AP English Literature and Composition Syllabus 2019-20



AP English Literature and Composition Syllabus 2019-20

Torah High School – Mrs. Zawadzki (rhonda.zawadzki@)

Course Description

AP Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style and themes as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone. As they become familiar with such literary approaches, students develop and mold their own writing styles. In order to help students develop deeper conceptual understandings, the following big ideas run throughout the course:[1]

• Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs,

assumptions, biases and cultural norms represented by the characters.

• Setting and the details associated with it not only depict a time and place, but also convey values associated with that setting.

• The arrangement of the parts and sections of a text, the relationship of the parts to each other, and the sequence in which the text reveals information are all structural choices made by a writer that contribute to the reader’s interpretation of a text.

• A narrator’s or speaker’s perspective controls the details and emphases that affect how readers experience and interpret a text.

• Comparisons, representations, and associations shift meaning from the literal to the figurative and invite readers to interpret a text.

• Readers establish and communicate their interpretations of literature through arguments supported by textual evidence.

Reading in AP Literature and Composition focuses on fiction, poetry, and drama from various time periods and features the reading of whole-class as well as individual works of literary merit. Although students will read widely and deeply, they will also come to know a few works well. Students will approach literature as a mirror to the human condition. As such, it refines thinking and enables a better understanding of self and others. Accordingly, issues that might, from a specific cultural viewpoint, be considered controversial, including depictions of nationalities, religions, ethnicities, dialects, gender, or class, are often represented artistically in works of literature. AP students are not expected or asked to subscribe to any one specific set of cultural or political values, but are expected to have the maturity to analyze perspectives different from their own and to questions the meaning, purpose, or effect of such content within the literary work as a whole.[2] To achieve success in the course, students must read actively by annotating texts directly or via post-it notes. Responsibility and time-management are crucial.

Writing in AP Literature and Composition reinforces the reading. Students work to improve their ability to explain and interpret literature clearly and cogently while simultaneously developing stylistic maturity in their own writing. Assignments will address aspects of college-level writing including a focus on sound thesis, strong paragraphs with topic sentences, detailed evidence, specific details and quotations for support, sentence construction, transitional sentences, strong conclusions and vocabulary fluency. Writings will include informal writings (reader responses, reflections, annotations, free writings, Personal Progress Checks), timed-writings, critical essays explicating prose and poetry, and creative writing. All writing assignments will be evaluated using the AP English Literature Scoring Rubric, effective Fall 2019. Writing workshops with opportunities for peer review and teacher conferencing will occur throughout the course. All essays will be returned with teacher notations to guide students toward fixing problem areas, and all students are encouraged to revise and resubmit essays.

The exam in AP Literature and Composition has two sections, multiple-choice (1 hour) and free-

response questions (2 hours). The multiple-choice section counts 45% of the exam score and consists of 4-5 poetry and prose passages and approximately 50 questions analyzing these passages. The free-response section counts 55% of the exam score and consists of three prompts: an analysis of a poem, an analysis of a fictional prose passage, and an open question analyzing a novel or play of literary merit chosen from a list provided or selected by the student.

Course Skills

In accordance with College Board requirements, the AP Literature and Composition course provides students with the intellectual challenges and workload consistent with a typical undergraduate English literature/writing course, at the completion of which the student should be able to do the following:

• identify and explain specific textual details of characters’ speech, actions, and inactions to interpret characters’ personalities, perspectives, motivations, and changing natures;

• select and examine specific textual details of setting that reveal time and place as well as social, cultural, and historical situations;

• choose and analyze setting details that establish mood, provide information about a character and/or suggest narrative shifts;

• clarify the relationship between ideas or shifts in the text and arrangement/significance of plot events in fiction or lines and stanzas in poetry;

• identify and explain how flashback, foreshadowing, stream of consciousness, epiphany, irony, and paradox build tension and illicit an emotional response;

• specify the point of view and perspective of a narrator or speaker of a text and communicate how his/her reliability, tone, and biases influence readers’ understanding;

• recognize and impart the function of words and phrases, similes, metaphors, personifications, allusions, and symbols to convey concepts and imply perspectives;

• read a text closely to pinpoint details that in combination enable the development and defense of a claim about an aspect of the text;

• write, edit, revise, and rewrite a thesis statement that expresses an interpretation of a literary text, and that requires a defense through the use of textual evidence and a line of reasoning, both of which are explained in an essay through commentary;

• utilize instruction, peer, and teacher feedback to use evidence strategically and purposefully to illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate, amplify, or qualify a point;

• utilize instruction, peer, and teacher feedback to develop a line of reasoning that is communicated through commentary that explains the logical relationship between the overarching thesis statement and the claims/evidence within the body of an essay;

• utilize instruction, peer, and teacher feedback to craft a literary argument that may explain the significance or relevance of an interpretation within a broader context, discuss alternative interpretations of a text, or use relevant analogies to help an audience better understand an interpretation; and

• utilize instruction, peer, and teacher feedback to develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately, to employ a variety of sentence structures, and to develop logical and cohesive organization while drafting, revising and editing essays.

Texts and Major Readings

• Arp, Thomas R. and Greg Johnson. Perrine’s Literature Structure, Sound & Sense. 11th ed.,

Cengage Learning, 2012.

• Trimble, John R. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing. 2nd ed., Prentice

Hall, 2000.

• AP Literature and Composition preparation guide of class choice.

• Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima

• Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre.

• Shakespeare, William. King Lear.

• Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie.

Ongoing Activities

The following activities take place throughout the entirety of the year and are seldom further discussed in this syllabus. These activities will be aligned with subjects, forms, and thematic contents under study.

Portfolio – Organize a 1.5 inch 3-ring binder to collect course materials with dividers for the sections that follow. Binder content will be needed and added to daily.

• Homework Logs

• Handouts

• Vocabulary – ongoing literary and personal vocabulary selected from readings

• Reading Responses – data sheets, study notes, Costa’s questions, literature activities, TP-

CASTT analyses, practice AP multiple-choice passages

• Informal writings – annotations, quick writes, thought pieces, sentence practice, practice AP

prose and poetry prompts, and AP Classroom Personal Progress Checks

• Formal Writings – personal essay, timed and out-of-class essays including pre-writings (outlines, précis), multiple drafts, revisions, peer editing comments, rubrics with teacher feedback, revisions, and final copy

Vocabulary - In order to understand, discuss and write about complex texts confidently, students need a fairly extensive vocabulary. Accordingly, students will select words they do not know or want to use as they read by circling or using post-it notes (1-2 words per poem; 3-5 words per short story; 10+ words per novel/play). Selected words along with definitions will be recorded in an ongoing personal vocabulary list, and students will be expected to utilize words from their personal list when writing and speaking. Additionally, students will keep an ongoing list of literary terms and tonal words and will learn to use these comfortably in analyzing and evaluating whole works of literature.

Discussion and Speaking – The AP Literature and Composition course is interactive: every unit of study includes a discussion component. Students are expected to participate actively in every discussion, contributing with insight and evidence from the literature. Students will have opportunities to present both insights and perspectives on the literature and creative pieces that demonstrate higher order thinking and apply knowledge. The following formats may be employed: Socratic discussions, teacher led discussions, informal and formal partner/small group work, and student led discussion, occasionally chosen at random.

Exam Preparation – Because the course also has the goal of preparing all students to pass the AP Literature and Composition exam, repeated practice, group scoring, peer and teacher feedback, and reflection on a variety of free response and multiple choice portions of the test is included. Students will read and answer a sample multiple choice passage or examine, discuss, and write a sample prompt, including the Topic Questions and Personal Progress Checks found on AP Classroom. Writing prompt practice will include deconstructing the prompt, outlining and discussing responses, individual timed-writings with peer/teacher feedback or student/teacher conferences, and examining and assessing previous student responses.

Independent Reading – Students will select and read two works that they have not previously read from the list that follows. For each work, students complete an AP data sheet and a collection of evidence for writing. For each text, students will select three prompts from a list of previous free response questions to be provided and outline a possible response for each. Then, students will draft, edit, and revise a complete essay for one of their three choices. Students will revise work based upon peer/teacher feedback and conferencing.

Possible Reading Selections: Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale; Bronte, Wuthering Heights; Chopin, The Awakening; Dickens, Great Expectations; Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See; Dorris, Yellow Raft in Blue Water; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars; Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge; Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises; Hosseini, The Kite Runner; Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Huxley, Brave New World;

Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, Kogawa, Obason; McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses; O’Brien, The Things They Carried; Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country; Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea;

Silko, Ceremony; Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath; Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Wharton, The Age of Innocence.

Grading

Grades in this course are based only on assignments given. The score on the AP exam is not considered for the final grade; however, midterm and final essays/projects will carry double weight. Final Semester grades are the average of the two quarter grades with an emphasis on improvement. Quarter grades are averaged as follows:

25% = Reading Responses (homework, class work, informal writings and activities)

50% = Writing – Informal/Formal Essays/Timed Writings (prewriting, drafting, editing,

and revising are included.)

25% = Additional Assessments (quarterly portfolio assessment, projects/presentations,

some “thought pieces,” discussion leadership)

When an AP Literature and Composition scoring sheet is used for grading essays/timed writings, the score will be converted to a letter grade as follows:

6 = A 4 = B, B-, C+ 2 = D

5= A-, B+ 3 = C, C- less than 2 = F

Policies and Expectations

• Students are expected to show moral integrity and to treat all staff members and fellow students with respect and understanding. Such good citizens are civil and polite, practice academic honesty, perform assignments, attend regularly, come prepared and on time, and follow all school rules.

• In accordance with school policy, students must commit to taking the AP Literature and Composition exam in fall, 2019. Students electing not to take the exam will receive Honors credit.

• An interest and investment in close reading of literature and expressing what is learned about literature through writing is essential to the course and exam.

• Time management and active reading of works of literary merit is crucial: assignments are expected on time.

• Attendance is essential and mandatory. Students with excessive absences, especially if unexcused, will be reported to the office or given a progress report.

• Students with excused absences are responsible for getting assignments from another student or the teacher. For excused absences, students must submit work and make up quizzes within one week of return or make prior arrangements with the teacher.

• If ideas or words are borrowed from a source, that source must be documented according to MLA format.

• All formal essays must be submitted in MLA format.

• Cells phones must be placed on silent; cell phones and laptops may be used for school work only with the permission of the teacher.

• Students will log into AP Classroom—even if not taking the exam—and may use phones or laptops to complete Personal Progress Checks and other assignments on this site.

• Assignments that are to be done with a partner or group will be announced as such. All other work is individual.

• No food or drink is allowed in the classroom except water.

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[1] AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description. The College Board, Fall 2019. p. 15-16.

[2] AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description. The College Board, Fall 2019, p. 117.

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