Abraham Lincoln High School Summer Reading Assignment:

SUMMER READING: The Lincoln High School English teachers expect all students to read one of the novels listed below over the summer. Select a novel for the grade level you are entering. These books are readily available in bookstores and libraries. Please make sure your parent/guardian approves of your choice. If you have been accepted into a 10^th grade Accelerated, 11^th grade Honors, or 12^th grade AP English class, please see your teacher for your summer reading assignment.

Assignment: Be prepared for some assessment of your summer reading when you return to school. We suggest you take some notes while reading your book.

What should I take notes on?

1. Significant passages: Copy a passage (a few sentences or a paragraph) that helps you understand the book, or that shows the author’s writing style. The passage might give you insight into a character, a conflict, or a theme of the novel.  Write the passage down word for word with the page number. Then, write a few sentences explaining what you notice about the passage.

2. Plot: Write a summary of the book you read.

3. Setting: What are the important locations and times? How does the setting influence and shape the characters?

4. Context: What do you know about the author and the author’s time period?

5. Characterization: List all the characters and describe their personalities. What does the narrator say about the characters? What do characters say about each other? What does each character say and do that helps you understand who they are?

6. Conflicts: external conflicts: What are the problems the characters have outside of themselves? Examples of external conflicts are: a fistfight between characters, or struggling against an outside force like poverty. Internal conflicts: What are the conflicts the characters face within themselves? An example of an internal conflict: struggling to make a decision or choice.

7. Themes: What are the ideas or messages the plot,   setting, characters, and conflicts show? Examples of themes are: money cannot buy happiness, compassion benefits people more than selfishness, or death is inevitable.

Bookstores (used and new books) in San Francisco:

The Great Overland Book Company: 345 Judah St. at 9th Ave. (415) 664-0126

Book Bay Main
: Main Library at the Grove Street Entrance
 30 Grove Street (between Hyde & Larkin)

Green Apple Books: 506 Clement Street (415) 387-2272

Fields Bookstore: 1419 Polk St. (415) 673-2027

Modern Times: 888 Valencia (415) 282-9246

Community Thrift Store: 623 Valencia Street (415) 861-4910

Bird & Beckett
: 2788 Diamond (at Chenery)
 (415) 586-6733

Bookshop West Portal
: 80 West Portal Avenue (at Vicente)
 (415) 564-8080


Booksmith
:1644 Haight Street  (415) 863-8688

Online: Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnesandnoble.com Some of the texts with expired copyrights are available for free online. Do an online search for the book. Use the title of the book plus full text as your keyword search terms.

Libraries:

Main Library: 100 Larkin St.                                  
Richmond: 351 Ninth Ave.                              
Mission Bay: 960 Fourth St
Bayview: 1601 Lane St.                                       
Potrero: 1616 Twentieth St.                               
Glen Park: 2825  Diamond St.
Excelsior: 4400 Mission St.                                 
Mission: 300 Bartlett St.                                     
Ortega: 3223 Ortega St
Anza: 741 Thirtieth Ave.                                      
Sunset : 1305 Eighteenth Ave.                          
Parkside: 1200 Taraval St.
Ingelside: 1298 Ocean Ave.                                
Visitacion Valley: 45 Leland Ave.                      
Ocean View: 345 Randolph St.
Merced: 155 Winston Drive.                                 
West Portal: 190 Lenox St.                               
Chinatown: 1135 Powell St.
Bernal Heights: 500 Cortland Ave.                      
Portola: 380 Bacon St.

Course Descriptions:

Ninth Grade World Literature: Ninth graders read a wide range of literature including but not limited to:To Kill A Mockingbird, The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, Mythology and You, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm.  We introduce critical reading skills such as annotation, vocabulary development, recognition of literary devices, and analysis of writing style for theme and tone. The basic structure of a paragraph and an essay are taught, and students are expected to learn how to write a personal narrative essay and an analytical, literature based essay.  Grammar, usage and mechanics are taught through revision of student writing and direct instruction. Some of the language concepts that we emphasize in ninth grade are: the parts of speech, the rules of punctuation, subject-verb agreement, comma splices and the parts of a sentence.

Tenth Grade Ethnic Literature: Tenth graders read a wide range of literature including but not limited to: The Joy Luck Club, Othello, Maus, The Color of Water, Raisin in the Sun, The Jungle, Yellow Raft In Blue Water andBless Me Ultima. We continue to build upon critical reading skills such as annotation, recognition of literary devices, vocabulary development, and an analysis of writing style for theme, tone, characterization and conflict. Students are expected to write more complex and developed analytical, literature-based essays, as well as expository essays.  MLA guidelines are introduced for citation and formatting. Grammar, usage and mechanics are taught through revision of student writing and direct instruction. Some of the language concepts that we emphasize in tenth grade are: syntactical structures, parallel structure, subject-verb agreement, the parts of speech (in more depth), clauses, and pronoun antecedent agreement.

