Mr. Antonietti's English I Honors
Read, Write, Analyze
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Mark Antonietti Mount Carmel High School English I honors summer reading assignment Summer 2008
IMPORTANT: Upon receipt of this assignment, dial 773-324-1020, EXT 235.You will get my voice mail. State your name, phone number and email address if you have one. Indicate that you have received the assignment.
You will be reading JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit and completing this study guide as your first assignment for Honors English I. Get a copy at a used book store or public library. This story is all about facing new challenges and taking chances. The characters embark on an arduous journey, forming friendships and alliances, using skill, magic and a little luck, and winning a great treasure.
Format: Start with a heading. Type it double spaced along the top of the left side of the first page:
Your name
Honors English I
Mr. Antonietti
September 1, 2007
Next, begin with the entries. Each entry should start with a chapter number and title of the chapter. Journal entries should be half-page writings (minimum 8 lines double-spaced, typed), so go into detail and explain your answers. Then, write the number of the question and answer each question provided using complete sentences and details from the text to support your answer. When you are asked to interpret a passage provided on the study guide, simply write anything that you thought about the passage’s meaning or significance with four to six lines.
Here is an abbreviated sample showing a journal entry, an answer to a question, and an interpretation:
Chapter 1: “An Unexpected Party”
Journal: Whenever I get free time around the house I usually relax by playing with my kids. We will go into the living room and play hide-and-go-seek or read a book. I also enjoy playing games on my computer. I seem to be addicted to free cell lately. The problem-solving and ability to be in control of an unimportant situation that occupies my mind is pretty desirable in a world where there are so many important things to do. The other thing I do to relax around the house is work outside on our lawn and garden. The woman who lived in our house before we moved in was an avid gardener and so there is always some weeding or cutting or mowing to do. I can veg out and think about nothing when I’m working outside.
1.) The word that I would use to describe Bilbo’s lifestyle is tranquil. He enjoys smoking his pipe and sitting around in his comfortable house and not getting into any trouble.
2.) INTERPRETATION: This passage is interesting to me because it seems like the narrator isn’t just writing a story. Rather, he is speaking to me. He addresses me personally by saying “you.” The passage also gets my interest by foreshadowing the fact that something will happen but keeping it a mystery as to what that actually is.
THE HOBBIT STUDY GUIDE:
Prereading questions:
1.) What is the greatest adventure you have ever been on?
2.) Whom do you trust most for advice and why?
3.) What are you good at?
4.) What are you not very good at?
Chapter 1:
Journal: what do you do around the house in order to relax?
- Choose a word or phrase to describe Bilbo’s lifestyle and explain your choice.
- Choose a word or phrase to describe Thorin and explain your choice.
- What are three important details about the journey according to Thorin?
- Why bring Bilbo Baggins on the quest?
- INTERPRET: “He may have lost his neighbours’ respect, but he gained—well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.”
Chapter 2:
Journal: What’s the best trip you ever took? Explain.
- What is the key to victory over the trolls? Explain.
- INTERPRET: “Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.”
Chapter 3:
Journal: what are the keys to succeeding in high school? Explain why?
- Cite one passage form the text and that describes the setting. What mood does it portray to you and how?
- What are the names of the swords? List them and tell which name you like best and why.
- INTERPRET: “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a great deal of telling anyway.”
Chapter 4:
Journal: Who are the scary monsters in today’s world? Explain your choices.
- INTERPRET: “There were many paths that led up into those mountains, and many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends; and most of the passes were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. The dwarves and the hobbit, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass.”
Chapter 5:
Journal: What is your best character trait? Explain why.
- Read some of Gollum’s lines aloud in your best Gollum voice. (no writing necessary for this question)
- DON’T CHEAT: try to answer the riddles as you read them without looking ahead to the answers. (no writing necessary for this question)
- What is the most suspenseful passage in this chapter? Explain your choice.
- INTERPRET: “Suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.”
Chapter 6:
Journal: What are you afraid of? Why?
- Why are wargs scary?
- What is the key to escaping the wargs and goblins? Explain your choice.
- INTERPRET: “Eagles are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel.”
Chapter 7:
Journal: Whose advice do you trust and why?
- What would Beorn be like if he were a high school student? Activities, friends, etc)
- Predict: Will they heed Gandalf’s final words? Explain your prediction.
- INTERPRET: “There are no safe paths in this part of the world.”
Chapter 8:
Journal: create a name for a few favorite objects of yours like the names they have for swords. Explain the names.
- Close your eyes and have someone read paragraph one to you while you visualize it. Describe what you saw in your head.
- INTERPRET: “But at last, just when Bilbo felt that he could not lift his hand for a single stroke more, the spiders suddenly gave it up, and followed them no more, but went back disappointed to their dark colony.”
Chapter 9:
Journal: Is it ok to run from a fight? If yes, when? If no, why not? Have you ever? Describe if you have.
- INTERPRET: “But of course, as you have guessed, he did rescue his friends in the end, and this is how it happened.”
Chapter 10-19:
Your turn. For each chapter:
- Develop a journal topic that asks the reader to write about something connecting his or her life to the happenings in the chapter
- Create two questions about the chapter. Make sure your questions don’t have simple one-word answers.
- Choose a passage for the reader to INTERPRET. Type out the passage as a direct quote.
You need not answer your own study guide questions for chapters 10-19. Simply write a study guide as I did for the first chapters, only remember to double spaced yours.
Happy hunting,
Mr. Antonietti