Michael Mayo

734.783.3333 x2872

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.(C.S. Lewis)

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition is a year-long course designed to provide high school students a college level literature course and prepare them to take the AP Literature and Composition test in the spring. More importantly, it is a class designed to allow students to read and analyze literature more deeply than they have before, to provide students a lens to decipher how writers use language to explore and make meaning of the world, and to help students recognize how history, culture, and philosophy impact works of literature. Furthermore, students will focus on the explication of literature through composition.

Expectations

I'm not shy about heated debate or passionate discourse, but when people get crazy or rude, that's a buzz kill. There's got to be a better code of conduct, some basic etiquette. (Mos Def)

  • Be respectful
  • Be on time
  • Be prepared

Respect is a vital part of education. So is risk-taking. The greatest education takes place when students feel that they can take intellectual risks while feeling respected and supported. Much of the class takes place in class discussions. Students will be expected to take part in the discourse without fear of ridicule or being wrong. Indeed, learning takes place when one has constructed a new understanding out of fallacious one.

Students who have elected and been accepted into the course have proven that they are not only able to do the work, but that they are willing to work independently with challenging ideas and tasks. Students are expected to complete these tasks on time. When this is impossible, extensions are available, but only when the students approach the teacher prior to a due date. Work that is submitted late will be evaluated, but for less credit or no credit. The exception is the summer reading, which must be submitted in order for students to receive credit for the first semester.

To complete a college course, a student must be organized. Students will keep athree-ring binder for class with sections for:

  • daily entries in which students will record a vocabulary word and compose a sentence using it, record an objective for the day, respond to a journal prompt and take any necessary notes.
  • poetry
  • impromptu essays and AP practice
  • returned essays
  • returned assignments.

Speaking of office supplies, students will be expected to write essays in ink on the AP exam, so they should get in the habit of writing in ink in class (pencils are for drawing).

Technology

Technology is just a tool. (Bill Gates)

Cell phones are ubiquitous. The challenge is to use them appropriately and respectfully. They are not banned from the classroom, however they need to be used in ways that add to the classroom experience. Studies suggest that students who engage with their cell phone during school hours fare worse than those who do not.

Students will be using a number of web services in class. Students will be expected to create accounts for:

● - all formal essays will be submitted and checked for plagiarism

○3rd hour class id: 13382875

○4thhour class id:13382889

○6th hour class id: 13382899

○enrollment password: Shakespeare

●Remind:

●

Texts

This is the most intimate relationship between literature and its readers: they treat the text as a part of themselves, as a possession. (RyszardKapuscinski)

The following texts will be used in class:

The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

While copies of these texts will be distributed in class, many students choose to obtain personal copies in order to annotate them directly.

Course Outline

The following course outline is tentative and may be revised at any time.

Pre-course work

See the summer reading assignment distributed last spring. The assignment is due 9/7.

Semester 1 (19 weeks)

