Mrs. Church AP Literature and Composition Syllabus 2016-2017 Course Description: The objective of this course is to train students to read and analyze quality literature from a wide range of genres and historical periods. Students will be able to explicate writing s style, themes, literary elements and literary merit. This understanding will be demonstrated through discussion, practice tests and three types of writing: writing to understand (discovering their own reader s response), writing to explain (interpreting the literature), and writing to evaluate (examining the literary merit of a work). This course will provide the intellectual challenges and workload consistent with a typical college level English Literature class. At the culmination of the course, students will take the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Exam given in May. Based on your scores, you may be granted advanced placement, college credit, or both at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. Course Objectives: 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 sixteenth to the twentieth century but know a few works extremely well. 5. To understand a work s complexity, absorb richness of meaning, and 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. Students will understand: 1. Literature provides a mirror to help us understand ourselves and others. 2. Writing is a form of communication across the ages. 3. Literature reflects the human condition. 4. Literature deals with universal themes, i.e., man vs. man, man vs.nature, man vs. self, man vs. supernatural. Essential Questions: How does literature help us understand ourselves and others? How has writing become a communication tool across the ages? How does literature reflect the human condition? How does literature express universal themes? What is the key knowledge and skill needed to develop the desired understandings? Organize and sequence the learning?
Course Outline: Daily/Weekly Assignments: These assignments will carry on throughout the course of the two semesters. Journal Writing: The students will be required to respond to random writing prompts and keep a two-column reading journal: quotes from text/ reader response and any literary elements at work for the literary texts that they read throughout the course of both semesters. They will also be required to respond to each other s journal entries on occasion. AP Test Practice: Throughout the course, students will be given regular practice with timed AP multiple choice tests and timed AP essay questions from previous AP exams and practice exam materials. Writing Assignments: Throughout the year students will write, demonstrating an understanding and mastery of standard, written English. You should have a broad vocabulary which will indicates that you can use words appropriately to show denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness. AP Literature students write for a variety of reasons: 1) Students will write creatively to indicate knowledge of the organization, structure, and style techniques of poetry and prose. 2) Students will write to inform their reader that you understand passages from poetry, and longer works like novels and plays. 3) Students will write to explain complex ideas and issues that require research and development. 4) Students will write to analyze various pieces interpreting the author s meanings based on careful observation, use of extensive textural support, and an understanding of historical and social values. 5) Students will write under time constraints, producing papers that show both complexity and sophistication. Reading Assignments: This course includes an intensive study of rich and representative works. The works selected require a careful, deliberative reading that yields multiple meanings. (Note: The College Board does not mandate any particular authors or reading list). However, because this is a college-level course, expectations are appropriately high and the reading workload is challenging. Students are expected to come to class with the works read and annotated. Because of the length of some pieces, careful planning and time management is essential to success in the class. Careful reading leads to in-class
discussion which reveals a student s in-depth understanding and evaluation of the piece and contributes towards the strengthening of his/her own composition ability. Course Texts: This course is constructed in accordance with the guidelines described in the AP English Course Description: Arp, Thomas R. Perrine s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 7 th Ed. New York: Harcourt, 1984. Hemmingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner, 2003. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Adventures in English Literature. (Grade 12). 1996. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Eds. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington, 1992. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of MacBeth. Eds. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington, 1992. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Clayton: Prestwick-Touchstone, 2005. Outside Course Expenses: Possible expense for annotation of texts assigned optional. Semester One: Middle Ages---Restoration and 18 th C Literature (449-1798) Semester Two: Romantic Age---Modern Age (1798- Present) Biblical and Mythical allusions project. You will research and define Various terms and characters that appear in the works we study. You have three weeks to complete. Examination of AP Literature and Composition exam. Close Reading and Annotation of Text. Must use SODA method for characterization. Poetry pairings. Definition and expository essays with their current readings or using selections from the AP prompts. Major Assignment: The students read Macbeth and Hamlet and do Reading Logs, responding to literary elements, stylistic devices, characterization, etc. You practice close reading with an AP quality prompt twice during the reading. At the end of the play, you write an in-class timed writing on the work as a whole. Additional Assignments: In conjunction with every major piece, the students read poetry and analyze various poems, using the TPCASTT method. The focuses of this unit are the ode, the elegy, the Villanelle, bland and free verse. Tone and Theme development are stressed.
