Syllabus for Advanced British Literature 2015 - 2016
Course # 1243-1244
Teacher information: Mr. Jeffrey McMurtry
Voice Mail: (858) 523-4000 ext 1336
Homework Page: http://dons.cathedralcatholic.org/faculty/teacher/show/jmcmurtry
 All students must have a reliable computer available to them. Reliable internet access is a must for this
course as well. In the 21st century, all computer excuses all point to poor preparation and problem
solving skills. Much if not most of the serious writing done in this course will be done on a computer.
iPads, consistently, have proven to be a far better learning tool than composition medium. Be careful not
to depend on it to do something for which it was never intended.
Email: jmcmurtry@cathedralcatholic.org. This is by far the quickest and easiest way to reach me.
Hours of Availability: M-F after school until 2:30 pm. Every school day from 7:00 am to the start of school.
Course Description: This course offers a comprehensive survey of British literature from the Anglo-Saxon
period through the 20th century, using a college level anthology and additional texts from the genres of
drama and fiction. The writing component anticipates college level expectations in format, style, and support
of an arguable thesis, using both primary and secondary sources. You will have the opportunity here, as in all
of your classes, to develop as a person of faith, character, and responsibility, who is prepared as a lifelong
learner.
Learning Outcomes (Course Essentials): Students completing this course successfully will have evidenced
their ability to express their understanding of themselves and their relationship with others through a study
of literature and composition. This advanced Language Arts offering has been designed to help each student
progress as a person of Faith, Knowledge, Character, and Responsibility. Each student will have
demonstrated their ability to:
 exercise critical analysis of literature in discussion and writing, based upon an understanding of
objective and subjective interpretation.
 use a knowledge of historical context to identify the characteristic style and theme represented in
readings from various periods of literature.
 make connections between themes from a work of literature and contemporary social, political, and
ethical concerns.
 use the terminology for identifying literary devices at work in a poem, and demonstrate the distinction
between explication and analysis.
 develop essays appropriate to occasion and audience, with conscious selection of voice, tone, style, and
format.
 self-critique argumentative logic by labeling specific "writing/thinking" processes that occur in their
essays.
 use the language of writing assessment (descriptive and prescriptive) to offer critical and helpful
feedback as a peer editor.
 command and organize resources into a coherent expository essay within deadline or timed writing
conditions.
 select reliable, authoritative, current, and useful sources of information and literary criticism from
scholarly databases, for research and writing purposes.
 assume responsibility for a specific role in a group project, then coordinate and communicate with team
members for effective collaboration.
 employ audio/visual technologies for both audience engagement and academic purpose.
 read literature aloud and take part in dramatic readings, with awareness of intonation, pace, and
projection, as conveyors of meaning.
 participate confidently in a variety of discussion formats, and adopt appropriate tone for informal
discussion (class, "book talk" small groups, round table seminar), and formal debate.
Materials Required: The following texts and materials are required for this course. Failure to bring
materials when they are assigned will affect participation marks and may also result in disciplinary action.
Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Free PDF available)
Texts are required for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World . These are available, digitally, for free.
However, students may prefer a text.
Assessment Types and Rubrics:
 Exams: These will be a mix of multiple choice tests based on selected readings
and timed essay questions
 Essays & Projects: These will be formal essays in multiple drafts. One per quarter.
 Assignments: These will be both long and short written analyses done outside of class
Many assignments assume enthusiastic collaborative criticism and commentary.
 Participation/Speaking: Frequent participation is required in symposium course, since
it will proceed through a number of symposiums, collaborative tasks, and individual
investigations. Failure to be prepared for class and off-task use of iPads will affect this
score.
 Final: This will be an essay and short composed answer exam.
30%
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10%
20%
Assessment Guidelines:
 Moodle Posts: Moodle is an academic forum. The writing you do there will be evaluated as any in-class
essay assignment would be. Moodle is not Facebook, rather it is a forum where students are encouraged
to practice the stylistics this course embodies. All posts will require at least one essay style post and one
or more thorough, substantive responses to the work of at least one other student.
 Writing Projects: All projects are graded for grammatical accuracy, composition style, AND analysis.
There is no formal distinction made between ‘form’ and ‘content’ in this course because they are often
indivisibly linked. There are weights given to various categories of excellence depending upon the
assignment type. Essay rubrics for grading will be distributed at the time of assignment.
 TURNITIN.COM is a requirement for all essays in this course (and many drafts as well). No paper is
accepted that is not posted on this website. Many of the drafts will have assignments connected to this
submission. Late submissions of drafts often force students to loose participation points and can result in
problems with subsequent assignments. Late final submissions loose 1 letter grade. Absences can
become VERY suspicious on paper due dates – be careful. TURNITIN.COM works whether you are sick or
not, and all major assignments are posted at least a week (if not weeks) in advance.
