Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Room 230
2014-2015
Rocky Mountain High School
“Answer the question!”
Contact information
Mrs. Missy Nichols, MA. Ed, NBCT
Email (best method): Nichols.Melissa@meridianschools.org or missynichols2@msn.com
Voicemail: (208) 350-4340 x1230
RMHS website: http://rmhs.meridianschools.org
Welcome to Introduction to Literature! You have enrolled in an advanced literature course
that prepares you for college and the AP exam in the spring. This year, we will critically read,
analyze, and interpret select American, British and World novels, plays, and poetry. Your
success in this class depends upon your ability to read and think critically and produce indepth
oral and written responses. I expect thoroughness, active participation, punctuality with work
and your best efforts.
Course Outline
NOTE: Additional works may be required and/or selection and order of the major works on this
outline may be changed at instructor’s discretion.
Summer Reading
 Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne (American, 1850)
 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte (British, 1847)
 Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck (American, 1939)
Principle Text:
The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, Michael Meyer
First Semester
 College Application writing (out of class)
 1984 George Orwell (British, 1949)
 Poetry unit
 Frankenstein Mary Shelley (British, 1818)
 Senior Research Project (Meridian School District Graduation Requirement: APA
formatted legal research paper)
 Fiction Unit
AP poetry, prose & open pr ompts; AP multiple choi ce
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Second Semester
 Senior Research Project (Meridian School District Graduation Requirement: APA
formatted legal research paper)
 Drama: Hamlet William Shakespeare (British, 1603)
 Poetry unit II
 The Stranger Albert Camus (French, 1942)
 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan (American, 1989)
 Review and prepare for AP exam: poetry, prose & open prompts; AP multiple choice
Course Requirements and Policies
Attendance policy
Students must be in their seats, workstations, or assigned areas, and prepared to do the work
for class at the beginning of the period. A tardy becomes a “tardy late” when the student
enters after 15 minutes of the class time has expired.
Policy on academic honesty
Rocky Mountain High School expects honesty and integrity from all its students. Always submit
work that represents your original words or ideas. If words or ideas used in class assignments
do not represent your original ideas or words, you must cite all relevant sources. All acts of
cheating on assignments (roving eyes, cheat sheets, open books during tests, talking during
tests), plagiarism (as defined by instructor), forgery of signature, and falisfication of data will
result in:
1. Parent conference, grade of “F” on assignment, referral
2. Second offense will result in student being dropped from the course with an “F”.
(Refer to “Cheating and Plagiarism Contract” for complete details)
Policy on late and make-up work
It is the student’s responsibility to make up all missing work due to excused absences. For each
day a student has an excused absence, the student may turn in the missing assignment(s) and
receive full credit. Students who are truant may not make-up class assignments for each day
they are truant.
Late work policy if student is not absent:
 Homework may be turned in one day late for half credit.
 Ten percent will be deducted for each day late on all essays and major assignments.

Ten percent will be de ducte d for each day late on all essays and maj or Gradi ng policy
Grading policy
Grades are based on the total points earned by the student each semester.
90-100%=A; 80-89%=B; 70-79%=C; 59-69%=D; 58% or less=F
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AP English Notebook
Students must keep all assignments and handouts in a three ring binder specifically designated
for AP English Lit and Comp. Notebook assignments will be collected and evaluated every two
or three weeks. The first header will be CLASS HANDOUTS, the second WRITING, the third
NOTES, the fourth TEST PRACTICE, and fifth VOCABULARY. Six remaining dividers will pertain to
senior project. Please purchase these and we will label when we begin.
Participation
Active participation is an important part of this class. Participation credit can be earned
through questions and comments in class discussion and by helping with classroom tasks (20 pt.
grade each GP; 60 pts. for sem.)
The AP Exam
All students taking the course are strongly encouraged to take the AP English Lit & Comp Exam
in May. The priority of instructional time in this class is given to preparation for the exam.
