Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Syllabus
TERRA Environmental Research Institute
Ms. Flores
2015-2016
Background
Prerequisites: Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is highly
recommended; it is expected that students enrolled in AP English Literature and
Composition will take the AP English exam in May.
Course Description
A.P. English is a college level English course following the curricular requirements described in
the AP English Course Description and designed to engage students in the close reading and
critical analysis of representative works from a variety of genres and periods. A critical goal
of AP Literature and Composition is to help develop mature habits of critical thinking as an
independent reader of and writer in response to literature. This class is both demanding and
intellectually stimulating and will require considerable amounts of independent reading and
study. Classroom discussion and active participation are vital and serve as a means of
assessing your ideas.
Reading/Analyzing/Writing Expectations
We will be reading and analyzing literature from the point of view of the writer as
well as of the reader, to determine how the literature affects its readers. Our reading focus
will be on close, analytical reading of drama, fiction, poetry, prose, and expository literature
covering a wide range of works from the early ages to the present. Critical discussion and
writing with regards to these works will concentrate on each writer's technique, theme, style,
and tone. In addition, our literary analysis will look at the effects of style and structure and a
writer's diction, imagery, use of detail, rhetoric and syntax. Vocabulary study, as well as the
completion and comprehension of all works studied, is crucial. Grammar mini-lessons will
primarily serve as a review to be able to correctly express our thoughts at an advanced level.
Discussion, both small, large-group and student-led, is the primary method in which
students come to understand a particular work of fiction or poetry. Cooperative learning
groups are used extensively in this class, as are individual and group projects and
assignments.
Writing well about literature is a key component of the class. Students will maintain an essay
log over the course of the year to document their improvement, reference prior works and
engage themselves in personal, peer and teacher-instructed writing analysis and review.
Composition assignments may include: reader responses, timed essays, paragraphs and
support construction statements, poetic and fiction imitations and formal essays (personal,
expository and argumentative). First drafts of in-class works may be instructor-evaluated to
assist with overall organization, including appropriate thesis argument with effective support
and thoroughly developed examples, based on close textual reading and evidence. First
drafts must be submitted with final drafts to ensure student ownership. All pieces should
reflect a student’s own work, a student’s correct work and ultimately, a student’s best work.
Goals
to give students knowledge and skills they need to score a 3 or higher on the AP
English Literature and Composition exam;
to closely understand the large scope of literary tradition through wide and varied
reading;
To consider the theme, structure, and style of several literary works, including all
elements of tone, imagery, symbolism and figurative language.
to explain the relationships among styles, themes, and audiences in writing and in
literature;
to recognize (through discussion and writing) relationships between literary works
and contemporary experience and/or historical contexts;
to revisit the purposes and strategies of rhetoric;
to speak and write comfortably for a variety of purposes and in a variety of modes
and styles;
To focus on the critical analysis of literature, while writing expository, argumentative,
and analytical essays, along with creative writing in order to build and sharpen an
appreciation for literary artistry.
to study vocabulary in the context of the literature and with college level wordlists; to
help students advance in vocabulary skills to decipher unfamiliar language;
to allow students the opportunity of multiple critiques and peer review to assist
effective essay revisions and rewrites;
Assessments
Periodic reading quizzes (note: study guides are not acceptable alternatives for novel
completion)
Random vocabulary quizzes stemming from weekly vocabulary exercises (which may
also include grammar mini-lessons dealing with complex usage issues, sentence
construction, and diction as needed)
Weekly literary analyses of selected short fiction and/or poetry
Compositions, including critical analyses and creative pieces, will be
completed a minimum of twice per thematic unit. Weekly essays are deemed final
only when submitted with necessary rewrites and corrections as previously reviewed.
Timed responses based on past AP prompts will be graded according to
predetermined College Board rubrics. All papers will be examined for effective
overall organization, including appropriate word choice and sentence structure, clear
emphasis and, above all, excellence of argument, including thorough supportive
textual evidence with a clear connection of this evidence to your overall argument.
Essays detailing mere plot summary are not appropriate submittals and will
be graded accordingly.
Preparation for the AP Literature and Composition Exam through practice multiple
choice questions and sample essays
Individual and group projects and presentations
Policies
Attendance and make-ups: The student is responsible for obtaining all lecture notes,
schedules and assignments regardless of whether the absence is deemed excused or
unexcused. Any assignments missed during the absence must be turned in no later than the
returning class date. All missed quizzes/tests must be made up within one week following
your excused return to school outside of class time. Arrangements for make-ups must be
made in advance and may include after school or during lunch. *Make-up work from an excused
absence will not be accepted once a week has expired.*
Grading: Grades will be both objective and subjective based on predetermined
criteria. This course requires an extensive amount of work and participation; your prior
history of brilliance will not rescue you from perceived laziness, tardiness and/or
procrastination. Grades will be based on the following scale determined by Miami-Dade
County Public Schools.
