Eighth Grade Literature Summer
Reading
Mrs. Costanzo
703-680-4164
Supply List
Literature –
- Marble
Composition Book
- Four
Subject dividers (to be used with last year's binder)
- If
you are a new student, you need a three-ring literature binder
English –
Yellow Pocket folder to keep all returned worksheets and notes
Dear Parents.
Please do not edit, correct, or change your child's
summer work before it is turned in to me.
I believe that it is important for your child's growth and helps him or
her take responsibility for the work.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Karen Costanzo
This summer project is due on
the first day of school. A homework
warning will be issued for any project not turned in on the first day of school
and ten points will be deducted for each day it is late. After the third day, the project will not be
accepted and a zero will be recorded for the grade. The summer reading counts as a test and a
homework grade. Projects may be typed or on loose leaf.
1. Short Story
Read the following short stories by Edgar Allen Poe:
a. "The Fall of the House of Usher"
b. "The Masque of the Red Death"
c. "The Cask of Amontillado"
For each story, answer the following in essay
form. Who is the main character? What conflict or dilemma must the main
character face? How is his conflict
resolved? What is Poe saying about
people and life through the story? How
can you apply this lesson to your own life?
This should not be a plot
summary. You must answer the
questions in your essay. These stories
can be found in any Poe anthology.
2. Poetry
Read the attached six poems by Langston Hughes. Write a paragraph on each of the poems you
read explaining what you think the message of the poem is. What makes the poem special? How can the message of the poem apply to your
own life? You can't just tell me that it
doesn't apply!
Poems
by Langston Hughes
1. The Dream
Keeper
Bring me all of your
dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the
too-rough fingers
Of the world.
2. Beggar Boy
What is there within
this beggar lad
That I can neither
hear nor feel nor see,
That I can neither
know nor understand
And still it calls
to me?
Is not he but a
shadow in the sun –
A bit of clay,
brown, ugly, given life?
And yet he plays
upon his flute a wild free tune
As if Fate had not
bled him with her knife?
3. In Tine of
Silver Rain
In time of silver
rain
The earth
Puts forth new life
again
Green grasses grow
And flowers lift
their heads,
And over all the
plain
The wonder spreads
Of life,
Of life,
Of life!
In time of silver
rain
The butterflies
Lift silken wings
To catch a rainbow
cry,
And trees put forth
New leaves to sing
In joy beneath the
sky
As down the roadway
Passing boys and
girls
Go singing, too,
In time of silver
rain
When spring
And new life
Are new.
4. Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a
broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren
field
Frozen with snow
5.As I Grew Older
It was a long time
ago
I have almost
forgotten my dream.
But it was there
then,
In front of me,
Bright life a sun –
My dream
And then the wall
rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my
dream.
Rose slowly, slowly,
Dimming,
Hiding,
The light of my
dream.
Rose until it
touched the sky –
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the
shadow.
No longer the light
of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the
wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter
this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand
lights of sun,
Into a thousand
whirling dreams
Of sun!
6.Youth
We have tomorrow
Bright before us
Like a flame.
Yesterday
A night-gone thing,
A sun-down name.
And dawn-today
Broad arch above the
road we came.
We march!
