AP English Literature and Composition
2011 – 2012 Syllabus
Contact Information
Instructor: Elaine Geimer
Room:120
Phone: 636-464-4429
E-mail: egeimer@windsor.k12.mo.us
Course Goals
To prepare students for the Advanced Placement exam and receive college credit
To read and analyze works of both American and British writers as well as works written in several genres
from the sixteenth century to contemporary times
To understand the universal themes in literature and how it reflects and embodies social and historical
values
To develop writing skills focusing on the critical analysis of literature including expository, analytical, and
argumentative essays which sharpen understanding of and deepen appreciation for literary arti stry
Course Description
This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in the
AP English Course Description. The course will provide the intellectual challenge and
workload equivalent to a college-level freshman course and may earn students college
credit. Be prepared for work outside of class to meet the rigorous reading and writing
demands of the curriculum. Texts are at reading and content level appropriate for a
college freshman, and authors are chosen from the AP English Course Description for the
English Literature and Composition Exam or from those appearing on previous AP
Literature and Composition Exams. Writing assignments emphasize the critical analysis
of literature and the effective and appropriate use of vocabulary and structures, personal
expression and style at a level typical of college composition assignments.
The course is divided into four quarters, and each quarter places emphasis on studying
a specific literary genre. Each student will create a daily reading journal in which they
will not only respond to the text they are reading, but also reflect upon what they are
learning about themselves as readers. Journal entries will be used regularly in class
discussions, and in turn, students will record their thoughts on new issues that come up in
class.
Each quarter will function as a writing workshop for a particular type of composition:
personal, expository, argumentative, or analytical. Students working within the
workshop format will submit a proposal for each paper and several drafts to be discussed
and revised before their final submission. In addition, students will write five AP timed
writings per quarter – with the opportunity to revise several of these throughout the year.
Scoring and Assessment for AP English Literature and Composition
Summative Assessments (75% of Grade)
Critical Reading Journal – Self-Evaluation Presentation Conference
Throughout the year, students will keep a Critical Reading Journal in which they
respond to the text they are reading with annotation and reflection, as well
as reflecting upon what they are learning about themselves as readers.
At the end of each quarter, students will individually present their Critical
Reading Journals in ten-minute conferences with the instructor. Emphasis will
be placed upon their understanding of literature, and self-reflection about their
growth as critical readers.
Formal Writing Essays – Writing Workshops
Each quarter students will focus their writing on a particular type of composition.
Students will submit a proposal for each paper they write that demonstrates careful
pre-writing consideration and several drafts with opportunities for revision before
the final submission of their essays. Post-writing conferences will allow for
reflection upon specific areas of writing that were targeted for improvement.
AP Practice Tests
Students will write five AP timed writings per quarter – one of which may be
revised and submitted as a summative assessment.
Unit Tests
Each Unit test will be composed of 20 AP quality multiple choice questions.
Formative Assessments (25% of Grade)
Summaries of Critical Analysis and Reviews
Critical Reading Journal Checks - Journal entries will be used regularly in class
discussions. It is important to stay up to date in your journal responses and to
record new issues that come up in class discussions.
Various Class Projects
Throughout the year, students will engage in several projects to enrich the
material. Points for these projects will vary.
Grading Scale:
A
B
C
D
90% - 100%
80% - 89%
70% - 79%
60% - 69%
F 59% and below
Participation
While participation will not be officially graded, it will be required. Class discussion
and lectures will be based around student participation and to truly master the
material, total engagement will be necessary.
The AP Exam
We will be discussing this test and practicing to take it throughout the whole year.
The test is May 10, 2012. You are not required to take it as it costs around $85.
However, I will teach the class assuming everyone is taking the test. All of our unit
tests will look like mini-AP tests and will include the same type of very challenging
multiple choice questions. We will also be writing AP practice essays throughout the
year.
Format of AP Exam: The total test is 3 hours.
Section I: 60 minutes for multiple- choice questions – counts as 45% of the
total score.
Section 2: 120 minutes for 3 essay questions – counts as 55% of the total score.
Absence/Missed Work Policy
Attendance in this class is essential. Much of the material for success is provided
through lecture/discussion. Missing work can create problems. Work missed due to
an excused absence may be made up within 5 school days (per district and school
policy). IF A STUDENT IS ABSENT THE DAY OF A CRITICAL READING
CONFERENCE OR THE DEADLINE FOR A WRITING SUBMISSION, IT WILL
BE DUE THE FIRST DAY YOU RETURN.
Procedures
Bring the correct textbooks to class every day.
