This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in the AP English Course Description.

Transcription

1 AP English Literature and Composition Course Overview Each unit, as indicated below, consists of a loose thematic grouping of texts that serve as a framework for students interaction with representative works of fiction, poetry and drama from corresponding time periods. The thematic organization of this course is designed to be broad enough to allow for substitutions and additions. Each unit is designed with a layered approach in mind: connections between genres will be identified and exploited in order to (a) pursue the topic at hand, and (b) for you to gain experience with a wide variety of texts. Our approach to literature is analogous to our experience of architecture. Students are to be able to walk around inside a literary work, examine how it is made, and experience it both as an object and as a construction in which each part is precisely wrought and functional. We ask of the literary text: what is it about, and how does it accomplish its goal? We are concerned always with style and subject, with what the author writes, where it is written and why it is written in this way. The class will provide the student with methods and opportunities to get at the subject of a piece by articulating ideas in writing. The course goal is to read wide, think deep, and articulate your thinking. Our year is divided into four 9-week quarters. Students can expect to write 2-3 papers (3 6 pages each) outside of class, 2 3 in-class essays (literary analysis), and complete a variety of quiz/short test assignments per quarter - resulting in a varied implementation of the summative/formative structure outlined below. This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in the AP English Course Description. Course Goals To carefully read and critically analyze imaginative literature. To understand the way writers use language to provide meaning and pleasure. To consider a work s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. To study representative works from various genres and periods (from the sixteenth to the twentieth century) and to know a few works extremely well. To understand a work s complexity, to absorb richness of meaning, and to analyze how meaning is embodied in literary form. To consider the social and historical values a work reflects and embodies. To write focusing on critical analysis of literature including expository, analytical, and argumentative essays as well as creative writing to sharpen understanding of writers' accomplishments and deepen appreciation of literary artistry. To become aware through speaking, listening, reading and chiefly writing of the resources of language: connotation, metaphor, irony, syntax, and tone. Selected Reference Texts for Students: Writing About Literature, (9th Edition) ed. Edgar V. Roberts The Story and Its Writer, (5th Edition) ed. Ann Charters The Writer's Reference, (5th Edition) Diana Hacker Perrine's Sound and Sense, (10th Edition) ed. Arp and Johnson Released AP Literature and Composition Examinations

2 Selected Reference Texts for Teacher: Introspections: American Poets on One of Their Own Poems ed. Pack and Parini Reading Like a Writer Francine Prose Poets Teaching Poets ed. Orr and Voigt Released AP Literature and Composition Examinations CollegeBoard Advanced Placement Program: AP English Literature and Composition Professional Development Workshop Materials: Special Focus: The Importance of Tone ( ) Notes on Writing Instruction Writing will occur over the course of the year using varied approaches based on students' performance and needs. Our activities include: Modeling and review of essay structures Reviewing varied writing and editing processes Participation in scheduled conferences with teacher outside of class time in preparation for initial composition and rewriting of drafts Making use of sample essays to set a bench-mark for quality Writing and learning to score AP samples Working in small groups to evaluate samples and peer edit classmates writing as well as developing core peer review circles Expanding diction through vocabulary exercises (analysis of sample essays for diction as well as key vocabulary words) General Writing Assignments: These assignments are spread throughout the year depending on student's response to texts and their needs as writers. We will typically cover the broader methods early on. 1. Writing About Character (Roberts Chap. 3) 2. Writing About Setting (Roberts Chap. 4) 3. Writing About Plot and Structure (Roberts, Chap. 5) 4. Writing About Point of View (Roberts Chap. 6) - focus on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Babbitt 5. Writing About an Idea or a Theme (Roberts Chap. 7) 6. Finding and evaluating figurative language - a weekly gathering of figures of speech used in texts we have read that week - this is ongoing in a variety of forms 7. Writing About Imagery (Roberts Chap. 8) 8. Writing About Metaphor and Simile (Roberts Chap. 9) 9. Writing About Tone (Roberts Chap. 11) 10. Writing About Prosody (Roberts Chap. 14) 11. Writing an Essay Based on the Close Reading of a Poem or Short Prose Passage (Roberts Chap. 15)

