English 12AP: Syllabus
Year Course
2013-2014
I.
Standards of Learning Objectives for Virginia Public Schools (See Attached Sheet): This
course is an AP course, not an SOL course, but our work more than covers the SOL
requirements for twelfth grade English.
II.
Specific Course Objectives
Students in English 12AP will have the opportunity to
A. Build their vocabularies through reading and other vocabulary work.
B. Practice and develop their creative writing skills in a way that will aid them in better
understanding and appreciating the topics, structures, and techniques at work in their
reading for this course.
C. Improve their critical reading and writing skills.
D. Improve their grammatical competency and stylistic growth through both creative and
analytical writing.
E. Become conversant with the chronology, the key works and writers, the major forms and
stylistic techniques, and the seminal historical events of British Literary History from the
Anglo-Saxon Period to the Contemporary Period.
F. Familiarize themselves with the format of the Advanced Placement English Test.
G. Analyze and practice the tasks required of them on the AP English test.
H. Review the key concepts of poetry, drama, and prose by applying them to the analysis of
specific works from each genre.
I.
III.
Engage in research.
Time Frame for Accomplishing Objectives
A. Except for the work with British Literature, all objectives will be ongoing.
B. Time Frame for Work with British Literature
1. First Six Weeks: The Old English and Medieval Periods (449 – 1485) and the
English Renaissance Period (1485 – 1625)
2. Second Six Weeks: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1625 – 1698)
3. Third Six Weeks: The Romantic Period (1798 – 1832)
4. Fourth Six Weeks: The Victorian Period (1833 – 1901)
5. Fifth Six Weeks: The Modern and Postmodern Periods (1901 – Present)
IV.
Grading Policy
A. All assignments except AP multiple choice practice exercises will carry the same weight
in determining the six weeks grade.
B. Assignments not turned in on time lose one letter grade per day late.
C. Writing assignments will be graded holistically since the writing assignments on the AP
Exam will be graded holistically.
D. AP multiple choice practice exercises will be graded in a manner based on the way
Educational Testing Service scores. People who expect to get a 3 on the AP exam should
score 60% which will convert to a 70 on the school’s grading scale. All scores above
60% will convert to 70 plus the number of points over 60%; on the other hand, scores
below 60% will convert to 70 minus the number of points under 60%. Please take these
exercises seriously; they are excellent practice for the “real thing.”
E. Make-up work not completed within the three-day limit will earn a 0.
V.
Grading Scale
A= 90 – 100
VI.
B = 80 – 89
C = 70 – 79
D = 60 – 69
F = 0 – 59
Credit Requirements: To receive credit for the course, a student must have four passing
grades and a minimum average of .51.
English 12AP: First Semester Freewrite and Practice AP Essay Due Dates
All freewrites are due on Wednesdays, and they must be based in content, or in form, or in both on
material that we are reading for this class. You will have one or more completely free freewrites
AFTER the AP exam in May.
All freewrites will be presented orally, but you will also need to submit a polished copy in correct
MLA format when you present your freewrite.
Every third Wednesday, you will be writing practice AP essays.
1. August 28 – Freewrite
2. September 4 – Freewrite
3. September 11 – Practice AP Essay (Prose Analysis)
4. September 18 – Freewrite
5. September 25 – Freewrite
6. October 2 – Practice AP Essay (Poetry Analysis)
7. October 9 – Freewrite
8. October 16 – Freewrite
9. October 23 – Practice AP Essay (Free Response)
10. October 30 – Freewrite
11. November 6 – Freewrite
12. November 13 – Practice AP Essay (Prose Analysis)
13. December 4 – Freewrite
14. December 11– Practice AP Essay (Poetry Analysis)
English 12AP: Second Semester Freewrite and Practice AP Essay Due Date
1. January 22 – Freewrite
2. January 29 – Freewrite
3. February 5 – Practice AP Essay
4. February 12 – Freewrite
5. February 19 – Freewrite
6. February 26 – Practice AP Essay
7. March 5 – Freewrite
8. March 12 – Freewrite
9. March 19 – Practice AP Essay
10. March 26 – Freewrite
11. April 2 – Practice AP Essay
12. April 9 – Freewrite
13. April 23 – Freewrite
No Writings the first two weeks of May – AP Testing!
14. May 21 – Freewrite (completely free)
15. May 28 – Freewrite (completely free)
English 12AP: Reading Assignments in Sound and Sense
First Semester
Chapter One
08/23
Chapter Two
08/30
Chapter Three
09/06
Chapter Four
09/13
Chapter Five
09/20
Chapter Six
09/27
Chapter Seven
10/04
Chapter Eight
10/11
Chapter Nine
10/18
Chapter Ten
11/01
Chapter Eleven
11/08
Chapter Twelve
11/15
Chapter Thirteen
11/22
Chapter Fourteen
12/06
Chapter Fifteen
12/13
Chapter Sixteen
01/03
English 12AP: Second Semester
Sound and Sense Reading Assignments
DATE
ASSIGNMENT
1. Friday, January 17
“Siren Song,” “Mussee des Beaux Arts,” and
“On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South
High,” pp. 333 – 335
2. Friday, January 24
“The Lamb” and “The Tiger,” pp. 335 – 336
3. Friday, January 31
“Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt,”
pp. 336 – 337
4. Friday, February 7
Five Emily Dickinson poems, pp. 341 – 343
5. Friday, February 14
“The Lipstick on the Mirror,” pp. 343 – 344
6. Friday, February 21
Four John Donne poems, pp. 344 – 348
7. Friday, February 28
“Vergissmeinnicht,” p. 348
8. Friday, March 7
“Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins,”
“Fourteen,” and “The Red Hat,” pp. 355 – 357
9. Friday, March 14
Three Thomas Hardy poems and two A.E.
Houseman poems, pp. 358 – 360 and 362 – 363
10. Friday, March 21
“Nikki-Rosa” and “Theme for English B,” pp.
353 – 354 and 363 – 364
11. Friday, April 4
Two Keats poems, pp. 367 – 371
12. Friday, April 11
“Spinster” and “Getting Through,” pp. 378 –
379 “Living in Sin” and “Storm Warnings,”
pp. 380 – 382
13. Friday, April 25
Choose any poem you wish between pages 383
and 406, and be prepared to discuss it in detail.
English 12AP: AP Practice Schedule
2013 – 2014
We will begin our AP multiple choice practices in October; we will do one each Monday – October 14,
October 21, and October 28. These first three practices will not be graded.
Each Monday after October 28th, we will do an AP multiple choice practice exercise. All practice
exercises done after October 28th will be graded.

