AP English Literature Ms. White Ewhite4@houstonisd.org Edmodo code: j8cix2 Due Date: First week of school 2014-2015

Summer Reading Assignment 2014

AP English Literature and Composition Dialectical Journal

Books: 1984 by: George Orwell

PART 1 : DIALECTICAL JOURNAL Students will read the selected work and compose a dialectical journal that reflects their understanding and analysis of their reading. Each entry in the dialectical journal must be hand written and organized neatly in a composition book, spiral notebook or loose-leaf paper. There must be three entries for each chapter of the book. Students should organize their journal in two parts—1984 is divided into 2 parts and each of these part starts with “Chapter 1.” A dialectical journal is another name for a double entry journal or a reader-response journal. A dialectical journal records a dialogue, or conversation, between the ideas in the text (quotes from the text you are reading) and the ideas of the reader (your ideas). This is what you must do in your journal: maintain a dialogue with yourself about what the passages mean—not literally what they describe, but more along the lines of why the passages are written to describe as they are and how the author uses language to manipulate the reader’s (your) responses. In your journal, have a conversation with the text and with yourself. Write down your thoughts, questions, insights, and ideas while you read. A dialectical journal can include all types of things: class notes, discussion notes, notes on essays / papers, reactions to readings. You, the reader are reading something and then responding to it with your feelings and ideas. And if you are unsure of what the author is doing, it is perfectly acceptable to pose a question to yourself about the text and hypothesize as to why or how the author is using language in this particular way. In other words, it is OK to guess in order to answer your own questions---as long as you can explain your guesses! OKAY, PEOPLE, this is where we get to “read the tea leaves” and try to crawl inside the author’s mind. So, get creative and have fun with it! Remember, a journal may also be called a diary, so you can get really busy theorizing because you are having a conversation with yourself about the text, trying to crack the secret code of how the author accomplishes his craft. Your dialectical journal will use a two-entry form: Divide the page in half (by folding or measuring). In the left column, write down the parts of paragraphs from our books, articles, essays, discussion, or class notes that you think are

interesting, important, or simply cause a question to form in your mind. In the right column, write down your own thoughts, commentary, and questions about the material in the left column. In your written journal you must create a comprehensive response by recording your thoughts and impressions of the setting, tone, mood, imagery, character profiles in a minimum of 3 entries per chapter. The dialectical journal will be collected on the first day of school. All students will be responsible for maintaining dialectical journals when assigned throughout the school year. Please message me on edmodo if you have trouble understanding what I expect. Journaling is expected for everything we read and study: non-fiction essays, novels, plays, song lyrics. And you will use this same format regardless of what we are reading when you are assigned a “dialectical journal.”

SAMPLE Dialectical Journal This is a dialectical journal. You may use it as an example to make your own. Sample Dialectical Journal Entry:

The Things They Carried - by Tim O’Brien Passages from the text

Pg #s Chapter?

Comments & Questions

“-they carried like freight trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders-and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry”.

Pg 2, Ch 1

O’Brien chooses to end the first section of the novel with this sentence. He provides excellent visual details of what each solider in Vietnam would carry for day-to-day fighting. He makes you feel the physical weight of what soldiers have to carry for simple survival. When you combine the emotional weight of loved ones at home, the fear of death, and the responsibility for the men you fight with, with this physical weight, you start to understand what soldiers in Vietnam dealt with every day. This quote sums up the confusion that the men felt about the reasons they were fighting the war, and how they clung to the only certainty - things they had to carry - in a confusing world where normal rules were suspended.

PART 2: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS In addition to the dialectical journal, I will also be posting questions for each chapter on Edmodo to discuss significant events in the novel. The questions should be completed on notebook paper (in complete sentences!) The questions will be posted before the end of the school year so PLEASE JOIN THE EDMODO GROUP TODAY!!! PARTS 3 & 4: ESSAY and TEST These will be assigned when you return and BOTH will count as major grades for the first 9 week grading period. NO EXTENSIONS will be given on the due dates, so read your novel!!!!