Dear students, Welcome to English II! Your summer reading assignment this year is to read and annotate both The Wave by Todd Strasser and Animal Farm by George Orwell. In addition, you will analyze what you ve read and write about it. Please note: anything you write must be in your own words. Do not attempt to plagiarize from internet sources or you will not receive credit for the assignment. Also, a bit about "helping" others (sharing answers). Those answers you got from your friend helped you finish your summer assignment! Yay, right?! Truthfully, all you've done is solve a temporary problem--the work I'll ask of you the first weeks of school depends on YOUR analysis, insight, and understanding of what you read. Completing the summer reading is step one in a longer process, so you need to achieve as clear an understanding of the novel as you can manage on your own. The following assignments are due the first day of class and are worth (2) QUIZ grades. Additionally, you will take a test over both novels during the first few weeks of school. You will have a writing assignment over each during the first half of the term. Please read the attached assignments carefully and follow the directions thoroughly. I ve set up an Edmodo group (Edmodo code: k2rag7) so that you can get in touch with any questions, concerns, or worries you might have about the assignment. Please let me know if you need anything! Sincerely, Jennifer Dubicki jdubicki@faithwest.org
ANNOTATION GUIDE The Wave by Todd Strasser Mark the answers to these questions in your novel as you are reading. We will be working with your annotations the first few days of class, so it is CRITICAL that you annotate while reading! I guarantee your grade WILL suffer if you haven t done your reading! Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch.3 Ch.4-5 Ch. 6-7 Ch. 8-10 1. Mark any description Laurie Saunders: hobby, personality, school record, etc. 2. At what school does Ben Ross teach? What frustrates him about his students? 3. What is the students' attitude to this teacher? 4. What do some of the other staff think of Ben? Why do they feel this way? 5. Mark any descriptions you find of the following characters: Brian Ammon, Robert Billings, and David Collins 1. What was the subject of the film that Ben showed the class? How did they react? 2. What more do we learn about Robert from his conversation with Mr Ross? 1. Compared David s and Laurie's reactions to the film. 2. What bothers Laurie about her friendship with Amy? 3. Mark descriptions of Carl and Alex. 1. What did Ben write on the blackboard? 2. How does Ben start the experiment in classroom behaviour? 3. How and why does Ben use Robert as a leader? 4. Why do the students co-operate so willingly? 5. What good things, if any, did the lesson teach them? 6. What use does David see in the lesson? 1. What significant change had occurred in the students' behaviour? 2. Why did Laurie hesitate before standing with the others to recite the slogans? 3. What simile does Ben use to describe his class as they salute and chant together? Why? 4. How has David taken to heart 'Strength through Community'? 5. Why does Christy Ross try to warn her husband? 1. Why is Laurie uncomfortable about the class's unquestioning obedience? 2. What are some of the positive changes in the class as a result of The Wave? 3. What kind of thinking does The Wave encourage? Explain, and quote a line that supports this. 4. Why is Mrs. Saunders worried about Robert and what analogy does she make? 5. Why is Ben so confident he can control The Wave? Ch. 11-13 1. Why is Robert so eager to be a bodyguard? 2. Why does Ben agree? 3. What are four signs that The Wave causes negative behaviour? ( Chapter 12) 4. Why does David say to Laurie: "'I don't understand you,'" when she says she isn't going to the rally? 5. What do Laurie, Alex and Carl share that makes them see The Wave differently than most of the students? 6. In what way has Ben's experiment become too much like the real thing? 7. Find a quote that explains the key idea in Laurie's editorial criticizing The Wave. Ch. 14-15 1. Find a quote that explains Amy's counter-argument in support of The Wave? 2. What aspect of David s personality made The Wave appealing to him? 3. Find a quote that shows the reasonableness of David's attitude regarding criticism of The Wave.
4. What causes Ben and Christy to argue? How are their points of view different? 5. What really scares Laurie? 6. Why does David lose control and how do his actions reveal the potential for violence in The Wave? 7. Why doesn't Ben tell Laurie and David his plan for stopping The Wave? Ch.16 Ch.17 1. What risk is Ben Ross taking when he promises to stop The Wave in his own way? 2. Why will he lose his job if his plan doesn't work? 3. Why do David and Laurie feel betrayed? 4. Why does Laurie decide to go to the rally after all? 1. How does Ben handle Robert's disappointment in a wise way? ALLEGORY ASSIGNMENT Animal Farm by George Orwell In addition to The Wave, you will be reading George Orwell s famous allegorical novel Animal Farm. What is as Allegory? a story, poem, or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation; a symbolic representation of something a literary device in which characters or events in a literary, visual, or musical art form represent or symbolize ideas and concepts Familiar Examples of Allegory -Aesop s Fables -Dr. Seuss s The Sneetches -The Giving Tree -The Chronicles of Narnia Animal Farm is not intended to be read as a fairy tale about animals on a farm. George Orwell expects you to see the pigs as the communist leaders of Soviet Russia. The Animal Farm is meant to be the USSR. Other animals on the farm are not just random animals but representations of different people or groups of people from Soviet Russia. This is an allegory. Following is some historical information to help you understand the context of the allegory Orwell has created.
