AP English Literature and Composition

Course Goals:

1. Respond to writing prompts clearly, directly and fully following the AP English literature exam standards
2. Approach texts analytically
3. Support a coherent thesis with evidence from the text
4. Explain how the evidence illustrates and reinforces its thesis
5. Organize ideas in a logical and effective manner-compare/contrast, order of importance, chronology, cause-effect, oder of degree, classification and spatial
6. Understand a variety of literary and rhetorical devices and apply them to analyzing texts
   • Figuarative language
   • Diction
   • Syntax
   • Tone(attitude)
   • Literary elements -setting, characterization, plot, theme, point of view, tone
7. Understand how meaning is expressed in a literary work through its structure, style, syntax, diction and other literary techniques such as figurative language, imagery, symbolism, irony and tone, etc.

AP Essay Rubric

A 9-Point Rubric for writing about literature
An 8-9 essay responds to the prompt clearly, directly, and fully. This paper approaches
the text analytically, supports a coherent thesis with evidence from the text, and explains
how the evidence illustrates and reinforces its thesis. The essay employs subtlety in its
use of the text and the writer’s style is fluent and flexible. It is also free of mechanical
and grammatical errors.

A 6-7 essay responds to the assignment clearly and directly but with less development
than an 8-9 paper. It demonstrates a good understanding of the text and supports its thesis
with appropriate textual evidence. While its approach is analytical, the analysis is less
precise than in the 8-9 essay, and its use of the text is competent but not subtle. The
writing in this paper is forceful and clear with few if any grammatical and mechanical
errors.

A 5 essay addresses the assigned topic intelligently but does not answer it fully and
specifically. It is characterized by a good but general grasp of the text using the text to
frame an apt response to the prompt. It may employ textual evidence sparingly or offer
evidence without attaching it to the thesis. The essay is clear and organized but may be
somewhat mechanical. The paper may also be marred by grammatical and mechanical
errors.

A 3-4 essay fails in some important way to fulfill the demands of the prompt. It may not
address part of the assignment, fail to provide minimal textual support for its thesis, or
base its analysis on a misreading of some part of the text. This essay may present one or
more incisive insights among others of less value. The writing may be similarly uneven
in development with lapses in organization, clarity, grammar, and mechanics.
A 1-2 essay commonly combines two or more serious failures. It may not address the
actual assignment; it may indicate a serious misreading of the text; it may not offer
textual evidence or may use it in a way that suggests a failure to understand the text; it
may be unclear, badly written, or unacceptably brief. The style of this paper is usually
marked by egregious errors. Occasionally a paper in this range is smoothly written but
devoid of content.

Grade conversion
9 = A+.
8 = A
7 = A-
6 = B +
5 = B
4 = B-
3 = C
2 = D
1 = F Course Overview

This year-long class will prepare you for the May AP exam in the following year. Through the "careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature", students will deepen their understanding of how meaning is expressed in a literary work through its structure, style, syntax, diction and other literary techniques such as figurative language, imagery, symbolism, irony and tone, etc.

Course Goals-

Through this course, students will reach the conclusion that -

• Literature mirrors reality whether in a realistic, exaggerated or distorted way . By and large, it mirrors the nature of human kind and its relationships with its social or natural surroundings-human condition

• Literature reflects universal themes, i.e. man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. fate and mans vs. self.

• The studies of literature does not end at its plot summaries or the main ideas. It goes deeper into its complexities, for instance, "What's reoccurring motif?" "how is that meaning embodies in various literary forms?" or "what are the social and historical values the work reflects?"

Students will gain and strengthen the following reading and writing skills-

• Writing to understand( writing response, reaction papers along with annotation, free writing, reading journals etc), explain (analysis and interpretation on aspects of literary elements and techniques) and evaluate ( the artistry of a literary work, and its social and  cultural values).

• Analyzing literature through careful observations of textual details, making connections among their observations and draw personal critiques and interpretations from those connections.

• Comparing and contrasting literary works by their themes or styles.

• Using a wide-ranging vocabulary( diction), various sentence structure (syntax), logical organization of ideas by  effective use of deductive or  inductive reasoning ,transitions and emphasis.

• Reading to discover how meaning is embodies in literary form.

• Developing a more distinctive and consistent voice and controlling tone

• Synthesizing the newly acquired analytical and thinking skills to apply them into their own creative writing

Required Texts and Materials

Part I (Fall '08)

• Poetics, Aristotle

• The Greek Mind, H.D.F. Kitto

• Oedipus Rex , Sophocles

• The Essentials of College & University Writing, Robert Truscott

• The Essay Connection, Lynn Bloom

• The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts, Donald Murray

• Warriner's English Grammar and Composition

• Agamemnon. Aeschylus

• Listening to a Voice, Kennedy & Gioa

• Sonnets 18,29,30,73, 116, 130, Shakespeare

• On the Sonnet, John Keats

• Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room, William Wordsworth

• Macbeth( Or King Lear ), Shakespeare

• Twelfth Night, Shakespeare

• Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare

• "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning", Holy Sonnet 4,6, 10, John Donne

• "On My First Son", "Song to Celia","It Is Not Growing Like a Tree", "Queen and Huntress", "To the Memory of My Beloved Master, William Shakespeare", Ben Johnson

• "On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three", "On His Blindness", John Milton

• "The Cold and the Pebble", "The Tiger", "A Poison Tree", "Ah, Sunflower", Willaim Blake

• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

• Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Foster

•  reader's Guide to the Nineteeth Century English Novel , Julia Prewitt Brown

Part II (Spring '09)

• The Importance of Being Ernest, Oscal Wilde

• he Jilting of Granny Weatherall, Katherine Anne Porter

• "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", William Butler Yeats

• Piano, D.H. Lawrence

• Aftermath, Henry Wadswoth Longfellow

• London, William Blake

• The Bean Eater, Gwendolyn Brooks

• Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

• "Nature", "Self Reliance", Ralph Waldo Emerson

• A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner

• The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar  Allen Poe

• Why Iliive at teh P.O., Eudora Welty

• Chidiock Tichborne's Elegy written with his own hand in the Tower before his execution

• Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount, Keep Time with My Salt Tears, Ben Johnson

• When I Was One-And-Twenty, A.E. Housman

• Beat! Beat! Drums! ,Walt Whitman

• Acquainted with the Night, Robert Frost

Course Planner/Student Activities

Fall '08

Essay #1: Write a comparative essay on Oedipus and Death of a Salesman (from independent reading) and discuss "that common man is apt subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were."

Essay #2: Select and read a short story or a novel . Pick one chapter or section from the story to explain how it provides insights into the work as a whole.

Essay #3: From the list choose one book to read. Then read a group poems by a poet of your choice (approved by me). Write an analytical, argumentative essay comparing the two authors' treatment of social and historical issue.