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AP English Language and Composition Syllabus
September 2012 – June 2013
English 111 AP
Course Description: *English 111 is a full-year course.
ENGLISH 111 AP Literature, Language & Composition Prerequisite: Approval of the
English SPR and the recommendation of the grade ten English teacher.
English 111 is an enriched English course. Semester one will focus on prose, both fiction and non-fiction. Students will study recognized classic and contemporary novels, short stories, as well as representative works of non-fiction (such as biography, autobiography, essays, and letters). Course work will include opportunities for creative and critical writing, debate and critical media viewing. Enrichment activities will focus on independent study. Some of the reading and writing activities will be specifically geared toward preparing interested students for writing the AP English Language and Composition exam in the spring.
Semester two will focus on poetry and drama. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of poetry. Such a study will include the close reading of major works but is not meant to take the place of period studies such as those addressed in the grade 12 course.
Opportunities for self-expression through writing poetry will also be incorporated. The study of drama will cover Greek theatre, Elizabethan theatre and the modern stage. Course work will also include assignments in critical writing, debate and critical media viewing.
Once again, enrichment activities will focus on independent study and some of the reading and writing exercises will be geared towards preparing interested students for writing the
AP English Language and Composition exam in the spring.
Course Overview & Expectations:
This course requires that students perform at a high level and that the workload is challenging by requiring students to spend a minimum of one hour per night on assignments and reading material. Students learn effective time-management skills due to the increased amount of reading material and writing assignments. Students enrolled in this course will be expected to have a broad reading scope, and students will be exposed to all major genres of writing. The complexity of the reading material presented in this course is equivalent to a first year university literature and writing composition course. Techniques for close reading are practised in order to increase an awareness of the writer’s purpose and rhetorical modes. Frequent writing activities provide the students with the opportunity to hone their own ability with language. By drawing upon a wide variety of authors using expository, analytical, personal and argumentative styles, students are exposed to the concepts of tone, audience, voice, diction, imagery, details, sentence structure, point of view, organization, syntax, repetition, transitional expressions and emphasis. Students are exposed to non-fiction, fiction, drama and verse. In particular, the exposure to non-fiction pieces and image-based texts will target skills with language, rhetoric and argument.
Students are taught research skills with the MLA format as the focus: use of secondary and primary sources, source citations, parenthetical references, thesis statements, evidence for argument or thesis, development of an argument. Students are exposed to the process of writing with instruction and specific feedback both from the teacher and through peer editing to help them develop effective editing skills. Exposure to peer editing increases an awareness of a student’s own writing skills and the requirements for a polished piece of writing.
*Students are encouraged to submit writing to newspapers, magazines, and student writing contests. The power of having student writing published is profound.

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Course Planner: September–June
Week One (for both semester one and two): Introduction to course syllabus, expectations, grading rubrics, revisit MLA format, discuss outside reading and establish weekly norms and activities.
Weekly Norms:
Monday: Vocabulary building of SAT vocabulary words from Kaplan’s Vocabulary Prep Level
1. Five words per week for approximately 16 weeks. Check for accurate definitions; administer a quick quiz on Friday. Vocabulary building of 164 literary and composition terms. Five words per week for approximately 16 weeks. Check for accurate definitions; administer a quick quiz of Friday.
Friday: Practise one of the following techniques for 30-40 minutes: AP prompts, sample multiple-choice questions and strategies, close reading strategies, text annotation, and visual prompts. Pieces of non-fiction and visual prompts used to introduce and reinforce strategies required for the AP Language and Composition Exam. Released sample questions from Language and Composition exams used to familiarize students with the format and expectations.
Note: Every Friday, from September to AP Exam Day, students are exposed to a wide variety of non-fiction in the form of essays, letters, speeches, images, advertising, photographs, diaries, journalism, political writing, literary criticism, autobiography, biography, tributes. These pieces cover a wide variety of subjects and are from a varied cross-section of authors.
Daily Norms/Activities Used Throughout the Semester:
Rubrics: Students exposed to marking rubrics for writing assignments and practise applying rubric to their own writing as well as to the writing of their peers; peer editing is put into practise on a regular basis.
Mini Lessons: punctuation rules, sentence types, sentence structure, and grammar as established through teacher evaluation of writing. This is also done on a tutoring basis at lunchtime with individual students who have a specific writing issue.
DIDLS: Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax. Students create a master list of vocabulary associated with this concept.
Evidence of Argument from Text: Students are repeatedly reminded throughout the year of the importance to “Don’t tell me, show me” when responding to any prompt, regardless of the genre.
Reading Comprehension: Test for all readings assigned; this applies to any genre of study throughout the year.
MLA Format: Reinforced throughout the year.
End of Semester Project: Twice in the school year, students are required to submit an analysis of a novel of their choice, which focuses on character development, narrative techniques, and the author’s writing style.

