Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
2013-2014
Course Description
Designed to be the equivalent of a college-level class, this course provides the foundation for students
to perform well on the Advanced Placement English Literature Examination, thus qualifying them for
college credit. It is intended for students who seek instruction and practice in close reading, critical
thinking, sophisticated compositional techniques, and literary analysis through reading works typically
found in college curriculum. Through the close reading of selected texts from British, American, and
World Literature, students deepen their understanding of ways writers use their craft to provide both
meaning and pleasure. As we read, we consider a work’s structure, style, themes, and significant
social and historical background as well as figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.

Purpose
Using literature as a mirror to our own souls and a window into others’ souls, my main goals
for this course are to foster love of learning, reading, writing, and philosophical exploration,
striving to broaden and deepen the ability to discover meaning in literature through critical
analysis while attempting to hone the ability to write about this literature with clarity,
accuracy, skill, and assurance.


Objectives
o
To study representative works from various genres and periods (sixteenth through
the twenty-first centuries), but to “own” a select few and know these quite well.
o
To understand, through close reading, how writers use elements such as diction,
imagery, syntax, details, and other literary devices / rhetorical strategies to convey
theme or create a unique style.
o
To understand how plot, setting, character, theme, and point of view work together to
create meaning.
o
To consider the social and historical values a work reflects and embodies.
o
To write persuasively, focusing on critical analysis of literature including expository,
analytical, and argumentative essays to sharpen understanding of the writers’ craft
and deepen appreciation of literary artistry.
o
To develop a mature style of writing consisting of rich vocabulary, variety of
sentence structure, logical organization, and supporting evidence.
o
To prepare for the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Exam.
Student Selections, Anthologies, and Texts
As the year progresses, we may not follow the exact order listed here nor will we necessarily
cover every title. I offer similar alternatives to Beloved and A Prayer for Owen Meany to
avoid potential challenges.
o
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
o
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
o
King Lear, William Shakespeare
o
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
o
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard
o
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
o
Beloved, Toni Morrison
or
o
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston
o
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
or
o
Boy’s Life, Robert McCammon
o
Short Fiction (as selected)
o
Poetry (as selected)
o
Non-fiction essays (as selected)
o
Independent Novel Reading List (Attached)
o
The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, Seventh
Edition, Michael Meyer, Ed.
o
Perrine’s Sound and Sense, Ninth Edition, Thomas R. Arp, Greg Johnson, and
Thomas Perrine, Eds.
o
Reading and Writing from Literature, Third Edition, John E. Schwiebert, Ed.
o
The Art of Styling Sentences, 20 Patterns for Success: How to write sentences with
greater clarity, variety, and style, Marie Waddell, Robert M. Esch, and Roberta R.
Walker
Course Requirements

