Download Syllabus AP Lit and Comp 2010-2011

Advanced Placement Literature & Composition
General Course Description & Syllabus
2010-2011
Instructor: Mrs. Linda Robinson
Texts: The Norton Introduction to Literature – 9th Edition
The Seagull Reader – Essays
Readings in World Literature – Holt, Rinehart, Winston
AP students in English Literature and Composition will be involved in the study and
practice of writing as well as in the study of literature. You will learn to use the modes of discourse
and to recognize the assumptions underlying various rhetorical strategies. Through speaking,
listening, and reading, but chiefly through the experience of your own writing, you should become
more aware of the resources of language: connotation, metaphor, irony, syntax, and tone.
Writing assignments will focus on the critical analysis of literature and will include essays in
exposition and argument. Although critical analysis should make up the bulk of student writing for
this course, well-constructed creative writing assignments may help you see from the inside how
literature is written. The desired goals are the honest and effective use of language and the
organization of ideas in a clear, coherent, and persuasive way.
Reading in translation may be included, but because the course should stress close attention
to an author’s own language and style, most of the assigned reading will be in texts originally
written in English. By the end of the AP course, you will have studied works by both British and
American writers as well as works composed from the seventh century to contemporary times. You
will read works of recognized literary merit that are likely to be taught in an introductory college
literature course, works that are worthy of scrutiny because their richness of thought and language
challenges the reader.
All these components of the AP course will not be complete without actual practice of AP
exams-both multiple choice and writing. You will practice and practice and practice on both tests to
prepare for the test in May. Questions on the multiple choice are tough, but practice, instruction,
guidance, and strategies make them manageable. Therefore, the course is designed toward the
serious student who is interested in receiving college credit for work completed in high school. We
have a rigorous task, but we will succeed!!!
The AP Exam, which is three hours long, consists of two sections:
 Section I – 60 minutes long; contains 50-60 multiple-choice questions that test your
reading of selected passages and poem. Counts for 45 percent of the total AP grade.
 Section II – 120 minutes long; contains three response questions that measure your
ability to read and interpret literature and to use other forms of discourse effectively.
Counts for 55 percent of the total grade. One question typically will ask you to
analyze a poem, one a prose passage, and one a longer work such as a novel or play.
Reference: Information taken from College Board Course Description
Overall Objectives for the Course:
Writing is an integral part of this college preparatory course, focusing on the critical analysis
of literature and including expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Successful students
will achieve the following:
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a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail
a logical organization enhanced by techniques like transition, repetition and
emphasis
a variety of sentence structures
a wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative
resourcefulness
an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent
voice and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis.
Literary Analysis Objectives:
 to enable students to analyze poems, short stories, nonfiction, drama, and novels
independently
 to equip students to write effective critical analyses
 to enable students to complete well-written, timed compositions on impromptu
subjects
 to have students probe theme as they are evidenced in a variety of works
 to enable students to synthesize treatments of specific themes
Syllabus
Before we begin our units for the school year, we will discuss the summer reading
assignments and review the structure, figurative language, critical analysis, etc. of each novel.
Unit I Anglo –Saxon & Middle Ages- Medieval Period
Objectives:
 understand the origins of English culture and language
 discuss the cultural values of the Anglo-Saxon and Middle Ages
 expand the concept of the hero to explore the symbolic implications of the heroic
contest
 examine the conceptual evolution of the hero
 study chivalry and knighthood
 compare and contrast the heroes of medieval times with those of the present day
 analyzing the epic
 reviewing and introducing literary terminology
Readings:
excerpt from Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel
The Seafarer translated by Burton Raffel
from Le Morte D’Arthur Sir Thomas Malory
excerpt from Gilamesh retold by Herbert Mason
Homer - Illiad
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Unit II - Renaissance
Objectives:
 examine historical and cultural background of the Elizabethan Era
 relate the word renaissance to the modern literature such as American Renaissance
and Harlem Renaissance (works)
 study the development of the English Drama in the Elizabethan Period
 analyze the typical Shakespearean devices
 examine structural patterns of Shakespearean plays- dramatic structure, tragic
structure, parallel characters or foils, recurring motifs and other devices
 to compare the tragic hero to epic and modern heroes
 analyze the structure of sonnet forms, conceits and use of tone
 to expand the knowledge of the essay and the rhetorical devices
 understand metaphysical poetry and satirical prose and poetry
 introduce and discuss types of novels
Readings:
Macbeth/ Hamlet-William Shakepeare
Of Studies – Sir Francis Bacon
Poems from authors – William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Christopher
Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh
Metaphysical Poets - John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Ben Jonson,
Robert Herrick
from Paradise Lost- and other poems -John Milton
from The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
Unit III – Restoration and 18th Century
Objectives:
 study the terms, style and techniques of satire
 to analyze the methods used by different authors to create satire
 analyze a journal, diary and essays
 analyze the characteristics of a mock epic
 continuing to apply literary terms to works
Readings:
Novel- Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
“Modest Proposal” – Jonathan Swift
from “The Diary of Samuel Pepys” – Samuel Pepys
from “A Journal of the Plague Year” – Daniel Defoe
Poems and essays – Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Robert Burns, William Blake
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard –Thomas Gray
Unit IV – Romantic Age
Objectives:
 understand the Romantic Movement as a rebellion against Neoclassicism
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recognize Romanticism as a literary period in English literature and American
literature
identify the major authors, recurring themes, dominant genres and stylistic
characteristics of this period
introduce and relate the characteristics of the Romantic Period
discuss what the Romantics sought as well as to explore the limits of their own
freedom
Readings:
Novels – Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and other poems- William Wordsworth
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and other poems – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Dream Children” – Charles Lamb
Poems – George Gordon, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats
Article – Charles Dickens
Unit V – Victorian Age
Objectives:
 identify and analyze the techniques of this period
 analyze and interpret Victorian attitudes toward recurring philosophical concerns
such as aesthetics, death and immortality, religious faith and nature
 examine some of the 19th century radical ideas and concepts
Readings:
Poems – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Hardy, A.E.
