Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition
Course Description
Welcome to AP Literature and Composition! This course is structured in accordance with the
curricular requirements described in the College Board’s AP English Literature and Composition
Course Description. The close reading, analysis, and evaluation of representative works of
literary merit will form the foundation of this course. The selected works will reflect a variety of
literary genres and periods, and students will develop an intimate understanding of each piece.
Students will engage in a variety of methodologies for exploring the complexities of a work of
literature, including annotating, note-taking, journaling, and discussion activities. Additionally,
students will compose a multitude of formal and informal essays, micro-essays, analyses,
reductions, and reflections which will allow students to respond to literature in terms of personal
experience, critical interpretation, and the evaluation of a work’s historical or cultural
significance. While expository and analytical writing will constitute the bulk of assignments,
students will have the opportunity to engage in argumentation and creative projects. Students
will develop a sophisticated writing style through extensive drafting, peer review exercises, and
direct written or verbal feedback from the instructor.
This course is designed as a college-level course. As such, the workload is challenging, and
performance expectations are appropriately high. Students enrolled in this course are expected to
maintain a commitment to themselves as scholars, and should expect to devote no less than five
hours per week outside of class to additional reading and writing assignments.
Course Objectives
• read and analyze a wide variety of texts of literary merit
• identify and respond to the central ideas and themes of a literary work
• analyze the way writers use language and structure to construct meaning
• expand knowledge of literary devices such as allusion, imagery, symbolism, and tone
• evaluate the historical and/or cultural significance of a literary work
• employ a wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative
resourcefulness
• compose a variety of formal and informal responses to literature that are characterized by:
• a variety of sentence structures
• a logical and coherent organization
• a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail
• an effective use of rhetoric
1
Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
Materials
Loose-leaf, lined white paper
Black or blue pen
Red pen
Pencil
Highlighters (yellow, pink, and green)
Dictionary (paper or electronic)
Folder and/or binder to keep class work
Spiral-bound or composition notebook (for dialectical journal)
Flash drive (if possible)
TGB Student Planner
Grading system
Semester grades will be calculated from terms grades and final exam scores. Term grades will be
averaged, with each term worth 45% of your overall grade. The CRT (district standardized test)
will count for 10% of your overall grade.
Weights for term grades:
50% Performance (tests, formal essays, projects, presentations, etc.)
30% Progress (quizzes, AP practice, timed and informal writing, conferences, classwork etc.)
20% Participation (Socratic seminar, dialectical journals, independent reading, homework, etc.)
Decimal point scores will be rounded to the nearest tenth. 89.5% is an A. 89.4% is a B.
A = 90% and above
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = 59% and below
Grade Reports
Parents will receive progress reports via parent portal (ParentVue) as well as progress reports via
US mail every three weeks. Students and parents are encouraged to check student grades using
StudentVue or ParentVue links available via PUHSDs homepage.
Academic Interventions
Students in danger of failing will be notified every two weeks. Parents/guardians will be notified
through grade reports and Genesis. If, in the following two weeks, a student fails to bring up
his/her grade by attending KKIS, completing make-up work, rewriting essays with low scores,
and/or generally improving performance, the counselor and parent will be notified. An academic
contract may be necessary.
2
Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
Attendance
The District believes that daily participation in classroom instruction activities is essential to
earning credit in every course. Students may fail the class for the semester in any course when
reaching a total of 12 excused/unexcused absences and after school documented interventions
have been exhausted.
Tardies
Students will arrive to every class on time, and be in her/his designated classroom when the final
tone of the last bell rings. Five points will be deducted from the student’s participation grade for
each unexcused tardy. Work missed due to a tardy cannot be made up.
Make-up work
In the case of an excused absence students have the opportunity to make up work. However, the
value and experience of learning and working with classmates and the teacher can never be made
up. Therefore there may be participation points awarded during the excused absence that cannot
be made up. Make-up work must be turned in within the same number of days absent. Ask me
for make-up work the day that you return to class. Make-up work may involve KKIS time. No
late work beyond this policy.
Teacher Availability
For personalized attention, please see me during KKIS time (2:45 – 3:30 daily), or email me.
