AP English Literature and Composition
Course Syllabus
Shelley Wagner, M.A., Midland Senior High School
Course Description
An Advanced Placement course is a college level course for willing and able
students. This course will engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of
imaginative literature. This senior level AP course will provide challenges typical of an
undergraduate university English literature/humanities course. This course is designed
to comply with the curricular requirements described in the AP English Course
Description.
Ultimately, this course will prepare that student for the AP English Literature
exam given in May. This test determines the level of achievement compared with
sophomores in college English classes. If a student earns a grade of 3 or above on the
exam, he or she may be granted credit at most colleges and major universities
throughout the country.
The specific skills that students will learn are as follows: literary analysis,
analytical writing, and application of analytical skills. Students will consider a work’s
structure, style, themes, imagery, symbolism, figurative language, and tone. Students
taking AP courses are required to take the AP exam in May.
This course is an open-enrollment course which means that any student willing to
take on the workload and live up to the high expectations of the course may enroll.
College research shows that students’ scores on national exams such as the SAT
increase when the student has taken an AP course. Statistics also show that students
who have taken an AP course in high school are better prepared for the rigor of college.
Course Objectives
1.
To comprehend and appreciate “literary works of recognized literary merit.”
2.
To write exposition that is clear, concise, and perceptive.
3.
To sharpen the ability to analyze literature by developing awareness of writing
strategies, literary techniques, and rhetorical strategies.
4.
To sharpen discussion techniques in order to prepare for college discussions.
5.
To develop a sense of literary taste by reading, listening, evaluating, and
discussing professional writing and student writing.
6.
To study representative works of of British and world literature from the
beginning of the English language to the contemporary.
7.
To become aware of influences on those works.
8.
To become introduced to various critical lenses such as deconstructionism,
psychological and sociological, feminist and marxist criticism.
Required Resources
You must purchase or otherwise obtain a copy of the following:
The Clouds by Aristophanes
Optional Resources
Although I will not require that my students purchase the following texts, their learning
experience will be enhanced tenfold and made much less complicated by the purchase
of these books. I have included explanation of each and its function in this course.
A Writer’s Resource is a college level reference guide used by most professors at most
colleges as a tool for student writing. It includes several different style guides including
MLA (for English courses) and APA (for scientific writing). This guide has nearly every
problematic grammar issue explained in short form (sometimes only a half of a page).
the rules in this resource are important for revision and style. I encourage all of my
students to purchase this text because they will use it throughout their college career,
and we will be learning how to use the guide in class. I only own a few copies, so if
your student wishes to have a hands on experience, he or she needs to have this book.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a book that needs to be annotated, that means
writing in the book itself. As you know, school copies have to remain pristine. In order
to appreciate Shakespeare, we have to interact with the text, “get down and dirty” so to
speak.
Dante’s Inferno is a text that will need some extensive annotation.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is another book we like to get messy with.
A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is the last book that we will be studying this year,
and the most fun. We need to interact with this text in order to understand the
implications and issues it presents.
The novels can be purchased rather inexpensively online at half.com or as used copies
elsewhere. Check out Friends of the Library store on Michigan Ave. A Writer’s
Resource may be harder or more expensive to find, but Barnes and Noble has a section
for used text books online that may be of benefit.
Performance Tasks
• Documented essays based on readings.
• Timed essays based on AP prompts.
• Journal assignments.
• Independent reading, 1 or 2 novels outside of class per six weeks.
• Portfolio and Writing Assessments, self assessments, and peer evaluations.
• Reading, critical response, literary analysis of novels, drama, short fiction, and poetry.
• Understanding grammar, usage and mechanics and the origins of the English
language.
Pre-Course Assignment
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is the summer reading assignment for juniors choosing to
enter a senior level AP course in the fall. The assignment is to be completely read by
the first day of school. I double entry journal will be due at the end of the first week of
class, and a project will be assigned on the first day of school which will demonstrate
the student’s ability to communicate understanding through writing. We will also be
discussing the play during class the first weeks of school using the socratic method and
fish bowl discussions.