November 4 – Herbert poem, 1 – 19

November 11 – Swift essay, 1 – 15

November 18 – Eliot poem, 1 – 14

November 25 – Chopin story, 1 – 14

December 2 – 2007, 1 – 11

December 9 – 2007, 12 – 22

December 16 – 2007, 23 – 33

January 6 – 2007, 34 – 55

January 20 – 1994, 1 – 14

January 27– 1994, 15 – 28

February 3 – 1994, 29 – 40

February 10 – 1994, 41 – 55

February 24 – 1999, 1 – 13

March 3 – 1999, 14 – 25

March 10 – 1999, 26 – 34

March 17 – 1999, 35 – 55

March 24 – 2009, 1 – 10

April 7 – 2009, 11 – 33

April 21 – 2009, 34 - 55
English 12AP: Outside Reading Assignments and Due Dates
Literature: The British Tradition
2013-2014
First Six Weeks
Unit One – From Legend to history: The Old English and Medieval Periods (449 – 1485)
A. Background of the Period, pages 1 – 16
B. The Works and Their Background
1. Pages 18 – 32 (Elegiac Poems)
2. Pages 34 – 65, 68 – 69, and 76 – 80 (Beowulf)
3. Pages 82 – 89 (Bede’s History)
4. Pages 90 – 151 (Prologue and Two Tales from The Canterbury Tales)
5. Pages 205 – 210 (Folk Ballads)
Unit Two – Celebrating Humanity: The English Renaissance Period (1485 – 1625)
A. Background of the Period, pages 235 – 250
B. The Works and Their Background
1. Pages 252 – 261 (The Sonnet, Spenser, and Sidney)
2. Pages 264 – 270 (Pastoral Poems)
3. Pages 272 – 279 (Shakespeare’s Sonnets)
4. Pages 296 – 305 (King James Bible)
NOTE: Pages 308 – 416 (Macbeth) will be a separate assignment.
Due Date: 9/12
Second Six Weeks
Unit Three – A Turbulent Time: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1625 – 1798)
A. Background of the Period, pages 463 – 476
B. The Works and Their Background
1. Pages 480 – 491 (Donne)
2. Pages 494 – 501 (Jonson)
3. Pages 504 – 514 (Marvell, Herrick, and Suckling)
4. Pages 516 – 536 (Milton)
5. Pages 552 – 557 (Bunyan)
6. Pages 558 – 566 (Lanier and Lovelace)
7. Pages 568 – 596 (Pepys and Defoe)
8. Pages 604 – 685 (Swift, Pope, Johnson, Boswell, Gray, Finch, and Addison)
Due Date: 10/24
Third Six Weeks
Unit Four – Rebels and Dreamers: The Romantic Period (1798 – 1832)
A. Background of the Period, pages 715 – 727
B. The Works and Their Background
1. Pages 732 – 753 (Burns, Baillie, and Blake)
2. Pages 771 – 792 (Wordsworth)
3. Pages 818 – 850 (Coleridge)
4. Pages 852 – 893 (Byron, Shelley, and Keats)
Due Date: 12/5
Fourth Six Weeks
Unit Five – Progress and Decline: The Victorian Period (1833 – 1901)
A. Background of the Period, pages 941 – 953
B. The Works and Their Background
1. Pages 952 – 987 (Tennyson and the Brownings)
2. Pages 990 – 991 (Focus on the Novel)
3. Pages 1040 – 1050 (Arnold and Kipling)
4. Pages 1072 – 1083 (Bronte and Hardy)
5. Pages 1086 – 1094 (Hopkins and Housman)
Due Date: 2/6
Fifth Six Weeks
Unit Six – A Time of Rapid Change: The Modern and Postmodern Periods (1901 – Present)
A. Background of the Period, pages 1121 – 1133
B. The Works and Their Background
1. Pages 1138 – 1149 (Yeats)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
Pages 1152 – 1153 (Modernism and Beyond)
