International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme

Summer Reading for IB Prep English 10

Printable Summer Reading Reading for IB Prep English 10

Step One:

Get a copy of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You can get a copy from the Bend High library that you are able to keep all summer,or you are of course, welcome to buy a copy of your own. There are multiple versions of this text - any should be fine.

Step Two:

During or after your reading, you will need to complete four journal entries that respond to one or more of the prompts below. You can use any of these prompts for any entry, and it is up to you what part of the book they pertain to. They are listed in order of degree of difficulty, so choose whichever level you feel you are capable of. You will not be docked points for only doing reader-response for all four entries, but this is the first impression your teacher will have of you. If you limit the focus of your entries, our assumption will be that your skills are limited at this point in your learning. When in doubt, risk it and try some of the harder prompt choices.

Possible Response Topics:

Prompt 1 (Easy): Reader Response

For this prompt, you simply need to find a section of the book that triggers a response of some form. An emotional response...an academic one. The choice is yours. Simply identify this section with a one sentence summary of the scene/section and then spend the rest of your entry describing what response is triggered and what you think it was about this section that triggered such a response.

Prompt 2 (Medium): Message or Implications

(this prompt should be done later in text; you will not be able to effectively address this until you're at least 75% of the way through)

For this prompt, you need to review the overarching message or implications you think the author of the text was attempting to convey to their readers through the text. In other words, what lesson are we to take away from this text? A strong response to this prompt will reference at least two scenes, lines, and/or sections from the text that best exemplify this lesson.

Prompt 3 (Hard): Writer's Style

For this prompt, it may be helpful to identify a key scene of no more than 40 lines and put the page number and start and stop points (the 3-4 words that start and stop it) at the top of your entry. Describe what you observe about the author's writing style: what type of words do they use? What about their sentences? Do you see any figurative language, etc...

This prompt is assessing whether you learned any literary devices during your freshman year or other courses. A strong response will be able to label these choices correctly...an especially strong entry will connect them to a message or theme (perhaps the message from Prompt 2).

Prompt 4 (Hardest)

This prompt requires some awareness of current events or global situations. You may want to keep an eye on the news for a few weeks before tackling this prompt so you're aware of what's going on in the world.

Connect this text to a relatively current event affecting our planet right now. When I say relatively current, all I mean is that this issue is still affecting people in the majority of the world on a daily basis. It may affect people differently - some may be directly affected whereas others are only tangentially affected, but most people should be aware of this issue and feel its impact on their lives in some way.

Describe how the text and your selected current event share similar features, consequences, lessons, or variables. The goal is to create connections between the text and the world around us, but how you go about that is up to you.

Technical Requirements

Failure to follow these technical requirements will result in an automatic deduction of 20%.

• You must type these entries in Google docs and you will turn them in in the fall by sharing a link to your Google doc with your teacher.
• Each Google doc should be titled as such: last name_first name_summer reading2026
• You will have no header or heading at the top of your paper - your name must be in the document title.
• Begin your paper by identifying which prompt you will address in each entry, and then make sure you label whenever you switch to a new prompt. Simply starting each prompt with a bolded label, such as "Prompt One: ...... Prompt Two: ..... etc..." is all that is needed.
• You should only leave one space between prompts - don't waste space here to allow yourself to write less. Your teachers notice this, and it does not leave a great first impression.
• You should type in 12 point font and double space your entries.
• Each entry should take up to at least half a page for full credit.

In order to receive full credit, you must have your Google doc ready to submit at the very beginning of class on the first day of school: September 10th, 2026. If for some reason, your class doesn't meet until September 11th, 2026, that will be the deadline.

Plagiarism Disclaimer:

Although it may be tempting, do NOT resort to using fellow classmates or online literary resources to supplement your thoughts. If any of your comments or analysis are found to mirror material found in another student's work or on the internet, you will receive a score of zero on this assignment, and an incident will be added to your permanent file as this is a violation of the IB Honor Code.

Similarly, using any AI software to produce your commentary is also plagiarism. If any of your commentary is generated using AI-software, you will receive a score of zero on this assignment, and an incident will be added to your permanent file as this is a violation of the IB Honor Code.

IB Language and Literature: Year One – Summer Reading Directions

Printable IB Language and Literature: Year One

Welcome to the first year of IB Language and Literature! We cover a lot of material in our first year, and the works we cover need to be studied in depth so you can pull from these texts your senior year in Year Two. For this reason, we read all of our books twice. Yes, twice. The first read is for comprehension (who is who, what happened, what is it about), and the second read is for analysis (what is the author doing, how is the author doing it, and why do these authorial moves matter).

Over the summer, to prepare you for our class, you will read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This text is a non-fiction examination of the final years of Christopher McCandless, a young man from the East Coast who died in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. Told in a journalistic style, Krakauer interviews people who knew McCandless and retraces the journey McCandless took from his college graduation to his final days in an abandoned bus in Alaska. Please check out a book from the BHS library before you leave for the summer, or if you wish to purchase your own copy, here is the ISBN # to ensure you have the same version as the class: ISBN# 0-385-48680-4 Yes, there is a movie version of the book. Do not watch that as a substitute. It does not match the book.

Yes, there are many internet resources about the book. Do not use those as a substitute for reading. They are not good enough for knowing the text.

What should you do while reading?