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Journal: Students keep a reading/writing journal in which they make a minimum of four entries per week. Guidelines: ideas for papers, class discussion reflection, reading response, attempt at new form or voice, reflect on experiences, detailed observations. These are collected at the end of each month and marked for effort, completion and variety of entries.
Film: used as a tool for critical viewing and analysis. Example: The Great Gatsby,
Frankenstein, Macbeth, Antigone, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Visual Media: Use of historic and modern-day speeches as a means of examining persuasion as a rhetorical mode. (Source: YouTube).
Assessment:
 Quizzes/Tests: 20%
 Essays/Writing Projects 20%
 Homework/Class Work/AP Practise 20%
 Midterm
 School Administered Exam in
10%
30% January and June
Fiction Material:
Variety of Short Stories
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Antigone by Sophocles
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Non-Fiction Material:
1. Variety of Essays from: The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction (Shorter Twelfth
Edition) [Paperback] Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 12th Revised edition (January
2008)
2. Also, a selection of resources from the following:
Imprints Text
Echoes text
The Act of Writing
Reading and Writing for Success Senior

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ENGLISH 111 AP Literature, Language & Composition
September – January
Weeks 1 – 7: Short Story Unit
 Review of the elements of the short story & especially the differences between theme and moral.
 Common element for all stories: Vocabulary building and literary devices such as magical realism, satire, irony, and foreshadowing. Also, students are expected to be well-versed in the biography, writing style and specific literary devices common to each author. This information is presented to them in the form of non-fiction biographies that they must read and summarize; this practice increases their facility with differentiating between main ideas and subordinate ideas.
“Two Words” by Isabel Allende: Magical realism is introduced. Focus of this story is the power of language on multiple levels. Students write an analysis of the power of language through a demand writing exercise by using a quote from the story as a prompt for the response. This is a 60 minute timed assignment in class. As the semester progresses, the time limit will be reduced gradually to 40 minutes.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner: Focus of this story is to discuss the use of narrative technique, description and diction. Students write an analysis essay by applying the DIDLS concept to the story.
- Peer editing is introduced through modeling; a technique developed throughout the year.
An Excerpt from A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan: Excerpt is used as a tool for instruction in close reading with a focus on character, imagery, and diction. This leads into the second demand writing task for this unit: a 60 minute, timed discussion of theme.
Students are allowed to use the text during this activity and must show a seamless use of quotes to support analysis. (Students have been instructed on this methodology and each student has a copy of the College Style Sheet that outlines this technique)
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Fall of the House
of Usher”: Focus of this section is on writing style with the application of DIDLS for an analysis of Poe’s writing leading into an analysis of devices used to create setting and atmosphere. Focus is also on narrative technique. Students are then assigned an 800 word essay in which they prove that Poe is the master of creating atmosphere.
“Tapka” from Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis: Emphasis is on narrative technique, use of imagery and symbolism. Close reading also of character development to lead into a demand writing prompt in the form of a single quotation to discuss how
Bezmozgis reveals character in his excerpt.
Weeks 8 – 12: Novel Study of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
 Teacher delivers lectures on the nineteenth century novel, use of epistolary method by
Shelley to advance plot, develop character, and conflict, use of satire, writing style, Shelley biography and origins of the story, social customs of the nineteenth century.

