AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
Mr. Weinhold
2014 – 2015
“If the literature we are reading does not awaken us, why then do we read it? A literary work must
be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea inside us.” –Franz Kafka, 1904
Course Objectives
This course is designed to engage students in close reading and critical analysis of literature. This
course will build upon previous knowledge and literary experience while increasing their
exposure to, and understanding of many classic works of literature. This course will provide
opportunities for students to develop their close reading skills through experience, interpretation
and evaluation. Students will be pushed to consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well
as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Students will learn and employ
critical methodologies to analyze texts in this course (Feminist, Marxist, Historical, Psychological,
etc.) As they read, students will understand the ways writers use language to entertain, confuse,
and comment on the human condition.
This course will include literature from multiple periods, genres, and cultures. Students will
consider the social and historical values a work reflects and embodies. They will also write,
focusing on critical analysis of literature including expository, analytical, and argumentative
essays as well as creative writing to sharpen understanding of writers’ accomplishments and
deepen appreciation of literary artistry.
The year is divided into 9-week quarters. Students will be required to write 2-3 papers (400
words+) outside of class and 2-3 in-class essays, as well as respond to a variety of tests, quizzes
and more informal writing prompts per quarter.
Curricular Requirements (Learning Outcomes)
1: The course includes an intensive study of representative works such as those by authors cited
in the AP English Course Description. By the time the student completes AP English Literature and
Composition, he or she will have studied during high school literature from both British and
American writers, as well as works written in several genres from the sixteenth century to
contemporary times.
2 - 4: The course teaches students to write interpretations of pieces of literature that are based on
a careful observation of textual details, considering:
 Such elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.
 The work’s structure, style and themes.
 The work’s social, cultural and/or historical values.
5, 6: The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and rewrite:
 Informal, timed, in-class responses.
 Formal, extended analyses outside of class.
7: The course requires writing to understand: Informal/exploratory writing activities that enable
students to discover what they think in the process of writing about their reading.
 Such assignments include annotation, free writing, keeping a reading journal,
reaction/response papers, and/or dialectical notebooks.
8: The course requires writing to explain: Expository, analytical essays in which students draw
upon textual details to develop an extended interpretation of a literary text.
9, 10: The course requires writing to evaluate: Analytical, argumentative essays in which students
draw upon textual details to make and explain judgments about:
 A work’s artistry and quality.
 A work’s social, historical and/or cultural values.
11 - 15: The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments (both
before and after the students revise their work) that help the students:
 Develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately.
 Develop a variety of sentence structures.
 Develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence.
(Such techniques may include traditional rhetorical structures, graphic organizers,
and work on repetition, transitions, and emphasis.)
 Develop a balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail.
 Establish an effective use of rhetoric including controlling tone and a voice
appropriate to the writer’s audience.
 I will not follow the exact sequence nor teach the same literature noted here each year. My
thematic organization allows for substitutions and additions.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments Throughout the Course:
-Students will write analytical essays outside of class using multiple sources
-Socratic seminar in class (in-depth discussion of literary works)
-In-class informal interpretive writing and formal writing
*requirement includes peer review prior to revision
-Short in-class writings about character development, symbolism, and theme
-Student Presentations of critical analysis and critical literary theory
-Conferencing with the course instructor about writing and revisions
-Reading check quizzes , -Keeping a dialectical reading journal
- In-class writings about figurative language, imagery, and/or tone
-Multiple Choice and Essay Quizzes using released AP exam questions
Essential Questions of this course
1. How does literature help us understand others and ourselves?
2. How does literature reflect the human condition?
3. How does literature explore universal themes?
4. What makes literature “literature”?
Unit Name/Timeframe
Unit 1: Exploring the “Other” and Perspectives on Race / 5 weeks
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Excerpts of Black Boy or Native Son by Richard Wright
-emphasis on social and historical concerns of time period, present day
-study of themes, literary perspective of race, current perspectives on race
-study vocabulary of twentieth century American language, including dialect and syntax
-study of literary terminology and critical methodologies
Unit Name or Timeframe
Unit 2: Epic Hero /History of English / 5 weeks
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Beowulf and excerpts from Grendel by John Gardner
-emphasis on Anglo-Saxon values, epic hero, epic style
-emphasis on English literary tradition, drama, archetypes
-study vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon era; practice use in writing kennings
-emphasis on themes, tragic hero, figurative language, character development
Unit Name/Timeframe
Unit 3:War and its Impact on Society /5 weeks
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
-review of elements of fiction: theme, structure, setting, characters, and point-of-view
-emphasis on Psychoanalytical Literary Lens
-emphasis on connections of setting/style/theme/characters
-discussion of war and societal impact over time
-study historical setting of Vietnam War and modern military conflict
Unit Name and Timeframe
Unit 4: Romanticism / 5 weeks
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, excerpts from Paradise Lost by John Milton, and The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri
-review the myth of Prometheus
-emphasis on elements of Romanticism, literary history, Byronic hero
-emphasis on figurative language, imagery, symbolism, tone
-emphasis on connections of setting / style / theme / characters
Unit Name and Timeframe
Unit 5: Poetry / 4 weeks
Metaphysical poetry
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
-authors including Donne, Marvell, Herrick
-emphasis on tone, imagery, figurative language
-study vocabulary pertinent to the style
-emphasis on figurative language, imagery, symbolism, tone
Sonnets
-authors including Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Petrarch
-emphasis on poetic devices of sound and sense
-study vocabulary pertinent to the style
17th and 19th Century
-authors including Tennyson, Browning, Houseman, Dickinson
-emphasis on poetic devices of sound and sense
-study vocabulary pertinent to the time periods
Unit Name and Timeframe
Unit 6: Shakespearean Tragedy / 4 weeks
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
-emphasis on tragic hero, hamartia, hubris, soliloquy, fatal flaw
-emphasis on Psychological lens (Oedipus Complex)
-close reading of soliloquies in Hamlet
Unit Name and Timeframe
Unit 7: Women in Literature/ 4 weeks
The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
-emphasis on character development, social values, themes
-study vocabulary of the American language, including vernacular, dialect, and syntax
-emphasis on Feminist lens and interpretive discussion
-study pertinent vocabulary
Unit Name and Timeframe
Unit 8: Emergence of the Individual / Dystopian Novels / 4 weeks
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell and excerpts from A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess
-emphasis on historical and social values and themes
-emphasis on tone, irony, symbolism
-study vocabulary, including euphemisms and specialized vocabulary
Please refer to our district website www.gocruisers.org to review State Standards Course
topics.