AP English Literature and Composition
Mr. Bernard Sell
[email protected]
English Department, Rensselaer Central High School
Office Hours: 7:30 to 8:00 a.m., MTRF, or by appointment
Course Description
The goal of AP English Literature and Composition, a university level course, is to provide you with the college-level thinking, reading and writing skills consistent with a typical undergraduate university English literature course. As a culmination of the course, you will take the AP English Literature and Composition Exam given in May (required). A grade of 4 or 5 on this exam is considered equivalent to a 3.3-4.0 for comparable courses at the college or university level. A student who earns a grade of 3 or above on the exam will be granted college credit at most colleges and universities throughout the United States.
The first semester of the course is geared towards getting you in the habit of close reading and articulating your ideas in an organized, logical fashion. We will emphasize poetry in particular because the skills associated with close reading are best developed through the study of poetry, but short stories, plays and novels will also be handled.
The second semester of the course continues the work of the first, but with more of a focus on specific test-taking skills and strategies to help you get a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP Exam.
Ultimately, the course is about learning. College-level learning is not about memorizing facts and spitting them back at an instructor, but grappling with the questions that the best minds of history have grappled with. Literature helps us see through the eyes of others, and in doing so, expand ourselves. Composition helps us organize our experiences so that we may in turn help others. If you see this course as simply a box to be checked off, you may be in for several surprises. The human spirit can’t be so easily confined, and that’s where we operate.
Course Goals
It is strongly recommended that you obtain personal copies of the various novels, plays, epics, poems, and short fiction used in the course. Many, if not most of the works, are available as pdfs online and can be printed out. Used bookstores and thrift editions (e.g., Dover) are also excellent ways to acquire cheap copies.
Physical copies are preferable because of the spatial ease of annotating a physical rather than an electronic copy of a work. The kind of deep reading and connection-building we will be doing throughout the course simply isn’t supported by technology yet. Annotating texts physically is also consistent with the annotation I encourage you to do on the AP Exam itself.
Shorter works, such as poems and brief short stories and essays may be distributed in class.
Preliminary list of required longer and shorter prose, poetry, and dramatic works:
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Critical Theory Today, 2nd ed., by Lois Tyson (copies available from Mr. Sell)
3 novels selected by student
2 dramatic works selected by student
Short fiction and essays--as selected
Poetry--as selected
A complete list of eligible works are appended to this syllabus.
Performance Tasks
Even if the majority of the AP Exam were not weighted towards composition, it would be the chief focus of this course. A successful and persuasive articulation of ideas is the cornerstone upon which most, if not all academic success at the collegiate level is built. But it’s a procession that involves repeated false starts and revisions. As Flannery O’Connor said, “I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
All out-of-class assignments are to be submitted in MLA 8 format.
Daily journals (Monday through Thursday) will be geared toward examination of themes present in unit works. You are encouraged to use these as a consequence-free brainstorming, as they will be graded for completion, not content.
It should go without saying (but I will say it anyway) that all work submitted is to be original and have proper attribution, nor may you “recycle” papers from a previous course. I take academic dishonesty quite personally, as it destroys the trust between teacher and student, makes my job difficult by giving me an inaccurate picture of your progress, and undermines the legitimacy of the course itself. I will prosecute plagiarists and cheaters aggressively, and with whatever means are at my disposal. That being said, if you at some point feel that you are in a gray region, talk to me early so that we can get you sorted out, and in the process, learn.
Reading and Writing Schedule
Unit 1
6 Weeks
Novel: Atonement
Drama: An Enemy of the People
Poetry: “The Times They Are A-Changin” (Dylan), “Dover Beach” (Arnold), Sonnet XXX (Millay), “A Dream Within a Dream” (Poe), “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” (Blake), “The World Is Too Much with Us” (Wordsworth), “Kubla Khan” (Coleridge), “She Walks in Beauty” (Byron), “Ozymandias” (Shelley), “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (Keats), “Piazza di Spagna” (Wilbur), “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz” (Yeats), “The Sun Goes Down on Summer” (Lawhead)
Out of class writing assignment: Students will select a character from The Great Gatsby, Atonement, or An Enemy of the People and write a three-page literary analysis of him or her. In this essay, as with all essays in this course, claims must be supported with documented evidence, always remembering that there should never be a what without a how and a why. Students’ essays should include the following:
Rough Draft Due: 20 September.