Academic Integrity
Academic collusion and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism occurs when a student
copies or paraphrases the writing of another person without appropriately citing the original
author. We will spend ample time learning of the fundamentals of MLA format in order to avoid
certain pitfalls. Blatant and intentional plagiarism (such as cutting and pasting from the internet)
will result is zero credit for the plagiarized assignment. Additionally, violations of academic
honesty are subject to the discipline measures outlined in the PUHSD Student Handbook.
Electronics
All electronics must be turned off and out of sight during class. Please respect the learning
environment. Any disruption will affect your participation grade. Repeated offenses will result in
the discipline measures outlined in the PUHSD Student Handbook.
Classroom Etiquette
The class is an academic environment. As such, I expect that you will be fully engaged in the
education process.
• One person speaks at a time. The teacher has priority.
• Be attentive and engaged in the AP English Literature and Composition curriculum.
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Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
• Be prepared for class by critically analyzing the assigned reading and completing your writing
assignments.
• Bring all required materials.
• Use respectful language and gestures.
Dress Code
The Trevor Browne High School Community will wear appropriate clothing that is clean,
modest, and not disruptive to the educational program. If a student is in violation of the dress
code they will be asked to change. Excessive violations may result in further disciplinary action.
Items of attire with obscene words, or inappropriate slogans/graphics may NOT be worn.
Immodest or indecent attire is not acceptable and footwear must be worn. Household slippers are
not appropriate. Immodest includes bare shoulders, and extremely tight or baggy clothing.
Examples: tube tops, halter tops, see-through tops, bare midriff tops, backless tops or tops with
spaghetti straps. Clothes will cover midriff, cleavage, buttocks and under garments. Headgear
such as hair nets or other hair coverings, including bandanas, do rags, and sweat bands are not
appropriate. Hats are ok outside. Skirts, shorts, or dresses cannot be shorter than the end of the
fingertips. All pants, shorts, or skirts are to be worn at the top of the hip when sitting and
standing (no sagging).
Course Content
Works selected in this course will allow for the elaboration of the concept of personal identity.
Through literature, we will explore how issues of race, class, gender, and culture can both create
and destroy one’s sense of self. Additionally, we will investigate issues of self-determination and
personal morality as a foundation of identity.
Pre-Course Assignment
• Read any two of the following works:
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Sula by Toni Morrison
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
• Create a dialectical journal (double entry format) for each work.
• Record a minimum of two textual details per chapter, and reflect on the significance of each
quote or passage. Be sure to include personal reflection and interpretation, along with analysis of
literary elements. Refer to the Dialectical Journal Scoring Rubric for guidelines
Term 1
Right or Wrong? A Question of Ethics
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Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
This unit examines characters in situations that force them to choose to act morally or immorally.
Culture, law, and personal conviction usually determine our actions or inactions. One’s reaction
to a character’s choices helps him understand his own moral code.
Supplemental Texts:
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea
Assignments/Activities
• Overview of Course
• Review/Submit Summer Reading Dialectical Journals
• Guest Speaker: AP Q&A with an AP veteran
• Timed AP prompt (diagnostic) over summer reading (2005 Free Response)
• “Reading Fiction Responsively” (Meyer)
• Sample Close Reading: “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin (Meyer)
• “Why Write?” John Updike (Kennedy & Gioia)
• Critical Approaches to Reading - Historical and Gender Strategies (Meyer)
• Workshop: Point of View
How Point of View Shapes a Story (Kennedy & Gioia)
Understanding Point of View Checklist (Kennedy & Gioia)
“The Lady With the Pet Dog” - Anton Chekhov (Meyer)
“The Lady With the Pet Dog” - Joyce Carol Oates (Meyer)
“Point of View and Plotting in Chekhov’s and Oates’s ‘The Lady With the Pet Dog”
(Meyer)
Sample Student Response - Perspective (Meyer)
Writing Assignment: Contrast point of View in two version of “The Lady With the Pet Dog”
• Workshop: Setting
“ Setting the Voice” - Amy Tan (Kennedy & Gioia)
The Importance of Setting
Analyzing Setting Checklist
“The Storm” - Kate Chopin (Kennedy & Gioia)
Writing Assignment: Explain how the setting and plot reinforce each other in Chopin’s
“The Storm.”
• Novel Studies: Jane Eyre and Heart of Darkness
Electronic Discussion
Socratic Seminar
Dialectical Journal
Timed Writing: Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using
characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or
creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and
show how that character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions or
moral values.
