AP Literature & Composition
Course Syllabus
Brief Description of Course
Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition is taught as a freshman-level college
course in the literary analysis of poetry and literature, and follows the curricular requirements
described in the AP English Course Description as outlined by the College Board. Through the
close reading of poetry and fiction, students will deepen their understanding of the ways authors
use words to convey both meaning and pleasure to their readers. Accordingly, students will
strengthen their own ability to use words effectively to improve their own writing and vocabulary.
By the end of the year, students will be able to carefully consider a literary work's structure, style,
themes, and socio/historical impact or commentary. In addition, the elements of style such as the
author's use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone will be examined in depth. For
this purpose, the close reading and analysis of several novels, plays, and short stories will be
employed to help students gain understanding.
The study of poetry is incorporated into the class on an almost daily basis using our two main
texts in this area, Perrine's Sound and Sense, and the McDougall-Littell British Literature
textbook. Students will learn to identify the various techniques and devices used by the poet in
creating the poem, and to write about them.
This course in Literature and Composition will require a great deal of writing and critical thinking.
The fundamentals of rhetorical theory will be reviewed specifically ethos, pathos and logos. The
kinds of writing done in this course are many, but basically, students will be writing to evaluate,
writing to explain, and writing to understand. Students will write and rewrite essays through peer
review as well as teacher evaluation and feedback. There will be several timed writings in
preparation for the AP Lit & Comp exam. Opportunities will be given to evaluate a particular
process essay based on the rubric, as well as a teacher/ student workshop so that after the
process is complete, students may re-write their essay to show improved understanding.
Students will keep a writing portfolio of essays as evidence of growth and progress as a writer.
Students will develop and learn to incorporate varied and effective syntax and vocabulary with the
rhetorical process in creating outstanding essays.
PREREQUISITES for AP Lit & Comp: Anyone who has interest, and shows through previous
good grades in English that he or she can do the work, may take the class. Anyone who has
taken AP Language & Comp, Pre-AP, or received an A in college prep English with a teacher
recommendation may take the class. The reading and writing requirements are rigorous.
READING ASSIGNMENTS: With the reading of each of our novels or plays, the student will
create an "AP Cue Card” which will help the student remember key elements of the novel when
preparing for the AP Lit & Comp exam. A summative assessment will also be given on completion
of each novel or play.
NOVELS AND PLAYS to be read by semester:
FALL SEMESTER:
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
SPRING SEMESTER
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
1984 by George Orwell
The AP Language & Comp class at VCHS incorporates within it the study of American Literature,
and is offered in grade 11. The focus of AP Lit & Comp is on British Literature and poetry from
British, American and world sources, and is offered in grade 12.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: Several critical essays will be written throughout the year. There will
often be a research component attached to written asssignments. Students will state a thesis,
and defend it with well-chosen evidence to articulate and support an argument. Students will
analyze non-fiction texts as well as fiction which includes examination of the social, historical,
and the political implications of the text. Students will also analyze poetry which includes the
study of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone etc.. ALL papers must be written
using MLA format, and should be three to five pages in length. Spelling and grammar count,
college level standards are expected. Each essay will be peer evaluated in class in small groups
using the rubric provided for evaluation. After the final draft has been completed, students will
then submit papers to Turnitin.com for teacher evaluation. Writing is a PROCESS and takes time.
As long as students are working hard, turning in assignments ON TIME, participating in class
discussions and making progress, there is no reason everyone cannot get an A. That does not of
course mean everyone will, as the grade students earn is up to them.
There may also be some creative writing in class, particularly poems and short stories that will
take on some of the rhetorical forms and styles of the literature we are studying. Students may
emulate similar structure, themes, style and tone as the writer as evidence they understand the
principles at work in each piece.
There will also be several timed writings throughout the course.
GRADING: Although this class is not about grades, but primarily about learning, grades will be
weighted according to the following categories:
Literary Device Glossary (year long assignment)
Poetry assignments (weekly throughout the year)
Projects and Participation
Tests & Quizzes
Homework & Classwork
Essays & Writing
10%
10%
15%
15%
20%
30%
Grading Scale: 91%-100% = A, 81%-90% = B, 70%-80% = C, 60%-69% = D, Less than 60% = F
Current grades will be posted weekly throughout the semester.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Plagiarism is the use of someone else's words or ideas without giving
proper credit. Paraphrasing a source without giving due credit is also plagiarism which is a
serious breach of academic integrity. Any assignment containing plagiarism earns a zero as well
as administrative disciplinary action.