Final Draft Due: 5 October.
Unit 2
6 Weeks
Novel: Student Choice
Drama: Hamlet
Poetry: “To Be of Use” (Pierzy), “The Road Not Taken” (Frost), Multiple translations of (Verlaine), “Gertrude Talks Back” (Atwood), “Elegy of Fortinbras” (Herbert)
Additional Reading: “Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem?” (Lewis)
Out of class writing assignment: Students will be assigned one of Hamlet’s soliloquies and write a paper with an original thesis explaining how Shakespeare used diction, imagery, and figurative language to make meaning. All evidence must relate back to the initial thesis, why it is important, what conclusions can be drawn, and what the greater significance is. This paper will be 3-5 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 26 October.
Final Draft Due: 9 November.
Unit 3
6 Weeks
Novel: Mrs. Dalloway
Poetry: “Upon the Burning of Our House” (Bradstreet), “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” (Hardy)
Additional Reading: Selections from “A Room of One’s Own” (Woolf), a selection from Joyce’s Ulysses
Out of class writing assignment: Using your student choice novel, produce an analytical, argumentative essay that makes the case that the setting of the novel is critical to the greater understanding of the work (i.e., that the work could NOT be set in a different time or place without hurting the overall meaning). This essay should draw heavily on textual detail, make identify the greater meaning of the work (or theme), and conform to MLA 8 formatting, as with all other formal essays. This essay is to be 3-5 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 30 November
Final Draft Due: 14 December
Unit 4
6 Weeks
Novel: Student Choice
Short Story: “The Story of Your Life” (Chiang), “The Story of an Hour” (Chopin), “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (Twain), “Orientation” (Orozco), “The Scarlet Ibis” (Hurst), “The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas” (LeGuin)
Drama: Student Choice
Poetry: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge)
Additional Reading: “A Modest Proposal” (Swift)
Out of class writing assignment: From one of the short stories in this unit, select a character or speaker whose attitude shifts one or more times. Closely reread the work, note where the shifts occur, detail closely how the author or poet uses narrative and stylistic elements to effect the shift, and determine how the shifts affect the overall tone of the work. Then, in a well-structured essay relying heavily on textual detail, make your case. This essay is to be 3 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 25 January
Final Draft Due: 8 February
Unit 5
6 Weeks
Novel: The Sun Also Rises
Short Story: Short satires by Andy Borowitz, “In Another Country” (Hemingway), “At the Zoo with Bruce” (Ellis)“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (Twain), “The Fulness of Life” (Wharton), “The Duchess and the Jeweller” (Woolf)
Poetry: Poet Focus on John Keats, “To Althea, from Prison” (Lovelace), Dulce et Decorum Est (Owen), “The Snake” (Lawrence), “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” (Brautigan)
Out of class writing assignment: The student will take a passage from a short story from this semester and rewrite part of it as if it were written by Ernest Hemingway. In addition to this, the student will provide an explanation of how the created passage emulates Hemingway’s style yet covers all the pertinent parts of the original passage. The essay and explanation is 5 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 8 March
Final Draft Due: 22 March
Unit 6
6 Weeks
Novel: Student Choice
Short Story: Selection from Infinite Jest (Wallace), “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Gilman), “Easter Sunday” (Wolfe), “The Man in the Well” (Sher)
Drama: Student Choice
Poetry: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Eliot), Concentration on a Specific Poet’s selected works (William Blake, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Japanese Haiku Poets, Shakespearean Sonnets, Harlem Renaissance Poets, Walt Whitman, Anne Sexton, or a poet approved by me)
Out of class writing assignment: Complete a 10-page formal paper on the style, themes, and importance of a chosen poet and the poet’s works. It must include the following:
Rough Draft Due: 26 April
Final Draft Due: 2 May
Oral Presentations: 3,6 May
Pre-Course Assignments
Students who consistently and meaningfully post during the summer will be exempted from the tests over The Great Gatsby, the Lois Tyson essays, and An Enemy of the People. They will still be responsible for the short essays and The Great Gatsby data sheet, however.
Grading
Final grades are set up on a 10% scale. You are reminded that it is your Power School grade, not your Canvas grade, that is the final grade.
