Download Herricks High School English Department Summer Reading/Writing

Herricks High School English Department
Summer Reading/Writing Assignment
for Students Entering AP Literature and Composition 2016 – 2017
Dear AP Scholars,
This assignment is intended to serve as a preface to Advanced Placement Literature and
Composition, a highly demanding course for which, in a way, you’ve been preparing for much of
your academic life. While AP Language and Composition veered into the world of rhetorical
strategies and delved into what nonfiction can offer, this course focuses solely on all the glory and
complexity associated with great literature over the past several centuries. We think examining
John Patrick Shanley’s award-winning drama, Doubt: A Parable, produced in 2004, is a great way
to start the year. Described by critics as “a theatrical experience it would be sinful to miss,” Doubt
explores the idea “that words hide as much as they reveal and can be interpreted in too many
ways to afford us any certainties.”
Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley
John Patrick Shanley's drama Doubt premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23,
2004, before moving to Broadway, at the Walter Kerr Theatre, in March of the following year. It
instantly became the most celebrated play of the season, taking the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama;
best new play awards from the New York Drama Critics' Circle, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, the
Drama League, the Outer Critics Circle, and the Drama Desk; the Obie; and four Tony Awards
(best play, best actress in a play, best featured actress in a play, and best director). The play was
published by Theatre Communications Group in 2005.
Set at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, Doubt concerns an older nun, Sister Aloysius, who
does not approve of teachers' offering friendship and compassion over the discipline she feels
students need in order to face the harsh world. When she suspects a new priest of sexually
abusing a student, she is faced with the prospect of charging him with unproven allegations and
possibly destroying his career as well as her own. To help build her case, she asks for help from
an idealistic young nun, who finds her faith in compassion challenged, and the mother of the
accused boy, who is protective of her son, the first black student ever admitted to St. Nicholas.
("Doubt: A Parable." Drama for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Commonly Studied
Dramas. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Print.)
Assignment
Your assignment asks you to do a few things. First, obtain a copy of the play. Follow the link at
herricks.org to the English Department Summer Reading Page. There find a link to a PDF of the
play which you may use by printing the document or by working with it online. If you wish, you may
obtain a paperback copy of the play from local libraries, bookstores, e-book sellers, or online
booksellers (purchase the Dramatists Play Service Inc. edition). Questions and concerns about this
should be directed to ELA Director, Michael Imondi, by June 25 th. Read closely and annotate
as you read. Your annotations should cover the entire play and should serve as a comprehensive
reflection of your thinking and engagement with the text. Some of you will use post-its while some
of you may purchase your own books and write directly in the margins. Annotations are not simply
highlights, underlined phrases, and random exclamations. They should show evidence of
interaction with the text and lots of inference-making. They are varied in form and content yet
show a reader’s unique line of inquiry from beginning to end. Annotations for your summer reading
assignment should include but are not limited to analyses/questions/comments on the following:
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characterization, setting, conflict, and/or other literary elements
specific literary devices and how they develop the story
motifs and connections between repeated aspects of the text
structure and point of view
predictions about plot with explanations
examinations of style and craft
connections to other texts/real life/etc.
development of central ideas and possible meanings of the work as a whole (we’ll discuss
this phrase in depth during the year)
In addition to your annotations, you should read John Patrick Shanley’s preface to the play
which can be found at the beginning of the text. After reading, write a response to the preface that
answers the following questions:
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How does Shanley define “doubt”?
How do Shanley’s assertions about the meaning of the word doubt help to inform your
understanding of the characters, their conflicts, and the meaning of the play as a whole?
Use specific references to the preface and appropriate evidence from the play to support your
thinking in your response. You should annotate the preface while reading. Your annotations
should demonstrate evidence of close reading and help you complete this response.
Assessment
Your assignment should be completed by the first day of school. Expect to write about the text
formally within the first two weeks of school. Please bring it to class along with the 9-12
Summer Reading Assignment, which is available on the high school page of our district
website (www.herricks.org).
We’re looking forward to working with you this year. It should be a wonderful ride.
Best,
Sarah Kammerdener
[email protected]
Alan Semerdjian
[email protected]
Jessica Lagnado
[email protected]