1
Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Brief Description of Course:
This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in the AP
English Course Description, emphasizing the development of literary and writing skills
through critical reading of and writing about literature, including novels, essays or other
short non-fiction and fiction, drama and poetry. The short term goal is to enable students
to demonstrate their achievement in college-level work by taking the Advanced
Placement examination in English Literature and Composition in May of each year. The
more important long-term goals of the course are to enable students to learn at a rate
commensurate with their ability; to deal with material that intellectually mature students
find engaging; to refine reading and writing skills important for success not only in
college but in the professional world; to cultivate habits of reading, writing, and thinking
that characterize life-long learning.
For the literature component, students should develop abilities to:

Read critically, asking pertinent questions about what they have read, recognizing
assumptions and implications, and evaluating ideas.

Read with understanding a range of literature that is rich in quality and
representative of different literary forms and historical periods.

Read a literary text analytically, seeing relationships between form and content.

Describe how language contributes both literally and figuratively to the meaning
of a work; i.e., deal systematically with the “whats” and “hows” of a literary
work.

Respond actively and imaginatively to a literary work by describing its stylistic
features and evaluating them in the light of the work’s total meaning.

Draw conclusions about the themes (the “big ideas”) of a work, appraising them
and speculating on related ideas.

Think reflectively about what they have read and discussed and apply their
finding to their own lives in order to value literature as an imaginative
representation of truth or reality.
For the writing component, students should develop abilities to:

View writing as a developed discipline that includes collecting information,
formulating ideas, and determining their relationships, drafting paragraphs and
arranging them in an appropriate order with transitions between them, and
revising what they have written.
2

Write as a way of discovering and clarifying ideas.

Respond directly and efficiently to questions that require a timed essay,
organizing quickly and clearly, focusing on major points that provide a competent
response to the question as asked and developing each major point fully.

Use the conventions of standard written English with skill and assurance.

Develop a wide-ranging vocabulary by practicing vocabulary acquisition skills
such as deriving the meaning of unknown words from their contexts or from their
elements (such as prefixed and roots drawn from other languages.)

Maintain a consistent tone and appeal through precise syntax, phrasing, and
diction.

Collect data from secondary sources, summarize clearly and accurately the ideas
of others, use them judiciously, and document them accurately.