Attentive behavior and comprehension of instruction will result in a passing score on the exam.
Overview of Course Procedures
Agendas, Due Dates, and Specific Assignments for Formal Critical/Analytical Papers
You will regularly receive instructor generated agendas that will cover a three to four week
period. The handout will include: specific due dates for chapters and/or poems, dates for timed
in-class essays, and due dates for Formal Critical/Analytical Papers. You will be given detailed
handouts and rubrics Formal Critical/Analytical Papers.
Reading Assignments
We will read at least 8 major works, both novels and plays, and approximately 30 poems. For
novels and plays, students will complete “Questions, Quotes, and Notes (Q, Q, and N) unless
told otherwise (see directions near the end of this document).
Students are expected to complete all assigned reading and be prepared for class discussion.
During the course of the year, we will engage in-depth analytical reading, also known as close
reading. Students are expected to annotate/ write margin notes and/or keep separate notes as
they read, paying careful attention to details, such as rhetorical features, structure, themes,
motifs, style (diction, imagery, tone, figurative language), and the social and historical contexts
and values expressed in the texts.
Writing Assignments
Writing Instruction
During our year together, we will discuss the features of effective writing. A wide variety of
writing instruction will be provided, including discussion and handouts on logical patterns of
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organization; instruction on balancing general analysis with specific, concrete support; and
effective use of rhetoric.
We will also cover the essentials of MLA and APA format in detail, including parenthetical
citation, use of quotations and the Works Cited page. These concepts will be reinforced
through lessons and discussion throughout the year.
Writing to Understand
Students will have opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of the works and activate
their prior knowledge. These assginments will typically be informal, such as freewrites, reading
journals, and brief collaborative exercises completed in class.
Timed Writing
Students will write at least one timed essay in each two week period as we progress toward the
AP exam. The vast majority will be past AP English Literature prompts: poetry, prose, and open.
Some instructor designed prompts will also be included. For example, after our dicussion of
Hamlet, you will be given an exam where you are given three prompts and will select only one
as the basis for your composition. AP prompts will be graded on the 9 point scale. You will be
given a generic 9 point rubric at the start of the year; I will discuss and explain the rubric indepth; I will also provide the specific rubric for the specific prompt when available. We will
frequently examine sample student essays and engage in mock scoring sessions.
Formal Critical/Analytical Papers: Writing to Explain (Expository) and Writing to Evaluate
Students will write three typed, revised critcal/analytical essays (3-5 pages) and one major
typed, revised analytical research paper (6-8 pages). It is my contention that the majority of
college level writing is persuasive. As a result, the key to successful essays for this class is a
clearly articulated position that the writer sustains throughout the paper supported by specific
evidence from the text(s).
For each critical/analytical paper, students will receive a detailed handout with specific
instructions, including a scoring rubric specific to the essay. A rough draft will be required; we
may complete in-class peer review of essays. The completed essay will receive substantial
teacher commentary on the text, an end note, and a marked scoring rubric indicating successful
elements and areas for improvement.
Revision of graded essays and research papers: All essays scored “D+” or lower MUST be
revised; revision optional for essays scored “C-“ or better (see detailed “Essay Revision
Directions” at the end of this document).
Class Discussion/Participation
We will actively engage the material throughout the year via class discussion. I often begin the
day with a brief lecture, framing essential questions for the lesson. On many days, I will also
address some issue related to the features of effective writing. After that, we will move to
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active discussion, using a series of questions and answers modeled on the Socratic method.
Students will be asked to make assertions and claims about the material and support with
specific textual details and quotes. Since your homework will primarily consist of formulating
questions and locating quotations and details, all students should be ready for class discussion.
I frequently call on students for responses to specific questions whether or not they have their
hands raised. Be prepared.
