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English III Honors Summer Reading

English III Honors Summer Reading Assignment

Summer Reading Directions!

This summer you will read The Secret Life of Bees  by Sue Monk Kidd. As honors students, we expect this work will be completed entirely by reading the book and creating notes on your own. 

To demonstrate your knowledge, we require you to take notes, annotate, ask questions in the margins of your text, define vocabulary, show your understanding of the text, and react to the text through notes as you read. You will turn these notes in with your test. 

When you have your Honors English Class, you will complete a test within the first two weeks of that semester to demonstrate your knowledge of the book’s plot, characters, setting, etc. 

Then, you will work on a SEMESTER-LONG project based on the book from your grade level. Your teacher will give you the assignment and the exact due dates for your semester project sometime within the first two weeks of your class. 

Specific Directions 

  1. Obtain a copy of the class book from above. Checking out a book from the library is fine, but we encourage you to purchase the book as you will use it all semester and it makes taking notes easier. 

  2. In a composition or one-subject spiral notebook, the first couple of pages are dedicated to defining the definitions of literary terminology you will be asked about on your test. For each term, you must provide the literary definition and example of each. 

    1. Setting

    2. Plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)

    3. characterization (direct, indirect)

    4. Conflict

    5. Theme

    6. point of view

    7.  Symbolism

    8. Imagery

    9. Simile

    10. Metaphor

    11. Personification

    12. Hyperbole

    13. Irony

    14. Dialect

    15. Tone 

    16. Mood

    17. Allusion
       

  3. Throughout the rest of your notebook, you will divide each page into three sections. A new page should be used for each chapter of the novel. 

  • Section 1: Vocabulary. This section should include unfamiliar words you had to look up or were able to define using context clues. The word, page number, and definition should be included. 
  • Section 2: Chapter Information. This section should include information about new characters, setting changes, character development from chapter to chapter, conflicts introduced, how the conflicts affected the characters, and any additional information that contributes to your understanding of that chapter. 
  • Section 3: Talk to the text. This section should be filled with questions you have from the chapter, important observations, predictions, conversations you want to have with the characters, and important quotes related to the chapter that help your understanding of the novel as a whole. You are encouraged to write in your novel as well as these notes. 
  • These notes should NOT be a chapter summary. We are not asking you to write a summary. These notes are required to show your own individualized reading process in a very specific way.