Produce personal, expository, analytical and argumentative essays and papers,
using the writing process (pre-writing and planning, drafting, revising, editing and
proof-reading) and the checklist for effective writing. The check list is based on
the six traits for effective writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice,
sentence fluency, conventions and presentation. (See Write for College p.20)
We follow an intensive block schedule (90 minute classes meeting every day). The AP
class meets for 3 nine- week periods beginning in October, so in terms of “clock time”
the course runs 3 semesters. In “calendar time” (sometimes a more important measure)
the class meets for ¾ of the school year. Because of the length of the class sessions, we
sometimes split our focus and work on more than one unit of study at a time. For
example, structured vocabulary practice from the text Vocabulary for the College-Bound
Student may be done in conjunction with the research paper and/or a literature unit.
Course Syllabus
Term 2
Unit 1: A Review of Greek and Roman Mythology and the Epic Form.
Approximate time: 4 weeks.
Students read selections from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology over the summer so a quick
review of the chapters usually takes 2-3 days. My intent for the mythology review is to
develop a “fund of classical mythological background” upon which they can draw for
understanding allusions in other literature. Sometimes we do this in a quiz bowl format
complete with buzzers because, for now, what I am interested in is primarily the
“knowledge level.”
3
Next we focus on the functions of myths: cosmological, psychological, sociological, and
metaphysical.
I also introduce the students to archetypal patterns, specifically situations, characters, and
symbols. We spend some time on the Monomyth process as described by Joseph
Campbell and apply it not only to the myths of the classical Greeks and Romans but to
contemporary works such as Tolkien’s ring trilogy or even the Star Wars film sagas.
We also review the characteristics, minor conventions, and segments of the epic form,
applying them to an epic they are already familiar with, such as The Odyssey or Beowulf,
in preparation for the core text of this unit, The Divine Comedy: Vol. 1: Inferno.
Core Text:
The Divine Comedy: Vol. 1: Inferno. Trans. Mark Musa. Bloomington: University of
Indiana Press, 1971. We use the Penguin Books edition published in 2003.
I know that students will never be able to use the Inferno for the open-ended question on
the AP test, and yet I continue to believe that this is time well-spent in their preparation
as students of literature. I find that students need the framework that this work provides
as we discuss the social and historical context of the Inferno. We have talked about the
Golden Age of 5th B.C. Athens and compare it to Florence of the 13th and 14th centuries,
the New Athens.
Other concepts covered:
Genres: including comedy, allegory, epic
Poetic terms: stanza, tercets, terza rima, enjambment, meter, blank verse (Musa’s
rendition) and others.
Literary analysis: with emphasis on theme, symbols, allusions, tone, irony.
Assignments/Assessments:
1. Students read approximately 5 cantos a night, utilizing study questions to guide their
reading.
2. Students create a verbal roadmap of the work, charting the circles, sins, punishment,
contrapasso (how the punishment is just retribution for the sin), sinners, guardians, and
terrain.
3. Students write personal reactions/responses based on the text. Writing responses can
be analytical, such as: consider the literal and allegorical functions of the various
guardians in Hell; creative, as in: create a new canto, composed in terza rima, modeling
Dante’s use of irony, dialogue, allusions, characterization, etc.; argumentative, for
example: take issue with Dante for assigning a personage like Ulysses to hell. This is
merely a sampling. Students enjoy sharing these short responses in their writing group.
4. Students take an exam over the text which includes slides of Dore’s illustrations of the
Inferno to identify as well as passages to explain.
4
5. Students also complete a final project. Final project options for the Dante unit are
attached.
At this time we also start a self-directed vocabulary study using the text Vocabulary for
the College-Bound Student. The students work on 10 units, including using context clues,
building vocabulary through central ideas, words derived from Greek and Latin, words
from classical mythology and history, Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, French, Italian, and
Spanish words in English, and expanding vocabulary through derivatives. The students
are assigned practice exercises and are tested over each of the ten units throughout the
first term of the class.
Unit 2: The Drama of Three Stages: Ancient Greek, Elizabethan and Modern
Approximate time: 5 weeks.
Core Texts:
Greek Drama. Ed. Moses Hadas. New York: Bantam Books, 1965. We use the Bantam
Classic edition republished in 1982. Students read two plays by Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
and Antigone. Following Antigone students read the essay “On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Editions vary.
Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. New York: Grove Weidenfeld,
1967.
Aristotle’s theory of the tragic hero is derived from an examination of Greek tragedy,