Unit I: A Journey into self-identity and discovery through Sophocles, Chaucer,
Beowulf, and Dante.
We begin with an intense genre study, noting that each type of writing allows students
to apply learned techniques to different styles. This creates a connection which helps
students better understand the different genres, even poetry. Research also shows that
the more successful experiences students have in reading in different genres translates
in successfully writing in different genres. We begin by reading the following works:
•
•
•
•
“How to Read Like a College Professor”
Adler’s “How to Mark a Book”
Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”
Aristotle’s The Poetics
Part I: Tragedy
Tragedy usually focuses on figures of stature whose fall implicates others--a family, an
entire group, or a whole society. In tragedy, life goes on.
Primary Reading:
Bauld’s “On Writing the College Application Essay”
“The Art of Writing the College Application”
Sophocles Oedipus Rex
Aristophanes The Clouds (outside comic reading used as comparison to tragedy so
they have the sense of both genres) Conference is scheduled to discuss the play with
me.
Assignments:
Group Project: A Chorus’s Line
Each group is to trace the progression of the chorus’s feelings throughout Oedipus Rex.
Each group must develop its own interpretation of the details in the chorus. The group
will create a soundtrack of modern music which communicates their interpretation of the
chorus’s feelings towards Oedipus, the gods, the city of Thebes, etc. during the play.
The group will also turn in a written account of the songs and the logic behind choosing
them. If a group downloads songs, it must document the website MLA style. the artist
must also be given credit and the work must be cited MLA style. The only restrictions
on the creative license are:
1. Different genres must be used
2. No profanity
The group will present their tape to the class and explain their music choices and how
they relate to the chorus. Group members need to work together outside of class.
EXTRA CREDIT will be given for groups who create their own lyrics and perform them
for the class.
Each group will receive a collective grade for this project and will have the opportunity to
evaluate how peers worked within the group.
Composition Portfolio
As Oedipus travels on this journey of self-discovery, my students must also travel on
their own road of self-discovery. My students must begin to ask themselves who they
truly are and what kind of person each wants to become. In order to help them on this
journey, they will be challenged by daily journal entries which will help them focus.
They will also write short papers that will help them discover themselves. They will put
together a portfolio which will include these thoughtful reflections.
Each portfolio will contain the following:
1. 1 short essay on one of the following: a person they admire, an event that changed
their life, a quote that we live by. These essays will be workshopped by the students
before submission to the teacher. They will go through a number of drafts. If the
student has a particular college for which he or she is applying, he or she may
substitute the college required topic for one of the topics above. These essays will be
useful when the student applies for college.
2. A short paper that evaluates the student as a person and as a learner.
3. A letter written by the parent or guardian describing the son or daughter as a person
and as a learner.
4. A resume
5. An assessment of writing strengths and weaknesses
6. Documented essay over Oedipus Rex
7. Journals
A. Documented essay on a selected theme in Oedipus. Students will choose one of
the following statements to focus upon in a documented/cited essay. This will
require a close reading of the text and strict observance of textual details. I require
logical organization and coherent argument.
Choose one:
1. People have a great desire to discover and to know the truth.
2. The truth is often painful.
3. Human greatness lies not in externals, such as power, position, or wealth--all
of these can vanish in an instant; human greatness lies within, in the capacity to
suffer, in one’s readiness to accept the truth no matter how painful, in being
responsible for all of one’s actions, in the nobility of self sacrifice.
4. Man is not equal to the gods, but he is not a worm.
5. Man’s humanity toward man.
6. Sight vs. Blindness (create your own thesis)
B. College Admission Essays 1essay on the previously described topics (A person,
event and quote).
