Mr. Forrest
aforrest@rbrhs.org
www.rbrhs.org/wt/forrest
20011-2012 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
With an intense focus on reading, writing, and literary analysis, Advanced Placement English
develops students’ critical thinking skills and encourages their academic independence.
Comparable to an introductory college-level literature course, AP English demands much of
each student and covers a complete range of literature, including poetry and prose.
AP English demands students’ continual best effort. Classroom discussion and active
participation are vital means of testing ideas, and written assignments allow students to
expand and investigate their ideas. Reading requirements will vary, but will average 150pp
per week.
While classroom discussions and focused analyses are integral to the AP learning experience,
much can be gained from individual instruction. Students are encouraged to make
appointments with the instructor to review their writing and discuss their readings. Typically
students find that their performance on the AP Exam and their sense of personal
accomplishment at the conclusion of the class corresponds directly to their willingness to
accept the responsibility demanded by the course.
In preparation for the class, students will complete a summer reading project that will begin
with a reading diary and response/prediction journal, and will conclude with a timed
analytical writing and a three page literary analysis.
Students must choose one work from each of the following groups:
The Story
Dickens--Great Expectations
Bronte—Wuthering Heights
Austen--Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice
The Self
Hesse--Siddhartha
Camus--The Stranger
Ellison--Invisible Man
Faulkner--As I Lay Dying
The Political
Huxley--Brave New World
Atwood-- Edible Woman
Philip Roth – American Pastoral
The Stage
Chekhov – The Cherry Orchard
O’Neill – A Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Albee – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Ibsen – Enemy of the People
Mr. Forrest
aforrest@rbrhs.org
www.rbrhs.org/wt/forrest
20011-2012 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
Unit One: Elements of Fiction
–This unit familiarizes students with the language of literary criticism and analysis. We hone our analytical
eye and our critical pen, getting our first practice with AP Exam questions and the technique of close reading.
Structure: Bullet in the Brain-Tobias Wolff
Character: A&P- John Updike
Setting: The Yellow Wallpaper- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Tone/Irony: Cathedral- Raymond Carver
Point of View: A Rose for Emily- William Faulkner
Theme: A Good Man is Hard to Find- Flannery O’Connor
Symbol: Rocking Horse Winner-D.H. Lawrence
Technique: Plot: Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka
Unit Two:
--This unit creates a foundation for our more contemporary reading throughout the year. Bridging the
Romantic and Victorian eras, Bronte captures the essence of literature on the brink of new discovery. Her
work excels in its characterization, authorial voice, use of narrative technique, and inclusion of novel
conventions. A touchstone for the course, Jane Eyre is a novel we return to frequently to draw comparisons in
style and theme.
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
Articles by:
Adrienne Rich: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman
Edward Mendelson – Growth: Jane Eyre
Poetry: Speaker and Voice
My Last Duchess-Robert Browning (781),
Porphyria’s Lover-Browning
In the Orchard-Muriel Stuart (783)
The River-Merchant’s Wife- Ezra Pound (1177)
Ulysses- Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1196)
My Papa’s Waltz- Theodore Roethke (773)
Selected Romantic/Victorian poetry
Unit Two Project: TBA
Unit Three:
--This unit explores tragedy and dramatic conventions, creating a foundation for the study of realistic and
modern dramas later in the year. We will explore language and character, delving into the existential
questions both works address. Inevitably, we discuss mystery, the detective genre, social commentary, political
commentary, issues of individual freedom, and the themes of trust and faith.
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark--William Shakespeare
Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Mr. Forrest
aforrest@rbrhs.org
www.rbrhs.org/wt/forrest
20011-2012 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
Articles by:
Harold Bloom—Hamlet, Poem Unlimited
Michael Payne—“What’s the Matter with Hamlet?”
