Summer Reading for the 2022-2023 school year.

Dear Purple Knight Family, 

While the hot, summer months are a much needed intermission from daily school activities and lessons, this two month break often causes students to experience a lapse in learning when they return to school for the fall semester. This “summer slide” can result in students losing two to three months of reading proficiency. 

In an effort to lessen this effect, the St. Augustine High School English Department is requiring all students, incoming and returning, to read Marc Morial’s “The Gumbo Coalition” over the summer. 
 

The book is a non-fiction, step-by-step roadmap for anyone wanting to “learn what it takes to unite a team and accomplish a goal under strenuous circumstances without losing yourself or your values in the process.”

When the students return to school in August, they will be given a test on the basic information in the book. Study guides for this test will be provided to the students on the 1st day of class. It will serve as their first grade in English for the 2022-2023 school year. 

If a student chooses to earn extra credit for summer reading, he may do so in the form of creating a leadership proposal. In this proposal, students will outline a way to implement effective student leadership at St. Augustine High School. 

In the book, Marc Morial talks about having a 1-year plan to improve areas of the city that were most important to his administration (crime, youth engagement, etc.), and having an end goal in mind. We want the students to learn a lesson from this book, and use the step-by-step lessons that Morial details in a practical and tangible way. 

Extra credit will be offered to students who present a school-wide plan to improve on one (1) of the following areas:

• School Spirit
• Discipline and Culture
• Academic Excellence and Student Accountability  

Their detailed plan can be delivered in the form of a multimedia power point presentation. The plan must describe each step they will take to make these improvements over the course of a single school year, touching on the advice that Morial gives in the book. They must also include a way to involve other students, the faculty/staff, and parents. Their end goal must be clearly expressed in their presentation. The extra credit presentations must be submitted by Friday August 12, 2022. 

One student from each grade will be awarded a prize for the best proposal. 

In accordance with the "4-by-4" schedule,students taking English during the spring semester will take their summer reading test in that semester. Students will not know if they are taking English in the fall or spring semester until schedules are sent later this summer, everyone must read and this summer and take notes for studying purposes. The extra credit component will be due on August 12 for all students who wish to earn extra credit.

All other required books, based on grade-level English classes, will be announced this summer via email.

Be safe and enjoy the rest of the summer.