Berlin High School Summer Reading Program
The purpose of the Berlin High School summer reading program is to foster and maintain students’ active reading skills during the summer months, and to reinforce the idea of reading as a lifelong skill. To this end, all BHS students in grades 9-12 during the 2009-2010 school year are required to read one book from the list of approved books, all pertaining to the 2009 summer reading theme of “Similarities and Differences.” Additionally, all students are strongly encouraged to read additional free choice books.
As they read, students are urged to think about the guide questions on the attached sheet in order to deepen their understanding of the book they have chosen to read. Students are not required to write responses to the guide questions.
During the first week of school, as an assessment of their reading, all students will complete an in-class writing assignment pertaining to the book they have read from the approved list. Students are not allowed to use notes or any other materials in completing the assessment. The assessment will be scored using the school-wide rubric for reading (attached), and the results will be reported on the quarter one report card.
REQUIRED: Students must read one book from the list below.
Approved summer reading list for 2009—“Similarities and Differences”
Fiction:
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Reading level: Young Adult
“Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, this novel is Sandra Cisneros’ greatly admired story of a young girl’s growing up in the Latino section of Chicago.”
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Reading level: Young Adult
“Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of old ways.”
Snow In August by Pete Hamill
Reading Level: Adult
“Eleven-year-old Irish Catholic Michael Devlin and Rabbi Judah Hirsch form a wonderful, if unlikely, friendship in Brooklyn in 1947, but the actions of a group of anti-Semitic thugs soon have them trapped in a spiral of hate and hoping for a miracle.”
(Please note: This book contains some racially provocative language and descriptions of physical violence.)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reading level: Young Adult (middle school)
“Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot.”
(Please note: This book contains some profanity and descriptions of teen sexual behavior and physical violence.)
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Reading level: Young Adult (middle school)
“Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full- time and everyone has a reaction—her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else.”
Non-fiction:
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
Reading level: Adult
“James McBride shares the story of his mother’s life and complicated racial identity which he only learned after he became an adult. He tells of her infancy in Poland as the daughter of an orthodox Jewish rabbi, her childhood in small-town Virginia, her move to Harlem at the age of eighteen, her marriage to an African-American man, her achievements as a wife and mother to twelve children, and her refusal to ever admit she is white.”
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Reading level: Adult
“Obama's memoir, written long before his political career began, is a remarkable story of one man's search for his identity. Obama was born the son of a black African father who walked out on his family. Many years later, he received a phone call from Kenya telling him of his father's death. This set him off on an odyssey to learn the truth of his estranged father's life.”
RECOMMENDED: Students are strongly encouraged to read additional free choice books. Use these links to access numerous lists that include a wide variety of suggested books for teenage readers.
American Library Association—Young Adult Library Services Association Booklists
www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists
Berlin-Peck Memorial Library—Young Adult Summer Reading Program—“Express Yourself at Your Library” (Sign up beginning June 30th to become eligible for a variety of prizes and contests! Visit the library for more details.)
http://www.berlinpeck.lib.ct.us/
Berlin High School Summer Reading Program
Guide Questions
As you read, think about the guide questions below in order to deepen your understanding of the book you have chosen to read.
You are not required to write responses to the guide questions. You will not be allowed to use notes or any other materials in completing the in-class writing assignment to be given during the first week of school.
Did the content of the book mirror your life in any way?
What strengths or weaknesses do you share with the subject or main character of your book?
What did this book show you about your world that you had never noticed before?
What surprised you about yourself while you were reading the book?
Why was this book meaningful to you?
Do you have any questions for the author?
How did the author’s writing style and/or use of literary devices impact your comprehension and enjoyment of the book
Berlin High School: Reading Rubric
| READING CRITERIA: |
3- EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS |
2- MEETS EXPECTATIONS |
1- WORKING TOWARDS EXPECTATIONS |
FORMING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING |
· Understands important ideas and themes
· Summarizes accurately and thoroughly
· Consistently understands and applies content-specific reading vocabulary
· Consistently uses appropriate reading strategies to support understanding
|
· Understands important details and ideas
· Summarizes briefly, but accurately
· Usually understands and applies content-specific reading vocabulary
· Frequently uses appropriate reading strategies to support understanding |
· Shows limited or inaccurate understanding of the important details and ideas
· Inconsistently distinguishes between summarizing and retelling ideas
· Infrequently understands and applies content-specific reading vocabulary
· Makes limited or inappropriate use of reading strategies to support understanding |
DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION |
· Effectively uses information to support interpretations
· Recognizes the relationships among important ideas
· Distinguishes what is directly stated and what is implied |
· Generally uses information to support interpretations
· Recognizes some of the relationships among important ideas
· Distinguishes what is directly stated and most of what is implied
|
· Seldom uses references to support interpretations
· Infrequently recognizes the relationships among important ideas
· Rarely distinguishes what is directly stated and/or what is implied
|
MAKING CONNECTIONS |
· Demonstrates clear and thoughtful connections to other knowledge and relevant personal experiences. |
· Demonstrates basic connections to other knowledge and relevant personal experiences.
|
· Makes few or no connections to other knowledge and relevant personal experiences. |
EVALUATING CONTENT AND STRUCTURE |
· Makes well supported predictions based on prior personal and literary experiences
· Makes effective value judgments about quality and structure
· Evaluates the use of literary or artistic devices, author’s or artist’s purpose, intended audience, or points of view
|
· Makes basic predictions based on prior personal experiences and occasionally on literary experiences
· Makes satisfactory value judgments about quality and structure
· Recognizes the use of literary or artistic devices, author’s or artist’s purpose, intended audience, or points of view
|
· Makes limited or no predictions based on prior or literary experiences
· Makes limited or no value judgments about quality and structure
· Infrequently recognizes the use of literary or artistic devices, author’s or artist’s purpose, intended audience, or points of view |
