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Course: AP Literature and CompositionMr. Jason A. Van Engen

2012-2013Phone: (605) 336-3644 (W)

Phone: (605) 759-3914 (M)

Email:

Course Description: This yearlong course prepares students for the AP Literature and Composition exam and follows the curricular requirements described in the AP English Course Description. The curriculum focuses on a variety of genres using works of literary merit from various literary periods.

Analytical reading and writing skills are stressed. Frequent writing assignments include formal essays as well as in-class timed writing. Formal writing assignments include writing to explain, writing to understand, and writing to evaluate. Essay assignments include an essay of extended definition, several comparison/contrast essays, a senior research project, and numerous essays of literary analysis and criticism.

Along with classroom reading assignments, students will also read novels independently and prepare an in-class timed writing based on a writing prompt taken from previous AP exams. The various prompts chosen ask students to analyze characterization, and textual details dealing with structure, style, and themes.

Students keep a reading journal for reaction and response to in-class readings and independent reading. These responses allow students opportunities to interpret literature.

Summer reading and writing are required for this course.

Course Objectives:

  • Make warranted and reasonable assertions about an author’s arguments.
  • Recognize and use literary terms.
  • Apply literary terminology to fiction, drama, and poetry.
  • Annotate a literary text to enhance analytical skills and vocabulary.
  • Analyze different genres of literature, particularly novels, drama, and poetry.
  • Read literary texts closely.
  • Read, understand, and answer timed analytical literary essays.
  • Recognize and assess the elements of different literary genres.
  • Read, draft, edit, and format analytic and research essays.
  • Answer multiple-choice questions similar to those on the Literature and Composition exam.

Evaluation Criteria:

93-100% / A
85-92% / B
77-84% / C
69-76% / D
0-68% / F

Reading Expectations: The reading load in AP Literature and Composition is at a rigorous level. Numerous literary works from different genres and time periods will be used in the course. The reading done in this course builds upon the reading done in previous English courses. Thorough reading of the text is expected. Annotation and close reading of all texts is required, and attention to both textual detail and historical context will help bolster your understanding and interpretation of the given text. As noted in the AP course description guide, close reading involves “the experience of literature, the interpretation of literature, and the evaluation of literature.” All three of these components will be part of our daily reading. Poetry will be taught throughout each unit and woven in to each of the literary works we examine. Likewise, there will be a separate poetry unit as well. The following major literary works will be used within the course of study:

ProseDrama

Native Son by Richard WrightOedipus the King by Sophocles

The Stranger by Albert CamusPygmalion by G.B. Shaw

Heart of Darkness by Joseph ConradThe Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Things Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeHamlet by William Shakespeare

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

“Master Harold” … and the boys by Athol Fugard

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Supplemental Texts

Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Sound and Sense. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.

Elliott, George, et al. Themes in World Literature. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989.

Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Skiba, Laurie, et al. Literature and the Language Arts. St. Paul: EMCParadigm Publishing, 1998.

Writing Expectations:Writing assignments include formal essays (extended definition, comparison/contrast, persuasive research, literary analysis and criticism) as well as frequent timed writings of literary analysis associated with the literature studied in depth in class and the required independent reading. These timed writings are based on past AP prompts. Evaluation of these essays includes a rubric designed to assess how well students perform close textual analysis of structure and style (including analysis of such literary elements as figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone). A reading journal is also used throughout the term for reaction and response to the different structure, style, and themes presented in the literary selections as well as reaction to the social and historical values reflected in the assigned literature.

Evaluation of Writing:

AP English IV is a college level literature and composition class. The following guidelines are used in evaluating all writing assignments for AP English IV.

1)All writing assignments are evaluated for mastery of composition skills using the 6 Trait Writing Rubric which emphasizes ideas and content, sentence fluency, paragraph structure, word choice, organization, and grammar, usage and mechanics.

2)All assignments for formal papers include a specific rubric for evaluation. These rubrics are used throughout the writing process as students self-revise and peer revise. They are also an integral part of the individual conference held with each student prior to submission of a formal writing assignment.

3)Timed writing is scored using a scoring guide similar to that used in the scoring of the AP Literature and Composition essay questions.

Methods of Evaluation:

  • Timed in-class writings with AP style prompt
  • Discussion groups
  • Research essays
  • Literary analysis essays
  • Reading comprehension quizzes
  • Writing and reaction journals
  • Individual student conferencing
  • Formal Examinations

Skills Development: Throughout the course, students will continue to develop reading and writing skills. The following methods will be used to enhance the development of such skills:

  • Vocabulary tied to course literature
  • Word Master passages
  • Analogy practice
  • Reading Strategies: TPCASTT, DIDLS, SOAPStone, Close Reading, SIFT
  • Major Works Data Sheet

Course of Study: Semester One

Unit 1: 6 Trait Writing Review and Instruction(2 Days)

Students will receive instruction in each of the six traits as an introductory unit in conjunction with summer writing submitted for evaluation. Further instruction in each area takes place during individual writing conferences as part of the revision process for each formal writing assignment.