Most days begin with a short “bell activity” you should quietly start as soon as you are seated. Check the
board for instructions.
Unless otherwise instructed, turn in your assignments to the white tray provided.
Please attend to personal needs before you come to class. This includes restroom visits, locker visits,
grooming, and drinks of water.
Class Rules
BE RESPECTFUL: Be courteous to your classmates and teacher.
BE READY: Be in your seat when the bell rings, ready to begin work.
BE RESPONSIBLE: Do your assignments on time and bring your supplies to class.
Quarter One – Poetry
Week 1 : Introduction to the Course
How to carefully read and critically analyze literature
Text: How to Read Literature like a Professor Chapters 1-3
Analysis of Summer Reading: The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald,
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Writing Assessment Essay: Comparison of Literary Elements in Summer
Reading selections.
Week 2: How to carefully read and critically analyze literature
Text: How to Read Literature like a Professor Chapters 5 -7
Text: Begin reading ( pp. 3 – 60) of The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Introduction to writing Critical Reading Journals/ Annotation
Recognizing TONE
Week 3: Tone Assessment
Shifting / Contrasting Tones
Writing Analysis Paragraphs
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop - Proposal for Expository/Analytical
Writing
Assignment: Analyze and explain a selected poem drawing
upon textual details to develop an extended interpretation
of the text.
Composition Skills: Using Implicit Thesis; Details, and other
Evidence; Coherence - Sentence Combining; Structure as a
device to enhance Content.
Outside Reading: The Road pp.60-120 and How to Read Literature like a
Professor Ch. 10 - 11
Week 4: Poetry
The Basics: What Poetry Means
Text: Poems by Robert Frost
Critical Essays on Poetry
AP Practice Questions: AP Poetry Timed Writing
Outlines due for Analysis Assignment
Outside Reading: The Road pp. 120-180 and How to Read Literature like a
Professor Ch. 4, 12, and 14.
Week 5: Poetry
The Basics: Rhythm and Rhyme
Text: Poems by William Shakespeare, Anne Bradstreet, Edgar Alan Poe, Walt
Whitman, Emily Dickinson,
Critical Essays on Poetry
AP Practice Questions: AP Poetry Timed Writing
Outside Reading: The Road pp. 180-240 and How to Read Literature like a
Professor Ch. 16, 17, 18.
Week 6: Poetry
The Basics: Figurative Language and Imagery
Text: Selected British Poets: William Blake, Robert Burns, William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley
Critical Essays on Poetry
AP Practice Questions: AP Poetry Timed Writing
Formal Writing:Writing Workshop – Draft of Expository/Analytical Essay
Outside Reading Assignments: The Road pp. 240 – end and How to Read
Literature like a Professor Ch. 21, 22, & 24
Week 7: Poetry and The Road
Structures of Poetry
AP Practice Questions: AP Poetry Timed Writing
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Expository/Analytical
Essay
The Road - Group discussion and analysis of the novel
Reading and Writing Critical reviews
Week 8: Poetry
Centers: The Elements of Poetry
AP Practice Questions: AP Poetry Timed Writing
Formal Writing: Submission of Expository/Analytical Essay
Outside Reading: Selected works of Emerson and Thoreau
Week 9 : About Reading and Writing
Text: Selected works of Henry David Thoreau
Composition Skills: Revision of selected AP Poetry Timed Writing
Critical Reading Journal Self-Evaluation Conferences
Quarter Two – Drama
Week 10: Elements of Drama
Text: The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Group discussion and analysis of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Reading and Writing Critical reviews
INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM
Week 11: Drama
Text: Hamlet
AP Practice: Prose Analysis
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop - Proposal for
Analytical/Argumentative Essay
Assignment: Write an evaluative essay on a literary
work which draws upon textual details to make and
explains judgments about a work’s artistry and quality,
and its social and cultural values.