3 Organizational Topics - The Long View of the Year Semester 1: Society, Tradition and the Creation of the Individual This section lasts roughly the entire first semester and examines of prose and verse strategies through the theme of individuals clashing with society. Central Questions: What are the traditional modes of literary expression? How are specific works to be understood in relation to those traditions? Novels Short Fiction Poetry Babbitt "Death by Landscape" (Atwood) Hardy "Hap" and "Neutral Tones" One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest "The Circular Ruins" (Borges) Coleridge, "Kubla Khan," various Tess of the D'Urbervilles "A Continuity of Parks" (Cortazar) Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey," various Frankenstein "A Worn Path" (Welty) Shelley, various Picture of Dorian Gray "Bartleby the Scrivener"(Melville) Keats, various Crime and Punishment Amy Hempel, selected works Blake "Chimney Sweep", various the Sestina and verse form Various contemporary poets (Tate, Newman, Kinnell, Heaney) Topics Addressed: Social responsibility The individual in society The industrial revolution, farming and the pastoral mode revisited Evolutionary theory - Hardy's "evolutionary meliorism" contrasted with salvation-based views Roles of women in society The individual and his creation - the moral consequences of being in the world The responsibility of the creator Romantic sensibilities - paired with poetry of the Romantic era Aestheticism Egoism Nihilism The social world of the novel, its relationship to the characters, and the relationships between characters - propriety, expectations, action/reaction

4 Sample Assignments: As above, students complete 2-3 out of class writings and 2-3 in-class writings per quarter. Below are a few examples of the types of assignments students will complete in relation to the texts listed above: 1. For Tess of the D'Urbervilles, students are required to compose an essay that analyzes a character's world view and how it connects to their actions in the text or the student may compose an essay (based on a released AP exam) on the functions of the country setting of the novel to establish its values. 2. For Crime and Punishment, develop three separate ideas: a. Prompt 1: Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot. b. Prompt 2: Choose a character from a work of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot. c. Prompt 3: In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much "the reader's friend as the protagonist's" However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on a poem or short story. Semester 2: Tragedy, Fortune and Existence This section will overlap into the "Comedy" unit below as we will blend absurdist style with comedic work. We are concerned mostly with defining the nature of Tragedy and Comedy along with issues of form, style and tone. Throughout the second semester, students will use similar forms of writing as we explored first semester, but to deal with other genres and styles. Central Questions: What is the nature of dramatic form? How has the concept and form of tragedy changed over time? How does drama comment on the questions of free will, determinism, and existentialism?

5 Plays Short Fiction Poetry Oedipus Rex as selected as selected King Lear "Metamorphosis" (Kafka) W.B. Yeats Waiting for Godot, Endgame various Beckett Wallace Stevens and various Beckett optional: Hamlet T.S. Eliot optional: Othello Fences Various Sonnets of Shakespeare varied contemporary poets (Muldoon, Tate, Wright, Swanson, Komunyakaa, Ammons) various Beckett Themes Addressed: Defining Tragedy Repetition Disintegration Order and Chaos The History of Drama Fate and Fortune Vision Absurdism Freewill and Determinism Sample Assignments: As above, students complete 2-3 out of class writings and 2-3 in-class writings per quarter. Below are a few examples of the types of assignments students will complete in relation to the texts listed above: 1. Compose an essay in which you discuss the relationship between Shakespeare s choice of language and the overall meanings that emerge from the play. How does Shakespeare s language drive his meaning? You have already developed some approaches to various repeated elements of the play, and have looked from a variety of perspectives. The overall play deals with a great variety of meaning, it comments on: vanity, age, youth, betrayal, deception, madness, reason, even on love (or its absence).

