GRADE 9 SUMMER READING & SUPPLIES LIST

  • “Find the beginning.”
    —The Odyssey

     

    Dear Students,

    Welcome to the Heschel High School!  We can’tawait to sit down with you and a good book to begin the four-year conversation we will have together.  

    In this course, we will be embarking on a quest to explore what it means to belong, to leave home, and to return. We begin the year with a dive into your summer read, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. This wonderful and gripping novel will set the stage for conversations that we’ll have throughout the year, as well as prepare you for important Hesed work with the Manhattan Children’s Center  which our 9th grade commits to for the year.

    1. In preparation for the kind of close reading that is a hallmark of a Heschel English education, please complete the tables on this sheet by

    • Citing a passage in the text that stood out to you as beautifully written or moving, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

    • Citing a passage that confused or challenged you, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it..

    • Citing a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

    • Listing (at least) two questions that each book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

    Print out your completed assignment to turn in on the first day of school.

    We will then turn to Homer’s The Odyssey, a story about an incredible, life-changing journey. . In preparation for this text, we’d like you to brush up on your Greek mythology over the summer. Please explore the following weblinks from our Heschel library in order to familiarize yourself with the key mythological figures in this epic story; there is an assignment to complete laid out below.

    1. Complete this worksheet with information about some of the mythological characters you will meet in The Odyssey. This assignment will help you keep track of names and relationships;  have this information at the ready in the fall. Print out your completed assignment to turn in on the first day of school.

    We look forward to meeting you and ushering you into your exciting journey through high school as scholars and lovers of English. Until then, we wish you a wonderful summer!  Read much, relax much, and come ready for the challenges of 9th grade!

    Happy Reading, 

    Penny Ratcliffe, Michaela Krauser, Ally Setton and David Karpel 

    VIEW The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time WORKSHEET

    VIEW Homer’sThe Odyssey WORKSHEET

  • A note on materials for taking notes...Note taking methods vary by class and by teacher. Some teachers require notes by hand, some teachers permit or require computer use. A few teachers require a 3 ring binder, some teachers will permit students to choose either a 3 ring binder or a notebook/section of a notebook. Students are encouraged to clarify their teacher's requirements and suggestions regarding note taking on the first day of class.

    Please be prepared with the following materials:

    • Computer and charger - information about laptop program can be found at heschel.org/laptops

    • Large 3 ring binder with dividers (1 for each class) and loose-leaf paper

    • If desired: a 3 section notebook

    • Pens (blue or black)

    • Colored pens

    • Pencils (mechanical)

    • Folder with pockets (1 per subject)

    • Graphing paper

    • Scientific Calculator

      • This should cost no more than $15 and is likely the same as you used in middle school.  

    And...a sense of wonder of and an excitement for learning!

GRADE 10 SUMMER READING

  • ELL10: Self & Other

    Dear Students,

    Congratulations on completing your freshman year! In preparation for tenth grade English, please read The Prince of Los Cocuyos, a memoir by Richard Blanco. Please read this text towards the end of the summer so that it is fresh in your mind for the first day of school! 

    Here are some questions to think about and annotate for while you read:

    1. How do our relationships with our family members shape and influence our sense of self?

    2. How does our relationship with the community in which we live shape our thinking and feelings about our identity?

    3. How do cultural misunderstandings, biases and stereotypes impact us?

    4. What happens when we find our beliefs and sense of self at odds with our family? Community? 

    5. How does it feel to be an “outsider”?

    In addition to reading The Prince of Los Cocuyos, please read one additional text from the following list:

    • The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead

    • Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue

    • The Chosen, Chaim Potok

    These books, along with The Prince of Los Cocuyos, are books we love, which we think you will love as well. Use the guiding questions and read actively: note passages that move you, reveal a character’s nature, reflect significant themes, challenge your preconceived notions, or relate to your life in some other way. Pay attention to the point of view and write down your reactions to it. This is the kind of reading you practiced in 9th grade, and it is the sort of reading that you will use throughout high school and beyond. 

