AP English Tentative Course Outline

AP English Tentative Course Outline

(Order may change as well some shorter texts may be added and others omitted)

Ms. L. Helm St. Joseph Catholic High School

Advanced Placement is a program which allows and encourages high school students to expand their educational horizons prior to entering university or college. Since AP is both a rigorous course and an examination, it takes a great deal or preparation on the students’ as well as the AP teachers’ part.

The College Boards Advanced Placement Program offers motivated high school students the opportunity to take challenging university-level courses while in high school. These courses are taught by high school teachers who utilize course descriptions developed by committees of university professors and experienced AP teachers.

Each spring, students are offered the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on subject-specific Advanced Placement Examinations. Successful completion of an Advanced Placement Examination can result in university credit, advanced standing, or both depending on the university a student chooses to attend.

The AP English Literature and Composition Course and Examination

An AP course in English Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students will deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. Students will consider a work’s structure, style and themes as well as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.

Writing assignments will focus on the critical analysis of literature and should include expository, analytical and argumentative essays. Writing instruction will focus upon developing and organizing ideas in clear, coherent, and persuasive language. It should include the study of the elements of style.

The AP Examination in English Literature and Composition is a three-hour examination which employs multiple-choice questions in order to test the student’s critical reading of selected passages (one-hour part of examination). The examination also requires writing in order to measure the student’s ability to read and interpret literature and to use other forms of discourse effectively (two-hour part of examination). Performance on the essay section of the examination accounts for 55 percent of the total grade; performance on the multiple-choice section is weighed at 45 percent.

Multiple Choice Section

-Prose and poetry will be tested

-Passages may come from 17th, 18th, 19, 20th, or 21st centuries

-Approximately 55 questions covering four to five passages

-Penalty for guessing – right minus one quarter wrong

-Time limit: 60 minutes

-Weight: 45% of total exam score

Free-Response Section

-One prompt requiring analysis of a prose passage

-One prompt requiring analysis of a poem

-One open-ended question, usually related to alliterary element

-Time limit: 120 minutes to write all three essays

-Weight: 55% of total exam score

-Are graded out of 9

Final marks on the AP exam are reported out of 5.

English 30 -1/AP English Literature

Proposed Course Syllabus

Course Prerequisites

Students should have completed English 10-1 and English 20-1 in grades ten and eleven.

They will have studied in depth the following major works as mandated by the provincial curriculum: , Grade 10 - To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet/Merchant of Venice Grade 11 –The Glass Menagerie Macbeth, Lord of the Flies,and a self-directed novel.

General Course Description

This Advanced Placement course combines two courses, the grade twelve academic English curriculum (English 30-1) as specified by the provincial education department.

English 30-1 (AP Prep) follows the curriculum requirements outlined in the Program of Studies for Senior High School English Language Arts, while preparing students to write the AP English Literature and Composition exam.

Of the 100 credits needed to graduate from high school, students will earn five credits in English 30-1 and three additional credits in English Lit AP. Students will write the three-hour AP English Literature examination in May and will also be required to write and pass the five and one half hour English diploma examination set by the provincial government in June. This diploma examination in worth 50% of a student’s high school English mark. The other 50% of the students mark will be calculated from course work.

Reading Assignments

Students are expected to complete summer reading assignments and the study questions that accompany those readings. They will also be assigned one contemporary novel to be read during spring break.

It is imperative that the works be read closely and carefully and that all associated assignments are completed on time.

Pre-test

All students will write an essay and multiple-choice English pre-test at the beginning of the course. These two tests will provide essential information regarding writing skills and the ability to interpret literature. Lessons and class assignments will be tailored to meet student needs and enhance learning based upon the analysis of these two evaluative devices.

Vocabulary Development

In order to encourage the development of a wide-ranging vocabulary, all students will keep personal lists of words they have not understood in the literary works that are read. They will determine the meanings of these words and will add to the list throughout the course. Throughout the year, all students will study specific vocabulary words from the texts we are studying. In addition, during semester one all students will work through the text, 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary by Wilfred Funk.

