AP English Literature & Composition Syllabus Prerequisite courses

AP English Literature & Composition Syllabus

Prerequisite courses:

 Students must successfully complete (final average of 87% or better) accelerated

coursework in both 10

and 11

grades in order to be eligible to take AP

English Literature & Composition in their senior year.

 Accelerated English 11 is an American Literature survey course that includes, but

is not limited to, such works as:

o The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

o The Crucible by Arthur Miller

o The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

o A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

o The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

o Various excerpts from essays and short stories as well as poetry from

Whitman, Bryant, Poe and other representational American poets

Course Overview:

 During the course of the year students may expect to write 3-4 papers (3–6 pages

each) outside of class, 5-10 in-class essays (rhetorical or literary analysis), 1

literary research paper (8-12 pages) outside of class and a variety of quiz/short

test assignments per quarter. My comments on all papers encourage students to

vary sentence length and structure. I point out particularly well constructed

phrases and apt word choices, subtle and appropriate transition statements,

effective use of rhetoric to establish voice, and original illustrative details.

 A strategy I use to allow students to have their papers returned as quickly as

possible is to divide my AP students into four groups. I then set four due dates

for each paper stretched over a two week period, which usually allows all

students to get their papers back within three to ten days.

 Students are prepared for the AP English Literature and Composition Exam using

released practice exams as well as resources from Applied Practice for each

novel/ drama read in class.

 Students are regularly quizzed on and practice with literary terms most

commonly found on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam.

 This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in

the AP English Course

Performance Tasks:

• Timed in class essays based on past AP prompts and Applied Practice literature

specific prompts

• Essay questions as required of college-level writers

• Reading/responding to/analyzing novels, drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry

• Literary analysis papers—expository and persuasive

• Personal essay

• Reading journal for all reading assignments throughout the year, the journal consists

of: reflections on reading, unfamiliar vocabulary encountered, predictions, confusing or

unclear literary elements, analysis/ judgment, important quotations, general impressions

• Weekly literary terms quizzes

• Quarterly oral presentations in the form of analysis and interpretation of literature

and poetry.

Course Planner/Student Activities

Topic/Unit: Critical reading and literary analysis

Summer Assignment

Prior to the beginning of the school year, students are required to choose and read

three works of recognized literary merit from options provided by the instructor

(Appendix A). Works are found in three categories: works published since 1980;

twentieth century works and classics read and taught in other junior/ senior accelerated

courses. While reading, students are required to complete a four page data analysis on

each piece of literature to ensure close, critical reading skills encouraging varied

approaches such as biographical, formalistic, gender, archetypal, psychological and

deconstructivist.

Topic/Unit: Responding to literature and personal essay

Approximate # of weeks: 2

After a few days of informal discussion of the summer reading, students begin the year

by writing an in class timed essay, from a past AP prompt, using one of their three

summer readings. This assignment is followed by a careful examination of the AP

writing rubric used throughout the year and practice in composing effective thesis

statements and applying logical organization in essays. The essays are then peer

evaluated so that students may practice applying the rubric standards to authentic

writing samples. The instructor will also evaluate the essays and include comments ad

suggestions addressing style, tone, voice and structure. The unit is completed by having

students submit college application personal essays. Both types of essays are then

reviewed in face to face conferences with the instructor. Students are permitted and

encouraged to revise and resubmit essays for reevaluation.

Topic/Unit: Poetry

Approximate # of weeks: studied regularly throughout the year with a 3 week

concentration in the spring semester

Students use Michael Meyer’s Poetry: An Introduction for reading assignments and for

poems read and discussed in class. Some of these poems have appeared in past AP

Exams. Students will also keep a poetry-reading journal, where they will record initial

questions, impressions, and responses to the poems they are reading. For the short

paper assignment on poetry, students must select a poem from the text or one of their

own choosing and they are to write a commentary in which they make judgments

about the work’s artistry and quality. In order to do this, students will need to

determine the poet’s tone/ attitude or purpose for this selection and then discuss the

poetic devices the poet uses to achieve this purpose. They are to refer liberally to the

selection (poem) using quotes from the text.

Topic/Unit: The Tragic Figure in Victorian/ Gothic Literature

Approximate # of Weeks: 5

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë

Prior to beginning reading, students randomly select topics for concentration while

reading the novel that will become the focus of post reading oral presentations/

discussions (topics range from elements of Victorian and Gothic Literature to Bronte’s

characterization to the author’s use of changing points of view). Regular class

discussion derived from students’ reading journal notes and questions dominates class

time. There is an objective test of comprehension of plot and character at the end of

the reading assignment. After the test, students present their topics of concentration in

either a formal oral presentation format or an informal presentation followed by

student led class discussion of the topics. The unit is concluded with an in class essay

using an AP type prompt.

