Advanced Placement Literature and Composition

Cameron Murray

Room 3-104 (305) 293-1549 Ext. 411

Key West High School 2700 Flagler Avenue Key West, Florida 33040

Class Website:

Office hours: Tuesdays, 2:30-3:00pm

Tutorial Sessions: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11:10-11:25am

Course Description

This college-level literature experience will engage the student in careful reading andexamination of an exigent set of literary works, encompassing anarrayof literary genres from British and American Literature. Following the curriculum requirements specified in the AP Literature and Composition Course Description (with the exception of the Summer Reading Assignment), the class is structured chronologically and by genre. Throughout the course, students will examine the readingscritically,write perceptively, and develop analytical skills for interpreting a diverse collection of novels, short stories, poems, and plays, in successful preparation for the AP Literature and Composition Exam administered in May.

NMSI: As part our affiliation with the National Institute of Math and Science (NMSI), you are expected to attend the study/review sessions facilitated by the Institute.

Reading Objectives

The AP LiteratureReader will:

  • Experience, interpret, and evaluate the elements of different literary genresworks from the canon of British and American Literature.
  • Meticulously annotate a literary piece, appraising the work for style, tone, themes, imagery, symbolism, and other literary characteristics.
  • Develop analytical reading skills to draw conclusions, form opinions, and interpret a work’s multiple meanings.
  • Draw inferences such as conclusions, generalizations, and predictions and support them with text evidence and both academic and personal experience.
  • Identify the historical context and human condition that influence a literary work.
  • Recognizea literary work’s power and complexity.
  • Understand and absorb the sumptuousness of the author’s purpose and significance.
  • Think reflectively about the reading and establish connections to other works and to their own lives.
  • Profoundly experience the artistic merits of a work from British and American Literature

Writing Objectives

The AP Literature Writer will:

  • Explore the ideas of others in both informal and formal writing.
  • Organize, draft, and edit a critical analysis of a literary work, in formaland informal timed essays.
  • Employ learned writing skills and sophisticated vocabulary.
  • Utilize literary terminology to interpret and evaluatepoetry, fiction, and drama.
  • Demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English, with proper sentence structure, diction, and syntax.
  • Write rationally, articulately, and with unity of ideas, submitting drafts of writing to peers and the instructor for feedback, comment, and review.
  • Develop an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, and establishing and maintainingvoice.
  • Communicate effectively through formal and informal expository, analytical, argumentative, and creative writing essays.

Instructional Purpose

Upon successful completion of this course, the AP Literature student will be able to:

  • Identify and appraise the essentials of different literary genres.
  • Develop analytical and critical reading strategies and exercisesuitable vocabulary to comprehend a variety of demanding and complicated texts.
  • Analyze and interpret high-quality writing, while successfully identifying an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.
  • Analyze how a writer’s tone and voice effect audiences’ perception of the writer.
  • Compare another writer’s viewpoint against personal experience and the experience of others.
  • Write well-focused and logically organized essays, using introductions, discussion, and conclusions in which the relationship of ideas to the thesis and to one another is cohesive.
  • Develop essays that proceed from exploration and discovery, through drafting, peer review, revision and editing, proofreading, and final submission.
  • Develop and organize essays using evidence that may include examples, illustration, and research to support ideas with appropriate citations.
  • Work effectively and collaboratively with other writers to evaluate and revise essays, sharing work-in-process and providing constructive feedback to others according to established guidelines and AP Literature Scoring Rubrics, and the revision ofwork according to peer and instructor feedback.
  • Master an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure.
  • Value challenging points of view through reading and writing.
  • Work independently and with others to solve a range of intellectual problems.
  • Learn literary reading and writing skills and knowledge through a variety of instructional modes.
  • Communicate their understanding of literature by numerous means, including other media.
  • Monitor, evaluate, and reflect on their own performance and progress towards goals.
  • Make connections to what they learn today to their other studies, globally, and to themselves.
  • Understand how literature reflects its historical and cultural development and ways in which it has had an impact on the society that produced it as well as to the present society.

Course Standards

Aligned with AP Literature and Composition Course Description and the Florida Sunshine State Standards.

Major Novels, Poems, and Plays

Anna in the Tropics, Nilo Cruz

Dreaming in Cuban, Christina Garcia

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Medea, Euripides

Othello, William Shakespeare

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

The Kite Runner, Khalad Hosseini

The Round House, Louise Erdritch

The Stranger, Albert Camus

Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

Additional Teacher Resources

  • Applied Practice multiple choice questions and essay prompts for various individual texts
  • Released AP Literature and Composition examinations, AP Scoring Rubrics

Class Materials

Three-Ringed Binder (sleeves and pockets)

Composition Notebooks for novel and poetry journaling

Writing Utensils

Learning Units

Summer Reading (Literary Merit)

Texts:(Student selected)

Essential Question: What is the definition of Literary Merit?

