Dear students and parents,

I hope this letter finds all of you well and enjoying some time off from your schoolwork. (I mean that for moms and dads as well as students).

This letter contains some important information for next year. Please read it carefully. I will also post this letter at ashevillelatinseminars.blogspot.com. I will send a second letter immediately following this one with next year’s reading lists and summer assignments. Please read those lists carefully. Be sure to have the books at hand and your summer assignments completed when school begins in August.

Before I get into the schedule, fees, and so forth, I did want to tell those of you who are graduating this year goodbye. Some of us said those goodbyes in class, but I didn’t get a chance to say farewell to some of you because of the AP testing. I wish all of you the very best as you begin your new adventures and pray that God will extend to you every blessing. You’re a great bunch, and I’ll miss you.

Schedule for 2012--2013

Tuesday, August 14--Student/parent meeting at 7 pm at Trinity Presbyterian Church

In what I hope will be a brief meeting, we’ll review our goals for the academic year for each class. All fees for the first semester are due at this time.

Monday, August 20--First day of classes

We do not take any Monday holidays. Please keep in mind that classes meet on Labor Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, and so on.

Week of November 19--Thanksgiving break. No classes this week.

December 20--Last day of classes for Christmas. Class celebration at 1 p.m.

January 7--Classes resume. All fees for the second semester are due this day.

Week of March 25--Spring break. (This is the same week as the AB Tech break. It is also Holy Week, with Easter falling on the 31st).

May 9--Final day of classes for the year.

Fees

The semester cost per seminar is $220. Most of you have paid $20 of that fee with your registration, which means that you will owe $200 per seminar in August. If you are unable to make this meeting, please mail the check. I will include my address in the July letter.

In the past, I have taken Trailblazer Ingles script for some of the payments and hope to do the same again this fall. I’ll put the details in the July letter.

Church rules

Church policies regarding our classes will be distributed at the parent/student meeting. I will also email them at that time to you and post them on the blogspot.

Classroom code

I’ll send this as well in July.

Odds and ends

In addition to a regular class notebook, students in the 3Rs classes and in the English History and Literature class will need to bring a composition book to each class. These are the square notebooks, usually with a checked cover. Wal-Mart and other stores usually stock them.

The Monday English History and Literature class is large. If you are able to move to Tuesday’s class, please contact me.

Students in the English History and Literature seminars: you are receiving credit for history and for literature in this seminar. This means that you are expected to complete between six and seven hours worth of work at home. (That’s less than an hour a day on each subject on days you don’t have class). This year we will be spending time at the beginning of each class to check the homework.

Students in AP courses: These subjects require diligence and an earnest commitment on your part. You can best begin your year by completing the summer assignments found with your book list.

All Latin students: Latin is like math in that you can’t afford to get behind in your assignments. It’s important, too, that you understand what you’re doing. If you don’t understand something covered during class, please ask.

Papers and projects: Because of the problems with essays delivered late in the past two years, I am instituting a new policy regarding papers and other projects collected in class. You must have these assignments to me on the day due. I won’t be taking any late papers this year except in cases of extended illness. This means that if you don’t bring the paper you’ll receive a failing grade for it. To compensate, I will at the end of the semester drop your lowest mark from the grade book--a paper, a quiz, whatever the project. This policy doesn’t apply to any final exams or the major papers written by different classes in the spring.

I had mentioned in May that Latin students might wish to get together for some light review over the summer. I’ll send some times for get-togethers later this week.

I’m looking forward to a good year, though the summer looks good too right now. J

Best wishes,

Mr. Minick

Asheville Latin Seminars Book List 2012--2013

Below are the book lists by class for the coming academic year. Nearly all of these books may be ordered from Amazon or from second-hand dealers online--abebooks.com has always worked for me--for a fraction of their original cost. Others are Dover Books, which generally run under $3 per book. Books with an ISBN should be ordered by that number. Books without an ISBN beside them may be ordered in any complete edition. THIS IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT FOR THE AP BOOKS.