Topic/Unit: The Tragic Hero in Shakespeare

Approximate # of weeks 6

Hamlet

by William Shakespeare

In conjunction with reading, viewing and discussing the play, students work in small

groups (2-3) to study, analyze and focus on one of the primary soliloquies in the drama.

The culmination of the soliloquy assignment is to create a formal oral presentation that

includes memorization of 10-12 lines, establishes the purpose of the soliloquy in terms

of Hamlet’s character development, explicates the meaning of the language of the

soliloquy and describes the connection between the soliloquy and the play as a whole.

There is a comprehension test following the conclusion of the soliloquy presentations.

Topic/Unit: The Tragic Figure in Theatre of the Absurd

Approximate # of weeks: 3

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

by Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard’s play serves as useful follow up assignment to Shakespeare’s Hamlet since

it uses characters and plot events familiar to the students and presents a

comprehensible introduction to absurdist drama. The play, therefore, is read and

discussed in class in terms of its adherence to the genre as well as its variation in point

of view of Shakespeare’s drama.

Topic/Unit: The Tragic Hero in Russian Literature

Approximate # of weeks: 7

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

As students read and study the novel, they are asked to consider the strong influences

from Dostoevsky’s own life (biographical literary approach) that are reflected in the

novel. Much of the study and discussion revolves around the social, political, and

religious climates portrayed. An emphasis is placed on applying a psychological critical

approach to the novel as a whole. Prior to beginning the actual reading assignments,

students are asked to lead discussions on one of six topics ranging from Dostoevsky’s

biography to the influence of Peter the Great on the Russia of Dostoevsky’s time.

After the Exam:

Topic/Unit: The Tragic Figure in Victorian Literature

Approximate # of weeks: 4

The Mayor of Casterbridge

by Thomas Hardy

This novel is generally read and taught after the AP exam and students are asked to

consider how Thomas Hardy treats the classical principles of the tragic figure in his

19th century novel and to what extent do the mores of a particular

time period define the tragic condition? Through writing assignments and class

discussions, students will be able to show that they appreciate Hardy’s characterization

of Michael Henchard. They will also discuss how the element of fate

(or chance) works in leading to Henchard’s ultimate downfall.

Topic/Unit: Satire

Approximate # of weeks: 2

Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

Again, this assignment is after the AP exam. The class looks at and discussed modern

forms of satire. Students then read, question and discuss Swift’s “Proposal” and the

possible reactions and ramifications of its publication in 1729. They then form small

groups in which they create their own satirical solution to a current social, political or

economic issue. Student satires are presented orally for the class’s consideration and

discussion.

Student Evaluation:

In-class writing consisting of free-response questions taken from past AP Exams

I grade the free-response questions anonymously and holistically, using AP specific

rubrics. Many of the essays are then peer evaluated to give students a clearer view of

the elements required for a high scoring essay.

Tests on books consist of passage-identification questions, true/ false, matching and

multiple choice types of items. Quizzes on the literary terms found most often on the

AP exam.

Papers prepared outside of class (3–6 typed pages) count more than essays

written in class with some grade consideration for properly using internal and external

citations. One paper is an analytical essay of a prose passage that requires the student

to claim and defend the author’s purpose or tone using textual details for support. The

research paper, based on a novel – British, World, or American Literature of “recognized

literary merit” – of the student’s choice (8 - 12 typed pages) is equal to two short papers.

I use portions of the multiple-choice sections of past AP Exams and multiple-

choice questions from Applied Practice as completion and quiz grades.

Methods of assessment/ evaluation:

Quizzes

Tests

Oral presentations

Student led discussions

Participation in critical discussion

In-class writing (literary analyses of works read for class)

Papers prepared outside of class (two research based and two analyses of author’s/ poet’s

purpose and style)

Teacher Resources:

Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Boston: Back Bay Books, 1998.

Web Sites

AP Central® – apcentral.collegeboard.com

Bedford/ St. Martins http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com

Appendix A

2013 - 2014 AP English class summer reading:

You are required to read three (3) novels/ dramas over the summer. Choose one (1) literary

work from each of the three categories. (Choose one you have not read from the literature class

selections.) For each piece read, you must complete one of the included data packets that will be

due the first day of class in the fall. Remember, failure to complete the reading or the data

packets will result in removal from the class.

Category 1: Recent publications (since 1980)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Master Harold…and the boys by Athol Fugard

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Beloved by Toni Morrison

________________________________________________________________________

Category 2: Twentieth Century publications

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man by James Joyce

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

________________________________________________________________________

Category 3: Selections from Accelerated English 11 curriculum

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

Washington Square by Henry James

Far From the Madding Crowd by

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

As we begin the semester, you should feel free to schedule a reading/ writing conference anytime

you need to discuss an assignment.

It is advisable that, during the summer, you not read the works that we may read in class. We

may read the following:

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Hamlet (and possibly MacBeth) by William Shakespeare

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad