Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition



Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition

Melissa Conway-Wolcott

East Jackson Comprehensive High School

Jackson County Schools

COURSE DESCRIPTION

AP English Literature and Composition is a semester long college level course designed to engage students in close reading and critical analysis of rich texts as outlined by the AP English Literature Course Description. The course is reading and writing intensive. Throughout the semester, students will develop skills in various forms of written expression and will practice extensively for the AP exam in May. In their interaction with literary texts, students will acquire the necessary critical skills, literary terminology, vocabulary, and writing (style and conventions) skills to interpret complex works, to write insightful compositions, to develop their own writing style, and to gain proficiency in AP test-taking skills. An inherent part of the course is timely and detailed feedback on writing throughout the writing process and opportunities for revision to aid students in their textual analysis and interpretive skills as well as in the cultivation of their own style of writing. Participation in class discussion and learning activities is vital for learning, and each student is expected to come to class each day prepared to contribute.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

The teacher will select British and American works from a variety of genres and time periods ranging from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries, acknowledging both the depth and breadth of the course and building upon the literary base of the students. Because the students enter AP English Literature from courses that have focused solely on American literature, the texts chosen are predominantly British. During the summer and academic year, students will have the opportunity to read a novel or play, short prose, and numerous poems in each thematic unit.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

In this writing intensive course, students write and revise often to develop their skills in various forms of written expression as well as critical reading and thinking. All of the following are types of writing that students will compose during this course.

Writing to Understand

• Guided Reading Questions

Before beginning their reading of a major text, students receive questions that guide them to notice specific aspects of the text. They choose to respond to a specified number of the questions. The following is an example of such a question about Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: Why are most of the novel's characters given only descriptive titles—not actual names? Discuss the functions of three such characters (doctor, brickmaker, accountant, manager, or helmsman, for example) in the novel. What does Marlow learn from them, and why does he choose not to name them?

• Double-Entry Journal

As students read a literary text, they choose a specified number of quotations to which to respond in three specific ways. In each entry, students number the entry, write the quotation including page and paragraph number, identify the type of connection, and compose a response of at least two sentences. The three types of connections are:

(1) Personal Connection: Contemplate how the quotation connects to some aspect of your personal knowledge and experience. The quotation may remind you of a situation you have been in or seen, or a person you know or an idea you have learned through personal experience.

(2) Intratextual Connection: Reflect on how the quotation connects to another passage from the same text. Think about ways in which the connected passages emphasize character, setting, conflict, or another element of the work.

(3) Intertextual Connection: Ponder how the quotation connects to another text (literature, film, media, music, or art). Consider similarities that the two texts share (characterization, mood, plot, setting, theme, tone), and discuss how the two texts relate to one another.

• Personal Narrative

Students hone composition skills by writing about their own experiences.

• Literary Imitation

Students learn about how literature is written by imitating literary texts, transforming the original by focusing on their own experience or updating to a contemporary situation.

Writing to Explain

• Literary Analysis Paragraph Response

Students analyze specific quotations and/or literary concepts in a work by composing paragraph in which they explain meaning and thematic connection.

• Literary Interpretation Essay

Students write essays in which they explain the theme of a literary work, supporting their interpretations with textual evidence and literary terminology.

• Compare-Contrast Essay

Students compose essays in which they compare and contrast two literary texts, often relating the major work of the thematic unit with a minor work from the unit.

Writing to Evaluate

• Persuasive Essay

Students compose essays in which they argue a position about the social and cultural values expressed in a literary text.

• AP Exam Timed-Writing Essay

Students write essay in response to prompts modified from AP English Literature Examinations. These essays require students to make and explain judgments about literary artistry are composed in class during a 40-minute time limit. After receiving feedback, students revise essays out of class.