Bradley’s almost wholly from an examination of Shakespeare’s tragedies; the
existentialist’s “hero” emerges in the plays of Ionesco, Beckett, and others, writers who
have contributed to Stoppard’s vision. Students will be asked to discuss to what extent
these tragic theories are limited to the particular bodies of drama from which they were
derived, and to what extent they are of more universal significance.
Other concepts covered:
Drama as an important form of literary expression.
A review of the genre of tragedy. Introduction to genres of comedy and tragicomedy.
Students compare and contrast dramatic literature through a knowledge of:
Character and action
Language and dialogue
Symbol and image
Staging and production
Play terminology
Of course, during the reading of each play we spend a great deal of class time discussing
the major ideas in each drama, for example the conflict between fate and free will in
Oedipus Rex, individual conscience vs. the laws of the state in Antigone and “Civil
Disobedience,” Hamlet’s delay, Ros and Guil as existential heroes or “just two blokes.”
5
We look at the distinguishing characteristics of each work. For example, in Oedipus Rex
we focus on irony, in its three forms, dramatic, verbal and situational.
Assignments/Assessments:
1. Students will alternate reading the plays as homework assignments and classroom
situations for acting.
2.Imagery Assignment: Imagery creates atmosphere, reinforces certain themes or motifs,
characterizes and contrasts personalities, and foreshadows upcoming events. Consider a
recurring image you have noticed in reading the play (Can be used for any of the plays
read and we usually do this assignment more than once, the first time in a group, the
second time individually.) List as many references to a particular kind of image as you
can (quote the text and provide page reference or Act, scene and line). Then in a wellorganized response analyze how the image functions in the play, that is, how it
contributes to total meaning. I usually provide a student sample from a previous year or
one I have done myself to model the assignment the first time.
3. Timed AP Free Response Question after reading the 2 Greek plays and Thoreau’s
essay. In preparation for the exam we practice sentence variation and sentence
combining skills by imitating specific models, including nominative absolute and
participial constructions, compound and complex sentences, and parallelisms. I usually
ask that the content of the sentence be related to one of the plays or the essay. Students
are able to type in their samples to be projected on a screen and we then work on
necessary revisions.
The essay question that the students respond to varies from year to year. Here is a
sample: “In some novels and plays certain parallel or recurring events prove to be
significant. In an essay, describe the major similarities and differences in a sequence of
parallel or recurring events in a novel or play and discuss the significance of such
events.” Since this is the first time that students write a timed essay, after they are
returned, we spend time in writing groups to discuss ways to improve. I also try to find
an exemplary response to share.
4. AP Objective Test practice. I use a passage from Walden from a released exam. We
also talk “strategy” for taking the objective portion of the AP exam.
5. Reading test over Hamlet. We practice at writing explanations for selected quotes
from the play. I expect students to be able to identify speaker, situation, and significance
of major lines.
6. Timed AP essay over Hamlet. Before we write the second timed essay we look at a
recent open-ended AP question that relates to the play and a sample response. Students
point out weaknesses and strengths of the response.
7. After the reading of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (RGAD), we view the
film. Stoppard is the screenwriter but has made some significant changes/additions.
Students look for obvious changes in script; they notice new motifs such as the wind
6
blowing, the sheets of paper, the stairs, echoes, dog howling and decide their meaning;
they consider the visual jokes, primarily ridiculing the world’s great scientific
discoveries; ultimately they are asked to informally write in their summer reading
journals (the first time we’ve gotten back to them this year) a response to these two
questions:
a. What is the most effective change Stoppard made? the least?
b. Which version (the play or the film) do you prefer? Why?
8. Take home AP Essay Question: I always use the same question for RGAD.
“The true test of comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laugher.”
--George Meredith
“Choose a novel, play, or long poem in which a scene or character awakens “thoughtful
laughter” in the reader. Write an essay in which you show why this laughter is
“thoughtful” and how it contributes to the meaning of the work.”
I have found that it is hard for students to write badly on this play even though they
always feel a bit disconcerted by it.
9. After reading RGAD, we read the Eliot poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
and look for “the Prufrock connection” to Stoppard’s play. This is our first poem from the
text Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry by Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.
Arp. According to the editors this is the hardest poem in the book so after we finish our