1. Describe a mentor, role model, or someone special in your life.
2. Discuss an event that changed you in some way.
3. Discuss a quote that means something to you.
C. Journal Assignments Free write on the following topics:
1. You can’t escape your fate.
2. Strong family ties can survive any attack.
3. What goes around comes around.
4. Man is responsible for his own downfall or success.
5. Man’s life is governed by chance.
6. Pride is the catalyst for catastrophe.
7. Knowledge is pain.
8. Ignorance is bliss.
9. A guilty act requires a guilty mind.
10. Violence never solves anything.
11. If we sin, we should be punished.
12. Can you forgive anything and everything of someone you love?
13. Does love require forgiveness?
Art Supplement
All students will participate in a mask making exercise on an assigned date. The
students will make the masks during class and take them home to decorate. The
decorations must follow these requirements:
1. Decorate the outside of the mask using materials that you wish (paint
decoupage, glue and cut-outs, etc.). Your decorations may be symbolic instead
of literal.
2. The outside of the mask should depict how others see you. Talk to your
friends to get ideas.
3. Decorate the inside of the mask using any materials that you wish.
4. The inside of the mask should represent how you really are, what values
you believe in, what you wish others would see.
Students will present their masks to the rest of the class and discuss both sides of the
mask.
This assignment integrates the study of Oedipus and the student’s self-search for
identity so that they may express this identity to the colleges to which he or she applies.
Part 2: Comedy
In comedy, life goes onward and upward. Students research classical comedy and
classical theater. Classical comedy relates to a struggle between a “society of youth”
and a “society of the old”.
Primary Reading:
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Assignments:
Composition Portfolio
Documented Essay contrasting tragedy and comedy.
Students will write a paper that compares some aspect of tragedy and comedy.
Students will create their own theses. These papers will go through many drafts. We
will discuss organization and informative writing. Composition skills will be emphasized.
The goal of the writing assignment is to increase students’ abilities to explain clearly,
cogently, and elegantly, what they understand about literary works and modes and how
to formulate an opinion and connect these works with others from various cultures,
periods and genres.
Art Supplement
Comedic Terms Scrapbook defining terms thoroughly.
Students will create a scrapbook using various media to define the following terms:
1. Verbal Irony
2. Dramatic Irony
3. Socratic Irony
4. Situational Irony
5. Travesty
6. Burlesque
7. Parody
8. Farce
9. Invective
10. Sarcasm
11. Knaves and Fools
12. Malapropism
13. Humor
14. Wit
15. Satire
16. Hyperbole
17. Bathos
18. Reductio Ad Absurdum
19. Incongruity
20. Stereotype
21. Caricature
Dramatic Presentation of the pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales. Reenact the pilgrims
on their journey.
Answering Machine Recording between two of the pilgrims. Write a script of the
message recorded to the answering machine, then a script of the message left by
another pilgrim.
Comedy Project
1. Choose a cutting from a movie or television show and bring it to class.
2. Analyze the selection for comic devices and teach it to the class.
Part 3: Epic Poetry
Aristotle in his Poetics has already provided us with the foundation for our study of epic
poetry. An epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements
of a hero. Epics relate traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation.
Primary Readings:
Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno
Beowulf
Gardener’s Grendel
Assignments:
Guest Lecture Students are assigned one chapter to present to the class. Students
must read closely and present a philosophical interpretation of the chapter based on
careful observation of textual details. Students are developing a wide range of
vocabulary which is appropriate and diverse.
Each student is responsible for leading a socratic discussion of the chapter and must
provide illustrations through powerpoint, handouts or posters to facilitate understanding
and discussion.
An open book test will be administered after reading.
Write an Anglo-Saxon Boast Students will create their own boast of themselves and
the great feats they have accomplished like a story teller from that time period would
have done.
Composition Portfolio
Etymological Paper -- scholarly research on the origins and evolution of a word from
its first use to the present. This is an extended definition. Students are required to use
four sources:
1. An etymological dictionary, such as the Oxford English Dictionary
2. A concordance
3. Granger’s Index to Poetry
4. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Requirements:
1. All papers are typed, MLA format and citations
2. A quote using the word, its original spelling, original language, definitions,
positive and negative connotations, and a section of the word used in a poem
3. Explanation of the word’s mutations in meaning, spelling and language.
Students will present their scholarly papers to small groups for immediate and
thoughtful feedback in order to re-draft.