Key Explorations:

Genre study: In medias re, bildungsroman, flashback, foreshadow, irony, allusion, conflict, and imagery. This will be the beginning of your Literary Terms list to be used throughout the year

AP Lit. Essay: (selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

AP Literature ClassIntroduction

Key Explorations:

The AP Exam components, active reading strategies, overview of genre study, The AP writing style, literary terms, class discussion format, sample AP Exam Scoring, assessment guidelines, introduction to class journal, pacing for the AP exam, SAT vocabulary, Poetry 180, A.Word.A.Day, and AP Exam Multiple Choice samples.

Resources:

AP Lit. Course Description:

AP Lit. Exam Format:

Poetry 180:

SAT Vocabulary Quizzes:

Poetry Unit

Texts:Poetry selections from the following anthologies will be used:

The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 8th Edition

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volumes 1 and 2

Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound & Sense, 9th Edition

Poetry selections will also be taken from released AP Literature and Composition exams and Poetry 180 web site.

Essential Question:How can poetry be defined?

This Unit will explore Poetry from Medieval (Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Beowulf), Renaissance (William Shakespeare), 17th and 18th Century (John Donne, Alexander Pope,and William Blake), 19th Century (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron,

Robert Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth), and 20th Century and Contemporary (Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Elizabeth Bishop, E. E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Edward Housman, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sylvia Plath, Robert Penn Warren, William Butler Yeats). Throughout the year, poetry will also be studied that coincides with the larger Learning Units taken from the required texts. Students will interpret, analyze, and reflect on the selection, and be prepared to deliver presentations explicating the poetry considered.

Key Explorations:

Open and closed form, Narrative, Epic, Ballad, Sonnet, Lyric, Romantic, Dark Poetry, Metaphysical poetry, Poetic structure- rhythm, meter, Poetic Devices- symbol, imagery, word choice, sound, Poetic Analysis- TPCASTT and SOAPS process.

AP Lit. Essay: (selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

Greek Mythology and Drama

Texts:Medea, Euripides

Poetics, Aristotle

Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

Essential Question:Is Medea aclassic tragic hero or victim of society/What do the character’s lives say about human desire?

Key Explorations:

Structure and elements of Drama, unity, Freytag Pyramid, and themes- mythological allusions, quest for power, tragic flaw, fate, truth, desire for control, revenge, and women in Greek society, Old South vs New South.

AP Lit. Essay:(selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

Shakespearean Tragedy and Comedy

Texts:King Lear, William Shakespeare

Macbeth, William Shakespeare

Othello, William Shakespeare

Essential Question:What are the roles of love and jealousy in our lives?

Key Explorations:

Shakespearean language, subject-verb-object flexibility, and themes- power, parent-child relationships, madness vs. reason, paradox, subplot, love, suffering, marriage, class, roles, and disguise.

AP Lit. Essay:(selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

Romance, Gothic and the Courageous Soul

Texts:Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen

Essential Questions:To what extent is a person limited by the social class into which he or she is born? Is inhumanity a necessary by-product of progress?

Key Explorations:

Irony, self-discovery, symbolism, imagery, and themes- solitude, alienation, independence, societal definitions and rank, femininity, lies, deceit, and selfishness,

Review/collection of Frankenstein annotations, Author introduction/genre study- Gothic Literature, Dark Poetry, themes, motifs, narrative perspective, foreshadowing, science and invention, allusion, imagery, frame story, and the epistolary novel.

AP Lit. Essay:(selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

The Darker Side of Humanity

Texts:The Stranger, Albert Camus

No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre

Essential Question:How should communities with different values resolve disagreements and when they meet one another?

Key Explorations:

Dramatic irony, frame narrative, existentialism, absurdity, setting, Avante Garde, and themes- politics, sense of community, internal conflict, racial tension,tone, and cynicism.

AP Lit. Essay: (selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

Contemporary Literature, Drama, and Foreign Voices

Texts:The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Dreaming in Cuban, Christina Garcia

Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel

Anna in the Tropics, Nilo Cruz

The Round House, Louise Erdritch

Essential Question:How do people adapt to foreign surroundings and still maintain their own culture?

Key Explorations:

Themes- family, tradition, cultural identity, assimilation, duty, responsibility, violence vs. reason, man vs. machine, and industrial progress.