    For the first day of class, please complete this assignment or use your own lined notebook paper. Bring a hard copy of your work with you to class. For The Prince of Los Cocuyos and your choice book:

    • Annotate in your book and cite a passage that confused or challenged you, and write a few sentences about why you chose it. 

    • Annotate in your book and cite a passage that moves you or is especially beautiful, and write a few sentences about why you chose it

    • Annotate in your book and cite a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life, and write a few sentences about why you chose it. 

    • List two questions that the book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

    To cite a passage (a few sentences to a paragraph), cite the first four and last four words and include a page number reference. Ex: “Who was Ariel Jimenez? . . .continuously becoming something new” (229).

    Your questions and observations will enrich and guide our class discussions upon returning to school in September. We hope that your summer is filled with relaxation and self-discovery. 

    Happy reading!

    Jodi Posner, Ally Setton, David Karpel

    VIEW GRADE 10 SUMMER READING ASSIGnMENT/WORKSHEET

  • At the end of your ninth grade social studies course, you evaluated how eighteenth century revolutions took inspiration from Enlightenment ideals such as liberty and equality but also fell short of those ideals in some ways. This coming year, in our tenth-grade social studies course covering the nineteenth century, we will see how Americans grappled with perhaps the greatest failure of their revolution – the failure to abolish slavery. No one in the nineteenth century more eloquently demanded that the US live up to its founding ideals than Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery in 1818. Reading the words of someone who experienced it firsthand and escaped to tell his story allows us to understand the reality of slavery.

    Your social studies reading for the summer, and the subject of your first essay in the fall, will be the 1845 edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Please purchase the Dover Thrift Edition so that we can all refer to the same pages during discussions.

    Before the first day of class, read the entire book (skip the prefaces and begin on page 1 – the whole book is only 76 pages!). Use the questions below to guide your reading. 

    *Note that the book contains descriptions of both physical and verbal violence and cruelty. Specifically, Douglass wrote out the “N-word” when directly quoting others in order to accurately report the insults and abuse that he and other enslaved people faced. 

    Your first written assignment, due on the first day of class, is to answer one of the following sets of three reading questions:

    Chapters 1-2

    1. Why does Douglass’s “master” brutally whip Aunt Hester? How does witnessing this “bloody transaction” affect Douglass?

    2. What are working and living conditions like on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation?

    3. How does Douglass describe and interpret the songs that he hears enslaved people sing? 

     

    Chapters 3-4

    1. Douglass claims that the enslaved quickly learn that “a still tongue makes a wise head.” What does he mean?

    2. Why did enslaved men often boast about their “masters,” even to the point of brawling among themselves? What does this behavior tell us about the nature of the institution?

    3. Why does Mr. Gore feel he must shoot Demby? Within the logic of chattel slavery, is Gore correct?

     

    Chapters 5-6

    1. How does Sophia Auld initially treat Douglass? How and why does this woman’s behavior change?

    2. Why does Hugh Auld forbid his wife to teach Douglass to read? What effect do his words have on the boy?

    3. Douglass notices a “marked difference” in the treatment of those enslaved in towns or cities like Baltimore. What sort of difference, and why?

     

    Chapters 7-9

    1. What early readings make the most impression on Douglass? What moral does he draw from The Columbian Orator. Do you think he is correct?

    2. According to Douglass, why are outwardly devout Christians often the cruelest in their dealings with the enslaved?

    3. Why does Thomas Auld decide to send Douglass to the “slave-breaker” Edward Covey? How did Covey get his reputation, and how does he benefit from it?

     

     Chapter 10

    1. Why does Douglass decide to fight back against Covey? For the enslaved, striking a White man is punishable by death. Yet Covey never reports the fight. Why, according to Douglass?

    2. How did enslavers encourage the enslaved people to spend the Christmas holidays? In what ways does Douglass argue that these holidays helped to maintain the system of slavery, discouraging rebellion or escape?

