Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Mrs. Durfee

2013-14 B209

“A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy.” ~Edward P. Morgan

Course Overview

This AP Literature course is intended to serve as a college level course. This implies that the expectations of the class and of the teacher are set extremely high. These expectations include your performance on varied assignments, ability to handle a larger than normal workload, and being able to study in a multiple of formats—including independent study. This course is a culmination of 12 years of English education, including AP Language and Composition where effective essay writing was mastered.

Course Description

This course requires the following:

  • Engagement in careful reading
  • Critical analysis of complex text
  • An understanding of the way writers use language
  • Do they serve to provide meaning or pleasure?
  • Ability to identify the structure, style, and themes within multiple texts
  • Ability to identify figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone
  • Intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods

Instructional Philosophy

While this class is sure to bring me great joy, it is important that you do not mistake my enthusiasm and excitement for low standards and weakness. In fact, your status as the best of the very best means that what I expect of you will, most likely, be more demanding than first anticipated. It is my goal to create lifelong learners out of you. I place substantial weight on building a classroom community (“family”) while we work on enhancing our communication skills, both written and verbally. My instruction is organized around the best teaching practices: literature circles, performance-based learning, writing strategies, presentations, the Socratic Seminar, and Philosophical Chairs. Students are expected to work independently in and out of class and in collaborative units, ethically, without displaying academic dishonesty. Students are required to conduct extensive, independent research and reading. I will facilitate, support, encourage, and offer resources as needed—including, but not limited to ensuring that ongoing and frequent feedback is provided.

Course Goals/Standards

Upon completion of Advanced Placement Literature and Composition, the student will be able to:

  • respond to higher level questioning and critiquing,
  • relate multiple texts and themes to each other and to their lives,
  • write interpretative, critical, and analytical responses and essays,
  • participate in classroom discussions and activities,
  • think beyond the obvious, popular assumptions,
  • view literature as a gateway to viewing our world,
  • express themselves verbally and in writing,
  • explore a variety of genres and literary periods and to write clearly about the literature you encounter,
  • make judgments about how literatures social, historical and cultural views impact our analysis of the text and the author’s purpose.

Pre-requisite Texts

These are the texts that the majority of you have read in previous Language Arts classes. This list is not an all-inclusive inventory, but should be a resource for looking back at what you have already learned. Remember, these texts are fair-game for the AP Lit exam. Please consider revisiting these texts as the exam draws nearer.

  • The Odyssey (the Hero’s Journey), Romeo and Juliet, Animal Farm
  • Lord of the Flies, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird
  • The Crucible (LA 5), Emerson & Thoreau, (LA 5), Harlem Renaissance (LA 5), The Alchemist (AP Lang?), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (LA 5), Of Mice and Men (LA 5)

Required Texts and Materials

  • 1 ½” binder with five dividing tabs
  • Inclusion of your Allusion Reading Journal
  • Loose leaf paper, pens, pencils, package of flash cards
  • Printed plays, poems, theory, criticism from the classroom blog
  • MLA Reference Book—current edition
  • Specific books for purchase will be revealed as we reach them.
  • Highly Recommended: a personal copy of the novels/plays/articles we read in this class. Annotating, highlighting, post-its, etc. will undoubtedly be of good use in this class.

Student Expectations

Educational and Ethical:

  • Annotation—Reading in our class is always a process and it is always active. One of the first things we will work on in our class is our close reading skills and our annotation skills. What is important to remember about reading for our class is that we never just read—we engage our texts in conversation.
  • Close reading is a must. Sparknotes, Cliffsnotes, etc. should be used sparingly and only to add to your interpretations of the text, not to form them.
  • Dedication, diligence, dedication, direction, dedication…
  • Plagiarism is irritating. We will have a short discussion on what defines plagiarism just to clear up any lingering misconceptions. After that, any plagiarism/un-cited material turned in by the student as if it was their own will earn a 0 (E). They will not have an opportunity to re-submit the assignment. Furthermore, a parent/teacher/administrator meeting will determine the consequences. Also, please note a new rule in the district: any student caught cheating (including plagiarism) will NOT be eligible for the honor of being valedictorian or salutatorian.

Major Assignments and Projects

(subject to changes and amendments)

Practice tests

Presentations

Regular class discussions

Formal class discussions

Participation

Writing:

  • Type 1: formative (drafts, short free-writes, bellworks)
  • Type 2: summative (timed essays for test preparation, extended interpretation essays, analytical essays, original poetry compositions, dialectical notebook, response-reaction paper)

Assignment/Exam Make-Up Policy

Assignments and tests missed must be made up in order for you to receive any credit for them. It is YOUR responsibility to find out what you missed. Homework is due the next day following your return. Any assignment missed due to absences will not be accepted after one day following your return. Make up a missed quiz or test at the next make-up session held after school on Wednesdays or Fridays within one week of your return to school. Any quiz, test, or assignment not made up receives a grade of zero. Make-up tests are more challenging than in-class tests. Projects and major papers are due on the assigned date regardless of absence. Unexcused absences are not the same as excused. If you are absent the day of a test/quiz/project and that absence is unexcused, you will not have the opportunity to participate in a make-up.

Grading Scale

93-100=A88-89= B+78-79=C+68-69=D+Below 60%=E

92-90=A-83-87=B73-77=C63-67=D

80-82=B-70-72=C-60-62=D-

Course Planner/Student Activities

The following sequence is subject to change, with additional, supplemental texts being added throughout the course of the year. My thematic organization is enough to allow for substitutions and additions. You will never be without a reading assignment or an outside paper due date.

