AP Language & Composition Summer Assignment
AP Language and Composition SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 2020
According to the College Board, AP English Language and Composition “guides students in becoming curious, critical, and responsive readers of diverse texts and becoming flexible, reflective writers of texts addressed to diverse audiences for diverse purposes.” The summer assignment is the first step in this process. The assignment has three components: nonfiction book, James lecture, Emerson essay.
All student responses must be TYPED and at minimum a CLEAR paragraph which includes a claim and uses textual evidence where appropriate.
I. Non-fiction: Choose one of the books below to read or you may choose a nonfiction book by an author from the AP English Language reading list from the College board website. This is your opportunity to find a book about a subject you are interested in. A short answer response is at minimum a CLEAR paragraph which includes a claim and uses textual evidence when appropriate. Textual evidence when used must be embedded.
Short Answer Questions:
Humanities/Philosophy
Self and Soul: A Defense of Ideals by Mark Edmundson
Why Read? by Mark Edmundson
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Sophie’s World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Social Sciences
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by J. Loewen
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
The Soul of America by Jon Meacham
Memoir/Biography
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Dobbs
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz
And Still We Rise by Miles Corwin
My Name is Caroline by Caroline Adams Miller
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
Science/Environment
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
The Double Helix by James D. Watson
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century by Dorothy Roberts
How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond, by John Powell
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
Race and Ethnicity
How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped from The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Race Matters by Cornell West
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
Socioeconomic Inequality
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Status Anxiety by Alexander DeBotton
Educated by Tara Westover
Feminism
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Women, Race, & Class or Freedom Is A Constant Struggle, by Angela Y. Davis
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Mann
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
II. AMERICAN IDEAS + SHORT ANSWER
A short answer is a thoughtful, revised CLEAR paragraph. It needs to answer the prompt and use textual evidence to support the main points.
William James – Pragmatism
The great philosophers in the Western tradition have come mainly from Europe: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and many more. America produced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the mid-19th century, great thinkers and hugely influential American voices. However, as academic philosophers, they have not enjoyed the kind of esteem that the Europeans have. That changed in the late 19th century with the advent of Pragmatism, a uniquely American concept made famous by William James. It brought the ideas of “what works” and “cash value of an idea” to the age-old question of philosophy: what is truth? (or “what are the criteria for truth?). His theory has had an immense influence on our understanding of science, ethics, religion, and knowledge in general.
Read Lecture II – “What Pragmatism Means” from Pragmatism, A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James. This book (also known as just Pragmatism) is widely available in libraries, bookstores, as inexpensive ebooks, and free online at
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5116/5116-h/5116-h.htm#link2H_4_0003
For background on James and his theories, see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/
Short Answer Questions:
Ralph Waldo Emerson "Self-Reliance"
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was one of the great American minds of the 19th century and considered the father of American Transcendentalism, a philosophical and artistic movement that echoed European Romanticism through it's worship of Nature and value of intuition and individualism over reason and authority. A graduate of Harvard Divinity school, Emerson's "Divinity School Address" so challenged institutional authority, a radical proposition for the time, he was not invited back to speak. In "Self-Reliance" Emerson outlines some of the key Transcendental propositions namely the sanctity of the self and the importance of making up one's own mind and following one's own vision as opposed to doing what one is told to do. Emerson's legacy can be seen in the counter culture of the sixties or the notion of rugged individualism as an American ideal.
Read Emerson's essay titled "Self-Reliance," also widely available and free online at:
https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/self-reliance/
For background on Emerson and his theories, again consult the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emerson/
Short Answer Questions:
Note that NUSD board policy BP 5131.93 states that plagiarism includes copying other students’ work or copying websites to complete your assignments.
You can learn more about the AP Language & Composition course at the College Board website: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-language-and-composition
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According to the College Board, AP English Language and Composition “guides students in becoming curious, critical, and responsive readers of diverse texts and becoming flexible, reflective writers of texts addressed to diverse audiences for diverse purposes.” The summer assignment is the first step in this process. The assignment has three components: nonfiction book, James lecture, Emerson essay.