AP Lit. Essay:(selected from released AP Literature and Composition Exams)

Short Stories

Throughout the year, smaller short story readings will be incorporated in the weekly lessons to explore the short story as a genre, and for students to further develop and practice reading and writing analytical skills. These are selected for study of genre, plot, character, setting, themes, point of view, style, tone, literary devices, and figurative language.

Various selections and passages from released AP Literature and Composition Exams.

Independent Novel/Play Study

Suggested Titles:

Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood

1984, George Orwell

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Color Purple, Alice Walker

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston

*Other Titles TBA

AP Lit. Exam review

All novels and reading material will be explicitly re-examined for the AP Literature and Composition test. Students will practice on both prose and poetry reading selections for multiple-choice tests and for timed writings. Multiple choice test answers will be reviewed, discussed, and explained. Major novels and plays from previous years that may be helpful on the open essay will be reviewed for basic themes, techniques, characters, and setting.

After the Test- Final AP Projects

The final unit of this course will be a self-selected novel, in which the student will explore, analyze, and review one classic and one contemporary novel from popular literary culture. The instructor will provide a sample book list, or the student may select another book- with instructor approval. The student will prepare a class presentation of the author, historical context, public response, and visual representations of the piece. The assignment will also require a written assessment of the work’s strengths, weaknesses, and literary value. These projects are expected to demonstrate critical thinking, and writing skills that have been mastered over the past year in AP English, and reflect the maturity and time-management skills that the students will need as they move on to university and college level studies.

Class Activities

Class activities will include:

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  • Text annotations.
  • Introduction of new literary terminology and critical methodologies.
  • In-depth discussion of the literary works.
  • Literary analysis and explication.
  • Research and discussion of historical and social significances in a written work.
  • Compare/share individual writing responses.
  • Classdiscussions/Socraticseminars.
  • Peer-edit/review of writing assignments.
  • Poem and or/prose dramatic readings.
  • Reading quizzes.
  • Vocabulary development.
  • Dialectical journals.
  • Student-directed lessons/presentations.
  • Class web-site blog postings.
  • Teacher/student conferencing about students’ work.
  • Visual/audio representations.
  • Creative writing.
  • Acting presentations.
  • Portfolio organization.
  • A.Word.A.Day and Poetry 180.
  • AP Lit. Multiples Choice and Essay practice.

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Students are expected to fully participate in all class discussions and activities intelligently and respectfullyembodying a free exchange of ideas, The student will learn to value challenging points of view through reading and writing, using available reading and writing assistance from the instructor and their peers.

Assessments

Small free-write assignments will be frequent, providing the student the opportunity to demonstrate their general understanding of a written work. With instructor and peer feedback, these may be developed into larger essays or used for class discussion. Larger writing assignments will have a specific scoring rubric, which will be reviewed and discussed with the student before the first draft is due. This draft will be examined by the instructor to evaluate and comment and returned to the student for further revision. The instructor will carefully analyze these drafts; highlightingevidence of a clear thesis and sustainable argument, correct grammar usage, competent paragraphs, appropriate sentence structure and variety, advanced vocabulary practice, avoidance of repetition, logical paragraph transitions, overall cohesiveness, persuasiveness of argument, suitable supporting evidence from the text, literary connections, and maintaining an established voice. The student will then proceed through a peer-edit process and revision before final submission to the teacher. The final Learning Unitessay will be graded using AP Literature and Composition scoring rubrics (1-9 grading scale), as well as other scoring guidelines.Timed-essays will also be scored using the AP Literature and Composition scoring rubrics (1-9 grading scale). After each essay, the work will require a brief, one-page narrative reflection, evaluating it based the grading rubric and commenting on the strengths and weaknesses displayed in the piece. This will assist the student in writing goals for the next essay cycle.

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition

Cameron Murray Room 3-104 (305) 293-1549 Ext. 411

Key West High School 2700 Flagler Avenue Key West, Florida 33040

Class Website:

Dear Parent or Guardian,

I am looking forward to working with you and your child this year in an exciting course! Please contact me at the above email if you have any concerns or are curious about our work. You may view our schedule and assignments online at Your child will use this site extensively to retrieve makeup work and to post assignments. Supplies for the course needed:

  • Three-Ringed Binder (sleeves and pockets)
  • Composition Notebook (1 for starters, additional if necessary)
  • Writing Utensils (pens, pencils, Yellow highlighters)

I ask that you review the course syllabus, taking note of the reading material and requirements. Occasionally we will view a film version of these readings and I ask you to sign the form below giving your child permission to view the films and to confirm your understanding of the course requirements.

Thank you, Cameron Murray

I have reviewed the course syllabus, and give my daughter or son permission to view the films related to the course content.

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