Community House Middle School Summer Reading 2020
We hope everyone has an enjoyable summer filled with fun and a few good books. To that end, please see the reading list below for the requirements for your Cavalier. Summer Reading is carefully selected by our talented ELA teachers for each grade level. Students can expect a formal assessment grade on Summer Reading no later than mid-September. If you have any questions, please feel free to email kristen.ohaver@cms.k12.nc.us at any time.
CMS is rolling out the EL Education Curriculum to 7th and 8th grade students next year. 6th grade adopted the curriculum this current school year. In order to help student readiness for the fall, teachers are asking students to read the first anchor novel for the curriculum. Teachers will then be able to adjust pacing and differentiate instruction for our learners.
Please shop local and be sure to use the ISBN number listed so that all students are using the same edition.
Rising 6th grade Students: Please read, ANNOTATE, and enjoy Percy Jackson Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. ISBN: 978-078683865-3
Lexile Level 640
Description: Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse-Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe.
Rising 7th grade Students: Please read, ANNOTATE, and enjoy A Long Walk to Water by Linds Sue Park.
ISBN: 9780547577319
sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is
fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond
every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African
continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay.
Rising 8th grade Students: Please read, ANNOTATE, and enjoy Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia
McCall.
ISBN: 9781620140109
Lexile Level: 840
Description: When Odilia and her four sisters find a dead body in the swimming hole, they embark on a hero's journey to return the dead man to his family in Mexico. But returning home to Texas turns into an odyssey that would rival Homer's original tale. With the supernatural aid of ghostly La Llorona via a magical earring, Odilia and her little sisters travel a road of tribulation to their long-lost grandmother's house.
*Descriptions above are taken from Amazon.com and/or Lexile.com
Annotations and SIGNPOSTS: What does this look like?
ALL Cavaliers students needs to annotate their Summer Reading title. For rising 7th and 8th graders, for your title, please apply strategies that your Language Arts teachers have taught you over the past two years. For rising 6th graders and other interested students, please use the links and documents below.
When annotating, rising 7th and 8th grade students should follow the NOTICE, NAME, and EXPLAIN format described below:
Notice | Highlighting, underlining, or other text marking indicating important text. |
Name | Name the annotation. What is it? Is it a signpost? Is it a literary element? |
Explain | Why is this text significant? Answer the signpost question. Connect the literary element to a larger idea from the text. (Ex. Strong language contributes to tone of… Explain the immediate significance and the overall impact on the book as a whole. |
Note: Depending on the length of the chapters in the selected book, students should have about 2-4 annotations per chapter.
Consider using the Big Three Questions from Beers and Probst as an entry for annotating a text, especially a work of nonfiction. Here is an electronic link to BIG THREE QUESTIONS (or you can copy/paste it into your browser): BIG THREE QUESTIONS
Consider marking the text for Signposts. Please see “Signposts” documents for a reminder of what each signpost means and for its correlating symbol.
NONFICTION Signpost Link
ANNOTATIONS:
An annotation is a note, comment, or concise statement of the key idea(s) in a text or a portion of a text. Annotations are commonly used in reading instruction and in research. Please see the sample pages of Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind for a model on annotating a text. Not every page needs to look like the model. Annotating is meant to slow readers down and engage them more deeply in reading comprehension and questioning the text. It is NOT about filling the page for quantity. The parent model linked on the school webpage is meant to showcase many types of annotations and Signposts. Students do NOT need to annotate every page in a book. Annotating is meant to be a personal and organic process that will aid in comprehension, not just a completion activity.
Parents: For further reading on annotations, please enjoy Mortimer Adler’s short work “How to Mark a Book” at this link: "How to Mark a Book" text