  • Sentence Fluency: Working with sentence variety, subordination and coordination of ideas, and sentence beginnings. Looking at using sentence structure to achieve emphasis.
  • Word Choice: Developing appropriate diction for literary analysis and working with precise word choice in literary analysis writing.
  • Organization: Working with improving coherence through better organization and appropriate transitions. Working with effective transitions and transitional devices for writing.
  • Ideas and Content: Helping students understand the difference between plot summary and analysis to improve support for literary analysis papers. Assisting students with developing essays using specific illustrative details.
  • Voice: Working to establish and maintain voice and to control tone in writing.
  • Conventions: Reviewing appropriate grammar, usage rules, and rules of mechanics.

Unit 2: Suffering and Despair(1 Week)

During the summer months, students read Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold” ... and the boys and Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. The students then wrote a critical, analytical essay based on the following prompt: Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Using “Master Harold” … and the boys and Cry, the Beloved Country, write an essay in which you analyze how the authors use literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the works as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

Required Writing:

  • Students wrote a formal essay based on the aforementioned writing prompt.
  • Students will write in class based on an AP style prompt looking at theme and character development. Students will pay particular attention to how authors attempt to create messages within their writing.

Unit Objectives:

  • Analyze how writers develop characters.
  • Explore internal and external conflict.
  • Create statements of theme.
  • Analyze the impact of a work’s structure on character development and theme.
  • Utilize specific writing techniques.

Required Reading:

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

“Master Harold” … and the boys by Athol Fugard

Selected Poetry

Unit 3: A Look Ahead(2 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will create a résumé, college application essay, letter of recommendation, and college application letter.

Unit Objectives:

  • Build a résumé based on school, work, and religious activities.
  • Enhance writing style to personalize the college application essay.
  • Critically research colleges in order to understand expectations and requirements.

Required Reading:

“How to Shine in Your Application Essay” by Monica Wheeler Dorsey and Manya Chylinski

Unit 4: Kickin’ it Old School(3 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will craft an essay arguing the merits of Oedipus as a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s definition.
  • Students will explore, in a writing assignment, the use of figurative language in Dante’s Inferno explaining the symbolism and comparing and contrasting this with symbolism present in the Catholic Church.
  • Students will develop projects based on Dante’s Inferno creating their own circles of hell. These projects will include an expository essay justifying their creation of the Modern Inferno.

Unit Objectives:

  • Explore the use of figurative language.
  • Compare and contrast Dante’s work to modern belief systems and concepts of sin and retribution.
  • Explore Greek philosophical history.
  • Analyze Aristotle’s definition of the tragic hero.
  • Compare and contrast the elements of Greek theatre with modern theatre

Required Reading:

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Oedipus the King by Sophocles (Independent)

“The Apology” by Plato

“The Death of Socrates” by Plato

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Unit 5: Rights, Racism, and Reality(3 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Initially, students will be given an impromptu timed-written definition response.
  • Students will write a formal definition essay on an abstract term associated with Richard Wright’s novel Native Son. We will have a writing workshop day where both the students and teacher work to increase vocabulary included within the essay.

Unit Objectives:

  • Develop a full understanding of an abstract term and be able to explain what it means.
  • Students will learn to effectively peer-edit and provide feedback to fellow learners.
  • Analyze poems about race, despair, and hopelessnessto identify tone, mood, and theme.

Required Reading:

Native Son by Richard Wright

Selected Poetry

Unit 6: Research Writing(4 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will submit an 8-12 page persuasive research paper with MLA documentation. The process of creating this paper will involve the teacher giving formative feedback to the student as they progress through the unit.
  • Students will complete a timed, in-class writing paying close attention to the social, historical, and cultural values of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

Unit Objectives:

  • Explore nonfiction writing.
  • Explore information sources.
  • Determine credibility of sources.
  • Create valid thesis.
  • Analyze and synthesize research material to create unique perspective.
  • Utilize correct documentation form.
  • Analyze Steinbeck’s novel for style, details, imagery, symbolism, and tone to help critically evaluate writer’s own areas of strength and weakness.

Required Reading:

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Independent)

Unit 7: A World at War(3 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will write an interpretation of several war poems. They will pay particular attention to figurative language as well as the artistry and quality established throughout.
  • Students will prepare an in-class timed response to an AP style question that deals with Remarque’s novel.

Unit Objectives:

  • Recognize the relationship between literature and the history of wars.
  • Evaluate bias in writing about wars and conflict.
  • Analyze the use of different literary genres dealing with similar subject matter.
  • Interpret poetry that specifically deals with war.

Required Reading:

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Selected War Poetry

End of Semester One

Course of Study: Semester Two

Unit 8: Something Wilde(2 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will write an essay explaining the movement of Aestheticism and exploring the philosophy of Aestheticism using the novel and play of Wilde.