GRADING & RUBRICS

All grades are based on a point system, with grades coming from a variety of assessments: timed and un-timed compositions, in- and out-of-class compositions, quizzes, tests, group work, individual projects, close reading, research-based inquiry, seminars, class work, thesis practice, prompt re-visitation, self-analysis, and revisions of papers. The point-value of assignments is determined by significance. Writing prompts scored according to the nine-point AP scale will be a key indicator of how well students are progressing in the class. Because writing is a process, I will place emphasis on the progress individual students make and the effort they expend with their writing; therefore, I assess and provide feedback on prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing. In addition to writing, I will evaluate student progress in reading, public speaking, grammar and conventions, vocabulary, understanding of literary terminology, allusion knowledge, and literature analysis. Final grades in the class will reflect a student’s improvement and growth in critical analysis and writing throughout each semester. According to school district policy, numerical averages and grade equivalents are as follows: A 90-100, B 80-89, C 75-79, D 70-74, F 0-69.

|Rubric of All Rubrics for AP Exam Timed-Writing |

|modified from the original created by Conni Shelnut (Lakeland High School, Florida) |

|8-9 |Superior papers specific in their references, cogent in their definitions, and free of plot summary that is not relevant to the question. |

| |These essays need not be without flaws, but they demonstrate the writer's ability to discuss a prompt with insight and understanding and |

| |to control a wide range of the elements of effective composition. At all times, they stay focused on the question and the thesis. These |

|27-30 |papers reflect stylistic flair and in-depth and original, concrete supporting details. This score is equivalent to an A. |

|points | |

|6-7 |These papers are less thorough, less perceptive or less specific than 9-8 papers. These essays are well-written but with less maturity and|

| |control than the top papers. They demonstrate the writer's ability to analyze a literary work, but they reveal a more limited |

| |understanding than do the papers in the 9-8 range. Generally, 6 essays present a less sophisticated analysis and less consistent command |

|24-26 |of the elements of effective writing than essays scored 7. This score is equivalent to a B. |

|points | |

|5 |Safe and “plastic,” superficiality characterizes these essays. Discussion of meaning may be pedestrian, mechanical, or inadequately |

| |related to the chosen details. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. They usually demonstrate |

| |inconsistent control over the elements of composition and are not as well conceived, organized, or developed as the upper-half papers. On |

|22 points |the other hand, the writing is sufficient to convey the writer's ideas and stays focused on the prompt. This score is equivalent to a C. |

|3-4 |Discussion is likely to be unpersuasive, perfunctory, underdeveloped or misguided. The meaning they deduce may be inaccurate or |

| |insubstantial and not clearly related to the question. Part of the question may be omitted altogether. The writing may convey the writer's|

| |ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as diction, organization, syntax or grammar. Typically, these essays contain |

| |significant misinterpretations of the question or the work they discuss; they may also contain little, if any, supporting evidence, and |

|18-21 |practice paraphrase and plot summary at the expense of analysis. This score is equivalent to a D. |

|points | |

|1-2 |These essays compound the weakness of essays in the 4-3 range and are frequently unacceptably brief. They are poorly written on several |

| |counts, including many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although the writer may have made some effort to answer the question, |

|10-15 |the views presented have little clarity or coherence. This score is equivalent to an F. |

|points | |

|Grading Rubric for Literary Analysis Paragraph Responses |

|9-10 |Responses in the range of 9 to 10 are persuasive and convincing and reveal an insightful understanding of the topic and the literary |

|points |work. They contain a focused main idea, logical organization, extensive development of ideas, and profoundly appropriate supporting |

| |evidence from the literary text as well as precise use of literary terminology. These responses are grammatically clear and well-written|

| |and include precise parenthetical citations. |

|8-9 |Responses in the range of 8 to 9 are competent and reasonable and reveal a clear understanding of the topic and the literary work. They |

|points |contain a main idea, organization, thorough development of ideas, and clear supporting evidence from the literary text as well as use of |

| |literary terminology. These responses may have a few grammatical errors but are generally clearly written. They include parenthetical |

