Mr. Briggs
Middletown High School
Room 104
(briggsc@mps1.org)
AP English Syllabus
Literature and Composition
Course Description:
This Advanced Placement English course prepares students for both the Language and
Composition and the Literature and Composition exams and follows the curricular requirements
described in the AP English Course Description. (See apcentral.collegeboard.com)
Grading Policy:
Formal Papers/Projects/Tests
In-Class Writing Assignments
Quizzes
Participation/Hw/Notebook
25%
25%
10%
20%
Quarterly Exam
20%
Class Requirements:
You must have a three ring binder for this class. Please separate notebook into
four sections:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Class Notes/Daily work
Homework
Practice Tests
Returned Work
Please save all graded/returned work. In the event that there is a discrepancy on
any grade throughout the year, the returned work will be your proof. Any work
not submitted on time (and therefore not graded) will not be accepted.
All work must be dated. Journals may be collected/checked on any day of the
school year. No journal will be graded that is not in class on the day of the notebook
check. No exceptions! (Hint: Bring your notebook every day!)
Class Rules:
1. Be prepared. You must have homework completed in order to succeed
in this class. Your ability to contribute to class discussions makes the homework
a requisite, not an option!
2. No food or drinks except water. Water in clear plastic bottles is the only exception
to this rule!
3. Use bathroom only when necessary. Don’t abuse the privilege. Sign in/out and take the
blue pass. Find the most opportune time (i.e., not the very beginning of class).
4. No i-pods/cell phones, etc.
Reading:
We read many quality and significant works of both fiction and nonfiction. We read closely,
examining the use of rhetorical strategies and techniques. We study the many elements of prose
and poetry that contribute to a thorough understanding of text. Throughout our readings we
emphasize tone, because it is in the author’s attitude toward her subject that we often discover
the text’s full meaning and in which we may uncover the answer to the larger question: so what?
We read critically and discuss our response to texts and literature as they relate to the author’s
intention. With whom do we sympathize? Why, for example, do we relate to certain characters
more closely than others even when narration is ostensibly objective? Where do we find the
elements of human nature in a work of fiction? How does this enhance our understanding of the
world and inform our study of ourselves and of humanity? We read a wide variety of texts
toward these ends.
Writing:
This course functions as an introduction to college writing. In addition to regular informal
writing intended to help us prepare for and process our reading and analysis, we produce many
and various formal pieces. These assignments include creative pieces, processed analytical and
research pieces, shorter close readings and explications of text, and timed essays that mimic those
found on the AP exam. Students receive instruction and are given the opportunity to write
strong papers that take a position on an issue and carefully and thoroughly support and develop
a central idea/ thesis/ claim. Additionally, the course emphasizes critical analyses of literature.
Both types of writing require responses to primary texts and the inclusion of properly
documented secondary sources.
Resources:
Texts for this course include:
A selection of novels, short stories, plays and non-fiction based on the Advanced
Placement reading lists. (Please see me for more information)
Rottenberg, Annette, Elements of Argument
Strunk and White, The Elements of Style
Bartholomae, David and Petrosky, Anthony, Ways of Reading
Units and/or Texts of Study – (Note: some units overlap in time for practical purposes and/or
because they are interrelated. I reserve the right to edit/add/delete from or to anything in the
following list.)

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
o Questions and concerns
 Close reading – narration, tone, style
 Nature of invisibility
 Growth of narrator
 Ellison’s relationship to Baldwin and other African American writers.
o Texts
 Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
 “The Artist and Society” – James Baldwin
 “James Baldwin” (poem) – Salkey
o
Assignments/Assessments
 Dialectical Journal
 “Teaching” presentations – chapter groupings – explore sections as they
relate and contribute to larger themes.
 Informal writing -- Worldview comparison of Baldwin and Ellison
 Informal writing -- What is the meaning of invisibility and how does this
work as a metaphor for the experience of marginalized people?
 Formal, processed essay – close reading based on single passage
(‘Steven’ passage p. 354). Students examine tone, syntax, diction, and
other elements in an effort to understand the relationship between this
specific passage and Ellison’s concerns in the novel overall.
 Assignment includes a). peer editing exercise, b). rewrite
following teacher’s assessment, specifically focusing on use of
textual evidence to establish overall meaning.

