SUMMER SENIOR AP
READING/RESEARCHING/WRITING
PROJECT/S

Despite protestations to the contrary, your brain does not shut down between May and August. It needs food—stimulation. And this summer you will give your brain that food. You will read. Thus when you return to the classroom in August your brain will be ready to roll.

The first part of your reading entails the following two novels:

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

After reading both novels, choose one and its attendant activity to complete:

For Things Fall Apart research Achebe, Nigeria, and the novel’s time period. Then write a 3-4 page reflection that answers the following questions: “How does this novel mirror its cultural/historical background?” Use passages from the novel and your research to support your answer. Be prepared to share your findings with the class when you return.

For 100 Years of Solitude, choose one:

1. List the cultural institutions that Marquez introduces to Macondo and describe the characters that represent these institutions. Then, in a 3-4 page essay, use your list and descriptions to answer the question: “What inferences about Marquez’s possible views of the development/evolvement of a culture might you draw from what you have discovered?”
2. Some definitions of magic realism liken the genre to surrealism, a style of painting “in which fantastic visual imagery . . . is used with no intention of making the artwork logically comprehensible” (Artcyclopedia, 2004). Salvador Dali is the most recognized of the Surrealists. Create your own surrealist representation of either Macondo, the Buendia family, or any event within the novel. You may use any medium for this representation and any format, e.g. collage. Be sure that your art has a controlling theme (not just a bunch of images plopped on poster board). Also, if you choose collage, do not just take pictures off line and arrange them on a poster. Choose a variety of textures and forms, etc. (symbolic representations of life in Maconda) and thematically construct your collage. Be prepared to present, explain, and exhibit your artwork.

Your next reading is a biography, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Either before or as you read this biography work on the following:

• Research Pakistan and Afghanistan. The areas you want to focus on are northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. These areas are very remote and guided by strict tribal codes that affect the occurrences within this biography. Excellent sources for data pertaining to these countries are The Central Asia Institute (http://www.ikat.org), Central Intelligence Agency: The World Factbook and the United Nations web site. You can research such areas as:
  • Education
  • Economics
  • Role of women
  • Role of religion
  • Cultural practices
  • Role of government
  • Tribal customs
  • Relief agencies such as CAI

  As you research, choose an area that interests you. Then prepare a visual that teaches the class about your interest. This visual can be in the form of a PowerPoint, poster, or any other medium. You may choose one partner to work on the project with you.

  The second part of your summer reading involves The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal ISBN 0-8052-1060-1

  In this book Wiesenthal, a concentration camp survivor, first relates an event from his life and then asks a very provocative question. As you read The Sunflower annotate your text, making yourself notes, comments, etc. You will have writing assignments and discussion groups in conjunction with this reading.

  On the first day of class bring your novel project, research project, the three readings, and The Sunflower.

  HAVE A GREAT AND SAFE SUMMER!!!!!

  Click here to download the pdf