The final book for the year is A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemminway. The final graded discussion centers on the individual and his/her philosophy, reflecting Hemmingways self-examination of dark vision of Western civilization. Graded discussion after close reading is the unit s focus. During this time, the students review major works of literature. You compare and contrast the opening chapters to the works, and review style and theme. You prepare book review cards and write book summaries to prepare for Question 3 of the AP test. This is also the final MC review and the last close reading practices. This is also the final poetry review time. Students prepare one page analysis of the major elements of poetry (imagery, figurative language, sound, tone and theme) and how the poet uses these for his/her purpose(s). AP Testing: Students take the AP Literature and Composition Test in early May.
AP Literature and Composition: The Top 10 Guidelines for Your Essay Format Please adhere to the following guidelines when preparing your formal essays for submission: All essays must be typed. Please keep the text of your paper in a "Times New Roman" font, size 12 or 14 (or something comparable). All text in your essay must be double-spaced, with block quotations single-spaced. Please do not add additional spaces between paragraphs. All paragraphs are indented five (5) spaces, or "tabbed." Block quotations are generally set at five spaces as well. The cover sheet of your essay must contain the following information, centered on the page: the title of your essay, your full name, the course title and period, and the due date. An example might be: "Hamlet: An Analysis of the Prince of Procrastination" Mitch R. Seskowitz Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition --- 2A 15 December 2016 Maintain one-inch margins throughout the entire essay, top-to-bottom and left-to-right. Please number all pages of your essay (except for the first page of text --- I know it's page one!) in the upper right corner of the page. It is suggested that you include your last name, followed by the page number, on each page. For example: Seskowitz -- 3 Always include a Works Cited page, with all texts and literary criticism properly documented according to standard MLA format. Include your rough draft(s) with your final essay. Your rough draft should display evidence of prewriting, proofreading, and revising. Staple the rough draft to the back of your final draft. Any essays submitted without a sufficient rough draft will automatically be dropped to a "C" prior to instructor evaluation, and your essay will NOT be eligible for a revision grade. Please proofread and spell-check your final essay before submitting it! Late work will be accepted for at least up to 2 days after the due date for at least 70% credit of the earned score. The Grading of Formal Essays: A Scoring Guide
Your instructor uses the following criteria when evaluating your formal essays: A --> 90-100 points: With apt and specific references to the textual material, these wellwritten and well-organized essays clearly analyze and evaluate an assigned topic or present an original thesis. While not without flaws, these essays will demonstrate a mastery of the textual material as well as consistent control over the elements of effective composition. These writers read with perception and express their ideas with skill, clarity, compelling textual support, and stylistic maturity. B --> 80-89 points: These papers also analyze the textual material, but they are less incisive, developed, or aptly supported than papers of the highest range. They deal accurately with the assigned topic and material, but are less effective, less original, or less thorough than "A" papers. While these essays demonstrate the writer's ability to express ideas clearly, they do so with less maturity and precision than the best papers. C --> 70-79 points: Although these essays are good, they are superficial. They respond to the assignment without important errors in composition, but they miss the complexities and idiosyncracies of style and perception. Often the analysis is vague, mechanical, or overly generalized. While the writing is adequate to convey the writer's thoughts, these essays are typically pedestrian, not as well conceived, organized, or developed as upperlevel papers. Usually, they reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. Essays that are submitted without a sufficient rough draft are automatically dropped to a "C" prior to instructor evaluation, and are NOT eligible for a revision grade. D --> 60-69 points: These essays reflect an incomplete understanding of the topic, the assignment, and/or the textual material. The analysis may be inaccurate or unclear, misguided or underdeveloped; these papers may paraphrase rather than analyze. Generally, the writing demonstrates weak control of such elements as diction, organization, syntax, or grammar. These essays typically lack persuasive evidence from the text. They may contain recurrent stylistic flaws and/or outright misreadings. F --> 0 --- 59 points: These essays compound the problems of a "D" paper. Frequently, they are unacceptably brief. Often poorly written on several counts, they may contain many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although some attempts may have been made to respond to the topic, the writer's views typically are presented with little clarity, organization, coherence, or supporting evidence. Essays that are especially inexact, vacuous, and/or mechanically unsound are given an "F."