11th
Major Assignments and Assessments
Grade AP/IB Literature and Composition
2013-14
Texts:
Jacobus, Lee A., ed. World of Ideas, assorted essays
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner
Euripedes. Medea
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Von Goethe, Johann. Faust, Part I
Davies, Robertson, ed. Short Stories from the 19th Century
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road
Shakespeare, William. King Lear
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest
Assorted Poetry-provided
Assorted extended readings-provided
First Semester: The (Un) Traditional Hero
The Kite Runner, Medea, Kafka Stories, Faust Part I, Selected 19th Century
Short Stories
Week One: Introduction to AP Literature and Composition Course and to IB Literature
Course and to Writing about Literature
 Read essays, “Writing about Ideas” (WI 879), and “What is Literature”, Barnet
(handout) focusing on critical reading strategies.
 Using The Kite Runner, freewrite (writing to understand) list of questions that still
seem unanswered at the end of the book. Be sure questions include plot (what),
motivation (why) and style (how). (Freewrites are completed often and
spontaneously throughout course.)
 Critical response forum (These are also held throughout the year encouraging
students to “read around” the texts, draw their own opinions and learn to argue
for/against particular analytical responses. Students bring in one chosen,
academically sound, piece of literary criticism on specific text. Having read and
annotated article, student then presents it to small group of students. Using his/her
own ideas and those of critical article students engage in debates on text.
 Writing assignment (touchstone essay- #1 based on The Kite Runner): “In which
ways do the protagonist(s) learn from his/her journey throughout the novel?” Peer
edit essays (with highlighters) before teacher response.
Week Two: Textual Basics
 Using The Kite Runner, teach elements of literature for intensive focus:
Characterization, diction, point of view, tone, structure, style, and theme.
(Extracts from summer reading texts are used to demonstrate these linguistic
devices.)

Writing assignment: Using same summer reading text used in essay #1 (above),
respond in writing to- How does the author convey this transformation? These
responses are to include close textual analysis employing elements of literature as
taught this week.
Week Three: Textual Basics, continued
 Using The Kite Runner, teach linguistic devices such as figurative language
(simile, metaphor, personification), imagery, and symbolism. (Extracts from
summer reading texts are used to demonstrate these linguistic devices.)
 Writing Assignment: After teacher response to week one and week two essays,
students are to revise them and forge responses into a single essay which
answers—“In which ways do the protagonist(s) learn from his/her journey
throughout the novel and how does the author convey this transformation?
(Writing to Explain)
Week Four: Note Taking—the Author’s Message
 Teach rudiments of effective note taking, textual annotation and reader response
logs through four discussions, one each on summer reading novels.
Discussions include but are not exclusive of-Literary Critical approaches (New
Historicism, New Criticism, Linguistic Theory, Biographical, Neo-Classicism,
Romanticism, Structuralism, etc.), literary messages (dystopian, epiphany, stream
of consciousness, internal monologues, flashback, foreshadowing, narrative
disjunction, rhetorical question, uses of memory)
 Assessment on The Kite Runner, short answer format, to include all notes,
discussions, and textual issues.
 Writing Assignment: Using The Kite Runner, choose a critical approach and
evaluate the effectiveness, quality and value of the text based on that school of
critical thought. Be sure to use quotations from the text to support your
judgments. (Writing to Evaluate)
Week Five: Euripedes, Medea
 Note-taking on the elements of tragedy, Aristotle’s Poetics, the classical Greek
traditions.
 Freewrite “My tragic flaw is . . . and I know this because . . . “ (Writing to
understand)
 Close textual analysis of Medea focusing on elements of drama, structure, style
and character development
 Writing assignment: How does Euripedes create tension in his play, Medea?
Week Six: Euripedes, Medea
 Continue close textual analysis of play
 Extended readings extracts from Machiavelli and Levi-Strauss. Annotate essays
with reader response log.
 Extended freewrite-“What makes a tragic hero? Does Medea qualify as a tragic
hero based on your own definitions?” (Writing to understand)

Assessment on Medea, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions,
textual issues and extended readings.
Week Seven: Complete Medea
 Writing Assignment: Was Medea to blame? Argue your position using detailed
textual support (Writing to evaluate)
 Intro to the archetypes of Carl Jung
 Using Jungian archetypes, analyze three chosen characters from Euripedes’
Medea.
 Present archetypal project in visual form: posters, powerpoint, video, performance
Week Eight: Intro to Existentialism and Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and other stories
 Note-taking: versions of existentialism, what created the historical context for its
burgeoning and writers who influenced and/or were influenced by the movement
 Introduction to existentialism and a modern exploration into 20th century views
of human condition
 Freewrite: “What makes life worth living?
