Advanced Placement English

ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

Further explanation of curriculum.

Please note that the order of texts taught is subject to school availabilty. Texts of equal rigor and genre may be substituted due to availability and class size. The preceding short version of the syllabus has the most updated version of the order and the texts. .

Course Description:

AP Literature and Composition students engage in the careful reading and critical analysis of prose, poetry and imaginative literature written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Students consider a works structure, style, and themes as well as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. A close study of these works of literature will heighten student awareness of the interactions among a writers purpose, audience expectations, and subject as well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing. (Adapted from The College Board, 2007).

Students in this course are invited and encouraged to take the College Boards AP English Literature and Composition exam. The primary goal is to involve students in reading and writing about literature at a college level.

Student Outcomes:

     * Students analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author's use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.

     *Students respond to writing selections through analysis (structure, diction, point of view, syntax, voice, purpose), synthesis (comparison/contrast to other works), and evaluation (reflection/effectiveness).

     *Students apply effective strategies and techniques to their own writing.

     *Students demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writing.

     *Students write in a variety of genres and contexts, both formal and informal, employing appropriate conventions.

     *Students move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.

     *Students develop and practice procedures that prepare them to take the AP Exam.

Student Evaluations:

·       Formal literary essays (based on AP 9-1 scale)

·       Practice AP essays

·       Critical Reading Logs

·       Expository essays

·       Vocabulary -Build a strong vocabulary from words taken directly from the SAT

·       Multiple-choice questions are taken from previous AP exams.

·       Essays and projects completed outside of class

·       Participation/Habits of Mind/Attendance

Grades for this class are based on papers, projects, tests, participation, and the critical reading Log.

Papers, projects, and tests: The study of the literature read this year will include the writing of one or more response papers per book as well as projects, tests, and exams. The goal is for students to improve their ability to write clear and effective essays that interpret and reflect upon works of literature. Assignments are given well in advance of their due dates. It is assumed that major papers will be typed; however, if access to word processing is impossible then handwritten work is acceptable.

Participation: Student participation and engagement are required for the class and for students to succeed. Participation includes active listening and engagement in daily lessons. This class becomes an academic community and student involvement with and empathy for the ideas of classmates is essential for the formation of the community. One cannot participate if one is late or absent and to that end excessive absences and tardiness negatively affect the grade for this class. Students are asked to periodically assess their own work as well as the work of other class members. Students are expected to be present in mind and spirit for the benefit of all.

Critical Reading Log: A critical reading log is kept as a means to respond to all of the texts studied during the course. Students and faculty will generate prompts and questions during the year. The log is made up of a series of writings, which come from a wide spectrum of ways to respond to literature. The log affords students the opportunity to deepen and broaden critical responses to what is read during the course. Class discussions are intended to inform and be informed by the critical reading log. The log will be checked twice each quarter. Format for the log is at the discretion of the student.

Scope and Sequence:

Note: The time periods for the following schedule are subject to change. Expect regular schedule updates during the year.

SEMESTER ONE

The first part of semester one focuses on student acquisition of essential language and skills embedded in the AP Literature and Composition pedagogy. To that end quarter one introduces students to intense readings of representative works by significant authors, and daily-writing assignments taken from curricular writing requirements articulated by the College Board.

Students independently choose, read, and write literary analyses of six works of literature during the first three quarters of the academic year. Two works are independently analyzed in each of the first three academic quarters. Titles are chosen from lists recommended by the College Board. This study is designed to increase student knowledge of major works, and to increase student capacity for in-depth reading over a sustained period of time. Assignments ask students to write about structure, style and themes in their chosen literature. Independent analyses help students develop vocabulary, refine grammatical techniques, refine methods of sentence organization, and coherence. Essays and reaction papers are critiqued and returned for use in exam preparation.

Class sessions begin with timed free-writing responses to literature being studied. Timed writings are part of the foundation for the critical reading log. This is writing to understand in which exploratory informal writing helps students discover what they think of their own writing as well as the literature being studied. These timed writings help students practice writing about elements of literature, and prepare for the timed writing questions of the AP exam. Dialogues and critiques frequently follow the days writing.

1.The class reads selections of short fiction from A Pocketful of Prose: Vintage Short Fiction edited by David Madden. These stories act as an introduction to a wide range of fiction as well as the art and craft of literary analysis. Short fiction selections are read to highlight points of comparison and contrast to long fiction, and for their own power and beauty. The craft of analysis is studied and practiced focusing on significant elements of literature. Student responses are both spoken and written in class as well as written in greater depth for follow-up homework. The short fiction study includes learning the authors biography and the cultural context of the stories. A significant template for the study of literary analysis is found in A Pocketful of Prose Vintage Short Fiction. The study of short fiction affords the students the opportunity to internalize the craft of literary analysis through pre-reading, in-class reading, class dialogues, and accompanying homework. Students write evaluative response papers about the artistry and revealed social and cultural values of the stories.

