AP Syllabus
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AP English Literature and Composition 12
Syllabus
Overview:
AP English Literature and Composition 12 is a course designed to expose you to some of
the finest pieces of literature ever written. Over the next two semesters, we will study a
few works from each major literary period from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day,
and read stories, poems, novels, essays, and plays by authors from around the world. We
will also explore the fascinating history of each work and author, with plenty of time for
lively discussions and debates, numerous opportunities for academic and creative writing,
as well as frequent chances to analyze literature with your peers.
Nonetheless, the opportunities afforded you by this class are not purely intellectual: upon
successful completion of this course, you will receive credit for English 12, English
Literature 12, and AP English Literature and Composition 12. You are required to write
the provincial exam for English 12, with the option of writing one, or both, of the
Literature 12 and AP English Literature and Composition exams. You must write the AP
exam in order to be eligible for advanced placement at a participating post-secondary
institution, however.
It is my hope that, when our year-long literary odyssey is over, you will have gained, not
only an appreciation of the power, beauty, and esoteric mysteries of these enduring
classics and the brilliant minds that shaped them, but also that you will have developed
writing and thinking skills which will help you excel in whatever career—academic or
otherwise—you choose to pursue.
Assignments and Assessment:
You will do a great deal of reading and writing in this class. You will be able to reveal
your insights into various aspects of the Grand Discourse of literature in numerous ways.
You will write essays, of course, but you will also write stories, short plays, and creative
non-fiction. Through your writing and discussion, you will examine various aspects of
literature, including theme, style, structure, and tone, as well as figurative language,
imagery, and symbolism. You will learn more about grammar and rhetoric, and how to
develop strong arguments.
My aim in having you write is to help you learn: grappling with complex ideas and then
synthesizing your thoughts into writing brings deeper understanding and clarity of
insight. To this end, you will have frequent opportunities to revise and rewrite. I want
my assessment of your work to be constructive in nature, so I will provide you with the
rubrics that I will use for assessment before you begin working on your assignments.
These holistic scoring guides will help you improve your writing, as they are designed to
show you not only what you did well, but also where you could strengthen your rhetorical
argumentation. By the time you are finished the course, you should be prepared to tackle
any academic writing task with confidence.
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Obviously there will be some summative assessments over the course of the semester, but
the majority of the assignments you do will be formative ones. Summative assessments,
like unit tests or final exams, afford you no opportunity to go back and do things again.
They are designed as measures of learning. Formative assessments, on the other hand,
are designed for learning. Thus, with a formative assessment, such as an essay or story,
you can receive feedback from me, from your peers, or both, and then go back and revise,
alter, and rewrite. The goal of formative assessments is to help you learn, not to rank
your performance in relation to that of your classmates.
I have selected a wide range of works for you to read, but I also want you to have the
chance to read literature of your own choosing. To that end, each Friday you will spend
part of the class in literature circles, discussing various novels, plays, and works of
creative non-fiction with your peers. I will provide a general framework for your
discussions, and hold you accountable for your work through various written and oral
assignments, yet the focus of your conversations will be dictated largely by your own
insights and interests.
Marks:
Marks for this course, as for all courses at PGSS, will be calculated cumulatively: your
mark at the end of Term 1 will “carry forward” into Term 2.
o
o
o
o
Tests
Projects
Assignments
Quizzes
30%
40%
20%
10%
Provincial exams account for 40% of your final grade. If, in the case of Literature 12,
