Dear Incoming 8th grade GT students and parents,
As part of our ongoing commitment to providing our Gifted and Talented students with a challenging and rewarding curriculum, the Johnston Middle School Language Arts department has created a summer reading program. We believe summer reading will both enrich students and create a strong foundation for the reading and writing we will be doing during the 2008-09 school year. Over the summer, students will be required to read two books and complete two projects, which will account for a significant portion of the first nine week’s grade. The first book listed is mandatory – everyone will read this book. The second book will be selected from the list below. These titles are available through the Houston Public Library system, Border’s, Amazon.com, or you might find them at Half-Price Books.
Everyone reads this one!
47 by Walter Mosley
Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.
Product for 47 – Due September 25/26, 2008
Although 47 is a fictional book, the author bases his ideas on real accounts from former slaves. Using the following page numbers (1,3,5,7,11,14,17,19,27,29,114, 126, 130, 134, 140, 146, 153, 163) or pages of your choice, find a reference to slave life and compare it to a slave narrative found in another reference. Some suggestions for other references include: To Be a Slave by Julius Lester, Bound for the North Star by Dennis Brindell Fradin, or 5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft’s Flight from Slavery also by Fradin. Please include a list of references used with your index cards.
Place the original reference from 47 on the front of an index card. Use direct quotations from the book along with an explanation in your own words of the conditions, rules, or practices of slave life depicted in the scene. On the back of the card, place a reference found in your research which supports or disproves the reference from 47. Explain the reference in your own words. Minimum number of note cards = 10. In addition, write an essay describing in depth the conditions faced by slaves, your ideas about the causes of slavery, and why slavery existed.
Example: (front of the card) “Slaves didn’t have birthday parties and so they didn’t have ages like the white people did.” (Mosley, 1).
Slaves were not able to tell how old they were because they did not have a celebration each year to remember their age. Their age didn’t matter, just their ability to work.
(back of the card) “I was here in slavery days. I was here. When I come here, colored people didn’t have their ages. The boss man had it.” (Lester, 30).
The plantation owner owned the slaves and their age. By owning their age, the slave owner dehumanized the slaves, which were simply property to him.
Assessment
Note Cards – 50 points
- Note cards are incomplete and/or show no depth in analysis
- Note cards are complete but three or more show lack of depth
- Note cards are complete and show some depth of thought
- Note cards are complete and show insightful depth of thought
Essay - 50 points
- Essay fails to address topics; no connections made between history and now
- Essay is haphazardly organized, addresses few aspects of the topic and makes minimal connections to history and issues of slavery
- Essay is somewhat organized, addresses most aspects of the topic and makes loose connections
- Essay is well organized, addresses all aspects of the topic in a meaningful manner, making connections between history and modern day life.
Choose one of these great books to read for the second selection….
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school. 2000 Michael Printz honor book.
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.
Keeper by Mal Peet
In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
It's a long way from Santo Domingo to the Bronx, but if anyone can go the distance, it's the Garcia girls. Four lively Latinas plunge from a pampered life of privilege on an island compound into the big-city chaos of New York, where they embrace all that America has to offer.
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if it means infringing on the rights of another? This thought provoking novel deals with issues in family dynamics, medical ethics and making decisions with long reaching consequences.
Maximum Ride by James Patterson
After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "birdkids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Firestorm by David Klass
After learning that he has been sent from the future for a special purpose, eighteen-year-old Jack receives help from an unusual dog and a shape-shifting female fighter.
Product for the 2nd book – Due September 11/12, 2008
You may choose from one of the following ideas:
- create a mobile representing the key events from the book,
- Write a radio or TV commercial to sell the book. You do not have to produce the commercial, just write the script, or
- Write a series of journal entries for one the supporting characters that show a different point of view about the main conflict in the story.
Assessment - 100 points
1 – Project is thrown together in a haphazard manner and does not satisfy project requirements
2 - Project somewhat satisfies project requirements but lack creativity, originality or depth
3 – Project fulfills requirements and shows some evidence of creativity, originality or depth
4 – Project fulfills requirements and shows significant creativity, originality or depth
5 – Project fulfills requirements and shows significant creativity, originality and depth
The 8th grade English teachers look forward to spending the 2007-’08 school year with you. Happy reading and have a great, safe summer!
Ms. Berry Ms. Dinneen Ms. Helfman
House S House M House J
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