AP Literature and Composition Syllabus

Transcription

1 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus The AP Literature and Composition course is designed to provide an advanced opportunity for students who are interested in an intensive study of British and American literature; in developing the critical thinking skills necessary to reason with perception; and in acquiring the verbal skills necessary to express their ideas in both thoughtful discussion and clear, mature prose. AP Literature is considered a preparatory class resulting in students sitting for the Advanced Placement (AP) Examination in English Literature and Composition in May. The cost of the exam is approximately $87. College credit may be received by those students who pass the exam with an acceptable score (3-5), as determined by student's college of choice. The exam is prepared by The College Board (which is also the source of the SAT). In 2011, OCHS became a member of the Advance Kentucky initiative; as a result of this association, Advance Kentucky will pay 1/2 of a student s exam fee, and any student who receives a qualifying score of 3, 4, or 5 on the AP Literature exam will receive $100 from Advance Kentucky. Objectives Students complete an intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, concentrating on works of recognized literary merit. Students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. Students consider a work's structure, style, and themes. Students consider a work's smaller-scale elements such as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Students reflect on the social and historical values various texts reflect and embody. Students expand their vocabulary, using denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness. Students practice and master a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and coordinate constructions. Students practice logical organization in their writing, enhanced by specific techniques of coherence such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis. Students implement a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail in their writing. Students develop an effective use of rhetoric in their writing, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis. Students practice and master correct usage in their writing. 1

2 Expectations Students will conduct themselves in a manner befitting the advanced nature of the coursework. 1. Common standards of polite behavior will be observed at all times. 2. Due dates are due dates - do not ask. 3. Notebooks, journals, texts, and writing materials will be brought to class each day. 4. All district and school rules apply. 5. Class attendance is crucial in an AP course; therefore, absences should be kept to a minimum. In the case of an absence, the student is responsible for acquiring the missed work (available in the box ); the student has the number of days absent +1 to complete his/her missed work. Assessment Grades will be determined on the following criteria. 1. Blog writings (minimum 3/unit) - 33% 2. Timed essays/tests/papers (minimum1/week) - 42% 3. Daily class discussion and participation (includes vocabulary/openers/exit) - 25% Course Activity Description Blogs Blog writing provides students the time and the opportunity to respond reflectively to a variety of written texts (critical essays, poetry, etc.) and questions concerning the texts, as well as discuss the texts with students from all sections of AP Literature. -Students will be responsible for responding to an online blog prompt each week; these are assigned each Monday, and due by 8:00 A.M. the following Monday (alternative arrangements may be made for students who do have internet access at home). -Blog responses must make direct reference to the text under discussion in order to receive full credit. -Blogs are, essentially, an online Socratic discussion, and as such, all Socratic discussion rules apply. 2

3 Timed Essays (40 minutes) Timed essays provide students with frequent opportunities for careful observation of textual details (i.e. diction, syntax, imagery, symbolism, figurative language, etc.) and develop an interpretation and/or explanation of how they are utilized to create, tone, style, themes, and ultimately, meaning in a variety of literary texts. Students will also make and explain judgments regarding a work s artistry and quality and its social and cultural values. Additionally these essays encourage class discussion, and provide opportunities for self-evaluation and teacher-student conferencing. -Students will regularly complete timed, in-class essays, in which they will be required to read an essay, excerpt, or poem for various textual details, organize their ideas, and complete their writing. -During the 1 st semester, the students will have the rubric available at the time of writing. -Students will revise each timed essay, using a self-evaluation checklist to evaluate their own writing for content, support, organization, grammar, mechanics, usage, diction and style. -While I will not formally assess each practice essay, students will receive daily participation grades for each timed essay and revision. -Students will choose one essay from each three assigned for conferencing/rewriting and formal assessment, using a standard 9 point AP rubric on a sliding scale. AP score Essays Numeric Grade Multiple Choice Exams Multiple choice questions require students to apply close reading and critical thinking skills to a text without relying on a secondary source. -Students will complete multiple choice exams for a variety of purposes: to assess student understanding of classroom texts; to practice rapid close-reading; to prompt classroom discussions. - Practice multiple choice exams (not part of a classroom text assessment) will not receive a grade during the 1st semester, but will be included as a test grade 2 nd semester. 3

