Incoming IB Juniors
Wichita East Junior IB World Lit 1
Summer Reading
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (ISBN: 9780593311295)
This text and the required work you do with it over the summer will be the foundation of the work we do in the first few weeks of the fall 2025 semester. You will read and annotate the novel and complete the assignments below by the first day of class. Klara and the Sun is a deeply reflective, quietly powerful work of speculative fiction that considers the intersection of humanity, love, loneliness, and artificial intelligence. I think you will enjoy this book, but I want you to remember this is an IB Curriculum text and may be used as the foundation for future IB assessments. You should read and reflect with care.
All texts for the 2025/2026 school year will be available for pre-order through Watermarks books at a discounted price. I may provide some texts, however, digitally; this will help keep costs low. That said, if finances are an issue for any of the texts assigned this year, please direct questions to the IB office at 973-7289 or let me know and I will direct you to the correct Administrator.
Pre-Reading: Sign Up for Summer 2025 CANVAS CLASS
I have created a special Summer Class on Canvas. You can access the course by signing up at https://usd259.instructure.com/enroll/ADR6NE
There is a copy of the assignment in the Class Modules. I have also uploaded resources and will use the space to answer questions. Please, do NOT turn your work in on the Summer Canvas Course. It is a temporary space, and I will not be grading anything that is placed in this electronic space. You will submit your work in person or, if you do it digitally, on the Fall 2025 Class Space.
Reading Expectations:
Read thoughtfully and reread when you find the need. Annotate as you read. Note anything that confuses, fascinates, or moves you. Ishiguro’s prose is deceptively simple—don’t mistake clarity for lack of complexity. Think about voice, symbolism, narration, and emotional nuance. You should also look up unfamiliar terms and references (particularly around AI, illness, and loneliness).
As you read, consider this guiding question:
“If a machine learns to understand us, love us, and serve us—does that make it one of us?”
I will be grading your annotation.
Assignment One: Thematic Issue Tracking
Choose 3 of the following topics to explore. Take handwritten or printed notes on loose-leaf paper (or printed, if typed)—one issue per page. At the top of each page, write the name of the text, identify your topic, and write your name. Track the issue through the novel, collecting:
- Brief summaries of moments where this issue surfaces
- Key quotations (with page numbers)
- Your reflections, questions, and ethical implications
- Any connections to real life, other texts, or current events
Choose from:
- Surveillance and observation
- Loneliness and isolation
- Hope, faith, and belief
- Artificial intelligence and consciousness
- The role of children in a society driven by productivity
- Health, illness, and human frailty
- The ethics of human enhancement
- What it means to love
- Discrimination and exclusion
- Human connection in a post-technological world
- You may add to this list
Your work should be your own, which means you should not use AI. If your work is flagged for AI use, you will receive a 0 on the assignment. Your goal is to create resources for future assessments; it does you no good if you are not doing the work.
Assignment Two: Big-Picture Responses
Please respond to each of the following questions. Start a new page for each response. Make sure you are fully addressing each question, providing evidence from the text, and explaining your reasoning thoroughly. Be mindful of how you paraphrase and quote from the text, and make sure you provide reasoning that connects the evidence to what you are claiming. You should have a strong ACES paragraph.
1. Klara is constantly watching, learning, and interpreting the human world—but she often misinterprets what she sees. What do these misunderstandings reveal about human behavior? In your opinion, is Klara more accurate or more flawed in her observations of us?
2. Josie’s parents, Rick, and others in the novel face enormous pressure to succeed in a society shaped by genetics and artificial assistance. What commentary is Ishiguro making about modern achievement culture and its cost? Do you agree?
3. Throughout the book, characters use Klara for their own purposes, sometimes with deep care and sometimes with cold practicality. In your opinion, does Klara ever become more than a machine? Support your claim with moments from the text. Would it be ethical to treat her like a person?
Assignment Three: Letter to Your Teacher
Write a letter to me in which you:
- Introduce yourself! Tell me something fun or important about who you are—think of something you think I will enjoy knowing or that you think I should know.
- Choose one theme, quotation, or issue from the novel that connected to your life or challenged your thinking. This doesn’t have to be one you wrote about above—but it can be.
- Reflect on what this connection means to you.
This is a personal narrative, of sorts, so consider TONE and AUDIENCE as you write. I am your audience—your “new to you” ELA teacher. I drink way too much coffee, kill every plant I touch (although I now have 4 plants in my classroom that are reluctantly living), read and write A LOT, and spend time with my family. It’s a minor miracle I have not choked on my own spit or laminated my children. I am an English teacher, but I am also a lawyer and a mom. I write in my free time and find myself to be more enthusiastic about crafting than I am accomplished. As you write, you will have to ride that fine line between using your own voice and a less formal tone with providing a letter that accomplishes a formal connection between you and the text. This letter should be personal and thoughtful but also show me your ability to reflect intellectually. Be yourself but consider your tone and audience.
Mail your letter to the following:
Jamie Smartt
c/o Wichita East High School
2301 E. Douglas Avenue
Wichita, KS 67211
Assignment 4: Grammar Review
Please visit www.khanacademy.org/join and enter the class code TZUSXKDW to access a series of grammar review lessons. While you're not required to complete every lesson, this resource is here to help you identify your strengths and target areas for improvement. Focus on the topics you find most challenging. This review will strengthen your writing skills and support your preparation for the PSAT and ACT. We’ll have follow-up activities and a grammar test once school begins.
About Academic Integrity
All work must be your own! You may not use ChatGPT or similar tools to help you analyze this text. Your insights, however imperfect or uncertain, are always better than a polished answer you didn’t think of yourself. Trust your brain.
We will discuss how and why we are moving away from AI-generated work in the fall. Remember: Klara would be very disappointed if you cheated.