ACADEMIC COMMITMENT: By enrolling in AP Lit & Comp, students are committing to an
academically rigorous, college-level course. Students will need to set aside TIME to focus on the
reading and writing assignments. Senior year will be filled with many distractions. Students must
strive to avoid the sloppy habits of impulsivity and procrastination.
Make-up Policy: Please keep absences to a minimum. It is the student’s responsibility to ask for
missed assignments and make arrangements to make up any tests, quizzes or classwork.
Special note about submitting late work: Students will fill out a “Missing Assignment” document.
Students may submit a late essay (or any other major assignment that needed to be typed) if
legitimately absent the day it was due. Students MUST submit it the day of return for full credit.
Under any other circumstances, students may submit a late essay, but there will be a penalty.
Technology issues (crashed hard drives, malfunctioning printer, ran out of ink, etc) are NOT
legitimate excuses for late work, but with a Missing Assignment doc. all cases will be considered
on their individual merit. Most late work will be accepted but within a reasonable time period and
with a valid excuse. Students are not allowed to wait until the end of the grading period to turn in
several assignments. Students are expected to use the Missing Assignment form and follow the
procedure for fair and practical purposes.
TARDINESS: Students are considered tardy if not inside the classroom when the tardy bell rings.
They are excused ONLY with a note from the office; otherwise, detentions will be assigned. It is
not a good idea to let unserved detentions accumulate as this will affect participation in school
activities such as dances and the graduation ceremony.
SUPPLIES: Students must supply their own paper, pens and pencils. Students may use pencil
for notes and some classwork but all other writing must be either typed or written in black or blue
ink as ink is still used when composing essays on the AP Lit and Comp Exam. Several major
tests and quizzes will be done in class using computers and can often be made up at home or
taken off campus in extenuating circumstances. Students should check out all required reading
materials from the Media Center; however, students are encouraged to purchase their own
copies so they may mark the text.
CELL PHONES: Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned OFF during class.
Students may NOT use phones for any purpose inside the classroom, including texting, photos,
etc. any infraction will result in the device being confiscated and sent to the office. School policy
in this matter will be strictly adhered to. Any student caught using such a device during a test will
also receive an F for that test. In case of emergency students should ask first to make or take an
urgent call.
Seating chart: Students will have assigned seats and are expected to keep those assigned seats
throughout the semester. Students need to let the teacher know if they are in any way
uncomfortable in their assigned seat so other arrangements can be made.
Semester A - Overview
Introduction to the course
Summer reading (Ethan Frome, Great Expectations)
Timed Writing Benchmark
Anchor Assignment
Jane Eyre
Poetry
Literary Device Glossary
Timed-writes
College Fair
Major Assignments:
Dialectical Journals and AP Cue Cards for Ethan Frome and Great Expectations, Character
Analysis of Ethan Frome as a Benchmark timed-write, other research and essay possibilites for
Unit One are pulled from Unit One Modernism essays 1-4, “Toys” in class timed-write, Anchor
Assignment College Application Essays, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in class timed-write.
Major Summative Assessments: Ethan Frome, Great Expectations and Jane Eyre, Sound &
Sense Chapter 5, Literary Device Glossary.
Formative Assessments: Dialectial Journals, Poetry assignments, Literary Device Glossary,
and homework and classwork.
Unit One – Six weeks
Summer Reading Assignments: Wharton and Dickens,
Poetry, Literary Devices
SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT: All AP Lit & Comp students will read the classic
novels, Great Expectations and Ethan Frome. Students were infromed at the end of
the previous school year that summer reading was required for this course. Students
may purchase their own copies for convenience and marking the text, students may not
mark in school books. Students must also complete the writing assignments attached to
the required reading, and be prepared to discuss it when school starts, as well as take a
comprehensive summative examination on the novel. Students will also keep a
dialectical journal as they read, this will feed into the initial unit of study at the beginning
of the school year.
Content and/or Skills Taught:
1) Basic comprehension of plot and structure of novels. Think of any good movie
that is better the second, third, fourth time viewed. Both the novels for summer
reading need to be read at least twice for any true understanding. Students
should use this opportunity to become acquainted with the plots, characters,
settings, and themes. Students will use their Dialectical Journals as a guide.
Hence, when we re-read and discuss the books in class at the beginning of the
school year, students will come to class prepared to discuss the literature in
depth.
