Required Summer Reading Assignment-Night by Elie Wiesel 9

th Grade Accelerated History (pre-IB/pre-AP)

Purchase this book and write your comments directly in the book as you read, or check out a copy from Mrs. Erickson/ Mrs. Sloan and mark your book up with sticky notes.

This summer’s reading assignment will be to:

1. Read the book Night, by Elie Wiesel

2. Annotate the book (100 points) Annotations will be graded. Please make Approx. one annotation per page.

Annotate= making notes directly onto a text such as a book, a handout, or another type of publication.

Some students read the book uninterrupted, then go back and annotate (make comments and observations).

Some students make comments about what they are reading in the book during the first reading. Students should mark any particular passages of historical significance, questions they have, vocabulary that is new to them. Any ideas, connections, annotations students can make concerning the book, will aid them in discussion.

We will discuss the book on the first day of class in August.

Annotating the book

Make brief comments regarding symbolism, cause and effect, conflict, turning point, theme, setting, culture in the margins (if the book is yours to keep or on sticky notes). Use any white space available: inside cover, random blank pages, etc. A pencil is better than a pen because you can make changes. Even geniuses make mistakes, temporary comments, and incomplete notes.

While you read, use marginal notes to mark key material. Margin notes can include check marks, question marks, stars, arrows, brackets, and written words and phrases. Create your own system for marking what is important, interesting, quotable, questionable, and so forth.

Imagine yourself having a conversation with the text. If you disagree/agree or question something said, write down your reaction on that page. If something surprises or moves you, write down your reaction. Note symbolism, metaphor, foreshadowing, injustice, inconsistencies, powerful connections you make with text.

By annotating you can deliberately engage the author in conversation and questions, maybe stopping to argue, pay a compliment, or clarify an important issue—much like having a teacher or storyteller with you in the room. If and when

you come back to the book, that initial interchange is recorded for you, making an excellent and entirely personal study tool.-The College Board

Especially identify areas dealing with SPRITE-Social, Political, Religious,

Intellectual, Technological, Economic:

Social-cultural, friendships, family relationships, prejudices, values, taboos,

expectations, traditions, customs, celebrations

Political-government, judicial system, prisons, political parties, power, military,

rules, laws, rules, leaders, politicians, rulers, types of government

Religious- belief systems, meaning of life, faith, scripture, prayer, festivals,

holidays, traditions, God, Christianity, Judaism, Islam…

Intellectual- scientific, education, reason, thought, philosophy

Technological-new ideas or inventions, medicine, physics, chemistry

Economic-to do with money, profit, production, manufacturing, trade

Make brief comments between or within lines of the text. Do not be afraid to mark

within the text itself.

Circle an unfamiliar term and write a definition/synonym for the word

Use abbreviations or symbols – brackets, stars, exclamation points, question

marks, numbers, etc.

Underline – CAUTION: Use this method sparingly. Underline only a few words.

Always combine with another method such as comment. Never underline an

entire passage. Doing so takes too much time and loses effectiveness. If you

wish to mark an entire paragraph or passage, draw a line down the margin or use

brackets.

Create your own code.

Use post-it notes only if you have exhausted all available space (unlikely).

Unless you cannot write in the book! -Adapted from Kathy Graham

Sample Annotation you could write in the margin for pg. 7

Moishe foreshadows a dire military situation rising. He tries to warn his village about his own deportation experience and no one listens to him. No one dares to believe that what he is warning them about could be true.

Sample Annotations for pg. 8.

Hope of Russians defeating Hitler and an end to the political power of the Nazis.

Social: Elie’s village in denial about Nazi military and political power and their own fate.

Purchase These Required Books 2012-2013 School Year:

Summer Reading

Night by Elie Wiesel

Fall Semester

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

Spring Semester

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals