AP Language Summer Assignment
Hello AP Language and Composition students! Welcome to the class! Summertime is a great opportunity to get ahead of the rigorous amount of work you’ll need to do to succeed on the AP exam. This summer you will be charged with two tasks: reading and annotating the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, and preparing for an in-class, argumentative essay, the first day back from summer (unless the administration has other first day plans for teachers, and then it would be the second day). If you haven’t completed them by the end of summer and have them ready for the first day of class, you are way behind. Historically, students that find themselves in this situation sit in our class for a week-and-a-half or so waiting for the counselors to adjust their schedules. Sometimes the students get EXPO, but sometimes EXPO is already full and the student is transferred to CP, which may disappoint you, but that’s the reality. And combined, The Crucible assignment and argumentative assignment will be worth approximately 12-15% of your semester’s grade. Hence, if you don’t do them, your first semester’s grade will not be very attractive.
Part 1: The Crucible & Research Articles Resources: Regarding The Crucible, you can check out a Junior level Glencoe English text from our library, or, if you wish, you can purchase your own copy of the play, or you can find the play, in its entirety at this pdf link: https://ia801303.us.archive.org/30/items/TheCrucibleFullText/The%20Crucible%20full%20text.pdf
Part 1: 100 points: Read and annotate the play (annotate lightly—a couple annotations per page), focusing much of your attention on the various arguments made by the different characters. Do the arguments have merit? Which arguments appeal to emotion? Which appeal to authority (experience, age, occupation, etc.)? Which appeal to logic? Be prepared for a test that addresses these issues. The test will consist of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions and will be given on the first day of school; it will have some reading comprehension questions, but it will also demand a thorough understanding and analysis of the play and its satirical association with Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. ALSO!!!!!!!!! You will need to bring four different internet articles concerning McCarthyism (each being at least two pages in length) to class on the first day of school, and the articles must be dense with annotation. Know the articles well, for there will be questions that will focus on knowledge beyond the play itself.
Part 2: Summer Argumentative Reading Please come by and "check out” The Bedford Reader (Ninth Edition) from Mrs. Hipp (M118). In other words, you won’t be checking it out because it is being discontinued, so you’ll be borrowing a copy from Mrs. Hipp; please return on the first day back. New textbooks have arrived, but they won’t be available to check out until the beginning of the school year. So, you’ll be working in The Bedford Reader over the summer, a bit throughout the school year, and then you’ll be turning in the books to Mrs. Hipp. You will be reading Chapter 13 over summer, but not all of Chapter 13. Specifically, here’s what you will do:
• You will read from pages 515 to 536, and you will take extensive annotations, on separate sheets of paper, while you read.
• On page 536, you will answer the three questions under Questions on Meaning. Each response should be one or two complete sentences to gain full credit. You will then answer the four questions under Questions on Writing Strategy. Each of those responses will need to be three or more sentences for full credit.
• You will be turning in your annotations from pages 515-535, and you will be turning in your responses to the questions, on the first day of school. Don’t combine the assignments. In other words, don’t answer the questions on page 536 on the same pages as the annotations from pages 515-535. Have the answers on page 536 on a separate sheet of paper (written or typed).
• You will have additional, multiple-choice test questions added to The Crucible test that will cover pages 515-535 in The Bedford Reader, and they could be worth upwards of 50 points. Hence, take your annotations seriously and know the information in these pages well.
Have a great summer!
Thanks,
Sunny Hipp