AP LITERATURE & COMPOSITION
SYLLABUS 2011-2012
Course Description
This Advanced Placement Literature and Writing course is designed “to provide students with a
learning experience equivalent to the introductory year of college literature course work. Because
students experienced mostly American literature in their junior year of English, and the school
mandates that the senior year follow a British literature background, we will use British literature
chronologically and interweave literature from American and World authors throughout the course.
Careful reading and critical analysis of literature is the backbone of this course; through this close
reading, students will deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both
meaning and pleasure for their readers” Several hours a week must be dedicated to this course in
order for students to be successful and reach their fullest potential. This course has been created in
complete compliance with the most recent AP English Course Description from the College Board.
(C1)
Course Objectives:
 To read and critically analyze a variety of literature
 To understand the way writers use language to provide meaning and pleasure
 To consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller scale elements as the use of
figurative language, imagery, diction, syntax, symbolism, and tone
th
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 To read and analyze works from various genres and periods (16 -20 centuries)
 To understand a work’s complexity and analyze how meaning is embodied in literary form
 To consider the social and historical values a work reflects and embodies
 To write effectively for a specific audience with a wide-ranging vocabulary, a variety of sentence
structures, logical organization, and supporting details.
 To become aware through speaking, listening, reading, and chiefly writing of the resources of
language: connotation, metaphor, irony, syntax, and tone.
Required Texts
Students will be assigned a textbook (Arp, Thomas, Greg Johnson, and Laurence Perrine. Perrine's
Literature: Structure Sound and Sense, 9th edition. United States: 2006.).
Students should consider obtaining a personal copy of the various novels, plays, epics, poems, and short
fiction used in the course. You may purchase copies from a local new or used bookstore, or from an
online book source. The local libraries and the Internet also offer most titles.
Students will be required to have Fiske’s Word Power vocabulary book. Weekly, comprehensive tests will
be given. Available online:
http://www.sarzaminezaban.com/Data/Articles/Items/2013/7/Fiske%20Word%20Power_.pdf
Assignments/Assessments:
Writing
Each student will write several out of class compositions during the year as well as composing one
longer research paper. The subject of these compositions will be explicating poetry and drama, and
performing a close reading of novels. Specific instructions accompany each assignment, but in general,
students will use specific and well-chosen evidence to express an argument about poems, drama, and
fiction. Close textual analysis of structure, style (figurative language, imagery, symbolism, tone), and
social/historical values provide the basis of these critical essays. (C3, C4)
This course is designed to improve the student’s writing; one of the tools used for review of essays is peer
evaluation. Students will evaluate one another’s first drafts considering style, organization, diction, etc. and
provide constructive criticism in order to improve student writing. After peer editing sessions, students
are allowed to consider their peer’s suggestions and rework their compositions for my final grading.
Essays will be examined for effective word choice, inventive sentence structure, effective overall
organization, clear emphasis, and above all, excellence of argument including exhaustive supportive
evidence (i.e. quotations) and clear, persuasive, elegant connection of this evidence to your overall
argument. Lessons involving these topics will be addressed in the first few weeks of school. Grammar
lessons will be taught on an ‘as needed’ basis.
Timed-writing
In-class writings will primarily be AP-Prompts from released examinations, though there will also be
quick-response, in-class writings as a basis for discussion. Timed writings will be graded using the
grading rubric found in the AP Handbook (students will be provided a copy). Students will be able to
revise timed-writings after class discussions on the writing prompt and I will rescore and give more
feedback on the final draft of the essay (C5).
Examinations
Formal examinations will be given throughout the year; these tests will contain questions from previous
AP tests or they will be formatted like questions from previous AP tests. The dates for these major
exams will be announced well in advance. I will give unannounced quizzes periodically.