2) Promotion of an active and alert mind. Romance, Fan Fiction, and murder
mystery novels may be entertaining, but they typically fail to elicit higher orderthinking skills. Great Expectations and Ethan Frome both offer rich, thoughtprovoking themes that deal with important historical events and attitudes of their
times. Dickens and Wharton have quite a bit to say about the condition of
man/woman and society, and their commentary makes for interesting and
thoughtful classroom discussion.
3) A head start on the AP Literature and Composition class and exam. Dickens and
Wharton have shown up on the AP exam. The works of Veronica Roth and
Michael Crichton, though entertaining, have not. Great Expectations and Ethan
Frome are part of the canon of British and American Literature, and they are but
two of the works that must be thoroughly understood in order to succeed in the
class and on the exam.
4) Retention of essential skills. While these books can be fun to read, they will also
present a challenge. Students need to be thinking while reading this summer.
The point is not to read these books quickly and be done with them, but to read
them in order to understand them and build analytical, investigative, and critical
skills.
Unit I Modernism
The modernist vision of the world, post-World War I sense of fragmentation.
The Theme of the Search for Self: The modernist self as heir to Freud,
Darwin, and Einstein. Research – Literary Modernism
Modernism and Postmodernism (from textbook)
Historical Background: Emerging Modernism (1901-1950) and Contemporary Voices (1950present) William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming," "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"
T.S. Eliot, "Preludes," "The Hollow Men" W.H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts"
We will begin this unit by studying Ethan Frome. We will approach Wharton’s novel as a
pre-modern text, a transitional text that, while containing elements of realism, points to
the modernist vision of fragmentation.
I. Ethan Frome
Assignment #1
As a post-reading classroom activity, students will choose one of the following topics
about life in western Massachusetts (or the Berkshire Mountains) at the turn of the
century (1900-1910) to research and present to the class. Students will present their
information in a tri-fold informational brochure for the Chamber of Commerce of the
fictional town of Starkfield, Mass. The pamphlet should be colorful and include pictures
and text. Finally, list your sources on the back of the pamphlet.
Students will work in groups:
A. Public transportation
B. Private transportation
C. Education (primary, secondary, post-secondary)
D. Housing (types of houses and their construction)
E. Housekeeping
F. Mill Working
G. Farming
H. Banking
I. Common Medical Problems and Remedies
J. Doctors and Hospitals
K. Shop Keeping
L. Climate and Weather Patterns
M. Social Activities and Entertainment
Essay Assignment #2, benchmark Character Analysis
On page five, the narrator says of Ethan Frome:
“He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe,
with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was
nothing unfriendly in his silence. I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation
too remote for causal access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the
result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow
had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters.”
Prompt: Using the above description of Ethan Frome as a starting point, analyze
Ethan’s character as it is revealed in the course of the novel. Pay careful attention to key
images that define him.
Essay Assignment #3 Argumentation
Fate vs. Free Will
After extensive discussions on the issue of Ethan’s fate and the choices
that he makes, students will take on the thorny issue of fate vs. free will as it is
demonstrated in Wharton’s novel.
Prompt: After considering the course of the lives of the characters in Ethan Frome, do
you feel Wharton supports the idea of free will, or does her novel point to a deterministic
view of life?
II. T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
In approaching Eliot’s complicated Prufrock, we will try to build a bridge from Ethan
Frome in an effort to shed light on our theme of the Search for Self. Like Frome,
Prufrock suffers from a kind of isolation. He is also, like Frome, a figure of yearning. As a
doorway into the poem, we will use the TPSFASTT strategy as defined by the College
Board Workshop “Pre-AP Interdisciplinary Strategies for English and Social Studies.”
Essay Assignment #4 Argumentation
We will continue the discussion of free will vs. determinism in our discussions of
“Prufrock.” We will consider to what extent Prufrock is “responsible” for his situation.
Prompt: A contemporary reader of this poem might take Prufrock’s problem to be a
“midlife crisis.” Reread the questions Prufrock asks himself in the middle section of the
poem, noting the ones that would support this interpretation. In your reading of the
poem, who/what does Eliot hold as responsible for Prufrock’s inner vacuum? Is it
Prufrock’s environment or Prufrock himself? Point to key patterns of imagery to support
your point. Students will practice again with the Rogerian argument. They will practice
seeing both sides of the issue.
Transition to Great Expectations:
POETRY: (From textbook) Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love"
Sir Walter Raleigh, "The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd"
Edmund Spenser, "Sonnet 30 & Sonnet 75"
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 29, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 130"
T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
From Perrine: (Take notes from the introduction of each chapter)
Chapter 1, What is Poetry?