    3. Why do White workers at the Baltimore shipyard so oppose having Douglass and other African Americans, enslaved or free, work alongside them?

     

    Chapters 11

    1. For what reasons does Douglass change his name?

    2. Why is Douglass “disappointed” with the appearance of New Bedford, Massachusetts? What did he expect to find in a free society?

    3. How does Douglass become involved in the abolition movement?

GRADE 11 SUMMER READING

  • Dear Students,

    We can’t wait to continue our exploration of great literature with you next year! Junior year, which focuses on American literature, includes writers who rank among the best and most inspiring our country has produced. These are texts we never tire of reading and rereading, and we are greatly looking forward to sharing them with you!

    There are two required reads this summer:

    1. There There, by Tommy Orange

    This is a brilliant and powerful novel that chronicles the lives and experiences of a wonderfully engaging set of characters from Native communities.  Please read it towards the end of the summer so that it will be fresh in your mind when we discuss it.

    1. One of the books listed below:

    • The Man in a White Sharkskin Suit - Lucette Lagnado

    • The History of Love, Nicole Kraus

    • Bread Givers, by Anzia Yezierska

    • How Much of These Hills Are Gold, by C Pam Zhang

    Writing homework: bring the following completed assignment with you to school on the first day to submit in hard copy to your teacher.

    Use this worksheet to complete the assignment; either typed and printed or handwritten.  Bring your completed assignment to turn in on the first day of school.

    1. For There There

    • Complete the web of relationships between the characters in the text - how does each relate to others?

    • Why do you think Orange connects his characters in these ways?

    • What connections can you draw between There There and a text or texts you read in 10th grade?

    2. For BOTH texts, There There and your choice, in preparation for the kind of close reading that is a hallmark of a Heschel English education, please complete the tables on the attached sheet by:

    • Citing a passage in the text that stood out to you as beautifully written or moving, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

    • Citing a passage that confused or challenged you, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

    • Citing a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

    • Listing (at least) two questions that each book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

    We hope, of course, that you will read more than these two required books. If you are at a loss for what else to get your teeth into in those long summer months, you may want to browse the English department’s suggested reading list at this link. We invite you to stop by and chat with us about the recommendations!   And we also invite you to… Enjoy your summer! Take time to connect, to relax, and to read. We look forward to seeing you in the fall.

    Penny Ratcliffe, Michaela Krauser, and Stefan Dorosz

    View grade 11 summer reading worksheet


  • Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, Vintage Books, 2011

    You can purchase this book through Barnes & Noble or Amazon. We recommend that you order a copy as soon as possible. You may also want to search for a used copy through other vendors listed on Amazon, eBay, etc. 

    NOTE: We will often refer to specific pages, so reading the book on a device like a Kindle could be problematic. 

     

     

    Dear Rising Eleventh-Graders:

    Your reading this summer, and the subject of your first essay in the fall, will be Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.

    Trapped in poverty, subjected to daily humiliations, often terror, and denied a political voice guaranteed to them in the Constitution, more than five million African-Americans voted with their feet between 1910 and 1970. They left the Jim Crow South for uncertain futures in the cities of the North and West, thereby profoundly changing the country’s demographics and culture. Much of our subsequent history, including the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis four years ago—and the rage that propelled protests in response to it—makes little sense without understanding this exodus. Wilkerson narrates the Great Migration through close study of three people: Ida Mae Gladney, who settled in Chicago; George Starling, who found his way to Harlem; and Robert Forster, who lit out for Los Angeles.

    We highly recommend that you read the entirety of this Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, but, given the length of the book, you MAY choose to skip the story of Robert Foster. The pages about Foster are listed on the next page. 

    As you read, be attentive to these broad questions; highlight or annotate relevant material so you can easily access it during class discussions. In addition, as you read, create a timeline of key events from the lives of these individuals to be turned into your teacher at the beginning of classes.

    • Wilkerson writes of the “absurdities” of the caste system in the South while fully understanding the brutal logic that underlay it. What social functions(s) did that caste system serve?