Vocabulary Enhancement:
Students will work with three chapters at a time in the Fiske Word Power vocabulary book. To ensure
their wide-ranging vocabulary is used appropriately and effectively, I will give knowledge quizzes based
on the vocabulary words and other information contained in the chapters; students will also use the
words in weekly paragraphs composed of the vocabulary words of the week. Students will incorporate
new words into their functional vocabulary and use words in all writing and speaking assignments as
appropriate. (C5)
Poetry Analysis: TP CASTT and DIDLS:
Students are expected to keep up with completed TP-CASTT and DIDLS exercises for every poem
studied in class. Students will receive a handout explaining the two when the class gets ready to study
poetry. TP-CASTT (Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shifts, Title, & Theme) aids the student
in yielding a poem’s theme, while DIDLS (Diction, Imagery, Details, Language, & Syntax) is more
language-based and helps to yield the tone. At least once per unit students will compose an explication
(response papers, expository papers, and analytical papers) over one of the poems studied; MLA
formatting will be used. These essays will be used as learning tools—I will grade once and mark errors,
return papers and students may correct errors and resubmit. (C3, C4, C5)
First Semester (Vocabulary Chapters 1-20)
Unit 1: Anglo Saxon Literature— thematic concentration on the nature of truth, the journey of the hero, and archetypes
(3-4 weeks)
Reading Assignments: (C2)
Heaney—Beowulf
Gardner—Excerpts from Grendel.
Poems for analysis and theme connections
Writing Assignments & Other Assessments:
 2-3 In-class timed writings to be peer edited and corrected (C3, C4, C5)
 Anglo Saxon Project which includes several writing and artistic elements
 Students will begin their research papers—research involves reading and annotating a
novel (from the list of novels appearing on the AP test), researching the author on
various issues, discussing the novel’s social/cultural impact, and analyzing a particular
aspect of the novel in a 5-7 page essay. This essay will go through several drafts of
peer editing, teacher feedback, and self-evaluation. (C3, C4, C5)
Unit 3: Middle English— thematic concentration on the journey of the hero, self-discovery, archetypes, and satire
(3-4 weeks)
Reading Assignments: (C2)
The Pearl Poet—Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Chaucer—The Canterbury Tales
Ballads—Medieval/Modern
Swift—“A Modest Proposal”
Pope—“Those Who Walk Away From Omelas”
Allen—“The Kugelmass Episode”
Writing Assignments & Other Assessments:
 Students will undergo an intensive archetypal study. We will relate many of the
archetypes to film, poetry, and other literature throughout the unit. The culminating
assessment for this unit will focus on archetypes and the journey of the hero. The
format of the test will be in AP multiple-choice format.
 Film as Literature: Compose an essay in which you discuss the use of archetypes in
film. You will be expected to give specific, illustrative details from the movie of your
choice…some movies are exempt from overuse. (C4, C5)
 Define and relate the following terms to works of literature: invective, sarcasm, irony,
Horatian satire, Juvenalian satire, punitive satire, and persuasive satire. (C4)
Unit 4: Renaissance Period—thematic concentration on self-discovery, the nature of love, and the quest for truth (56 weeks)
Reading Assignments: (C2)
Plays: Shakespeare—Hamlet & Twelfth Night/Macbeth
Poems: Shakespeare –Sonnets, Marlowe—“The Passionate Shepherd to his Love,”
Raleigh—“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” Robert Herrick—To the virgins,
to Make Much of Time,” Andrew Marvell—“To his Coy Mistress,” John
Donne—“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” “The Flea,” “To His Mistress
Going to Bed,” “Holy Sonnet X (Death, be not proud),” “Song,” “The
Apparition,” “Holy Sonnet 6” (This Is My Play's Last Scene), “Holy Sonnet 14”
(Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God), Meditation XVII (No Man is an Island)
(correlating AP multiple choice practice test)
Writing Assignments & Other Assessments:
 Analysis of a sonnet in which students write an expository essay using textual details
to develop an interpretation of the sonnet. Each student will perform their sonnet
for the class and offer their interpretation of the sonnet for a separate grade from the
essay. Essay will be peer-edited prior to turn-in. (C3, C4, C5)
 2-4 page argumentative paper: In Act IV, Claudius notes that “sorrows come ...in
battalions.” By the end of the play, these sorrows include the deaths of all major
characters except Horatio. To what degree can Claudius be held responsible for all
of the sorrows of the play? Which sorrows may be particularly traced to Hamlet?
(C3, C4, C5)
Second Semester (Vocabulary Chapters 21 -50)
Unit 5: Reality Bites—thematic concentration on self-discovery, the nature of reality, and point of view (56 weeks).