Written Work
o Timed Writings / Essays /Reaction Papers: You will practice writing under
o
time constraints in class in order to prepare for the AP Exam as well as writing
formal essays outside of class. To focus on and prepare for these tasks, students
will write paragraphs incorporating concrete detail/commentary, reader
responses, notes, annotations, revision commentary, and creative writing
projects. Timed Writings and Essays will be graded using the 1-9 rubric scale
found in your AP English Handbook, which rewards stylistic maturity
(appropriate and wide-ranging vocabulary, varied sentence structure, effective
composition techniques) and persuasiveness (organization, focus, insight,
specificity). Before submitting any essay you write for this class, be sure to
use the writing section of our AP Handbook: High Crimes and Misdemeanors (a
list of common pitfalls and errors in composition committed by former
students), Verbs for AP Critical Analysis, Vivid Vocabulary and Adjective List,
Sentence Styles, and Transitions. We will make it a practice to revise (both
through teacher comment and peer comment) at least one paragraph of major
essays before their due date. You will also have ample opportunity to edit and
revise all major essays (and even select timed writings) after reading teacher
comments and participating in writing conferences and in peer editing. I will
introduce mini-lessons as needed; you can also find help by accessing our
Nicenet Website where I’ve included links to various college writing sites.
Expect either a TW or an essay over each core novel/play that we study. Timed
Writings are considered rough drafts and graded as such. Essays must be
proofread, edited, typed, and must include MLA style parenthetical notation.
Reader Response Logs: Since you are AP English students, you are expected
not only to read on the line and between the lines, but beyond the lines as well.
In order to hone this close reading skill, we will keep Reader Response Logs for
some of the pieces of literature we study. This type of writing is designed for
you to have a dialogue with the text you’re reading and will have a more
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
o
o
informal tone. You will learn to read for more than just the plot, although
questions and observations about the actions in the novel are welcome as well;
you will write textual notes about stylistic techniques such as diction, detail,
imagery, syntax, figurative language, symbols, motifs, allusions, irony in order
to understand how the author uses these elements to create tone or a certain
effect, achieve a purpose, or convey a message. For at least one of your Reader
Response Log Projects, you will use the seven approaches listed on the
Interactive Reading Log entry guide on page 16 of your AP Handbook.
Independent Novel Analysis (Semester Exams): You are required to read
one novel from the Required Reading List each semester outside class and write
an evaluation concerning the work’s artistry and quality as evidenced in the plot,
setting, character, narrative structure, theme, and tone. Next, you must identify
specific literary devices and rhetorical strategies and then discuss the
significance of how each one relates to the work as a whole. In addition, you
will choose an open essay prompt from a past AP Exam (1979-2006) that relates
to your novel and write a formal, argumentative essay that addresses the open
question and moves from generalizations that provide a foundation for the
argument to specific details from the novel itself to persuade your audience that
your argument is valid. First semester’s list includes contemporary titles;
second semester’s choices are classic titles. The essay will be graded according
to the 1-9 rubric scale. The discussion concerning literary devices and rhetorical
strategies will be graded by the depth of your discussion of how these items
relate to the novel as a whole. Due dates appear on your Course Syllabus
calendar. We will spend time in class revising your work both before and after
the assignment is turned in.
Senior Memoirs: “…seek those which your own everyday life offers you;
describe your sorrows and desires, passing thoughts and the belief in some sort
of beauty – describe all these with loving, quiet, humble sincerity, and use, to
express yourself, the things in your environment, the images from your dreams,
and the objects of your memories. If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it;
blame yourself…” from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. Collect
five (or more) items each quarter that, though perhaps insignificant to others,
hold special memories of events significant to you. This assignment will be
more creative in nature than the majority of our required writing. It will give
you a chance to write personal narratives and record memorable moments from
your senior year.
 Multiple Choice Questions
Throughout the year, we will be doing close readings of literary passages and answering critical
analysis MC questions over the passages. Answering these types of questions is beneficial
practice for the AP Exam, not to mention sharpening your intellectual acuity. You will also create
your own set of MC Questions over some of the novels/plays/short fiction that we read. Since the
idea behind answering these questions is learning to discern the best answers, the focus will be on
debating answers and coming to a consensus rather than focusing on a grade for the number
missed.
 Class Discussion / Student Seminars
The lively exchange of ideas is the heart of this course. Actively contributing ideas and questions
allows us to learn from one another. Also, sharing ideas is an excellent way to figure out what we
think and what we know. Many of these discussions will be conducted as seminars, which you as
students will lead beginning with research into literary devices/rhetorical strategies and moving
into the social, historical significance of novels and plays. You will have to research the area you
choose using a variety of sources, documenting them, and composing handouts for the rest of the
class. Real learning takes place only when you are actively engaged. If you don’t complete the
reading and the research, you rob yourself of participation in this facet of the class. In some cases,
we will employ Socratic Seminars in which the discussions will be graded and you will receive
points for insightful contributions.
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
 Notebook
You are required to keep a notebook that contains all your handouts and writing from the class.
The specifics are detailed in a separate handout. It will serve as a resource in several ways: an
essential handbook for success in AP critical reading, background handouts for selections that we
read, a record of grammar / content / organization pitfalls to avoid in writing essays, reading logs
with gems of insight from important literary selections, reading record cards that detail all the
selections that you’ve read in high school, and while we don’t have formal vocabulary study
through a workbook, we will keep a “scrapbook” of precise, vivid vocabulary words to replace
worn-out, vague references. These “repositories of wisdom” will be graded once a semester for
neatness, organization, and completeness. Due dates appear on your Course Syllabus calendar.
Keep this notebook…it will be a handy reference tool when you head to college next year.
 Grading
Because this course mirrors a Comp II college course, our AP class will involve few recorded
grades; therefore, quality of work becomes essential. I use a total points system: each assignment
will be worth points commensurate with its complexity. You do receive extra GPA points for
taking Advanced Placement courses, which is reflected in the scale below. The district’s grading
policy is:
100%-90%
A
5 points
89%-80%
B
4 points
79%-70%
C
3 points
69%-60%
D
2 points
59%-Below
F
Units of Study
 Course Objectives/Classroom Dynamics
The AP English Literature/Composition course is all about independence and learning, not rote
memory and schoolwork. According to the Teacher’s Guide to Advanced Placement Courses in
