3rd Quarter Reading Assignment
Select one of the following books. Obtain the book by March ____12_______.
Being a Black Man: At the Corner... by the staff of the Washington Post
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Winter of our
Disconnect by Susan Maushart
Sticks and Stones: Defeating... by Emily Bazelon
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
by Elizabeth Cline
Nickel and Dimed: On
(Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Independent Book Assignment
1. Actively read your
book. While your annotations will not be
checked, you should always annotate and take notes to aid your comprehension
and preparation for testing. Be prepared
for a quiz or assessment at each checkpoint.
2. For each
checkpoint, you will be creating your own synthesis question. You will write the introduction and
assignment and gather 3 documents related to the topic. The topic must be an idea central to the part
of your independent book that you just read, and the related documents can be
visuals (pictures, cartoons, ads) or written texts (articles, blogs entries,
editorials, passages from books, websites, magazines or journals). Remember that the ideas in the supporting
documents do not all have to have the same viewpoint and they can be loosely
related to your topic (the way the rating charts for debates are only loosely
related to whether television is good or bad.)
However, at least 2 of your sources each time must be from respectable,
credible sources (the 3rd could be less formal and academic). Your
independent book will not count as one of the 3 sources, because I will assume
it is connected.
Requirements for
each synthesis question and set of 3 sources
1. Your synthesis
question must be related to that checkpoint in your book – write a sentence or
two to explain the connection.
2. You must include
an introduction and assignment section for your question. The introduction should present both sides of
the debatable topic, and the assignment should make it clear what question/task
the essay writer would undertake.
3. Two of your three
sources must be from reputable publications
(newspapers/journals/magazines/books).
The third could be a blog, graphic, opinion piece, ad, etc. ONLY one visual source for each set of 3; the
other 2 must be written texts.
4. You must write a
complete Work Cited (MLA style) entry for each of your 3 sources. Use an online MLA manual to help you do
this. If you cannot find the publication
information required, you may not use that source.
5. Include a
summary/paraphrase of your source.
Should be 1-3 paragraphs depending on the length and complexity of the
text.
6. Include a
paragraph of explanation about how you might use the text to
support/challenge/relate to the synthesis question that you pose.
7. You don’t have to
actually include a print copy of your source, but if I cannot easily find it
using your Works Cited information, it will not count. If you want to include a note about the steps
you used to find it, you can. (If it is
from one of the databases, that will be clear in your citation, and I can
easily go to that database, type in the author’s name and find the source. )
The following is one sample of a synthesis question
introduction and assignment. Of course
there are MANY more examples on apcentral.collegeboard.com. I encourage you to look at the examples and
model your questions off of the types of synthesis questions that you will
encounter on the AP test.
Introduction
Mass public schooling has traditionally proclaimed among its
goals the following: (1) to help each
student gain personal fulfillment and (2) to help create good citizens. These
two goals—one aimed at the betterment of individuals and the other aimed at the
betterment of society—might seem at odds with one another. At the very least,
these two goals are a cause of much tension within schools at every level: schools want students to be allowed or
encouraged to think for themselves and pursue their own interests, but schools
also believe that it is right in some circumstances to encourage conformity in
order to socialize students.
Assignment
Read the sources that follow (including the introductory
information) carefully. Then choose an issue related to the tension in schools
between individuality and conformity. You might choose an issue such as dress
codes, mandatory classes, or the structure of the school day. You do not have
to choose an issue that you have experienced personally. Then, write an essay
in which you use this issue to argue the extent to which schools should support
individuality or conformity. Synthesize at least three of the sources for
support.
