AP ENGLISH LITERATURE CURRICULUM 2011-2012
Yearlong Guiding Questions
1. How do writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for readers?
2. How are literary devices used to portray an author’s message?
3. How do we determine what a text is about and what it says about what it’s about?
Unit 1: Awakening to Injustice (change to search for identity?)
Essential Questions:
1. How does one come to recognize injustice in society?
2. What reactions do people have to injustice and what does that reveal about their
character and the society in which they live?
Texts
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How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster
Invisible Man, Ellison
The Awakening, Chopin
Supplemental Pieces: How to Mark a Book, Adler; A Good Man is Hard to Find,
O’Connor; 19th c. social etiquette sampler; The Awakening critical essays; Diving into the
Wreck, Rich
Major Assessments
- Q3 Summer Reading Essay
- Literary Terms & Techniques Quiz
- Reunion Q1 Essay
- The Awakening Dialectical Journals
- The Awakening Criticism Analysis Essay & Presentations
- The Awakening Q3 Essay
Performance Based Tasks
- Application of HTRLLAP to Invisible Man
- A Good Man is Hard to Find Socratic Seminar
- Personal Narrative
- College Essay
- Social Justice Project
Unit 2: Fate versus Free Will
Essential Questions
1. How does one’s view of fate and free will determine the course of his life?
2. What does an individual’s reaction to obstacles reveal about his character?
Texts
 Hamlet, Shakespeare
 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard
 Supplemental Pieces: Ophelia, Rimbaud; Ophelia, Millais (painting); Hamlet film clips;
They All Want to Play Hamlet, Sandburg; From The Lectures of 1811-12, Lecture XII,
Coleridge; Aristotle on Tragedy, Aristotle; Gertrude Talks Back, Atwood; Jude Law’s
Hamlet on Broadway interview; RGAD film
Major Assessments
- Quizzes on each act
- Selected soliloquy explications
- To be film analysis (critical essay)
- Fever Charts
- Ophelia Character Analysis (poetry & art analysis)
- Coleridge Criticism Analytical Essay (in-class)
- RGAD Dialectical Journals
- RGAD Literary Criticism Analysis
- RGAD Socratic Seminar
- RGAD Q3 Essay
Performance Based Tasks
- Soliloquy Emulation Project (to be)
- Hamlet Critical Research Project (essay & presentation)
- RGAD Socratic Seminar
Unit 3: The Individual in Society
Essential Questions
1. How do humans react to isolation?
2. What do individuals need in order to be human?
3. What consequences do we face when we don’t take responsibility for our actions?
4. How does a lack of compassion or understanding lead to prejudice or stereotyping?
Texts
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge
Frankenstein, Shelley
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
Supplemental Pieces: The Albatross, Baudelaire; Ozymandias, P. Shelley; Tintern Abbey,
Wordsworth; I Have Visited Again, Pushkin; To a Skylark, P. Shelley; Ode to a
Nightingale, Keats; clips from various Frankenstein cinematic adaptations; Prometheus,
Byron
Major Assessments
- TRotAM Analytical Essay (techniques shaping meaning)
- Skylark/Nightingale Compare/Contrast (last year)
- Frankenstein Dialectical Journals
- Frankenstein & Prometheus C/C Topic Sentence Outline (group) & Essay (individual)
- Frankenstein Contemporary Connections Presentation
- The Metamorphosis Dialectical Journals
Performance Based Tasks
- The Metamorphosis Critical Approaches Essay & Presentation
- Frankenstein/The Metamorphosis Compare/Contrast Essay
Unit 4: The Thin Line between Civilization and Savagery
Essential Questions
1. Do absolute or universal truths exist? How does perspective shape or alter truth?
2. What is the truth of the darkness at the heart of civilization and the civilized human
being?
3. In the face of the savage reality of human behavior, why do people continue to pursue
the concept of civilization?
Texts
 The Hollow Men, Eliot
 Heart of Darkness, Conrad
 Apocalypse Now, Coppola
 Things Fall Apart, Achebe
 Supplemental Pieces: HoD Historical & Biographical Context; The Second Coming,
Yeats; Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Thomas; anyone lived in a pretty how
town, cummings; The Unknown Citizen, Auden; Shooting an Elephant, Orwell; Rule,
Britannia!, Thomson/Arne; The End, The Doors; Chinua Achebe’s 2000 Interview with
The Atlantic
Major Assessments
- The Hollow Men Analytical Essay
- Heart of Darkness Dialectical Journals
- Heart of Darkness Analytical Questions
- Heart of Darkness Reading Quiz
- Heart of Darkness Q3 Essay
- Apocalypse Now Critical Viewing Questions
- Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness Compare/Contrast Essay
- TFA Dialectical Journals
Performance Based Tasks
- Heart of Darkness Socratic Seminar
- Proverb Project
Unit 5: Manipulation of Public Perception
Essential Questions
1. What is social-political commentary and how is it employed across various time
periods and cultures?
2. How and why do governments utilize media in order to influence the public?
3. Do absolute or universal truths exist? How does perspective shape or alter truth?
Texts
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1984, Orwell
The Allegory of the Cave, Plato
[Brave New World, Huxley]
Wag the Dog
Supplemental Pieces: Plato’s Theory of Forms & Tri-Partite Soul; Aristotle on Freedom
& Choice; propaganda samples; selections from Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman
Major Assessments
- 1984 Annotations
- Analytical Response to Fromm’s Afterword
Performance Based Tasks
- 1984 Critical Essay (film c/c, contemporary connection, Amusing Ourselves to Death)
- 1984/BNW Compare/Contrast Essay (prev. years)
Unit 6: AP Exam Review/The Light Outside the Cave
Essential Questions:
1. What are the components of the AP English Literature Exam?
2. What skills should be reviewed and refined before the AP Exam?
3. What strategies can be used to answer multiple choice questions?
4. How can we incorporate literature into our lives for enrichment and enjoyment?
Texts
 Everything is Illuminated, Foer
 OR Literature Circles & Presentations
Major Assessments
- Q3 Top Ten Chart
- Q3 Elevator Pitches
- Q3 Essay
- Q1 Essay
- Q2 Essay
- Multiple Choice Practice (sections & full 60 min test)
- Literary Terms Quiz Round 2
Performance Based Tasks
- AP Exam!
- Curriculum Review & Design
- Everything is Illuminated Socratic Seminar
- Everything is Illuminated Personal Reflection
Throughout the Year
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Semester 1: poetry explication every long block (annotate/reflect)
Semester 2: MC section every long block
Literary terms quiz once per semester
60 minute multiple choice section once per semester (?)
Dialectical journal for each text
More current connections
Add more short stories (possibilities: Battle Royale, Ellison; The Dead, Joyce;
Cathedrals, Carver; The Swimmer, Cheever)
Midyear exam = ½ AP Exam
More technology based projects