1. Keep a reading log that shows the dates and page ranges that you read. 

   Example:

   DATE	Page #s	GIST / Summary	Questions / Reactions

2. Write handwritten notes on who is who and what happens in the text after each reading session. Using sticky notes within the book is fine, or you can have an expanded log like the example above. Yes, you should take notes on the literal story and who the people are, how they interact with McCandless, and what happens. Knowing the timeline is helpful, too – the timeline of the events and the timeline of the book’s presentation.
3. Select and photograph 6 key passages you believe are significant to the text overall. Key passages have “rich text” that include authorial choices and contribute to the overall messages or implications of the text. They often show character development, conflict, theme, or a recurring authorial choice (writing craft move). NOTE: Don’t take ideas for these off the internet. Take photos of the passages and annotate them within Notability or another app.
   • What does it mean to annotate? To write on the text/ label authorial choices/ make predictions in the margin / connect the passage to other parts of the text/ comment or hypothesize on the passage’s meaning/ hypothesize on how the quote influences the reader / hypothesize on why the passage matters for the big ideas of the text/ etc.
   • Use the authorial choices definition sheet provided with these directions. You will need to bring this definition sheet with you to class for your Learner Profile Notebook.
4. Be ready to take a test on the book our first day of class.
5. Remind your friends who also signed up to do their summer reading! Showing up on day one saying, “I didn’t know about the summer reading” will not get you excused from this task.

IB Year 2 Summer Reading Assignment

Printable Grade 12 Summer Reading Assignment

Over the summer, we would like you to read a literary work to add to your existing repertoire of literary works from Y1. We will move in and out of these texts regularly throughout your second Lang and Lit year as you will need to use literary texts for your Individual Oral, tentatively slated for November, and your Paper 2 in May. 

Step One:

Get a copy of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. You can get a copy from the Bend High library, or you are of course welcome to buy a copy of your own. Should you want to get your own copy, the version we use through the school is ISBN 978-0-618-70641-9. Finding the same version will ensure we are all on the same page….literally.

Disclaimer: This text intentionally incorporates language that is authentic to men at war in the 1960s-70s; as such, it is often crass and misogynistic. Similarly, it is a tale of war - violence and death (including suicide) are depicted or alluded to. If any of this content concerns you or your family, contact Ms. Bowerman at megan.bowerman@bend.k12.or.us ASAP to arrange for a different text.  

Step Two:

During or after your reading, you will need to complete four journal entries. You should use each of these prompts, but it is up to you what part of the book they pertain to. They are designed to move up in rigor or complexity in regards to the skills needed to complete the prompt effectively, and you will see below that some entries can build on the previous ones. It might behoove you to read the book first and then work your way through the prompts chronologically (1, and then 2, and then 3, and then 4) after reading.

Prompt 1 (Easy): Reader Response

For this prompt, you simply need to find a section of the book that triggers a response of some form. An emotional response…an academic one. The choice is yours. Simply identify this section with a one sentence summary of the scene/section and then spend the rest of your entry describing what response is triggered and what you think it was about this section that triggered such a response. 

Prompt 2 (Medium): Message or Implications

(this prompt should be done later in text; you will not be able to effectively address this until you’re at least 75% of the way through). For this prompt, you need to review the overarching message or implications you think the author of the text was attempting to convey to their readers through the text. In other words, what lesson are we to take away from this text? A strong response to this prompt will reference at least two scenes, lines, and/or sections from the text that best exemplify this lesson. 

Prompt 3 (Hard): Writer’s Style

For this prompt, it may be helpful to identify a key scene of no more than 40 lines and put the page number and start and stop points (the 3-4 words that start and stop it) at the top of your entry. Using any notes on authorial choices you have from Y1 or other courses, identify at least 2-3 authorial choices from the key scene and describe why you think the author used them. A strong entry will label them correctly….an especially strong entry will connect them to a message or theme (perhaps the message from Prompt 2). 

Prompt 4 (Hardest):

This prompt requires some awareness of current events or global situations. You may want to keep an eye on the news for a few weeks before tackling this prompt so you’re aware of what’s going on in the world. 

Connect this text to a relatively current event affecting our planet right now. When I say relatively current, all I mean is that this issue is still affecting people in the majority of the world on a daily basis. It may affect people differently - some may be directly affected whereas others are only tangentially affected, but most people should be aware of this issue and feel its impact on their lives in some way. 

Describe how the text and your selected current event share similar features, consequences, lessons, or variables. The goal is to create connections between the text and the world around us, but how you go about that is up to you. 

Technical Requirements :

Failure to follow these technical requirements will result in an automatic deduction of 20%.

• You must type these entries in Google docs and you will turn them in in the fall by sharing a link to your Google doc with your teacher.
• Each Google doc should be titled as such: last name_first name_summer reading2026.
• You will have no header or heading at the top of your paper - your name must be in the document title.
• Begin your paper by identifying which prompt you will address first, and then make sure you label whenever you switch to a new prompt. Simply starting each prompt with a bold label, such as “ Prompt One:...... Prompt Two:.....etc…” is all that is needed.
• You should only leave one space between prompts - don’t waste space here to allow yourself to write less.Your teachers notice this, and it does not leave a great first impression.
• You should type in 12 point font and double space your entries.
• Each entry should take up at least half a page for full credit. 

In order to receive full credit, you must have your Google doc ready to submit at the very beginning of class on the first day of school: September 10th, 2026. If for some reason, your class doesn’t meet until September 11th, 2026, that will be the deadline.

Plagiarism Disclaimer:

Although it may be tempting, do NOT resort to using fellow classmates or  online literary resources to supplement your thoughts. If any of your comments or analysis are found to mirror material found in another student’s work or on the internet, you will receive a score of zero on this assignment, and an incident will be added to your permanent file as this is a violation of the IB Honor Code.

Similarly, using any AI software to produce your commentary is also plagiarism. If any of your commentary is generated using AI-software, you will receive a score of zero on this assignment, and an incident will be added to your permanent file as this is a violation of the IB Honor Code.