The class work is weighted accordingly:
Class Participation (33.3%)
Composition (33.3%)
Resources, Strategies, and Helpful Websites
Available at both http://mistersell.weebly.com/useful-resources.html and http://rchsaplitandcomp.weebly.com/ap-resources.html
Mr. Bernard Sell
[email protected]
English Department, Rensselaer Central High School
Office Hours: 7:30 to 8:00 a.m., MTRF, or by appointment
Course Description
The goal of AP English Literature and Composition, a university level course, is to provide you with the college-level thinking, reading and writing skills consistent with a typical undergraduate university English literature course. As a culmination of the course, you will take the AP English Literature and Composition Exam given in May (required). A grade of 4 or 5 on this exam is considered equivalent to a 3.3-4.0 for comparable courses at the college or university level. A student who earns a grade of 3 or above on the exam will be granted college credit at most colleges and universities throughout the United States.
The first semester of the course is geared towards getting you in the habit of close reading and articulating your ideas in an organized, logical fashion. We will emphasize poetry in particular because the skills associated with close reading are best developed through the study of poetry, but short stories, plays and novels will also be handled.
The second semester of the course continues the work of the first, but with more of a focus on specific test-taking skills and strategies to help you get a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP Exam.
Ultimately, the course is about learning. College-level learning is not about memorizing facts and spitting them back at an instructor, but grappling with the questions that the best minds of history have grappled with. Literature helps us see through the eyes of others, and in doing so, expand ourselves. Composition helps us organize our experiences so that we may in turn help others. If you see this course as simply a box to be checked off, you may be in for several surprises. The human spirit can’t be so easily confined, and that’s where we operate.
Course Goals
- To read closely and effectively analyze imaginative literature, particularly longer and shorter prose, poetic, and dramatic works.
2. To understand how writers use language to convey meaning.
3.To appreciate underlying structure and authorial style.
4.To apprehend and effectively articulate the theme of a selection.
5.To consider a work’s use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.
6.To become aware of the literary and non-fictional conventions of writing, including connotation, metaphor, irony, and syntax.
7.To develop a healthy intellectual humility and to examine what the masters of the past have to offer us.
8.To use a variety of literary lenses to examine works from multiple perspectives.
9.To develop productive and civil discussion habits in an academic setting.
10.To write critical analyses of literature that are expository, analytical, or argumentative.
11.To fully take into account, both in reading and writing, the role of the reader.
12.To learn how to effectively annotate a text as you read.
13.To develop effective paraphrasing habits.
14.To successfully and artfully incorporate the words and ideas of others into your writing.
15.To develop, expand, and efficiently use an academic vocabulary appropriate to a college-level audience.
16.To apprehend and ultimately correct patterns of grammatical and syntactical error in your writing.
17.To be able to recognize subtext and extra-literary implications of a text.
18.To develop and practice effective time-management and test-taking strategies.
It is strongly recommended that you obtain personal copies of the various novels, plays, epics, poems, and short fiction used in the course. Many, if not most of the works, are available as pdfs online and can be printed out. Used bookstores and thrift editions (e.g., Dover) are also excellent ways to acquire cheap copies.
Physical copies are preferable because of the spatial ease of annotating a physical rather than an electronic copy of a work. The kind of deep reading and connection-building we will be doing throughout the course simply isn’t supported by technology yet. Annotating texts physically is also consistent with the annotation I encourage you to do on the AP Exam itself.
Shorter works, such as poems and brief short stories and essays may be distributed in class.
Preliminary list of required longer and shorter prose, poetry, and dramatic works:
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Critical Theory Today, 2nd ed., by Lois Tyson (copies available from Mr. Sell)
3 novels selected by student
2 dramatic works selected by student
Short fiction and essays--as selected
Poetry--as selected
A complete list of eligible works are appended to this syllabus.