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Culminating Assignments:
 Cornell Notes
 A three-part biography on Mary Shelley
 Reading quizzes (chapters 1-4, 6-10, 11-16, 18-19, and 21-24)
 Small group discussion reports on chapters 5, 17, and 20
 A “characterization essay” on Robert Walton
 A final test (objective) and in-class essay (timed-writing)
 ”Beyond Project”
Weeks 13 – 15: Novel Study of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
 Introduction to Fitzgerald’s work and biography with assigned readings of critical analysis of his body of writing, with particular emphasis on his importance to American literature and his critique of the “American Dream”. Students create a summary of this material using Cornell Notes.
 Students required to research, using the novel only, following topics assigned as seminar presentations in groups of 3: significant quotations; character analysis of Jay Gatsby; character analysis of characters such as Nick, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, George, Myrtle; analysis of theme; critical evaluation of the novel: plot, character development, use of setting; style.
 Seminar is then converted to essay to be submitted. Use of peer editing techniques employed before submission.
Weeks 16 – 18: Novel Study of Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
 Lecture from teacher on Salinger. Students read and take notes on biographical pieces on his life, works, writing style, influences, impact on society and the bildungsroman genre.
Cornell Notes.
 Students discuss Literary Terms poignant to the novel, such as allusion, symbolism, unreliant narration.
 Students engage in a close reading of Chapters 1 & 2 for the following: narrative technique, character development, setting, atmosphere, writing style, imagery, emerging themes.
 Demand Writing: Time now reduced to 50 minutes with a single quotation prompt related to the first 2 chapters of the novel. Question related to the narration of the novel.
 Seminar Assignment:
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Students are assigned readings on Catcher in the Rye to prepare for seminar. Various topics assigned to partners, such as: allusions, censorship, symbolism, reliable narration, etc. Pairs of students also assigned one character for analysis and investigation of role played and influence on Holden.
2.
Students must use evidence from the text from both primary and secondary sources during the seminar presentation. The research component with a wide variety of secondary sources exposes students to non-fiction and the requirement to synthesize and evaluate relevant information to support their analysis of the novel.

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There are also the obvious benefits of delivering material to the class where they use their oral skills.
3.
This seminar is then converted into a primary and secondary source research essay with requirements for MLA format, a formal outline, parenthetical references, and a
Works Cited page. Even though research was done as a pair, individual assignments are submitted for evaluation. Use of peer editing method employed before submission.
Week 19: (End of January) Final Exam for Semester One.
 January Final Exam is administered. Exam content covers both specific curriculum and application of skills reinforced all year.
ENGLISH 111 AP Literature, Language & Composition
February – June
*Continue to build on what was introduced in the first semester; see Course Planner (2).
Weeks 1 – 4: Study of the play Antigone by Sophocles
 Students provided with extensive background on Greek drama, genre of tragedy, Greek and Roman mythology, Greek drama terminology, biography of Sophocles, the Oedipus trilogy. Students must read and determine pertinent information for oral discussion using
Cornell Notes.
 Students read the play Antigone and class participates in an oral reading of the play.
Focus of unit is to have students examine the character of Creon as a ruler/modern politicians and leaders are compared and contrasted. The contrast/comparison method of organizing ideas provides them with practise for the AP exam. Students also debate the issue of moral law versus civil law, culminating in a 40 minute demand writing activity. Also examine the role of the Chorus as the voice of the people; exercise in contrasting this with concerns and influences of the electorate in modern era – this is a particularly powerful activity when there is a Federal Election as there was recently in Canada and with the
Presidential race in U.S. in fall of 2008. Debate also held on the role of fate versus free will.
*All of these assignments require close reading and sophisticated analysis of text.
 Final Writing Assignments:
 Students write their own myth by including at least four fellow students as gods, goddesses and mortals.
 Students research a modern example of civil disobedience i.e. Rosa Parks, and compare and contrast it with Antigone’s actions.
Weeks 5 – 9: Study of the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare
 Lecture on Elizabethan London and History of Theatre. Students then read and make notes on succession in England and Scotland, the Globe Theatre reconstruction, the curse connected to the play, definition of the Shakespearean tragic hero. Cornell Notes.
 Students read Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage independently while the play is read in class. This non-fiction piece will not only reinforce student comprehension of