Shakespeare, "Winter" & "Spring"
Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est"
Gwendolyn Brooks, "Kitchenette Building”
Langston Hughes, "Suicide's Note"
Perrine, Chapter 2: Reading the Poem
Thomas Hardy, "The Man He Killed"
A.E. Houseman "Is My Team Plowing?”
Sylvia Plath "Mirror"
Perrine, Chapter 3: Denotation & Connotation
Emily Dickinson, "There is no Frigate like a Book"
Ben Jonson, "On My First Son"
William Wordsworth, "The World is Too Much With Us"
Robert Frost, "Dessert Places”
Dean, VOICE LESSONS: Four exercises per week at the start of each day to teach
Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax and Tone.
VOCABULARY: Fifty words per unit, unit tests every four weeks.
Literary Device Glossary terms, two terms per week submitted to turnitin.com
WRITING: AP Cue Cards for Ethan Frome and Great Expectations, Wharton on
Wharton Synthesis Essay as a Benchmark timed-write, “Toys” in class timed-write,
Anchor Assignment College Application Essays, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in class
timed-write.
CREATIVE WRITING: Students will write and perform in class their own sonnets: one
Shakespearean, one Petrachan
Unit Two - five weeks:
Core novel: Jane Eyre by Charlette Bronte
The Victorian Age (From Textbook)
Historical Background: The Victorians (1832-1907)
The Growth and Development of Fiction
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Lady of Shallot," "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
Robert Browning, "Meeting at Night," "Parting at Morning"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Sonnet 43," "If Thou Must Love Me"
Thomas Hardy, "Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave," "The Convergence of the Twain"
A.E. Housman, "When I Was One-and-Twenty," "To an Athlete Dying Young"
POETRY: (From Textbook) John Donne "Holy Sonnet 10," "Holy Sonnet 14," "Meditation 17"
Robert Herrick "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time"
Andrew Marvel, "To His Coy Mistress"
John Milton, selections from "Paradise Lost"
From Perrine: (Take notes from the introduction of each chapter)
Chapter 4, Imagery
Robert Browning "Meeting at Night," "Parting at Morning"
Emily Dickinson "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"
Thomas Hardy "The Convergence of the Twain"
John Keats "To Autumn"
Perrine, Chapter 5: Figurative Language 1
Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy
Frances Cornford "The Guitarist Tunes Up"
Robert Francis "The Hound"
John Keats, "Bright Star"
Richard Wilbur "Mind"
Elizabeth Bishop "Pink Dog"
John Donne "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
Langston Hughes "Dream Deferred"
Dean, VOICE LESSONS: Four exercises per week at the start of each day to teach Diction,
Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone.
VOCABULARY: Fifty words per unit, unit tests every four weeks.
Literary Device Glossary terms, two terms per week submitted to turnitin.com
WRITING: AP Cue Cards for Ethan Frome and Great Expectations, Character Analysis of
Ethan Frome as a Benchmark timed-write, “Toys” in class timed-write, Anchor Assignment
College Application Essays, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in class timed-write.
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Understanding social commentary
Understanding diction, detail, imagery, syntax and tone in writing
Understanding the use of of figurative language in poetry, including simile, metaphor,
personification, apostrophe and metonymy, symbol and allegory.
Research methodology and correct MLA format including works cited page.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
RESEARCH PAPER: (MLA Format) The historical/social background and impact of Great
Expectations on British society. (Handout)
Comprehensive tests and group AP cue card on Jane Eyre. Homework assignments based on
the various poems in Perrine's Sound and Sense, class discussion of each poem.
GROUP PROJECT: Each group in the class will teach and review a chapter from Jane Eyre
using technology to increase understanding of the novel. Each group will also create and give a
quiz on the assigned chapter.
Unit Three - five weeks:
The Restoration and Enlightenment
Historical Background: The Restoration and Enlightenment (1660-1798)
Author Study: Jonathon Swift. Passages from Gulliver's Travels, and Swift's essay, "A Modest
Proposal" Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Man"
Dean, VOICE LESSONS: Four exercises per week at the start of each day to teach Diction,
Detail, Imagery, Syntax and Tone
VOCABULARY: Fifty words per unit, unit tests every four weeks.
Literary Device Glossary terms, two terms per week submitted to turnitin.com
WRITING:
AP Cue Card Jane Eyre
Chapter summary presentations by groups with illustrations and quizzes
Timed writing practice essays with peer and teacher evaluation and re-writes.
