The Hull High School Blog: Summer Reading for Incoming Juniors

Summer Reading Book Assignments

for Incoming 11^th Graders

Hull High School is committed to preparing all students for success in college and career. We believe that strategic reading is an essential skill for all students, and one that must be practiced in order to be improved on. Research shows that “summer reading programs can be effective in lessening summer learning loss and increasing reading achievement” (www.cslpreads.org). To that end, all HHS students are required to read over the summer in preparation of the upcoming school year.

** Honors students will be required to read two books: the primary text and one choice from the secondary choice list.

** College Prep students will be required to read the primary text. CP students also have the option to read one choice from the secondary choice list for extra credit.

Incoming 11^th Grade – “The American Experience”

Required primary text: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are. --Goodreads.com

Assignment:

College Prep students must read the required text assigned for their grade. Honors students must read both the required text and one choice from the secondary text list below. While reading, students will take notes in two-column note format (template is attached). Notes will be collected on the first day of school and will be used for an in-class writing assessment during the first week of school.

College Prep students may choose to read a text from the secondary list below to receive extra credit. If the extra credit option is chosen, students should also fill out the set of two-column notes for the secondary text.

Secondary text choices:

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot

Zeitoun – Dave Eggers

Devil in the White City - Erik Larsen

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy

Name__________________________________________ Date____________________

Grade 11 Summer Reading Notes

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

● become intimately familiar with the content of the source

● modify your own thoughts on the topic

● create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

● personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

● practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

● practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe the protagonist’s psychological or moral development throughout the novel.	Reactions to this character’s development throughout the novel.
Describe the protagonist’s understanding of his/her place in the world.	Reactions to this character’s understanding or even revelation.
Describe a scenario or pivotal moment that causes the protagonist to develop either psychologically or morally.	Reactions to this scenario or pivotal moment.
Describe the outcome of the novel based on this character’s change in point of view.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s change in point of view.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the scenario or pivotal moment.	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the novel that highlights a shift in the protagonist’s point of view due to the aforementioned pivotal moment.	Reactions to this character’s shift in point of view.