Eleventh Grade American Literature: Eleventh graders read a wide range of literature including but not limited to: The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Sula, and The Catcher in the Rye.We continue to build upon critical reading skills such as annotation, close reading, recognition of literary devices, vocabulary development, and an analysis of writing style for theme, tone, characterization, conflict, purpose, context, and audience. Students are expected to write more complex and developed analytical, literature-based essays, expository essays and persuasive essays. MLA guidelines are reinforced for citation and formatting. Grammar, usage and mechanics are taught through revision of student writing and direct instruction. Ninth and tenth grade grammar and usage concepts are reviewed. In addition, new concepts such as active versus passive voice and syntactical variety in student writing are introduced.

Twelfth Grade British Literature: Twelfth graders read a wide range of literature including but not limited to: Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Antigone, Plato’sAllegory of the Cave, Hamlet, Macbeth, Crime and Punishment and The Stranger. We continue to build upon critical reading skills such as annotation, close reading, recognition of literary devices, vocabulary development, and an analysis of writing style for theme, tone, characterization, conflict, purpose, context, and audience. Students are expected to write more complex and developed analytical, literature-based essays, expository essays and persuasive essays. Students are also expected to write a personal statement in preparation for college applications. MLA guidelines are reinforced for citation and formatting. Grammar, usage and mechanics are taught through revision of student writing and direct instruction.  All grammar and usage concepts are reviewed and assessed.

Tenth Grade Accelerated English: 10th Grade Accelerated English is designed to introduce themes of both American and world literature at an advanced level.  The class will provide a forum for students interested in developing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills with the expectations of a first-year university course in mind.  The focus of the class is the ongoing discussion of the themes and structures of social commentary as it is found and expressed in literature.  This class will be rigorous and fast-paced, and students will be expected to accurately complete regular reading comprehension, creative writing, grammar, and vocabulary assignments including test preparation for the English AP exam, speeches, and essays.  Please note: while UC/CSU may not recognize additional course credit for 9th or 10th accelerated classes on transcripts, accelerated courses are often acknowledged by other colleges.

Eleventh Grade Honors American Literature: This course uses canonical American texts to chronologically explore the development of America as a nation, an identity and an idea.  We investigate themes such as: the importance of self-reliance, action versus inaction, and having the courage of one’s convictions. Semester one follows early American history and we read authors such as Miller, Emerson, Jefferson, Thoreau and Twain.  In semester two, American issues of modernity such as alienation versus connection, industrialization, greed, and compassion are explored through authors such as Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Salinger. We learn how to read texts not just for meaning, but to deconstruct how a text creates meaning through stylistic choices and rhetoric. Additionally, students will begin to purposefully utilize elevated stylistic devices for effect in their own writing.  The Language and Composition AP exam is optional with this course.

Twelfth Grade AP English Literature: In this course, students will read a number of classic works reflective of the European and American Literature canon.  Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Austen, Ellison and other writers and poets offer striking insights into such universal themes as identity, alienation, power, and community.  We will explore the ways that the art and literature in Europe and the United States were both reflective and prophetic about the way people saw and understood the world in which they lived.  We will try to use these texts as lenses through which we can make sense of the United States at the beginning of a new millennium and in the middle of our postmodern age (the proliferation of technology, consumerism, psychoanalysis, 9/11, globalization).  Concurrently, students will learn to move beyond simple comprehension of a text to an understanding of writing as craft (analyzing structure, style and themes), and will incorporate these techniques into their own expository and interpretative essays.  This course meets all the curricular requirements as described in the AP English Course Description guide and has been approved by the Advanced Placement College Board.  

English Department Electives:

Yearbook: Students in the yearbook class are responsible for planning, designing, and marketing the school yearbook.  Students learn and practice the basics of journalistic writing, design, and layout.  Students develop the ability to analyze and evaluate images/photographs, take photographs at campus events, and edit photos using state of the art design software.  Students develop oral communication skills including effective interviewing procedures, clear and persuasive sales strategies, and public speaking.  Second year students enrolled in yearbook serve as editors in charge of theme development, marketing, and editing written and visual content.  Grammar and mechanics are taught through revision of student writing and direct instruction.

Journalism: The focus of Journalism will be on writing for publication. The main product will be the publication of the school newspaper, but we will explore other methods of publication as well, including ‘zines, blogs, and an art and literary journal.  My goal will be to encourage you to find your voices as writers, artists, journalists, and citizens, and I will push you to experiment with a variety of forms.  Beyond writing for publication, we will examine the responsibility that the media have, look at questions of journalistic integrity, and explore the role that media have in shaping our society.  You will learn how to write and think as a journalist and gain knowledge about how a news publication operates.  My hope is that the class becomes student-centered and that you help decide the direction our publications will take; I also expect you to be responsible to one another and support each other as writers and creators.  I recognize that journalism experience varies, and I expect returning students to take on leadership and mentoring roles in the class.

The Writing Center  WILL BE open: (it is not open yet)

Tuesdays after school in NB-06 from 3:15-4:15.

The Writing Center is run by Ms. Gladding, one of our dedicated English teachers. The tutors are trained to help students with any stage of the writing process and any type of writing assignment. 

General tutoring is also available in the peer resource room: 126