AP Literature and Composition
Overview
Mr. Lott
5-213
AP Literature Course Details
• The AP English Literature and Composition course
is designed to help you engage in the careful
reading and critical analysis of imaginative
literature. Through the close reading of selected
texts, you can deepen your understanding of the
ways writers use language to provide both
meaning and pleasure for their readers. In the
course, you’ll learn to consider a work's structure,
style, and themes, as well as such smaller-scale
elements as the use of figurative language,
imagery, symbolism, and tone. - College Board
Website
Reading in AP Literature
• “The AP English Literature and Composition course is intended
to give you the experience of a typical introductory-level
literary analysis course in college. The course includes intensive
study of representative works from various genres, periods,
and cultures, concentrating on works of recognized literary
merit. Reading in the course builds on the reading done in your
previous English courses. Although the course will cover
several literary texts, you will also have the opportunity to get
to know a few works well. In the course, you will learn to read
deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a
work's complexity, to absorb its richness of meaning, and to
analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form. In
addition to considering a work's literary artistry, you will also
learn to consider the social and historical values it reflects and
embodies. Careful attention to both textual detail and
historical context provides a foundation for interpretation of
the text.” - College Board Website
Writing in AP Literature
• “The close reading described above involves the experience,
interpretation, and evaluation of literature. All these aspects
of reading are important in the AP English Literature and
Composition course, and each corresponds to an approach to
writing about literary works. Writing to understand a literary
work may involve writing response and reaction papers along
with annotation, freewriting, and keeping some form of a
reading journal. Writing to explain a literary work involves
analysis and interpretation and may include writing brief,
focused analyses on aspects of language and structure.
Writing to evaluate a literary work involves making and
explaining judgments about its artistry and exploring its
underlying social and cultural values through analysis,
interpretation, and argument.” - College Board Website
Writing in AP Literature
• “Writing is an integral part of the AP English Literature
and Composition course and of the AP Exam. Writing
assignments in the course will address the critical
analysis of literature and will include expository,
analytical, and argumentative essays. In addition to the
critical analyses you will write, creative-writing
assignments will help you see from the inside how
literature is written. The goal of both types of writing
assignments is to increase your ability to explain
clearly, cogently, and even elegantly what you
understand about literary works and how you interpret
them.” - College Board Website
AP Literature Texts
• How To Read Literature Like A Professor –
Summer Reading
• The Big Sleep – Summer Reading
• Hamlet
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Wuthering Heights
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles
• Pygmalion
AP Literature Texts
The selected texts for AP Literature provide a
basis for the Exam in May, but also a solid
foundation for upper level college courses.
These are core pieces of literature which are
frequently taught in college settings.
Previously Taught Works
• The works that you have already studied in
your English classes provide the foundation
for AP Literature.
• Core pieces such as To Kill a Mockingbird,
Romeo and Juliet, Odyssey, Iliad, Ethan Frome,
Julius Caesar, and others will be very
important building blocks for what you read
later.
• Poetry will also be studied.
Parts of AP Lit. Exam
• Multiple choice: approx. 55 questions in 1
hour – 45 percent of your grade
• 3 essays in 2 hours with no time limits on
individual essays – 55 percent of your grade
College Credit for AP Classes
• As of 2012 there were 3,026 4-year postgraduate degreegranting institutions in the United States – U. S.
Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
Website
• More than 90 percent of four-year colleges and universities
in the United States grant students credit, placement or
both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores. Universities
in more than 60 countries recognize AP Exam scores in the
admission process and/or award credit and placement for
qualifying scores. – National Center on Education and the
Economy Website
• AICE credit is awarded at 470 institutions (15.5 percent) –
Park Vista Website PowerPoint Presentation
University of Florida Credit Policy
• English Lit. & Comp. score of 3 = 3 college
credit hours and replaces AML 2070
• English Literature & Composition score of 4 or
5 = 6 college credit hours and replaces AML
2070 and LIT 2120
Florida State University Credit Policy
• English Lit. & Comp. score of 3 = 3 college
credit hours and replaces ENC 1101 or LIT
1005
• English Literature & Composition score of 4 or
5 = 6 college credit hours and replaces two of
the following courses: ENC 1101, ENC 1102, or
LIT 1005
College Board Website
• This is the link to check how many credits a
university gives for AP Literature and
Composition:
http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/apcred
itpolicy/index.jsp
• You can also just Google – AP College Credit
Importance of AP Literature
• A 2008 study found that students who took AP
Literature and Composition had a 62 percent
higher four year graduation rate than students
who took other English courses in high school.
– “College Outcomes Comparisons by AP and
Non-AP High School Experiences”
Importance of AP Literature
• “Readers of the AP Literature and
Composition Exam (mainly college professors)
continue to believe that close readings of
works in AP classes are the single best
preparation for success not only on the AP
Exam generally, but also in college course
work.” - Susan Strehle of Binghamton
University, the State University of New York at
Binghamton, College Board’s Chief Reader
Reasons for Choosing AP Classes
• “One of the best standard predictors of academic
success at Harvard is performance on Advanced
Placement Examinations.” -William R. Fitzsimmons,
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Harvard
University
• “Students who have prepared for and taken the AP
Exams more easily adapt to taking college essay exams,
and are especially skilled in including a thesis and a
well-developed argument. They are also less
intimidated by sophisticated, college-level multiplechoice questions that seek to test understanding over
memorization.” - Robert Blackey, Professor of History,
California State University: San Bernardino
Questions?
• You may email any questions regarding AP
Literature and Composition to
michael.lott@palmbeachschools.org.