Course Description:
AP English IV requires effective writing in the expository, analytical, and
argumentative modes. Additionally, critical reading of prose fiction, nonfiction
(British and World literature), and analysis of world poetry will be studied in greater
depth. Our literary analyses will delve into a writer’s tone and attitude, diction, detail,
point of view, organization, and syntax. In addition, students will prepare for college
entrance tests and college course work. Students are required to take the Advanced
Placement exam to earn college credit at the completion of this course. This course
will follow the curricular requirements described in the AP English course
description.
Course Outcomes:
1.) To promote effective, varied writing to understand, explain, evaluate, and
analyze literature -- ultimately in a timed setting.
2.) To write creative assignments -- poems, narratives, and dramas.
3.) To understand and apply the writing process including revising for
advanced vocabulary, improved sentence structure, logical organization,
and rhetorical strategies.
4.) To promote the knowledge and application of style analysis.
5.) To study and apply college-level vocabulary in the context of literature and
everyday life.
6.) To promote and encourage a love of literature that allows students to find
value in literature.
7.) To understand literature in the artistic as well as historical and universal
sense.
8.) To have fun in an entertaining class that will give students the skills to
receive a 3 or higher in the AP exam.
9.) To promote understanding and appreciation of intellectual property rights.
Grading:
Grading is an on-going and dynamic process. Grades will reflect a student’s
commitment to the class. This is evident in the student’s attention to selfimprovement, attendance, timely submission of assignments, cooperative learning,
peer editing on revisions and knowledge, and, most importantly, concern about doing
their best.
 All essays are revised through peer editing and teacher-student conference.
 Standard Edgewood grading scale applies.
 Every student can receive an “A” for the course.
Grading Scale
In-class writing, out-of-class writing, discussion, activities, other assignments,
reading, and quizzes.
Projects and tests.
40%
60%
Methods of Instruction:
 Student-led Discussion
 Socratic Seminars
 Teacher-Student Discourse
 Cooperative Learning
 Student-Teacher Conferencing for writing revisions
 Integrated Technology-Based Projects
 Guided writing practice
 In-Class Timed writing
 Out-of-class writing
 Student Writing Portfolio
 Student submission for publication: short story/poem
Reading and Writing Schedule:
First Semester (18 weeks)
Week 1
 Introduction to the course -- reading and writing about literature
 Understanding literature: (DiYanni, pp.2-9)
 Writing about literature -- ways of writing, explicating, comparing and
contrasting: (DiYanni, pp. 10-11)
 The writing process -- drafting to revision; teacher-student conference structure
is explained. The feedback process will include written reponses in drafts, mini
lessons on problem areas (sentence structure, grammar, logical organization,
spelling conventions), and provide conference for context confusion.
Intellectual property rights will be emphasized and modeled.
 Nature of AP Writing
 College Board online activities
 Unit 1 Handouts: Tone and Attitude
Week 2-3
Oedipus Rex: (irony, classical tragedy, Greek drama)
 Elements of Drama: (DiYanni, pp. 1183-1200) and Limited Literacy Analysis
and Personal Writing : (Sebranek, et al, pp. 269-275, pp. 145-155)
 In-class reading with discussion of tone and speaker
 Timed in-class writing: Frederick Douglass passage (an exploration of diction,
tone, and attitude), Limited Literary Analysis
 Out-of-class writing: Oedipus Rex (tone, irony, and analysis) – with peer
editing and teacher-student conference.
 Project 1- Soundtrack of My Life: a Microsoft Powerpoint/Moviemaker project
with Personal Reminiscence essay
Weeks 4-7
Canterbury Tales: (structure, diction, symbolism, imagery, characterization,
physiognomy)
 Tales selected by teacher
 Elements of the Novel: Workbook and Handouts (Sebranek p. 257)
 Background information on Chaucer and Medieval times
 Students read one additional tale independently and complete creative writing
assignment: create own Chaucerian tale.
 Unit 2 handouts: Diction Analysis
 Timed In-class writing: passage from Adam Bede (tone/diction analysis)
 Out-of-class writing: Setting – with peer editing and teacher-student
conference.
 Project: A Journey to Canterbury & A Medieval Feast: Personal response essay
Weeks 8-9
The Inferno: (structure, terza rima, diction, tone, symbolism, figurative language,
allusion)
 Unit 3 handouts: Detail Analysis
 AP Practice Test with timed essay
 Out-of-class essay: Imagery – with peer editing and teacher-student
conference.
 Résumé writing
Week 10 - 12
A Doll’s House: (Character, irony, point of view)
 Detail Analysis packet continues
 Timed in-class writing on the novel’s elements
Week 13 – 14
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: (Victorian novel, style, psychology, sociology, and social
Darwinism)
 Unit 4 handouts: Point of View
 Responding to a critical analysis
Week 15 – 18
The Metamorphosis: independent reading (point of view, imagery, diction, tone)
Short Story Fiction Unit (various literary elements)
 Reading stories: (DiYanni pp. 21-42) and Elements of Fiction (an overview)
handout
 Additional stories: (DiYanni pp. 43-124)
o O’Connor, Frank: “Guests of the Nation”
o Boyle, Kay: “Astronomer’s Wife”
o Mason, Bobbie Ann: “Shiloh”
o Faulkner, William: “A Rose for Emily”
o Joyce, James: “Araby”
o Welty, Eudora: “A Warm Path”
o Lawrence, D.H.: “The Rocking Horse Winner”
 Student College Essay: Narrative in Nature (Sebrenak, pp. 145- 156) plus
handout
 Developing questions for writing about fiction
o Plot and structure, character and characterization, setting, point of view,
symbolism, language, style, tone, theme, critical perspectives.