After every multiple choice exam, students will circle any vocabulary words with which they have had problems. Students will present the meanings of these problem words to their classmates. Students will create a simple vocabulary test for their peers based upon the words presented.

Writing Instruction and Assignments

At the beginning of the course, students will read the book The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. They will be assigned one chapter each day, and sample exercises from the chapters will be completed and taken up in class. It cconcentrates on fundamentals: the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. When analyzing texts in written assignments, students will be asked to analyze: topic, audience, tone; establishing and maintaining voice; developing the thesis; choosing appropriate words (diction) and developing a variety of sentence structures (syntax); using appropriate and logical organizational methods; finding a suitable style; constructing effective paragraphs; employing methods of development; ordering the material – chronological, spatial, inductive, deductive; developing generalizations; citing specific examples and using quotations; using illustrative details; concluding the composition; considering language – simplicity, freshness, denotation, connotation, slanted diction; improving sentences (sentence variety and types, order of sentence elements, coordination, subordination, parallelism, emphasis, repetition, transitions, comparisons, sentence coherence, sentence fragments, the comma splice, pronoun and antecedent, verb tense, mood, etc.) Practice exercises will be completed and quizzes will be given on these topics. Scoring guides and rubrics (provided in advance throughout the course) will ensure that students demonstrate competence in these more complex sentence structures.

Students will write short critical essays dealing with brief prose passages, novels, drama, and poetry. The critical responses will be based on close textual analysis of style and structure. Students will also write personal and creative responses. One longer research-based paper deal with historical values will be required. Some writing will be completed in class while other assignments will be take-home work.

When assignments are evaluated by the teacher, comments on papers will encourage students to use a variety of writing techniques and to edit their work carefully. Excellent writing will be indicated, and the areas that need work will also be pointed out. Common writing errors will be duplicated for classroom use, the students will play “teacher” determining what those errors are and then revising and correcting them.

Quizzes and Examinations

Examinations dealing with each of the major units studied will be given. As well, general genre-specific multiple-choice exams will also be written at the completion of each unit. Students will write timed, in-class essay examinations on a regular basis. Practice AP and Diploma examinations will be taken.

*Note that instruction in writing will occur on a regular basis in class. After the students study each chapter and complete various exercises from the text, The Writing Process, the teacher will determine the strengths and weaknesses of the class and will tailor instruction in writing based upon student need.

Basic Organization of Class:

Daily Assignments:

Each class will begin with poetry analysis or a practice writing assignment from previous AP examinations. At the end of every week, we will discuss/analyze a writing sample from a previous AP examination. You will often be put in groups to prepare a presentation on specific analysis questions. All of these activities/assignments will be graded.

Late Assignments:

We will not accept a late assignment unless an excuse written by a parent is received at least one day before the due date.

Class Expectations: RESPECT for everyone and everything in the classroom.

EVALUATION

Your mark in this course will be determined as follows:

Differentiated Project/Product Work (including essays)30%

Class work in mini-lessons/Process work (quizzes, journals, poet, etc)20%

Unit Evaluation50%

* Your participation mark will be composed of weekly evaluations of your respectfulness, preparedness, promptness, attentiveness, and sense of responsibility (see STUDENT EXPECTATIONS). Violations of student expectations (lates, coming to class unpreparedand inattentive/disruptive behavior) will seriously affect this portion of your mark. This mark is NOT based on academic achievement, but my assessment of your willingness to learn.

Unit One:

Who am I? The Search for Identity; Perception in Personal Literary Contexts

The question every human faces is that of identity: self-definition encompassing values, interests, dreams, and perceptions. One vehicle facilitating the search for identity is literature. Authors experiment with point of view, style, and tone—elements in the quest for identity of characters within. How to approach a text—how to discuss it, how to evaluate it, how to use it—are issues for any reader hoping to know both the text and themselves.

Essential Questions:

Who and what gives us our identity?
What happens when identities collide?
What is the corollary between multiple critical lenses and ourself?
If language shapes identity, how does it do so?