discussion, I tell the students that from here on out “it’s a breeze.”
10. Around Thanksgiving, students add one more dimension to their literature and
vocabulary units and that is to begin the research paper. Our school requires a
sociological research paper to be completed before graduation. I want students to
complete a formal critical English paper before taking the AP exam, and I think what
they learn from the first paper helps them in the second. Both units are described below.
Unit 3: Sociological Research Paper and English Critical Paper
Approximate time: Research Paper 4 weeks (Due on last day of 2nd term or if you want
to spoil your winter break on the first day you return.) English Critical Paper: 4-5 weeks
(Due at mid-term during 4th quarter)
For both papers students will:
1) determine what idea the author is advocating; how many different ideas and
arguments in favor of this idea are offered; how the opposing point of view is
represented and whether any evidence for this view is included
2) gather ideas and information, look for patterns of ideas, develop a general
rationale
3) evaluate the connections between ideas in the conclusion of the research
paper but throughout in an English critical paper
4) vary structural methods by employing an inductive structure for sociological
research and deductive structure for an English critical paper comparing and
contrasting the critics’ interpretations
5) vary documentation methods by employing the APA form for the sociological
research paper and MLA form for the English critical paper.
7
Students are provided with numerous samples during the processes for both papers.
Individual conferencing on both papers is scheduled during the 25 minute access period
at the end of each school day. I make progress checks six times during the research paper
process beginning with 5 sources (annotated citations), then 25 sources, 30-40 note cards,
60-70 note cards, preliminary outline and thesis, 1st section of elaboration. Additional
feedback is always available during the writing process in the access period.
Term 3
Unit 4: King Lear
Approximate time: 2 weeks
I’ve added an additional Shakespearean play to the course for a couple of reasons. First,
even though many, if not most, open-ended questions on the AP exam can be addressed
using Hamlet, thousands of students will choose that play. I think you must write very,
very well in order to stand out. Second, I find King Lear a more “manageable” play for
students to review in preparation for the exam. And finally, it’s a great play—complex,
powerful, haunting. I like it more each time “…I burn through…the bitter-sweet of this
Shakespearean fruit.”
Concepts covered:
Parallels to Oedipus Rex: sight/blindness paradox
both plays deal with kings who learn how to be men
Structure of the play: Main plot and sub-plot parallels
Imagery: storm, pain, eyes, clothes, circles
The complex use of the terms “nature” or “natural”
Students consider the ending of the play and consult the critics. Hope or despair as the
prevailing sentiment?
Assignments/Assessments
1. Students take turns bringing in poems to read to the class and draw connections to
ideas, images, language, or other elements of the play King Lear.
2. Quizzes over individual acts.
3. AP Question Timed Essay : For example, “In great literature, no scene of violence
exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or
audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the
scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work.” (Students do not
receive the question in advance.)
Unit 5: Poetry
We begin the unit approximately week 3 of third term and continue throughout the rest of
the school year. With a 90 minute period, we will sometimes split the class period (and
our focus) between poetry and drama or novel study.
Our core text is Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry by Perrine and Arp. Students
receive an assignment schedule (see attached).
8
Concepts Covered:
Student should develop abilities to read a poem with understanding and be aware of the
ways in which the poet uses language to produce various effects by:
1) considering the dramatic situation presented in the poem,
2) recognizing the contributions of diction (both denotative and connotative
to meaning,
3) determining the central image (or images) in the poem and evaluating its
coherence or lack of it
4) understanding the contribution of figurative language (metaphor,
personification, apostrophe, metonymy, symbol, allegory, paradox,
overstatement, understatement, and irony to the whole poem
5) determining the tone of the poem and its relationship to meaning,
6) recognizing how the use of allusion can enrich the meaning of a poem,
7) identifying patterns, structure and sound devices as tools to create certain
effects in poetry,
8) synthesizing the investigation of the poem by asking what is its central
purpose and by what means it is achieved.
Other assignments/assessments
1. John Donne Assignment: Students work in small groups on an assigned poem by
Donne. They lead the full class discussion on their poem. At the end of the week, all
students will write an in-class essay on Donne’s poem “The Broken Heart.” This first
essay will be returned for revising. After revisions are made, exemplary samples will be
discussed.
2. Objective questions on poetry. We use released test questions. Students are not