Performance Tasks
- Reading/responding to/analyzing prose, poetry and drama
Imaginative writing geared to improving fluency with style and structure
Literary analysis papers as described in the units below
Personal essays and daily reflective writing
Timed essays based on past AP prompts
Essay questions as required of college-level writers
Graphic organizers, three-column analyses, data sheets on major works completed
Literature circles, panel discussions, book talks
Revision work on initial drafts: individual by rubric, peer review in partners or small groups, group examination of drafts on whiteboard, one-on-one work as the need arises
Grammar as problems arise
Weekly vocabulary, with an emphasis on literary terms and tonal vocabulary
Even if the majority of the AP Exam were not weighted towards composition, it would be the chief focus of this course. A successful and persuasive articulation of ideas is the cornerstone upon which most, if not all academic success at the collegiate level is built. But it’s a procession that involves repeated false starts and revisions. As Flannery O’Connor said, “I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
All out-of-class assignments are to be submitted in MLA 8 format.
Daily journals (Monday through Thursday) will be geared toward examination of themes present in unit works. You are encouraged to use these as a consequence-free brainstorming, as they will be graded for completion, not content.
It should go without saying (but I will say it anyway) that all work submitted is to be original and have proper attribution, nor may you “recycle” papers from a previous course. I take academic dishonesty quite personally, as it destroys the trust between teacher and student, makes my job difficult by giving me an inaccurate picture of your progress, and undermines the legitimacy of the course itself. I will prosecute plagiarists and cheaters aggressively, and with whatever means are at my disposal. That being said, if you at some point feel that you are in a gray region, talk to me early so that we can get you sorted out, and in the process, learn.
Reading and Writing Schedule
Unit 1
6 Weeks
Novel: Atonement
Drama: An Enemy of the People
Poetry: “The Times They Are A-Changin” (Dylan), “Dover Beach” (Arnold), Sonnet XXX (Millay), “A Dream Within a Dream” (Poe), “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” (Blake), “The World Is Too Much with Us” (Wordsworth), “Kubla Khan” (Coleridge), “She Walks in Beauty” (Byron), “Ozymandias” (Shelley), “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (Keats), “Piazza di Spagna” (Wilbur), “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz” (Yeats), “The Sun Goes Down on Summer” (Lawhead)
Out of class writing assignment: Students will select a character from The Great Gatsby, Atonement, or An Enemy of the People and write a three-page literary analysis of him or her. In this essay, as with all essays in this course, claims must be supported with documented evidence, always remembering that there should never be a what without a how and a why. Students’ essays should include the following:
- At least one SPECIFIC passage that serves as an example of the argument the student is putting forward. This passage will be closely examined and picked apart.
What is learned about the character from his/her own actions and speeches.
How the character interacts with other characters.
How we are helped to understand the character.
Descriptions of the character
Words and revealed thoughts of the character
What other characters say, think, or feel about the character in question - VERY IMPORTANT: What the character, as written, contributes to the work AS A WHOLE.
Rough Draft Due: 20 September.
Final Draft Due: 5 October.
Unit 2
6 Weeks
Novel: Student Choice
Drama: Hamlet
Poetry: “To Be of Use” (Pierzy), “The Road Not Taken” (Frost), Multiple translations of (Verlaine), “Gertrude Talks Back” (Atwood), “Elegy of Fortinbras” (Herbert)
Additional Reading: “Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem?” (Lewis)
Out of class writing assignment: Students will be assigned one of Hamlet’s soliloquies and write a paper with an original thesis explaining how Shakespeare used diction, imagery, and figurative language to make meaning. All evidence must relate back to the initial thesis, why it is important, what conclusions can be drawn, and what the greater significance is. This paper will be 3-5 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 26 October.
Final Draft Due: 9 November.
