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Home Summer Reading Assignment Students

Given the nature of the 2011 summer reading program, you had significant autonomy in selecting the books you would read. While you were responsible for completing a proposal, you were not given other assignments to complete over the summer. As indicated on your proposal form, you are required to write a letter to your 2011-12 Language Arts teacher that demonstrates your thoughtful reading of your book. We have chosen to break this down further into three focused "Power Paragraphs" for two reasons, one, to introduce you to the idea of a power paragraph, and two, to assist you in covering all aspects of the assignment.

__ Prompt for Paragraph One - A Reflection of Your Choice __ The book I choose to read this summer, //The Polish Way//, by Adam Zamoyski was one of the most informative books I have ever read. It was all I thought it would be and more when I was writing up my proposal. In my proposal I said “Recently I have become very interested in the country of Poland. I thought that this book would give me a deep history and help me understand more about the country.”(Worster reading proposal). This book was filled with stories of art and war of politics and religion it answered any question I could ever have about the history of Poland. What an interesting choice of a book. I am curious to know more about why you chose this book. Begin with a strong sentence that says why you were drawn to this choice and then you can say how it met your expectations.
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Wednesday, 8/24 **

__ Prompt for Paragraph Two - A Discussion of What You Gained by Reading Your Book __ I feel that //The Polish Way// had a deep affect on me. I am a very nationalistic person. I love the United States and I also love to learn about history especially my family history. My great grandmother was born in Poland and my great grandfather moved there at a young age and was raised there. I have become very proud of my polish history. Whenever someone would here this they would only think the negatives of Poland oh they were steam rolled by Germany in World War 2 over and over again. It made me think about why I am so proud so I wanted to learn more about Poland. This book is a 1000 year history of Poland so I literally learned 1000 years of Polish history. The cover of the book even says it “//The Polish Way// A thousand-year history of the poles and their culture” (Zamoyski Cover). This book not only taught me about the grandeur of Poland but also reinforced my nationalism about how great I think Poland is.
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Thursday, 8/25 **

Zamoyski, Adam. //The Polish Way//. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1987. Print.

Take a look at this paragraph again. Can you find the four strongest sentences or ideas and cut "filler" words? Review the power paragraph format for ideas.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __ I think that this book would only be good to a select few people. It is very descriptive about history but only about the history of Poland. Some questions you might have about this book are. Is it difficult to read? The answer to that question is yes it is a very difficult book to read unless you have a background in the polish language. Before I started to learn polish while reading this I found myself getting very aggravated at not knowing how to pronounce names also it is written in British English so it is slightly different from what we are used to. The other major question you might have is am I interested in the topic of this book? If you are interested in the history or culture of another group of people or if you are just interested in Poland then you would definitely be interested in this book. “The principal aim of this book is to chart the course of Polish history within its European context” (Zamoyski X). This book is mainly for lovers of history especially those who love Poland as much as I do.
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Sunday, 8/28 **

Zamoyski, Adam. //The Polish Way//. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1987. Print. Good start, but take out "I think," it weakens your sentence. Be sure to focus on the prompt you are responding to and avoid veering off on tangents.


 * Scoring: Your three paragraphs will be given one overall grade, and the timeliness of your posts will be reflected in your "timeliness" grade. **

// An outstanding response to the prompts will include the following: //
 * A strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the focus on the prompt
 * Evidence that clearly supports the topic sentence
 * Correct use of internal citations and a properly formatted MLA citation for your book (put this citation at the end of paragraph one)
 * Strict adherence to the Power Paragraph format
 * Mechanics are clean and do not detract from meaning