 Grading Scale: The assignment of letter grades will be consistent with the CCHS Student Handbook
 Extra Credit is not a component of this AP course. From time to time there are writing competitions that
will be posted. Fine essays written as entries into these competitions, or rewrites of assigned tasks may
be used to augment or replace specific task or assignment grades throughout the year.
Classroom Guidelines: Follow the behavior, dress code, attendance, and discipline guidelines in the Student
Handbook. Students at CCHS should pursue their education with honesty and integrity. A student’s work and
achievement should be the result of his/her own efforts. Academic dishonesty are not allowed and will result
in 1) a loss of credit for any specific assignment, 2) notification of parent or guardian, and 3) a detention AND
referral. Academic Dishonesty includes copying another student’s homework, cheating on quizzes, tests or
any other major assignment, and plagiarism.
 Plagiarism: Plagiarism means using someone else’s ideas or words as if they are your own. A passage, an
interpretation, or a finding in research that is not your own must be properly documented. Plagiarism
can be any of the following: 1) Copying another’s work verbatim (word for word without
acknowledgement), 2) Paraphrasing another’s work without acknowledgement, 3) Patching together a
paper using different sources without acknowledgement of all those sources. 4) Using someone else’s
idea or information that is not public domain or commonly known as your own idea. All students are
taught the proper use of documentation in their English classes. Works cited from the Internet should be
properly documented. Since honesty and integrity are extremely important values in the search for
knowledge, these are the same values that all CCHS students are expected to uphold.
Attendance: A student’s success relies on his or her willingness and enthusiasm to be an active participant
in a course community. Class and administrative penalties will be harsh for excessive absences and tardies,
EXCUSED or OTHERWISE. In-class participation grades will be lowered for excessive tardies, although
disciplinary consequences will be applied by the Dean’s Office.
Make-up Policy: All planned excused absences, including those caused by school activities or sports
participation, do not extend due dates or excuse students from deadlines. Students are required to make
arrangements BEFORE the missed day of school to submit work on time, if possible. Students are required,
upon their return from any unplanned absence, to contact me to get any additional instructions for the
assignments they have missed. If a homework assignment was due on the day of their absence, the student
must turn in the assignment on the day of their return. Late assignments will not be called for; the student is
responsible for turning it in without prompting (when they hand over their admit slip). If an assessment has
not been made up within a week of an absence, the student will receive a 0 for it, regardless, just as if it were
a normal late assignment. In the end, if you are absent, it is your responsibility to make up homework posted
on the web page in a timely manner. You are also accountable for getting notes from a classmate, picking up
handouts from the teacher, and making arrangements for makeup tests. Your inability to make contact and
get directions is no excuse for missing makeup work.
The Homework Website: This is your first, best, and also required resource for keeping up with this course.
However, Moodle will hold most of your course materials as well as samples for most assignments. You will
notice that I use both sites as an extension of the course – there you will find supplementary resources and
explanations of each assignment. You are assigned to read it and follow directions there each day. Absences,
extra curricular/co curricular activities, retreats, doctor appointments, counselor visits, and much more can
interfere with classroom directions, note taking, and assignment instructions. Even when things run
smoothly, both you and I may forget something important while we rush about our busy days. The website is
the answer. USE IT.
Essential questions for this course:
1. How closely do I identify with an author, character, and/or intended reader of a work of literature? How
can I evidence this relationship.
2. How might I relate to a work of British Literature or find it relevant if it is otherwise distant in time,
place, or culture?
3. What is the role of criticism in the study of literature and how can this role be demonstrated with
examples?
4. How does an author’s choice of language affect the experience of literature in predictable ways? How can
I demonstrate the impact of such choices convincingly?
5. What function does a study of history and culture play in the enjoyment of literature (and not just its
study)? How does one demonstrate its aesthetic function?
We will repeatedly try to answer these questions in terms of our Expected School-wide Learning Outcomes.
The study of Literature is the study of Self and our relationship with others across time and across culture. It
is very much a part of who we are as People of Faith, Skilled Lifelong Learners, People of Character, and
Responsible Individuals precisely because our literary writings have long been the means by which
individuals have changed their group culture and environment.
Course Content:
Unit 1: Summer Reading Review and Introduction to Literary Study
Your summer reading was intended to
1) Give you an enjoyable and meaningful READING experience;
2) Remind you that a Language Arts course is very much about WRITING, though not necessarily
literature, at least literary essays. This kind of writing, too, requires a great deal of READING (samples
of essays written by other readers, perhaps more skilled than we are, perhaps merely inspirational or
insightful), and that this reading should be as instructive and as entertaining/engaging as great
literature.