Pages 1154 – 1185 (Eliot, Auden, Macneice, and Spender)
Pages 1188 – 1224 (Woolf)
Pages 1216 – 1217 (Contemporary Short Story)
Pages 1218 – 1242 (Conrad and Joyce)
Pages 1244 – 1269 (Lawrence and Greene)
Pages 1272 – 1278 (Brooke, Sassoon, and Owen)
Pages 1296 – 1306 (Bowen)
Pages 1308 – 1315 (World War II Poets)
Pages 1316 – 1338 (Orwell and Lessing)
Pages 1340 – 1364 (Gordimer, Naipaul, and Wolcott)
Pages 1366 – 1376 (Heaney and Boland)
Pages 1378 – 1387 (Beckett and Pinter)
Pages 1388 – 1399 (Thomas and Hughes)
Pages 1400 – 1409 (Larkin, Redgrove, and Smith)
Pages 1410 – 1415 (Duffey and Shuttle)
Pages 1416 – 1430 (Desai)
Pages 1432 – 1433 (Contemporary British Fiction)
Pages 1434 – 1459 (Lively and Clarke)
Pages 1460 – 1461 (New British Nonfiction)
Pages 1462 – 1467 (Hornby)
Due Date: 4/3
For each time period covered in your reading, you should make notes on and know
1.
2.
3.
4.
The key historical events influencing the literature of the period
The mindset (world view or way of thinking) of the period
The representative writers and representative works of the time
The major genres and elements of style of the time and any terminology related to those genres
and elements of style
English 12AP: Vocabulary Assignments
2013 – 2014
Vocabulary is important to this class because of your reading and because of the level of language
used on the AP test itself. Nevertheless, I do not want it to take up an inordinate amount of class
time. Therefore, you will need to prepare three units in your book and the accompanying review
unit each six weeks for the first through fifth six-weeks periods. For each of these six-weeks periods,
you also will do a take-home, open-book, open-dictionary review test. The final six weeks you will
take a cumulative review test.
Yes, handling vocabulary in this way will cut into your personal time, but I encourage you to take
vocabulary seriously anyway. View your sacrifice of time now as an investment, and be assured that
the command of language it will help you develop has the potential to pay substantial dividends in
the future.
As you work with the words, I challenge you to use them in your writing and in your speech as they
are applicable and as you can apply them naturally.
Schedule of Due Dates
(Please note that the assigned material should be completed on Tuesday and that the completed
take home review test related to it should be turned in on the following Thursday.)
First Six Weeks
Units 1 – 3 and Review Units 1 – 3 – Due 9/17
Take home Review Test – Due 9/19
Second Six Weeks
Units 4 – 6 and Review Units 4 – 6 – Due 10/29
Take home Review Test – Due 10/31
Third Six Weeks
Units 7 – 9 and Review Units 7 – 9 – Due 12/3
Take home Review Test – Due 12/5
Fourth Six Weeks
Units 10 – 12 and Review Units 10 – 12 – Due
2/11
Take home Review Test – Due 2/13
Fifth Six Weeks
Units 13 – 15 and Review Units 13 – 15 – Due 4/8
Take home Review Test – Due 4/10
Sixth Six Weeks
Cumulative Review Test -- TBA