AP Literature and Composition

Course Description
This Advanced Placement Literature and Composition course is designed to teach freshmen level
writing including the fundamentals of rhetorical theory, and follows the curricular requirements
set forth in the AP English Course Description. The class will include daily discussions about
the assigned reading and writing. The discussions will cover invention and the artistic proofs
(ethos, pathos, logos), structure and style (diction, syntax, figurative language, mechanics). This
class will operate similar to daily workshops. Students will have the opportunity for timed
writing, revision and explorative reading. The reading list is pulled from the recommended list
from College Board. The reading will provide ample opportunity for critical writing including
evaluating effectiveness in literary pieces. We will explore three types of writing, to understand,
to explain and to evaluate. I expect from the student an overall desire to want to improve writing
through revisions, careful reading and productive discussion.
Reading and Writing Assignments
Reading Assignments
The most important requirement for this course is that the material assigned is read with care and
on time. Students are often unused to large reading assignments and therefore, need to plan
carefully. Novels and longer assignments are scheduled ahead of time so students must
acknowledge their own reading time requirements to get it done. Poetry, although shorter in
length, must be read at least twice and is often more complicated so must be read with more care.
Be aware and plan accordingly.
Summer Reading AssignedHamlet by Shakespeare
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

Assigned reading during school year-

The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 9th

edition
Dubliners by Joyce
The Metamorphosis by Kafka
Things Fall Apart by Achebe
A Doll House by Ibsen
Death of a Salesman by Miller
Students will also be given a list of novels to
choose for individual study
Additional poetry will be included
Others to be added as necessary

Writing Assignments
Writing assignments will be both critical and creative. Critical essays will be based on textual
analysis. Revisions of work will allow students to develop an effective use of rhetoric, control of
tone, voice, diction and sentence structure. Additionally, they will improve organization,
technique and coherence. Additionally, critical papers will be written often, sometimes timed,
and there will be one research based analysis of a drama. All essays are based on close textual
analysis. All creative writing will be based on rhetorical forms and styles of literature we are
studying. These creative assignments will be graded based upon the students knowledge and
application. We will also address grammar and usage. There will be lessons as needed based on
sentence construction, usage and diction. Students in need of additional help in this area will
spend extra time having writing conferences with the teacher.
In Class Writing, Quizzes and Exams
On a weekly basis students will be asked to free write their responses to the reading. Students
will also be instructed to annotate all reading regarding given topics. All in class quizzes and
exams will utilize AP-based structure of questions. Some quizzes will not be announced ahead
of time. All exams will be announced at least one week prior. During the course of the year,
students will take at least four practice AP exams in a timed setting. While the class setting does
not allow us to take all parts of the exam in one session, we will break up the parts and give
adequate time for each.
Grading Scale
Course Work
In-class writings, discussion and activities
Out-of-class writings and assignments
Quizzes and exams
Numerical Average
92-100
83-91
82-73
72-65
Below 64

Reading and Writing Outline

Percent of Final Grade

25%
40%
35%
Letter Grade
A
B
C
D
F

Unit One: Summer Reading Round-up, Literary Devices and Introduction to Bedford Text
(2 weeks)
Guiding Points:
Students will gain experience with:
o Close reading of fiction, poetry and nonfiction
o Composition instruction:
Students will begin with a timed writing based on the summer reading list.
This essay is pulled from a released AP Literature and Composition Exam.
Students will review a poem and write an essay on a possible theme,
focusing on allusions.
Students will write brief paragraph responses to Chapter 53 from Bedford
(Critical Thinking and Writing). Also, based on the summer reading list.
Review of Literary terms and techniques (Test)
Review of critical lens and analysis.
Review TPCASTT.
Unit Two: Existentialist theory (2 weeks)
Guiding Points:
Definition of existentialism
Philosophical/Historical framework
Franz Kafka biographical information
Samples from Albert Camus and Joseph Conrad
Students will:
Read Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and annotate.
Receive lecture on existentialist theory, background, societal framework and its
impact on Kafka. Also discussion of surrealism, expressionism and philosophical
thoughts of the time period.
Focus on point of view and theme writing (familial relations, physical and
emotional transformation, loyalty, sacrifice and duty)
Participate in daily discussion and writing responses to book discussions.
A timed class essay identifying the main characters transformation.
Gain an understanding of historical context affecting literature.
Gain an understanding of personal experience and the effect on writing.

