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178435952500The Academy of Richmond CountyAP English Literature and Composition2019-2020Ms. Atwood, Room 109Email: AtwooMa@boe.richmond.k12.ga.usCourse DescriptionAP English Literature and Composition is a college-level course that involves students in the reading and analysis of literature. A primary focus of the class is guiding students in attaining an understanding of the techniques used by writers to inform and delight their audience. As they read, students will analyze such techniques as theme, style, tone, and structure, as well as diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, and symbolism. Much of this literary analysis will involve intense writing as students respond to a variety of prompts. All writing assignments will be based on the reading passages or interpretations of literary pieces focusing on textual details, the social and/or historical values of the work, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. In addition, since this is a college-level class as opposed to a college-prep class traditionally offered at the high school level, a greater maturity is expected of the students in terms of commitment to the class and expectations toward the material.Reading AssignmentsReading assignments will be split into several thematic units. During the first semester the study of fiction, poetry, and drama will focus on reviewing and enforcing what students already understand about the basic elements of these genres and relating these understandings to an analysis of theme in the works studied. Students will also begin a year-long examination of literary criticism, with an introduction to six of the common critical lenses and the assumptions and strategies employed when interpreting through these lenses. During the second semester, students will hone their knowledge and analytical skills with a study of lesser known, more complex literary technique, and will practice synthesizing analysis through various literary techniques to elicit deeper understandings of themes. Students are expected to maintain a rigorous reading schedule so that they do not fall behind as we examine the various elements of literature and theme throughout the year. Plays are treated as works of literature that are meant to be heard aloud; because of this, the students encounter drama through a variety of audio and video formats and through oral reading, focusing on the dramatic qualities as well as the literary aspects of plays. Other works will be read in and out of class depending on the schedule and length of each. The various outside-reading assignments will consist of the following works:Summer Reading (Due August 9, 2019) **Those who did not complete the summer assignment have until October 4, 2019 at 3:15 pm to turn it in without penalty.Students Choice -Novel, Play, or Epic Poem from provided reading list.Graphic Organizers and Questions to prepare students for Free Response Question 3 (FRQ 3).First Semester Major Works:Excerpts from Beowulf (translations by S. Heaney, B. Raffel, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Robin Lamb)“The General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey ChaucerMacbeth by Shakespeare Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom StoppardSecond Semester Novels and Plays:Excerpts from Paradise Lost by John MiltonFrankenstein by Mary ShelleyThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainIndependent Novel: These will be selected based on the students’ interests, choices, and needs. Some authors we will attempt to cover include the following:W. H. Auden; William Blake; Anne Bradstreet; Robert Browning; George Gordon, Lord Byron; Geoffrey Chaucer; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Emily Dickinson; John Donne; T. S. Eliot; Robert Frost; Seamus Heaney; AE Housman; Langston Hughes; Ben Jonson; John Keats; Robert Lowell; Andrew Marvell; John Milton; Sylvia Plath; Edgar Allan Poe; Alexander Pope; Anne Sexton; William Shakespeare; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Walt Whitman; William Carlos Williams; William Wordsworth; William Butler Yeats; Aeschylus; Edward Albee; Samuel Beckett; Lorraine Hansberry; Henrik Ibsen; Arthur Miller; Eugene O'Neill; George Bernard Shaw; Tom Stoppard; Oscar Wilde; Tennessee Williams; Margaret Atwood; James Baldwin; Saul Bellow; Charlotte Bront?; Emily Bront?; Sandra Cisneros; Ralph Ellison; William Faulkner; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Thomas Hardy; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Ernest Hemingway; D. H. Lawrence; Niccolo Machiavelli; Toni Morrison; Flannery O'Connor; Jonathan Swift; Mark Twain; John Updike; Virginia Woolf; Richard Wright.Writing AssignmentsComposition assignments will include: quick responses, weekly timed writing using previous AP exam prompts, and formal essays (expository and argumentative). ● All writing assignments will include a specific grading rubric. We will go over the rubrics prior to submitting papers and review expectations for the particular assignment. Please consult each rubric carefully and use it to help in your revision process both before and after submitting your work. ● Weekly timed writing using practice AP exam questions. These will be scored using the AP scoring guides used for the AP English Literature and Composition Exam for that specific question. Timed writing will be done under “exam conditions” in order to prepare and practice for the exam in May. You will be required to write your essays by hand using PEN only. You will have a number of opportunities to revise your in-class and formal essays; the expectation is that you revise your writing both before and after you receive feedback from me.