Topic/Unit #1: The Power of Reading and Writing Analytically

Approximate number of weeks: 2

Overview/Rationale: After a short amount of time spent to breaking down the AP Literature and Composition exam, completing a pre-assessment that includes a timed, in-class writing based on a previous AP prompt, creating a classroom community, and reviewing summer work, students will begin with a short unit organized around specific skills and strategies that will be utilized throughout the course. We will use How to Read Literature Like a Professor during this unit (and in units following this one.

You will use the “Toolbox” that you completed this summer. Your “Toolbox” consists of your Allusion Journal anda vocabulary inventory. We will add an exploration of diction and tone, tone and point-of-view, active vs. passive voice, and powerful verbs.

Resources: Excerpts from How to Read Literature Like a Professor will be explored and evaluated. The Catcher in the Rye will be explored further in this unit.

Topic/Unit #2: Poetry

Approximate number of weeks: 5

Overview/Rationale: This poetry unit uses the poems from Perrine’s Sound and Sense(AP Edition). Throughout our time, we will work to explore the techniques used to determine the “what” and the “how” of poetry analysis. We will discuss the difference between ordinary and poetic language, identify the limiting approaches to poetry, learn how to write an effective comparative analysis, learn the paraphrasing skill, analyze student essays with a focus on the central theme, the thesis, and topic sentences, explore poetic diction, discuss denotation and connotation, identify imagery, and more.

Resources: Sound and Sense(AP Edition) –Print from the blog.

Application: You will apply the skills necessary for the AP Literature Exam by first completing a self analysis. You will apply annotation techniques and discuss the poems we read through whole and group discussion, written Poetry Precis, comparative analysis projects, creative writing projects, lit circles, thinking maps, “thought pieces,” Seminar, AP written responses, Twitter Talk, and questioning exercises. You will utilize several analytical techniques such as SOAPSTone, TP-CASTT, the four questions, and the paraphrasing technique.

Topic/Unit #3: Human Studies

Approximate number of weeks: 6

Overview/Rationale: This unit digs deep at the human condition, specifically how both genders develop into their own person. The idea of the human “awakening” is explored in this unit. Regionalism and local color are established in this unit. Subjectivity vs. Objectivity is thoroughly explored throughout our readings. Students are challenged to read with a purpose. Students will also learn to identify realistic/problem plays.

Resources: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, selected Sylvia Plath poems, “Barbie” by Marge Piercy, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, non-fictional articles.

Application: While applying critical reading strategies, we work to explore the development of our main characters, specifically working to identify the stages of each awakening. You will further explore this theme by selecting a novel of literary merit in which the character undergoes some type of awakening. Be prepared to purchase/borrow this text as we get closer to Thanksgiving/Winter break. You will synthesize both texts in an AP Comparative Analysis Paper. Reader’s Theater, roundtable discussions, modern translations, and Scratic Seminars.

Topic/Unit #4:We Know Drama: Hamlet

Approximate number of weeks: 5

Overview/Rationale:Integral to any upper-level literature course is reading and comprehending the works of Shakespeare, the father of Modern English. Reading, analyzing, and writing on his most famed drama, Hamlet, will increase student understanding of pre-20th century language and modes, and it will expose them to the quintessential tragedy. Through in-depth discussions requiring thorough comprehension of the work, students will ready themselves for the AP exam in May.

Resources: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Deadby Tom Stoppard, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nestby Ken Kesey.

Application: Students will conduct an in-depth reading of Hamlet in order to understand the elements of tragic drama. They will write an AP-style analysis essay on the drama, and will compare and contrast it to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, an absurdist play based on two minor characters from Hamlet.

Topic/Unit #5: In Search of Identity

Approximate number of weeks: 6

Overview/Rationale: This unit is a powerful inquiry into what happens when one loses, or has no sense, of their identity. After contextualizing both pieces using primary documents, non-fiction articles, you will begin a study in the effectiveness (and the differences) of recounting history through storytelling.

Resources: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Beloved by Toni Morrison, excerpts from Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs, “Ain’t I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,non-fictional news stories, and self-selected primary documents.

Application: We will explore the theme of storytelling (fiction) as a mode for discussing history. We will also work within the concept of “rememory.” We will create our own primary source documents to create voice and tailored to an intended purpose and audience. Through Beloved, several universal themes will be explored, including the named and the nameless, time and its effect on rememory, and more.

Topic/Unit #7: Short Story Unit

Approximate number of weeks: 4

Overview/Rationale: The AP English Literature and Composition exam places heavy emphasis on close reading for elements for fiction. For this reason, students will read several famous short stories that represent at least one element of fiction. The elements include characterization, plot, setting, theme, tone, and style.

Resources: “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner; “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka;“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates; “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; and “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor” by J.D. Salinger.

Application: Students will engage in close and critical reading. They will first receive, then create questions designed to teach them close and critical reading through a medium palatable to them.

After the Exam

Students will be provided the opportunity to select and follow through on a Service Learning Project. The project guidelines are forthcoming but must certainly benefit the students of Fordson, the young children preparing for Fordson, or the residents of Dearborn. This project will be student-driven and will serve as a culminating activity/gift as they move on to the next step in their lives. It will be due upon their exit/graduation.

Student Consent

I have read and understood the class expectations for AP Literature and Composition. I agree to be courteous to others, to be responsible for my actions and my education, to respect the civil and educational rights of all individuals, to respect my belongings and the belongings of others, and to demonstrate integrity in word and in deed.

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Parent Acknowledgment

I have read the class expectations for AP Literature and Composition and have discussed the information with my child. I will monitor my child’s progress through Parent Connect.

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This form MUST be RETURNED to Mrs. Durfee

Monday, September 10, 2012