2019 - 2020 AP English Literature Syllabus
Ms. Woodson
[email protected]
#APLitJF
Course Description:
AP courses are college level classes on a high school campus. This course is designed to prepare students to take the required AP exam in May. We will focus on close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature spanning from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries and a variety of genres. Students will read a few works deliberately and thoroughly to take time to understand a work’s complexity, to absorb its richness of meaning, and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form. This curriculum emphasizes the craft of literary artistry as well as considerations of the social and historical implications of a work and the necessary critical thinking and writing skills required to successfully comprehend and complete the AP exam. Students may receive college credit depending upon the score earned. After two years of AP English, students are well-prepared for college writing in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, etc. as well as literary analyses.
Supplies—to bring to class everyday:
earphones
small notebook or journal (no spiral)
thumbdrive, optional but a good idea
Supplies-- to share so you don't have to bring everyday
4th period: a pack of notebook paper
5th period: a pack of black or blue pens
Textbooks:
The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 11th edition
Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, ninth edition
How to Read Literature Like a Professor Thomas Foster
AP Exam Preparation:
Students will practice multiple choice and take a mock AP exam in December during your period's exam period to become accustomed to both the test format and timing needed to complete the exam successfully. Numerous essays will also be assigned, so the necessary skills will be practiced for success on the free-response section of the AP exam. The AP exam is scheduled for Wednesday May 8, 2019. The cost is $94.00 and is due to the AP coordinator, Mrs. Newby with a mid-March deadline.I recommend that you periodically check the College Board website at http://www.collegeboard.com/ap/students/index.html for updates and assistance. You will receive more details from the AP Test Coordinator, Mrs. Newby. with a fall deadline which is a new deadline this year.
College Board reserves the right to change the testing date.
New AP student websites:
apstudent.collegeboard.org includes the following information: Explore AP--student videos and infographics about the AP experience and benefits of the program. Many other features too numerous to list.
apscore.org: where students can go for information about their online score reports. Create an account and find sample multiple choice and free response questions there as well as test tips.
College Credit:
Go to the following website and plug in your colleges of choice in order to see the college credits you will receive based on scores: http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/apcreditpolicy/index.jsp
Grading:
Approximately 40% formative, 60 % summative
Daily Participation Grade:
You are assessed daily on your class participation, both oral and written. You will need to make an appointment with me to make up your Daily Grade within 3 days of absence. An alternate class participation assignment will be given to make up for the missing grade. Generally, we will have 3 class participation sessions and 2 reading/work sessions per week. Designated days are to be announced.
Make-up/Late Work:
Check our class’s web site and/or google classroom upon your return from an absence. Make-up work is to be turned in within 3 days. Long term projects are due on the due date. Schedule make- up quizzes and tests before or after school within 3 days of your absence. It is your responsibility to locate and make up your missed work. There is really no way to make up the class discussions in this class as they are usually once in a life time combinations of ideas from which all of us grow.
Work Load:
Most homework is reading and annotating. Students have a tendency to put off reading homework until bedtime when they are too exhausted to absorb the material. This habit shows up quickly in class discussions and essays. Book summaries and quick reads do not provide the type of analysis and thinking that are needed for success in this course.
Homework will be given on weekends and holidays. Homework appears excessive when students don’t spend the appropriate amount of time nightly and on designated reading days, wait until an assignment is due and then spend hours trying to complete it. Time management is key to success in this course. Much of the material will be read outside of class, at times 2 books will be read at the same time, and as a class, we analyze the books after everyone has read a chunk or the entire book instead of analyzing chapter by chapter. Also frequent papers are required with appropriate rewriting.
Remediation Opportunities:
I will post remedial lessons and tips for you to view when you feel you need to receive extra support. Please be sure to let me know what you are struggling with for support.
Extra Credit Opportunities:
You can receive extra credit when you turn in the books we’ve studied thoroughly annotated beyond the annotation rubric, make study flashcards, or rewritten essays beyond the final copy with significant revisions ( with all copies available). You also can receive extra credit for cartoons you bring in referencing the reading this year. Annotations and flashcards must be turned in at the end of the course of study involving these materials. I WILL NOT TAKE ANY EXTRA CREDIT WORK AFTER ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THE END OF THE NINE WEEKS.
College Recommendations:
Email me your college recommendation request. Check back periodically to be sure the request has been fulfilled. I usually ask for two week's notice.
Field Trips/Guest Speakers:
Field trips to see drama and experience poetry are being planned. I will get the information to you as soon as dates, prices, and information are finalized. Also many times during the year, AP Lit students will go to optional readings, lectures, talks, and dramas at local colleges as a group for extra credit. Sometimes we include meals in our literary adventures.
We are planning field trips this year that we want you to know about early so you can make plans.
Sept. 19 Trip to Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Union Station, & the Kennedy Center to see What the Constitution Means to Me cost approximately $90.00 due August 30!
Oct. 24 The Academy in Lynchburg to see American Shakespeare Center's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream $7.00 (scroll down to the date)
Oct. 26 The Crucible by Wolfbane outdoors in Appomattox. This is a Saturday performance, so we will make dinner arrangements and then go to the show.
March 19 -- 22 NYC to see Hadestown & Dear Evan Hanson, the Tenement museum, Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studio tours as well as uptown sites, and a student choice play cost approximately $1521 -- $1938 due Jan. TBD. **** $250.00 non-refundable payment that must be paid by Sept. 27 to secure your place on this high demand trip.