Please be sure to read all the pages below connected with your particular class. This book list will also be posted on ashevillelatinseminars.blogspot.com. Summer assignments are posted below each seminar.

Books for Latin Seminars

Latin I
Henle Latin First Year(0829410260)
Henle Grammar (978-0-8294-0112-7)
Eyewitness Books--Ancient Rome (DK Publishers) A number of copies at $1 apiece are available on abebooks.com.

Summer reading: Go online or visit your local library, and read about the Romans. Learn about their family life, their social customs, their government, their gods, and whatever else strikes your fancy. You will be studying an ancient language, a language known to Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Thomas Jefferson, and millions of others. Learn something about the people who first spoke and wrote Latin. Please bring the titles of the books or the online articles you read to the first class.

Latin II
Henle Latin First Year and Henle Grammar (You already own these books).

Summer assignment: Know the vocabulary lists on pages 91--98 and pages 217--220 in Henle Latin. Review the declensions and conjugations learned in first-year Latin. We are three months away from our next class, so be sure to review this summer. You must know these by heart when class begins. Be sure to know the principal parts of the verbs.

Latin III
Latin for Americans (provided in-class)
Wheelock’s Latin (provided in-class)
Latin Third and Fourth Years (O-87720-558-2) This is an old ISBN, but the author is Charles Freundlich. You may order either the workbook or the book. Both versions contain the same material.

Summer assignments: Memorize the vocabulary lists from Henle Latin: pages 91--98, 217--220, and 217--220. Review all the declensions and conjugations covered in class. Bring your Henle books to the first class.

Advanced Placement Latin
The AP Latin test has changed. You may find the books at Amazon, but you can find the paperbacks by Googling Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. When you go the Bolchazy website, you will find the two books prominently displayed. These are your texts for the year. We’ll get the workbooks when they become available. Beneath the photographs of those books you will find the new requirements for the AP. Read those requirements and then order these books:
Caesar (ISBN 978-0-86515-752-0)
Virgil’s Aeneid (ISBN 978-0-86515-764-3)
You will also need in English: The Aeneid (English translation by Mandelbaum or Fagles)

Summer assignment: Begin by reading The Aeneid in its entirety in English. I will send you a vocabulary list from the Bolchazy books when my own books arrive.

BOOKS FOR 3Rs I and Summer Reading
Writer’s Inc. (You will not only use this resource book this year, but in the following years if you continue to take my seminars. The ISBN on my own book is 978-0-669-47186-1. You may order the edition before this one if it’s less expensive. Both can be found at abebooks and Amazon).
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (ISBN 0-89870-716-1) We will use this book this year and in next year’s 3Rs II class.
The Bible (Any edition that maintains some splendor of language is acceptable. The KJV, the Douay-Reims, the RSV: all will serve nicely).
The Hobbit
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Parker
Captains Courageous (Kipling)
Gift of the Magi (ISBN 0-486-27061-0) Please buy this book by the ISBN. It has the stories we’ll be reading. We’ll also be annotating the book as part of the assignment.
Animal Farm (Orwell)
Watership Down (Adams)
Macbeth (any complete edition)

Summer reading assignment: Go to the public library or a bookstore, and select two appropriate books you have never read. Read the books. Bring the books to class. You’ll be discussing them and writing about them on the first day of class.

Books for 3Rs II and Summer Reading
Writer’s Inc. (see notes in 3Rs I)
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (see notes in 3Rs I)
The Bible (see notes in 3Rs I)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (ISBN 0486266585) We will be writing in this book. If you don’t want to get this edition--it’s from Dover Publications and quite cheap--please buy an inexpensive copy. Macbeth (Shakespeare: any complete edition)
The Yearling (Rawlings)
To Kill A Mockingbird (Lee)
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
Till We Have Faces (author: C.S. Lewis)
All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) Do not buy the omnibus edition of Herriot’s book; it apparently deletes some of the stories.