graded on these practices, but strive to eventually submit errorless responses. How we
arrive at that goal varies; sometimes they work in groups, sometimes individually. I let
them use resources such as dictionaries, textbooks, occasionally the internet.
3. After receiving instruction for and a model of the TP-CASTT process, students choose
a poem from our text to analyze. TP-CASTT papers are usually due after we finish the
chapter on “Tone” in Sound and Sense. Dates for this vary. The TP-CASTT model was
developed for a College Board publication and is an acronym for the concepts you can
consider when examining a poem: title, paraphrase, connotation (meaning beyond the
literal), attitude (tone) shifts, title (again), and theme.
4. Practice at writing timed AP essays on the poetry question. Sometimes we will simply
mark the poem and write an introduction that answers the question. Before the AP exam
in the play students will have written 2 complete AP poetry essays. The first one will be
assessed, returned with conference, and revised.
5. Time permitting, we write a short poetry paper using the explication or close reading
process from the text Writing Themes About Literature by Edgar. V. Roberts. 5th edition.
Unit 6: Independent Reading Assignment
This is an outside assignment given near the beginning of third term and due at the end of
the term.
Choose an AP quality contemporary novel to read while we are dealing with plays and
9
poetry in class. The library has copies of all novels listed as suggestions.
As you read the novel, I would like you to respond to the text in three ways.
1. Journal Entries--Three are required, any more are optional but effort will be
rewarded.
Please follow this format in completing journal entries:
Date of entry
Title of text for which the entry is completed.
Quotation or passage from the reading and page number(s).
If passage is longer than two or three lines of writing, use ellipses (...).
You should choose quotations of passages that you
--like
--dislike
--don't understand
--make a personal connection with
--think are important or significant to your understanding of the text
--have a particular interest in
--make you think
Respond to your selected quotations or passages with
--questions about the text
--predictions about the text
--explanations about the text
--speculations about the text
--connections between the text and other parts of the text or other texts
--reflections about the universal meaning of the text
Each journal entry should be substantial, that is, it should be long enough to complete the
thought process at work in the entry. (Two-three handwritten pages which demonstrate
active engagement and thoughtful consideration of your topic.)
2. Read, summarize and respond to at least one critical essay on the novel.
3. Write one AP open-ended response to the novel. See me for a relevant question
For ideas on novels, check with me. (Students receive a list of contemporary novels
generated from frequently suggested authors/titles listed in the AP English Course
Description booklet.)
Term 4
Unit 7: Novel Study
Approximate time: Begins before the end of third term and usually ends leaving us with
5- 8 days to use for AP test preparation.
Core texts:
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Bantam Books, 1981. The edition is
based on the 1813 edition.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1847. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003.
F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner’s, 1995.
10
Concepts Covered:
Students will demonstrate through discussion, quizzes, tests and essays their mastery of
the following novel study conventions:
1) Structure: structural divisions, polarization of characters or places, repetition
of patterns, resolution of conflict
2) Concepts of character; techniques of characterization
3) Setting: social milieu (emphasized in Pride and Prejudice), physical and
historical setting( emphasized in Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby);
representational or symbolic elements (emphasized in Wuthering Heights and
The Great Gatsby)
4) Patterns of plot: Freytag’s pyramid, initiation, quest and so on
5) Point of view: the omniscient, the first person narrator, shifting and complex
points of view
6) Special techniques for conveying meaning: allegory, social and psychological
analysis; authorial intrusion and so on
7) Historical and social background
8) Philosophical perspectives: classicism, romanticism, American materialism
Students will practice noting the main features of an author’s style to expand their own
range of stylistic options as well as to prepare for the prose analysis question on the AP
exam. Worksheet on short passages from a variety of works.
1) what sentence structures the writer uses frequently: sentence length, sentence
beginnings, sentence patterns: declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, simple,
compound, complex, compound-complex, loose or periodic, inverted
2) what rhetorical devices the writer uses to supplement meaning: parallelisms,
juxtaposition (“Lady Lucas was inquiring of Maria across the table after the
welfare and poultry of her eldest daughter.”), repetition, rhetorical questions
3) what kinds of words the author uses: abstract or concrete; colloquial, informal,
formal, or old-fashioned; monosyllabic or polysyllabic; mainly denotative or
