Caroline+R--Sum+Reading

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 __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Wednesday, 8/24 **

For my summer reading, I read //Jane Eyre// by Charlotte Brontё, the book met my expectations and even exceeded them. I chose to read this book because I had heard a lot about it, and I knew a little about the plot so I wanted to read it. The book was even better than I thought it would be despite the language often being slightly difficult to understand. On my summer reading proposal I mention that I “had heard a lot about” //Jane Eyre// and I found that it lived up to all of my expectations. Another aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the age of it. I had expected this to be a problem when reading because of the difference in word choice and language, but the new and unfamiliar words made the story more vivid and easier to envision. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and in the future I plan on reading books that are similar, if not by the same author. I am glad that you chose to stretch yourself to read this classic novel! Take a look at the power paragraph guidelines and carefully review your paragraph. The topic sentence should be a clear response to the prompt and set the focus for the paragraph, does yours do this?

__ Prompt for Paragraph Two - A Discussion of What You Gained by Reading Your Book __ While I gained many things from my summer reading book I would say that the most notable is an increased vocabulary. When I started the book I was worried that the out of date language would be problematic and make my book more difficult to read, but I was wrong. The phrasing in the book made each scene vivid and realistic, bringing characters to life and making them multi-dimensional. While reading this book I did occasionally need to use a dictionary to clarify a description or an action, but this strengthened my vocabulary and will help me if I try to read other books that are written in a similar style. My summer reading book was very well written and I learned a lot about word choice and description which will help me during the school year. Be specific, avoid "things"! Can you give an example of the challenging vocabulary in the novel? __ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Thursday, 8/25 **
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Sunday, 8/28 **

I would recommend //Jane Eyre// to anyone who is interested in a challenging book and has enough time to really read it. //Jane Eyre// is not a passive read, while reading it you have to be focused and willing to grab a dictionary if needed. One of the best parts of the book, in my opinion, was the language that was used. Unfortunately, this is also one of the aspects of the book that makes it such a difficult read. The author uses unusual phases to describe relatively simple things, “I found the mess to consist of indifferent potatoes and strange shreds of rusty meat, mixed and cooked together.” (Brontё 62) I had to read that sentence three times to figure out that the main character was eating bad soup, because of the choice of words. I found the book very interesting and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in classic books, because this book was first published over one hundred and sixty years ago. It was an amazing book that was surprising and impressive at every turn.

Brontё, Charlotte. //Jane Eyre.// New York: Barnes and Noble Books. 2003. This is a good topic sentence. Consider saying something about how you felt after conquering the challenging vocabulary and setting.


 * 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