Major concepts/content

AP^® English Literature and Composition is designed to be a college/university-level course, thus the “AP” designation on a transcript rather than “H” (Honors) or “CP” (College Prep). This course will provide you with the intellectual challenges and workload consistent with a typical undergraduate university English literature/Humanities course. As a culmination to the course, you will take the AP English Literature and Composition Exam given in May (required). 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 carefully read and critically analyze imaginative literature.

2. To understand the way writers use language to provide meaning and pleasure.

3. 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.

4. To study representative works from various genres and periods (from the sixteenth to the twentieth century) but know a few works extremely well.

5. To understand a work’s complexity, to absorb richness of meaning, and to analyze how meaning is embodied in literary form.

6. To consider the social and historical values a work reflects and embodies.

7. 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.

8. 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, drama and anthologized material:

The Dead, Joyce
The Tragedy of Hamlet Price of Denmark, Shakespeare
Heart of Darkness, Conrad
Death of a Salesman, Miller
Oedipus Tyrannus, Sophocles [please use selected translation]
Short fiction and essays—as selected
Poetry—as selected
Modern novels—as selected

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 including but not limited to: poetry, imitative structures
Literary analysis Papers—expository and persuasive
Personal essay
Graphic organizers, double-entry journals, paragraph responses, questions

Course Syllabus

Writing Expectations

As this is a literature and a composition course, you will be expected to use every assignment that involves writing to practice your 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, your best composition skills should be practiced. We will work with various composition constructions, Standard Written English, sentence variety, and word choice.

1. When an assignment calls for a “paragraph” please check your work against the paragraph criteria below:

	Stand-Alone Paragraph Evaluation Criteria Use these criteria to evaluate paragraphs that are not part of a longer piece of writing.
	1. The first, second, or last sentence contains the main idea and key words from the question or assigned topic. (The first sentence is usually preferable.)
	2. Paragraph contains one to three explanatory sentences.
	3. Paragraph contains two to four sentences about specific details.
	4. Details are colorful, interesting, and appropriate.
	5. Paragraph ends with a good closing sentence that refers to the main idea without repeating it.
	6. Paragraph contains no run-ons or sentence fragments.
	7. Paragraph is free of errors in agreement. A. Subject/verb—singular or plural, B. Pronoun selection correct—singular or plural C. Pronoun selection correct—subject or object
	8. Free of punctuation errors.
	9. Free of spelling errors.
	10. Free of punctuation errors.
	11. Handwriting is easy to read.

2. Many times you will be asked for your opinion or idea about an aspect of a work of literature. You will post these to a discussion board. Please use complete sentences with clear support for your ideas.

3. All assignments for formal papers will include a specific grading rubric. We will go over the rubrics prior to submitting papers and review expectations for the particular composition or paper. Please consult each rubric carefully before submitting your work. Chapters from Roberts, Edgar V. Writing About Literature (9th edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999) will supplement composition instruction. You will be expected to rewrite larger papers and literary analysis after you receive feedback.

4. Timed writes (essay tests) will present a scoring guide as feedback. These will be scoring guides as used by the AP English Literature and Composition Exam for that specific question. Essay tests will need to be typed directly into the test blank online. Do not type an essay onto a word document and then cut and paste it into the answer space.

5. Grammar and usage: As a senior in an AP English Literature and Composition course, you should have a good command of Standard Written English. There will be mini lessons throughout the course dealing with complex grammar and usage issues, sentence constructions, and diction. Occasionally you may need some additional help with this.

There are many good online guides to grammar. The link below is one such guide. Please consult this guide or a writing handbook for grammar problems. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

Unit 1: Genre Study

3 Weeks

What does the term genre mean?

Genre: A category of literary work. In critical theory, genre may refer to both the content of a given work—tragedy, comedy, pastoral—and to its form, such as poetry, novel, or drama. This term also refers to types of popular literature, as in the genres of science fiction or the detective story.

What are the different genres of literature?

There are many ways we might answer this question. The basic types or larger components of literature, however, can be grouped into categories, including novel, short fiction, poetry, drama, and epic.

How does a writer of poetry and prose craft a work of literary merit?

Contrary to the opinion of many of my former students, works of fabulous imagination seldom fall from the sky. Writers of great literature are “technicians of their form,” that is, they use all the tools of literary technique, language and style to enhance their works.

What sort of writing skill will an AP student need to acquire in order to be successful in this class and in college?

Your goal will be to emulate the masters of the English language and to become “technicians,“ employing all the tools of literary technique, language, and style.

Unit Expectations: Students will gain experience with:

Close reading of fiction, drama, poetry
Composition instruction (see writing expectations):

On-demand writing—experience with timed writing about prose—complex characterization, figurative language, resources of language
Evaluation of on-demand writing--working with a scoring guide
Paragraph writing, short answers, graphic organizers

Literary terms and techniques
Elements of literature including novel, short story, and drama

Novel: The Dead, James Joyce

Non-fiction: Introduction to Frankenstein

Short Story: “A Jury of Her Peers”

Drama: Trifles

Poetry: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

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, and 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 first-person pronouns, apostrophe, and conventions

Students will work with conventions of Standard Written English.
Students will participate in peer editing, rewriting/revising

Students will complete at least one personal essay for college admission.

Unit 3: Classic and Modern Tragedy 4 Weeks

World Literature in Translation: National Standards

· 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.

Aristotle: Tragedy

Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus

· Oedipus Tyrannus is a discussion of the conflict between faith and doubt. Oedipus represents any of us who wrestle with our own problems of faith and doubt; he represents all our hopes and our fears.