100%-90%.........................A (4.0-3.50)
89%-80%...........................B (3.49-2.50)
79%-70%...........................C (2.49-1.50)
69%-60%...........................D (1.49-1.00)
59% and below………...F (.99-.00)
Class Rules:
1) RESPECT - We will respect the responses and opinions of others and speak in a
manner which is consistent with self-respect at all times.
2) RESPONSIBILITY – Class supplies are needed everyday. You are responsible for
bringing all required materials to class and participating in the manner expected from an
Advanced Placement student. You will accept responsibility for your own actions including
tardiness, honesty, and timely completion of all assignments.
*Any paper with your name on it signifies that you are the author, with exceptions correctly
cited. Evidence of plagiarism will result in a zero for the assignment and referral to school
administration. This will be strictly enforced.
Class Materials
1) A binder used solely for AP Literature and Composition with loose-leaf notebook paper
2) (4) labeled dividers: quickwrites, class notes, text selections and responses, AP MC and
essay prompts
3) 2 blue or black ink pens and 1 red pen (no pencils)
4) colored highlighter(s)
5) specified text books and/or current novels
Parent Communication: Parents may contact me by telephone at school (305) 412-5800,
through the class website at margieflores.com or via school email. My email address is
margieflores@dadeschools.net. I do my best to respond as soon as possible, but may not be
able to do so during class time, as it detracts from student instruction. If you would like a
conference to discuss your student's participation in this class, please do not hesitate to call
or email me. Parents are encouraged to maintain grade awareness through the Parent Portal,
as well as, actively participate at home in their student’s reading discussions. Critical analysis
and literary opinions do not derive solely from published works!
Required Resources and Texts (subject to change)
Elements of Literature, Sixth edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Literature – Reading, Reacting and
Writing,Fourth Edition. Boston: Thomson Heinle, 2001.
*Princeton Review AP Literature and Composition, 2007-2013 editions
*Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Revised Edition New York:
Harper-Collins,
2014
*A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini
*Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Oedipus the King by Sophocles
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and/or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
*1984 by George Orwell and/or *The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Various works of short fiction
Various poetry selections
*all starred texts require outside purchase. Remaining texts are provided by the school
and/or available online resources.
Tentative Schedule
Routine: Each class will begin with a quickwrite activity alternating between journal prompts,
tone and voice lessons (with emphasis on diction, detail, language, and syntax) or allusion
references and applications. Peer sharing and review will follow culminating in large-group
discussion relating to the topics of the day. Though quickwrites are not consistently graded,
they represent an expectation of the class and must be completed.
Ongoing: Weekly reaction papers – due the first class of every week (pending even/odd
schedule)
(based on selected poetry and/or short fiction)
Students will complete an interpretive and/or analytical paper from an assigned poem or
short story based upon textual details, theme, meaning and structure. Students will be chosen
to present their papers and facilitate opening weekly discussion at random. This assignment
engages students in writing for understanding and analytical explanation while focusing on
structure and device usage.
Back to Basics – wrap up and skills review (4 weeks)
De Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
Topics: theme, active reading, annotation
Discussion and assessment of summer reading
Mandatory selections:
Housseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns/Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Individual summer novel essay prompt reviews and group presentations
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Introduction, (p. xi-xviii,) chapter 25
Intro. To Lit. Terms – Reading and Writing about Fiction, Poetry and Drama
Thesis construction/AP prompt deconstruction
Topics: argument, support with textual evidence
Addressing: “What/How/So What?” essay strategies
Group Assignment – Period presentations (Greeks/Romans, Middle Ages, Renaissance,
Enlightenment, Romantic, Victorian, Modern)
Writing Assignment – college essay proposal and submission
The Journey Begins – The Epic Hero (4 weeks)
Mythology (Norse, Greek, Roman) Topics: metaphor, imagery, irony
Beowulf
Topics: epic conventions, POV, imagery,
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapters 1, 9, 21, 22
Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex
Topics: dramatic irony, allusion, Greek tragedy
Oedipus Rex grammar mini-lesson
Topics: tone, transitions
Selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Topics: structure, diction, symbolism
Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych
Topics: setting, situational irony, point of view
Writing Assignment – Thematic Literary Analysis/Critical Evaluation Paper
Horns and Halos - Heaven and Hell (4 weeks)
Bible passages, King James version
--various stories including Books of Genesis and Job, selected Psalms, world religion
Topics: parable, metaphor, imagery, foreshadow,
allegory, parallelism, restatement
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapters 2, 7, 14
Alighieri’s Divine Comedy/Inferno
Topics: allegory, epic poem, symbolism, historical
