Welcome to Sophomore Honors! The Sophomore Honors curriculum is designed to challenge you, beginning with this summer reading assignment. For this assignment, you will be reading two selections, one novel and one play. Your reading assignment will task you with maintaining a reader response journal throughout the summer as you read, identifying important quotes, and writing an essay. Your work over the summer will feed directly into our work in the fall – so put your best foot forward! Additionally, all assignments will be posted on our Google Classroom. The join code is nh4fdujg.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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Fences by August Wilson
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The selection of summer reading material here looks at interpersonal and societal struggle within communities. It is challenging material. When reading, you should read these pieces in order. This reading will greatly inform our work in the fall, and it is imperative that you are up-to-date. Read through this WHOLE assignment before you begin.
All major components of this assignment are due by Wednesday, September 10, 2025.
Assignment
- Over the summer, you are to maintain a reading response journal as you read the two pieces. You may choose to keep your journal by hand, or you may choose to type your responses – regardless, the expectation is that you are journaling every time you read.
This is your first major assignment, worth 15% of your term one grade, and is not an assignment that should be left until the last week before it is due. If you are unable to complete this assignment, it will affect the work for the remainder of term one. Do not take this assignment lightly.
On Google Classroom and as one of the pages in this packet, you will find guidelines that will help you craft your reader response journal. Be sure to read through it. I am not expecting a summary of the events of the novel – I am looking for your response to the text. You must follow these guidelines when completing your reader response journal. - In addition to your response journals, as you read, keep an eye out for passages of the text that are significant or have important meaning to the novel. These may be quotes that stand out to you, or quotes that make you question earlier events – or quotes that may just be important to the novel as a whole.
As you read, identify 10 passages/quotes FROM EACH NOVEL that you deem important. There should be a mix of quotes spread from both readings
For each quotation that you identify, include the following:
a. the quote with properly formatted citation
b. a paragraph explaining why your chosen quotation is important to the novel
Document these quotes as outlined in a separate document from your journal
Reminder: combined, this summer assignment will make up 15% of your first term grade. Each component will make up a percentage of that. Put simply, each journal and the quotes are all equally important.
If you have any questions about the assignment over the summer, please feel free to post in the Sophomore Honors combined Google Classroom.
This is your first major assignment as an honors student at Upper Cape Tech. Good luck, and happy reading!
If you have any questions about the assignment over the summer, please feel free to post in the Sophomore Honors combined Google Classroom.
This is your first major assignment as an honors student at Upper Cape Tech. Good luck, and happy reading!
Below, you will find links to additional information and guidelines for use with this assignment.
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