Gary Cox, Crime and Punishment:Mind to Murder
Sydney Monas—Personal email correspondence with Professor Emeritus and master
Dostoevsky translator
David Bemnick—“The Translation Wars”
Cynthia Ozick—“Dostoevsky’s Unabomber”
Ralph Waldo Emerson—“Self-Reliance”, “The American Scholar”
Poetry: Character and diction
Heat- Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) (797)
Delight in Disorder- Robert Herrick (792)
Miniver Cheevy (790), Richard Cory (894)- Edwin Arlington Robinson
A night with beau willie brown- Ntozake Shange
Dover Beach- Matthew Arnold (889)
Meeting at Night-Robert Browning (797)
The Poison Tree-William Blake (807)
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud-Wordsworth (788)
To Helen-Edgar Allan Poe (1172)
Pied Beauty—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1127)
Spelling-Margaret Atwood (1060)
Dulce et Decorum Est—Wilfred Owen (1166)
Unit Three Project: Creation of 15 Minute DVD Interpretation of Crime and Punishment
RESEARCH PAPER ONE: HAMLET
Unit Four:
--This drama unit stands in contrast to Shakespeare, revealing two 20th Century masters, the latter heavily
influenced by the former. The class will explore drama’s move to realist/modern style and will plumb the
depths of feminist theory, economic structures, and the family dynamic.
A Doll’s House- Henrik Ibsen (1879)
Death of a Salesman –Arthur Miller (1949)
Articles by:
Methuen—Ibsen Plays: Two,
Arthur Miller—“Tragedy and the Common Man”, “Salesman Has a Birthday”, personal
recordings
Stephen Marino—Salesman Has A Birthday
William Smith—“Figuring Our Past and Present in Wood”
Sue Abbotson- 15 Minute Salesman
Poetry: Breaking traditional form—Romanticism, Realism, Modernism,
Selections from Emily Dickinson
Modern selections:
l(a (835), anyone lived in a pretty how town (1094), Buffalo Bill’s (836) , rpophessagr-Cummings
The Red Wheelbarrow (831), This is Just to Say (872)—Williams
Mr. Forrest
aforrest@rbrhs.org
www.rbrhs.org/wt/forrest
20011-2012 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
In a Station of the Metro--Pound
Constantly Risking Absurdity—Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1230)
Unit Five:
--This unit unearths the context of the modern and postmodern age. Continuing from Miller and now
looking at Joyce’s particular expressed in the universal, the class follows Joyce’s modernist lens through a
mythical journey to self. The, students witness the post-modern style of contemporary writer, Tim O’Brien.
Students will discuss the concepts of justice, freedom, inner conflict and literary movements as reflections of
history.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
The Things They Carried- Tim O’Brien (1990)
Articles by:
William Faulkner—Nobel Prize Address (mp3)
Robert W. Lewis—“A Farewell to Arms—The War of Words”
Robert Harris—“Too Embarrassed Not to Kill”
Todd Pearce—“Questions about The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien”
Tim O’Brien—C-SPAN address to George Mason University
Poetry: Theme and poetic conventions
The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock- T.S. Eliot (1102)
The Flea- John Donne (1099)
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time- Robert Herrick (1122)
To His Coy Mistress- Andrew Marvell (1158)
The Second Coming-W.B. Yeats (1219)
Ode to a Nightingale—John Keats (1145)
Selections from Robert Frost
Unit Five Project:
Poetry writing—Creating a book of poems “from” A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man
Unit Six:
--This unit brings the drama full circle, but creates the capstone for themes of jealously, leadership, corruption,
responsibility, rage and isolation that have been brewing through the works up to this point. Students refresh
themselves on the language of the Elizabethan Age, and once again differentiate Shakespearean Drama from
the more modern forms recently studied. This unit will be the last drama studied before the AP Exam and
the Drama Project. Students will study the language intensive sonnet form other 16th-18th century poetry.
King Lear- William Shakespeare
Poetry: The Sonnet as a form
Sonnets by Spenser, Shakespeare Sidney, Donne, Jonson
Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot of Peace-Sir Philip Sidney
Mr. Forrest
aforrest@rbrhs.org
www.rbrhs.org/wt/forrest
20011-2012 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
Unit Seven:
--This unit picks up where Tim O’Brien’s semi-post modern style leaves off. Morrison’s masterpiece
represents the most intricate and purposeful styling of any author we study in the year. With a wide span of
literature under their belts, students will approach Morrison’s work with the vocabulary and skill necessary to
parse her application of symbol, allusion, social and economic commentary, and distortion, and to address her
signifying of the slave narrative. Further, they will explore the work as a representation of culture.
