Notes

Summer reading assignment:

http://guides.rilinkschools.org/cpssummer2016/middleschool

All students are responsible for completing the following work during the summer. This work will be collected, graded, and will count towards your first quarter grade.
Independent Reading Response
* Students are to choose two books from the 2016 Summer Reading Suggestions or any book that has an Accelerated Reader Quiz (checkwww.arbookfind.com to see if your book has a quiz available). Students at Park View and Bain will take an Accelerated Reader Quiz as well.
* After reading the books, student will choose any two questions to answer about EACH book. Each response should be at least two paragraphs that answer the questions using evidence from the texts.
* This assignment should be completed for the first day of school and will count as two quiz grades.


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Crudale, Michael " <[email protected]>
Subject: Link
Date: June 22, 2016 at 12:16:43 PM CDT
To: [email protected]
Reply-To: "Crudale, Michael " <[email protected]>

Sorry All
Click on Ms. Mills Libguide and you will see a summer reading 2016 tab.



Questions:

1. What is the main character like? Choose an adjective that describes the main character. Then cite evidence from the text that supports the adjective that you chose.
2. What lessons does the author try to teach in this story? Or what beliefs and philosophies does the author state that he/she may want the reader to think about?
3. If your book took place in a different setting, how would it change the book? Use evidence from the text to prove your point.
4. Is the main character a person to admire? Use evidence from the text to prove your point.
5. Do any characters change during the course of the book? Explain how the events in the book change the character.
6. Why are the secondary characters important to the book? What do they add to the story?
7. What are the characters’ strengths and weaknesses? What words and phrases does the author use for each?
8. How does the main character treat other characters? What evidence does the author include?
9. An author usually does some research to help him/her write the text. What evidence of research do you find in this text?
10. What are the characters like in your text? Compare two of the characters in the text.
11. Can you tell if the story describes a particular culture? How do you know? How would the story be different in another culture/setting?
12. How does the author use text features (table of contents, index, glossary, labeled diagram, heading, bold/underlined/ italicized words) to help you gain information?
13. What type of evidence does the author of the non-fiction text you are reading use to prove his/her point? (Ex: facts; statistics; graphs, etc.)
14. Does your author use specific techniques to make the story interesting? Using the list below, show how the author uses literary techniques to improve the story.



Literary Terms

Dialogue: An author uses dialogue for many reasons. A few are: to forward the action, show what a character is like, set the mood or tone of the piece, provide information, etc.

Flashback: General term for altering time sequences, often giving the end result first and then going back in time to tell how the ending happened.

Foreshadowing: An author’s deliberate use of hints or suggestions to give a preview of events or themes that do not develop until later in the narrative. Images such as a storm brewing or a crow landing on a fence post often foreshadow ominous/bad developments in a story.

Hyperbole: An excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact. “I’ve told you that a million times already” is a hyperbolic statement.

Imagery: Language and descriptions that bring to mind sensory impressions. For example: The room was dark and gloomy. -The words “dark” and “gloomy” are visual images. The river was roaring in the mountains. – The word “roaring” appeals to our sense of hearing.

Irony: Broadly speaking, irony is a device that emphasizes the contrast between the way things are expected to be and the way they actually are. A historical example of irony might be the fact that people in medieval Europe believed bathing would harm them when in fact not bathing led to the unsanitary conditions that caused the bubonic plague.

Metaphor: The comparison of one thing to another that does not use the terms “like” or “as.”

Personification: The use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas. Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” describes the city as “Stormy, husky, brawling / City of the Big Shoulders.”

Sarcasm: A verbal form of irony (see above) in which it is obvious from context and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says. Saying “That was graceful” when someone trips and falls is an example of sarcasm.

Sensory description: Descriptions that use the senses – sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste.

Simile: A comparison of two things through the use of the words like or as. The title of Robert Burns’s poem “My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose” is a simile.

Vocabulary: An author’s choice of words often evokes feelings. Example: “horrendous accident” – horrendous makes the reader feel more horrified than if the author wrote “bad accident” or “small accident”. Vocabulary sets the mood and tone of the writing.