English Department Texts
Updated on
Peak to Peak selects
the principal texts for the secondary English classes through a time-consuming,
reflective process that involves the English Department faculty, the
administration, and parents. As an Advanced Placement school, Peak to Peak uses
the AP list of suggested authors for the English literature exam as a starting
point, though not all texts come from this list. The school then takes into
consideration many different factors, such as how a text can be used in the
classroom to support the school’s character education component and how well a
text helps students fulfill the English department standards and benchmarks
(i.e., “Students will read and recognize literature
as a record of human experience.") Texts for individual
courses ideally reflect both variety in genre (novels, plays, etc.) and variety
in authors (gender, race, era, etc.) while at the same time providing thematic
coherence to the course. Peak to Peak tries to ensure that the texts
students read in one course vary adequately from those they read in previous
courses and those they will read in succeeding courses. Finally, cost and
availability of texts play into the equation. All texts used in the
school are approved by the curriculum committee and the Board of Directors.
We strongly recommend that
all parents read the texts their students are reading and take the opportunity
to discuss with them the topics and ideas raised. Questions or concerns
about an individual student’s reading assignment should be addressed to the
teacher of the course. Teachers will only be able to address concerns if
they are brought to the teachers’ attentions well in advance of the literary
unit.
The
following texts apply to the 2006-07 school year only:
AP Literature and
Composition
Hamlet, Shakespeare
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez
Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf
Beloved, Morrison
Ceremony, Silko
First Indian on the Moon, Alexie
The Things They Carried, O’Brien
Waiting for Godot, Beckett
Poetry
packet (provided)
Persuasive
writing packet (provided)
AP Literature summer reading:
Crime and Punishment,
This
course assumes a body of background knowledge, including writing skills,
grammar mastery, familiarity with the Six Traits of Writing model, and textual
knowledge of many seminal literary works.
These literary works include (but are not limited to) the list
below. Please review the list and review
the literature if necessary, or read over the summer if you have not yet read
these texts.
The Odyssey, Homer
Antigone, Sophocles
The Inferno, Dante
Invisible Man, Ellison
The Scarlet Letter,
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
Othello, Shakespeare
Macbeth, Shakespeare
The Tempest, Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
Frankenstein, Shelley
The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde
Senior Literature and
Composition
Hamlet, Shakespeare
Beloved, Morrison
Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf
The Things They Carried, O’Brien
White Noise, DiLillo
Senior
Literature summer reading: Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez
AP Language and
Composition
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
The Scarlet Letter,
The Invisible Man, Ellison
My Antoniai, Cather
Death of a Salesman, Miller
The Glass Menagerie, Williams
Love Medicine, Erdich
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
The
AP Language summer reading:
Into the Wild, Krakauer and Fast
Food Nation, Schlosser
American Literature
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
The Invisible Man, Ellison
The Awakening, Chopin
Death of a Salesman, Miller
The Glass Menagerie, Williams
Love Medicine, Erdich
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
The American
Experience, Prentice Hall
American Literature summer reading: The
Oxford Book of American Short Stories (selected stories)
British Literature
The British Experience, Prentice Hall
Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
Macbeth, Shakespeare
Frankenstein, Shelley
The Importance of
Being Earnest, Wilde
British Literature summer reading: Oliver Twist and Jane Eyre (read both for honors, Oliver Twist only for standard sections)
World Literature
The Inferno, Dante
Antigone, Sophocles
Othello, Shakespeare
The Metamorphoses, Ovid
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
World Masterpieces, Prentice Hall
World Literature summer reading:
The Alchemist, Coelho
English IV
Great Expectations, Dickens
Siddhartha, Hesse
The Crucible, Miller
A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry
Speak,
The House on
English IV summer reading: The Little Prince and Life of Pi
English III
Night, Wiesel
Much
To Kill a
Mockingbird, Lee
Odyssey, Homer
Twelve Angry Men
Prentice Hall Platinum anthology
English III summer reading: Monster, Myers
English II
Parallel Journeys, Ayers
Ender’s Game, Card
My Story: The
Autobiography of Rosa Parks
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
The Miracle Worker, Gibson
Prentice Hall Gold anthology
English II summer reading: The Giver, Lowry and Out of the Dust, Hesse
English I
Bud, not Buddy, Curtis
Harriet Tubman
The Tempest, Shakespeare
The Hobbit, Tolkien
Farewell to Manzanar, Houston
Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry,
Prentice Hall Bronze anthology
English I summer reading (standard sections choose one, honors
sections read both): Dragonwings,
Yep and A Wrinkle in Time, L’engle
Procedure for Requesting an Alternate Text
Peak to
Peak understands that in ability-grouped, mixed age, college preparatory
classes, the occasional family may be uncomfortable with a given work of
literature. The allowable reasons for requesting an exemption for certain
readings are outlined in Policy INI, Exemptions from Required Instruction,
which states:
Exemption
from participation in curriculum, activities, or learning resources may be made
only (1) on the basis that they are contrary to the religious beliefs and
teachings of a student or the student's parent or legal guardian, or (2)
because Physical impairment limits the ability of the student to participate in
a meaningful way. Requests for exemption from any portion of health
education may also be made on the basis of closely held personal beliefs as
described in policy IGAE – health education.
Listed
below are the procedures for requesting that a child be excused from reading a
certain text and be allowed to read an alternate text instead. Teachers
will routinely announce new units at the beginning of each month on the Peak to
Peak homework page. Additionally, every family is given a list of the
texts used in each course at the beginning of the year. Parents must
submit all requests for alternate texts to the Principal in writing at least
two weeks prior to the beginning of the unit.
Procedure:
1.
Parents requesting an alternate text for their child must read the text in question
in its entirety before requesting exemption for their child.
2.
Parents must schedule and meet with the teacher before submitting to the
Principal a request for an alternative text.
3.
Parents must write a statement articulating their specific objections to the
text and proposing an alternate text.
4.
Parents must propose an alternate text that is comparable to the text in
question in the following ways:
Parents
who need assistance in finding an alternate text should speak to teachers or
the school librarian.
Any requests that do not follow these procedures or are not submitted two
weeks prior to the beginning of the new unit cannot be considered.