Approximate Schedule for Semester 1:
Ongoing Classroom Routines:
Weekly Vocabulary Quizzes and Instruction: Every week students will be quizzed on a list of 10
words. These words are derived from the literature studied at the time and are representations
of common language on both previous AP exams and in reading selections provided by both
ACT and SAT. The weekly quiz will require students to listen to the word pronounced, spell it
correctly, provide a definition of at least three words (none of which can be a variation of the
word), and use it in the one sentence structure of the week: complex, compound,
compound/complex, loose, periodic, balanced, chiasmus, asyndeton, polysyndeton, anaphora,
epistrophe, and parallel structure. Instruction regarding one sentence structure will be
provided every week.
Voice Lessons: Nancy Dean’s Voice Lessons provides strong instruction in creating strong syntax,
detail, diction, and tone by emulating the qualities of strong authors. Regularly, students will
practice sentence styles for the purposes of developing these devices in their own writing.
Weeks 1-3: Relationship between the Reader and Text (1984 – George Orwell)
Prior to class, students will prepare an annotation of the text in QQN format as noted below.
Close reading of specific passages will occur in class. Socratic discussion will take place in
preparation for an analytical writing piece which contains an extended interpretation. This first
writing assignment will require students to demonstrate how the author’s technique and style
convey his cautionary message to his current society and those to come. Through classroom
writing workshop, students will practice persuasively supporting a thesis with textual detail and
analysis. Upon completion of essays, in addition to teacher commentary and feedback, students
will peer-evaluate several writing samples according to an AP rubric.
Weeks 4-7: Poetry
Week 4: SOAPSTone: Students will become familiar with the basic elements of poetry through
the SOAPS model. The speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, style, and tone(s) of a poem are
all components that help the reader understand purpose and meaning. Poems used throughout
this week include: Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror”, Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, Marge
Pierce’s “The Secretary Chant”, and Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”.
Week 5: Symbol, Imagery, Allegory, Irony: Poems used throughout this week include: Anne
Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her Book”, William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With
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Us”, John Keats “Ode to a Nightengale”, and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night”.
Week 6: The Sonnet : Students will study the impact the structure of poetry has on the
audience. Poems used throughout this week include: Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee to a
Summer’s Day?”, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I Will put Chaos into Fourteen Lines”, Seamus
Heaney’s “The Forge”, and Mark Jarman’s “Unholy Sonnet”. Student reflections will be kept in a
journal.
Week 7: Writing about Poetry: To begin, students will be given an AP writing prompt to discuss
in small groups for clear understanding and interpretation. Students will then create a rubric
specific to the prompt after being given several writing samples of 8-9 papers to an AP writing
prompt. Students will highlight and annotate these excellent papers for strong vocabulary use
in discussion of literary device and as academic language. This language is to be modeled in
their next papers. Soon after, a complete array of writing samples will be given to be scored in
a mock scoring session positioning students as AP graders. Similarly, students will write to yet
another prompt in pairs practicing both convincing argumentation about the poem and strong
diction. Finally, on the last day of the week, students will write to a poetry prompt. Since it is a
timed writing piece, afterwards, students will revise for sentence structures and diction.
Weeks 8-10: Evaluating Effectiveness: Style, Diction, Author’s Purpose (Frankenstein, Mary
Shelley)
Throughout Frankenstein, students will evaluate the effectiveness of vocabulary for specific
audiences. Students will consider effects of diction and sentence structures. Students will
practice writing with Shelley’s voice for their own intended messages.
Argumentative essay assignment: Frankenstein has been criticized as an immature work of
Mary Shelley’s because of the unrealistic scientific model she uses. Support or discredit this
notion of immaturity in an argumentative essay which draws upon textual evidence that
measures Shelley’s artistry and quality of detail to portray meaning. Students must contend for
or against the use of the imagination for the sake of literary effectiveness.
Weeks 11-14: Fiction
Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Ernest
Hemingway’s “A Soldier’s Home” will all serve as springboards for the studies of character type,
patterns in story form, development of tension and conflict, and the importance of setting. In
small groups, students will select an author to study from one of the following: Thomas Hardy,
Herman Melville, James Joyce, Anton Chekhov, and Katherine Mansfield. Groups will research
the authors and at least 5 of their short stories. Groups will present prevailing themes, story
types, and author style as demonstrated through specific examples to the class.