• Independent Reading: Things Fall Apart or Wide Sargasso Sea
5
Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
Electronic Discussion
Dialectical Journal
Essay: Compare/Contrast Point of View from historical/cultural perspective
• Critical Analysis Essay - Heart of Darkness
Research
Review of Thesis Statement
How to Cite a Source (OWL Purdue)
Peer Review
• Student Writing Portfolio Review and Conferences
Term 2
Choice and Consequence
This unit expands on the concept of morality by analyzing the choices characters make, and
evaluating how characters respond to the aftermath of their choices. A characters reaction to
adversity often reveals their moral fiber.
Supplemental Texts:
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Frankenstein
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
Shakespeare: MacBeth
Assignment/Activities
• Critical Strategies for Reading - Psychological Strategies (Meyer)
• Workshop: Character
Chapter 3 (Kennedy & Gioia)
How Character Creates Action
Writing About Character Checklist
“Saving Sourdi” - May-Lee Chai (Meyer)
Micro-Essay: Character Analysis of Nea
• Workshop: Tone and Style
Chapter 5 (Kennedy & Gioia)
Case Study: Ernest Hemingway (Kennedy & Gioia)
“Barn Burning” - William Faulkner (Kennedy & Gioia)
Writing Assignment: Imitation Exercise and Reflection
• Novel Studies - Frankenstein and Crime and Punishment
Dialectical Journals
Electronic and In Class Discussion
Explication of selected passages
Timed Essay: Explain how Shelley uses diction, imagery, syntax and tone to create a
pervasive feeling of horror in a selected passage from Frankenstein.
Extended Essay: Dostoyevsky portrays Raskolnikov as suffering from two basic problems: lack
of religious faith and a self-imposed isolation. Explain how Dostoyevsky’s tone and style reveal
the sources of Raskolnikov’s discontent.
6
Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
• Reading Drama Responsively - elements of drama, sample close reading, annotations (Meyer)
• Critical Approaches to Reading - Mythological Strategies (Meyer)
• Sophocles - Antigone
Aristotle: Defining Tragedy (Meyer)
Background of Antigone
Critique: Antigone’s Flaw (Meyer)
Writing Assignment: Argument - Does Antigone exemplify or refute Aristotle’s
definition of a tragic hero?
• Shakespeare - MacBeth
Shakespeare in Performance
Scene Reduction
Quote identification
Essay: Character Analysis
• Grammar and Style Mini-Lessons
• AP Multiple Choice Practice Tests
• CRT review
• Student Writing Portfolio Review and Conferences
• District CRT exam
Term 3
I Am Who I Think I Am...I Think: The Search for Identity
Supplemental Texts:
William Shakespeare: Hamlet
Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God
James Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Activities/Assignments:
• Workshop: Theme
Determining a Story’s Theme (Kennedy & Gioia)
Writing About Theme/Stating a Theme (Kennedy & Gioia)
“The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (Kennedy & Gioia)
Writing Assignment: Theologians have discussed the religious significance of this
parable for over two-thousand years. In your own words, what is the theme of this story?
Defend your response with details from the text.
“Harrison Bergeron” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
• Workshop: Symbol
Recognizing Symbols in Literature (Kennedy & Gioia)
“The Chrysanthemums” - John Steinbeck (Kennedy & Gioia)
Group Assignment: Analysis of Symbolism in “The Chrysanthemums”
Writing Assignment: Explication of “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Chrysanthemums” in
relation to theme and symbol
• Sophocles - Oedipus the King (Meyer)
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Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
Review of tragedy/tragic hero
“On the Oedipus Complex” - Freud
Writing Assignment: From a psychoanalytical perspective, does Oedipus suffer from an
“Oedipus
Complex”?