Major texts:

Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (classic play)

Margaret Lawrence, The Rain Child (short story)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (novel)

Jane Urquhart Stone Carvers(novel)

Additional works that can be read independently:

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Henry James, Portrait of a Lady

Annie Proulx, The Shipping News

Loy Kogawa, Obasan

Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Unit Project

Answer the essential questions of the unit in a written and visual form. You must use texts from this unit or others of literary merit. You’ll be evaluated on Thought and Detail, Understanding of the objective, Creativity, and Matters of Correctness. Specific rubrics will be provided.

Diploma Essay Examination Preparation

Students will prepare for their three-hour essay examination administered by the provincial government (worth 25% of their English grade). At the end of the unit, they will write in the computer lab and will deal with personal response to literature and critical/analytical response topics from a teacher-created list.

Compositions will be peer-edited and/or teacher evaluated based on provincial scoring descriptors.

AP Essay Preparation

2003 AP English Literature and Composition Free Response Question #3

According to critic Northrop Frye, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightening than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightening.”

Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by the figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.

Avoid mere plot summary.

Use the AP rubric from 2001 to score the essays. Special emphasis will be placed on creating a variety of sentence structures, especially subordination and coordination, and effective use of transitions. Students will help each other with revisions before the teacher evaluates them. Teacher comments will encourage a wide variety of vocabulary, a sense of voice, syntactical variations, and an awareness of tone and theme. Special focus will be placed of apt and specific supporting evidence, as opposed to broad sweeping generalizations.

Analyzing Poetry Practice

At the end of every week, we’ll practice a poetry question from a previous AP exam (Question 1 from the written response). Student written responses to these questions will be kept in a journal and marked using the 9 point rubric provided by the Collage Entrance Examination Board.

Unit Two:

What is Truth? Narrative Traditions; Illusion and Reality

“Truth” includes metaphysical and narrative dimensions. How to live an authentic life is the central metaphysical concern; how to read a narrative in which past, present, and future merge; in which retelling of the same event occur; and in which ambiguity reigns supreme are its narrative concerns. Additionally, language can be used to hide truth as well as to illuminate it.

Essential Questions:

What is truth? Is it absolute or relative?
What is the relationship between language and truth?
How willing are we to embrace truth?
What if a “truth” impels us to violate an essential element of our self-concept?
Do texts present truths or undermine them?

Major texts:

Miller, Death of a Salesman (modern play)

Plato, “Allegory of the Cave” (theory)

Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” (essay)

Additional works that can be read independently:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western front

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

Unit Project

Review of Personal and Critical Writing Theory (1 week)

Review of teacher-created handouts dealing with personal response to texts writing assignments and with critical/analytical response to literary texts writing assignments. (Samples and models provided and discussed.)

Review editing techniques from teacher-created handouts.

Review of MLA format from MLA Handbook for Writers and from teacher-created handouts.

Review of provincial government scoring descriptors for diploma exams.

Writing AP Style Rubrics – samples, practice assignments and creation of rubrics.

Evaluation: Take-home writing assignments based on Death of a Salesman dealing with a topic such as: Consider how the nature of self-preservation has been reflected and developed in Death of a Salesman. Discuss the ideas developed by Arthur Miller about the role that self-preservation plays when individuals respond to competing demands.

Use provincial government scoring descriptor for peer-evaluation. Revise assignment based on peer feedback, and then submit revised work to teacher.

In-class writing on AP open-ended topic such as: One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in Death of a Salesman struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.

Use the 2006 Form B rubric to score these essays. Special emphasis will be placed on creating a variety of sentence structures, especially subordination and coordination, and effective use of transitions. Students will help each other with revisions before the teacher evaluates them. Teacher comments will encourage a wide variety of vocabulary, a sense of voice, syntactical variations, and an awareness of tone and theme.

Diploma Essay Examination Preparation

Compositions will be peer-edited and/or teacher evaluated based on provincial scoring descriptors.

AP Essay Preparation

2004 AP English Literature and Composition Free Response Question #3

Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes’ observation, write and essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Analyzing Poetry Practice

Unit Three