4 Formal, Extended Essays Formal, extended analysis allows the students to develop evaluative critical thinking skills in which they demonstrate an understanding of textual details and the relationship to the overall meaning and value of literary texts. -Students will, during the first semester, choose and read a novel of literary merit (suggestion list provided). During the course of the year, the students will determine the focus of their analysis and interpretation; research their topic and evaluate the resources and secondary material they will use to support their ideas; and prepare a 5-7page paper, using a minimum of 3 secondary sources. Students will present their work to the class the 2nd week of May. (The specific timeline of due dates and conferencing/rewriting schedule will be available after Fall Break.) -Students will write an extended, formal essay (3-5 typed pages) during each unit. Student-teacher conferencing/rewriting will be scheduled between the 1 st, 2 nd, and final drafts of the essay. Daily Class Discussion and Participation Active discussion and participation in class activities are vital to students understanding of the course texts and concepts, as well as to the development of critical thinking skills. -Students will participate regularly in Socratic discussions. -Students will make positive contributions to discussions while maintaining an atmosphere in which questioning and lively debate are encouraged and expected. - Flashbacks will consist of identifying and explaining the use of various literary terms in quotations from the classic texts, college prep vocabulary, etc. Additional notes to students and parents: 1. Concerning student-teacher conferencing: While regular conferencing is scheduled for each extended essay; every third timed essay, I am available for additional conferencing each morning (7:30-8:00), and after school by appointment. Students should see me to schedule additional conferencing. 2. This syllabus is not carved in stone, and the course may vary depending on student ability, classroom resources, weather related constraints, etc. 4

5 Unit I: Writing from Reading, and Back Again Lessons developed to make the two way connection between reading and writing, identifying various writing forms and purposes; developing an understanding of close reading, and the skills required for success. -Strunk and White -Reading and Writing from Literature (chapters 2-4) -A Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms (pages ) -Link from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The Writing Center Essays about Literature - excerpts -How to Read Literature Like a Professor -Teacher developed notes Exercises -Thesis statement and essay organization activities -Close reading for textual details activities -Reading for meaning activities - Practice multiple choice AP exams: 1 essay with ~10 questions/10 minutes -Diagnostic timed writings (expository, analytic, interpretive, argumentative) with self-evaluation and teacher conferencing/rewriting (released items). 1. abstract 7. atmosphere 13. denotation 2. academic 8. coinage 14. decorum 3. allegory 9. classic 15. diction/syntax 4. aesthetic(s) 10. colloquialism 16. dramatic irony 5. anecdote 11. complex/dense 17. explicit 6. archaism 12. connotation 18. implicit 5

6 Unit II: Medieval Literature ~ Medieval literature instructs in Christian faith; appeals to the emotions; stresses the importance of religion. -Genre: Poetry -Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales c ; England; narrative poetry (character portraits, parody, fabliau) - excerpts -Anonymous - Lord Randall (ballad) -Anonymous - Edward, Edward (ballad) -Extended, formal argumentative essay (1): The Canterbury Tales (textual details & social and cultural value) -Timed analytic essay (1): The Canterbury Tales (textual details & comic timing, plot intricacy, characterization) -Timed interpretive essay (2): (released poetry item verse form, language, and speaker s attitude) -Timed expository essay (3): (released short story item humor, pathos, and the grotesque) -Blog 1. farce 7. fabliau 13. analogy 2. alliteration 8. ballad 14. anticlimax 3. allusion 9. meter 15. antihero 4. irony 10. rhyme 16. aphorism 5. romance 11. anachronism 17. apostrophe 6. courtly love 12. anthropomorphism 18. bathos/pathos 6