| |citations for quotations. |

|7-8 |Responses in the range of 7 to 8 are simple and superficial and reveal a limited understanding of the topic and the literary work, |

|points |possibly addressing only a part of the topic. They contain an unfocused main idea, limited organization, limited or superficial |

| |development of ideas, and vague supporting evidence from the literary text as well as unspecific use of literary terminology. These |

| |responses may be grammatically flawed but they do include parenthetical citations. |

|5-7 |Responses in the range of 5 to 7 are inadequate and reveal an incomplete understanding of the topic and the literary work. They do not |

|points |contain a main idea, organization is confusing or disconnected, development of ideas is thin, textual evidence does not support their |

| |points, and literary terminology is vague if present. These responses are grammatically flawed, lack clarity, and fail to cite sources. |

|3-5 |Responses in the range of 3 to 5 are seriously flawed and reveal little understanding of the topic and the literary work. They do not |

|points |address the topic directly, organization is lacking, development of ideas is too brief, there is little or no textual evidence for |

| |support, and knowledge of literary terminology is not evident from the writing. These responses may contain serious grammatical flaws |

| |that make the writing difficult to understand. |

READING AND WRITING SCHEDULE

The course is organized around two major thematic topics: the quest for identity and individuality during the fall semester and the search for purpose in an imperfect word during the spring semester. In addition to the assignments of each semester, students also complete reading and writing assignments during their summer and winter breaks.

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First Semester

Introduction to the Course

• Introduction to the AP course, including test format and scoring formula; sample multiple choice questions and practice turning sample prompts into questions to address the prompts specifically; gaining a feel for what success on the AP test will require.

• Discussion and assessment of the summer reading selections; introducing literary terminology and tone words; identification/quotations quizzes along with writing assignments—AP-style prompts and creative topics.

Unit Topic (Summer Reading): Society, family, and the individual

Essential Question: To what extent and to what effect do society, the family, and an individual’s own psychological make-up shape one’s destiny?

Reading Assignments:

• Major Literary Text: The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood), Death of a Salesman (Miller), Fences (Wilson), Life of Pi (Martel)

Writing Assignments: (in-class AP-style prompts)

• On the first day of fall semester, students compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompts:

1) The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is the recurring theme of many literary works. Select a character from the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society.

2) In many works of literature, a physical journey—the literal movement from one place to another—plays a central role. Consider that a physical journey often mirrors an internal transformation for a character. In Life of Pi, focus on how the protagonist’s ocean journey is integral to the meaning of the work as a whole;

• (take-home AP-style prompt) The modern plays Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson depict a conflicts between a parent and a child. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflicts and explain how the conflicts contribute to the meaning of the works. Your essay should be edited and polished and will be enhanced by supporting evidence from the text.

• Write a 50-word précis of each play or novel. Be exact, counting every word.

• Write a paragraph description of style and tone for each summer reading work, including six adjectives to describe each author’s writing style. How do the style and tone impact the meaning of each work?

• (Life of Pi) In an alternative reality, you have been transformed into Tomohiro Okamoto, the representative of the Maritime Department in the Japanese Ministry of Transport to whom Piscine Molitor Patel has told the story of his sea voyage in Life of Pi. After listening to Pi's complete tale, you must now write your official government report. Compose your report, taking into consideration Pi's question, “So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?“ (317).

Unit Topic: Style

Essential Question: What is the write stuff?

• examine the elements of style and rhetoric; use excerpts from longer works, short works, or AP prose passages to teach elements; exercises and imitations to practice parallel structure, sentence variety, diction

Reading Assignments:

• Major Literary Text: essays in DiYanni text: “The Masked Marvel’s Last Toehold” (Selzer), “The Ring of Time” (White), “Living Like Weasels” (Dillard); “My Losing Season” (prologue/epilogue Conroy), “Ordeal by Cheque”

• Minor Literary Texts: The Practical Stylist

Writing Assignments:

• Style analyses of essays in paragraphs and graphic organizers

Unit Topic: Metapoetry

Essential Question: How does a poem mean?