All student responses must be TYPED and at minimum a CLEAR paragraph which includes a claim and uses textual evidence where appropriate.
I. Non-fiction: Choose one of the books below to read or you may choose a nonfiction book by an author from the AP English Language reading list from the College board website. This is your opportunity to find a book about a subject you are interested in. A short answer response is at minimum a CLEAR paragraph which includes a claim and uses textual evidence when appropriate. Textual evidence when used must be embedded.
Short Answer Questions:
- Why did you choose this book? How did it make you think or change your mind?
- What is the author's argument or what is the main theme of this book and why is this important?
Humanities/Philosophy
Self and Soul: A Defense of Ideals by Mark Edmundson
Why Read? by Mark Edmundson
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Sophie’s World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Social Sciences
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by J. Loewen
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
The Soul of America by Jon Meacham
Memoir/Biography
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Dobbs
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz
And Still We Rise by Miles Corwin
My Name is Caroline by Caroline Adams Miller
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
Science/Environment
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
The Double Helix by James D. Watson
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century by Dorothy Roberts
How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond, by John Powell
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
Race and Ethnicity
How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped from The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Race Matters by Cornell West
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
Socioeconomic Inequality
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Status Anxiety by Alexander DeBotton
Educated by Tara Westover
Feminism
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Women, Race, & Class or Freedom Is A Constant Struggle, by Angela Y. Davis
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Mann
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
II. AMERICAN IDEAS + SHORT ANSWER
A short answer is a thoughtful, revised CLEAR paragraph. It needs to answer the prompt and use textual evidence to support the main points.
William James – Pragmatism
The great philosophers in the Western tradition have come mainly from Europe: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and many more. America produced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the mid-19th century, great thinkers and hugely influential American voices. However, as academic philosophers, they have not enjoyed the kind of esteem that the Europeans have. That changed in the late 19th century with the advent of Pragmatism, a uniquely American concept made famous by William James. It brought the ideas of “what works” and “cash value of an idea” to the age-old question of philosophy: what is truth? (or “what are the criteria for truth?). His theory has had an immense influence on our understanding of science, ethics, religion, and knowledge in general.
Read Lecture II – “What Pragmatism Means” from Pragmatism, A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James. This book (also known as just Pragmatism) is widely available in libraries, bookstores, as inexpensive ebooks, and free online at
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5116/5116-h/5116-h.htm#link2H_4_0003
For background on James and his theories, see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/
Short Answer Questions:
- What is James’ main argument?
- How does James’ writing style reflect a pragmatic, American voice? Look for informality and directness. Cite specific examples of language including diction (word choice) and sentence structure.
Ralph Waldo Emerson "Self-Reliance"
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was one of the great American minds of the 19th century and considered the father of American Transcendentalism, a philosophical and artistic movement that echoed European Romanticism through it's worship of Nature and value of intuition and individualism over reason and authority. A graduate of Harvard Divinity school, Emerson's "Divinity School Address" so challenged institutional authority, a radical proposition for the time, he was not invited back to speak. In "Self-Reliance" Emerson outlines some of the key Transcendental propositions namely the sanctity of the self and the importance of making up one's own mind and following one's own vision as opposed to doing what one is told to do. Emerson's legacy can be seen in the counter culture of the sixties or the notion of rugged individualism as an American ideal.
Read Emerson's essay titled "Self-Reliance," also widely available and free online at:
https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/self-reliance/
For background on Emerson and his theories, again consult the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emerson/
Short Answer Questions:
- What is Emerson's main argument?
- Emerson uses a lot of figurative language. Choose an example or two(a metaphor or allusion), explain the concept he is trying to make clear and connect it to the real world either your life or a current event. How is this idea relevant?
Note that NUSD board policy BP 5131.93 states that plagiarism includes copying other students’ work or copying websites to complete your assignments.
You can learn more about the AP Language & Composition course at the College Board website: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-language-and-composition
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