COURSE TITLE: ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
REVISED 2005
BY DENNIS HARDIES
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
DURATION: FULL YEAR COURSE
COURSE IS ALTERNATE REQUIREMENT FOR GRADUATION
TEACHER RECOMMENDATION
PHILOSOPHY
Students enrolled in the AP English Literature and Composition course should be active and energetic readers of many genres. Careful and deliberate reading, analysis, and interpretation of a text will involve students in making observations of textual detail, establishing allusions to other works, building connections to their own experience, and drawing inferences leading to interpretive conclusions about the literary work’s meaning and value as a whole. Students taking this course should feel comfortable asking questions, stating opinions, sharing ideas, applying, and evaluating the readings and writings in the course curriculum.
GOALS
Ø To teach strategies to become an active reader
Ø To reinforce reading through student-based class discussion
Ø To reinforce reading through writing journals, essays, poetry, and letters
Ø To recognize characteristics of writing styles
Ø To discover meaning in literature by being attentive to an author’s style, including use of diction, imagery characterization, plot development, argument, and the various techniques used to evoke an emotion response (tone, mood, etc.)
Ø To dabble with different writing styles in order to develop a personal satisfactory style
Ø To write on a variety of topics in organized language for different audiences and purposes
Ø To learn to justify interpretations by reference to textual details and patterns
Ø To engage in a variety of speaking situations
Ø To view, comprehend, apply non-textual visual information
Ø To become an active listener
COURSE PROFICIENCIES -
THE ROLE OF THE STUDENT
Participation in AP English Literature and Composition will require each student:
Ø To read a wide variety of literature, including fiction and non-fiction, essays, poetry, drama, in different mediums, including print and electronic media
Ø To read across a broad landscape, including different genres, historical periods, genders, and cultures
Ø To actively read texts carefully and closely
Ø To develop the habit of marking texts by underlining, highlighting, drawing circles, boxes and arrows, and by writing brief marginal notes
Ø To keep a journal for responding to course readings
Ø To compare and contrast media sources, such as book and film versions of a story
Ø To write on a variety of topics related to the reading selections
Ø To share opinions and thoughts about course readings, visual presentations, live performances, and visual arts with the teacher and classmates
Ø To present oral reports (formal and extemporaneous) on course readings and on visual presentations
Ø To listen attentively to the teacher and classmates and take notes as appropriate
Ø To work independently and collaboratively
Ø To ask questions regarding course content and material selection
Ø To take the AP Exam for English Literature and Composition
Ø To complete an annotated Senior Research paper including critical analysis
Ø To follow the “Standards in English” guide for all written assignments
Ø To meet all attendance, grading, and discipline requirements as listed in the “Burlington City High School Student Handbook”
NJCCCS STANDARDS
New Jersey Core Content Curriculum Standards addressed through the AP English Literature and Composition course include:
Ø Standard 3.1 All students will speak for a variety of real purposes and audiences
Ø Standard 3.2 All students will listen actively in a variety of situations to information from a variety of sources
Ø Standard 3.3 All students will write in clear, concise, and organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes
Ø Standard 3.4 All students will read a variety of materials and texts with comprehension and critical analysis
Ø Standard 3.5 All students will view, understand, and use non-textual visual information
AP ENGLISH AND
LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Ø To improve reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills
Ø To evaluate an author’s tone, attitude, purpose, and style
Ø To read various literary genres with comprehension and analysis
Ø To understand, recognize, and identify elements of fiction, poetry, and drama
Ø To improve critical and creative writing skills
Ø To apply critical thinking skills to all activities
Ø To gain sharing skills and team building skills
Ø To recognize themes in literature
Ø To evaluate literary works as worthy of literary merit
Ø To write in clear, concise, and organized language that varies in content and form according to differing audiences and purposes
Ø To view, understand, and apply non-textual visual information
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND COMPOSITION ACTIVITIES:
Ø Define and illustrate literary terms appropriate to fiction and non-fiction
Ø Read short stories for comprehension and critical analysis
Ø Read novels to evaluate their literary merit
