Summer Reading  

Grade 10 
Take the time to invest in your mind 
 
Join the summer reading Google Classroom: m2ovuc 
 
Learning Targets: 
● I can identify, compare, and analyze themes across a group of texts.   
● I can use textual evidence to support my analysis of a text.  
● I can produce clear and coherent writing where my purpose, organization, and 
style are appropriate to the task and audience.   
● I can engage in meaningful discussions by posing and responding to questions 
and supporting my thoughts.   
 
The Expectations: 
1. Choose a category of texts from the choices below. Read or analyze all of the 
pieces within that category.   
a. Note: Each category consists of short stories, poems, music, a short 
video, and a piece of art. 
a. Work with the category that most interests you. Explore the different 
categories, but once you make your choice use all of the choices from 
the category you choose.  
b. Challenge: A novel from the suggested list may be substituted for any 
two pieces in a category.   
 
2. Complete the graphic organizer for each text within the category.   
a. Note: This will help organize your thoughts for future assignments. 
b. Feel free to take any other notes or print out stories and write your own 
annotations on the texts 
 
3. When you return to school, you will be analyzing these texts further to 
demonstrate your understandings and to connect these texts further within the 
first unit of class. 
 
4. This reading is meant to challenge your thinking, but also give you the 
opportunity for some choice. Invest in yourself by challenging your mind and 
coming prepared to discuss your thoughts.  
 
5. While we recognize the importance of discussing literature and collaborating 
with peers, it is important to complete your own work and avoid plagiarism. 
This will be a common theme throughout high school; to start enriching 
dialogue, you need to start with your own thoughts and connections.  
 
 
Formative Assessments:  
➢ Notes Graphic Organizer and/or Annotated Texts​ → This will help to demonstrate 
your thought process while you were reading. 
➢ Socratic Discussion ​→ Students will ponder questions dealing with their category 
while posing and responding to questions that arise from their texts. 
➢ Written Reflection Piece ​→ Students will write a written reflection on their reading 
analysis throughout this assignment. They will use these questions to guide 
their thinking and support their thoughts with evidence from the text: 
○ Points to ponder: 
■ What theme or message could be applied to the category? Use 
evidence from multiple pieces to support your claim. 
■ How do the characters grow and change? 
 
Choose One of the Following Categories: 
“My Family and Other Strange People”  
“Rules of the Game”​ – Amy Tan (Short story) 
“Girl”​ - Jamaica Kincaid (Short story) 
”Miss Rosie”​ - Lucille Clifton (Poem) 
“My Papa’s Waltz”​ – Theodore Roethke (Poem) 
“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”​ - The Hollies (Song) 
“The World’s Largest Family Reunion …. We’re All Invited”​ - AJ Jacobs (TEDTalks) 
“American Gothic” - Grant Wood (Art) 
 
“The Grim Reaper” 
“The Cask of Amontillado”​ - Edgar Allan Poe (Short story) 
“The Pedestrian”​ - Ray Bradbury (Short story) 
“The Raven” ​- Edgar Allan Poe (Poem) 
“The Heart”​ - Stephen Crane (Poem) 
“Eve of Destruction” ​- Barry McGuire (Song)  
“The 4 Stories We Tell Ourselves About Death”​ - Stephen Cave: (TEDTalks) 
“The Triumph of Death​” - Pieter Brughel, the Elder (Art) 
 
 
“It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”  
“Homage”​ - Nadine Gordimer (Short story) 
“On The Rainy River”​ - Tim O’Brien (Short story) 
“Phenomenal Woman”​ - Maya Angelou (Poem) 
“Funeral Blues”​ - W. H. Auden (Poem) 
“​Independence Day​” - Martina McBride (Song)  
“​Did You Hear The One About The Iranian-American​” - Maz Jobrani - (TEDTalks) 
“​A Journey Of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Shoe​” - Avery Hale (Art) 
 
“The Man Who Sold the World”  
“​The Right Kind of House​” - Henry Slesar (Short Story) 
The Good Earth​ by Pearl S. Buck (novel) [come on guys, it really fits here!] HONORS 
“The Killers”​ - Ernest Hemingway (Short Story) 
“​Liberty Needs Glasses​” - Tupac Shakur (Poem) 
“Ozymandias”​ - Percy Bysshe Shelley (Poem) 
“No Matter Who You Are”​ - Bob Seger (Song) 
“A Need For Greed”​ - Paul K. Piff (TEDTalk) 
“Broke, baby sick, car trouble …”​ - Dorothea Lange (Art) 
 
“Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death” 
“The Veldt”​ - Ray Bradbury (Short story) 
“Poetics for Bullies”​ - Stanley Elkin (Short story) 
“Flirting with Poetry” ​- Ron Koertge (Poem) 
“The Geranium” ​- Theodore Roethke (Poem) 
“We Didn’t Start The Fire”​ - Billy Joel (Song) 
“Heroic by Nature, Cowardly by Convenience”​ - Marc Edwards (TEDTalks) 
“Shiner” ​- Norman Rockwell (Art) 

Novels:
Frankenstein ​by Mary Shelley 
Fahrenheit 451​ by Ray Bradbury 
The Joy Luck Club​ by Amy Tan 
The Old Man and the Sea​ by Ernest Hemingway 
Speak ​by Laurie Halse Anderson 
All Quiet On the Western Front​ by Erich Maria Remarque 
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor​ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

***Be Sure to scroll down for the graphic organizers.  

 
 
Graphic Organizers 
 
Directions: Fill out a graphic organizer for each of the selections in the category. Be 
sure to support your thoughts as this evidence will help you at a later time. Then 
answer the questions connecting the category.  
 
 
Title & Author   The Veldt By Ray Bradbury  
What surprised you  What surprised me within the text was definitely when 
within the text?  Wendy and Peter killed their own father just because they 
didn’t want there nursery shut down. Along with how they 
had like somewhat planned it before because the father 
knew  
What changed,  What challenged my thinking was just the whole idea of a 
challenged, or  nursery coming to life 
confirmed your 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Somewhat becareful what you wish for. Or possibly be 
did you take away from  careful not to over give. The Parents gave his children this 
the author? 
expensive wonderful room and they used it to kill the 
mother and father. 
What questions came up  When analyzing I thought is it possible this room comes to 
as you analyzed this  life? Will this room come to life? Are these kids thinking 
selection? 
about killing their parents? 
 
Title & Author   Poetics for Bullies by Stanley Elkin 
What surprised you  The way he would refer to himself. He would call himself 
within the text?  “Push,” as well as the other kids. 
What changed,  He said he wanted a “supermarket mom”. Meaning he 
challenged, or  wanted a caring mother, he wanted a normal family. And 
confirmed your 
he would envy kids who had them 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Some may be mean because they envy you 
 did you take away from 
the author? 

What questions came up  Why does he call himself Push? 

as you analyzed this  How old is this kid? 
selection? 
What time period does this kid take place in? 
 
Title & Author   We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel 
What surprised you  All of the issues that happened within a certain period of 
within the text?  time. 
What changed,  How all of these headline events happened in only a short 
challenged, or  amount of time 
confirmed your 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Headline Events 

did you take away from 
the author? 

What questions came up  What is this song really about? 

as you analyzed this 
selection? 
 
Title & Author   Heroic by Nature, Cowardly by Convenience by Marc 
Edwards 
What surprised you  The TEDTalk began with stories of animals that were 
within the text?  “Heroic by Nature, Cowardly by Convenience.” 
What changed,  When he told a story of an animal being heroic.  
challenged, or 
confirmed your 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Heorism  

did you take away from 
the author? 

What questions came up  How do all of these topics relate back to each other? 
as you analyzed this 
 selection? 
 
Title & Author   Flirting with Poetry by Ron Koertge  
What surprised you  The location of the event  
within the text? 

What changed,  How things went from bad to good within seconds 
challenged, or 
confirmed your 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Things may start great and end terrible  
did you take away from 
the author? 

What questions came up  What type of poetry is this? 

as you analyzed this 
selection? 
 
Title & Author   The Geranium by Theodore Roethke  
What surprised you  It seemed to take place in two different times.  
within the text? 

What changed,  What time period does this take place in? 
challenged, or 
confirmed your 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Loneliness 

did you take away from 
the author? 

What questions came up  What type of poetry is this? 

as you analyzed this 
selection? 
 
Title & Author   Shiner by Norman Rockwell 
What surprised you  The child with the Shiner is younger than I imagined 
within the text? 
 What changed,  Rockwells best painting were always hard to process.  
challenged, or 
confirmed your 
thinking? 

What theme or message  Hurt 

did you take away from 
the author? 

What questions came up  Is this young girl hurt in any other way? 
as you analyzed this 
selection? 
 
 
Connections 

What did you feel  It felt somewhat random at times because they would talk 
connected the category  about things that would confuse you. For example when 
together? Or did it feel 
they mention a psychologist in the beginning to check out 
random? 
the room was quite confusing. 
 
Which selections felt like  “Shiner” by Norman Rockwell did not belong in this 
outliers (a piece that  category.  
didn’t fit with the others) 
within the category? 

What themes appeared  Death and Convenience. The character would have it the 
in more than one  easy way or no way.  
selection? Did the 
authors go about 
creating these themes 
the same way?