The study of short fiction initiates the formation of literature circles. Students form themselves into groups of four or five. They are taught how to use anagram lists of literary terms such as STRIP, MASS, and IMAP as a way to remember important elements of literature. The anagram lists give the students a solid vocabulary base from which to write about and discuss literature. Reading log entries focus on the studied and presented short stories. Reading groups read to discover. They conclude their study by giving a final presentation to the class on a work of short fiction.  Class notes are added to the critical reading log for the purpose of adding to student vocabulary about literary analysis. The study of short fiction takes three to four weeks.

2. Using Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook as guide, students will study the poetry of Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Lucille Clifton, James Wright, Linda Hogan, and Elizabeth Bishop. This study will be brief and serve as a means to review important poetic techniques. Students will choose one poem by the above mentioned poets not studied in the unit and give a short presentation to the class.

3. The class readsChronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Students write daily informal responses to Garcia-Marquezs narrative. These reaction papers are a form of writing to understand. Students will discuss the novella in terms of literary devices employed by the author. Chronicle will act as a touchstone text for other themes which are referred to regularly throughout the academic year. This study concludes with the writing of an interpretive response paper. This paper compares and contrasts the social and philosophical values of the authors era to our own and others. This study includes cross-curricular dialogues with AP World History classes. The duration of the study is three weeks.

4. The class will then read Richard Wrights Black Boy to further examine the effects that social and philosophical context have on literature. The class will continue to create a log of responses to Black Boys themes of alienation, self-destruction, and redemption, all presented in a naturalistic style. Students will study excerpts of other Naturalist writers and explore the strengths and weaknesses that naturalism can bring to literature. One of the assessment pieces that students will engage in is to present facets of their lives in a naturalistic way, employing near journalistic objectivity to writing about their lives up to this point in time. This study concludes with the writing of an interpretive response paper. This paper compares and contrasts the social and philosophical values of the authors era to our own and others.

5. The senior research paper is initiated. The final draft for this paper is due in January at the end of the first semester. The first draft is due the week before winter break. Weekly class sessions take place in the Southwest media center dedicated exclusively to research and writing. Teacher/student mini-conferences occur during each of the media center sessions. Media center staff act as academic coaches in assisting the students to learn the ins and outs of digital and analog research. The senior research paper is writing to explain and evaluate. Its form follows MLA style requirements. The senior research paper requires students to intensely study and experience a series of writings, critiques and rewritings. This paper develops and strengthens skills in rhetorical academic research and writing. The recommended word count is 2500 words.

7. Poetry of Emily Dickenson and Walt Whitman is studied and written about.  It is important to note that the teaching and reading of poetry occurs during the entire academic year. The poetry study marries the art and craft of reading poetry for pleasure as well as for analysis. The primary text for the study is Perrines Sound and Sense. Poems are read in many ways, including choral readings, out loud interpretations, and in silence. Poems tend to be studied in pairs to develop the craft of comparison and contrast analysis. Student response papers address learning how to correctly use appropriate and significant literary terms. Terms studied and written about include style, structure, theme, tone, repetition, imagery, metaphor, allusion, simile, symbol, point of view, diction, figurative language, irony, metonym, and personification. The study of poetry frequently takes the form of in-class reading. Class notes and analytical writing are entered into critical reading logs. Poems are frequently paraphrased into prose.

8. The AP Literature and Composition exam is studied and practiced for the first time. Multiple-choice practices and timed writings occur several times during the year. Students are taught to view the exam as part of their study in the course. The class reviews literary terms and works in groups to review important themes from the works studied. Exam practices tend to be two class periods in length up to the time closely preceding the exam when four or five class sessions are dedicated to review and practice.

Academic Quarter # 2

9. The senior research paper is returned to students for revision. The first drafts have been examined and critiqued for effective use of vocabulary, overall logical organization of the papers structure, a balance of general and specific annotated information, and the effective use of a rhetorical voice. The process of re-writing for the final paper is undertaken. There are frequent writing and editing teacher/student conferences. The class continues to meet weekly in the media center for access to media center staff and word-processing computers. Final papers are due the last week of January.

10. Students continue the independent reading and analysis study. Students form literature circles and study chosen literature within their groups. Class time is reserved for independent reading and discussion. The objective for this study is to give the students the opportunity to increase knowledge of major works, and increase student capacity for in-depth reading over a sustained period of time. Reading circle analysis discoveries are entered into critical reading logs for use in exam preparation. A goal of this study is to prepare students to the greatest degree possible for the AP exam in May.

11. Students will read and act out Sophocles Antigone . They will study elements of Greek drama. Students will write log entries in response to critical questions about setting, character development, and development of themes. These discussions, log work, and smaller writing exercises will lead up to the formal essay, due at the end of the unit. There is a list of topics a student may choose from. These topics will include: pre-feminist ethics, pride, individual vs. state, divine law vs. human law, womens roles, the function of the chorus, sisterhood, and rebellion. Students are encouraged to generate alternative topics.There will be time to work on a rough draft, get feedback from me and from other students, and to work on at least one major revision. Attention to writing skills will include work on expanding vocabulary and working on sentence structure.