6 Comedy, Time and Memory Central Question: What makes a Comedy or Tragedy? Novels and Plays Short Fiction Poetry Catch 22 as selected as selected Slaughterhouse Five E.B. White Robert Frost A Confederacy of Dunces James Joyce Tom Waits Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead The Importance of Being Earnest Raymond Carver Alice Munro Don DeLillo Gabriel Garcia Marquez Seamus Heaney W.B. Yeats Shakespeare Themes Addressed: Defining Comedy Repetition Disintegration Order and Chaos The History of Drama Fate and Fortune Vision Absurdism Freewill and Determinism Sample Assignment: 1. Compose an analysis of Beckett's "tragicomedy" in comparison to the ironies of Heller or Vonnegut. Be sure to focus on their use of language and the structures of their work.

7 Notes on Evaluation: There are two methods of feedback in this class. One is summative, the other is formative. Each one looks to assess a different element of your learning and as the quarter progresses, they will balance one another. This page explains how each works. Summative: These are AP style writing prompts, tests, and multiple choice assignments. Essays are evaluated according to the Generic Rubric included below. I assess your writing here to see where you are in relation to the AP style of testing. I will use a code (I-S-P) in the margin to comment these papers: I Information The what of the essay, in other words, you provide information about some element of the prompt, either identifying plot, story, definitions of literary terms. You inform your reader of something: The novel, Babbitt, is written by Sinclair Lewis and narrated in the third person by a narrator who follows the protagonist, George Babbitt. S Support The where of the essay, in which you provide the evidence of information using specific examples from the text, whether through paraphrase, example, or quote. You direct your reader s recollection of the text to specific elements: The narrator is also limited to Babbitt s thoughts. So as he tries to understand his wife s melancholic behavior after her time away the reader is as bewildered and eventually deluded as Babbitt himself. P Purpose The why of the essay. You have provided factual information about the text, identified its circumstances, and now you assert the meaning that underlies the presence of these elements. Here, you bring meaning to the information and support you have provided: By exposing Babbitt s thoughts and his internal justification for his actions, the reader can be empathetic, feeling for and with Babbitt, and judgmental. The narrator, through his disposition toward Babbitt provides what becomes a mocking commentary on Babbitt s entire existence. The pervasive tone of condescension forever implicates Babbitt s fundamental mediocrity. For each Summative assessment, I will also provide a statement of what you did well, and what needs improvement. This provides an opportunity for re-writes, which will be reflective of the principle of "commitment" mentioned below. Re-writes must occur within one week of the return of the paper, and an individual conference is required.

8 AP Generic Rubric Percentage Score AP Holistic Score AP Holistic Criteria The writers of these well-constructed essays completely answer the prompt using evidence and explaining the relevance of the evidence. With a convincing thesis, the write demonstrates a clear understanding of the task and the passage. Although not without flaws, these essays reflect the writer s ability to control a wide range of the elements of effective writing to provide a keen analysis of the literary text. Developing a sound thesis, these writers answer all parts of the prompt. These essays may not be entirely responsive to the underlying meanings, but they provide specific examples and meaningful evidence. The analysis is less persuasive and somewhat less sophisticated than 8 & 9 essays. They seem less insightful, or discussion is more limited. Nonetheless, they confirm the writer s ability to read literary texts with comprehension and to write with organization and control. These essays construct a reasonable thesis. They discuss the work without serious errors but the analysis is often superficial. The writer may be vague and demonstrate insufficient development. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking. May include misinterpretations of particular references or illustrations which distract from the overall effect. The writer also exhibits some lack of control over the elements of composition. These essays attempt to discuss the part of the prompt. The discussion, however, is undeveloped or inaccurate. These writers may misread the passage in an essential way or rely on paraphrase. Illustrations and examples tend to be misconstrued, inexact, or omitted altogether. The writing may be sufficient to convey ideas, but typically characterized by weak diction, syntax, grammar, or organization. Essays scored a 3 are even less able, may not refer to technique at all, and will exhibit even more misinterpretation, inadequate development, or serious omissions. These essays fail to respond adequately to the question. They may demonstrate confused thinking and/or weaknesses in grammar or other basic elements of composition. Mechanical errors may be distracting. They are often unacceptably brief. Although the writer may have made some attempt to answer the question, the views presented have little clarity or coherence, and significant problems with reading comprehension are evident. Essays that are scored 1 are especially inexact or mechanically unsound, and do less to address the topic. 0 0 This score is reserved for essays that make no more than a reference to the task, those that are off-topic, and for a blank sheet. Formative: These are assignments whose purpose is to learn by doing. Often, formative assessments will be based on two kinds of writing: Critical Each student will write several short critical papers, explicating poetry and drama, and performing a close reading of novels, including one that is research-based. I will be more specific on what I expect from these critical assignments later on, but in general each paper will use specific and well-chosen evidence to articulate an argument about poems, drama, and fiction. Specifically, these critical essays are based on close textual analysis of structure, style (figurative language, imagery, symbolism, tone), and social/historical values. These critical papers must be typed, double-spaced, and proofread and will be approximately two-to-three double-spaced pages, with the research-based paper around five-to-six pages. I will often require a rough draft for papers. Writing will be work-shopped during class. As a result of