7 Unit III: Renaissance Literature ~ Renaissance literature reconciles Christian faith and reason; promotes rebirth of the classical ideal; allows freedom of thought; is concerned with the human experience and the potential scope of human understanding. -Genre: Drama William Shakespeare - Hamlet c. 1603; England; tragedy William Shakespeare - Othello c. 1604; England; tragedy -Genre: Poetry Edmund Spenser - The Fairie Queene (excerpt) Sonnets 30 and 75 William Shakespeare - Sonnets 18, 29, 116, 130 Walter Raleigh - The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Christopher Marlowe - The Nymph s Reply John Donne - Song A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Death Be Not Proud -Extended formal essay (2): Othello (how themes are developed) -Timed analytic essay (4): Shakespeare s sonnets (literary devices and tone) -Timed expository essay (5): Marlowe and Raleigh (tone, mood, imagery, rhyme, rhythm, form) -Timed expository essay (6): Death Be Not Proud (form, apostrophe, personification, paradox) -Tests -Multiple choice/short answer test: Hamlet -Project/Presentation -Illustration of literary themes through music, dance, or art: Othello -Blog 1. tragedy 8. soliloquy 15. assonance 2. comedy 9. dramatic monologue 16. consonance 3. conceit 10. dramatic poetry 17. tragic flaw 4. metaphysical poetry 11. lyric 18. tragic hero 5. pun 12. epic 19. black humor 6. poetic form 13. genre 20. bombast 7. aside 14. aspect 21. Burlesque 7

8 Unit IV: Neo-Classic Literature ~ Neo-Classic literature embraces order, reason, precision, sense, and structural clarity. -Genre: Novel Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice c. 1813; England; satire, Comedy of Manners -Genre: Drama Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest c. 1895; England; farce; comedy -Extended, formal interpretive essay (3): Pride and Prejudice (meaning and purpose) -Timed expository essay (7): Sense and Sensibility excerpt (developing an ironic tone) -Timed analytic essay (8): Rape of the Lock excerpt (juxtaposition, hyperbole, catalog, and satire) -Timed analytic essay (9): Pride and Prejudice (diction, hyperbole, syntax and dramatic irony) -Tests -Multiple choice exams 1. epistolary novel 8. juxtaposition 15. hubris 2. point of view 9. caricature 16. hyperbole 3. voice 10. euphemism 17. In medias res 4. canon 11. catharsis 18. interior monologue 5. paradox 12. foil 19. lampoon 6. satire 13. foreshadowing 20. loose/periodic 7. irony 14. epitaph 21. melodrama 8

9 Unit V: Romantic and Victorian Literature ~ Romantic literature revolts against neo-classical order/reason, to return to nature and imagination. -Genre: Poetry William Wordsworth - The World Is Too Much with Us Nuns Fret Not at Their Narrow Convent Room George Gordon, Lord Byron - She Walks in Beauty Percy Bysshe Shelley - Ozymandias John Keats - Ode on a Grecian Urn -Extended, formal analytic essay (4): The Scarlet Letter (symbolism, meaning) -Timed analytic essay (10): Ozymandias (diction, structure, tone, purpose) -Timed expository essay (11): Nuns Fret Not at Their Narrow Convent Room (form, prosody, rhetorical structure, theme) -Timed expository essay (12): The Tables Turned & To David, About His Education (style, tone, poetic devices, structure, imagery) -Tests -Multiple choice exam: poetry text assessment 1. Gothic 8. subjectivity 15. parenthetical phrase 2. ode 9. onomatopoeia 16. parody 3. means/meaning 10. opposition 17. pastoral 4. metaphor/simile 11. oxymoron 18. persona 5. metonym 12. parable 19. personification 6. nemesis 13. parallelism 20. plaint 7. objectivity 14. paraphrase 21. prelude 9

