Recent Changes

Please follow the outlined steps in order to complete your summer reading assignment. All work will be collected on the first day of school. Students will receive credit for their work.
Step 1: Purchase and read one of the titles below. Students will be required to write in their books. Either book can be purchased at Borders, Barnes and Noble, or on Amazon.com
young girl who faces challenges while growing up
{mango.jpg} {alexie.jpg}
Option 2: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman AlexieThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is told from the point of view of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit, Jr. The story chronicles his life on the Spokane Indian reservation and his experiences at a school located outside of his reservation.

English 1 - 2011
The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush
Instructor: Ms. Ustaris

Instructor: Ms. Ustaris
Please follow the outlined steps in order to complete your summer reading assignment. All work will be collected on the first day of school. Students will receive credit for their work.
on Amazon.com
Option 1: The House on Mango Street by Sandra CisnerosThe House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age novel by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros. The story is narrated by Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in a Puerto Rican/Chicano Chicago neighborhood.
{mango.jpg} {alexie.jpg}
Option 2: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman AlexieThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is told from the point of view of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit, Jr. The story chronicles his life on the Spokane Indian reservation and his experiences at a school located outside of his reservation.
either book.
Assignment 1 – Pre-Reading Journal
Please write 200 words in response to the questions below. Type and print out your work.
Why did you choose this book? What drew you to this book? What do you think this book will be about? Explain your ideas.
Assignment 2 – Annotation
in your book!book!) Please mark
-Square unfamiliar or challenging words.
-For each chapter, circle the names of all characters when they are first mentioned.

Summer Reading for English 1
The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush
Instructor: Ms. Ustaris
Please follow the outlined steps in order to complete your summer reading assignment. All work will be collected on the first day of school. Students will receive credit for their work.
Step 1: Purchase and read one of the titles below. Students will be required to write in their books. Either book can be purchased at Borders, Barnes and Noble, or on Amazon.com
Option 1: The House on Mango Street by Sandra CisnerosThe House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age novel by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros. The story is narrated by Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in a Puerto Rican/Chicano Chicago neighborhood.
{mango.jpg} {alexie.jpg}
Option 2: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman AlexieThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is told from the point of view of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit, Jr. The story chronicles his life on the Spokane Indian reservation and his experiences at a school located outside of his reservation.
Step 2: Complete all of the four assignments listed and described on this page and the next. The assignments are the same for either book.
Assignment 1 – Pre-Reading Journal
Please write 200 words in response to the questions below. Type and print out your work.
Why did you choose this book? What drew you to this book? What do you think this book will be about? Explain your ideas.
Assignment 2 – Annotation
You will be expected to turn in an annotated text. (And, yes! I am requiring you to write in your book! Please mark the pages of your book according the following guidelines:
-Square unfamiliar or challenging words.
-For each chapter, circle the names of all characters when they are first mentioned.
-Underline key details.
-Write brief notes in the margins. Comment on the things that confuse you. Ask questions. Express your thoughts and understandings. Write your predictions. Record your passing reflections.
-Write an asterisk (*) or star beside memorable quotes, striking lines, or sentences that express what you believe to be greater human truths.
-Write a one sentence summary at the end of each chapter.
Assignment 3 – Free Response Journaling
Select the three most meaningful chapters to you. Then, for each of the three chapters, write a separate 200 word response to the ideas within. You may respond by composing a journal, a poem, a story, song lyrics, etc. You may also include illustrations. Type and print out your work.
Assignment 4: Identifying Theme
Themes are not morals. Theme is the central meaning or greater human truth implied in a work of literature or art. Any given work can contain a number of themes.
Identify three of the most dominant themes present in the book, and explain each of your choices using text-based evidence. Each theme should be explored using approximately 100 words. Type and print out your work.

"Beneath this world of raging manifestos and symbolic victories resides a humbler reality one where change occurs, if it occurs at all, as a result of quiet, patient, all but anonymous efforts...where teachers, working in imperfect systems, help their students learn about language and its limits, the social world and its possibilities. In this fallen world, there are no stories of decisive victories; there is only movement toward and away from an ever-receding goal and the ceaseless--some might say mindless--work of building on the ruins of the past."
-from Writing at the End of the World by Richard Miller
"If you do not LOVE your people, you cannot LEAD your people ....You cannot SAVE your people, if you are not willing to SERVE your people."
- Dr. Cornel West, Professor, Princeton University

Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
"If"Beneath this world of raging manifestos and symbolic victories resides a humbler reality one where change occurs, if it occurs at all, as a result of quiet, patient, all but anonymous efforts...where teachers, working in imperfect systems, help their students learn about language and its limits, the social world and its possibilities. In this fallen world, there are no stories of decisive victories; there is only movement toward and away from an ever-receding goal and the ceaseless--some might say mindless--work of building on the ruins of the past."
-from Writing at the End of the World by Richard Miller
"If you do your people ....
You....You cannot SAVE your people." -
- Dr. Cornel Princeton University