April Anne Spencer House & Museum
We will have more trips during the year!
AP Lit Course Tentative Outline
Course Syllabus Essential Question:
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How does the literature of imagination,full of untruths, manage to convey to us, the readers, the most profound truths about human nature and society?
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What is truth and beauty?
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What does it mean to be human? To grow as a human?
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Why do ideas in fiction (made up stories) push people over the edge to the point that books are banned, people are insulted or validated, ideas explode over into reality and sometimes even incite action?
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How are our ideas about gender, race, class, orientation depicted and impacted through literature?
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How do living writers impact us?
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Why can’t we find the answers to these questions in equations and algorithms?
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How do I get in touch with the literature that impacts me? (Work on)
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How do we share enthusiasm for literature to others?
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How do we share stories that bridge what divides us?
The following works of literature may be studied during the school year.
Parents please peruse the list to determine if there are any concerns. If you
have concerns, please contact me at the email address provided. Thank you for
your consideration.
Daily Essential Questions:
What is the meaning of the piece? How do you know? So what?
Theme, Tone, Purpose, Metaphor Daily!!!!!!!!!!!
Q1 SOL 12. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Quarter essential questions: Why really read? Why is story so compelling to us? How do writers shape & manipulate language so readers discover their own truths? What choices do writers make that impact meaning, beauty, and truth?
some pieces we may use while exploring the above questions are as follows:
nursery rhymes, fairy tales
Our own stories
Greeks, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, ballads, riddles
3 levels of meaning-- “Curlews”
“Ordeal by Cheque” graphic story
college essays
short stories (Perrine’s) that may include
“Hunters in the Snow”
“Rocking Horse Winner”
“The Cask of Amontillado”
“Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?”
“Interpreter of Maladies”
Flannery O’Connor’s stories
“Once Upon a Time”
prose FR prompts & MC practice
The Bluest Eye
Independent novel selections:
Summer assignment bildungsroman novels: The Leavers, Washington Black, The History of Wolves, Where the Crawdads Sing
Disney/Marvel project: How to Read Literature Like a Professor
“Once More to the Lake” E.B. White
“Now We Are Five” David Sedaris
Banned Books activity
Living poets journal
Richard Blanco -- motel poem
Library of Congress field trip
Q2 SOL 12.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7
How does genre affect author’s meaning? Why have popular formats for storytelling shifted over the generations? How is poetry the lifeblood of our language? How does poetry reveal the essences of what really matters to humans?
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Short Story Teaching Project
Verse --review skills
Poems may include the following:
Romantic poems--assorted
“God’s Grandeur”
Shakespearean sonnet & Comedy
“One Art”
“My Last Duchess”
John Donne mini unit
Dickinson and Frost poems
“Dover Beach”
“Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Writing our own poetry and imaginative stories
poetry MC and FR
Art Museum & Library of Congress
Lit Circle Novel--seminar filmed activity
Open Prompts--the list & practice
Mock Exam
American Shakespeare Company presentation
Wolfbane productions presentation
Q3 SOL 12. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Essential Questions: What are our true selves? Do we have the
capacity to face our real selves? Why do we enjoy being ‘in the
know’ and on the ‘inside’? How does poking fun at our
lives and surroundings bring us satisfaction?
Portfolio Self-Assessment
poetry analysis continued
Pre-twentieth century prose
Gulliver’s Travels and Satire
Tragedy--King Lear or Macbeth
The Sound and the Fury
NYC trip
Q4 Fourth Nine Weeks—SOL 12.1,2 3, 4, 5, 7
Essential Questions: How do we know who we really are? How do we handle our prejudices? What genre best suits our expressions of beauty and truth?
mock exam 2--optional
Heart of Darkness/Daisy Miller
Anne Spencer focus and field trip
Poetry project
AP Exam Prep
AP Lit Reads--an argument based literature contest
Independent Project selection: TEDx talk, MGA, Thematic Lit Project, Selfie Project
Quizzes and Tests to be part comprehension and part close reading analysis but mostly analysis.
Ongoing each 9 weeks: --Language exercises SOL 12.3 & 7 --AP Multiple Choice Questions SOL 12. 3 & 4 --Timed Responses to direct AP free response prompts SOL 12.7 --Reader Responses 12.7 --Write, revise, and edit essays in multiple modes SOL 12.7 & 8 --Daily oral participation SOL 12.1 --poetry reactions 12.5 --Voice Lessons practice 12.3, 5, & 6 --Word studies 12.3
(Please copy and paste the above and place in your e-binder so that we can access it whenever needed. I encourage you to place dates in your agenda, e-calendar, and/or wall calendar to keep yourself aware of due dates. Get the signatures and appropriate information of the following permission slip and give to me on the first day of school.)
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(please cut and return only the portion below)
(Please print just the permission form below and turn in the first day of school)
We have read, and we understand the course syllabus for AP English Literature and Composition 12. We commit to the workload and requirements of this class. We agree that the student will take a mock exam during the first semester exam period and the AP Lit exam on May 6, 2020 as well as participate in the AP Prep opportunities. College Board reserves the right to change the testing date. We will check the electronic grade book to check grade averages.
Print Student Name_____________________________________ Class Period________
_______________________________________ student signature
_______________________________________ parent signature
_________________________ home phone #
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(please type and paste or tape here - do not handwrite)
______________________________________________________student e-mail address (please type and paste or tape here - do not handwrite)
Return Friday August 16th