Course Overview and Expectations: After Completing British Literature and AP Language

Course Overview and Expectations:
After completing British literature and AP Language and Composition and/or American literature, AP English Literature students are now ready to embark upon a journey into literature and the human condition that reflects the social, cultural and historical values of literature written from the 16th Century to the present.

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition is designed to teach college-level writing and critical literary analysis through a variety of methods, including speaking, listening, reading, and—primarily—writing. The course follows the curriculum requirements described in the AP English Course Description and requires that students thoroughly and closely examine texts. AP English Literature requires a strong work ethic, perseverance, patience, and positive thinking. Students are expected to complete assignments; readings, both ongoing independent readings as well as in-class; independent study; participate individually and in groups; and give individual and group presentations.

Course Management

In college, late work is unacceptable. AP classes are considered college classes; therefore, falling behind in AP Literature is unacceptable. When it happens, students miss important discussions and activities based on the assignments. Out of class assignments should be completed on time unless there is a serious situation. They can always be emailed to me. If such a situation arises, it is the responsibility of the student to let me know ASAP. If a student misses an in-class assignment, it is the responsibility of the student to arrange when they will make it up. Do not delay as the work shall pile up.

• Attendance is mandatory. It is only through class participation that students will improve their reading and writing skills.
• Be prepared for each class. Look ahead for due dates, and come to class with the appropriate text(s), assignment(s), notebooks, pen/pencil, and paper.
• Coming to class with the reading assignment completed and any reading notes prepared is essential to a literature class. Reading checks can happen for any reading assignment and are not excused if you are not prepared as all reading due dates are posted well in advance of the actual date.
• On the day work is due and you know you will be absent, make a prior arrangement for handing in this work. If you sign up to present on a certain day, make sure you’re there!
• If student requires an extension, student must discuss extension with teacher and then inform via formal email both teacher and parent the reason for extension and the new due date.
• Daily agendas, upcoming assignments, and notes will be posted on the class’s Phoenix website. There is no excuse for not knowing what is going on.
• Make sure you read directions carefully and clarify anything you are unsure of before the due date. Once an assignment is turned, you cannot come to me and say, “Oh, but I forgot that part, can I just add it now.” No, you may not.

Assessments and Grading

As per LCHS policy, a student’s grade is determined by mastery of the material.

• Formative Assessments –0% of a student’s quarter grade
  Formative assessments are practice activities such as classwork and homework. They will be collected and/or checked for accuracy with feedback given. If a student does not complete them, he or she will not get the requisite practice and feedback that contributes to mastery of the class material as assessed on summative assessments. If a student does not complete and meet the deadlines for Formative assessments, then student may not be given an extension if desired. These assessments will be graded on a point system.
• Summative Assessments—100% of a student’s quarter grade
  Summative assessments are activities such as quizzes, tests, essays, writing assignments, projects, and oral reports. Students will be notified ahead of time when an assessment is summative. These assessments determine a student’s mastery of the material. All summative assessments will be graded. These assessments will be graded using a point system, with larger assignments worth more points. For instance, a reading quiz might be worth 30 points while an essay would be worth 100 points. All literary analysis essays, whether in-class, timed, journal, or multi-draft, will be graded using the AP Literature and Composition Scoring Rubric. It is a 9 point scale and can be viewed on the class website on Phoenix.
• No extra credit will be given on assignments turned in late. Extra credit is only available on a few assignments.
• Multi-part assignments (essays, novel reading logs, novel reading notes, etc.) – The expectation is that all sub-deadlines will be met. If any sub-deadlines are missed, the student will not have the opportunity to redo the assignment or fix any part of the assignment.
• For timed writings – If a student misses an in-class writing, students needs to arrange a time to make up the missed writing as soon as possible.

Loudoun County High School Grading and Assessment Practices

1. Late work will be accepted to document learning without grade penalty provided the student completes the daily formative or mini summative work and progress checks built into the unit plan leading up to the cumulative summative learning experience due date.
2. If a student completes daily work leading up to the due date and needs an extension, he/she must meet with the teacher in person to discuss the need driving the request.
3. In addition, the teacher and student must agree upon the extended due date and commit to it in writing.
4. Work submitted on time and/or at the agreed upon extension will be graded for full credit.
5. Students must turn in work completed "to date" at the meeting with their teacher to arrange the extension.
6. If the student fails to meet the agreed upon extended due date, the work submitted at the time when the extension was granted will be graded and entered into the grade book for the summative learning experience.

Phoenix
Grades will be posted in Phoenix. Once the parent portal is open, students and parents can access grades through it. Notice that if the assignment is turned in or not shall be posted within a class or two. The grades for most assignments will be posted within 10 school days of collection of the assignment. Some essay grades may be posted up to three weeks after submission.