Unit Objectives:

  • Develop an understanding of aestheticism and its impact on writing.
  • Evaluate the influence of Romantic poets on Victorian Aestheticism.
  • Consider the social, historical, and cultural values of Wilde and his contemporaries.

Required Reading:

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Independent)

Selected Romantic Poetry

Unit 9: Suffering and Evil(2 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will complete a timed in-class analysis that asks them to interpret the text of McCarthy based on gender, ethics, and morality.

Unit Objectives:

  • Develop an understanding of contemporary writing.
  • Evaluate the influence of past writers on contemporary authors.
  • Consider the social, historical, and cultural values of individuals in the Southwest.

Required Reading:

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Selected Poetry

Unit 10: A Taste of Shakespeare(3 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will write a formal analysiseither defending or refutingHamletas a tragic hero based on Aristotle’s definition of the tragic hero.
  • Students will rewrite soliloquies from Hamlet, paraphrasing them and translating them into modern English.

Unit Objectives:

  • Compare Elizabethan theater to Greek theater.
  • Compare and contrast the structures of Greek and Shakespearean plays.
  • Determine if the character Hamlet fits the characteristics of an Aristotelian tragic hero.
  • Explore the literary techniques of puns, double entendre, soliloquy, asides, and allusion.
  • Compare and contrast the plays Hamlet and Macbeth (sophomore reading).
  • Explore the life and times of Shakespeare.
  • Analyze Elizabethan poetry and Shakespearean sonnets for poetic devices.
  • Appreciate and understand Shakespeare’s language by paraphrasing the soliloquies in Hamlet.

Required Reading:

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Selected Elizabethan Poetry

Unit 11: Watch Your Head! (3 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will complete a timed in-class analysis that asks them to interpret the text of Dickens based on the social, cultural, and historical values of the time period.

Unit Objectives:

  • Develop an understanding for absurdist writing.
  • Learn about the French revolution through Dickens’ novel and personal research.
  • Compare the writing styles of authors.
  • Analyze sensory details used by authors.
  • Rate the effectiveness of duality within the literary experience.

Required Reading:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Independent)

Selected Poetry

Unit 12: Into Africa(3 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will write a compare and contrast essay interpreting the authorial commentary on the African people.

Unit Objectives:

  • Craft a well-written compare and contrast essay.
  • Evaluate textual details to find an author’s tone.
  • Understand the concept of the frame story.
  • Compare styles, structures, and themes of authors writing about similar topics.

Required Reading:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Independent)

Selected Poetry

Unit 13: What Women Want(2 Weeks)

Required Writing:

  • Students will write a formal analysis regarding the characterization of minor characters used within either The Bell Jar or Pygmalion

Unit Objectives:

  • Analyze author’s use of symbolism, characterization, exaggeration.
  • Analyze literary devices.
  • Investigate literature as extension of author.
  • Recognize differences between authorial bias in gender.

Required Reading:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Pygmalion by G.B. Shaw (Independent)

Selected Poetry

Unit 14: Poetry!(1 Week)

Required Writing:

  • Students will complete several AP style poetry writing prompts throughout the unit.

Unit Objectives:

  • Develop an understanding of the following terms associated with poetry: tone, speaker, language, imagery, symbolism, style, rhythm, sound, sonnet, epigram, ode, elegy, allusion, theme, structure, irony, mood, metaphor, simile, personification, connotation, denotation, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, couplet, ballad, free verse, foot, stanza, situation.
  • Analyze poetry for artistic quality.
  • Utilize close reading techniques for poetry to prepare for AP examination.
  • Analyze poetry using the TPCASTT model.

Required Reading from the following:

“Sonnet 73” by William Shakespeare, “Virtue” by George Herbert, “Song” by Edmund Waller, “To Death” by Anne Finch, “Death be not Proud” by John Donne, “Well, I Have Lost You” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Oven Bird” by Robert Frost, “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter” by John Crowe Ransom, “In Memory of Danny L.” by Maxine Kumin, “Auto Wreck” by Karl Shapiro, “Dolor” by Theodore Roethke, “Promises Like Pie-Crust” by Christina Rossetti, “Eve” by Ralph Hodgson, “Mosquito” by John Updike, “The Sound of Night” by Maxine Kumin, “Five O’Clock Shadow” by Sir John Betjeman, and selected other poems

*AP Examination – Thursday, May 9, 2013

End of Semester Two

Other Assignments for the Course:

Performance Review: Once each semester students will be required to write a 1.5-2 page performance review of one of the novels read in class. The instructor will show a film version of the following works on an evening during the course of the unit. If a student is unable to attend, the student is responsible for securing a copy of the film from a local video rental store. This is an opportunity for a student to critically evaluate an interpretation of one of the works used in class.

Semester One:Semester Two:

The Grapes of WrathThe Importance of Being Earnest