Please see the following links for recommended Honors English 10 Summer Reading, APLAC Summer Assignments & AP Lit Summer Assignments:
Honors English 10
Welcome to Honors Ten English!
We look forward to an exciting year of delving into reading, writing, listening & speaking.
This is your first assignment, so please make sure you spend your time connecting to the novel looking at
and annotating for: characters, plot, themes, figurative language and setting. All of these play an integral
role in what Harper Lee teaches her readers about being a human.
Reading:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
● Read the book carefully and annotate it. (3-5 annotations per chapter)
● Mark up the text neatly and in an organized manner so that you can easily refer to your
annotations when you return to school in August.
Assignments/ Assessments:
● Read, annotate and bring your book to class on the first day of school.
● We will be working with this novel the first month of school and some of the activities we will be
working on include a Socratic seminar, in-class essay and an exam.
Questions: Please email kwilmoth@dusd.net or mroveri@dusd.net and we will get back to you.
AP English Language & Composition
Welcome to AP English Language and Composition!
Get ready for a year of thought-provoking discussion, mind-blowing reading, and
galvanizing writing. We are excited that you have decided to join us on this journey.
Summer Assignment
The first two weeks of the class will revolve around the following readings, and there will
be discussions and assessments on these readings during the first few weeks of class.
- Required – Read and annotate Mortimer J. Adler’s short essay “How to
Mark a Book.” Let this piece guide you in annotating the rest of the required
summer reading as well as in all other readings in this class. If you have a printer,
please print from the link below and annotate. If you do not have a printer, then
make a copy of the doc and annotate within Google.
Due Friday, August 14, 2026. No late work accepted.
How to Mark a Book by Mortimer J. Adler - Required – Read and annotate Frederick Douglass’s autobiography The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. You can find this book at any library
(use post-its to annotate) or at any bookstore. Of course, Better World Books and
Amazon are a go-to, but consider supporting an independent bookstore like The
Last Bookstore (downtown L.A.) or Vroman’s (Pasadena). Apply what you’ve
learned about annotating from the Adler piece.
Due Friday, August 14, 2026. No late work accepted.
DHS APLAC Summer 2026 - Required – Read and annotate Louise Erdrich’s fiction book The Round
House AND complete five (5) dialectical journal entries (see link below). You
can find this book in any library as well. Please note that any use of AI will, like
plagiarism, be considered cheating and will result in a zero.
Due Friday, August 21, 2026. No late work accepted.
Please click on this link to review the guidelines and example for a dialectical journal.
Dialectical Journal Guidelines for The Round House – - Optional –Read and annotate any one of the following non-fiction books for
FIRST SEMESTER EXTRA CREDIT:
● Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
● The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by
David Treuer, a Native American from the Ojibwe tribe (Counterargues the
“accepted” Dee Brown version–⬆️–and finalist for the 2019 National Book Award)
● Life Among the Apaches: The Classic History of Native American Life on the
Plains by John Cremony
● Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond Thorp and Robert
Bunker
● Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
● The Slaves’ War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves by Andrew Ward
● Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs
● 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
● A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own
Stories of Emancipation by David W. Blight
● Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
● Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo by Zora Neal Hurston
→ Or you may read any other non-fiction critically acclaimed text that focuses on
indigenous people or slavery. Please e-mail Ms. Hill or Mrs. Overgaauw for approval
if you select a book not on this list.
Due Friday, August 21, 2026. No late work accepted.
Questions over the summer?
Please email Ms. Hill thill@dusd.net or Mrs. Overgaauw aovergaauw@dusd.net.
AP English Literature
Reading
- Read these two items carefully and critically.
- I encourage you to use all of your years of annotation experience to mark these texts because it will be
useful for the analytical work we will do. - You will be going back to these texts for several assignments, so annotation will help you be efficient
with our first units of the semester; however, I will not be collecting books and giving you points for
annotations. - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
o Their Eyes Were Watching God follows Janie Crawford’s journey of self-discovery and
independence as she strives to find her own voice in the early 20th-century American South. - Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
o Bless Me, Ultima follows young Antonio Márez’s transition into manhood by navigating the
cultural and religious tensions of his family, culture, and heritage in 1940s New Mexico.
Assignments
- Read both books and be ready to discuss.
- We will complete a variety of activities using these two books for the first six weeks of school, including
Socratic seminars on both texts.
Assessments
- Students will take written book exams for both novels.
- Students should prepare for these written questions by reading carefully and focusing on character
and setting.
o Please keep in mind that setting is more than just time and place; it includes culture, language,
and social norms as well. - Both exams will be closed book.
Questions?
E-mail me at KCrespo@dusd.net .
If you have any trouble acquiring the novel, please let me know. I have several solutions, so please don’t
hesitate to ask for help.