English Literature and Composition, a difference exists between learning and schoolwork:
“Schools generate schoolwork the way bureaucracies generate paperwork. Schoolwork is pop
quizzes, percentage points, vocabulary lists, matching, fill-in the-blanks, detention, Cliff Notes, a
paragraph due Monday, a test on summer reading, 10-point penalties...grading on a curve, raising
your hand before you answer, and finding the dramatic climax of Macbeth. Nothing is necessarily
wrong with any particular item of schoolwork, just as nothing is wrong with any particular rain
shower, but one would no more want a climate of nothing but schoolwork than one would want a
climate of nothing but rain. In an AP Literature and Composition class composed of capable,
motivated students and a teacher who loves literature, there is a fair chance of shifting the
emphasis from schoolwork to learning.”
This learning and independence cannot spring from a lecture in which I am in the active mode
telling you what I think a piece of literature means and you are in a passive, captive-audience
mode soaking up my ideas. I am doing you a disservice if I decide what topics you will discuss
and write about and what new discoveries you will make. The Teacher’s Guide goes on to say, “it
is more important that students learn to read books that they have not yet opened than to learn the
standard and accepted interpretations of the texts of the course. If students are learning to read
independently, teachers will entertain topics that students find central, and students will ask as
many questions as teachers.”
We won’t be able to achieve this ideal learning situation without a commitment from all parties
involved. I have committed myself to researching the best strategies for the class and choosing the
finest pieces of literature available for study. I’ll provide the framework and act as a resource for
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
you to turn to for help. You must commit yourselves to reading, thinking, discussing, and writing
with depth and maturity. In other words, you’ll provide the true heart of the course.
o AP English 12 Handbook Overview: We will begin with a discussion of a
quote at the beginning of our handbook: “There is no mystery in a looking glass
until someone looks into it. Though it remains the same glass, it presents a
different face to each man or woman who holds it…The same is true for great
works of literature. They have no proper existence as art until someone is
reflected in them, and no two will ever be reflected in the same way. However
much we see in common in such a literary work of art, at the center we behold a
fragment of soul, and the greater the art, the greater the fragment.”
– Harold Goddard
Next, mini-lessons from the handbook over character, plot, theme, setting,
narrative structure, and style analysis as a review for the Summer Reading
Literature Circle Project. Then lessons over the AP grading rubric, theme
statements, methods for logical organization, transitions and repetition,
integrating quotations, varying sentence styles, choosing vivid vocabulary,
incorporating transitions effectively, and using correct parenthetical notation…
all tools for editing and revising the summer reading essay assignment. You
will be expected to refer to these guides before submitting writing assignments
and after reading teacher comments in order to revise your writing for
resubmission.
o Literary Terms/ Rhetorical Strategies Seminars: It is essential that you
learn and internalize the vocabulary of literary analysis in order to succeed in
this class. You will form groups of 2-3 people and become experts on the terms
that your group draws out of a box. It is your job to list the term, definition, and
an example on some sort of visual that we can hang in the classroom. You must
teach the terms to the rest of the class using a creative method.
 Summer Reading Assignment
From our summer reading assignment letter:
So that we can begin the year with an in-depth discussion of a novel of literary merit, I’m asking
you to read one book this summer and submit required assignments to me by Monday, August 5 th, 2013.
Please remember that since AP English Literature is patterned as a college level course, we’ll
examine college-level novels and plays. One of the purposes of this course is to broaden our understanding
and appreciation of both classic and contemporary literature. We don’t always read this literature for pure
enjoyment, but for exposure to ideas, styles of writers, differing opinions, and thought-provoking
situations. While some of the texts, especially contemporary selections, deal with controversial issues /
topics, the titles are suggested by the Advanced Placement Program because of their overall themes,
impressive style, and literary merit. Many of the selections that we study during the year are on university
recommended reading lists. I choose the summer reading selections from contemporary titles that have
either appeared on the AP English Literature Exam, been nominated for literary prizes, won the prizes,
and/or have been suggested by a variety of knowledgeable sources: other AP English teachers on a listserve I subscribe to, the American Library Association, our CPHS librarian. The choices for this summer
are:
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand
Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the
choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children
but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families
nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions
of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their
lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of
Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each
turning page.
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2013: Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed begins
simply enough, with a father recounting a folktale to his two young children. The tale is about a young boy
who is taken by a div (a sort of ogre), and how that fate might not be as terrible as it first seems—a brilliant
device that firmly sets the tone for the rest of this sweeping, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel.
A day after he tells the tale of the div, the father gives away his own daughter to a wealthy man in Kabul.
What follows is a series of stories within the story, told through multiple viewpoints, spanning more than
half a century, and shifting across continents. The novel moves through war, separation, birth, death, deceit,
and love, illustrating again and again how people’s actions, even the seemingly selfless ones, are shrouded
in ambiguity. This is a masterwork by a master storyteller. —Chris Schluep
 “I learned that the world didn’t see the inside of you, that it didn’t care a whit about the hopes
and dreams and sorrows that lay masked by skin and bone.”
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol manages to take a twisting, turning route through many aspects of the
occult even as it heads for a final secret that is surprising for a strange reason: It’s unsurprising. It also
amounts to an affirmation of faith. In the end it is Mr. Brown’s sweet optimism, even more than Langdon’s
sleuthing and explicating, that may amaze his readers most. Mr. Brown was writing sensational visual
scenarios long before his books became movie material. This time he again enlivens his story with amazing
imagery. Some particularly hot spots: the unusually suspense-generating setup for Katherine’s laboratory;
the innards of the Library of Congress; the huge tank of the architeuthis; and two highly familiar tourist
stops, both rendered newly breathtaking by Mr. Brown’s clever shifting of perspective. Thanks to him,
picture postcards of the capital’s most famous monuments will never be the same. Finally, there’s the
jacket art for The Lost Symbol, its background covered with hundreds of symbols that form tiny coded
inscriptions. These are so faint that in order to see them you need to pick up an actual copy of the book.
You were probably going to do that anyhow.

“Powerful truth has its own gravity and eventually pulls people back to it.”
 “Wide acceptance of an idea is not proof of its validity.”
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Seven years after Cities of the Plain brought his acclaimed Border Trilogy to a close,
McCarthy returns with a mesmerizing modern-day western. In 1980 southwest Texas, Llewelyn Moss,
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, stumbles across several dead men, a bunch of heroin and $2.4
million in cash. The bulk of the novel is a gripping man-on-the-run sequence relayed in terse, masterful
prose as Moss, who's taken the money, tries to evade Wells, an ex–Special Forces agent employed by a
powerful cartel, and Chigurh, an icy psychopathic murderer armed with a cattle gun and a dangerous
philosophy of justice. Also concerned about Moss's whereabouts is Sheriff Bell, an aging lawman
struggling with his sense that there's a new breed of man (embodied in Chigurh) whose destructive power
he simply cannot match. In a series of thoughtful first-person passages interspersed throughout, Sheriff Bell
laments the changing world, wrestles with an uncomfortable memory from his service in WWII and—a soft
ray of light in a book so steeped in bloodshed—rejoices in the great good fortune of his marriage. While the
action of the novel thrills, it's the sensitivity and wisdom of Sheriff Bell that makes the book a profound
meditation on the battle between good and evil and the roles choice and chance play in the shaping of a life.