highly connotative; euphonious or cacophonous. How does diction contribute
to the subtleties of thought and feeling communicated by the author?
4) what poetic devices can be found in the author’s style: are there symbols,
metaphors, imagery? does rhythm or pace reinforce meaning? Is there
alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia?
5) what overall tone is achieved?
Assignments/Assessments
1. Reading quizzes based on a quoted passage from the novel. Usually just to check
for understanding of basic plot events.
2. Students follow study guides for each of the assigned novels.
11
3. Pride and Prejudice assignment on Austen’s method of characterization, noting
the distinctions between simple and intricate characters and how characterization
contributes to the Art vs. Nature theme. Journal assignment.
4. Pride and Prejudice reading test.
5. Close reading practice on how the narrator’s attitude toward a character is
achieved through literary techniques, using a passage from Middlemarch in which
Dorothea Brook is first introduced. (Sometimes I substitute another passage.) Inclass activity. Exemplary sample essays released by the College Board are
reviewed after the students discuss the passage and make journal entries on their
own ideas.
6. Prose Analysis question from a released AP exam. I always pick a pre-20th
Century passage for this assessment. The essay asks students to interpret a literary
excerpt based on a close observation of the resources of language used by the
author.
7. Before we begin Wuthering Heights, we view a Center for Humanities video slide
show entitled Classicism and Romanticism: The Sober and the Sublime, a
program that introduces the two stylistic labels and traces the social and historical
influences that shaped these two opposing attitudes.
8. Discussions on Wuthering Heights reading assignments: thematic elements,
complex point of view, use of symbol and allegory, sociological analysis (class
struggle)
9. Wuthering Heights reading test and AP open-ended essay response.
10. The Great Gatsby reading and discussion. Students look at the novel not only as a
social history of the 1920’s but as a work that dramatizes much that is universally
true about the human condition.
11. In-class activities on close reading of selected passages from the novel, noting
how images, diction and other resources of language contribute to thematic
development. We read a literary essay “The Greatness of The Great Gatsby”
from Literary Analyses by AP English Teachers: A Collection of 10 Essays, which
focuses on chapter one of the novel, as a model for our informal practices.
12. We write one final timed AP essay. Students can choose any of the three novels as
a basis for the essay. I choose a question that at least in part asks students to deal
with the values of the society in which the characters live. Several released
questions meet this criterion.
Unit 8: English Critical Paper.
This unit is introduced at the beginning of Term 4. Students are to choose a novel they
are reading or one they have read previously which has been approved as a work of
literary merit. The process takes about five weeks. I use a guide included in the
Teacher’s Manual for an Advanced Placement Course in English Literature and
Composition published by Duke University Talent Identification Program. They have
given permission for teachers to copy “A Student’s Guide to Research” for classroom
distribution. It is a 6 Step Process:
12
Step 1: Establishing a Plan for the Body of the Essay: includes developing a controlling
idea and plan for the paper, researching the primary source, writing an in-class overview
of the full argument of the essay.
Step 2: Establishing the Author in the Literary Period: includes locating resources to
establish the author’s historical/literary period; considering a variety of background
issues such as central historical movements and events, literary themes of the period,
general philosophical/cultural assumptions, other major authors, distinguishing narrative
methods and how they relate to the author of the chosen work for the student’s research;
writing a paragraph placing the author in his/her literary period, preparing a list of works
cited and using documentation, submitting paragraph for teacher review.
Step 3: Introducing the Novel and Statement of Thesis: includes researching other works
of the author, critics’ reactions, current stature of work, writing a second introductory
paragraph placing the work in the whole body of the author’s work, conferencing with
instructor.
Step 4: Expanding the Body through Dialogue with Secondary Sources: includes
selecting critical essays on the work, reviewing and revising the initial overview essay,
writing an outline for the body of the paper, writing one sample body paragraph for
teacher feedback on using quotations effectively, developing paragraph with sufficient
detail and support, etc.
Step 5: Revising the Argument and Expanding the Body: essentially repeating Step 4 and
turning in a second paragraph for teacher review.
Step 6: Completing the Critical Paper: includes: revising introductory paragraphs,
expanding the body, editing, preparing Works Cited page, putting the paper in final
manuscript form, submitting the finished product.
Unit 9: Preparing for the AP exam
Although we have looked at sample essay questions and objective questions throughout