3) Introduce you to the strategies involved in a the relationship between your Self and Others
(characters, cultures, authors) – to help you see narrative as a way of sharing experience, or teaching
lessons, or influencing others, and (in the broadest sense) serving the world.
4) Offer material for immediate attempts at writing and participating in literary discussion.
Content: Summer Reading and Introduction to Course – Foundations of Literary Study
Key Concepts: Archetypes and Style.
Texts: Summer Reading texts, How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
Tasks: Moodle Assignments, Collaborative writing techniques.
Major Assessments: Summer Reading Assignments.
Unit 2: The Anglo Saxon Heritage – The Heroic Archetype and Proto-Verse of British Literature
Texts: Beowulf, “Dream of the Rood,” and poems TBA. Literary Criticism readings TBA.
Assessments: Moodle Assignments on various readings. Reflective and researched essays on history, culture,
art, and religion.
Major Assessments: Formal Essay Draft, OE (Old English) Poetry and AS (Anglo-Saxon) Literature Exam.
Unit 3: Middle English of the Middle Ages – The Roots of Modern British Literature
Texts: Romance and Satire - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory’s Morte Darthur, Chaucer’s “General
Prologue” and “Wife of Bath’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales.
Assessments: Meaningful comparisons. An AP style prompt for the Medieval readings. Student project Estates Satire.
Unit 4: Better Late than Never – the English Renaissance.
Texts: Selected sonnets and songs from Wyatt through Shakespeare, Drama: Tragedy, History, and Comedy:
Hamlet, Films - Henry V and Much Ado about Nothing (as time allows).
Assessments: Sonnet Writing, Memorization of a sonnet, Poetry Quiz and Explications.
Major Assessments: Term paper for 1st Semester: Hamlet.
Unit 5: Essayists and Poets, Rebellion and Restoration – the 17th century in England.
Texts: Poetry from Donne through Milton (Metaphysical and Cavalier Poets), Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Assessments: Collaborative poetry project and presentations. AP Poetry analysis as Exam.
Unit 6: The Augustan Age (the 18th Century) – Satirists and Novelists
Texts: Works of Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal”, Gulliver’s Travels. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice.
Selections from Pope.
Satirical essay or narrative modeled after Swift; multi-media group presentations on themes from Pride and
Prejudice; formal debate on marriage and manners, then and now; unit test.
Unit 7: The Romantic Age
Transitional Poets: Robert Burns: “To a Mouse” and “To a Louse”. William Blake: Selections from Songs of
Innocence and Experience
First Generation Romantics: William Wordsworth: “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”,
“The World is Too Much with Us”; Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Kubla Khan”, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Second Generation Poets: George Gordon, Lord Byron: Selections. Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ozymandias”
“Ode to the West Wind,” John Keats: “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be,” “Bright Star Would that I
Were Steadfast as ThouArt,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad”
Novel Study: Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Assessments: Literary Criticism – Frankenstein, Romantic Poetry Exam.
Unit 8: The Victorian Age
Texts: Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “The Lady of Shalott”, “Tears, Idle Tears”, Robert Browning: “My Last
Duchess,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “Sonnet 43”, Christina Rossetti: “A Birthday”, Matthew Arnold:
“Dover Beach”, Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest (Dramatic Comedy).
Essay: explication or analysis of a poem; tracing of “Wilde-isms” in dramatic reading of The Importance of
Being Earnest; unit test on Comedy.
Unit 9: Modernism – The Post War writers
Texts: W.B. Yeats: “The Second Coming”, T.S. Eliot : “The Hollow Men”, Dylan Thomas: “Do Not Go Gentle into
That Good Night”, “Fern Hill”, W.H. Auden: Musée des Beaux Arts”
Novel Study: Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
Lit groups identify the voice of Modernism in selected poems; student-directed symposia for Brave New
World.
End Term Portfolio project: “field guide” to college writing.
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Recursive Content (Material covered in most if not every sequential unit)
Collaborative Writing Processes
Peer Invention/Writing Workshops
Peer Editing and Review (Peermark and Moodle based)
Peer and Self/Reflective ‘Patterns of Error’ Evaluation (self reflections)
Research for Exposition
Continued study of Structure vs. Surface features in composition and literature including Poetic Structure
observed in literary examples of Essays, Critical works, and Narrative Fiction.
Grammar, Revision, Proofreading techniques
Rhetoric and style: practice using literary devices (in this case, rhetorical devices) in essaying (like
alliteration, analogy, allusion, metaphor, exaggeration, irony, parallelism, imagery, etc.).