10 Unit VI: Realistic Literature ~ Realistic literature finds beauty in the commonplace, and focuses on the conditions of the working class. -Genre: Novel Edith Wharton - Ethan Frome (novella) c. 1911; America; metaphysical examination of the isolation and despair among New England s poor -Genre: Poetry T.S. Eliot - Preludes, The Hollow Men, The Wasteland W.B. Yeats - The Lake Isle of Innisfree -Genre: Short Story James Joyce - Eveline -Extended, formal expository essay: common themes in Wharton, Eliot, Yeats, Joyce -Timed analytic essay (13): The Hollow Men (contrast, repetition, allusion, point of view) -Timed expository essay (14): Ethan Frome (character and meaning) -Timed analytic essay (15): Eveline (foreshadowing, internal struggle) -Tests -Multiple choice exams - texts 1. protagonist/antagonist 7. stock character 13. thesis 2. refrain 8. subjunctive mood 14. travesty 3. requiem 9. suspension of disbelief 15. truism 4. rhapsody 10. symbolism 16. utopia 5. rhetorical question 11. technique 17. zeugma 6. stanza 12. theme 10

11 Unit VII: Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic Literature ~ Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic literature spontaneously captures a moment in time, to express reality in different ways. -Genre: Novella Joseph Conrad - The Heart of Darkness c. 1902; Polish-born, British; psychological exploration of Colonialism Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart c. 1959; Africa; tragedy; ironic study of human nature -Genre: Poetry Thomas Hardy - Channel Firing Alfred, Lord Tennyson - The Charge of the Light Brigade Emily Dickinson - Because I Could Not Stop for Death Much Madness Is Divinest Sense -Extended, formal interpretive essay (6): Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart (point of view, social and cutural values) -Timed expository essay (16): The Soul Selects Her Own Society (style and meaning, form, diction, stanza length and format) -Timed expository essay (17): Old Ironsides & Douglass (rhythm, rhyme, diction, imagery, purpose, and literary merit) -Timed interpretive essay (18): Channel Firing (allusion, figurative language, imagery, tone, purpose, meaning -Tests -Multiple choice exams: texts 1. couplet 7. synecdoche 13. reversal/perpeteia 2. enjambment 8. extended metaphor 14. plot 3. litote 9. stereotype 4. motif 10. terza rima 5. scansion 11. villanelle 6. setting 12. rhetoric 11

12 Unit VIII: Modern and Contemporary Literature ~1900-Present Modern and Contemporary literature breaks with the conventions of the past; uses experimental techniques. -Genre: Drama Joyce Carol Oates - Tone Clusters (one act) c. 1989; America; tragi-comedy -Genre: Poetry Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night W.H. Auden - Funeral Blues O What Is that Sound Unknown Citizen -Genre: Short Story James Alan McPherson - A Loaf of Bread James Thurber - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Alice Walker - Nineteen Fifty-five Gwendolyn Brooks - Sadie and Maud William Faulkner - A Rose for Emily, Barn Burning -Extended, formal interpretive essay (7): Independent novels -Timed analytic essay (19): Sadie and Maud (metaphor and meaning) -Timed argumentative essay (20): The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (textual details, artistry and quality) -Timed argumentative essay (21): The Unknown Citizen (purpose, theme, social and cultural values -Tests -Multiple choice exam: Tone Clusters 12

13 Teacher/Student Resources Barton, E.J. & Hudson, G.A. (2004). A contemporary guide to literary terms with strategies for writing essays about literature (2 nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Foster, T.C. (2003). How to read literature like a professor. New York: Harper Collins. Griffith, K. (2006). Writing essays about literature: a guide and style sheet (7 th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. Schwiebert, J.E. (2005). Reading and writing from literature (3 rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Strunk, W., Jr. & White, E.B. (2000). The Elements of style (4 th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Longman. Thesis statements. Retrieved February 9, 2006, from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Web site: 13