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Understanding of allegory, satire, irony in writing and poetry.
Continue learning of literary terms and identifying their usage in literature and poetry as well as
writing about it.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
LITERARY INTERPRETATION ESSAY: 3-5 page essay on symbols, tone and social
commentary in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre
Comprehensive test on Jane Eyre
Unit test on the Restoration and Enlightenment
Homework assignments based on poems in Perrine's Sound and Sense, as well as class
discussion of poems. Literary terms test & Semester final exam.
Semester B – Overview
Introduction to the course
Semester reading (Hamlet, Macbeth & 1984)
Rhetorical Analysis
Timed-Writes
Ford Scholarship Essays
Poetry
Literary Device Glossary
AP Lit & Comp Exam
Senior Portfolio
Major Assignments:
Comprehensive test on Hamlet, as well as AP cue card, and analysis essay. Homework
assignments based on questions from the various poems in Perrine's Sound and Sense.
Students are encouraged to participte in and/or go see live performances of plays locally, to
enhance their understanding and appreciation of drama.
WRITE an analytical Essay on Hamlet - Workshop this in groups, revise, in class conference on
each student's writing with teacher.
Major Summative Assessments: Tests and quizzes on Hamlet Acts I-V, and Vocabulary Units.
Formative Assessments: Dialectial Journals, Poetry assignments, Literary Device Glossary,
homework and classwork.
Unit Four - six weeks: .
Core Drama Study: Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Theory of drama: Macbeth
The English Renaissance
Historical Background, and history of the Globe Theater
The Romantic Era (From Textbook)
Historical Background: The Flowering of Romanticism (1798-1832)
Author Study: William Wordsworth and William Blake
William Blake: "The Lamb," "Little Boy Lost," "Little Boy Found," "The Tyger," "The Sick Rose,"
"The Poison Tree," "The Chimney Sweeper"
William Wordsworth: "Lines composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," ""Composed upon
Westminster Bridge," "The World Is Too Much with Us," "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Kubla Khan"
John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Bright Star, Would I were As Steadfast A Though Art."
From Perrine: (Take notes from the introduction of each chapter)
Chapter 6: Figurative Language 2
Symbol, Allegory
Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"
William Blake, "The Sick Rose"
Robert Herrick "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses"
Richard Wilber, "The Writer"
Emily Dickinson, "I started Early-Took my Dog"
From Perrine: (Take notes from the introduction of each chapter)
Chapter 7, Figurative Language 3
Paradox, Overstatement, Understatement, Irony
Emily Dickinson, "Much Madness is divinist Sense"
John Donne "The Sun Rising"
Countee Cullen "Incident"
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias"
Elisavietta Ritchie, "Sorting Laundry"
Larry Rottmann, "APO 96225"
Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess"
Perrine, Chapter 8: Allusion
Robert Frost, "Out, Out-"
Edwin Arlington Robinson, "Miniver Cheevy"
Walter McDonald, "Life with Father"
William Butler Yeats. "Leda and the Swan"
Perrine, Chapter 9: Meaning and Idea
Anonymous, "Little Jack Horner"
A.E. Houseman, "Loveliest of Trees"
Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Caged Skylark"
Chapter 10 Tone: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Crossing the Bar"
Emily Dickinson, "'Twas warm-at first-like Us"
Michael Drayton, "Since There's No Help"
From Perrine: Chapter 11 Musical Devices
W.H. Auden, "That Night When Joy Began"
Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool"
Maya Angelou, "Woman Work"
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Snowstorm"
From Perrine: Chapter 12 Rhythm and Meter
A.E. Housman, "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries"
Walt Whitman, "Had I the Choice"
Robert Frost, "The Aim Was Song"
Linda Pastan, "To a Daughter Leaving Home"
Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death"
Dean, VOICE LESSONS: Four exercises per week on Diction, Detail, Syntax and Tone
VOCABULARY: Fifty words per unit, unit tests every four weeks.
Literary Device Glossary terms, two terms per week submitted to turnitin.com
WRITING: AP Cue Cards on Hamlet, Macbeth & 1984
Chapter or act summary presentations by groups with illustrations and quizzes
Four timed writing practice essays with peer and teacher evaluation and re-writes.
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Understanding (and writing about) Tone, Musical Devices, Rhythm and Meter in poetry.
Understanding Symbolism, Motif, and Social Commentary through the reading of our novels
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Homework assignments based on poems read in Perrine's Sound and Sense, as well as class
discussion of poems.
