2010-2011 Syllabus
Instructor:
Ellen Strempek email: estrempek@tamdistrict.org
phone: 415 945-3750 ext : 3755
Course Description
The AP English Literature and Composition is designed to engage you in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, you will deepen your understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. You will write reader responses, “40 minute” in class essays and longer, more formal, analytical, interpretive and evaluative essays that consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. You will read works from several genres and periods—from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century and analyze a work’s meaning, literary artistry, and the social and historical values it reflects and embodies. It is expected that students will take the AP English exam in May. Students should check with various colleges to see what credits they offer for each or both tests.
Course Outcomes
In this course students will:
 improve close reading and analytical strategies; while texts are provided, students are strongly encouraged to buy their own copies of each text for ease in close reading and annotating text.
 stretch their imaginative abilities in reaction to literature
 improve their ability to find and explain (through discussion and writing) what is of value in literature
 revisit the purposes and strategies of rhetoric in order to develop an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure
 improve organization in writing through techniques to improve coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis
 effectively state, support and explain their claims in their arguments
 advance vocabulary skills
 learn about critical theories in literature
Methods of Instruction

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Discussion is the primary way in which students come to understand a particular text.
Discussion is both large group and small group. Discussions are sometimes student led.
Discussions are sometimes conducted online.
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Cooperative learning groups are also used extensively in this class. Projects/assignments will be done individually as well. Some assigned texts are to be read independently, in addition to other course texts.
Writing about Literature
• Students will write a variety of AP style essays over the course of the year, most timed and in class. While all essays expect general rhetorical excellence, each one has a particular thematic or analytical focus.
• Students will be writing to understand, writing to explain, and writing to evaluate.
Quality of interpretation comes from depth of insightful understanding.
• In addition to writing a variety of essays, students will keep a writing log over the course of the year to document their progress and to engage themselves in thinking about their writing. Students will also write reflective, more personal responses to literature throughout the year in study guides, etc.
• Students will analyze two published critical essays in order evaluate professional models.
Modes of Writing:
 journals and log
 micro-essays or thought pieces
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40 – minute timed writes
 analytical and interpretive essays
 poetry
 creative writing
 reviews of articles and literary criticism
 speeches or presentations
Resources/Texts (Texts listed below are generally included in course, but will vary from year to year).
Discovery of Poetry , Frances Mayes,
Sound and Sense , Perrine,
Points of View, (editor James Moffet)
Elements of Style , Strunk and White.
England in Literature , Scott Foresman
Various Web Resources (ie. AP Central, my own website, bibliography sites, literary terms etc.)
Literature:
 Great Expectations (Summer reading)
 Beowulf, (Selections from Seamus Heaney edition)

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The Canterbury Tales , (Selected Tales including the Knight's Tale) Chaucer
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Shakespeare (selection may vary from year to year, but usually includes Hamlet )
Tess of The D’Urbervilles , Hardy
 A Doll House , Ibsen
The Awakening, Chopin
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The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
 Passage to India, Forster
Heart of Darkness, Co nrad
 Waiting for Godot, Becket
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard
 A Good Man is Hard to Find , Good Country People , O'Connor
Death of a Salesman, Miller
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Invisible Man, Ellison
 Candide, Voltaire
The Stranger, Camus
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Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
 All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy
A River Runs Through It, MacClean
Assessment:
• Assessment of understanding of literature is done primarily through essays.
• Some quizzes: (weekly vocabulary quizzes) as well as quotation identification
• Knowledge of literary terms.
• Students are expected to be active participants in discussions.
• An exam is given at the end of the first semester.
• Students who take the AP test in May do not take the second semester
• Students will create a writing log to help with self-assessment of writing.
Grading:
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Grades are calculated using total, cumulative points
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6-trait rubric is used for scoring essays (120 pts.)
 timed – write essays are scored with 1-9 AP scale (40 pts)
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Essays may be re-written to raise scores
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Late work results in lowered grade but will be accepted
Grading Scale:
A+ over 100
A 94
A- 90
B+ 87
B 84
B- 80
C+ 77
D 65
F 59