Unit Three: The Dubliners by James Joyce (2 Weeks)

Guiding Points:
This book is a collection of short stories that are connected through universal
themes and a central mood.
Fits into the Modernist views of the world where there are few moral standards
and little purpose to life.
Possible themes include death, disease, and paralysis.
These stories represent human nature.
Joyce did not represent the normal 19th century fictional style.
The use of epiphany.
Narrated monologue and chiasmus
Students will:
Read The Dubliners by Joyce.
Close reading activities (including annotation and notecards) to find examples of :
o Epiphany
o Monologues
o Chiasmus
o Voice
o Specifically identified themes
o Structure
o Social values
Writing to understand- Write an emotional response to the reading. While using
the notes listed above, students will respond to Joyces techniques and structure.
Writing to explain Students will write a timed essay using one Joyces stories to
analyze aspects of Joyces language and the structure he uses to convey meaning,
particularly his use of chiasmus.
Writing to evaluate Students will write an essay focuses on one character from
The Dubliners. The essay should evaluate how this character identifies with the
social values of the time.
Students will choose one of the above essays to use in peer editing and then a
teacher evaluation. They will focus on effective vocabulary usage (diction),
sentence structure, and tone.
Unit Four- Genre Study- Fiction/Nonfiction (8 weeks)
Guiding Points:
Focuses on the following:
Week 1/2-Plot/Character (The Bedford Introduction to Literature)
o From Tarzan of the Apes Burroughs, The Flowers Walker, Three
Girls Oates, A Rose for Emily Faulkner, Killings Dubus, From Hard

Times Dickens, Saving Sourdi Chai, Bartleby, The Scrivener

Melville, Fiesta Diaz
Week 3/4-Setting/Point of View (The Bedford Introduction to Literature)
o Soldiers Home Hemingway, Anthropology Lee, The Lady with the
Pet Dog Chekhov, The Lady with the Pet Dog Oates
Week5/6-Symbolism/ Theme (The Bedford Introduction to Literature)
o Clothes Divakaruni, The Hand Colette, Battle Royal Ellison, The
Paring Knife Oppenheimer, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Crane,
Miss Brill Mansfield, Love in L.A. Gilb, I Am The Grass Walker
Week 7/8- Style/Tone/Irony (The Bedford Introduction to Literature)
o Popular Mechanic Carver, Lust Minot, How to Tell a True War
Story OBrien, Brownies Packer, Boys Moody, Summer Updike

Review of Freytags Pyramid

Students will:
Receive lectures on the focuses listed above.
Read stories listed above to respond to released AP Exam multiple choice
questions which focus on plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism,
theme, style, tone, and irony. Questions have been selected for test taking
practice, as well as practice in identifying and evaluating the listed devices.
Students will write a timed essay analyzing particular literary techniques
GROUP EDITING, REWRITING!
Unit Five-Poetry (12 weeks)
Guiding Points:
A review of poetry and TPCASTT.
Focus on forms narratives, ballads, sonnets, odes, and epigrams.
Figures of speech
Symbolism and allegory
Syntax
Poetic themes
imagery
Students will:
Read selected poetry from the Bedford text.
o Those Winter Sundays Hayden, Dogs Death Updike, The Fish
Bishop, l(a Cummings, Nighttime Fires Barreca, Snapping Beans
Parker, Seniors Rios, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner Jarrell, To
His Coy Mistress Marvell, The Convergence of the Twain Hardy,
Titanic Slavitt, The Youngest Daugher Song, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Keats, Poem Williams, Dover Beach Arnold, Root Cellar Roethke,