● We will use writing to understand, to explain, and to evaluate the texts we explore. Your writing will focus on thinking about the text (author’s craft, style, structure, and literary elements), thinking within the text (what is the author’s argument, purpose, and what does the author want the reader to take away from the text), and thinking beyond the text (how does this text relate to or reflect the larger world and the zeitgeist of its time). Students will complete an in-class essay on each major reading assignment. These will be comprised of past AP open questions and will count as test grades. These will be closely timed and graded on the 6-point rubric used by the AP scoring committee in order to approximate the AP test-taking experience both in form and grading. In addition, students will also complete regularly scheduled in-class practice essays on prose and poetry analysis for the AP exam. These will also be timed and graded on the 6-point rubric in keeping with the guidelines for the actual AP exam. Previously released AP exam topics will provide the poems and prose pieces for these assignments. In assessing these writings, students will analyze sample essays and rubrics provided by the College Board. They will also critique each other’s’ essays in peer-critiquing sessions, modeling examples of what fellow students have done well and what needs revision and polish. The class will discuss these essays with the plan of using them to improve their quality for the next essay. Quizzes and Tests Students will complete biweekly quizzes covering vocabulary, required reading, and literary elements relevant to the current unit. At the end of each unit, students will complete an essay test that requires a response to an AP prompt. These prompts will be selected from past exams released by the College Board. They will be graded according to the 6-point rubric, also established and released by the College Board. Saturday Study Sessions:There are three Saturday Study Sessions that you are expected to attend. The sessions last from 9-1; lunch will be provided. The dates and locations are:October 19 (Westside High School)January 11, 2019 (Laney High School)March 16, 2019 (ARC)There will be a mock exam during the third nine weeks (January 2020).GradingStudents in this class will be graded according to a points system. Each assignment will be given a specific point value. When graded, the score will appear as the number of points earned over the number of possible points. Also, each graded assignment will be weighted according to type. Please note: due to county changes and policies, five points are no longer added to averages at the end of the grading period. The following is the weighting and distribution of points for each type of assignment:In determining averages for each 9-weeks grading period, the following will apply:35% = Tests, presentations, projects25 % = All graded writing (“some” rough drafts will be graded under the 40% grade)40% = Quizzes and other class assignments (daily work)Grade Recovery:All students who fail the 1st and/or 3rd Nine Week grading periods will be given an opportunity to complete grade recovery. Grade recovery WILL NOT be available for the 2nd and 4th Nine Week grading periods. There will be a Grade Recovery Contract that must be signed and dated by both the student and parent/guardian for credit to be earned. Once the student returns the signed Grade Recovery Contract, they will complete a variety of assignments that will review the necessary Standards for each of the failed nine week grading periods. 1st Nine Weeks Grade Recovery due no later than November 14, 2019 at 3:15pm (2nd Nine Weeks Progress Report).3rd Nine Weeks Grade Recovery due no later than April 23, 2020 at 3:15pm (4th Nine Weeks Progress Report).Materials Required: **Please NO spiral notebooks—we will be keeping writing folders and loose-leaf paper works best.1 three-ring binder (preferably 2- 2 ?-inches)loose-leaf college ruled paper5 section dividers (unit 1, unit 2, unit 3, unit 4, writing)blue / black ink pens, pencilspost-it notes (sticky notes) to help with annotationshighlightersflash driveTypes of Assessments (Formal and Informal)Response to Literary Prompts (Essays and Informal Writings)Discussion/ObservationJournalsOral PresentationsResearch AssignmentsCreative Interpretative AssignmentsTests/QuizzesOrganization of the Course Unit One: IdentityUnit Two: MisconceptionsUnit Three: Family ConceptsUnit Four: Society and the IndividualEach of the units will examine a variety of thematically related literature. Students will be required to synthesize the effects of various literary elements in analyses of theme represented in these works. Intense in-class timed writing will hone these skills, with emphasis on AP-style prompts and scoring. Students will also produce longer at-home analyses for each unit.