Unit 3
6 Weeks
Novel: Mrs. Dalloway
Poetry: “Upon the Burning of Our House” (Bradstreet), “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” (Hardy)
Additional Reading: Selections from “A Room of One’s Own” (Woolf), a selection from Joyce’s Ulysses
Out of class writing assignment: Using your student choice novel, produce an analytical, argumentative essay that makes the case that the setting of the novel is critical to the greater understanding of the work (i.e., that the work could NOT be set in a different time or place without hurting the overall meaning). This essay should draw heavily on textual detail, make identify the greater meaning of the work (or theme), and conform to MLA 8 formatting, as with all other formal essays. This essay is to be 3-5 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 30 November
Final Draft Due: 14 December
Unit 4
6 Weeks
Novel: Student Choice
Short Story: “The Story of Your Life” (Chiang), “The Story of an Hour” (Chopin), “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (Twain), “Orientation” (Orozco), “The Scarlet Ibis” (Hurst), “The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas” (LeGuin)
Drama: Student Choice
Poetry: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge)
Additional Reading: “A Modest Proposal” (Swift)
Out of class writing assignment: From one of the short stories in this unit, select a character or speaker whose attitude shifts one or more times. Closely reread the work, note where the shifts occur, detail closely how the author or poet uses narrative and stylistic elements to effect the shift, and determine how the shifts affect the overall tone of the work. Then, in a well-structured essay relying heavily on textual detail, make your case. This essay is to be 3 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 25 January
Final Draft Due: 8 February
Unit 5
6 Weeks
Novel: The Sun Also Rises
Short Story: Short satires by Andy Borowitz, “In Another Country” (Hemingway), “At the Zoo with Bruce” (Ellis)“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (Twain), “The Fulness of Life” (Wharton), “The Duchess and the Jeweller” (Woolf)
Poetry: Poet Focus on John Keats, “To Althea, from Prison” (Lovelace), Dulce et Decorum Est (Owen), “The Snake” (Lawrence), “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” (Brautigan)
Out of class writing assignment: The student will take a passage from a short story from this semester and rewrite part of it as if it were written by Ernest Hemingway. In addition to this, the student will provide an explanation of how the created passage emulates Hemingway’s style yet covers all the pertinent parts of the original passage. The essay and explanation is 5 pages in length.
Rough Draft Due: 8 March
Final Draft Due: 22 March
Unit 6
6 Weeks
Novel: Student Choice
Short Story: Selection from Infinite Jest (Wallace), “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Gilman), “Easter Sunday” (Wolfe), “The Man in the Well” (Sher)
Drama: Student Choice
Poetry: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Eliot), Concentration on a Specific Poet’s selected works (William Blake, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Japanese Haiku Poets, Shakespearean Sonnets, Harlem Renaissance Poets, Walt Whitman, Anne Sexton, or a poet approved by me)
Out of class writing assignment: Complete a 10-page formal paper on the style, themes, and importance of a chosen poet and the poet’s works. It must include the following:
- The poet’s techniques, such as, but not limited to diction, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, paradox, allusion, tone, alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm, remembering that there should never be a what or how without a why.
A comparison of the author’s themes among the works chosen.
A consideration of the historical, cultural, or social settings of the poems of their construction, including research about the poet’s life. The universal significance of these works
Rough Draft Due: 26 April
Final Draft Due: 2 May
Oral Presentations: 3,6 May
Pre-Course Assignments
- Actively read The Great Gatsby.
- Read selected essays from Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Today, 2nd ed.
- Actively read An Enemy of the People.
- Respond to prompts consistently at rchsaplitandcomp.weebly.com. Attend to feedback to posts.
- Complete a data sheet for The Great Gatsby.
- Write a 1-2 page response paper to one of the Gatsby essays in Tyson’s book.
- Write a 1-2 page response paper to An Enemy of the People. In it, choose a passage of no more than half a page and explain how Ibsen’s word choice illustrates gender, social, or class-based themes.
- Take one of the poems from the British Romantic Poets section and try to answer applicable questions from Peterson’s “Analyzing Poetry,” located in your summer reading binder. Then, in a 1-2 page essay, make an argument on what the central message of the poem seems to be, and how the various elements (diction, imagery, figurative language, etc.) contribute to that of the whole.
Students who consistently and meaningfully post during the summer will be exempted from the tests over The Great Gatsby, the Lois Tyson essays, and An Enemy of the People. They will still be responsible for the short essays and The Great Gatsby data sheet, however.
Grading
Final grades are set up on a 10% scale. You are reminded that it is your Power School grade, not your Canvas grade, that is the final grade.
The class work is weighted accordingly:
Class Participation (33.3%)
- Discussion
- Oral Presentations
- In-class Revision Work
- Daily Journals
Composition (33.3%)
- Out of Class Essays, Rough and Final Drafts
- Tests and Quizzes over Readings
- In-class Mock Testing
- In-class Essays
Resources, Strategies, and Helpful Websites
Available at both http://mistersell.weebly.com/useful-resources.html and http://rchsaplitandcomp.weebly.com/ap-resources.html