    • The book stresses the “push” factors that forced African-Americans out of the South. What factors also “pulled” them to destinations outside of it?

    • How did life, whether in the North or the West, both fulfill, and profoundly disappoint, these migrants?

    • How did the de jure [legally mandated] segregation of the South differ from the de facto [not legally mandated but existing in fact] segregation of cities like New York?

    • How did the life paths of the migrants and their children differ from those of the families and neighbors they left behind?

    • How does the Great Migration help to explain race relations today?

    IF you choose to skip Foster’s life story, you may jump over these pages. 

    Robert Joseph Pershing Foster: 113–22; 139–48; 157–60; 160–4; 172–6; 177–9; 186–9; 193-6; 199–213; 215–6; 216–221; 230–7; 238–41; 253–9; 260–7; 280–4; 297–301; 309–14; 327–31; 345–8; 348–50; 361–3; 364–70; 381–4; 401–5; 407–19; 422–31; 441–7; 451–4; 460–4; 471–3; 477–80; 488–90; 494–506; 527–38; 539–43.

GRADE 12 SUMMER READING

  • Dear Incoming 12th Graders,

    Welcome to our senior elective, The Silenced Speak. I am so looking forward to a wonderful and exciting year of learning together. To get us started, this summer, please read Circe by Madeline Miller. You may remember Circe, a beautiful witch goddess with great powers whom Odysseus meets on his travels home (and who turns men into pigs, the animal they most resemble in their boorish behavior). In The Odyssey, Circe is the enemy, threatening Odysseus’ return to his loving family. Miller retells this myth from Circe’s perspective as an assertive woman in a male dominated world.   

    As you read, consider the following questions:

    • The novel begins, “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Why might this be?

    • Circe needs to create a voice for herself. Note the various ways Miller describes Circe’s voice. Why might Miller imbue Circe’s voice with these particular qualities?

    • We also hear from a variety of other women, like Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, the goddess Athena, Circe’s sister Pasiphae, and our favorite “barbarian” Medea. Are these women successful in creating a voice for themselves outside the shadow of men? Do they give us new insight into characters who did not have much of a voice in the dominant narrative?

    • We see physical, emotional and intellectual transformations in the novel. What purpose do these transformations serve? 

    • What central challenge does Circe grapple with in the novel?

    • Consider the appearance of witchcraft in the novel. What do the powers displayed by Helios’ children reflect about human nature? Society’s fascination with witches and witchcraft? Sexuality and power?

    • In the original myth, it seems that it is men’s right to exercise control over women and their bodies. How does Miller respond to this misogynistic fantasy? 

    • Do women still face any of Circe’s challenges today?

    In addition to Circe, you will read The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel-in-verse centered around the life of 15 year old Xiomara. She, like Circe, faces many challenges and grapples with how to find her  voice. Both texts center around the themes of identity, sexuality, family expectations, and transformation. I hope you find each of these narratives stirring and powerful. We will put these two texts in conversation to start our year together. 

    Please read Circe and The Poet X actively. Note passages that move you, reveal a character’s nature, relate to your life, or push you to rethink your preconceived notions. Ask questions about each text during and after reading. Pay attention to the point of view, and write down your reactions and feelings to it. Consider how each text challenges societal and familial norms and offers us a new or overlooked perspective and why it matters.  I encourage you to complete your summer reading in August, so it is fresh in your minds. Here is a worksheet that you need to complete and upload to Schoology on our first day of class. Your questions and observations will enrich and guide our class discussions upon returning to school in September.

    Enjoy a summer filled with relaxation, self-discovery and transformation.

    Jodi

  • To do justice is what God demands of every man: it is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.

    -Rabbi Heschel

    Dear Seniors, 

    Welcome! I am so looking forward to meeting you in the fall, digging into the rich material that awaits us, and exploring, through literature, the concept of justice together. 

