AP Lang
December 3-4
I can evaluate sample essays using the AP scoring rubric.
I can edit sentences for mistakes in mechanics and pronoun reference.
I can use previous knowledge about a character to speculate what kind
of aphorisms he would have appreciated and justify those speculations.
I can understand the tenets of a literary movement.
I can analyze the argument in a poem.
Pronouns and number agreement
refer to English in a nutshell page 704, rule
1
• The macaroni and cheese were delicious, I ate
two servings of them.
• If Joann and Benjamin call tell her that I will not
be home until this evening.
• Either Renaldo or Philip always finishes their
geometry homework in class.
• Neither the back up singers or the lead vocalist
was satisfied with her performance.
What do
you
notice in
the
painting?
George
Washington
Gilbert Stuart,
1796
Called the
“Lansdowne”
portrait because it
was painted for
the Marquis of
Lansdowne
Connection to Dolley
Madison?
Take a closer look
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm
ons/c/c4/Gilbert_Stuart__George_Washington__Google_Art_Project_(6966745).jpg
40 minutes
rhetorical analysis
• Remember: SOAPSTone the introduction (You can
use your power point handout.)
–
–
–
–
1. Speaker, Occasion, and Subject
2. Purpose
3. Audience
4. Thesis
• Organize your body paragraphs using Claim,
Evidence, Commentary/Analysis
• Your conclusion should address a “So What?”
question. What is the universal concern in the
piece? Why should we care about the passage?
Read “The World is too much with us”
•
•
How is the poem related to Into the Wild?
Romanticism:
–
–
–
•
A movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in revolt against the
Neoclassicism of the previous centuries...The German poet Friedrich Schlegel, who is given credit for
first using the term romantic to describe literature, defined it as "literature depicting emotional matter
in an imaginative form." This is as accurate a general definition as can be accomplished, although
Victor Hugo's phrase "liberalism in literature" is also apt. Imagination, emotion, and freedom are
certainly the focal points of romanticism. Any list of particular characteristics of the literature of
romanticism includes subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules;
solitary life rather than life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to
beauty; love of and worship of nature; and fascination with the past, especially the myths and
mysticism of the middle ages.
English poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and
John Keats
American poets: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau,
Herman Melville, Walt Whitman
Neoclassicism and The Age of Reason:
–
The dominant literary movement in England during the late seventeenth century and the eighteenth
century, which sought to revive the artistic ideals of classical Greece and Rome. Neoclassicism was
characterized by emotional restraint, order, logic, technical precision, balance, elegance of diction,
an emphasis of form over content, clarity, dignity, and decorum. Its appeals were to the intellect
rather than to the emotions, and it prized wit over imagination. As a result, satire and didactic
literature flourished, as did the essay, the parody, and the burlesque. In poetry, the heroic couplet was
the most popular verse form. Writers: John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison,
and Samuel Johnson.
Indefinite pronouns
Some indefinite pronouns are singular, some plural, and some
can be either singular or plural, depending on how they are used
in the text.
• Singular Indefinite Pronouns
– anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone,
everything, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody,
someone, and something
– In informal situations, plural pronouns are often used to refer to
singular antecedents that can be either masculine or feminine.
Example: Everybody stayed late at the dance because they were
enjoying themselves.
• Plural Indefinite Pronouns
– both, few, many, several
• Either singular or plural
– all, any, more, most, none, some
Edit for mistakes in mechanics and
pronoun antecedent agreement.
• Each of the girls has prepared their
presentation for ap biology.
• Somebody should speak up, and give their
opinion.
• Neither of the kittens has opened their eyes
yet.
• One of the girls left their sweater on the bus.
• Has anyone brought their compass today
asked the geometry teacher.
A Block Only:
Evaluate last year’s RA essays
• In small groups, rank the essays from highest to lowest.
• Read the scoring guide: What distinguishes the scores?
• What scores would you assign the essays you ranked?
Why?
• Where does your essay fall? Write your anticipated
score at the end of your essay. Give a one-two
sentence justification for your grade.
• On a half-sheet of paper, reflect on your writing. What
are your strengths in writing the essay? With what
areas do you feel less confident?
Romanticism
• Read the poem “The World is too Much With
Us” by William Wordsworth.
• Besides the form of the text, how is it different
from what we have been reading?
• What argument is made in the poem?
• How is the argument made?
• How does it relate to Into the Wild?
The Romantic Period
An Introduction
Dates
• Traditionally, the Romantic Period is
dated from 1798 (the publication of
Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical
Ballads) until 1832 (the First Reform Bill
in England).
Dates (continued)
• Holman and Harmon use a slightly
different approach:
–1798-1870 Romantic Periods
• 1798-1832 Age of the Romantic
Movement
• 1832-1870 Early Victorian Age
First Generation Romantic Poets
• Blake--sometimes considered a
Romantic precursor
• Wordsworth
• Coleridge
• Scott
Second Generation
• Byron
• Shelley
• Keats
Historical Context
• Romantic poetry a reflection of and
response to a very turbulent time in
British history:
–Industrial Revolution
–French Revolution (1789) and
Napolonic Wars (Waterloo 1815)
Historical Context (cont.)
• Debates over abolition of slavery
• Early debates over rights and social roles
of women
• Debates and violent protests over rights
of working class
Historical Context (cont.)
• Beginnings of various social movements
to improve lot of lower classes (e.g.,
education, housing, working conditions
for women and children)
Literary Context
• To understand the Romantic Period, one
needs to contrast it against the previous
period:
• Restoration and Neoclassical Period
(1660-1798)
Neoclassical Writers
•
•
•
•
Presented humans as limited, imperfect
Emphasized reason and order
Distrusted the imagination
Imitated literary forms and content from
the earlier ages
Neoclassical Writers
• Viewed nature as wild, uncultivated, in
need of being being tamed, shaped,
improved
• Thought literature’s main purpose was
to provide moral instruction
Neoclassical Writers
• Followed the Neoclassical ideals of
– order
– logic
– utility
– good taste
– decorum
Neoclassicism
• Literature to be judged by how useful it
is to humans: moral instruction.
• Two dominant modes
– didactic literature
– satiric literature
Transcendentalists
• A branch of American Romanticism
• TRANSCENDENTALISM is a very formal word
that describes a very simple idea. People,
men and women equally, have knowledge
about themselves and the world around
them that "transcends" or goes beyond what
they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel.
• This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination not through logic or the
senses. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right. A
TRANSCENDENTALIST is a person who accepts these ideas not as religious beliefs
but as a way of understanding life relationships.
• Notable Transcendentalists include
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Margaret Fuller
• Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women)
• Henry David Thoreau
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Walt Whitman
Emerson
• Read the excerpts from
Emerson
• Underline aphorisms
that Chris McCandless
would have
appreciated.
• Squiggle under the
aphorisms that appeal
to you.
The theory of books is noble. The scholar of
the first age received into him the world
around; brooded thereon; gave it the new
arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it
again.
It came into him, life; it went out from him,
truth.
It came to him, short-lived actions; it went
out from him, immortal thoughts.
It came to him, business; it went from him,
poetry.
It was dead fact; now, it is quick thought.
It can stand, and it can go.
It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires
Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind
from which it issued, so high does it soar, so
long does it sing.
-Excerpt from The American Scholar, Ralph
Waldo Emerson