• Hamlet
The Theater of Shakespeare - Cornell Notes
Background of Hamlet - Cornell Notes
Scene Reduction
Quote identification
Creative Writing Assignment: Ophelia’s Diary
Micro-Essay: “Hamlet lives and is significant today primarily because his
experience…stirs the awareness of similar experiences in ourselves…Hamlet, placed in
his own peculiar predicament, is shown responding to it in ways which are totally
familiar to our own deepest natures.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
• Tom Stoppard - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Elements of Satire/Black Comedy
Annotation/Discussion
Comparative Essay: Search for Identity in Hamlet/Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Dead
• Independent Reading
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Media Presentation
• AP practice
• Grammar and Style mini-lessons
• Student Writing Portfolio Review and Conferences
Term 4
Poetry
• Reading Poetry Responsively (Meyer)
Marge Piercey, “The Secretary Chant”
John Updike, “Dog’s Death”
William Hathaway, “Oh, Oh”
Sample Close Reading/Annotation of “Oh, Oh”
• Suggestions for Approaching Poetry (Meyer)
• Writing About Poetry (Meyer)
Elizabeth Bishop, “Manners”
Sample Close Reading/Annotation of “Manners”
• Poetic Forms - Sonnet and Epigram
William Wordsworth, “The World is Too Much with Us”; William Shakespeare, “Shall I
compare thee to a summers day?”; William Shakespeare, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing
like the sun” ; Edna St. Vincent Millay, “I will put Chaos into fourteen lines”; Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, “What is an Epigram?”; Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”
8
Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
• Villanelle, Sestina, Ode, and Elegy
Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’; Algernon Charles Swinburne,
“Sestina”; John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”; Theodore Roethke, “Elegy for Jane”
• Writing Assignment: Demonstrate understanding of poetic forms by creating an original
sonnet, epigram, villanelle, sestina, ode, and elegy.
• Rhythm and Meter
Some Principals of Meter (Meyer)
Suggestion for Scanning a Poem (Meyer)
Practice Scanning a Poem
• Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone (Meyer)
Diction
Denotation/Connotation
Randall Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner; Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins,
to Make Much of Time”; Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”; Richard Wilbur, “A
Late Aubade”; Sharon Olds, “Last Night”
Writing Assignment: Analysis of Diction and Tone in Four Love Poems
• Imagery
Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”; Jimmy Santiago Baca, “Green Chile”; William Blake,
“London”; Wilfred Owen, “Dulce Et Decorum Est”; Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus”; T.S.
Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Class discussions/annotations
Personal response to poem of choice
• Figures of Speech:
Margaret Atwood, “you fit into me”; John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning”, John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”; Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing
with feathers”; Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
• Symbol, Allegory, and Irony
Robert Frost, “Acquainted with the Night”; Edgar Allan Poe, “The Haunted Palace”;
Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard Cory”
• Combining Elements of Poetry
Mapping a Poem
Sample Close Reading of “Death Be Not Proud”
Elements and Theme
Writing Assignment: Explication of any three poems from the term
• Poetry Exam
• AP review
• AP Exam (early May)
• Course Evaluation
• CRT review
• District CRT final exam
Course Textbooks:
Fowler, H. Ramsey, and Jane E. Aaron. The Little, Brown, Handbook. 10th ed. New York:
Pearson, 2007. Print.
9
Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and
Writing. 10th ed.
New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 8th ed.
Boston: Bedford/
St. Martins, 2008. Print.
Teacher resources
Bedford St. Martins. Bedford St. Martins. Web. <www.bedfordstmartins.com/meyerlit>.
Pearson MyLiteratureLab. Pearson Longman. Web. <http://www.myliteraturelab.com>.
Russell, Tony, Allen Brizee, and Elizabeth Angeli. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The
Purdue OWL.
Purdue Writing Lab, 4 Apr. 2010. 19 Apr. 2011. Web.
Please read, sign, and detach this page.
Student
By signing below, you accept and agree to the guidelines outlined in this syllabus. I understand
that the instructor reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus at any time and that verbal
notification of changes will be given during class.
Name (print clearly): ____________________________ ID# ____________________________
Student Signature: ____________________________ Date: _____________________________
Parent/guardian
By signing below, you acknowledge your understanding of the above guidelines and grant your
permission for your student to participate the described coursework in the English classroom.
Name (print clearly): ____________________________ Date: __________________
Parent Signature: ____________________________
*This sheet will be collected as an assignment grade. If this receipt is not turned in, the student
will receive a“zero” for the assignment and the instructor will contact the parent/guardian.
Any notes or comments from parents are appreciated. Thank you.
______________________________________________________________________________
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Ms. M. Goldie
mgoldie@phxhs.k12.az.us
(602) 764-8500
AP English Literature and Composition
Trevor G. Browne High School
2011-2010
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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