Date / Topics / Reading and major assignments due
9/5 / Labor Day – No School
9/6 / Introductions
Syllabus
Poetry
College entrance essay
9/7 / Writing the narrative (college entrance) essay / Summer reading assignment
College essay prompt
9/8 / AP practice test (M.C.)
9/9 / Revision / 1st draft college essay
9/12 / King Lear and the Renaissance
Act 1, scene 1 / Final draft college essay
9/13 / Poetry
Essay conferencing
9/14 / King Lear
Essay conferencing / KL 1.1-1.3
9/15 / Practice AP mc review
Essay conferencing
9/16 / King Lear
Essay conferencing / KL 1.4-1.5
9/19 / King Lear / KL 2.1-2.2
Practice AP multiple choice corrections
9/20 / Poetry
9/21 / King Lear / KL 2.3-2.4
9/22 / Dissection of an AP prompt
9/23 / King Lear / KL 3.1-3.5
9/26 / King Lear / KL 3.6-3.7
9/27 / Poetry
9/28 / King Lear / KL 4.1-4.4
9/29 / Meet with counseling
9/30 / King Lear
Homecoming / KL 4.5-4.7
10/3 / King Lear
10/4 / Poetry: Sonnets and sonnet structure
10/5 / King Lear / KL Act 5
10/6 / King Lear translation project/structure of the AP essay
10/7 / King LearExam
10/10 / Sonnet presentations / King Lear essay
Sonnet presentations
10/11 / Sonnet presentations / Sonnet presentations
10/12 / Sonnet presentations / Sonnet presentations
10/13 / Sonnet presentations / Sonnet presentations
10/14 / King Lear translation project / Sonnet presentations
10/17 / King Lear translation project
10/18 / Poetry Tuesday
10/19 / Great Expectations and the Victorian Period
10/20 / The AP Essay prompt: an archetype
10/21 / AP Practice essay
10/24 / King Lear Translation Projects / King Lear Translation Projects
10/25 / King Lear Translation Projects / King Lear Translation Projects
10/26 / King Lear Translation Projects / King Lear Translation Projects
10/27 / AP multiple choice poetry
10/28 / Great Expectations / GE ch.1-5
10/31 / Halloween
Great Expectations / EC Dress as your favorite literary character
GE ch.6-10
11/1 / Poetry
11/2 / Great Expectations / GE ch.11-14
11/3 / Short story analysis
11/4 / Great Expectations / GE ch.15-18
11/7 / Great Expectations / GE ch.19-23
Binders due
11/8 / No School – Election Day / Vote
11/9 / Great Expectations / GE ch.24-29
11/10 / Quack Vocab – Vocab project (Due date?)
Half Day – Parent/Teacher Conferences
11/11 / Great Expectations / GE ch.30-34
11/14 / Great Expectations / GE ch.35-39
11/15 / Poetry
11/16 / Great Expectations / GE ch.40-44
11/17 / AP practice essay
11/18 / Great Expectations / GE ch.45-49
11/21 / Great Expectations / GE ch.50-53
11/22 / Poetry
11/23 / ½ day
11/24 / Happy Thanksgiving
11/25 / No school
11/28 / Great Expectations / GE ch.54-end
11/29 / Poetry
11/30 / Great Expectations
12/1 / Great Expectations
12/2 / Great Expectations test
12/5 / Research
12/6 / Poetry
12/7 / Research / A Thousand Acres chapter 1
12/8 / AP practice essay
12/9 / Research
12/12 / A Thousand Acres / ATA Book 1
12/13 / Poetry
12/14 / A Thousand Acres
12/15 / AP multiple choice short fiction
12/16 / A Thousand Acres / ATA Book 2
12/19 / A Thousand Acres / Great Expectations research paper due
12/20 / Poetry
12/21 / AP multiple choice
12/22 / A Thousand Acres / ATA Book 3
12/23 / A Thousand Acres
12/26-1/7 Christmas Break
1/9 / A Thousand Acres / ATA Book 4
1/10 / Poetry
1/11 / A Thousand Acres
1/12 / AP multiple choice
1/13 / A Thousand Acres / ATA Book 5
1/16 / A Thousand Acres / ATA Book 6
1/17 / Poetry
1/18 / AP practice essay
1/19 / A Thousand Acres test
1/20 / AP practice multiple choice
1/23 / A Thousand Acres essay
1/24 / AP practice multiple choice
1/25-1/27 Final Exams, binders due

Weekly Schedule

The majority of the week will be devoted to discussion of literature and composition instruction. Specifically, Tuesdays will be spent on poetry and Thursdays will alternate between impromptu composition and multiple choice analysis.

Assignments

All extended texts will conclude with a formal essay submitted on turnitin.com and in class.

In addition to other assignments, students will have digital assignments due at some point during the semester on mrmayo.com. Students will complete and post an analysis of a poem and five comments in response to prompts posed by the teacher. Poem analyses will be due on the Friday of the assigned week and prompts for comments will be posted on the Friday of each week.

The final exam for the first semester will be a practice AP test, and students will be evaluated on the growth from a pretest given in September to the final given in January.

Grading and Assignment Procedures

Grades will be assigned through performance on reading and vocabulary quizzes, tests, timed and untimed essays, and independent and group projects.

The grading breakdown is as follows:

Formal Essays: 35%

Projects: 18%

Tests and Quizzes: 12%

Binder: 10%

Assignments: 10%

Digital Participation: 5%

Final Exam: 10%

Due to the amount of paperwork generated in the English Language Arts classroom, papers will not be returned the day after they are submitted, for it is not possible to give each student the respect that he or she deserves in one evening. Consequently, in MiStar, a place holder with a score of 1 or 0 will be entered that will indicate whether or not the student has submitted his or her assignment. After all of the papers are evaluated, the actual assignment will appear on MiStar.

The Test

On Wednesday, May 3rd, at 8 am, students will have the opportunity to take the AP Literature and Composition test. The cost is 93 dollars, which should not be seen as an impediment as there are accommodations for those with financial hardship. It is a tough exam, with a multiple choice section with five short literary pieces (some combination of verse, prose, and drama) and approximately 55 questions. Following the multiple choice section, the free response sections requires three essays: one in response to a poem, one in response to a piece of prose, and one open-ended question in which students respond drawing on a piece of literature they have previously read.

The exam is difficult – and it is one for which it is impossible to cram – but students who have been through this curriculum have scored higher than both state and national averages.

Mayo 2016-2017

AP English Literature and Composition Essay Rubric

Category / Effort (0-10) / Self-Assessment (0-10) / Teacher’s Assessment (0-10)
Content:
Originality of argument, quality and quantity of evidence, reasoning, logic, consistency / x6=
Style:
Clarity, conciseness, voice / x2=
Vocabulary:
Correct and broad, but not pretentious
Revision
Mechanics:
Grammar, spelling, punctuation
Total:

Student Comments:

Teacher Comments: