Course Overview for 12 AP Literature & Composition, Ms. Susan Mitchell
Contact info: The best way to contact me is via email, susan.mitchell@christina.k12.de.us. Phone is 631-4700, vm
14441. I also maintain a website accessible through the staff directory on the NHS website.
http://www.teacherweb.com/DE/NewarkHighSchool/MitchellEnglish/photo1.aspx
Assignments can be emailed to ap.turn.in@gmail.com and a blog is available.
Introduction
Welcome to AP Literature & Composition. This course is developed to teach beginning college-level writing that
interprets, analyzes and reflects upon a broad spectrum of British, American and World literature through the use of
rhetorical theory and critical perspectives. Using somewhat of a seminar format you can expect each day that the class
activities and discussion will revolve around not only meaning, but a deeper analysis of writing style and structure. Your
own writing assignments will not only be analytical, but creative as well.
My expectation is that you will follow those writers’ workshop steps you learned so long ago, with the ever-important
revision(s) leading to well-crafted final works. The assignment you turned in to me last June about your earliest
recollections of your own reading and writing is a jumping off point for your own development as a writer, no matter
how far you have already come. You will be able understand the deliberate choices writers make (e.g. word choice or
diction or syntax) and how they help construct meaning and how powerful your own experience and context is in
influencing you as a writer.
Overall, what I expect is a dedication to the class: hard work, integrity, completion of assignments on time, contributions
to all class discussions and a collegial respect for the work and contributions of others. I believe that in doing so, you will
take much away from the course and do well on the exam in May.
Literature Study
It is extremely important that students do a close reading of all assignments and complete those assignments on time.
You will probably be doing more reading in this class than any previous English classes. You will need to carve out time
for reading---close reading---which does not mean a cursory once-over. You will use the Major Works Data Sheets for
novels and plays. Poetry should be “consumed”--- perhaps reading two or three times or more. In addition to assigned
reading, each student will complete an outside reading each marking period. One of these will be the topic of your
literary research paper at the end of the year (see below).
Writing Assignments
Students will complete several creative writing assignments that link to a current unit of study or fall within the required
writing for our department (Personal Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, Descriptive); essay for the Common Application
for college admissions; and the senior research paper. Writings specific to the course will include poetry and short
fiction and drama, including some group-authored pieces. In addition, students will write several critical papers
throughout each semester and complete a literary research paper at the end of the year. (Note: This is not your senior
research paper which is to be in final form by winter break.) All major papers will be submitted in both hard an electronic
copy forms.
Critical papers
Each analysis should provide a solid body of evidence supporting a well-constructed thesis about the poems, play or
novel and focus on style and structure, and historical or social context. (Your MWDS will be helpful here.) Papers should
be typed, double-spaced and proofed. Several of these will be what I call a “Two-pager” and the final research-based
literary paper will be 5-7 pages. I will provide the 9-point rubric used to evaluate writing on the AP exam; however, we
will re-work it for our purposes in peer-evaluation.
Creative writing
These pieces will be developed to demonstrate an understanding of the rhetorical forms, styles and structures we are
studying. I will evaluate them based on your work clearly showing your appreciation of what we have been reading and
the specific focus I may ask for in the piece (theme, diction, figurative language, etc.). Any work begun is class should be
completed at home and typed as with the critical papers. We will work together to design a rubric with a smaller scale to
be used in group and peer-evaluations.
Having stated all of the above, understand that our course and assignments are fluid in nature, allowing for some
alteration of or deviation from what is outlined, depending upon the needs of the class.
Assessments
Obviously, your papers are the strongest and most authentic assessments of your performance. That said, we will have
periodic quizzes and exams. Quizzes may be announced or unannounced and may be given at anytime during the block.
They may be strictly reading comprehension/plot questions or ones that require deeper thought and, therefore,
extended responses. Longer essay exams will ask you to take into consideration several works as they relate to what we
have learned.
Practice AP exams and quick-writes will also be given. Most in-class writing will also be used in our discussions. Please
have and bring to class a spiral or composition notebook to use as a responsive journal for your reading, especially for
poetry.
Grades
We will use the District grading scale:
98-100% - A+ 75 - 79% - C+
90 - 97% - A 70 - 74% - C
85 - 89% - B+ 67 - 69% - D+
80 - 84% - B 60 - 66% - D
0 - 59% - F
Grade weights per school policy
Work
Percent of final grade
Class work
25%
Major Assessments
40%
Quizzes
20%
Homework
15%
A more detailed breakdown of assignments will be given
in class.
Texts
The following will be used as the texts for the class. There are enough core texts available so that the copy you are
assigned may be kept at home and still allow us to have a classroom set. We may be able to do the same with most of
the supplemental texts.
Core texts:
Approaching Literature
Introduction to Literature
Themes in World Literature
Literature
Supplemental texts(subject to availability):
Poetry Norton Introduction to Poetry
Drama King Lear, Wm. Shakespeare
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
Novels - The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka (novella)
*Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
*Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
*summer reading
The Last Word
I am very excited about the coming school year and working with you. I am hoping that we can all learn a lot since that
is what this course is about. It is about what we all take away from it intellectually, not someone’s letter grade. You will
spend more of your years learning without grades than you will with them and that is something to keep in mind. I
know you are all under pressure to do well, and you can in this class with effort and an open mind. If you learn
something about yourself, or the world in which we live; if you have one of those great “Ah-ha” moments; if you see
what a rich heritage we have in our literature and how it reflects and drives our cultures, then I will have done my job
and hopefully sent you out the door in June with more than a test score.
On the question of plagiarizing: leave it a question, it is never the answer! This is an integrity issue. Above all, you will
lose my trust and respect.
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