12. Students will study the screenplay and film Salt of the Earth. As stated on the back of the film jacket, the film was produced, directed and written by victims of the 1950s anti-communist blacklisting, including Herbert Bibermanone of the Hollywood Ten who was jailed for refusing to cooperate with Congressional inquiriesThe only blacklisted American film in history, Salt of the Earth was banned for its daring political content, which anticipated the civil rights and feminist movements by nearly ten years. Was this blurb accurate? Were the Hollywood 10 victims? Was the content daring and political? Did it anticipate the civil rights and feminist movements? Students in this course will use the text as a springboard for questioning. Should the film have been banned? Students will write two short position papers, based on research (empirical and academic) which persuasively articulates evidence to support each side of the issue. In addition, students will study the historical ramifications of the McCarthy hearings on literature and the arts. They will work intensely within small groups to present, in film form, a documentary that 1. explores a question posed in the film, 2. compares immigrant culture today with immigration culture then, 3. Compares labor issues of today with labor issues then, or 3. explores the larger question of the effect of banning literature or film in our culture or in another culture.

Academic Quarter # 3

13. Students continue the independent reading and analysis study. Students form literature circles and study chosen literature within their groups. Class time is reserved for independent reading and discussion. The objective for this study is to give the students the opportunity to increase knowledge of major works, and increase student capacity for in-depth reading over a sustained period of time. Reading circle analysis discoveries are entered into critical reading logs for use in exam preparation. A goal of this study is to prepare students to the greatest degree possible for the AP exam in May.

14. The class reads Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This study takes place over a period of four weeks. This unit focuses on the history of the script of Hamlet and also focuses on the elements of the structure of the play. Relationships between the characters and Elizabethan theology are explored as we move through a study of the plot. Students will perform scenes, encouraging a deeper knowledge of the language and of the dramatic tensions and interaction between the characters. There will be quizzes on each act of the play.

15. The class reads, discusses, and responds to numerous poems chosen by the instructor and members of the class. This unit will run for 4-5 weeks. Poets studied will include but are not limited to Joy Harjo, Billy Collins, Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlingetti, John Keats, T. S. Eliot, Adrienne Rich, Carolyn Forche, Sylvia Plath, and Nikki Giovanni. Poetic elements such as tone, sensory imagery, metaphor, diction, rhythm, rhyme, allusion and dramatic situation are introduced. Students will write several short formal paragraphs, which identify the relationship of poetic elements to the meaning of the chosen poems. This will be an effective step toward writing an interpretive essay. These short paragraphs along with class discussion of elements of poetry and feedback from the instructor will prepare students to write an interpretive essay, which reflects upon a poem of the students choice. .

The AP Literature and Composition exam is studied and practiced.

16. The Writing and Reading of a Senior Memoir

AP Literature and Composition students write and read what is known as the Senior Memoir. The purpose for this writing is to give the grade twelve students the opportunity to write a memoir while, as it were, still in the nest. Students are encouraged to realize they are at a time of true change in which their graduation from high school represents an end to their years of official childhood. They are taught that once they do graduate they will leave a time, which will only be returned to in memory. Student readings of these memoirs are limited to five minutes and part of their task is to choose a moment or moments from their lives significant enough to be written about and read out loud to their classmates.

Students study the nature of memory. This includes viewing Tim Burtons film Big Fish and studying the linguistic, memory and observation theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Lacan.

Students kinesthetically study memory by going to the park and playing on the park toys and athletic fields. Play is a mythological center of childhood. Time in the park is divided between play, dialogue, reflection and writing.

Students are taught that one of the Senior Memoir purposes is to be intentional about a farewell to a time in their individual lives and a farewell to each other. It is indisputable that once the seniors graduate from the confines of Southwest many will see each other only a few times again. The students are taught that the ability to say goodbye, on an intellectual as well as an emotional level, is an important one.

Students write the memoirs in a style of their choosing with the knowledge that the written part of the final represents half of the final exam grade. Therefore the written papers are evaluated for style, form, grammatical correctness and aesthetic power.

Students read their memoirs to each other in the small theatre sitting in a circle. Everybody sits in the circle. Dialogue follows each reading to ensure that classmates who wish to respond to the most recent reader have the opportunity. It is common for significant and profound conversations to occur during this part of the process. When the final end of class bell rings then the formal readings, dialogues and exam end.

*Immigrant and refugee students often find themselves writing memoirs, which originate in contrast to the lush green parks of Minneapolis. The awareness and observation of contrast is encouraged as a way for them to sharpen childhood memories from their homes and/or camps.

Instructional Materials:

Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson.  Perrines Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. 11th. Boston, MA: Thomas Wadsworth, 2005. Print. 

This collection is the primary source on poetry and its analysis.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. newly revised edition. 1984. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009. Print.

Garcia-Marquez, Gabriel. Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Madden, David. Ed. Vintage Short Fiction Volume II. Boston, MA: Thomas higher Education 2006. 

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Phillip Pullman.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.

Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook. Harcourt Brace and Company: San Diego, CA 1994.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Wofford, Susanne. Ed. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Bedford/St. Martin: Boston/New York. 1994. Print.

Sophocles. Antigone.

Strunk, Jr., William and White. The Elements of Style. 3^rd. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1979. Print

Wright, Richard. Black Boy. New York. First Harper Perennial Modern Classics. 2006.