Summer Assignments

Notre Dame Academy | Summer Book Club 2025
Here’s the Summer Reading Book Club List! Please read the book assigned to your grade and come ready to participate in a small, mixed-grade “Book Club” discussion when we return in the fall. To prepare, choose any 4 of the 6 discussion prompts and write your responses by the first week of school.

Grades 7 and 8: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Grades 9 and 10: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier

Grades 11 and 12: The Happiest Man on Earth - The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku

Book Club Discussion Prompts

1) Would you have chosen this book for yourself if you had seen it at the library or bookstore? Why or why not?

2) Have you read this genre before? What do you like or dislike about it (7th/8th: Fiction, 9th/10th: Historical Fiction, 11th/12th: Memoir)?

3) What was your favorite or most impactful moment of the book?

4) What would you have changed about the plot if you could rewrite the story?

5) Have you ever experienced a challenge like the one described in this book or can you make any parallels to your life?

6) If you could give any of the main characters a piece of advice, what would you say?

AP Calculus Summer Assignment

AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION (11th Grade) SUMMER ASSIGNMENT
Please read a nonfiction book of your choice. Please take notes on the author’s purpose (why she/he wrote the book) and method (writing techniques).

Please read and bring to class three copies of articles from periodicals, and your notes that answer/ explain the why and how of each essay you read.

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE (12th Grade) Summer Assignment
Evidence/Analysis Form

AP WORLD HISTORY - MODERN (10th Grade) Summer Assignment

AP UNITED STATES HISTORY (11th Grade) Summer Assignment

AP GOVERNMENT (12th Grade) Summer Assignment

7th GRADE ENGLISH
After reading Touching Spirit Bear, choose two of the following assignments and complete them on a piece of paper or a Google document. You will turn them in on the first day of class.
Point of View: Retell a major event from the story from a different character’s point of view.  (One half-page minimum)
Book Cover: Create your own book cover for this book. The cover should convey something about the theme, and you should write on the back a blurb that would “sell” the book (3-4 sentences)
Comic Strip: Create a comic strip that retells two scenes using your own words.  Make sure the comic strip includes the main characters, setting, the conflict, two events, and a conclusion.
Questioning: Create a list of at least 5 interview questions for one of the characters in the story and answer each question as you think the character would answer it.  Be sure that your questions are thoughtful and show meaning-making.
Letter writing: Write a letter to one of the characters as if you are one of the characters. OR write a letter to the author explaining what you took away from the book and any reactions or questions you had
News Writing: Write a news article about a main event from the story.

8TH GRADE ENGLISH
After reading Swallowing Stones, choose two of the following assignments and complete them on a piece of paper or a Google document. You will turn them in on the first day of class.
Point of View: Retell a major event from the story from a different character’s point of view.  (One half-page minimum)
Book Cover: Create your own book cover for this book. The cover should convey something about the theme, and you should write on the back a blurb that would “sell” the book (3-4 sentences)
Comic Strip: Create a comic strip that retells two scenes using your own words.  Make sure the comic strip includes the main characters, setting, the conflict, two events, and a conclusion.
Questioning: Create a list of at least 5 interview questions for one of the characters in the story and answer each question as you think the character would answer it.  Be sure that your questions are thoughtful and show meaning-making.
Letter writing: Write a letter to one of the characters as if you are one of the characters. OR write a letter to the author explaining what you took away from the book and any reactions or questions you had
News Writing: Write a news article about a main event from the story.

PRE-AP WORLD HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY (Grade 9)

PSYCHOLOGY (GRADE 12)