Multiple Choice Questions Students must create 15 multiple choice questions using
stems which I provide. Five questions will come form the first part of the poem, five
from the middle section, and five from the last section.
Comparative Study of translations of Beowulf. After reading three cuttings from three
translations of Beowulf, students will organize into small groups and create a list of
standards to rate the three translations. The groups will then rate the three translations
and report findings to the class.
Art Supplement
Choral Reading of Beowulf’s FIght-- Performed during class.
Create your own Epic tale.
Student will describe orally a heroic event in which he or she is the hero in the style of
Beowulf.
Unit 2: Shakespeare and Hamlet: A Change in Perspectives
This unit will emphasize the complexities and ambiguities in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Students will be asked to read closely, analyze the text, context and subtext.
Primary Reading:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Assignments:
Composition Portfolio
Timed Writing requires students to write effectively under time constraints required for
the AP exam in May.
Documented Essay Students will write literary critique of the play through a welldefined critical lens such as feminist, historical, deconstructionist, marxist, or
psychological perspective. The goal is to understand the perspective as well as the
play.
Short Papers based on Reader Response theory to such questions as “Did hamlet love
Ophelia?” or “Did Gertrude conspire against Hamlet?” supported by textual evidence.
Art Supplement
Choral Reading of the Ghost scene. To overcome the initial fear of Shakespeare’s
language, we read and re-read aloud a section of the play. This last through an entire
class period and we define words we do not know during the process.
Elizabethan Dance Students learn a dance and are introduced to period music.
Group Project
Cuttings from the play are performed by students in front of the class. Students must
cut a scene down to include only the most important pieces to be performed in a 7
minute time frame. Each group must provide its own props, staging directions and
scenery.
Unit 3: Poetry from the 16th Century to Modern with Emphasis on Sonnet Form
Students will be introduced to the elements of poetry and will be introduced to different
strategies in analyzing and interpreting a poem. Students will also be introduced to
poetic verse forms and poetic devices. Students will also write their own original
poems.
Primary Reading:
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Amelia Lanier Eve’s Apology
Carpe Diem Poetry
Metaphysical Poems
Donne and Herbert
Various other selected poems
Assignments:
Composition Portfolio
Original Poetry Students will create original poetry derived from daily journal entries or
other sources. The assignments will include:
1. Found poetry from student essays
2. Found in literature poetry
3. Sonnet
4. Prose poem
5. Pattern poem
6. Modern free verse
7. Memory Poem
8. Occasional Poem
9. Haiku
10. Villanelle
11. Sestina
12. Poems in Response to Paintings
Art Supplement
Paint--Write Students will experience the ancient tradition and connections made clear
by the Romantic poets between painting and poetry through a classroom experience of
Free Write and Free Paint. Materials will be provided.
Unit 4: Grammar
Students will explore a deeper understanding of grammar and usage in the English
language. Structure, style, voice, and mechanics will be emphasized. Students will
understand what grammar is and why it is important. We will explore basic linguistic
concepts and parts of speech.
Composition Portfolio
Journal Writing Students will explore writing and composing skills through daily journal
assignments. Students choose one journal entry at the end of the week for the teacher
to grade for grammar and usage correctness.
Unit 5: Metaphysical Poetry (Donne and Herbert)
Students will be introduced to Donne and herbert and three poetic devices:
metaphysical conceipt, paradox, and pun.
Primary Readings:
Selected Poems of John Donne and George Herbert
Selected Poems of Andrew Marvell
Assignments:
Composition Portfolio
Timed Writing based on the AP requirements for testing.
Art Supplement
Students compare musical recordings and print text. Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am a
Rock”, Donne’s “Meditation XVII”, Madonna’s “Love Tried to Welcome Me”, and
Herbert’s “Love” are used for this assignment.