Reading Assignments:

• Major Literary Texts: “Ars Poetica” (MacLeish); “Constantly Risking Absurdity” (Ferlinghetti); “Digging” (Heaney); “Eating Poetry” (Strand); “Gentle Reader” (Jacobsen); “How I Discovered Poetry” (Nelson); “Introduction to Poetry” (Collins); “On Reading Poems to a Senior Class” (Berry); “Poems, Potatoes” (Plath); “Poetry” (Moore); “Prosody 101” (Pastan); “since feeling is first” (cummings); “Sound and Sense” (Pope); “There is no frigate like a book” (Dickinson); “The Thought Fox” (Hughes)

• Minor Literary Texts: poetry chapters – Perinne’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense (Arp)

Writing Assignments:

• As they read, students keep a Double-Entry Journal in which they compose ten entries required per poem.

Unit Topic: The individual versus society

Essential Question: How does society shape an individual and ultimately influence his quality of life?

Reading Assignments:

• Major Literary Texts: Pygmalion (Shaw), The Awakening (Chopin)

• Minor Literary Texts: “Galatea Before the Mirror (Alegria), “Barbie Doll” (Piercy), “The Leap” (Dickey), “Meeting at Night”/”Parting at Morning” (Browning), “Break of Day” (Donne), “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (Rich), “My Last Duchess” (Browning), “The Story of an Hour”/”Desiree’s Baby” (Chopin), “The Lifeguard” (Dickey), “Woman Work” (Angelou), How to Read Literature Like a College Professor (Foster) Ch. 9, 10, 13 (Pygmalion) 2, 16, 18 (The Awakening).

Writing Assignments:

• Students will respond to guided reading questions for each major text.

• Students will compose Literary Analysis Paragraph Responses for each of the five acts of the play Pygmalion. For example, they respond to the following topic for Act IV: Choose the one line from Act IV that you believe is the turning point or climax in the play and defend your decision. You may support your assertion with quotations from Act I-Act IV.

• After studying the concept of satire, students compose a Persuasive Essay, showing that a social condition Shaw criticized in the early twentieth century still exists today. They choose from topics such as: Social class divisions are highly artificial; trying to be what one is not can make one appear ridiculous; marriage is not always an ideal state; or the “undeserving” poor need as much help as the “deserving” poor.

• Read the following quotation, which is the last sentence of the “Epilogue” of the play Pygmalion by G. B. Shaw. Then write an insightful discussion that addresses the meaning of the quotation in terms of the major characters of the play. Include connections to the outcome of the play.

“Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her

is too godlike.”

• Students compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompts. After receiving feedback, students choose to revise one of the essays:

1)1965: An individual's struggle toward understanding and awareness is the traditional subject for the novelist. In an essay, apply this statement to The Awakening. Organize your essay according to the following plan: a) Compare the hero as we see him in an early scene with the hero as we see him in a scene near the end of the novel. b) Describe the techniques that the author uses to reveal the new understanding and awareness that the hero has achieved.

2) 1987: Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. In The Awakening, note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

• Students compose a Literary Analysis Essay in which they explain the significance of a motif in the novel (such as birds and flight, ocean and swimming, or clothing and nakedness) and its connection to theme.

• Students write a Personal Narrative in response to one of the topics from the Common Application such as: Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. Students receive feedback and revise multiple times to perfect these essays that they may use for their own college applications

Unit Topic: Names, roots, and wings

Essential question: What impact does a person’s heritage have in shaping identity?