 Shortened AP test with timed writing
Second Semester (18 weeks)
Week 1-3
1984 (point of view, diction and tone, imagery, syntax)
 Logical fallacies activity from handouts
 Out-of-class essay: analysis of a prose passage – with peer editing and teacherstudent conference.
 Unit 5 handouts: Organization
 In-Class timed essay: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
 Eulogy Project: apply literary terms in context -- handouts
Weeks 4-6
Merchant of Venice (Shakespearean structure)
 Elements of Drama (review)
 Unit 5 handouts: Organization, continued
 In-Class timed writing: “Coketown” passage
 Shakespearean Recitation Contest: memorize passages from Shakespeare,
recite to class, present synopsis of play and analysis of passage. Judged on
performance and comprehension of rhetorical elements. Handouts.
Weeks 7-9
Brave New World (Dystopian genre, diction, style)
 Unit 6 handouts: Syntax
 Timed in-class writing: King Henry IV, Part I passage
 “Genesis” translation assignment: (Passage from King James Version of the
Holy Bible), students read and rephrase passage in modern language—
exercises vocabulary building and explanation of figurative language.
 multiple choice timed AP Exam
Weeks 10-15
 Reading Poems: (DiYanni pp.670-681)
o The Experience of Poetry: Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays”
o The Interpretation of Poetry: Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening”
o Evolution of Poetry: Rich, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
o The Act of Reading Poetry: Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
 Types of Poetry: (DiYanni pp. 682 – 685)
o Narrative Poetry
 Epics: Opening Lines of Virgil’s “Aeneid” and Milton’s
“Paradise Lost”
 Ballads: Keats, “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
o Lyric Poetry
 Epigram: Pope, “On the Collar of a Dog”
 Elegy: Heaney, “Mid-Term Break”
 Ode: Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”
 Aubade: Donne, “The Sun Rising”
 Sonnet:
 Italian (or Petrarchan), Selections
 English (or Shakespearean), Selections
 Sestina: Bishop, “Sestina”
 Villanelle: Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”
 Elements of Poetry:
o Voice : speaker and tone
 Crane, “War is Kind”
 Browning, “My Last Duchess” (dramatic monologue)
o Diction: denotation and connotation
 Rich, “Rape”
o Imagery
 Bishop, “First Death in Nova Scotia”
o Figures of Speech: simile, metaphor, hyperbole, synecdoche,
metonymy, personification
 Donne, “Hymn to God the Father”
 Simpson, “The Battle”
o Symbolism and Allegory
 Meinke, “Advice to my Son”
 Rossetti, “Up-Hill”
o Syntax
 Cummings, “Me up at does”
 Smith, “Mother, Among the Dustbins”
o Sound: rhyme, alliteration, assonance
 Pope, “Sound and Sense”
 Swenson, “The Universe”
o Rhyme and Meter
 Frost, “The Span of Life”
 Sexton, “Her Kind”
 Lord Byron, “The Destruction of Semmacherib”
o Structure: Closed Form and Open Form
 Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”
 Williams, “The Dance”
 Levertov, “O Taste and See”
o Theme
 Dickinson, “Crumbling is not an instant’s Act”
o Transformation
 Yeats, “A Dream of Death”
 Dickinson, “The Wind began to Knead the Grass” and “The
Wind Began to Rock the Grass”
o Parodies
 Frost, “Dust of Snow”
 McKenty, “Snow on Frost”
 Writing about Poetry: (DiYanni pp. 805-821)
 Outline for paired passages
 Timed in-class writing on poetry
o Bishop, “The Prodigal”
o Sexton, “The Starry Night”
 Poetry Project: Collection of Poems with analysis
 Weekly out-of-class writing
Weeks 16-18
 Critical Perspectives and Research (Persuasive in Nature): (DiYanni, pp. 2033
– 2067)
 Selecting a Topic handouts
 Finding and Using Sources handouts
 Using computerized databases
 Using the Internet for research
 Developing a thesis (a review)
 Documenting sources
Resources/Texts
Primary Texts:
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 5th Edition
Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002.
Sebranek, Patrick, Verne Meyer, and David Kemper. Write for College: A Student
Handbook. Wilmington: Great Source Education Group, 2007.
Secondary Texts:
1984, Orwell
Adam Bede, Eliot
Brave New World, Huxley (Independent reading)
The Canterbury Tales, (Selected Tales including the Knight's Tale) Chaucer
“Coketown,” Dickens
A Doll’s House, Ibsen
Gettysburg Address, Lincoln
The Inferno, Dante
King Henry IV, Part I, Shakespeare
Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis, Kafka (Independent reading)
Mythology, Edith Hamilton
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Hardy
Curriculum Guide Handouts