Weeks 15-18: Cultural and Historical Impacts of Literature (Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad)
Prior to reading, students will conduct group presentations regarding imperialism, colonialism,
geography of the Congo, King Leopold, and Joseph Conrad’s life. During reading, students will
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annotate according to an assigned task: images and symbols of hearts and darkness, the
physical and psychological journey of Marlow, character shadings of Marlow and Kurtz, or an
analysis of situational, verbal, and dramatic irony. After reading, students will write an essay
that demonstrates how the work illustrates social attitudes, morals, spirituality, beliefs, and or
customs of the time. Students papers should prove literature is a reflection of an era in history
and a people as a culture. Being one of the more difficult works, these Heart of Darkness papers
will undergo individual conferences with the instructor during the drafting process to ensure
accurate interpretation and to encourage revision for apt and specific diction, strong and
specific textual evidence, and engaging sentence structures.
Approximate Schedule for Semester 2
Weeks 1-4: Senior Project Research Writing
Senior Project is a corporate graduation assessment that shares tasks among both English and
Government. Students are required to research a law including the law’s components, history
and background, current situation, and differing viewpoints. Ultimately, students must
determine the law’s effectiveness, and political and economic feasibility. An annotated
bibliography in APA format must be completed.
Weeks 3-6: Elements of Drama; The Tragic Figure (Hamlet, William Shakespeare)
The class read of Hamlet will take place in the classroom to emphasize and evaluate the effects
of drama as performed live. Specific passages will undergo annotation and close reads.
Students will explore the classical depiction of a tragic figure including the tragic flaw and an
author’s tragic vision for the work. Furthermore, students will study the archtypical search for
identity a struggling character encounters. The unit will culminate with a practice prompt
about the author’s tragic vision.
Weeks 7-11: Models of Literary Thought (The Stranger, Albert Camus; The Joy Luck Club, Amy
Tan)
Elements of Feminist, Immigrant, Existential, and Absurdist literature will be discussed and
explored. Translation of the human condition and struggle from culture to culture will further
be addressed. Students will debate the effectiveness of conveying messages through each of
these different genres various means.
Weeks 12-13: Poetry
Greater emphasis on structure, form and lesser discussed poetic devices will be used during this
poetry unit. Students will be given a packet of poetry to choose from in order to team-teach
these concepts to the class after being assigned poetic devices to teach.
Weeks 14-16: AP Exam Preparation
Students will take multiple choice exams individually and in small groups. Discussion and
argumentation for correct answers will occur in both small groups and whole class discussion.
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Strategies for taking the exam will be taught. Free-response questions for the Poetry, Fiction,
and Open prompts will be given and scored in general (according to the rubric) and specifically
(a class set of notes will be distributed regarding common misreads and common accurate
interpretations). Students will review writing samples of effective and ineffective papers from
AP.
Weeks 17-18: Timelines of Literary Thought
In small groups students will generate digital timelines that depict the literal, figurative, and
interpretive meanings of texts as they have impacted societies from the 1600s to modern
times. Presentations will occur on the last day of school as all students will not select the same
literature as basis for their research.
Directions for Questions, Quotes and Notes (Q,Q, & N)

Questions about the book.

“Quotable quotes.” Select quotes that provide insight into the text, that you are
curious about, or otherwise capture your interest. Record page # and reason for
choosing.

Class Notes and a recommendation
Required: Take substantial notes on classroom discussion. Strong note taking
skills are critical for academic success.
Write questions about the novel for class discussion. Think
of interesting or thought provoking questions for your peers and instructor to explore in
depth.
Recommended: Buy your own copy and annotate the text or keep reading
notes. Focus on key themes, characters, symbols as you read.