Background Information Animal Farm The revolution in Animal Farm has a lot in common with the real-life Russian Revolution. What follows is a quick introduction to that revolution. It will help you understand some of Orwell s references. Karl Marx In the mid 1800 s, the capitalist system was strong in Europe and America, but the profits of businesses came at the expenses of workers who labored 14 to 18 hours a day in unsafe conditions. There were no child labor laws, and wages were barely livable for the average worker. In 1847, an international workers group asked Karl Marx, a German philosopher, to draw up a plan for their organization. The group was called the Communist League. Marx wrote a plan called The Manifesto of the Communist Party. Marx envisioned a workers revolt followed by a kind of paradise where each person would work according to his or her ability and receive money according to his or her need. Marx saw the final stage of his Communist system being total, worldwide economic equality. About this time, labor laws were passed in Western Europe and America that made the workplace safer and more tolerable for workers. The worldwide revolution that Marx foresaw never came to pass. The people that followed Marx s thinking were called Socialists. The Socialists split into two groups. The milder group wanted to bring about Communism slowly by passing new laws. The other group (we ll call them Communists) stuck to Marx s original idea of a major worker revolt. The Communists were a small extremist group compared to the total number of Socialists. They formed a party called the Bolshevik Party, led by a man named Vladimir Lenin. Vladimir Lenin At this time, Russia was being poorly managed by a Czarist government, ruled by Czar Nicholas II. Most of the Russian people were still underpaid workers on land owned by a small number of wealthy landlords By 1917, the suffering was too great and groups of people began a revolution. The Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, took a role in leading the revolution. Czar Nicholas II was forced from power, and he and his family were later executed. The Bolshevik Party under Lenin took control of the government. From 1918-1921 other countries that did not want Communism to spread invaded Russia. However, the Communists were successful, and they changed the name of the country from Russia to the Soviet Union. They often called each other comrade, which means someone who is a friend and equal.
Animal Farm vs. The Russian Revolution After reading the novel, do some further research on the Russian revolution and decide which character represents which political/historical figure. Mr. Jones Animalism Old Major Snowball Napoleon Squealer The Dogs
Writing your own Allegory The next major assignment is to write your own allegorical story. It need not be as complex as Animal Farm. It can be a simple fable or rhyming piece as in any of the Dr. Seuss books. Remember the two main things to look for in an allegory: 1. characters and/or objects that are symbols representing different ideas 2. an overall lesson or moral presented to the reader Before writing consider the following questions: What moral would you like to teach? Who will your characters be? How can you show that moral in a story? If you re writing a fable, use animals to represent human traits. Try to use at least two animals that will represent opposing qualities; this helps set up the conflict or problem within the fable. What symbols will you use? All allegories include symbols usually both characters and objects. What problem must your characters solve? What problem must be solved in order to illustrate the moral? How does your story end? What's the solution to the problem? At least one of the characters must learn the valuable lesson or moral. Don t forget that your reader is also expected to learn something from the story. Requirements Your allegory should be a complete narrative with a problem and solution told with a beginning, middle, and end. Your allegory should also include conflict of some kind (or more than one kind) Your story should include symbolic representations of people, places, and things from real life (i.e. a farm representing a school) Your story must be an allegory of a familiar social, political, or historical issue that people will recognize.
Allegorical Story Grading Rubric Symbolism/Allegory A = 95 B = 85 C = 75 D/F = 65 or below The symbol or The symbol or The symbol is The symbol is allegory allegory is pedestrian and/or predictable and presented in original but not is not developed the story is as well underdeveloped. successfully. original, developed as A sophisticated, stories. and multifaceted. Story The writer shows a mature handling of the elements of a short story: plot, conflict, resolution, character, setting, theme, and mood. The writer is successful working in the elements of a short story (see list in A column). The writer has trouble utilizing and developing the elements of a short story (see list in A column). The writer is neglectful in his/her inclusion of and development of the elements of a short story. Style The writer s style is sophisticated and mature. The style chosen by the writer helps develop the theme/symbol of the story. is effective and age-appropriate. is rudimentary and simplistic. takes away from the development of the symbol/allegory. is ineffective and does not aid in the development of the ideas of the story (symbol/allegory ). Grammar & Mechanics The errors in the paper are limited and do not interfered with the presentation of the symbol/allego ry. The writer s errors are more numerous and should have been detected with better editing. There are many errors; the errors begin to interfere with the presentation of the story. The student s errors are a distraction in the story and prevent the reader from focusing on the main ideas of the story (symbol/allegory ).