English IV-AP



English IV-AP

AP English Literature and Composition

Required texts and readings:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain

Course Description

The AP course in English Literature and Composition is designed to engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature, both classic and contemporary. The course will include several novels, with a heavy dose of poetry. Through the close reading and analysis of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers.

Course Rationale

Close, in-depth reading as well as literary analysis and writing are integral parts of AP English Literature. Completion of this rigorous course culminates with an opportunity for students to earn college credit by mastering literary objectives in both multiple choice and essay format for prose and poetry.

Fall Semester

Summer Reading

Texts: Heart of Darkness

Poisonwood Bible

Major assignments and assessments:

• Students make book notes for each novel to include discussion of characters, themes, historical connections, various literary devices such as palindromes and malapropisms, symbolism, and irony

• Short Essay Tests (to check for understanding) on both novels

• Poisonwood Bible Socratic seminar focusing on character development

• Heart of Darkness Socratic Seminar focusing on characters, themes, and symbolism

• Open-ended, timed essay (AP format) on the impact of a minor character in Heart of Darkness. (After students write essays, they are shown well-written examples on the same prompt and given the opportunity to edit and revise their own essays.)

• Multiple-Choice Tests (AP format) on Poisonwood Bible

• Re-read 1st chapter of Poisonwood Bible along with 1st chapter of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carry – students write personal essay titled “The Things I Carry” emulating the style of these two chapters. (Teacher provides instruction to help students develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence.)

• Students pull two paragraphs from their own essays for peer review and revision.

• Read Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and write essay comparing it to the summer novels, considering theme, character, writing style, and motifs. (Teacher provides instruction and feedback to help students develop logical organization with specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis.)

AP Terminology

• 90 literary terms (some review, some new)

• Sample terms: allegory, anaphora, apostrophe, asyndeton, bathos, carpe diem, chiasmus, dramatic monologue, epigraph, epistolary novel, litote, metonymy, momento mori, paradox, pathos, periodic sentence, polysyndeton, synecdoche

• 2 tests for comprehension

• Read and discuss selected poems as a class, searching for purpose and effect of particular devices from literary terms list.

Novel Project

• Groups of 3 or 4 students – each group will read a different novel

• List of approximately 100 novels and plays (both classical and contemporary) from which to choose

• Sample novels: 100 Years of Solitude, Angela’s Ashes, The Awakening, The Bluest Eye, Catch-22, The Centaur, Cold Mountain, Crime and Punishment, A Death in the Family, The Executioner’s Song, Frankenstein, The Gates of the Alamo, Grendel, The House of Mirth, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Iliad, Invisible Man, Le Morte D’Arthur, Light in August, The Metamorphosis, Moby Dick, Native Son, Obasan, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Paradise Lost, Pilgrim’s Progress, Pride and Prejudice, The Satanic Verses, Sophie’s Choice, Snow Falling on Cedars, Things Fall Apart, The Things They Carried, Ulysses, Walden, Wise Blood, The Year of Magical Thinking

• Novel to be read outside of class

• Each student will write a literary analysis of the novel (5-8 pages) which will include an introduction, summary of a major critical article, discussion of the author’s style, explication of a major theme (each member of the group must choose a different theme), and a comprehensive conclusion (each section to be a minimum of one page).

• Grammar mini-lesson making corrections for mechanics and style on sample student essay

• As a group, students will make an oral presentation of chosen novel to the class. They will be responsible for the same five criteria as the analytical paper as well as presenting in an original and creative fashion. Presentations will last approximately one hour.

• The purpose of the project is to familiarize the students with a novel that they might be able to use on the open-ended essay on the AP Literature exam in May.

• Teacher provides instruction and feedback on the essay to help students develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively as well as an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure.

Grammar

• Teacher chooses two sentences from each student’s novel project essay with mechanical problems. All sentences are shown on overhead projector with students making appropriate corrections.

Thematic Poetry

• Students will choose a poem or a piece of artwork that shares one of the themes from the novel chosen for the project. (Poems and artwork submitted for teacher approval)

• Two-page essay (with quotes from novel and poem) explaining the thematic connections. (Teacher provides instruction to help students develop a balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail.)

• Students are given opportunity for peer editing and reviewing before essay is turned in.

Scrapbook Project

• Students will keep a literary/school scrapbook for the entire school year.

• Minimum of 20 pages

• Minimum of 25 documented quotes from summer novels, novel project, and any literature read in high school English classes.

• Minimum of 3 poems, photographs and illustrations, and personal journaling

Satire

Texts: Canterbury Tales

Satire Anthology (compiled by teacher)

Major assignments and assessments:

• Begin by reading Swift’s A Modest Proposal to discuss the purpose of satire in society

• Notes on satire (including literary terms and concepts such as verbal irony, understatement, overstatement, bathos, and mock epic)

• Read and discuss examples of satire (18th century to present-day)

• Satire Project (groups of 2 or 3) – students write original satire (minimum of 3 pages) to be presented to class – visuals required

• AP timed writing essay on satiric prose. (After students write essays, they are shown well-written examples on the same prompt and given opportunity to edit their own essays.)

