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6^th Grade Summer Reading Requirements 2008 Reading requirements: Required reading- Novels: Any unabridged version of these is okay. They are available for Heritage Students at Scott’s Bookstore on the square in Newnan. 1. Holes- Louis Sachar 2. A Wrinkle in Time- Madeline L’Engle 3. Option book- Students are also required to pick one other book that is either autobiographical, a biography, or non-fiction. Please make sure you have not read the book before and it is age appropriate for you. Your parents or library specialist can help you in that area. Writing requirements- Students are required to keep a writer’s journal during the summer. This journal should be a black and white “composition” notebook. (You know, those real common ones...)Students should have a minimum of one entry per week in their journal. Over the course of the summer that means a minimum of 12 entries. They are encouraged to write more than the minimum requirements. Entries should relate in some way to the following areas: -Their novels that they are reading -The world around them as they experience or see it (A writing prompt sheet with ideas is attached for you to use if you want to.) 1. Date and title all entries. 2. Only one entry per day counts towards your minimum requirement. 3. Do not write entries in your journal that detail what you did that day like a “log” does. Your journal is a source for you to write and explore your feelings, how you see the world around you, and it is for “you.” 3. All journals will be turned in on the first day of school and will count as a writing grade in English. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 6^th writing requirements and prompts Journal writing requirements: 1. You need to write at least two entries about each book in your journals. What you write about is up to you. However, try to explore your feelings in your writing. Don’t write entries that just list characters, the author etc... I am interested in you responding about something in the book that you read. 2. Other entries in your journal should include writings or drawings that have to do with your summer. Some ideas to write about if you hit a snag: Concerning your books: 1. Pick a character and write about that character. Does he/she/it seem “realistic to you?” -Do you identify with them? Are they like anyone you personally know? What do you like or dislike about them? 2. Write about a scene- Describe what you find interesting about it...write a poem about something in the scene, an object, person, place, feeling. 3. Write a poem about something that the book inspired in you. 4. Draw a picture of a person in the book, or a place, or something that strikes you as interesting. Draw it in your journal. General writing prompts for weekly entries in your summer journals- 1. Think of something you have done this summer that you really enjoyed and write: -“why I liked it so much...what really mattered to me” 3. Write about a new experience that you had this summer. Maybe you learned how to slalom or barefoot ski! Maybe you tasted red peppers for the first time. Write about that “first” time experience. What was it like....describe it in detail. How did you feel about it? 4. Do you think you’ve changed much since you were little, say a third grader? Do you look different? Act differently? Have your views changed about certain things? 5. Do you have a pet? Spend 15 minutes quietly observing it. Don’t let it watch you watching it...be sneaky. What did you learn about it? Now if it sleeps for 15 minutes pick a time when it is up and about to write about! 6. Did you have any strange or unusual “coincidences” happen to you this summer. I remember one summer when I saw a man wearing the Boy Scout shirt of a childhood friend of mine...The strange thing was I was in a foreign country and had been out of Boy Scouts for 20 years! The man could not speak a word of English and I didn’t speak any Spanish! How did he get that shirt? Write about unusual experiences that you have this summer. 7. Pick a movie you have seen this summer. What would you do to make it better? What scenes would you change if any. Don’t want to change any scenes? Then what made it your favorite movie? 8. Take any place you are going to and get ready to do the following: Take a card with you and write down the first “smell” you come across...then write down a note about an interesting person you “see”, then write down a note or two about a “sound” you hear. When you get home put it all together and write about your “place.” 8. What month of the summer is your favorite month? Why? Tell me more than “I get to go swimming at the beach....” I need more. What is so great about that month? 9. Summer TV- If you could take one character from a television show out to eat, who would you take? State the reasons for your choice. 10. Can you think of someone who isn’t famous who has inspired you? Explain how this person has inspired you? 11. Have you ever become friends with someone who didn’t treat you nicely? Why did you do this? (Was this person more popular than you, better looking? Is that why?) 12. If someone this summer offered you a million dollars to swim at Sea World in a tank with a great white shark for five minutes would you do it? Why or why not? 13. Write about something that was “funny.” Something you saw, heard, experienced etc...Why was that funny to you? Try to recreate that funny feeling about that experience as you write about it. Feel free to write your own responses not based on all or any of these prompts.