you choose not to write the provincial exam, your final mark will be the same as your
Term 4 class mark.
General Rules and Expectations:
I have four main rules for my classroom:
Show up on time.
If you are late and the door is locked, please knock once, and then wait to be admitted.
Assignments missed due to lateness must be made up on your own time, not during class.
Be prepared.
You are expected to bring all necessary books and equipment to class.
Do your assignments.
You are expected to submit all assignments on time. Due dates will be mutually agreed
upon. No late assignments will be accepted unless prior arrangements are made
BEFORE the due date. You are responsible for work missed due to absence. I will be
glad to explain what you missed, but you must see me outside of class time.
Respect yourself and others.
Respect yourself, classmates, the classroom and the teacher.
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General classroom etiquette
1. Raise your hand to speak unless otherwise directed. Naturally, this rule does not
apply during group discussions.
2. One person speaks at a time.
3. See me for permission and a hall pass if you must leave the classroom.
4. Cell phones must be turned off during class. You may not receive or transmit
information.
5. All other electronic devices must be turned off during class time.
Required Materials:
The following materials must be brought to class each day:
 two pens (either blue or black)
 one three-ring binder
 paper
 all assigned textbooks
Some Notes on Major Assignments:
1. Essays written in class must be submitted on time, and must follow MLA formatting
specifications. Papers which do not adhere to the correct format will be returned for
revision.
2. No mark for your written work is final: you can always revise and rewrite.
3. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarized papers will receive a failing grade.
Some Notes on Attendance:
1. Your first confirmed truancy will likely result in you being assigned to the
Connections Room.
2. Permission to make up marks for work missed due to avoidable absences will be
given at the teacher’s discretion.
3. Upon return from an absence, students must supply an acceptable note or explanation
for the absence.
4. In accordance with the new attendance policy, after five absences from class (with the
exception of absences excused under the guidelines listed in the Student Handbook)
you will be placed on No-Credit status until you make up the class time you have
missed: ½ an hour for each class missed.
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Course Outline: English 12—Terms 1 and 2
I
SHORT STORIES (Part I)
3 weeks
Escape and Interpretation
 Plot
Story and Structure, 11th Ed.
 Style
Character
Stories by Richard Connell; Tobias Wolff; Graham Greene; Alice Munro; Alice Walker;
Katherine Mansfield; Thomas Wolfe; John Updike; William Faulkner; Edgar Allan Poe
Major Assignments: At least one essay; grammar and usage as needed; journals
II
DRAMA (Part I)
2 weeks
Hamlet
Major Assignments: Essay; writing assignments; trading cards; scene dramatization
III
NON-FICTION
and PUBLIC SPEAKING (Part I) 1 week
75 Readings
Major Assignments: Creative non-fiction writing, 5—7 minute speech; exam comps
Essays by George Orwell; Mordecai Richler; VS Naipaul; Ralph Waldo Emerson; James
Baldwin; Virginia Woolf; Nadine Gordimer; Henry David Thoreau; Noam Chomsky; et
al.
IV
NOVEL STUDY:
3 weeks
Brave New World
Major Assignments: Essay; journal; novel study package
V
SHORT STORIES (Part II)
2 weeks
Story and Structure, 11th Ed.
 Theme  Point of view  Symbol and irony
Stories by Toni Cade Bambara; Anton Chekhov; Eudora Welty; Nadine Gordimer; Willa
Cather; Shirley Jackson; Ernest Hemingway; D.H. Lawrence; Joyce Carol Oats; Flannery
O’ Connor
Major Assignments: Various writing assignments; exam-writing skills
VI
NOVEL STUDY:
2 weeks
The Old Man and the Sea
Major Assignments: Various writing assignments; exam writing skills
VII
NOVEL STUDY (Part II)
3 weeks
1984 or The Wars
Major Assignments: Essay; Comparison and Contrast
VIII POETRY
2 weeks
 Terms and types
 Literal, inferential, and critical comprehension
 See Appendix A for a list of terms and devices
IX
REVIEW AND EXAM SKILLS
Sound and Sense
Themes on the Journey
Ongoing
****Grammar and writing skills will be integrated throughout the semester; you will write
at least one short story, as well as numerous other creative pieces.
Literature Circle discussions will be ongoing.
AP Syllabus
Course Outline: Literature 12—Terms 3 and 4
Core Curriculum:
Anglo-Saxon / Medieval