Song of Solomon- Toni Morrison (1977)
Articles:
“The Gospel According to Pilate”--Brenda Marshall
AP Exam Review and practice Tests
Unit Seven Project—AP EXAM!
Unit Eight:
Into the Wild –Jon Krakauer Are you ready to go into the Wild?
Unit Eight Project: Autobiographical Chapter Project
Additional Assignments:
Two larger papers (5-8 pp) due in the 2nd and 3rd marking periods. One paper will ask
students to compare multiple long works by one author. This first paper will require three
writing meetings, scheduled one-on-one appointments with the teacher. During these
mandatory sessions, students can review their writing process and get immediate critical
feedback on progress, receive suggestions, and be offered research assistance. Students will
also bring in near-to-final drafts for peer editing in the classroom. At the conclusion of this
paper, students schedule one additional appointment, during which they have their paper
“tutored” back to them. The second long paper requires students to read deeply a major
poet. Students will evaluate the poetry and determine several poems that best illustrate that
poet’s technique and place within a literary movement. Students will both explicate the
poems and place them in the larger context of the poet’s peers. This paper will not require
meetings, but will be “tutored” back to students. Both papers will require outside research,
but will primarily focus on primary source analysis and adequate mastery of the MLA form.
Students will complete approximately six (6) timed writings per marking period. These
writings typically correlate with a work students are covering in that unit, and are primarily
designed to familiarize students with the three (3) categories of questions that surface on the
AP Exam. Students must complete those writings in a 40 minute period, the same length as
the AP test allows for an essay question. Questions that are not actual AP Exam questions
drawn from previous administrations of the test will be designed in a manner to resemble
the AP questions students will encounter in May. General categories for these essays
become familiar to students in time, but frequently require students to read and analyze
passages and long works for tone, diction, syntax, literary devices, characterization, theme,
dramatic intent, etc…. They also ask students to respond to works in light of critical
statements often made without intentional connection to the work at hand. These essays
will be scored on a 1-9 scale, used by the College Board for the AP Exam. Returned student
Mr. Forrest
aforrest@rbrhs.org
www.rbrhs.org/wt/forrest
20011-2012 AP Literature and Composition Syllabus
work will include comments and suggested/mandated revision assignments. Students will
learn how to score AP essays and will read examples of benchmark papers. They will often
evaluate or edit peer work during in-class activities. Grammatical instruction in the class
primarily comes from group analysis of these papers or trends noted by the instructor.
Items culled from the papers and reviewed in class become part of a grammar “hit-list” for
students to avoid. Students will also practice multiple-choice questions in preparation for
the exam.
Throughout the year, students will be required to write many shorter papers, in the form of
1-3 pp papers requiring student explication based on close reading, paragraph commentaries,
prepared notes for class, online blogs, reading journals, impromptu in-class responses, or
other variations on these ideas. While some writing in the class will be informal and
reflective, all writing will be reviewed in light of a basic criterion for good academic writing,
including:
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selection of topics narrow in focus and deep in exploration
appropriate selection and application of text and examples from primary and
secondary sources used effectively to support an argument
clear and cogent arguments arranged in a logical pattern
adherence to the accepted rules of grammar and mechanics
an attention to diction, syntax, tone, and transitions
analysis that creates new and meaningful knowledge from a work
willingness of the author to challenge or qualify an assertion
apparent effort and attempt to make text relevant to a student’s course of study
Traditionally, there has been ample room for bringing creative expression to class. Each unit
culminates in a creative project ranging from film production to autobiography writing.
Students are given advanced notice of these assignments, may be required to work in groups,
and are always required to incorporate individually researched knowledge into the project.
While grammar instruction is incorporated in writing instruction and assigned revisions,
students will study vocabulary both within works and through Quack SAT.
Student Anthology:
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama, 6rd Edition. NY:
McGraw-Hill, Inc, 2007