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This book is concise, clear and an enjoyable read in order to introduce students to academic writing.
 Students read the play and participate in oral reading of significant sections, such as major speeches and passages that reveal the use of dramatic irony.
 Guided questions for each act to engage in close reading and increase understanding and lead toward sophisticated analysis.
 Students taught concepts of paraphrasing and are given practise with major soliloquies.
This tests their ability to recognize ideas and to use precise vocabulary to convey meaning.
 Students are given a final project; focus of project is to use a creative method of demonstrating an idea connected to the play. Options are varied and include creating a newspaper, presenting several scenes, creating artwork, creating verse, creating a piece of fiction, researching Scottish history and kings, creating a board game, creating a maze.
Weeks 10 – 12: Study of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
 Students read the play and then participate in oral reading of significant sections.
 Writing assignments:
1.
Students assigned to paraphrase and present critical readings of the play.
2.
Analysis of Feminism and the character of Blanche DuBois: Students research and debate whether the characters are an example of an emergence of feminist theory or a hindrance to feminism and then convert argument into an essay. [Students given topics such as relationships between men and women, restrictions on women in postwar America, symbolism of death, appearances versus reality, and fading beauty.]
Weeks 13 – 18: Poetry
 It is in this block that the AP Language and Composition Exam is written in May 2011.
 Focus is on exposing students to a wide variety of writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer,
William Shakespeare, John Donne, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Dylan Thomas, Lord
Alfred Tennyson, John Keats, Petrarch, Thomas Hardy, Sylvia Plath and lyrics from modern music.
 Students taught poetry terminology using the Poetic Method for diction, imagery, sound devices, formal devices, formal structure and developmental structure.
 Close reading skills and paraphrasing reinforced in this unit; practise with creating powerful images to create their own verse; use of visual images as stimulus for creating original verse. Use of a Poetry Data Sheet and TP-CASTT
 Writing assignment: Compare and contrast verse on same subject matter by different writers. Example: Sonnet 116 versus “Back to You” by Bryan Adams.

 Following the writing of the AP exam, students research the poetry of one writer and present this to class in seminar style. Students required to utilize as many audio-visual aids necessary to instruct the class on common elements for their assigned poet.
Week 19: (End of June) Final Exam for Semester Two.
 June Final Exam is administered. Exam content covers both specific curriculum and application of skills reinforced all year.
Teacher Resources
Course Texts:
Abrams, M. H. ed. A Glossary of Literary Terms, Seventh Ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace
College Publishers, 1999.
Adams, Janice, Cathy Costello, and Steve Naylor, eds. Reading and Writing for Success
Senior. Toronto: Harcourt Canada Ltd., 2001.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995.
A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers, 7 th ed. Toronto: Bedford
Books, 2005.
Beaty, Jerome, and J. Paul Hunter. The Norton Introduction to Literature, Seventh Ed.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1998.
Bezmozgis, David. Natasha and Other Stories. Toronto: Harper Perennial Canada, 2005.
Brereton, John C. and Linda H. Peterson. The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction,
Twelfth Ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008.
Bruccoli, Matthew J., ed. New Essays on The Great Gatsby. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1986.
Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare: The World as Stage. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.
Connelly, Karen. Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1992.
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Conrad, Ronald. The Act of Writing: Canadian Essays for Composition, 4 th ed. Toronto:
McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1995.
DiYanni, Robert J. One Hundred Great Essays (Penguin Academic Series), 3 rd ed.
Toronto: Penguin Books, 2007.
Echoes: Fiction, Media and Non-Fiction. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Evans, Kathy, and Gillda Leitenberg. Ethics: The Senior Issues Collection. Toronto:
McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1995.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin, 1950.
Furberg, Jon and Richard Hopkins. College Style Sheet, 6 th ed. Vancouver:
49 th Avenue Press, 2005.
Glatthorn, Allan A. and Willa F. Spicer, eds. The Nelson Canada Young Writer’s
Handbook. Scarborough: Nelson Canada, 1990.
Imprints: Short Stories, Poetry, Essays, Media, Drama. Toronto: Gage Learning
Corporation, 2002.
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
Kirkland, Glen and Richard Davies. Inside Poetry. Toronto: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1987.
Palchik, Anna. Picturing Texts. Toronto: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.
Roche, Paul, ed. The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1991.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Penguin, 1985.
Wright, Richard B. Mr. Shakespeare’s Bastard. Toronto: Harper Collins, 2010.
Zinsser, William K. On Writing Well: 30 th Anniversary Edition.
Short Stories:
Allende, Isabel. Two Words.
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Ambitious Guest.
Hugo, Victor. The Bishop’s Candlesticks.
Mansfield, Katherine. The Doll’s House.
Munro, Alice. Boys and Girls.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher.
---. The Pit and the Pendulum, “The Raven”
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