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Praise from Stephen King
"I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and spent twelve happy evenings immersed in the world
David Wroblewski has created. As I neared the end, I kept finding excuses to put the book aside for a little,
not because I didn't like it, but because I liked it too much; I didn't want it to end. Dog-lovers in particular
will find themselves riveted by this story, because the canine world has never been explored with such
imagination and emotional resonance. Yet in the end, this isn't a novel about dogs or heartland America-although it is a deeply American work of literature. It's a novel about the human heart, and the mysteries
that live there, understood but impossible to articulate. Yet in the person of Edgar Sawtelle, a mute boy
who takes three of his dogs on a brave and dangerous odyssey, Wroblewski does articulate them, and
splendidly. I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It's over,
you think, and I won't read another one this good for a long, long time. In truth, there's never been a book
quite like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I thought of Hamlet when I was reading it, and Watership Down,
and The Night of the Hunter, and The Life of Pi--but halfway through, I put all comparisons aside and let it
just be itself. I'm pretty sure this book is going to be a bestseller, but unlike some, it deserves to be.
Wonderful, mysterious, long and satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer
world. I envy them the trip. I don't re-read many books, because life is too short. I will be re-reading this
one."
“It's Hamlet, only Ophelia is a dog, with some Kipling thrown in for good measure. And it works: The
Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a huge, affectionate, bittersweet sprawl of a book, one you can crawl inside of
for days, forgetting the outside world exists. And if you don't already have a dog, I guarantee you will want
one by the time you're finished reading it.” - Allison Hallett
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/the-story-of-edgar-sawtelle/Content?oid=837092

“Or if they knew, their grief and heartache overwhelmed them. Anyway, there was so little they
might have done, save to bring out a shirt of his to lie on, perhaps walk with her along the fence
line, where fragments of time had snagged and hung. But if they noticed her grief, they hardly
knew to do those things. And she without the language to ask.”
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
I suggest that you buy your own copy of the novel you choose to read because you’ll need it for an
extended period of time. Try the used bookstores first; they usually charge half the cover price. If you
can’t purchase your own copy, try requesting the title from Tulsa City-County Library. I’ll ask them to
have copies of each novel on reserve available on a first-come, first-served basis.
 NOTE: As you read your novel, use some method of recording your thoughts / feelings /
observations / questions about what’s going on and specific passages that you find
memorable or confusing. Look for rhetorical strategies and literary devices…specific
examples of the resources of language that the author uses: imagery, metaphor, simile,
paradox, irony (three types: situational, dramatic, and verbal), allusion, analogy,
oxymoron, pun, personification. If you don’t use some way of tracking your thoughts
this summer, our discussions at the beginning of the year won’t be as focused. Take this
step for yourself, not for a grade. Also, mark memorable passages as you read. We’ll
have a “Quaker Reading” during the first week of school: we’ll share passages from all
four novels with the class. When you finish reading the novel, complete these four
assignments (for yourself AND for a grade):
1. Have someone take a picture of you reading your summer novel in some unique place and send it with
your assignment; we’ll make a bulletin board collage of pictures when school starts.
2. Write a letter explaining what you thought of the novel. Using your post-it notes or Writer’s
Notebook, list some topics / questions that you would like to discuss. List some favorite passages and why
you like them or vice-versa. It’s your job to prove to me that you’ve read the novel, not make me suspect
that you haven’t. In addition, introduce yourself…tell me a little about you, your family, interests. This
letter need not be typed.
3. Post at least five comments/questions/observations about the novel on our class website’s blog
(www.cphsbaker.com). It’s called “Oughes and Phoos” (don’t worry…you’ll understand the name after we
read Heart of Darkness). I’ll have a separate thread set up for each summer novel. Be sure to make these
posts on or before Monday, August 5th.
4. Write an essay of approximately two pages (or more) typed, double-spaced, using one of the writing
prompts below taken from past AP English exams. Be sure that you use specific details and passages from
the novel you read to back up your position and make sure that you address all parts of the prompt. Use
page numbers when quoting direct passages from the novel. I know that it’s summer and your brain is for
the most part on vacation…try your best to make your essay effective…but also keep in mind you’ll have
a chance to revise it before receiving a final score.
o
o
Quaker Readings: We will spend the hour sharing passages so that
we will get a taste of all five novels. Read when “the spirit moves
you.”
Literature Circle Projects: Write an analysis of Narrative Structure,
Setting, Plot, Figurative Language, Tone, Character,
Symbolism/Motifs, Irony, Allusion, and Theme, giving examples
(passages from the novel) that back up your conclusions then explain
how each contributes and connects to the novel as a whole. For Plot,
Character, Theme, and Setting, refer to the discussion handouts in your
A.P. Lit. 12 Handbooks. These guidelines will provide the vehicle for
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
your evaluation of these areas. This project is a “dress rehearsal” for
your Independent Novel Analysis.

College Admission Unit
Because your senior year can cause undue stress, we will take this week to update your résumé, obtain
a current copy of your transcript, contact two teachers who will agree to write letters of
recommendation, create your Teacher Reference Form, fill out a college application, and write an
admission essay and a scholarship essay. Submit a rough draft of each essay to be peer edited and
teacher edited.

Summer Novel Essay Revision
o
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o
o
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o
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
Instruction on how to analyze a writing prompt, identifying the tasks required.
Instruction on how the open prompt used for this essay differs from the poetry and prose
prompts on the AP Exam. For the most part, these essays will deal with the work’s
social and cultural values as evidenced in the overall meaning(s) of the novel.
Instruction on effective means of constructing introductions and conclusions that
establish a convincing voice as well as creating effective quote introductions and
pertinent commentary.
Discuss how to blend general, broad statements with specific, concrete evidence from the
piece of literature.
Remember that your tone and voice in this type of essay should be more formal that the
approach you take in your Reader Response Log entries. These essays strive to persuade
the reader that your argument /analysis is valid. The Reader Response entries are
designed to help you understand the literature and form your opinions.
Refer to the handout on Transitions on your AP Handbook. If you haven’t used these
handy devices, add some to make your argument clearer and more logical.
Study The Art of Styling Sentences and revise your essay to include at least ten of the
patterns discussed in the handbook. Varying sentence structure will increase the maturity
of your writing style.
Evaluate your own and others’ essays to find and revise common errors.
Mini-lessons in grammar as needed.
Focus on using more apt new vocabulary and weeding out qualifiers and worn-out
phrases. Visit the AP handbook for a list of verbs for literary analysis. Make
replacements in your essay.
Revise and submit final drafts for teacher evaluation.
You will have a chance to make further revisions after I grade the essay. Individual
writing conferences available both before and after you submit your essay.
Short Fiction Analysis
Using short stories I have collected over the years including “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman, “Snares” by Louise Erdrich, “The Lover of Horses” by Tess Gallagher, “Little
Things” by Raymond Carver, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Wood Sprite” by
Vladimir Nabokov, “Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway, “Roseliliy” by Alice Walker, “There was
Once” by Margaret Atwood, “I Used to Live Here Once” by Jean Rhys, we will study literary devices
used to create character, tone, setting, narrative structure, theme, style, and irony. You will annotate
each story with highlighting or underlining and add commentary in the margins to understand, explain,
and/or to evaluate each story.
o Answer and debate AP- Style Multiple Choice Questions over “Little Things.”
o Create your own multiple choice questions and answers over one of the stories.
o Timed Writing analysis of character or setting based on one of the story’s textual details.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
“But Marlowe was not typical …and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but
outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze….”
o Student seminars over Belgium’s colonial presence in the Congo and Conrad’s
experiences in the Congo.
o Study the techniques of impressionistic writing, frame narrative, inference, and
symbolism.
o AP- Style Multiple Choice Questions.
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
o
o

Create a Tracking Poster, selecting one motif, creating a visual representation for it, and
examining its various appearances in the novel. You must quote extensively and explore
what insights this motif provides to overall meaning. Based on this Tracking Poster, you
will write an expository analytical essay showing how the motif connects to the visual
you’ve created and to theme, setting, or character.
Revisions after initial grading are encouraged.
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
“You mock my blindness, do you? But I say that you, with both your eyes are blind…”
o Student Seminars over the history and conventions of Greek Theater.
o Review of Aristotle’s definition of Tragedy.
o We will read the play aloud, stopping for discussion of motifs, irony (especially
dramatic), and themes.
o Write Reader Response entries to understand how the motif of blindness and instances of
irony extend meaning in the play.
o Read and discuss the poem “Jocasta” by Ruth F. Eisenberg.
o Write a short reaction paper analyzing how the characterization of Jocasta in the play
differs from her characterization in the poem. Be sure to begin with generalities, then
move to specific textual details from both the poem and the play to prove your judgment.