Heat H.D., Dulce Et Decorum Est Owen, To Autumn Keats, In a

Station of the Metro Pound, Mirror Plath, London Wordsworth,
Blackberry Eating Kinnell, The Lamb Blake, The Tyger Blake,
Chicago Sandburg, Selection of Shakespearean sonnets
TPCASTT all selected poems.
Students will write 3-4 timed essays based on their TPCASTT analysis of selected
poems.
Students will compare and contrast two poems in an essay based upon their use of
figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.
Students will write one essay focusing on a poems structure, style and theme.
Students will work in groups to read aloud and analyze poems to decipher their
historical context. They will do minimal research to discover the social and
historical value of each assigned poem. Upon completion of this analysis and
research, each group will teach their set of poems to the class, using that
information to outline a response to a released AP Exam essay question for poetry.
Students will focus on one author of their choice from the selected poems above
and write two poems mimicking the form, structure of that poet/poem.
Students will also write one creative poem, free verse, where they focus on the
subject of one poem from the list above.
Students will take a poetry exam as an assessment.

Unit Six- Independent study of World and American Literature (On-going for 14 weeks
during year overlapping other units)
Guiding Points:
Students will have to demonstrate self-directed learning skills such as time
management, and personal responsibility through completion of the following
assignments.
Students will have to demonstrate a development and understanding of their own
preferred learning styles to enhance their academic potential.
Students may have to formulate a framework for applying a variety of technology
and internet-based research to enhance information literacy.
Students will have to use problem solving skills to maintain a strict schedule to
complete the following assignments.
Students will:

Students will read seven of the novels listed below and seven more of their choice
from the AP Suggested Reading List:
o
o
o
o

Gullivers Travels
Of Mice and Men
Fahrenheit 451
The Great Gatsby

o
o
o
o

Treasure Island
A Room of Ones Own
Dracula
Frankenstein

o Othello
o A Midsummer Nights
Dream

o Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
o Flowers for Algernon
o Things Fall Apart
o The Grapes of Wrath

Upon completion of each book students will be expected to complete a short book
test on each. Additionally, each test will include an essay focusing on one of the
following:
o Structure, style, theme
o Figurative language
o Symbolism
o Social, cultural and/or historical values
Students will maintain a running vocabulary list from all novels to build a wideranging vocabulary.
Upon completion of each book, the student will be tested on these vocabulary
words based on definition and usage.
Upon completion of each novel each student will add crucial information to their
knowledge wheel notes. Each card contains information about all literature
read this year.

Unit Seven- Classical and Modern Drama (10 weeks)

Guiding Points:
The basics of drama, performance, history
Contemporary humor and satire
Playwright intentions versus director interpretations (a study into Arthur Millers
The Death of a Salesman)
Can a nineteenth century wife break from her dominating husband? Gender roles
throughout history Naturalism, Realism
The art of Shakespearean Drama

Students will:
Read and perform Playwriting 101 in class to understand some of the problems
in playwriting.
Read and perform A Dolls House by Ibsen in class.
Write a character analysis on Nora Helmer from a Marxist lens.
Write an essay focusing on the historical and social significance of the play.

Peers will edit one of the above essays focusing on organization and voice.
Students will receive time to edit and rewrite essays based on teacher and peer
evaluations.
Read and watch Death of a Salesman by Miller.
Students will evaluate the structure of Millers play and how it is created visually
by watching 1980s version of the play.
Students will annotate while reading on the selected themes of The American
Dream and one of their choice. Using those annotations, students will write a
detailed essay showing the theme through the authors use of structure, imagery,
and dramatic irony.
Students will write a compare and contrast essay analyzing the similarities and
differences in Millers scripted play versus the film version. They will
specifically look at the stage direction and use of time, as it is framed in both.
Students will work in groups to write and present a modern day play which
portrays the current American Dream as it exists compared to previous versions
of the concept. These will be short; one act plays exemplifying the use of stage
direction, time and characterization to show the theme. Students will perform
these plays for the class and the class will interpret in a brief timed writing, the
effectiveness of the techniques listed above.
Students will read and do a case study of one of the following:
o Othello
o Hamlet
Students will read A Study of William Shakespeare (The Bedford Introduction
to Literature)
Students will research the historical significance of each of these plays, relevance
and respond with a 7-10 page analytical/research based essay.
Students will give a speech as a modern day character from one of these plays.
They must rewrite the speech in modern terms and perform the speech for the
class.