Housman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
“The Three Strangers” – Thomas Hardy
Unit VI – The Modern Age
Objectives:
 identify , analyze and interpret traditional and innovative narrative techniques and
stylistic elements of this time period
 elaborate on short story techniques and then apply to works
 integrate the role of women and minority writers
 introduce and apply the characteristics of Modernism
Readings:
Novels: Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
The Secret Sharer – Joseph Conrad
from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
Hollow Men- T.S. Eliot
The Metamorphosis and other Stories -Franz Kafka
Short stories and /or poems- H.G. Wells, Saki, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Margaret Atwood,
Henry Reed, Somerset Maugham, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, William Butler Yeats
Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker
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VII. Review
Writing Assignments (throughout the year for each unit):
Comparative analysis of two poems each unit
Research project options that extend the text into other genres, content areas, and environments
Explication of poems
Impromptu in-class essays based on particular selections
Timed essays based on past AP prompts
Persuasive literary analysis essay
Expository and analytical essays based on interpretation of a literary text
Critical essays based on analysis of structure, themes, style, figurative language, imagery,
symbolism and social/historical values/perspectives
Activities:
Practice for AP multiple choice on essays, poems, short stories
Mini-lessons on grammar – sentence structure, usage, transitions, punctuation, sentence variety
Tips on how to answer AP prompts using writing rubrics as a guide
Quizzes on reading comprehension throughout novels/play
Tests on completion of novels and plays
Reviewing and conferencing with students about writing assignments
Detail evaluation on papers/ writing assignments
Analysis of a short story through oral presentation
Analysis of novel through oral presentation
Group critiquing of novels read throughout high school
Oral presentations w/ visuals on topics related to various literary periods
Other Requirements:
You will keep a literary terminology notebook section throughout the school year. This notebook
should be kept up-to-date with new terms as given. This will help you to learn and be able to apply
the terms to writing assignments, class discussions and finally to the AP test.
You will also be required to read other novels outside of class and then critique the novel orally or
in a written assignment according to a specified rubric.
Independent Reading Suggestions
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Bible as Literature
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
Beloved- Toni Morrison
A Winter’s Tale – William Shakespeare
House of the Spirits- Isabel Allende
Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinder
Tess of the D’ Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Waiting for Godot- Samuel Beckett
A Doll House – Henrik Ibsen
The Joy Luck Club- Amy Tan
Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
Pudd’n Head Wilson- Mark Twain
O Pioneers – Willa Cather
The Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain
Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
The Island of Dr. Moreau- H.G. Wells
The Women of Brewster Place- GloriaNaylor
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
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Other resource materials
Arp, Thomas.Perrine’s Literature – 9th edition. Harcourt, Brace. College Publishers. 2000.
Glenn, Cheryl and Robert Miller.eds. The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook –2nd edition- eds.
Thomson-Wadsworth. 1998.
Glenn, Cheryl and Robert Miller. eds. Hodge Harbrace Handbook- 15th edition. Gray.Thomson
Wadsworth. 2003.
McHenry, Robert. Famous American Women- A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times
to the Present. New York. 1999.
Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Allusions. Elizabeth Webber and Mike Feinsilber. MerriamWebster, Inc. Massachusetts. 1999.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature-7th edition. 2004.
Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. 2005
Prentice Hall Literature – World Masterpieces
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing About Literature. 9th Editions .Prentice Hall. New Jersey. 1999.
Ross, Murfin and Supryia M. Ray, ed. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.
Boston Bedford/St. Martin. 1998.
Schwiebert, John. Reading and Writing from Literature – 2nd edition. Houghton Mifflin Company.
1998.