 Begin close textual analysis of “The Metamorphosis”. Focus on Gregor’s
realizations about himself, his family and society.
 Close textual analysis of “The Metamorphosis” focusing on allegory, character
development and social context
Week Nine: Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and other stories
 Continue textual analysis of “The Metamorphosis” focusing on tone and style—
how does Kafka convey such resignation and acceptance.
 Extended readings Kafka, “The Hunger Artist”
 Comparison and contrast diagramming, outlining, mind-mapping: alternative
organizational techniques in essay planning
 Writing assignment: Compare and contrast Kafka’s message about the human
condition in his two short works, “The Metamorphosis” and “The Hunger Artist”.
Week Ten: Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and other stories
 Textual analysis of “In the Penal Colony”.
 Group discussions on a) religious symbolism b) social hierarchy c) martyrdom
Week Eleven: Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and other stories
 Assessment on Kafka, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions,
textual issues and extended readings.
 Writing assignment: Despite Gregor’s painful and tragic end, he says that “he
thought back on his family with deep emotion and love”. What conclusions has
Gregor drawn about himself and his place in the world? (Writing to evaluate)
 Critical Forum- Students now find two academically sound, critical articles one
each on two of the Kafka stories discussed. Forums focus on connections between
the works through critical approaches, theme, character and author’s message.
Week Twelve: von Goethe’s Faust
 Introduction to dramatic techniques, devices and vocabulary.
 Freewrite “For what would I sell my soul?” (Writing to understand)
 Critical response forum-students find one appropriate literary criticism on Faust
and bring to class and discuss in forum.
 Note-taking on the Renaissance, Reformation, social and historical context of
play, textual anomalies.
 Writing Assignment: Consider the form and structure of Faust’s opening speech.
Construct an argument that analyzes what the speech reveals about Faust’s
character. (Writing to evaluate)
Week Thirteen: von Goethe’s Faust
 Tradition of Morality plays-Read “Everyman” group brainstorm of characteristics
of Morality plays based on “Everyman” reading
 Close textual analysis focusing on elements of style and structure in Faust.
Faust’s journey towards self-realization, revise elements of tragedy.
 Writing Assignment: “How do Faust’s decision define him as hero or villain?”
(Writing to explain)
Week Fourteen: von Goethe’s Faust, continued
 Close textual analysis of Faust Pt. I
 Group projects on dramatic elements of Goethe’s play. Compare/contrast with
Medea: character, plot, settings, Aristotelian traditions, heroic conventions
 Extended reading “The Devil and Tom Walker”.
Week Fifteen: von Goethe’s Faust AND Begin Writer’s Workshops
 Assessment on Faust, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions,
textual issues and extended readings
 Writer’s Workshop: Each student chooses one of their essays from any of the
units covered so far. This essay is revised following feedback from a peer editor
using highlighting technique, and after writing conference with teacher.
Conferences focus on improving vocabulary, sentence structures, organization,
use of textual support, and rhetoric.
Week Sixteen through Eighteen: Nineteenth Century Short Story Selection
 Intro to 19th century historical cultural context-class, gender, social mobility and
writer traditions
 Read and analyze five stories from the Selected Short Stories collection
 Close textual analysis of individual stories
 Similarities and differences among stories
 Assessment on short stories, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions
and textual issues
 Writing Assignment: “How do 19th century cultural traditions reflect writer’s
messages in at least two of the stories we have studied?” (Writing to explain)
Second Semester: Literal and Metaphorical Journeys
The Road, King Lear, Heart of Darkness, The Importance of Being Earnest
Week One: Cormac McCarthy, The Road
 Traditions of war literature-patriotism and nationalism vs. pessimism and
cynicism
 Freewrite: “Things that are worth dying for” (Writing to understand)
 Close textual analysis of The Road focusing on linguistic devices, social and
historical context, structure
 Writing Assignment: “How do elements of the dystopic novel reveal author’s
message in The Road? (Writing to explain)
Week Two: Cormac McCarthy, The Road
 Close textual analysis focusing on character, style, tone and themes
 Themes connected to war/death: Attitudes to death, effect on families,
fathers/sons (youth/age), honor and forgiveness
 Extended readings-poetry from Owen, Brooke, Kipling, Sassoon, Hardy, McCrae,
Thomas (all on handouts) with focus on poetic devices, symbolism and themes as
listed above and as in their connection to McCarthy
Week Three: Cormac McCarthy, The Road
 Note-taking on McCarthy, Literature as vehicle for political messages, epic novel,
alienation
 Close textual analysis of The Road focusing on dramatic techniques and devices,
a modernist approach to theater
 More themes associated with war to be discussed in relation to McCarthy’s
presentation-the enemy, gender, social and political repercussions, class
 Extended readings-Graves, Douglas, Crane, Whitman, Yeats, Blunden, Lovelace,
Brittain, Yeats (all on handouts)
 Writing assignment: “How does McCarthy’s use of alienation convey his message
about society?” (Writing to explain)
Week Four: Cormac McCarthy, The Road
 Close textual analysis of play focusing on diction and character development
 Freewrite: Is war ever necessary?
