Summer Reading 2023

One of our Benedictine Hallmarks is Community. Our summer assignments provide a unique opportunity to grow in our relationship with each other as we explore material that enhances both our understanding of humanity and the world around us. 

This summer we will continue to employ our discipline-centric Summer Assignment model. We look forward to incorporating these assignments into students’ respective courses during the first weeks of school. 

The rich and thought-provoking themes in each assignment will provide our faculty members a multitude of options to create assessments, assignments, projects, and organized discussions that link what we are learning to our Benedictine mission. 

We hope you enjoy these assignments! Thank you for your support.

Each grade has an assignment for English and Mathematics.

Juniors and Seniors have an additional assignment from our Guidance Office using Naviance.

Students enrolled in the following Advanced Placement courses also have an additional assignment:

AP U.S. Government and Politics
AP U.S. History
AP European History
AP Biology
AP Computer Science Principles

Instructions for all assignments can be found below.

English

Freshmen (both English I and Honors English I)

Read Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees (2001) and complete the summer reading guide. (No specific edition of the novel is required.)

Sophomores (both English II and Honors English II)

Read Alan Gratz, Refugee (2017) and complete the summer reading guide. (The page numbers in the guide are from the 2017 hardcover edition, ISBN 978-0-545-88083-1)

Juniors (both English III and Honors English III)

Read Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild (1996) and complete the summer reading guide. (No specific edition of the novel is required.)

Seniors (both English IV and AP English)

Read Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1928) and complete the summer reading guide. (No specific edition of the novel is required.)

Mathematics

Summer math assignments for ALL STUDENTS will be completed via IXL*.

Information on how to access summer math assignments in IXL can be found in this document. Complete the assignment for the course you are taking in the fall. (Incoming Freshmen: you will need to have created your Benedictine email account before accessing IXL.

Advanced Placement Courses

AP U.S. Government and Politics

Complete the three-part assignment for AP U.S. Government (current event journal, annotate the Constitution, answer the Constitution worksheet questions). 

AP U.S. History

Complete the assignment for AP U.S. History, which asks you to write a series of essays. 

AP European History

Complete the assignment for AP European History, which asks you to write a series of essays.

AP Computer Science Principles

Read the book Blown to Bits. An electronic copy of the book can be found here.

Science

AP Biology

Students must complete the Google Form assessment found in this link.

Counseling (Juniors and Seniors)

See the Google Drive files below for the summer assignments for Juniors and Seniors.