Unit test on the Romantic Era
Comprehensive tests on Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness.
LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY: 3-5 page essay on the themes, motifs and symbolism found in
the novels read.
Unit Five - five weeks:
1984 – dystopic novel by George Orwell
Core Play: Macbeth by William Shakespeare
From Perrine: (Take notes from the introduction of each chapter)
Chapter 13 Sound and meaning
Anonymous, "Pease Porridge Hot"
Alexander Pope, "Sound and Sense"
Emily Dickinson, "I head a Fly Buzz-When I Died"
William Carlos Williams, "The Dance"
From Perrine: Chapter 14 Pattern
Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
A Smattering of Limericks (page 239)
John Donne, "Death, be not Proud"
Robert Herrick, "Delight in Disorder"
Michael McFee, "In Medias Res"
From Perrine: Chapter 15 Evaluating Poetry
Sentimental, Rhetorical, Didactic Verse
Pied Beauty, A Poison Tree, Longing, Breathes there the Man, Little Boy Blue, Do not stand by
my grave and weep. After reading, answer the evaluative questions so we can discuss in groups,
then in class.
Dean, VOICE LESSONS: Four exercises per week on Diction, Detail, Syntax and Tone
VOCABULARY: Fifty words per unit, unit tests every four weeks.
Literary Device Glossary terms, two terms per week submitted to turnitin.com
WRITING:
AP Cue Card on Macbeth
CREATIVE: Write a one-act comedy play "Shakespeare" style, review in groups, select plays
performed in class! (Handout)
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Understanding comedy plays (as well as farces)
Understanding and writing about pattern in poetry; evaluating rhetorical and didactic verse.
Rhetorical strategies in writing.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Comprehensive test on Macbeth
Unit test on Drama
Homework assignments based on poems read, as well as class discussions.
POETIC COMPARISON AND CONTRAST ESSAY: 3-5 pages comparing and contrasting the
poetic styles of a Romantic and Victorian poet of your choice. We will workshop this in class with
peer analysis and teacher feedback before final submittal.
Unit Six - five weeks:
Core novel: 1984 by George Orwell
From Perrine: (Take notes from the introduction of each chapter)
Chapter 16: Evaluating Poetry 2
Robert Frost, "Home Burial"
Elizabeth Bishop, "The Fish"
Part 2: Writing About Poetry
Choosing a Topic, Page 294-298
Proving Your Point, page 299
Writing the Paper, page 301
Stance and Style, page 315
PREPARING FOR THE AP LIT & COMP TEST
Review literary terms
Practice multiple choice and timed writing tests
Review Cue Cards on all literature read
Thursdy May 7th - TAKE THE AP Lit & Comp Test. Good Luck!
Unit Seven - five weeks:
After the test: Senior Portfolio final project
Spend the last four weeks of school working on your Senior Portfolio, which you will present to a
panel in June. See Haiku website for specific instructions.
Preparing for college non-fiction writing.
Content and/or Skills Taught:
preparing for the working and university world through the development of a senior portfolio for
presentation.
Oral presentation and interview skills.
Major Assignments:
Semester Final Exam
Senior portfolio using technology to present to faculty/community panel
Textbooks/Course Materials
Textbooks
Author: Arp, Thomas R.
Second Author: Johnson, Greg
Title: Perrine’s Sound and Sense, An Introduction to Poet
Publisher: Harcourt College Publishers
Published Date: 2001
Description: An introduction to poetry and analysis for college students.
Author: McDougal Littell
Title: The Language of Literature - British Literature
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published Date: 2000
Description: Textbook - An anthology of short stories, poetry, drama, writing strategies, etc. Used
for background information, writing strategies, literary terms, grammar.
Author: Dean, Nancy
Title: Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction
Publisher: Maupin House
Published Date: 2000
Description: Warm up lessons that teach diction, detail, imagery, syntax, and tone through the
interpretation of literary and poetic passages, and short prompts.
Other Course Materials
Websites
URL:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
Description: OWL (On Line Writing Lab) from Purdue University. Excellent resource site on MLA
and APA formats, including correct works cited page documentation.
URL:http://www.liu.edu/CWIS/CWP/library/workshop/citml
Description:Excellent and easy to follow color coded guide for correct works cited page
documentation from Long Island University's CW Post Campus.
URL:http://www.collegeboard.com/homepage/?student
Description:College Board website for students. Great for college planning, SAT tests, etc.
URL:http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/
Description: Federal financial aid form that every college bound student needs to
complete before their deadline to be eligible for financial aid.