the year, we do spend the final 5-8 days of the term focusing on the test. This year the
date for the AP exam fell on the day after the last day of school so I never deal with the
problem of keeping students engaged in the class after the test. If I do have 2-3 days of
class after the test, the students always make a class film related to the “AP experience.”
Many can be found on You-tube, sometimes to my chagrin.
We review literary elements using short stories and poetry.
Selections are taken from: Barnet, Sylvan, Morton Berman, and William Burto, eds. An
Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
Selections vary from year to year
Inferno Project Options and Sound and Sense assignments follow as attachments.
13
Final Inferno Project Ideas
1. Create a fictitious music group of which you are a part. This group centers all of its
music on, curiously enough, Dante's Inferno. It is up to you to:
*Come up with a group name that deals with, in some way, a theme or concept
in Dante's Inferno.
*Design a CD cover that illustrates you group's theme or purpose ( the cover
should fit in an actual CD case.)
*Make a list of songs the group performs on the back of the cover (with titles
befitting the whole Inferno motif.)
*Also turn in the lyrics to at least one song in the group's collection. These must
be original lyrics and will pertain to themes or characters explored in the
text.
2. "To Hell with Dante!" Put together a "Who's Who in Hell" with at least one person in
each layer being identified with a picture, his/her crime, the punishment (if you choose to
change Dante's) and other biographical information. These should be actual people or
literary characters from the past two centuries who are associated with the wrongdoing
we saw in The Inferno. You are welcome to use faces from magazines or newspapers for
your hellion's bios. Do NOT, however, use friends, enemies, teachers, or any other local
losers for your examples.
3. We talked in class about Dante's Hell being a sort of twisted reflection of Heaven. It
is now up to you to design a Heaven using the "Dante's Journey" handout as a guide.
Create a mirror image of Dante's Hell, only fill the circles with groups of people you
think deserve a Heavenly reward. Note which group is in which circle and perhaps what
particular reward they are given (like each group in Hell is given a particular punishment
befitting their crime.) Illustrations of these Heavenly layers from magazines, cartoons,
your own drawings, etc. would be appreciated.
4. You can also concoct any other of a various number of creative and brilliant projects
you have stored in your own minds. Do please clear these ideas with me beforehand,
however. Some suggestions: A Dante Webpage; a design of hell in which you focus on
a certain area like political crimes, school crimes, etc., including a complete description
through words or visuals of the layout, new sinners, new punishments and so forth; or a
study of some other aspect of 14th century Europe: cathedrals, art, theology, science, etc.
NOTE ABOUT THE FINAL PROJECT
With this project you are allowed to work with a partner--or you can work on your own if
you wish.
This project will be graded on collaboration (if it's a group activity), completeness (if it
covers all the points I've outlined above) and overall effectiveness.
14
Poetry Assignments
Chapter 1 What Is Poetry?
Read pp. 3-10. Answer questions over text on separate sheet. Assigned class poems (be
prepared to answer questions): 1,2. Individual poems: 3,5,6,9,10,11.
Chapter 2 Reading the Poem.
Read pp. 20-28. Answer questions over text. Class poems: 12,13,14. [Teal: 9, 10, 11]
(You are always responsible for the questions at the end of each poem.) Individual
poems: 15,16,17,18,19,21. Use questions 1-7 and 10 on p. 29 to interpret your assigned
poem.
Chapter 3 Denotation and Connotation
Read pp. 37-42. Assigned class poems: 22,23,24, 271 (p. 318),27,30
Work sheet on denotation and connotation.
Chapter 4 Imagery
Read pp. 49-52. Assigned class poems: 32,34,36,41
Chapter 5 Figurative Language 1
Read pp. 60-68. Class poems: 42,43,44,45,46,49,50,53,
Chapter 6 Figurative Language 2
Read pp. 79-88. Class poems: 59,60,61,62,67,72,73.
Individual poems: 63,64,66,68,69,
Chapter 7 Figurative Language 3
Read pp. 100-108. Class poems 74,75,76, On a Certain Lady...(handout),78,79,90.
Individual poems: 81,82,83,86,87,88,89. Look for most dominant techniques used to
achieve meaning from the terms discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 8 Allusion
Read pp. 120-124
Explain the use of allusion in each of the following poems:
91.93,97,98
Chapter 9 Meaning and Idea
Read pp. 131-134
Look at differences in meaning in paired poems: 103 and 104; 109 and 110
Chapter 10 Tone
Read pp-. 145-149
Define the tone (in a word or so) as precisely as possible
poems: 119,124,125,126,127
15
Chapter 11 Musical Devices
Read pp. 162-168
poem 134. Answer question #4 without the "colored pencils."
Chapter 12 Rhythm and Meter
Read pp. 176-178, 186 (on Free Verse)
Answer question #1 in Exercises p. 187
Chapter 13 Sound and Meaning
Read pp. 197-205
How is sound linked with sense in poem 160?
Chapter 14 Pattern
Read pp. 214-220
Be prepared to answer the questions following poems 172, 173,178
Final Poetry Assignment: Choose a poem from Part 2 "Poems for Further Reading" of
Sound and Sense. Prepare a paper (typed) on the poem, utilizing the TP-CASTT format.