**A note on course material and keeping an open mind: Many of the texts we will study deal with strong themes and motifs. You are not required to agree with everything you read—the sign of a strong analytical thinker is to keep an open mind and study the literature objectively. Remember the words of Robert Frost: “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”Research writing:Students will write Annotated Bibliographies examining a chosen work through an assigned critical lens. Students will review and practice MLA writing format in submitting rough drafts. Final drafts will be scored according to format, grammar/style, and content.AP Exam Final Preparations:The final week before the exam, our focus will turn to a review of key test-taking strategies as well as practicing with released AP English prompts and multiple choice passages.Technology in the Classroom:As per the BYOT policy, cell phones are allowed in school. However, I uphold a strict cell phone policy in my classroom. There will be times when we will use them for classwork, but there will be a large amount of time where we do not. During those times where we do not in which I will inform you at the start of class, my expectations are that you keep your phone on silent and put away in your bag and/or face down on your desk. If having phones becomes an issue and you cannot follow these expectations, then there is a container near my desk where you will place your phone during class and can retrieve it once the class is dismissed. This is non-negotiable. We will Late Work:This is a college-level course. Think of the expectations your professors will have of you in college. Think of the reason you signed up for this course or were placed in this course. Think of my time (which I value, as you do yours). Therefore, all due dates are to be considered hard deadlines—strict adherence to them is imperative. Turning in work late is not indicative of mature, college-ready behavior. That behavior will not be an option in college; therefore, it will not be an option in here. All late projects and essays will receive 11 points off per day BEFORE I grade it—for an assignment due on a Friday that you decide to submit on Monday; it will be an automatic 20-point deduction. No work will be accepted after it is more than a school week late (5 days) without an excused absence (doctor’s note or school-related function). No exceptions. This is a school and county policy.Parent/Guardian and Student Communication with the teacher:It goes without saying that the AP English Literature section on the class page should be checked daily, as well as your email and any reminders sent out to Remind (see below). Important updates regarding study sessions, due dates, changes in schedule, etc. will be on this site. The best method for contact is via e-mail. I do my best to respond to e-mails within 24 hours. Remind:In addition to the class page, I have included information in the syllabus regarding . WHAT IS REMIND AND WHY IS IT SAFE? Remind is a one-way text messaging and email system. With , all personal information remains completely confidential. Teachers will never see your phone number, nor will you ever see theirs, but you will be able to receive texts and/or emails regarding class announcements, reminders about due dates, homework, and tests, and other important class information. (Visit to learn more.) If you are interested in signing up, directions and class codes are included in the following pages.Access to Remind: The access code for Remind is @b6hfefTutoring/After-school help:If you feel like you need additional help with anything in class, I will be available after school from 3:30 pm- 4:00pm with prior notice. Please let me know at least 24 hours in advance if you plan to stay after school by sending me an email or message in Remind or of course, telling me in class. Please understand that I also have meetings after school and classes at Augusta University, so waiting until the last minute to let me know is not advisable. Please have your syllabus signed and returned no later than August 14, 2019. This will count as a participation grade (40%) for the first nine weeks. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I have read this syllabus, and I understand the content and requirements for the year. I understand that this syllabus is to be kept in the front of my notebook after it is signed by my parent/guardian. I understand that course expectations may change due to time constraints or other unavoidable circumstances.________________________ ____________________________ _____________________________________ Student’s Printed Name Student’s Signature Parent/Guardian’s Signature/Date ................
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