Ø Keep a response journal recording thoughts and opinions about literary selections
Ø Compare and contrast literary works
Ø Compare and contrast a single author’s works
Ø Compare and contrast differing media sources, such as book and film versions
Ø Define and identify an author’s tone, attitude, purpose, and style
Ø Write about the elements of fiction and non-fiction and the importance each plays in an author’s work
Ø Define and illustrate literary terms appropriate to poetry
Ø Read poetry for comprehension and critical analysis
Ø Explicate poems in both written and oral formats
Ø Define and illustrate literary terms appropriate to drama
Ø Read drama for comprehension and critical analysis
Ø Trace conflict and study character in several plays
Ø Present an extemporaneous speech
Ø Read, discuss, share, and prepare a collaborative project in drama
Ø Write and speak collaboratively and independently
Ø Write on self-related topics in a variety of literary forms
Ø Write to synthesize information from multiple sources
Ø Publish writing in a variety of formats
Ø Use figurative language such as simile, metaphor, and analogy to expand meaning
Ø Revise content, organization, and other aspects of writing using self, peer and teacher collaborative feedback
Ø Edit writing for appropriate syntax, spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation
Ø Establish and use criteria for self and group evaluation of both written and oral products
Ø Develop a portfolio or collection of writings
Ø Investigate the relationship between contemporary writing and past literary traditions
Ø Recognize that our literary heritage is marked by distinct literary movements and is part of a global literary tradition
Ø Analyze how the literary works of a given period reflect historical events and social conditions
Ø Learn the effect of literary devices, such as alliteration and other forms of figurative language, on the reader’s emotions and interpretations
Ø Recognize and respond to visual messages of humor, irony, and metaphor
Ø Articulate the connection between visual and verbal message
Ø Choose and use multiple forms of media to convey what has been learned
Ø Integrate multiple forms of media into a finished product
Ø Memorize lines from literary selections to use in oral and written products to give credibility
Ø Read critical analysis on various literary selections
Ø Write book analyses according to a specific format
Ø Write a research paper that synthesizes and cites data and critical analysis
Ø Mark copies of texts by underlining, highlighting, drawing circles, boxes, and arrows, and by writing brief marginal notes
Ø Review the style and structure of the AP exam
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND COMPOSITION ASSESSMENT:
Ø Assessment will measure proficiency in all types of learners. As appropriate, students will be assessed using the following performance tools:
v Class participation
v Journal writings
v Essays – both in and out of class
v Revisions and rewritings of essays
v Homework
v Cooperative learning/group projects
v Oral and written reports
v Quizzes and tests
v Class presentations
v 20-25 page senior research paper
v 40 minute timed AP style essays
v AP exam
Ø AP English Literature and Composition Critical Thinking Skills—tasks to be assessed which include and emphasize higher level thinking:
v Oral and written interpretations based on critical reading
v Open-ended questions
v 40 minute timed essays
v Practice responses to AP multiple choice questions
v Discerning patterns in writing
v Grasping reoccurring concepts in writing
v Inferring relationships
v Interpreting literary criticism of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama
v Cooperative learning
v Team building skills
v Evaluation of writings and authors
v Comparing/contrasting
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND COMPOSITION MATERIALS:
Ø Primary Text:
v DISCOVERING LITERATURE – Second Ed, Prentice Hall 1997
Ø Supplementary Texts:
v Classics
In World Literature – Scott, Foresman
v Patterns in Literature – Scott, Foresman
Ø Novels
v The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison (Summer Reading Requirement)
v The
Catcher in the
v Lord of the Flies – William Golding (Summer Reading Requirement)
v All Quiet on the Western Front – Eric Marie Remarque
v All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
v Beloved – Toni Morrison
v Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
v Cry, The Beloved Country – Alan Paton
v Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
v Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
v Love Medicine – Louise Erdrich
v Obasan – Joy Kogawa
v One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
v Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Ø Research Texts
v Writing
a Research Paper
v Guide to MLA Documentation
Ø Films:
v All
Quiet on the Western Front
v Apocalypse
Now
v Dead
Poets’ Society
v Greek
Tragedy – Oedipus Rex
v Hamlet
v The
Jilting of Granny Weatherall
v Lord
of the Flies
v The
Odyssey
v Shakespeare
in Love