Reading Assignment:

• Major Literary Text: Song of Solomon (Morrison)

• Minor Literary Texts: “Museé des Beaux Arts” (Auden), “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” (Williams),“O Daedalus, Fly Away Home” (Hayden), “Mending Wall” (Frost), “Mirror” (Plath), “Living in Sin” (Rich), “A Birth” (Dickey), “Toads”/”Toads Revisited” (Larkin), “Five Ways to Kill a Man” (Brock) “Youth’s Progress” (Updike), “Poetry of Departures” (Larkin), “Advice to My Son” (Meinke), “Words for My Daughter” (Balaban), “The Piano” (Lawrence), “Ulysses” (Tennyson), How to Read Literature Ch. 1, 7, 14, 15

Writing Assignments:

• Students will respond to guided reading questions for the major text.

• AP prompt: 1981: The meaning of some literary works is often enhanced by sustained allusion to myths, the Bible, or other works of literature. Song of Solomon makes use of such allusion. Write a well-organized essay in which you explain the allusion that predominates in the work and analyze how it enhances the work's meaning. Students will then do a prompt revisitation after their own prompts are returned with feedback.

• Students write a Personal Narrative through Literary Imitation of Sandra Cisneros’s “My Name.” They reveal the connection between their names and their identity as they imitate Cisneros’s writing style.

• Find five “best style passages” that exhibit quintessential Toni Morrison. After selecting the passages, write a good page explaining her style based on your examples. Remember that Morrison’s style is pretty expansive.

• Find five best examples of parallel structure (different from your style passage choices). Then explain the purpose of the parallelism in each example in paragraph analyses.

• Write a 50 word précis of the novel. Count exactly 50 words.

• In a visual no larger than poster board and no smaller than half a piece of poster board, show Milkman Dead’s heritage in a format such as a family tree or chart, weaving in Milkman’s past and present. Use symbols and objects that are representative of the various characters and their impact on the themes of identity, song, flight, and love in Song of Solomon. The visual will be graded on creativity, thoroughness, accuracy/neatness, and insight into the novel. Color is necessary. Write a half page explanation of your representation.

Unit Topic: The darker side of man

Essential Question: Where is the heart of darkness?

Reading Assignments:

• Major Literary Text: Heart of Darkness (Conrad)

• Minor Literary Texts: “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” (Blake), “The Child by Tiger” (Wolfe), “The Hollow Men” (Eliot), Apocalypse Now (Coppola), “Billiards” (Gibson), Dover Beach” (Arnold), “The World Is Too Much with Us” (Wordsworth).

Writing Assignments:

• Students will respond to guided reading questions for the major text.

• style analysis graphic organizer “The Child by Tiger” as an introduction to the themes of Heart of Darkness for various elements such as parallelism, imagery (feline, fire, etc.), pathetic fallacy, repetition, tone, and narrative technique.

• AP-style prompt:

1) Discuss the use of darkness as a physical and symbolic presence in the novel.

2) An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant “closure” has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide ambiguity and uncertainty. Discuss the ending of Heart of Darkness. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot; instead discuss the significance of the ending to the theme and meaning of the work.

3) In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Discuss how such a character functions in Heart of Darkness. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters.

Unit Topic: The funny nature of love

Essential Question: How is the comic nature of humanity reflected in love relationships?

Discussion of the types and characteristics of comedy.

Reading Assignment:

• Major Literary Text: The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare), The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde), As I Lay Dying (Faulkner)

• Minor Literary Texts: “Love in Brooklyn” (Frost), “The Telephone” (Wakeman), “The Broken Heart” (Donne), “The Flea” (Donne), “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (Marlowe), “The Nymph’s Reply” (Raleigh), “The Indifferent” (Donne), “The Apparition” (Donne), “The Triple Fool” (Donne), “Love is Not All” (Millay), “Sorting Laundry” (Ritchie), “To the Virgins to Make Much of Time” (Herrick), “To His Coy Mistress” (Marvell), How to Read Literature (6)

Writing Assignments:

• As they read, students will respond to Guided Reading Questions.

• Students compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompts:

1) The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is easy to discover. However, in other works the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually. Discuss how the title of one of the playa you have read in this unit is developed through the use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.