Composition Skills: Understanding Criteria of
Evaluation; Understanding and using Arguments;
Formulating criteria for Evaluation; Making claims in
evaluation; Presenting evidence in evaluation; Considering
design and visuals in evaluation
Week 12: Drama
Text: Hamlet
Critical Analysis
AP Practice: Prose analysis and open-ended questions
Outside Reading: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Week 13: Drama
Text: Hamlet
AP Practice: Prose analysis and open ended questions
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Draft of Evaluation Argument Essay
Outside Reading: A Thousand Acres
Week 14: Drama
Text: King Lear
Critical Analysis
AP Practice: Prose analysis and open-ended questions
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Evaluative Essay
Outside Reading: A Thousand Acres
Week 15 Drama
Text: King Lear
Critical Analysis
AP Practice: Prose analysis and open-ended questions
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Evaluative Essay
Outside Reading: A Thousand Acres
Week 16: Drama – King Lear & Thousand Acres
Text: King Lear
A Thousand Acres
Critical Analysis
Group discussion and analysis of works
Reading and Writing Critical reviews
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Submission of Evaluation Argument
Essay
Week 17: Drama
Text: The Crucible
Critical Analysis
Critical Reading Journal Self-Evaluation Conferences
Week 18: Drama
Text: The Crucible
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Post Writing Conference
Composition Skills – Revision of selected AP Prose analysis Writing
Quarter Three – Fiction
Week 1: Fiction
The Basics (Theme, Structure, Setting, Character, Plot, Dialogue,
Point of View)
Text: Selected Works of Edgar Alan Poe
Discussion and Analysis of Gothic Literature
Outside Reading: Selected Gothic Novels
Week 2: The Short Story
Text: Selected Short Stories
AP Practice: AP Timed Writing
SYNTAX
Outside Reading: Selected Gothic Novels
Week 3: The Short Story
Text: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
AP Practice: AP Timed Writing
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Proposal for Analytical Essay
Composition Skills: Identifying and examining the
relationship of a part of a novel to the whole of the novel;
Understanding the relationship of a part to a whole in literary
Analysis; Choosing appropriate evidence for the intended
audience, task and writer’s knowledge; Methods of
development and organization.
Outside Reading: Selected Gothic Novels
Week 4 : The Novel
Text: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
AP Practice: AP Timed Writing
Week 5: The Novel
Text: Wuthering Heights
AP Practice: AP Timed Writing
Week 6: The Novel
Text: Wuthering Heights
AP Practice: AP Timed Writing
Formal Writing : Writing Workshop – Draft of Analytical Essay
Week 7: The Novel
Text: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Critical Analysis
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Analytical Essay
Week 8: The Novel
Text: Great Expectations
Critical Analysis
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Analytical Essay
Week 9: The Novel
Text: Great Expectations
Critical Analysis
Formal Writing: Submission of Analytical Essay
Week 10: The Novel
Text: Great Expectations
Critical Analysis
Group discussion and Analysis of Work
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Post Writing Conference
Composition Skills – Revision of selected AP Practice Writing
Critical Reading Journal Self-Evaluation Conferences
Quarter Four – Poetry / Drama / Novels
Week 11: Poetry Review
Text: Selected Poems: American poets including Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, James Greenleaf Whittier,
Oliver Wendall Holmes, and James Russell Lowell
Critical Analysis on Poetry
Week 12: Poetry Review
Text: Selected Poems: American poets including Langston
Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen,
Claude McKay, Arna Bontemps, Paul Laurence
Critical Analysis on Poetry
AP Practice Questions: AP Poetry Timed Writing
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Proposal for Personal Essay –
Composition Skills: Using elements of Figurative
Language; Imagery; Symbolism; and Tone in a narrative.
Week 13: Drama Review
Text: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Critical Analysis on Drama
AP Practice: Prose analysis and open-ended questions
Week 14: Drama Review
Text: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Critical Analysis on Drama
AP Practice: Prose analysis and open-ended questions
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Draft of Personal Essay
Week 15: Fiction Review
Text: TBA
Critical Analysis of the Novel
AP Practice: Essay questions
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Personal Essay
Week 16: Fiction Review
Text: TBA
Critical Analysis of the Novel
AP Practice: Essay questions
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Revisions of Personal Essay
Week 17: Fiction Review
Text: TBA
Group discussion and analysis of works
Reading and Writing Critical reviews
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Submission of Personal Essay
Week 18: Evaluations
Formal Writing: Writing Workshop – Post Writing Conference
Critical Reading Journal – Self-Evaluation Conferences
Course Evaluations
Resources
Write for College - A Student Handbook. Wilmington, MA: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2007.
The Language of Literature - American Literature. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littel, 2002.
Polonsky, Marc. Poetry Reader's Toolkit. Chicago, IL: NTC Publishing Group, 1998.
Stevenson, Robert Louis The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor
Lawrence, Jerome and Lee, Robert E. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet
Shakespeare, William. King Lear
Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Dickens, Charles Great Expectations
Stoppand, Tom Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby
Facts on File Databases – Bloom’s Literary Reference
Learning Express Library – AP tests on-line
Literary texts may occasionally be replaced with other works of equal rigor from authors
chosen from the AP English Course Description for the English Literature and
Composition Exam or from those appearing on previous AP Literature and Composition
Exams.