• Class discussion of Middle Ages with emphasis on government, commerce, the new middle class, and religion

• Read and discuss the prologue to Canterbury Tales

• Students memorize first 17 lines of the prologue in Middle English

• Read and discuss “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “Pardoner’s Tale,” and “Prioress’s Tale”

• Timed writing (AP format) on connections among two characters from the prologue and one tale. (After students write essays, teacher conferences individually with each student on ways to improve timed writing.)

Poetry

Major assignments and assessments:

• Read Frost’s “Birches”

• Poetry analysis worksheet (imagery and purpose, figurative language and purpose, speaker, tones and shifts, connotations, thematic statement)

• Read and discuss selected poetry of Billy Collins

• Students choose one Collins poem for analysis

• Read and discuss selected poetry of Emily Dickinson

• Students choose one Dickinson poem for analysis

AP Multiple-Choice Practice Tests

• Over the course of the semester, students will take portions of released AP Literature exams.

• The first two will be take-home assignments.

• The next ones will be timed, in-class assignments.

• After they have been graded, selections will be analyzed and discussed in class.

AP Timed Writing Practice Tests

• Over the course of the semester, students will write timed essays from released AP Literature exams.

• The first one will be timed for 50 minutes.

• The second one will be timed for 45 minutes.

• All others will be timed for the requisite 40 minutes.

• Students are shown well-written examples on the same prompt and given opportunity to revise their own essays.

AP Practice Exam

• At the end of the semester, students will take a complete, timed AP Literature exam over the course of a week.

• Day One – 30 minutes for first half of multiple-choice questions

• Day Two – 30 minutes for second half of multiple-choice questions

• Day Three – timed essay on poetry

• Day Four – timed essay on prose

• Day Five – open-ended timed essay

• Both the multiple-choice section and each timed essay are analyzed in an open-class discussion.

Spring Semester

Novel Project

Students will complete novel project from first semester with different partners and a different novel. (Novels chosen fall semester may not be repeated.) – See instructions from Fall Semester. (Teacher provides instruction and feedback on essay to help students develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis.)

Grammar

Text: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

• Read and discuss relevant passages in book.

• Teacher chooses two sentences from each of last semester’s novel-project essays with mechanical problems. Show all sentences on overhead projector and have students make corrections.

Thematic Poetry

• Students will choose a poem or a piece of artwork that shares ones of the themes from the novel chosen for the project.

• Two-page essay (with quotes from novel and poem) explaining the thematic connections. (Teacher provides instruction and feedback to help students develop an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure.)

Poetry - Sonnets

Major assignments and assessments:

• Notes on types of sonnets

• Read and discuss selection of Italian sonnets

• Read and discuss selection of Shakespearean sonnets

• Students will memorize one Shakespearean sonnet of their choosing

• AP multiple-choice questions on a 17th-century poem

Tragedy

Text: Hamlet

Major assignments and assessments:

• Background notes on Shakespeare and the Renaissance

• Read the play together in class (with parts)

• Major test, including an essay on a character

• AP timed, open-ended essay on Hamlet (students choose from three prompts)

• After students write essays, teacher conferences individually with each student on ways to improve timed writings.

Poetry

Major assignments and assessments:

• Read and discuss poetry section in Bedford literature book (Writing about Poetry; Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone; Figures of Speech; Symbol, Allegory, and Irony; Patterns of Rhythm, Poetic Forms)

• Analyze selected poems from the anthology as a class

• Students will analyze a selected poem in pairs and present to class

• Students write a poem using one of the forms: sonnet, villanelle, sestina, picture poem, parody

Existentialist Literature

Text: The Stranger

Major assignments and assessments:

• Read novel in class

• Socratic seminar on existentialism and characterization in the novel

• AP timed, open-ended essay on The Stranger (students choose from 3 prompts)

• After students write essays, teacher conferences individually with each student on ways to improve timed writing.

AP Multiple-Choice Practice Tests

• Over the course of the semester, students will take portions of released AP Literature exams.

• They will be timed, in-class assignments.

• After they have been graded, selections will be discussed and analyzed in class.

AP Timed Writing Practice Tests

• Over the course of the semester, students will write timed essays from released AP Literature exams.

• All will be timed for the requisite 40 minutes.

• Responses will be discussed and analyzed in class

AP Practice Exam

• Before the AP exam, students will take a complete, timed AP Literature exam over the course of a week.

• Day One – 30 minutes for first half of multiple-choice questions

• Day Two – 30 minutes for second half of multiple-choice questions

• Day Three – timed essay on poetry

• Day Four – times essay on prose

• Day Five – open-ended timed essay

• Complete exam will be discussed and analyzed in class

After the AP Exam

Text: Diaries of Adam and Eve

Major assignments and assessments:

• Read together in class

• Students write their own diaries in the voice of a religious or mythological character

Scrapbook Project

Year-long scrapbook project due in May (after AP exams).

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download