; study the title, author’s notes, blurbs and reviews – anything you can learn about the book before reading.  Look up the author online.  There are interviews and reviews of both books; and plenty of resources online to help you get a feel for these books.
• Is there a Foreward, a Prelude, an Introduction?  Is there an Epilogue?  An Afterword?  Notes?  Glossaries?  Should you read these?  If so, when?
• Study the structure of the book.  How is it organized?  How long are the chapters?.
• Before reading a chapter, flip through the chapter and skim the content.  Look for key words that jump out at you.  What is the typography like?  Examine the surface features of the text, including subheads, graphs, illustrations.
• Set up a system  for keeping track of unfamiliar vocabulary, by chapter.  Note the page number if you are reading a traditional "paper and glue" book.  PLEASE NOTICE that I am not asking you to write out definitions.  You can look words up, and you should whenever your “not-knowing” prevents you from understanding the bigger idea, but writing out definitions for words not part of the summer assignment. I DO want you to track words that you do not know, and to notice how many mysterious words there are.

DURING READING:

• As you begin to read each chapter, write down 2-3 questions that you’d like an answer to, or questions that you’d like to discuss with someone else later.  Look for a blog post from me early in the summer on how to write a good discussion question.
• Write down 1-2 sentences from the chapter that strike you in some way.  Copy the sentence, verbatim.  Here are some reasons a sentence may be worth copying down:
• It is beautiful, or true, or false, or confusing, or depressing.
• The sentence structure is remarkable (worth talking about).
• The word choices are surprising or fresh.
• (I want students to copy down great sentences because I want you to start noticing what makes a sentence great.  Imitation is a wonderful way to learn.)

AFTER READING:

• Write a brief summary of the chapter; pretend you are describing the main idea of the chapter to someone who has never read this text before.  Your summary can be no more than five clean, clear American sentences.
• Look back at your questions for this chapter.  Answer or revise one of your own questions.
• A good question sometimes won’t have an answer, but that does not mean it won’t generate thought and discussion.

“Room for Debate”,  New York Times  (Prep for the AP Synthesis Essay & the AP Argument)
Room for Debate was a weekly feature of the New York Times where several writers weigh in on a contemporary issue of interest. Please carefully read all of the articles featured around an issue, and then write a summary your notebook.  You will do ten of these:  I pick five, and you pick five.  Write up the issue as follows:

• In three sentences, describe the heart of the issue as neutrally as possible.
• In three sentences, describe one position that is taken, and CITE the author.
• In three sentences, describe ANOTHER position that is taken, and CITE the author.
• What is your position?  Why?  How is this issue relevant?  For the five that you choose, please explain WHY you selected this issue.

My five:

• Media in the Age of Trump (January 19, 2017)
• Is Artificial Intelligence Taking Over Our Lives? (December 5, 2016)
• Is Digital Connectedness Good or Bad for People?  (November 28, 2016)
• How to Stop the Spread of Fake News (November 22, 2016)
• Is Internet Addiction a Health Threat for Teens? (July 16, 2015)

Now you pick five.  Our theme is media, the power of language, and technology, but you may choose any debate that piques your interest.

Part IV:  Blog

This is our blog:  http://apbloggers2018-19.blogspot.com

You will become a blogger this summer. Writing for an authentic audience with expectations is excellent practice for writers and thinkers.  You must be clear; you must discuss things that merit discussion; you must make sense.

When you cannot make yourself understood, you are effectively silenced, no longer a part of the ongoing conversation and exchange in the world of ideas.

“If thought corrupts language, then language can also corrupt thought.”  — George Orwell

The basic ground rules:

1. You must email me first so that I can clear your participation on this semi-closed blog:  afletcher[at]busd.k12.ca.us
2. You will need to use your @s.busd.k12.ca.us account, or create a Google account. It’s easy and free.  I suggest that you create an email address that is simple and professional; standard on most college campuses and in corporate settings is your first initial, followed by your last name: You must sign each post with your real name.  I cannot grade or respond to crzysrferchick02, flatworlder3876 or any such moniker.
3. Absolutely, positively no ad hominem arguments [look this up if necessary].  You may question one another, ask for clarification, admit that you don’t understand what somebody is talking about, add a point that you believe somebody has missed, but you must NOT attack people.  Challenge ideas, ask for clarity, but maintain civility.  If I have to step in, that will be your first and only warning.  The second time, your access to the blog will be blocked and I’ll simply enter a zero for this part of the assignment and we will have to talk before moving forward.
4. Please do not waste time with “Me too!” and “I agree with you!” responses.  Such posts are useless at best, and annoying.  If you agree or disagree, EXPLAIN.

Start Four Conversations

You must write four posts — that is, you have to originate four conversations. You can write about ANYTHING you encounter that connects to our summer homework; you can write about the books, about what you read on Room for Debate, about things that you read or experience that connect to what we are working on.

When you post, refer directly to what you are reading and the question you want to raise.  Use your questions from Postman, or use a passage in Huxley.  (Believe me, once you start paying attention, modern media provides you with plenty to critique and think about.  After you have written your post, but before you publish, write a terse, descriptive subject line.

These conversation starters should be at minimum 150 words long.  Anything shorter will not be effective.  For example, these two paragraphs explaining that you must start four threads are 199 words long.

Respond to Eight Conversations

You must respond to other writers at least eight times.  You may also respond to a response.  I expect some conversations will become quite lengthy.  Your responses should also be complete thoughts, fully explained.  I don’t want to get all nit-picky on word counts; just don’t go overboard (rambling is never a good idea), and make sure you say enough to make a point.

These recommendations are on the low side.  You can definitely participate more than this.  I’d like to see you involved over a course of several weeks. 

A blog is a conversation, and it is rude to run into a conversation as it draws to a close and just blurt out a bunch of stuff without giving anyone an opportunity to respond.  I've had people post everything in one day.  That is not blogging; that is procrastinating and cramming. 

• BLOGGERS WHO BEGIN THE WORK LATER THAN JULY 23 WILL RECEIVE 75% CREDIT. 
• ANY BLOGGER WHO BEGINS THE WORK LATER THAN AUGUST 3 WILL ONLY RECEIVE 25% CREDIT. 

Anything posted after 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 10 will not be counted for summer homework credit.

So, take some well-deserved time off, but try and get into it by July, and use all the time we have. We have a short summer -- just 9 weeks; don’t jam the work into the last week. Good writing comes from a thoughtful place; poor writing is almost always superficial because it is rushed.

Let’s see a lively exchange of ideas!  If you are confused, go to your classmates for help.  If you see something on television or in the newspaper that relates to what we are working on, share it.  And watch for my posts — when I see something that I want to share with you, I go to the blog with it.

Fun Facts

• I'm going to help you to become a more mature and disciplined reader and writer.
• I only accept notebooks written in longhand, and in black or blue ink only.
• If you finish the blog requirements early, be sure to check in from time to time, because I write to the blog all summer long and will explain, introduce, and discuss ideas with you.
• I answer all email quickly, and you can keep track of me by reading the blog; when I leave the digital world for a brief vacation, I will let you know when I will be back.
• I expect all of your email to me to feature correctly-written English sentences and excellent etiquette.  Email is no joke.  People lose jobs when they write email that is tone deaf, rude, or that ignores the conventions of good writing.

Feel free to contact me with questions or problems; that’s what I’m here for.  I honestly don’t mind; however, I may redirect many of your questions back to the blog.  Meanwhile, have a thought-provoking summer full of family, friends and extra sleep, and I’ll see you in August, ready to go.