9 group work-shopping, that same group will determine criteria for assessing effective critical writing and will develop 9-point, holistic rubrics to identify the bases of evaluation. Creative Students will be asked to write creative assignments poems, drama, and short stories that take on the rhetorical forms and styles of the literature we re studying. I will not grade these assignments on aesthetic criteria; rather, I will be looking for the student s knowledge and application of appropriate structures and styles as outlined within the assignment s parameters; that is, the student s capacity to understand, then apply the techniques of art used in the literature we re studying. These techniques include structure, theme, and style (diction, syntax, figurative language, symbolism, and tone). Although we may begin these assignments in class, I will expect them to be typed and proofread (especially spell-checked) before being handed in to me. Often, these, too, will be work-shopped during class. As a result of group work shopping, that same group will determine criteria for assessing effective creative writing and will develop a 6-point trait rubric (a different trait per group) to identify the bases for evaluation. At times, creative assignments will involve inter-disciplinary work, with visual art, film, collage, or other exploratory methods to develop thought processes. These assignments are more free-form both in terms of what is asked of you and how they are assessed. I will use two different marking procedures: Check system: For assignments that are brief (1-2 nights, in-class work) you can earn a check+, meaning excellent work, you ve exceeded expectations; a check, meaning you have completed the work well and as expected; or a check -, meaning you have not completed the assignment or have not met expectations. These are intended as fast feedback for immediate correction on the next such assignment, the totality of these will provide a set of preparatory feedback for your summative assessments. Letter grade: Fairly similar to the percentages attributed to the AP rubric scores. These hew to the school and district designations for the grading system (>90, A, excellent and nearly flawless; 80-90, B, good and well executed; 70-80, C, the bare minimum, you have fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, but only just; 60-70, D, incomplete or incoherent; below, F, don t even think about it) and are assigned according to the excellence of your submission for the assignment. You may also re-write these assignments, with an individual conference, and a one-week deadline. Grades in the class are based on improvement and hard work. If a student does her best and works to capacity, then she ll get an A in the class, even if the grades given on papers are not A grades. Grades for each semester do not reflect straight percentage, but do reflect continued commitment on the student s part to do the work to the best of his ability and to be in class. Commitment may include, but is not limited to: attention to self-knowledge and selfimprovement in the study of literature; handing in work on time; being in class; helping other students in the class by working cooperatively to gain knowledge and to help others become better writers, etc. In other words, grading is an individualized process; the student is in competition with herself and with no other. The grade in the class is entirely predicated on the choices a student makes to do the best he can and not on an absolute standard of seeming excellence determined by a societal norm. I have no qualms about giving every student an A if the grade is justly earned. Because of the nature of the ability level of students in this class advanced and motivated the class is not on a curve-grading system nor do I feel it is my duty to fail a certain percentage of students. Given the nature of the class, grading is based on class discussion and activities during class; out-of-class reading and other assignments; and on the papers written both in class and out of class.