The Bible
o Questions and Concerns
 The ubiquitous Bible in literature
 Recognizing and understanding allusion as an essential part of
meaningful reading
o Texts
 The Bible – “Genesis”
 “Blackberry Winter” – short story
 Selected poems, including “Lot’s Wife”and “Paradise Lost”
 Beloved – Toni Morrison
o Assignments/Assessments
 Bible quiz
 Informal writing – effect of and purpose of Biblical allusion in selected
contemporary literature
 Creative piece – Write a poem from perspective of character in the Bible.
(model – “Lot’s Wife”)
 Assignment includes opportunity for revision based on peer and
teacher feedback. Focus on evoking character through precise
imagery.

Romanticism/Poetry
o Questions and Concerns
 Tenets of Romantic Period – historical significance, progression of
thought, response and reactions
 Poetic terminology, explication and analysis
 How style, diction, tone and other elements contribute to meaning of
poem overall
 Where do we see the tenets of Romanticism in representative works of
art?
 Notion of “big idea” – all explication needs a “so what?”
o Texts
 Selected Poems by Wordsworth, Blake, Keats, Shelley, Byron, and
Coleridge.
 Selected Sonnets by Shakespeare and others
 Selected Romantic paintings
o

Pride and Prejudice
o Questions/concerns
 Irony and satire in the novel –
 Marriage and the role of women
 Relationship between appearance and reality
 Art vs. Nature (man-made – as created vs. natural – as is -- Classicism v.
Romanticism)
 Moral blindness vs. Self-knowledge
o Texts
 Pride and Prejudice
 Austen biographical information
 The Awakening – Kate Chopin
 Chopin biographical information
o

 Romantic poetry and poet biography packet
Assignments/Assessments
 Close reading of Romantic painting – “reading” the Romantic elements
in selected paintings.
 Close reading of selected poems
 Individual formal poetry explication – oral and written.
 Includes opportunity for significant feedback from peers and
teacher prior to and following written essay
 AP timed poetry essay
 Original sonnet – creative piece
 Includes peer revision/reading exercise and opportunity to
rework following teacher feedback. Focus on specificity of
 Imagery, meter and rhyme scheme.
Assignments/Assessments
 Socratic Seminar
 Group thematic analysis project and presentation
 Open-ended AP essay using Pride and Prejudice. Evaluated using AP
rubric. (see note on Romanticism)
Hamlet
o Questions and concerns
 Poetry of Shakespeare
 Characterization in play
 Shakespeare the Existentialist
 Evaluation of various productions
 Critical responses to Shakespeare
 Many others based on student insight and interest
o Texts
 Hamlet
 Film – Branaugh and some Gibson
 Six filmed versions of “To Be” speech
 Selected critical essays
 Selected poems
o Assignments/Assessments
 Write “to be or not to be” parody
 Hamlet open-ended essay –



Assignment begins with students producing responses in groups
to one of six applicable AP open-ended questions. Following
these presentations, students produce an open-ended essay in 40
minutes in response to an unfamiliar question. (see note on
Romanticism)
Hamlet argument essay based on Gertrude characterization critical
article.
 Assignment brings students through the writing process, and
they are required to rewrite based on teacher feedback using
analytical rubric.
Existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd
o Questions and Concerns
 Roots, tenets and influence of existentialism on our lives and in our
literature
 The nature of the “absurd”
 How and where do we find meaning in our lives?
 Close reading for tone and author’s purpose
o
o
Texts
 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead -- Stoppard
 Myth of Sisyphus -- Camus
 Waiting for Godot -- Beckett
 The Stranger – Camus
 Selected poetry, including some Eliot
Assignments/Assessments
 “finding” the absurd in R and G – word play, exits and entrances,
direction and time – group work
 Close reading of Sysephus for existentialism
 Godot – open-ended essay with AP anchor sets (see note on
Romanticism)
 Group oral presentation of formal close reading of Stranger passages.
Close examination of the diction, movement, structure and tone of the
passage to determine where our sympathy lies with regard to Meursault.
How and why Camus moves us in this direction.
 Formal close reading AP style timed essay using Stranger passage (see
Romanticism note)
 Debate – is The Stranger and/or Waiting for Godot a work of hope or
despair?