    Here are some of the essential questions we will consider in this course: 

    • What exactly IS justice? 

    • What are the characteristics of a “just” society? 

    • How should mercy temper justice?  

    • Do we believe in “an eye for an eye” punitive justice, or restorative justice that seeks to rehabilitate offenders? 

    • What do we do about injustice, both current and historical, political and personal? 

    • How do we navigate situations in which we witness or experience unjust treatment of ourselves or others?

    In preparation for our dive into these complicated discussions, please read Truman Capote’s famous and beautifully written “true-crime” novel In Cold Blood (we might call it creative non-fiction). It’s best to read it towards the end of the summer, so that it is fresh in your mind.  The book explores a chilling case of murder in a small Kansas town and its aftermath.   Consider the following questions as you read, make some notes about each question in a new notebook, (provided) and list two or three more that you would like to address when we talk about the novel in class: bring these notes to class to submit on the first day.

    1. The novel’s epigraph is a quote from the medieval French poet François Villon’s poem Ballade des pendus (“Ballad of the Hanged Men”), written - it is believed - as he awaited his execution.  Here is a translation:

    Brothers in humanity who live after us,
    Do not harden your hearts against us,
    For, if you take pity on us poor men,
    God will sooner have mercy on you.

    Why do you think Capote chose this as the epigraph for In Cold Blood?

    1. How does the structure of this novel, switching back and forth between the Clutter family, the investigation, and the murderers, suit Capote’s purposes here?

    2. How did (a) the autobiographical statements and (b) the psychiatric evaluations of Smith and Hickock affect your view of them? Were they sane? Should they have been held accountable? 

    3. Research the M’Naghten Rule  (and here’s another link) that prevented the psychiatric evaluations being used by the defense in court.  Should these evaluations have been admitted in your view? Why/not?

    As we consider issues of social justice in our own country, we also want you to engage books from writers whose work directly addresses these issues. 

    Please choose at least ONE of the following books to read: 

    • The Central Park Five - Sarah Burns

    • The Other Wes Moore - Wes Moore

    • A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest P Gaines

    • Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - Stephen King

    In addition to these, as you prepare for the rigor of a senior English elective, we strongly recommend that you read (at least!) one other book of your choosing this summer.  Browse the English Department goodreads website in making your choice.  I have a few suggestions that would fit well with the elective, but you are welcome to pick anything you fancy.  Here are my suggestions: anything by Scott Turow; John Grisham: The Pelican Brief or The Client; Kamila Shamsie: Home Fire; Colm Tóibίn: House of Names; Asim et al: Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life; William B. Crawford: Justice Perverted.

    Can’t wait to see you all - in the meantime, enjoy the summer!

    Penny

  • Dear seniors,

    Welcome to our friendship elective! Throughout our year together, we will explore the place that friendship holds in our personal lives as well as in our greater society. We will consider the ways in which social structures, such as class and race, affect and/or restrict our friendships. And finally, we will attempt to define what it means to be a true friend. 

    To prepare for our discussions next year, please read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend over the summer. The novel takes place in a poor town on the outskirts of Naples, Italy, and follows the close friendship of Elena and Lila through their childhood and adolescence. 

    As you read, consider the following questions:

    1. Why does Elena continue to be fascinated and enthralled by her friend, Lila, even as Lila is cold or disinterested? How does her regard for Lila impact the way she sees herself?

    2. Note the power dynamic between the girls throughout the novel: in what ways does one girl outshine the other? What aspects of a woman in this time and place hold the most social capital? 

    3. Note the power dynamic between men and women throughout the novel: how do Elena and Lila assert their power of choice? Are they successful?

    4. What role does each girl’s family play in their direction in life? What other factors determine the direction each girl takes?

    5. What is it about the friendship between Lila and Elena that keeps the two girls coming back to each other, even as their lives diverge?

    6. Please come to class with 1-2 of your own questions you were left with after reading.

    In addition to My Brilliant Friend, please read Dogs of Summer by Andrea Abreu. We will put these books in conversation at the start of the year.