 Historical traditions of war with references to Homer and Shakespeare and visual
representations of war through art: Sargent, Picasso, Lady Butler, Gros and
variety of photographs
 Slam writes on pictures—personal responses to each picture, focusing on visual
techniques, artists’ messages and connections to literature we have studied
Week Five: William Shakespeare, King Lear
 More note-taking on Renaissance England, Elizabethan drama, medieval humors,
Elizabethan World Picture, Great Chain of Being



Close textual analysis with focus on Shakespeare’s diction, elements of tragedy
and character development
Freewrite: “He has seen the ghost. What should Hamlet do?”(Writing to evaluate)
Writing assignment: How does Shakespeare use juxtaposition to develop
character, explore issues and convey his message? (Writing to explain)
Week Six: Shakespeare’s King Lear, continued
 Close textual analysis with focus on structure of both the play and individual
speeches, figurative language,
 Critical Approaches to King Lear: Paired students choose critical approach (New
Historicist, Neo-Classical, New Critical, Freudian, Romantic) compile literary
criticism (minimum of 5 secondary sources) to create presentation for class. Focus
of presentation is to highlight multiple meanings of text.
 Writing assignment: “What do you think Shakespeare suggests about women in
his presentation of Regan, Goneril and Cordelia?” (Writing to explain)
Week Seven: Shakespeare’s King Lear, continued
 Critical Approaches Presentations to class (Format of presentations is not
prescribed, however, each must argue for a particular critical approach, use
primary and secondary references to support argument and include own
comments and ideas on criticism and play.
 Extended readings: Coleridge, Bacon, Freud, Eliot
 Extended freewrite: “Is Lear more ‘sinned against than sinning’?” (Writing to
understand/explain)
Week Eight: Shakespeare’s King Lear, continued
 Close textual analysis focusing on dramatic purpose of particular scenes such as
the storm scene and the cliff scene. Discussion to focus on how these scenes
consolidate motifs, themes and issues prevalent throughout play.
 Writing assignment: How does Lear change in the play?
 Assessment on King Lear, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions,
textual issues and extended readings.
Week Nine: Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
 Freewrite on “savage”. Share with partners, class. (Writing to understand)
 Close textual analysis, annotation, discussion to include literary elements,
author’s message, linguistic techniques.
 Extended readings to include Darwin, Rousseau, Montaigne, Orwell, Mann.
 Note-taking on colonialism, frame story, memory, archetypal journeys, allusions
including Bible, Dante, Milton
 Writing Assignment: Reader Response Logs on extended readings essays.
(Writing to Understand)
Week Ten: Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
 Freewrite on “horror”. Share with partners, class (Writing to understand)


Continue close textual analysis of Heart of Darkness
Poetry Connections: Eliot, Yeats, Auden (handouts). See list of unit texts. Focus
on poetic devices, linguistic techniques, structure and how the poets’ convey
meaning
Week Eleven: Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
 Writing Assignment: Choose one of the studied poems and respond to “The image
of hollowness is prevalent throughout Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness.”
Choose one poem we have studied and explore the poet’s use of hollowness in his
poem. (Writing to Explain)
 Assessment on Conrad, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions,
textual issues and extended readings.
Week Twelve: Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
 Note-taking: Biographical information about Oscar Wilde
 19th century social commentary
 Close textual analysis of The Importance of Being Earnest
Week Thirteen: Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
 Satire and its historical influences
 Extended readings: Swift, Addison, Barry
 Writing assignment: How does Wilde use satire to make social commentary?
Week Fourteen: Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
 Dramatic traditions—social drama
 Close textual analysis of The Importance of Being Earnest
 Assessment on Wilde, short answer format, to include all notes, discussions,
textual issues and extended readings.
Week Fifteen and Sixteen: Exam review and preparation for the AP Lit exam
Week Seventeen and Week Eighteen: Independent Oral Presentations on one of the
chosen works-