Academic Honesty

The goal of this course is to prepare students for the AP exam and for college-level English. “Getting the right answer” is less important than going through the process of finding that answer. Using outside sources is not allowed for free response journals. This is because on the AP exam, students must analyze literature without the use of any material beyond the literature. Outside sources will be allowed for long-term, multi-draft essays. When outside sources are allowed, students must properly cite all information used that came from any source other than the student. Students should get used to printing and annotating these sources (as should be done in college) to insure they will attribute proper credit to each source, rather than simply using a computer’s “copy” and “paste” functions. Directly copying the work of another author, another student, or another source without giving credit; or paraphrasing (putting into one’s own words) the ideas of another source without giving credit to that source constitute academic dishonesty. If a student plagiarizes, I notify the parent. I examine each plagiarism case individually and determine if the student should have the opportunity to re-do the assignment based on the circumstances. If a student plagiarizes a second time, they earn a zero on that assignment and the main office and parents are notified. It is better to receive a late grade and do the work for oneself than to take a shortcut by plagiarizing, receiving a zero.

Required Materials

• Binder or multi-pocket accordion file (Understand there will be many notes and many handouts in this class, so you must have a method to keep it all organized.)
• Pen – all collected assignments must be in pen and the AP exams must be in pen.
• Paper
• Whichever piece of literature is being studied that day. This class requires close reading and quoting of literature in order to have success; if you do not have the literature with you, you will struggle.

Writing Expectations
Students will write to understand, explain, and evaluate. Writing in this course will include free response journals, timed (in-class) writings, creative writing to practice techniques authors use, and writing and revising formal essays. While types of writing in this course will vary, all writing assignments require students to understand a literary piece, evaluate the effectiveness of the piece, and explain their opinions. Timed writings are an important component of the AP exam. Students will learn to score timed writings according to an AP rubric and will work towards improving their own timed writing.

Reading Expectations
Literature includes a survey of American, British, and world selections in a variety of genres. Students will focus on literary analysis, considering literary terms and other elements (historical, social, and biographical context as appropriate) to interpret an author’s meaning and style. The most important requirement of this course is that students keep up with assigned texts by reading carefully, thoroughly, and on-time. Students need to plan for the required out-of-class reading, especially when reading novels and longer works. Even poetry, though short, requires careful attention to details and should be read at least twice.

Textbooks

Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia, Eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 13th Edition. Pearson, 2016.

Novels and plays will include (selection will vary as books are available):

• The Things They Carried (O’Brien)
• The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
• Ethan Frome (Wharton)
• Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)
• Othello/Hamlet (Shakespeare)
• Death of a Salesman (Miller)
• Waiting for Godot (Beckett)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston)
• The Life of Pi (Martel)
• The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

Students are encouraged to purchase their own copies of the novels that are assigned. Annotating is a useful skill used in college; owning their own copies will allow them to practice the skill this year.

FINAL THOUGHTS

You will achieve success in this class by completing all the assignments, coming to class prepared, participating in class discussions and activities, and meeting with me to review your writing.

To that end, I will be available in room 214 most mornings by 8:30 and most days after school. I have the first half of period 2, and periods 4 and 5 for planning, so I can meet with students then if they arrange ahead of time to do so.

AP Literature and Composition Course Requirements

These requirements can be seen in the online copy of the syllabus which is available on the class website on Phoenix.

AP Literature and Composition Course Requirements

SC1 The course includes an intensive study of representative works such as those by authors cited in the AP English Course Description. By the time the student completes English Literature and Composition, he or she will have studied during high school literature from both British and American writers, as well as works written in several genres from the sixteenth century to contemporary times.

SC2 The course teaches students to write an interpretation of a piece of literature that is based on a careful observation of textual details, considering such elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.

SC3 The course teaches students to write an interpretation of a piece of literature that is based on a careful observation of textual details, considering the work’s structure, style and themes.

SC4 The course teaches students to write an interpretation of a piece of literature that is based on a careful observation of textual details, considering the work’s social, cultural and/or historical values.

SC5 The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and rewrite timed, in-class responses.

SC6 The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and rewrite formal, extended analyses outside of class.

SC7 The course requires writing to understand: Informal/exploratory writing activities that enable students to discover what they think in the process of writing about their reading [such assignments could include annotation, free writing, keeping a reading journal, reaction/response papers, and/or dialectical notebooks].

SC8 The course requires writing to explain: Expository, analytical essays in which students draw upon textual details to develop an extended interpretation of a literary text.

SC9 The course requires writing to evaluate: Analytical, argumentative essays in which students draw upon textual details to make and explain judgments about a work’s artistry and quality.

SC10 The course requires writing to evaluate: Analytical, argumentative essays in which students draw upon textual details to make and explain judgments about a work’s social, historical and/or cultural values.

SC11 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that help the students develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately.

SC12 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that help the students develop a variety of sentence structures.

SC13 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that help the students develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence. Such techniques may include traditional rhetorical structures, graphic organizers, and work on repetition, transitions, and emphasis.

SC14 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and after they revise their work that help the students develop a balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail.

SC15 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and after they revise their work that help the students establish an effective use of rhetoric including controlling tone and a voice appropriate to the writer’s audience.