Summer reading assignment: Go to the public library and select two appropriate books you have never read. Read the books. Bring the books to class. You’ll be discussing them and writing about them on the first day of class.
Books for English History and Literature and Summer Reading
The History of the Kings and Queens of England (ISBN 9780520224605)
Prentice-Hall Literature: The English Tradition (0136917003) Get this exact edition. You can find numerous copies for under $4 on abebooks.com.
Great Tales from English History by Robert Lacey
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Man Who Would Be King (Dover edition. ISBN 0486280519. Please order this edition. It has the stories we need, and we will be writing in the book)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien edition: ISBN 0345277600)
Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

Summer assignment: You’ll take a trip to the English countryside with Three Men In A Boat. This novel is a gem of writing, observation, and humor. Finish the book before we begin in August and bring it to class.

AP Book List and Summer Reading
Note to AP students, particularly to those in literature: You must have the correct edition of the books. Several--the Norton Critical Editions--contain important essays and notes. We use the books in class and must reference page numbers. You’ll slow the class down by using a different edition.

AP English Literature and Summer Reading
Literature 0316488763 (Used. Third Edition. X.J. Kennedy, editor)
Barron’s AP English Literature and Composition (2012 or 2013 edition)
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
The Power and The Glory 0142437301
Wuthering Heights 0393978893 (You must have this edition).
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sound and the Fury 0393964817 (You must have this edition).
Hamlet (any edition with adequate notes will do. The Folger editions are good, but there are others out there equally fine).
Plays and poems (contained in our textbook, Literature)

Summer reading assignment: Read a novel which is new to you and which has literary merit. You will need to determine what “literary merit” means. Hints: you can find lists of classics and modern novels online. Google “100 Great Novels” and you’ll find yourself on the way. You can also Google “AP English Literature Reading List” and see what pops up. Finally, you can find a “Summer Reading” table at Barnes and Noble. Bring the novel to the first class and be prepared to write a short essay on it.

AP Composition and Summer Reading
Barron’s AP Composition and Literature (2012 or 2013 edition)
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style
The Norton Book of Personal Essays (editor: Joseph Epstein)
Lost in the Cosmos (Walker Percy)
An Education for Our Time (Bunting)
Orthodoxy (G.K. Chesterton)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion)
Three Men In A Boat (Jerome)
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman (Feynman)
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Assigned essays old and new from the internet

Summer reading assignment: Read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman and one other non-fiction book of your choice not found on the above list. Bring both books to the first class. You’ll be writing about the books in that class.

AP European History
AP Achiever for European History (ISBN 978-0073256726. Author: Chris Freiler)
History of Western Society (ISBN 0618270744. Authors: McKay, Hill, Buckler)
Weekly Internet sources and assignments. Of particular value will be historyteacher.net.
A World Lit By Fire (William Manchester)

Summer reading assignment: Read William Manchester’s A World Lit Only By Fire. Manchester was a fine writer--his books on the death of John F. Kennedy and on Churchill’s early life are the only two nonfiction books about which I have dreamed (and in Technicolor, yet). This particular book, however, takes Manchester away from twentieth century history. It was a best-seller, and if you look online at AP summer reading lists, you will find it recommended more than any other book. In the opinion of your teacher, these recommendations are undeserved. A World Lit Only By Fire is deeply flawed history. His prejudices are apparent. (Questions to help you begin your analysis: What Manchester think about the Middle Ages? The Catholic Church? Christianity in general? Does he sensationalize his writing? Does he take a particular event and turn it into a general fact?) Your assignment is to read the book and then draw up a two-column list giving the strengths and weaknesses of the book. (You’ll want to do this as you read). Beside each entry on the list you will need to document your point with page numbers. You don’t need to list every strength or weakness in the book, just some points with pertinent page numbers.