King Lear by William Shakespeare
“Nothing will come of nothing.”
o Student Seminar over Alzheimer’s and the Book of Job.
o Review elements of tragedy.
o Close reading of several passages, writing responses to specific questions and
commenting on significance.
o Reading Quiz over motifs and sets of similar characteristics / circumstances.
o Read and discuss the poem “Lear” by William Carlos Williams.
o Essay over Lear’s character incorporating both textual details from the play itself and
details from the Alzheimer’s study and parallels to the Book of Job.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
“…meet it is I set it down / That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”
o Student Seminars over the Renaissance concept of the Great Chain of Being.
o Review elements of tragedy.
o Discuss how fate / free will shape our lives.
o Read and annotate sections of the play to understand while watching Kenneth
Branaugh’s version of Hamlet.
o In-depth passage analyses that reflect the significance of the lines to overall meaning.
o Write an essay using one of the open question prompts from past AP exams.
o AP-Style Multiple Choice Questions.
o Read and discuss Margaret Atwood’s short stories “Horatio’s Version” and “Gertrude
Talks Back.”

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
“Wheels have been set in motion, and they have their own pace, to which we are…condemned.”
o Student Seminars over Theater of the Absurd.
o Reader Response Logs over elements of Theater of the Absurd, especially to understand
the way language becomes a barrier to communication instead of a bridge to
understanding.
o Watch the video of R&G are Dead and write a comparison / contrast of the play and the
video, evaluating why Stoppard might have made the changes.
o Socratic Seminar discussions (graded) over how identity is created in the play, Ros. and
Guil.’s existence in a game that can’t be won, in a box that can’t be opened, on a boat
whose destination can’t be altered.
o Timed Writing interpreting and explaining how aspects of Theater of the Absurd
connect with overall meaning of the play.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
“Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre: remorse is the poison of life.”
o Student Seminars over men and women’s roles in Victorian Society.
o Write brief analyses of characters arguing how they mirror or contrast Victorian society.
Must be documented with textual evidence from the novel.
o “Places of the Heart” Setting Project analyzing how each of the five chief settings –
Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield Hall, Moor House / Marsh End, and Ferndean – is a
metaphor for a stage in Jane’s life.
o AP- Style Multiple Choice Questions.

Beloved by Toni Morrison
“It was not a story to pass on.”

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
Beloved:
o Student Seminars over The Middle Passage, The Fugitive Slave Act, Underground
Railroad.
Their Eyes Were Watching God:
o Student Seminars over Eatonville, FL and 1930s critical reviews of the novel.
For both novels:
o Write Reader Response Logs using the seven approaches on page 16 of your AP
Handbook. Each log entry consists of three approaches designed to help you
understand the subtleties of the novels. You must use each approach at least once.
o “Save the Last Word” Discussions.
o Body Biographies using textual details, graphic representations, an original text, and an
explication of how they all fit together to represent one of the main characters. You
must include in your explication how the character embodies the social and historical
values the novel reflects.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
“I AM DEVELOPING A MINIMALIST’S STYLE…”

Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
“It seemed to me, as I walked in the presence of those stilled voices that would never be heard again,
that we were a wasteful breed. We had thrown away the past, and our future was impoverished
because of it.”
A Prayer for Owen Meany
o Student Seminars over the 1960s, especially the Viet Nam War era.
Boy’s Life
o Student Seminars over the 1960s, especially the Civil Rights movement.
For both novels:
o Socratic Seminar discussions (graded) over how the point of view (adult narrator looking
back on his life) affects meaning and how the authors weave motifs through the novels to
establish theme.
o Post directed comments / questions over the novels on Nicenet.
o Timed Writing over select sets of pages explaining their significance to the novels as a
whole.

