English Department / AP Language and Composition Summer Assignment

Instructor: Mr. Rawlins

Email: benjamin.rawlins@henry.k12.ga.us

Part I: Reading

In AP Language the majority of our reading is nonfiction, so exploring one (or more) of the titles below will not only give you a preview of what creative nonfiction can be but it will also expose you to some new perspectives on topics not typically discussed in a traditional English course. Many of the titles fit into more than one category.

Topics & Titles

Race

Minor Feelings by Hong

Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates

Born a Crime – Noah

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips

Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria And Other Conversations about Race by Beverly Tatum

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We see, Think and Do by Eberhardt

Don’t Label Me: An Incredible Conversation for Divided Times by Manji

Identity

Fairest by Talusan

Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Jackson

The Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity by Khakpour

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas

Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi

In the Country We Love by Diane Guerrero

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Duckworth

Memorial Drive by Trethewey

A Map is only One Story by Chung & Demary

Disfigured by Leduc

Writing

Thank You for Arguing by Jay Henrichs

How to Argue with a Cat by Jay Heinrichs

On Writing by Stephen King

Bird by Bird by Lamott

Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark

Mental Health

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Switch by Heath & Heath

What Made Maddy Run by Fagan

All the Silent Spaces by Ristanio

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Silberman

Body Outlaws Edut (editor)

Social Class

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

Nickle and Dimed or Bait and Switch Barbara Ehrenreich

Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance

Evicted: Profit and Poverty in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Catching Homelessness by Josephine Ensign

Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Wilkerson

Gender

Brotopia by Emily Chang

The Second Sexism by Benatar

57 Bus by Dashka Slater

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead Sheryl Sandburg

Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Orenstein

Diary of a Drag Queen by Rasmussen & Rassmyuseen

Leadership

Becoming – M. Obama

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle

Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

Justice System

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Hinton

Missoula Jon Krakauer

Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg – Carmon and Knizhnik

Education

Parkland by Dave Cullen

Fire in the Ashes or Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools Jonathan Kozol

Educated by Tara Westover

Reign of Error Diane Ravitch

Let the Students Speak by David Hudson

The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Robbins

Culture/Politics

They Can’t Kill Us Til They Kill Us – Abdurraqib

13 American Arguments: EnduringDebates That Define and Inspire Our Country by Fineman

Super Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

Speaking Freely by Floyd Abrams

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Miscellaneous

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

Trembling Earth by Nelson

You do not have to annotate the book because I just want you to enjoy reading and not be slowed down by marking (they’ll be plenty of time for that during class).

I would love for you to create a FlipGrid rating this book (1 – 5 stars just like GoodReads) and whether or not you would recommend this to others.

FlipGrid Link: https://flip.com/9d5f792c

Part III: Write a Letter to Me

I would like for you to write a letter to me telling me about you, but like most things in life, there’s a twist.

Here are three poems I want you to read and consider: "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith, "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver, and "Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limon.

Read and think about these poems deeply; let them roll around in your mind and your soul. Then write your letter introducing yourself to me. At a MINIMUM your letter should include:

Information that gives me a glimpse into who you are beyond your role as a student .
Ideas about what you want to achieve during our 36 weeks together and why those are important goals for you .
Your thoughts on ONE of these poems. Remember: it’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.

What’s In It For Me?

You’ll be more prepared for the work ahead of you because you’re getting familiar with creative nonfiction (memoir, investigative journalism, essays, etc). Up to this point the majority of your reading for English class has been poetry and fiction.
You’ll be more prepared for the work ahead of you because we write A LOT in AP Language. One way to becoming a better writer is reading good writing.
You’ll be more prepared for the work ahead of you because you’ll be thinking about important topics. One way to become a better thinker is being able to see topics from multiple perspectives.
You’ll have something to do if the WiFi goes out.
You’ll have an excuse to opt out of any activity you don’t want to do over the summer.
You’ll have something to talk to me about on the first day of class.
If you submit impressive responses (FlipGrid and the letter) you’ll be rewarded with a privilege of some kind during the first semester. It might be bonus points, it might be a late work pass, it might be exempting an FRQ. I don’t know yet. Just make sure your responses are impressive and submitted in the appropriate location.

Due date is August 4th, 2023.

Last Modified on April 21, 2023