Download English Literature and Composition

AP English Literature and Composition
Course Syllabus
Course Overview and Expectations:
 My thematic organization for the year (“Quest for Power – Combating Stereotypes”)
is exciting and broad enough for students to understand the connection to each text
that we will be reading.
 Our year is divided into six thematic units which are developed around core texts and
accompanied by texts of shorter lengths and of various genres to include non-print
texts. In brief, each unit is a multi-genre study.
 Students should expect to develop and complete 3-4 papers (3-5 pages each) outside of
class, 3-5 in-class analysis papers, and a variety of quizzes/short test assignments to
include timed writes and practice multiple choice tests taken from prior AP exams per
semester.
 Students are never without a reading or writing assignment during the school year. My
goal is to prepare students for the Literature exam in May.
 Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of
texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire
new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace;
and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and
contemporary works.
 Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an
understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of
human experience.
 Students will actively read and take Cornell Notes to aid in understanding fiction as
social commentary.
Understandings:
Students will understand that:
• Literature provides a mirror to help us understand ourselves and others.
• Writing is a form of communication across the ages.
• Literature reflects the human condition.
• Literature deals with universal themes, i.e., man vs. man, man vs. nature, man
vs. self, man vs. God.
Essential Questions:
Aside from developing their own essential questions, students will discuss:
• How does literature help us understand ourselves and others?
• How has writing become a communication tool across the ages?
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• How does literature reflect the human condition?
• How does literature express universal themes?
Major concepts/content
AP English Literature and Composition is designed to be a college/university-level
course. This course will provide students with the intellectual challenges and workload
consistent with a typical undergraduate university English literature/Humanities course.
As a culmination to the course, students will take the AP English Literature and
Composition Exam given in May. A grade of 4 or 5 on this exam is considered equivalent
to a 3.3–4.0 for comparable courses at the college or university level. A student who
earns a grade of 3 or above on the exam will be granted college credit at most colleges
and universities throughout the United States.
Course Goals
1. To study representative works from various genres and periods (from the
sixteenth to the twentieth century) but know a few works extremely well.
2. To carefully read and critically analyze literature.
3. To understand a work’s complexity, to absorb richness of meaning, and to analyze
how meaning is embodied in literary form.
4. To consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller scale
elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.
5. To consider the social and historical values a work reflects and embodies.
6. To write focusing on critical analysis of literature including expository, analytical,
and argumentative essays as well as creative writing to sharpen understanding of
writers' accomplishments and deepen appreciation of literary artistry.
7. To become aware through speaking, listening, reading and chiefly writing of the
resources of language: connotation, metaphor, irony, syntax, and tone.
Required Texts and Materials
In the AP Literature and Composition course, the student should consider obtaining a
personal copy of the various novels, plays, epics, poems, and short fiction used in the
course. You may purchase copies from a local new or used bookstore, or from an online
book source.
If available, you may check out books from your school’s English Department. All titles
may also be found in the local library branches. Some of the works used can also be
accessed online.
Preliminary list of novels, dramas and anthologized material:
• Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
• Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
• A Doll House, Henrik Ibsen
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• Native Son, Richard Wright
• Othello, William Shakespeare
• Short Fiction, Essays, and Poetry—as selected from Perrine’s Literature—
Structure, Sound, and Sense – 9th Edition, Thomas R, Arp and Greg Johnson,
Editors
Performance Tasks:
 Timed essays based on past AP prompts
 Essay questions as required of college-level writers
 Reading/responding/analyzing novels, drama, fiction, non-fiction and poetry
 Imaginative writing includes but is not limited to: poetry and imitative
 Literary analysis papers—expository and persuasive
 Personal essay
 Graphic organizers, double-entry journals, paragraph responses, questions
 Students will create their own essential questions and use them in Socratic
Seminar and small groups to explore meaning by using textual support.
 Creative Book Project
Writing Expectations
As this is a literature and a composition course, students will be expected to use every
assignment that involves writing to practice their best composition skills. Composition
assignments will include: statements, paragraphs, timed writes (essay tests), and formal
essays (personal, expository and argumentative). No matter the kind of writing assigned,
students’ best composition skills should be practiced. We will work with various
composition constructions, Standard Written English, sentence variety, and word choice.
Pre-Course Assignment
• Actively read a novel from the AP reading list and be prepared to write your first
analytical essay during week 1.
Semester I
Unit 1:
“Some glad mornin’…I’ll fly away”
Core Novel: Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Short Stories and Excerpts:
 “The Myth of Daedelus and Icarus”
 Virginia Hamilton’s “The People Could Fly”
 Excerpt from Paule Marshall’s Praisesong For the Widow
Poetry: “To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph”
6 weeks
Essential questions: What does the term flight mean? Can the meaning differ depending
of the cultural or ethnic group? How does Morrison use this term as a culturally specific
key element in the text?
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Through class discussions and writing assignments, students will display the
ability to draw parallels and distinctions between the above listed texts. From their
evidence, students will determine and support meaning, the human condition, and cultural
relevance.
Unit Expectations:
Students will gain experience with:
 Creating their own essential questions
 Identifying and exploring symbols and other figurative
devices
 Socratic Seminar
 Close reading
 On-demand writing and evaluation with the use of a
scoring guide
 Outside analytical essay writing and student generated
scoring guide
Unit 2: Personal Essay for College Admission/Scholarship Application
2 Weeks
• Writers often use the personal reminiscence/personal essay/essay of experience
to state an opinion, explain a viewpoint, clarify the significance of a person or
event.
• The personal essay may take one of three forms: personal essay, personal
reminiscence, and essay of experience.
Unit Objectives
• Students will explore ideas about themselves to determine their topics for
writing.