From Beowulf “The Coming of Beowulf,” “The Coming of Grendel,” “The Fight
with Grendel,” and “The Burning of Beowulf’s Body”

From The Canterbury Tales “The Prologue” (Knight, Squire, Wife of Bath,
Miller, Monk, Friar, Nun, Parson, Oxford Cleric, Summoner, Pardoner, Miller’s
Tale)

“Bonnie Barbara Allen”

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Renaissance and the 17th Century

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, “Whoso List to Hunt”

Christopher Marlow “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”

Sir Walter Raleigh “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”

William Shakespeare The Tempest or King Lear

William Shakespeare “Sonnet 29,” “Sonnet 116” and “Sonnet 130”

John Donne “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

John Donne “Death be not Proud”

Robert Herrick “To the Virgins”

John Milton “On His Blindness”

John Milton, from Paradise Lost (Book I, lines 1 – 263)

Pepys “The Fire of London”
18th Century and Romantic

Lady Mary Chudleigh “To the Ladies”

Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock

Jonathon Swift “A Modest Proposal”

Robert Burns “To a Mouse”

William Blake “The Tyger”

William Blake “The Lamb”

Thomas Grey “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (lines 1 – 56)

William Wordsworth “My Heart Leaps Up”

William Wordsworth “The World is Too Much with Us”
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
Samuel Coleridge “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

George Gordon Lord Byron “Apostrophe to the Ocean”

Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ode to the West Wind”

John Keats “Ode to a Nightingale”

John Keats “When I Have Fears”

Mary Shelley Frankenstein

Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
Victorian and 20th Century

Alfred, Lord Tennyson “Ulysses”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43”

Robert Browning “My Last Duchess”

Emily Bronte “Song”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach”

Thomas Hardy “The Darkling Thrush”

Emily Dickinson “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”

Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est”

William Butler Yeats “The Second Coming”

T. S. Eliot “The Hollow Men”

George Bernard Shaw St. Joan

Dylan Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”

Stevie Smith “Pretty”

Margaret Atwood “Disembarking at Quebec”
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AP Syllabus
Appendix A: Terms and Devices
A
allegory
alliteration
allusion
analogy
antagonist
anticlimax
anti-Petrarchan
antithesis
aphorism
apostrophe
archaic language
aside
assonance
atmosphere
audience
B
ballad
ballad stanza
bathos
bias
blank verse
C
cacophony
caesura
caricature
carpe diem
character
character foil
characterization
chorus
classical
climax
colloquial language
comedy
comic relief
conceit
conflict
connotation
consonance
couplet
D
denotation
dénouement
dialect
dialogue
diary
diction
didactic
dilemma
dissonance
dramatic irony
dramatic monologue
E
elegy
English
(Shakespearean) sonnet
epic
epigram
epigraph
epilogue
epitaph
essay
euphemism
euphony
exposition
extended metaphor
F
figurative language
foreshadowing
free verse
G
genre
H
hero
heroic couplet
hyperbole
I
iambic
image
imagery
in medias res
internal rhyme
inversion
invocation
irony
Italian
(Petrarchan) sonnet
J
juxtaposition
K
kenning
L
Latinate
literal language
lyric
M
metaphor
metaphysical
meter
metonymy
mock epic
mock heroic
monologue
mood
motif
N
narrative
narrator
near rhyme (half, slant)
O
octave
ode
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
P
paradox
parallelism
parody
pastoral
pathos
pentameter
persona
personification
Petrarchan
(Italian) sonnet
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AP Syllabus
play on words
prologue
protagonist
proverb
pun
Q
quatrain
R
refrain
resolution
rhetoric
rhetorical question
rhyme
rhyme scheme
rhythm
Romanticism
S
satire
sestet
Shakespearean
(English) sonnet
simile
soliloquy
sonnet
speaker
Spenserian stanza
stanza
stock / stereotyped
style
symbol
synecdoche
syntax
T
tercet
terza rima
tetrameter
theme
tone
tragedy
trimeter
trochaic
trochee
V
villanelle
voice
volta
W
wit
word play
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Appendix B: Texts
Required Texts
75 Readings: An Anthology. Eds. Santi Buscemi and Charlotte Smith. New York: McGraw-Hill
Higher Education, 2001.
Adventures in English Literature, Athena Edition. Eds. Lynda Abbott, et al. Orlando, Florida:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1996.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. London: Penguin Books,
1977.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. Toronto: Scribner, 1980.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Flamingo, 1932.
Inside Poetry, 2nd Edition. Eds. Richard Davies and Jerry Wowk. Toronto: Harcourt Canada.
Shaw, Bernard. Saint Joan. London: Penguin Books, 1957.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Edward Hubler. Middlesex, England: Signet, 1987.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Russell Fraser. Middlesex, England: Signet, 1987.
Sound and Sense, 6th Edition. Ed. Laurence Perrine. Toronto: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1982.
Story and Structure, 11th Edition. Eds. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Toronto: Thomson
Nelson, 2006.
Supplementary Texts
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1981.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1981.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. New York: HarperTorch, 2001.
Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1981.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1949.
Orwell, George. 1984. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1949.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1991.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1945.