2) In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or scene of a play introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about such a beginning of a novel and play you have read this semester in which you explain how the introduction functions to set forth major themes.

3) Students will do a paired poem prompt pertaining to love such as the Eros pairing.

• After studying the pastoral poems “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and “The Nymph’s Reply,” students compose a Literary Imitation of the pair of poems.

Second Semester

Unit Topic: The transcendent nature of love

Essential question: What kind of love transcends space and time?

Reading Assignment:

• Major text: Wuthering Heights (Bronte)

• Minor texts: “Sorting Laundry” (Ritchie), “When my love swears that she is made of truth” (Shakespeare), “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments” (Shakespeare), “We outgrow love” (Dickinson), “Alter! When the hills do” (Dickinson), “If thou must love me” (Browning), “Getting Through” (Pope), “Since there’s no help” (Drayton), “Scholars” (de la Mare)

Writing Assignments:

• Style passage analysis: How do the diction, imagery, figurative language, syntax, and style contribute to the overall effect of the description of each character or setting? How do those techniques contribute to the understanding of the passage?

• Students will compose Literary Analysis Paragraph Responses to teacher-selected significant quotations.

• Students will compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompt:

1) Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Write an essay explaining how the two places in Wuthering Heights differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

• Students will compose a love poem without using the word love.

• Students will compose an original poem using a specific form that suits the meaning of the poem. (Ex. Sonnet, terza rima, villanelle, etc.)

Unit Topic: The modern psyche

Essential question: What choices in subject and technique do modern writers make?

Reading Assignment:

Students will select one novel from the list below and read it according to the groups that form. There must be a minimum of three people and preferably no more than five people per novel.

Choices:

• Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)

• Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood)

• All the Pretty Horses or The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

• A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

• East of Eden (John Steinbeck)

• The Prince of Tides or Beach Music (Pat Conroy)

Writing Assignments:

• Students will be given creative as well as AP style assignments.

• Students will write an outside paper with secondary sources from a list of selected topics.

Unit Topic: Much madness is divinest sense

Essential Question: What is the proper response to revenge?

Reading Assignment:

• Major Literary Text: Hamlet (Shakespeare)

• Minor Literary Texts: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Eliot), “Hamlet” (Pasternak), “Elegy of Fortinbras” (Herbert)

Writing Assignments:

• As they read, students will respond to Guided Reading Questions.

• Students compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompt:

According to British novelist Fay Weldon, a happy ending involves “moral development” and can be achieved through “some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death.” Therefore, though the stage is littered with dead bodies at the end of the play, Hamlet could be said to have a happy ending. Discuss Hamlet’s happy ending and its significance in the work as a whole.

• Students will research a topic in Hamlet (i.e., the role of women, father/son relationships, etc.) and write a formal research paper in MLA format with in-text citations from primary sources and a minimum of three secondary sources.

• Students compose a Literary Analysis Essay in which they explain the significance of a motif in the novel (such as deception and spying, decay and disease, incest and kinship, or acting and playing) and its connection to theme.

• Students write a Compare-Contrast Essay based on the following topic:

Read Boris Pasternak’s “Hamlet” and use the poem to discuss the roles of destiny and acting in the play. Consider the impact on the meaning of the play of Hamlet’s lament about his fate—“The time is out of joint. O curséd spite,/That ever I was born to set it right!” (1.5.6-7)—, his familial and political duties, his madness, and the play within a play.

Unit Topic: Time out of joint

Essential Question: Is a person’s role in society scripted and inescapable?

Reading Assignment:

• Major Literary Text: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Stoppard)

• Minor Literary Texts: “Anthem for Doomed Youth” (Owen), “Dulce Et Decorum Est” (Owen), “The Convergence of the Twain” (Hardy), “Design” (Frost), “George Gray” (Masters), “Sisyphus and the Sudden Lightness” (Dunn), “Disillusionment at Ten O’clock” (Stevens), e. e. cummings’ poems, “Much Madness Is Divinest Sense” (Dickinson), “Spinster” (Plath)

Writing Assignments:

• As they read, students will respond to Guided Reading Questions.