Unit 6: Satire and the 18th Century
Students are introduced to various forms of satire through English prose and poetry.
Students are introduced to Roman satirists Horatio and Juvenal and are therefore
introduced to light, mild satire and mean, caustic, and biting satire.
Primary Readings:
Pope’s “the Rape of the Lock”, “An Essay on Man” and “An essay on Criticism”
Swift’s “Book IV” in Gulliver’s Travels and “A Modest Proposal”
Assignments:
Composition Portfolio
Timed Writings based on requirements of AP test in May.
Essay written in the style of Swift’s “Modest Proposal” proposing a solution to a problem
at school or in our nation. Swift’s methods must be followed:
1. Begin by stating the problem.
2. Provide statistics which prove the seriousness of the problem.
3. Offer an extreme solution to the problem.
4. You must digress.
5. “Don’t tell me to try this” section which provides a sensible solution to the
problem and their modest proposal.
6. Enumerate the problem and their modest proposal.
7. Disclaimer at the end.
Art Supplement
Gulliver’s Travels starring Ted Danson
Unit 7: Romanticism
Students will be introduced to the basic concepts of English Romanticism through prose
and poetry of the major Romantic Writers.
Primary Readings:
Blake
Wordsworth
Coleridge
Byron
Percy Shelley
Keats
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Assignments:
Composition Portfolio
Documented Essay comparing English Neoclassicism to English Romanticism through
poetry, art or music.
Documented Essay Imagery paper.
Keats’ imagery touches our physical sensations such as sight, hearing, taste, touch,
smell, hunger, thirst, and sexuality. Keats repeated combines different senses in one
image. He attributes traits of one sense to another (synesthesia). Students are to
identify the imagery in one of his odes and examine the sensual effect. Students should
explore his use of imagery and how he “combines dissimilar happenings to create
oneness of all forms of life.”
Journal Writing Reader response to poetry.
Art Supplement
Frankenfolio
Students will choose from various activities to enhance their understanding of Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein and combine them into a portfolio which will be presented to the
class.
Unit 8: Victorian Prose and Poetry
Students will be re-introduced to historical influence on literature. Queen Victoria ruled
from 1837 to 1901. “Though the name immediately conjures images of repressed
women in high-waisted, high-necked, low-hemmed gowns” in the middle of summer with
no air-conditioning, “Feminism, Socialism, Freudianism, and Darwinism all took form
during the Victorian Era.” The social/historical conditions often dictated the types of
literature created by authors.
Primary Readings:
Poetry by Browning, hardy, Beach and others
Selections from Pride and Prejudice and Tale of Two Cities
Assignments:
Timed Writings according to AP testing requirements.
Movie Review We will look at the movie reviews on IMDB movie site. Then students
will write a movie review on each of the films viewed during class. Upon completion of
their reviews, they will present them to small groups for editing and revision. Students
will turn in reviews for critique by the teacher. They may then revise one of them and
submit for a grade.
Art Supplement
Films Students will watch the following films for the movie review assignment.
Pride and Prejudice
Oliver or Great Expectations
Unit 9: Modern British Literature
Students will study a modern British novel, Huxley’s A Brave New World, and practice
for the multiple choice section of the AP exam.
Primary reading:
Huxley’s A Brave New World
Various supplementary readings from the college board about the exam.
Assignments:
Multiple Choice Practice Exams Students are required to keep track of all multiple
choice practice exams. Their scores are inputted by four divisions: pre-1900 poetry,
post-1900 poetry, pre-1900 prose, and post 1900 prose. Students will evaluate their
own progress and receive remediation in areas where they feel need further work.
Students look at various multiple choice questions and try to decide what is asked of
them. Students study multiple choice stems and create their own questions to predict
what may be asked on the AP exam. Students will work in pairs or small groups to
discuss questions and possible answers.
Although this syllabus is extensive in explanation, the instructor reserves the
right to alter assignments as necessary for better understanding of concepts
and/or time constraints.