Incoming AP Juniors
Read the following four texts: Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, and China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston. Compose a journal for one text and be prepared to analyze all four.

Incoming AP Seniors and AP Postgraduates
Read the following four texts: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1984 by George Orwell, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Compose a journal for one text and be prepared to analyze all four.

Your Reading Journal

During the first week of school in the fall, you will turn in your reading journal, which your teacher will grade. This journal will also be used to help determine your instructional grouping in your English class.

Your journal should be an ongoing record of your thoughts and reflections while you are reading, i.e., a personal account of your experience of reading your book. You should keep your journal in an actual notebook. Be sure to compose your journal as you read, not after you complete the reading. Your journal should help you to articulate, compose, and organize your thoughts about your book, and through journaling you should develop a deeper and more thorough understanding of your book.

What will you record in your journal? For each chapter (or if there are no chapters, for every 10 pages or so) record your impressions of the character(s), the ideas or themes behind the action, the writer’s style, any questions you might be asking yourself, etc. This is not a plot summary; instead try to figure out what makes the characters act the way they do, why the writer introduces additional characters, how the setting relates to and shapes the story, why the writer chooses to tell the story through a certain point of view, why the writer uses the kind of language or style he/she does, etc. Also, just give your reactions. What characters do you like or dislike and why? What are you learning from the book? Does it relate to your own life at all? Does it remind you of any experience you have had? If anything makes you angry, write about it. If you want to learn more about what is happening, write about that.

Remember, your journal should be an active process of reflecting on what you read as you are reading. Enjoy your summer reading and writing, and thank you for your effort.

Sample Lower School Journal Topics (9th and10th Grades)

As you read Tuesdays with Morrie, remember to keep your reading journal. If you aren’t sure what to write in your journal, consider responding to one of the following topics. Throughout the summer, these topics will appear on our blog, where you will have the chance to participate in an online discussion of Tuesdays with Morrie. This discussion might help both you and others understand the novel better. Click on this link to access this blog. You will need to create a google account, but it is free and easy to do.

1. Do you know anyone like Morrie? Have you had a relationship with anyone that is similar to Mitch’s relationship with Morrie? Describe “your Morrie.”

2. Morrie occasionally discusses the “tension of opposites” (40). What does he mean by this tension? Have you felt this tension of opposites in your own life? How so?

3. Mitch Albom mentions that he believes “football in America has become ritualistic, almost a religion, an opiate for the masses” (67). What does he mean? Do you agree with him? What other rituals do you think are important in America?

4. Morrie dislikes the culture in which he lives. What does he think is wrong with this culture? Do you agree with him?

5. In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie often shares his own views of death and afterlife, and the author, Mitch Albom, researches and includes other cultures’ views of death and afterlife. Which of these views do you find most interesting?

6. Do Mitch’s conversations with Morrie change Mitch in any way? Consider his attitudes, his values, and his relationships.

7. Has Tuesdays with Morrie changed the way you think about the human condition, about life, death, love, relationships, or culture? Discuss how and why you have changed your way of thinking.

For additional journal and blog questions, go to the following website:
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/tuesdays_with_morrie1.asp#discuss
This website also has some background information about the book that might prove helpful.

Sample Upper School Journal Topics (11th, 12th, PGs)

As you read Into the Wild, remember to keep your reading journal. If you aren’t sure what to write in your journal, consider responding to one of the following topics. Throughout the summer, these topics will appear on our blog, where you will have the chance to participate in an online discussion of Into the Wild. This discussion might help both you and others understand the novel better. Click on this link to access this blog. You will need to create a google account, but it is free and easy to do.

1. After reading the first few chapters, what is your opinion of McCandless? Is he admirable and heroic or selfish and foolish?

2. Do you know anyone like McCandless? How are “your McCandless” and the original McCandless similar and different?

3. After reading pages 3-69, do you consider McCandless to be independent and an adventurous young man or spoiled and irresponsible?

4. As you read a chapter, look for a favorite or powerful phrase, sentence, or passage. Why do you like that line, what feeling or idea does it help to convey?

5. Throughout the novel, Krakauer compares McCandless to other writers and explorers. Do these comparisons change your understanding of McCandless?

6. Throughout the novel, Krakauer interprets the character and motivations of Chris McCandless. You can do the same: why do you think McCandless acted the way he did? What motivated him?

7. What have you learned from the story of Chris McCandless? Has he changed the way you think about yourself, your community, or your world?

8. Is McCandless’s life and story representative of the American ethos, or is it a protest of America?