• Students will compose Literary Analysis Paragraph Responses to teacher-selected significant quotations.

• Students compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompts:

1) "The true test of comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter." (George Meredith) Choose a character or scene from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead that awakens "thoughtful laughter" in the reader. Write an essay in which you show why this laughter is "thoughtful" and how it contributes to the meaning of the work.

2) 1985: A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this "healthy confusion." Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the "pleasure and disquietude" experienced by the readers of the work.

Unit Topic: Loss and Redemption

Essential Question: How does man overcome losses in life and gain redemption?

Reading Assignment:

• Major Literary Text: The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver), Equus (Shaffer)

• Minor Literary Texts: Trifles (Glaspell), “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (Rich), “Those Winter Sundays” (Hayden), “Turning” (Wade), “Elegy for Jane” (Roethke), “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter” (Ransom), “My Papa’s Waltz” (Roethke), “To a Daughter Leaving Home” (Pastan), “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” (Whitman), “One Art” (Bishop), “after minor surgery” (Pastan), “The Letter” (Kenyon), “The Mill” (Robinson)

Writing Assignments:

• Students will compose Literary Analysis Paragraph Responses to teacher-selected significant quotations.

• Students will do research-based inquiry on allusions from the novel and will write Literary Analysis Response Paragraphs explaining the significance of the allusions to the novel.

• Students compose essays in response to the following AP Exam Timed-Writing prompts:

1) In many literary works, a character has a misconception of himself or his world. Destroying or perpetuating this illusion contributes to a central theme of the work. Choose a major character from The Poisonwood Bible to whom this statement applies, and write an essay in which you consider the following points: what the character's illusion is and how it differs from reality as presented in the novel and how the destruction or perpetuation of the illusion develops a theme of the novel.

2) Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures—national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s sense of identity into question. Choose a character from The Poisonwood Bible who responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character’s response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.

3) Students will write an AP-style prompt on the paired poems “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter” (Ransom) and “Elegy for Jane” (Roethke).

TEXTS

Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2008.

Delahunty, Andrew, and Sheila Dignan, and Penny Stock. A Dictionary of Allusions. New York: Oxford UP, 2003.

DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2007.

Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Harmon, William, and Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2008.

Lunsford, Andrea, and Robert Connors. The New St. Martin’s Handbook. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1999.

Writers INC. Wilmington, MA: Great Source Education Group, 2001.

TEACHER RESOURCES

Bevilacqua, Mary, Elfie Israel, and Rosemary Timoney. AP Literature and Composition: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. New York: Amsco School Publications, 2002.

Casson, Allan.  Cliffs AP English Literature and Composition.  2nd ed. New York:  Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2001.

Dean, Nancy. Voice Lessons. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House, 2000.

Earnest, Duane. Practical Guide to the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Examination. Detroit Lakes, MN: School House Books, 1999.

Ehrenhaft, George, Max Nadel, and Arthur Sherver, Jr. How the Prepare for the AP English Examinations. 7th ed. New York: Barron’s, 2000.

Killgallon, Don. Sentence Composing for College. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1998.

Killgallon, Don. Sentence Composing for High School. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1998.

Pivarnik-Nova, Denise. AP English Literature & Composition. New York: Kaplan, 2004.

Rankin, Estelle M. and Barbara L. Murphy. 5 Steps to a 5: AP English Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Vogel, Richard, and Charles F. Winans. Multiple-Choice and Free-Response Questions in Preparation for the AP English Literature and Composition Examination. 6th ed. Brooklyn: D&S Marketing Systems, Inc., 2001.

Vogel, Richard, and Charles F. Winans. Multiple-Choice and Free-Response Questions in Preparation for the AP English Literature and Composition Examination. 2nd ed. Brooklyn: D&S Marketing Systems, Inc., 1988.

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