    I look forward to meeting you and I hope you have a wonderful summer!

    Best,

    Ally

  • Dear Incoming 12th Graders,

    I'm delighted to welcome you to our senior elective, Moral Dilemmas in Literature, and I look forward to exploring some of the deep moral questions that great literature offers.  To get us started, please read over the summer Kamila Shamsie's 2017 novel Home Fire.  I encourage you to read it in August, so that it is fresh in your mind.

    Read the book actively.  Note passages that move you, reveal a character's nature, reflect significant themes, relate to your life, or push you to rethink your preconceived notions.  Ask questions of the text during and after reading.  In a fresh notebook (this will be the notebook you use for the elective throughout the year), answer the following questions:

    • Characters in the novel make life-altering decisions that have consequences both for themselves and for others whom they love. Within the context of the novel, consider the competing demands of family loyalty and political action; is there ever a way to navigate both successfully?

    • Isma's sister Aneeka asks, "What would you stop at to help the people you love most?"  Is there a limit to the actions you should take to help a loved one?  What do you make of the actions Aneeka takes to help her brother?

    • Shamsie dedicates her novel to Gillian Slovo, a writer whose parents were active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa; her mother was assassinated by South African forces in 1982.  The 1987 film A World Apart is a memoir of the family's journey, and Slovo also wrote a memoir called Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, published in 1997.  Shamsie's novel in part explores the responsibilities of a parent to their children if called by what seems a greater vocation.  Once you have read the novel, where do you think Shamsie lands in her view of these responsibilities?

    You should write at least a paragraph in response to each question.  Please also make a list of 2–3 additional questions that you would like to discuss when we talk about the novel in class.

    In addition to Home Fire, please read one (or more!) of the books listed below:

    • The Children Act (Ian McEwan)

    • An American Marriage (Tayari Jones)

    • Reunion (Fred Uhlman)

    As with Home Fire, read your choice book actively.  In your notebook, please copy out a passage that moves you, a passage that challenges or confuses you, and a passage that relates in some way to your life or your world.  (Make sure to note the page numbers for each passage.)  Finally, note two questions you'd like to discuss.  I will collect your notebooks on the first day of class.

    I hope you have a summer filled with relaxation and self-discovery.

    Stefan

  • Dear Seniors,

    Welcome to your final Heschel English class! I’m excited to share it with you. In this course we will explore human nature by focusing on individuals and their stories, looking at how they shape and are shaped by the society they inhabit, and the experiences they undergo. Here are some essential questions we will consider.

    • What are the influences that shape individuals?

    • How is a person’s understanding of the world shaped by these influences?

    • How do people make sense of and create meaning from their experiences?

    • How do the choices made by individuals affect society as a whole?

    By delving into the psyche of individual characters, we will perhaps better understand ourselves and find more compassion for each other and the world around us.

    Your required summer reading novel is My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. I encourage you to read the book with curiosity, especially regarding the characters and their motivations.

    In a new notebook, take notes on the following questions. I will check your answers on the first day. You will use this notebook throughout the year.

    1. Why is Asher’s father so opposed to his art? What makes him finally abandon his son all together?

    2. What drives Asher’s mother’s decisions regarding her husband and her son?

    3. Why does Asher feel the need to paint a crucifixion?

    4. Is it more important for him to follow his own path or to maintain a strong bond with his parents?

    5. How do the choices of these individuals affect the society around them?

    6. Write two more further questions or ideas you’d like to discuss in class.

    In addition to this book, you will read one of the following:

    • Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

    • A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith

    • Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card  

    • Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel

    For the second book, record the following in your notebook. Include the page numbers for the passages you choose.

    1. Copy out a passage that you find particularly beautiful or moving. Write a few sentences about your reaction to it.

    2. Copy out a passage that connects to your own life. Explain in a few sentences.

    3. List two questions that you would like to explore further.

    I am so looking forward to our work together! 

    In the meantime, happy summer!

    Anna