Poetry Analysis
“A poem may appear to mean very different things to different readers, and all of these meanings may be
different from what the author thought he meant. For instance, the author may have been writing some
peculiar personal experience, which he saw quite unrelated to anything outside; yet for the reader the poem
may become the expression of a general situation, as well as of some private experience of his own. The
reader's interpretation may differ from the author's and be equally valid – it may even be better. There may
be much more in a poem than the author was aware of. The different interpretations may all be partial
formulations of one thing; the ambiguities may be due to the fact that the poem means more, not less, than
ordinary speech can communicate.” – T.S. Eliot
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
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Student Seminars over the vocabulary of poetry analysis:
Denotation and Connotation
Imagery
Simile, Metaphor, Personification
Apostrophe and Metonymy
Symbol and Allegory
Paradox, Overstatement, and Understatement
Irony
Allusion
Symbol
Tone
Sound
Pattern
Read select poems from Sound and Sense, The Bedford Introduction to Literature:
Reading, Thinking, Writing, and those collected over the years from various sources
representing varied nationalities and historical backgrounds.
Begin the unit by simply thumbing through the two texts and reading poems we like,
savoring the language and the images and the sound.
Discuss the age-old question, “What is poetry?” Read and annotate using TPCASTT or
any other method you choose “The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently” by
Thomas Lux, “Asphodel, that Greeny Flower” by William Carlos Williams, “Poetry” by
Pablo Neruda, and “The Apple That Astonished Parts” by Billy Collins. Choose one of
these poems and write a response / reaction paper concerning the poem’s message about
poetry.
Recognize and analyze the poetic devices presented in seminars.
Further discuss forms of poetry: syllabic verse, continuous form, fixed form, shape
poem, stanzaic form.
Read and discuss various poems selected for their use of these techniques including
“Pathedy of Manners” by Ellen Kay, “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” by William
Carlos Williams, “Bereft” by Robert Frost, “On Reading Poems to a Senior Class…” by
DC Berry, “Digging” by Seamus Heaney, “Curiosity” by Alastair Reid, “The Sun
Rising” and “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne, “Ozymandias” by
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Richard Cory” by E.A. Robinson, “Daffodils” by William
Wordsworth, “The State” by Randall Jarrell, “in just – “ by e.e.cummings, “For a Lamb”
Richard Eberhard, “Apparently with no surprise” by Emily Dickinson, “A tiny cry in the
night” by Lynn Johnston, “Seal Lullaby” by Rudyard Kipling, “We Real Cool” by
Gwendolyn Brooks, “Nevertheless” by Marianne Moore, “That Time of Year” by
William Shakespeare, “A Christmas Tree” by William Burford, “Woman Work” by
Maya Angelou, “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, and “Let Evening Come” by Jane
Kenyon.
Write a Poetry Analysis Outline for one of the poems. You will then use it to write an
interpretive essay that addresses speaker, audience, meaning, historical or social
significance, structure, images, figurative language, rhyme, and syntax.
Answer AP- Style Multiple Choice Questions over selected poems and write your own
questions and answers over your choice of select poems.
Timed Writing using a previous poetry prompt from the AP English Literature Exam.
Non-Fiction Essays
“Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of
civility; they think the same of theirs.” – Benjamin Franklin
o Although the main focus of this course is fiction, you will read some non-fiction essays
chosen for their contemporary topics (Anna Quindlen’s essays “The Last Word”
appearing in Newsweek, for example), their similarity to themes in something we’re
studying (Benjamin Franklin’s "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America"
while studying Heart of Darkness), or simply because they speak to our hearts (Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau).
o Add any new, interesting vocabulary choices to your “Word Scrapbook.”
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
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Class discussion over the topics these essays address and the means they use to make
their points.
AP Exam Review
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You will receive a folder of review material that covers all aspects of the AP English
Literature Exam from how to approach the Multiple Choice Section to what foods will
help stimulate your brain function. We will discuss time management techniques, testing
procedures, previous essay question prompts from 1979 to 2006 on the poetry, prose, and
open questions, and look at student essays (range finders) from previous years, focusing
on their strengths and weaknesses. You will have an opportunity to take a 3-hour
practice test using the 2004 released exam. Your responses to the essays will be graded
and returned if you wish. For further practice sets, you are encouraged to borrow the
Cliff’s AP guide; the APCD for the English Literature Exam is available for you to
access on my computer as well.
 Letter Unit
“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.” – Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
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Letter One: You need to write a one-page letter (minimum) to the juniors enrolling in
next year’s AP English Literature class. You want to welcome them, but also, perhaps,
warn them. Think of what you wish you had known, or done, or not done. It is fine to
state generalities, but be sure to back them up with specifics.
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Letters Two through Four: You need to write some thank-you letters (it will get you in
practice for ensuing thank-you notes for all those graduation gifts that have come your
way). Specifically, you need to brainstorm a list of five (5) teachers, administrators, or
support staff in the district for whom you feel gratitude. Then you need to write three of
them a one-page (minimum) letter, stating why you are grateful. Be specific.
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
INDEPENDENT NOVEL ANALYSIS READING LIST
FIRST SEMESTER: CONTEMPORARY NOVELS
Title must be submitted by Monday, November 26 th. Novel Analysis due Wednesday,
December 19th. You may NOT use a title that you read in your Pre-AP classes or use any
current summer reading title.
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
The Shipping News
E. Annie Proulx
A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley
Song of Solomon/Sula/The Bluest Eye/Jazz
Toni Morrison
Going After Cacciato/In the Lake of the Woods
Tim O’Brien
Ironweed
William Kennedy
The Optimist’s Daughter/Delta Wedding
Eudora Welty
One Hundred Years of Solitude
G.Garcia-Marquez
Beach Music/Prince of Tides/Lords of Discipline
Pat Conroy
The Joy Luck Club/Saving Fish from Drowning
Amy Tan
Suite Francaise
Irene Nemirovsky
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
Obasan
Joy Kogawa
Eddies’s Bastard
William Kowalski
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
The Handmaid’s Tale/Cat’s Eye/Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
The Member of the Wedding
Carson McCullers
The Probable Future
Alice Hoffman
The Killer Angels
Michael Shaara
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino
White Noise/Falling Man
Don DeLillo
Coming Through Slaughter
Michael Ondaatje
Ender’s Game/Ender’s Shadow
Orson Scott Card
All the Pretty Horses/The Crossing/The Road
Cormac McCarthy
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Native Speaker
Chang- Rae Lee
The Dante Club/The Poe Shadow
Matthew Pearl
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving
Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Rebecca Wells
In the Time of Butterflies
Julia Alvarez
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
Snow
Love Medicine/Tracks
The Painted Drum/The Plague of Doves
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Animal Dreams/Prodigal Summer
We Were the Mulvaneys
Blindness
Ragtime
Middlesex
Life of Pi
The Eyre Affair
Einstein’s Deams
Atonement/Saturday
Lowboy
Wish You Well
The Magician’s Assistant/Run: A Novel
Gilead
Mudbound
Empire Falls/Bridge of Sighs
The Other
Sister of My Heart
Angle of Repose
J
Orhan Pamuk
Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich
Michael Dorris
Barbara Kingsolver
Joyce Carol Oates
José Saramago
E. L. Doctorow
Jeffrey Eugenides
Yann Martel
asper Fforde
Alan Lightman
Ian McEwan
John Wray
David Baldacci
Ann Patchett
Marilyn Robinson
Hillary Jordan
Richard Russo
David Guterson
Chitra Divakaruni
Wallace Stegner
SECOND SEMESTER: CLASSIC NOVELS
Title must be submitted by Monday, February 25th. Novel Analysis due Friday, May 10th. You may NOT
use a title that you read in your Pre-AP classes.
The Sound and the Fury
Light in August
As I Lay Dying
A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
The Dead (in The Dubliners)
Ulysses
A Farewell to Arms
The Sun Also Rises
Crime and Punishment
The Secret Sharer
Anna Karenina
Death of Ivan Illyich
The Trial
The Stranger
The Grapes of Wrath
Wuthering Heights
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
Mrs. Dalloway
To the Lighthouse
Middlemarch
The Awakening
Frankenstein
The Inferno
Les Miserables
Gulliver’s Travels
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Faulkner
James Joyce
James Joyce
James Joyce
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Fydor Dostoyevsky
Joseph Conrad
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Franz Kafka
Albert Camus
John Steinbeck
Emily Brontë
Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
George Eliot
Kate Chopin
Mary Shelley
Dante Alighieri
Victor Hugo
Jonathan Swift
Robert L. Stevenson
Sheree K. Baker
Charles Page High School
The War of the Worlds
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
All Quiet on the Western Front
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Jude the Obscure
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Portrait of a Lady
An American Tragedy
The Good Soldier
Candide
A Doll’s House
Medea
Lysistrata
Tartuffe
Faust
Dr. Faustus
Volpone
Othello
* The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
*To Kill a Mockingbird
*1984
*Brave New World
*The Great Gatsby
H. G. Wells
Victor Hugo
Eric Remarque
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Oscar Wilde
Henry James
Theodore Dreiser
Ford Maddox Ford
Voltaire
Henric Ibsen
Euripides
Aristophanes
Molière
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Christopher Marlowe
Ben Johnson
William Shakespeare
Mark Twain
Harper Lee
George Orwell
Alduous Huxley
F. Scott Fitzgerald
*If for some reason you haven’t analyzed these titles, you may use one of them for your INA.
Teacher Texts and Resources
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St. Martin’s Guide to Writing , Rise B. Axelrod
AP Advantage English Literature: Close Reading and Analytical Writing, Barbara Bloy, PhD.
Voice Lessons, Nancy Dean
Crafting Expository Argument: Practical Approaches to the Writing Process for Students and
Teachers, Michael Degen
How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster
English Literature and Composition, Cliffs AP, Allan Casson
AP Vertical Teams Guide for English, The College Board
MLA Handbook for Writers of Term Papers, J. Gibaldi
Released AP English Literature and Composition Exams
Various titles from Applied Practice (Multiple Choice Questions and Timed Writing Prompts)
AP Central and AP English EDG
TeacherWeb Class Website
http://teacherweb.com/OK/CharlesPageHighSchool/ShereeBaker/apt1.aspx