Reading Assignments: (C2)
Conrad—Heart of Darkness
O’Brien—“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” section of The Things they Carried
Faulkner—The Sound and the Fury
Poetry—Issues of juxtaposition and semantic change: Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder,”
Yeats’ “For Anne Gregory,” Dickinson’s “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed,”
Roethke’s “Highway: Michigan,” Wilbur’s “The Death of a Toad,” Dickinson’s
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” Blake’s “London,” Housman “Is My
Team Plowing,” Jonson’s “It Is Not Growing Like a Tree”
Writing Assignments & Other Assessments:
 Students will read criticism of Heart of Darkness by Chinua Achebe and will then write an
analytical essay either agreeing with or arguing against Achebe’s stand point on the
novel OR Students will write 2-4 page reaction essay on Heart of Darkness using
Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong as a second source of information. (C4)
 Students will write an in-class essay based on the first 3 chapters of The Sound and the
Fury. This essay will be peer edited for initial feedback and the teacher will provide
feedback; students will then have the opportunity to revise their essay and resubmit
for final grading and feedback from the teacher. (C3, C4, C5)
 Short essay quizzes will follow each chapter of The Sound and the Fury; I will provide
feedback and a tentative grade and allow students to revise for further feedback.
 An AP style Multiple Choice test will be given after The Sound and the Fury.
 TP-CASTT and DIDLS poems (and figurative language) (C3)
Unit 6: Marriage on Pride Wit—thematic concentration on pride, marriage as a social tool, and irony (56 weeks).
Reading Assignments: (C2)
Austen—Pride and Prejudice, A & E’s film adaptation
Oscar Wilde—The Importance of Being Ernest
Poetry—Issues of images: metaphors, similes, analogies, and symbols—Browning’s
“Meeting at Night,” Lord Byron’s “So We’ll Go No More A-roving,” Dickinson’s
“Death is a Dialogue,” Rosetti’s “A Birthday,” Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too
Much With Us,” Herbert’s “Redemption”
Writing Assignments and Other Assessments:
 Students will write an essay either about pride in characters or marriage as a social
tool in Pride and Prejudice. Essays will be expository essays in which students develop
an explanation of their chosen topic. (C4)
 Students will keep a reading journal noting specifically how dramatic irony creates
humor in The Importance of Being Earnest. (C4)
 In-class writing topic using a previous AP test prompt.
 TP-CASTT and DIDLS poems (and figurative language) (C3)
Unit 7: Short Story Boot Camp
(3weeks)
Perrine’s Literature
Short Story Boot Camp is an intense three weeks packed with reading and
writing. Over this three-week training, you will read eight short stories and
write six essays. You will also keep a reading journal with important
information from each of the short stories. Each essay will be graded and
returned to you at the end of the unit. You will choose two of your essays
to revise based on your deeper understanding and my feedback. You will
these two essays for my final grading and feedback. (C2, C3, C4, C5)
Short story choices may change, but examples follow: All short stories come from:
Perrine's Literature:
Structure Sound and Sense 9th edition.
Author
Greene
Mansfield
Cheever
Cordimer
Joyce
Faulkner
Gracia Marquez
Title
Focus
“The Destructors”
Plot and Structure
“Miss Brill”
Characterization
“The Swimmer”
Characterization
“Once Upon a Time”
Theme
“Eveline
Theme
“A Rose for Emily”
Point of View
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
Symbols, Allegory, and
Fantasy
Text used for this course:
Heaney, Seamus—Beowulf
Perrine's Literature: Structure Sound and Sense 9th edtion
Fiske’s Word Power
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Shakespeare, Hamlet
Miller, Death of a Salesman
Foster, Thomas C. How To Read Like A Professor
Various AP Literature Test Preparation guides
Various handouts
KEY: Please refer to the following numbers that correspond to the Curricular Requirements as outlined by the
College Board:
C1—The teacher has read the most recent AP English Course Description, available as a free download on the AP
English Literature and Composition Course Home Page.
C2—The course includes an intensive study of representative works such as those by authors cited in the AP English
Course Description.
C3—The course teaches students to write an interpretation of a piece of literature that is based on a careful observation
of textual details, considering the work's: Structure, style, and themes; The social and historical values it reflects and
embodies; Such elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone
C4—The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and rewrite formal, extended analyses and timed,
in-class responses. The course requires: Writing to understand, writing to explain, and writing to evaluate:
C5—The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students' writing assignments, both before and after the
students revise their work, that help the students develop: A wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and
effectively; a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination ; logical
organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis; an
effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate
emphasis through diction; balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail and sentence structure