• Students will understand and work with personal writing including but not
limited to anecdote, dialogue, details, language, syntax, and varied structures.
• Direct composition instruction on introduction/openings, voice, use of firstperson pronouns, apostrophe, and conventions
o Students will work with conventions of Standard Written English.
o Students will participate in peer editing, rewriting/revising
• Students will complete at least one personal essay for college admission.
Unit 3: Socially Created Monsters
9 Weeks
Novels:
Frankenstein, Shelley
Native Son, Wright
Non-Print: Political Cartoon from Spain, 1873
Non-fiction: The Lynching of Claude Neal
Short Story: “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”
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Essential Questions: Is rage inflicted upon society the result of social
abandonment/rejection/isolation? How does the creation of “a monster” parallel to the ills
within our society?
Unit Expectations
 Students will explore society as “Creator”
 Students will begin thinking about how society can impact human behavior
 Formal analysis/literary paper comparing and contrasting the tragic fate of both
protagonists in both core novels. Essay will be expository and analytical in nature.
Students will write, edit, and rewrite. Paper will emphasize imagery and dramatic
irony and will work with incorporating quotes, word choice, syntax and understanding
of the dialogue and details presented as support to writing. Direct composition
instruction: active verbs, clear viable thesis statement, incorporation of lines and
dialogue, conventions as necessary.
 Timed write on tragedy, including scoring guide.
 Student led Socratic Seminar – Social vs. Personal Responsibility
Semester II
Unit 4:Introduction to Poetry
4 Weeks
Text: Perrine’s Literature – Structure, Sound, and Sense – 9th Edition
Titles:
“My Mistress’ Eyes,” Williams Shakespeare
“Sonnet XV,” Edmund Spenser
“Ars Poetica,” Archibald MacLeish
“When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be,” by John Keats
“Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins
“The Author To Her Book,” Anne Bradstreet
“My Last Duchess,” Robert Browning
“Dream Deferred,” Langston Hughes
“Between the World and Me,” Richard Wright
Students will learn that:
• Reading poetry well means responding to it: if one responds on a feeling level,
he or she is likely to read more accurately, with deeper understanding, and with
greater pleasure.
• Reading poetry accurately, and with attention to detail, will enable one to
respond to it on an emotional level.
• Reading poetry involves conscious articulation through language and emotional
response very early on.
• Paying close attention to the text in poetry makes one appreciate, and
understand, texts and its possibilities.
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Unit Expectations:
Students will study and analyze poems from the Renaissance through the Civil Rights
era. In addition, students will practice with:
 Introduction: Essay of analysis. This essay is a literary analysis (expository)—Richard
Wright’s “Between the World and Me” including teacher model and rubric. Essay will
be shared in class and emphasis will include form, paraphrase, imagery, syntax, and
poetic language paying particular attention to SOAPS
 Ballads
 Sonnets—study and analyze multiple sonnets, write an original sonnet
 Dramatic Poetry
 Timed Write—literary analysis comparing and contrasting two poems including
samples and scoring guide, direct composition instruction: comparison and contrast,
and thesis statement
 Multiple-choice practice exams
Unit 5:
“To fit, or not to fit…”
4 Weeks
Core Text: A Doll House, Henrik Ibsen, taken from Perrine’s Literature—
Structure, Sound, and Sense
Short Story: “Cinderella,” Walt Disney
Poetry:
“Cinderella,” Anne Sexton
Essay:
“Cinderella’s Stepsisters,” Toni Morrison
Essential Questions: Does society continue to view women as “the weaker vessel?”
How should women be viewed? How does society reinforce the belief that men should
lead and women should follow?
Unit Expectations:
 Students will conduct a brief study on societal gender stereotypes through fiction,
some of which has been passed down through generations
 Students will continue to analyze symbolism used in fictional works and the social
impact of each
 In small groups, students will discuss the relevance of such stereotypes as they relate
to our society
 In small groups, students will create and present a symbols chart taken from the texts
and will discuss the relevance of each symbol as it relates to the work overall.
 Students will write a comparison paper using A Doll House and one of the other three
texts
Unit 6:“Jealousy is as cruel as the grave…”
6 Weeks
Core Text: Othello, the Moor of Venice, taken from Perrine’s Literature—
Structure, Sound, and Sense
Poem: “Porphyria’s Lover,” Robert Browning
Film: Othello, starring Lawrence Fishbourne
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Essential Questions: Is it safe to say that society is becoming more accepting of
interracial couples? Can society cause those in interracial relationships to experience
jealousy and rage? How is jealousy as cruel as the grave? Who should we blame for
Desdemona’s death? How would you characterize Othello (the character)?
Unit Expectations:
 This study addresses Othello as a tragic hero
 We will study Shakespeare’s language, form, and function of tragedy
 We will have a student led Socratic seminar on the correlation between Othello and
our societal views of stereotypes and racism
 Literary analysis paper
AP Exam
After the Exam
During the period after the AP Exam, students will complete a Creative Book Project.
This book allows students to continue to develop as writers, both creatively and
analytically. It will include texts and images. It is a blank canvas that students will create
a picture of themselves from times past, present, and future.
Special Note:
In class writing consists of two types: free-response questions taken from past AP exams
and tests that I create based on books we read as a class. Tests on books consist of
passage identification to include say/mean/matter, short answer questions, and one essay
(based on questions students are likely to see on the AP Exam).
Papers prepared outside of class weigh more than essays written in class. The research
paper is equal to two papers.
I use portions of the multiple choice sections of past AP exams. I also quiz students
periodically on their reading, using passage-identification and short answers.
Percentage Breakdown:
Quizzes
Creative Book Project
Essays, Tests
10%
20%
70%
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