Northview High School

Summer Reading Assignment

10th Grade Honors Language Arts
2014
Required Reading #1:
How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Be prepared for an assessment on this text during the first week of school. You
should be prepared to discuss (and write about) what you have learned from Fosters
guide to reading literature by applying your knowledge to works of fiction you may have
read in 9th grade as well as Brave New World. Make sure you annotate the book for
vocabulary and terms with which you are unfamiliar.
Required Reading #2:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Read Brave New World.
Annotate the novel for symbolism, allusion, and themes using what you have
learned from reading How to Read Literature like a Professor. You will be
permitted to use the annotations in your novel for any in-class assessments, so a
significant number of annotations will be to your benefit.
We encourage you to create a list of the following: any allusions you come across
in the text and any vocabulary words that are unfamiliar to you (as well as their
definitions).
While your in-text annotations and allusion/vocabulary lists will not be collected
and assessed, you WILL be permitted to use them on the first-day assessment.
Students with stronger annotations and allusion/vocabulary lists will likely find
themselves more prepared to succeed on the first-day assessment and the
assessments that follow.
Be prepared for an assessment the first day of school. You should be ready to discuss
Brave New World both in the context of a Socratic seminar and in a timed essay as well
as to answer specific questions related to allusions, themes, characters, and vocabulary.
Supplementary Material
To deepen your understanding of the themes and issues in Brave New World, we are
encouraging you to watch The Mission. This is not a requirement, and you will not be
assessed on the movie itself. However, the teachers may bring this up in discussion in
class or students may reference the movie in Socratic discussion. Again, the experience is
meant to enrich and extend student understanding of character and theme.

The movie is available on Netflix (for rent) and

Amazon (for purchase).
Rating: PG
Movie Summary:
Featuring a majestic score by Ennio Morricone and
lush Oscar-winning cinematography by Chris
Menges, Roland Joff's The Mission examines the
events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750,
when Spain ceded part of South America to Portugal.
Two European forces are on hand to win the South
American natives over to imperialist ways. The
plunderers want to extract riches and slaves from the
New World. The missionaries, on the other hand, want
to convert the Indians to Christianity and win over
their souls. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This is by no means a fast-moving

action thriller, but it is an intelligent,
historical-drama that makes you think.
Why not invite friends over for a
viewing party and post-movie
discussion. Could be fun! Hopefully,
everyone has read Brave New World
first. It will be a great discussion
making connections between the two
texts.