· Sophocles wanted Oedipus to teach that man’s confidence in his own ability is an illusion if he abandons the idea of a higher power.

· This play seeks truth about the cosmos. Every detail of Oedipus Tyrannus is contrived so as to reinforce the conception of order disturbed and order restored.

· Knowledge comes through suffering.

· It was not going to happen because it was foretold. It was foretold because it was going to happen. Character is Fate.

Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman

Modern playwrights have interpreted Aristotle’s definition to include humankind's perception of the universal human lot. The primary amendments made by modern playwrights are that the tragic hero need not be high born, not that the language of the play be verse. In his essay entitled “Tragedy and the Common Man.” Arthur Miller asserts that he believes “that the common man is an apt subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.”

Unit Expectations

a) Active reading/Cornell Notes incorporated into understanding drama, including dramatic irony, theater beginnings, the origin and function of the chorus, imagery of sight and blindness, myth.

b) Formal analysis/literary paper comparing and contrasting the tragic fate of both protagonists. 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.

c) Timed write on tragedy, including scoring guide.

d) Discussion: character is fate; free will.

Unit 4: Introduction to Poetry 4 Weeks

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 reading and responding come to be, for experienced readers of poetry, very nearly one.
Paying close attention to the text in poetry makes one appreciate, and understand, textuality and its possibilities.

Unit Expectations

Study and analyze poems from the Renaissance

a) Introduction: Essay of analysis. This essay is a literary analysis (expository)—Shakespeare's “Winter” including teacher model and rubric. Essay will be shared in class and emphasis includes sonnet form, paraphrase, imagery, syntax, and poetic language. Direct composition instruction: summary/paraphrase, thesis statement, syntax/sentence structures, audience.

b) Ballad—analyze using callouts

c) Sonnet—study and analyze multiple sonnets, write a original sonnet

d) Metrical Romance

e) Timed Write—literary analysis comparing and contrasting two Renaissance sonnets] including samples and scoring guide. Direct Composition Instruction: comparison and contrast, thesis statement.

f) Multiple-choice practice

Unit 5: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 5 Weeks

“For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now was and is, to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” --Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act III. Scene ii.

Why is Hamlet considered by many as Shakespeare's greatest achievement?
How did the religious, scientific, and cultural beliefs of the Elizabethan age influence Shakespeare in the writing of Hamlet?
How and why is the character of Hamlet depicted as the most complex in English literature?
What is Hamlet’s essential question?

Unit Expectations

a) Study includes great chain of being, Shakespeare’s language, form and function of tragedy

b) Essay test/timed write using 1993 and 1994 question #3 from AP English Literature and Composition Exams.

c) Literary analysis paper—formal, persuasive essay Direct composition instruction: format—clear thesis, incorporation of lines and quotes, pronoun usage, support paragraphs, introduction necessary for audience, thesis followed throughout, strong concluding paragraph.

Unit 6: Short Fiction and Satire 4 Weeks

“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.“

—Jonathan Swift

Unit Expectations

a) Study of short fiction, literary terms and techniques, emphasizing point of view and tone.

b) Analysis of multiple short stories using graphic organizers.

a. Two short interpretation papers based on point of view and tone, using two short story structures

b. Timed write on short fiction including samples and scoring guide

c) The Sting of Satire: “A Modest proposal,“ selections from Gulliver's Travels, Candide

d) Timed write on irony and satire

Unit 7: The Novel: Heart of Darkness, Conrad 3 Weeks

“The sea molds character, he said, yet, in setting the conditions for shipboard drama—as to some extent it inevitably must—it reveals, like a mirror, the face of character itself.”

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness “is the most vividly realized account in literature of the experiences of a European in colonial Africa, and as such is a document of historical importance as well as a literary classic.”

Students will explore the literary techniques of: impressionistic writing, frame narrative, inference and symbolism

Unit 8: Metaphysical to Modern Poetry 3 Weeks

“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”

—Percy Shelley

Responding to poetry involves remembering and reflecting.
Your knowledge and life experience informs your reading of what is before you, and allows you to connect things within the text—events, images, words, sounds—so that meanings and feelings develop and accumulate.
Poems, even when they are about things we have no experience of, connect to things we do know and order our memories, thoughts, and feelings in new and newly challenging ways.
Reading poetry can ultimately enrich your life by helping you become more articulate and more sensitive to both ideas and feelings: that’s the larger goal. But the more immediate goal-and the route to the larger one—is to make you a better reader of texts and a more precise and careful writer yourself.
Poems, perhaps even more than other texts, can sharpen your reading skills because they tend to be so compact, so fully dependent on concise expressions of feeling. In poems, ideas and feelings are packed tightly into just a few lines.

The Norton Introduction to Poetry

Unit Expectations

a) Study and analysis of poems from Metaphysical to modern era

b) Two short papers analyzing poems in unit

c) Direct composition instruction: as needed.

Unit 9: Modern Novel 4 weeks

Novels—Reader’s Workshop format.

Students choose two novels to read and study from list of possible titles: Alias Grace, All the King’s Men, All The Pretty Horses, Angle of Repose, Animal Dreams, Atonement, Awakening, Beloved, Brave New World, Catch 22, Einstein's Dreams, Ethan Frome, Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Handmaid's Tale, The Kite Runner, Lord of the Flies, Montana 1948/Justice, Obasan, Player Piano, The Poisonwood Bible, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Snow Falling on Cedars, Stones From The River, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1984.

Unit Expectations

a) Read two novels.

b) Test on both.

c) Formal literary paper—persuasive format—subject of choice

Unit 10: AP Practice Exam 1 Week

This unit will be completed by April 1, 2007.