perspective, irony, allusion, terza rima, tone
Inferno Grammar mini-lessons
Topics: parallel structure, possessives, active vs. passive
voice
Group Assignment – (in-class) Inferno geographies
Excerpts from Milton’s Paradise Lost Topics: imagery, elegy
Marlowe‘s Dr. Faustus
Topics: theme, author’s purpose, tragedy, metaphor
and/or Shelley’s Frankenstein
Topics: tragedy, theme/moral responsibility,
gothic style, rhetoric, characterization
Writing Assignment - Literary Analysis Expository Paper
Prose and Cons: Short Fiction and Conversations (4 weeks)
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapters 10, 12, 19, 26
Chopin’s The Story of an Hour
Topics: plot, conflict, character, irony, point of view
Independent narrative essay
Updike’s A&P
Topics: conflict, character, point of view
Baxter’s Gryphon
Topics: character
Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies
Topics: point of view, style, setting
Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing
Topics: setting, point of view
Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
Topics: symbolism, point of view, setting
Joyce’s Araby
Topics: style, tone, language
Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown
Jackson’s The Lottery
Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily
Topics: symbolism, allegory, irony
O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
Topics: metafiction, theme, point of view, setting
structure, character
Writing assignment – Analysis of short fiction stories, group presentations
What a Girl Wants - A Woman’s World? (3 weeks)
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapters 16, 17
Chopin’s The Awakening excerpts and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
A Doll’s House Grammar mini-lesson Topics: structure - subordination, coordination
Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”
Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums
Topics: point of view, theme, character, shift
Group assignment – Ibsen/Chopin/Austen comparison topic presentations
3rd Quarter independent reading – Orwell’s 1984 or Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Writing Assignment- Persuasive Paper that convinces the reader of how the chosen work
makes specific socio-historical commentary on an issue of social concern.
Roses Aren’t Always Red – Poetry Bootcamp unit (4 weeks)
Poetic terms and techniques - intro. Collins’s “Lanyard”
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapters 4, 15
Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” Topics: voice
Hardy’s “The Man He Killed”
Herrick’s “To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time”
Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to a Shepherd”
Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”
Topics: symbol, tone, carpe diem
Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young”
Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts”
Topics: diction
Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover”
Shelley’s “Ozymandias”
Angelou’s “Harlem Hopscotch”
Topics: irony
Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”
Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Blake’s “The Lamb” and” The Tyger” Topics: imagery
Ferlinghetti’s “Constantly Risking Absurdity”
Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
Updike’s “Ex-Basketball Player”
Tennyson’s “The Eagle”
Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Topics: figures of speech (including metonymy, simile,
metaphor, apostrophe, personification, paradox,
allegory, symbolism, over/understatement, irony)
Selection of Shakespearean sonnets Topics: speaker, form, tone, personification
Group assignment - Poetry Explications and consequent presentations
Writing assignment – Irony Analysis Paper
The Best Medicine - Comedy and Satire (4 weeks)
Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
Topics: satire, diction, tone
Excerpts from Voltaire’s Candide
Pope’s The Rape of the Lock
Topic: satire
Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest
Topics: satire, irony, syntax
Writing assignment – Satire Analysis Paper
Cry Me A River - Tragedy (5 weeks)
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapter 24
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Topics: tragedy, conflict, irony, suspense, mood,
soliloquy, repetition
Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Auden’s “Unknown Citizen”
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
Topics: point of view, diction, imagery, tone
Writing Assignment- Literary Analysis Persuasive Paper based on “Hamlet” and
addressing why it is considered by many to be Shakespeare’s greatest achievement.
When Worlds Collide – Modern Dystopia (3 weeks)
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapter 13
Orwell’s 1984 or Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Topics: point of view, tone, imagery, theme, structure
AP Exam Preparation
Writing assignment – Senior Anthology
Group Assignment - Free response essay project
Group Assignment - Final PowerPoint presentations/ Zeitgeist
AP Parental acknowledgement and contact form
Period_____
Please place a copy of the syllabus in the front of your AP English Literature and
Composition binder and please sign below and turn in to me.
I have read the requirements and policies for my child’s class and understand the
commitment involved in an Advanced Placement course.
Student’s name__________________________
Signature_______________________________
Date_______
Parent’s name___________________________
Signature_______________________________
Date_______
Contact number_________________________
Primary e-mail__________________________
Does your child have any special needs that you would like for me to be aware of?
For example: Does he or she have any food allergies, medical or learning issues, etc.