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Course Overview
The AP Spanish Literature course is taught completely in Spanish and intended to be the
equivalent to a threeyear college course in Latin American and Peninsular literature in which
the students will read, discuss, and analyze critically. Since analyzing the texts is critical to be
successful in the class and the College Board exam, student participation is equivalent to 10
percent of the student overall grade. The textbook for the class is Abriendo puertas (Evanston,
Ill.: McDougal Littell/Nextext, 2003) This textbook provides students with the sociocultural
context necessary to fully comprehend each work and the reflection questions go beyond factual
recall, requiring students to engage in deep analytical thinking.
The objective for the class is to prepare students:
1. To understand the social, historic and cultural context of each literary work
2. To write a well organized and developed essay within the allotted time
3. To participate actively in lectures and class discussions on literary topics in
Spanish
4. To do a thorough reading of literary texts of all genres in Spanish; and
5. To interpret and analyze critically the form and content of literary works,
learning the terms and tools to engage in literary analysis, and responding
through integrated writing and speaking activities.
Course Plan
The curriculum is divided into two semesters. During semester one, the literary focus for the
class is in narrative works while semester two focuses on poetry.
Semester 1 (SeptemberJanuary)
Gabriel Téllez (Tirso de El burlador de Sevilla y
Molina) convidado de piedra
Modernismo
Postmodernismo Horacio Quiroga El hijo
Emilia Pardo Bazán Las medias rojas
Federico García Lorca La casa de Bernarda Alba
Juan Rulfo No oyes ladrar los perros
Julio Cortázar Continuidad de los parques,
La noche boca arriba
Carlos Fuentes Chac Mool
Gabriel García Márquez Un día de estos, El ahogado
más hermoso del mundo, La
prodigiosa tarde de Baltazar,
Un señor muy viejo con unas
alas enormes, La viuda de
Montiel, La siesta del martes
Semester 2 (FebruaryMay)
Garcilaso de la Vega Soneto XXIII (En tanto que de
rosa y de azucena)
José de Espronceda Canción del pirata
José María Heredia En una tempestad
Pablo Neruda Oda a la alcachofa,
Residencia en la tierra II,
Walking around
Veinte poemas de amor y
una canción desesperada,
Poema 15 (Me gustas cuando
callas porque estás como
ausente)
Latinos en los Estados Julia de Burgos A Julia de Burgos
Unidos
Parodia social Rosario Castellanos Autorretrato
Student Activities
In addition to reading the material in the textbook Abriendo puertas and answering the
follow up questions, students are required to complete activities that are designed by the teacher
to enhance their critical thinking and analytical skills. One of the most important assignments
that a student must complete is an análisis literario. At the beginning of the school year, every
student is assigned to one or two authors from the AP College Board reading list. The análisis
literario of a narrative work is composed of 5 distinct categories: the life and work of the author,
including the literary movements, social, economic and/or political events (historical
background) that formed his/her writings; a summary of the work(s), a detailed description of the
characteristics of main characters, both physical as well as a symbolic representation; a
breakdown of the major themes found within the works and one or more analytical questions to
increase students’ understanding of the meaning of the literary work. Subsequently, the análisis
literario of a poetry selection is composed of the life and work of the author, a detailed analysis
of the poem’s format including rhyme scheme and poetic devices; a breakdown of the major
themes found within the work and an explanation using specific examples that support the
student analysis of the poem. Every student’s análisis literario is graded for accuracy, content
and background and historical information and once they have revised their first draft, after the
teacher has given feedback and suggestions, a final draft is completed and turned in by the
student and a final copy is given to every student. Throughout the semester, students will
compile all their copies into a portfolio; its main purpose being that of a continuous review
source for the exam.
As a culminating activity for semester one, students create an artistic representation of
one of the works in the reading list. In order for students to demonstrate comprehension of the
readings, they will be working either individually or in groups to create an artistic representation
(using symbolism and imagery) of one of the works from the reading list. This representation
will allow students to review the literary works that have been read before their final exam in the
first semester. The students also review literary terms, themes, analytical skills, main ideas, the
purpose and approach of the writer. Examples of artistic representations that meet the criteria
are paintings, sculptures (árboles de la vida), and the dramatization of scenes. As part of this
final semester project, students are required to present to the entire class, in Spanish, their
representations.
As a form of review, twice during a semester, students work in groups to align the works
studied in class with the major themes reflected in them. Then, using questions from previous
AP exams as a reference, they will generate analytical questions in which they are required to do
a thematic analysis of specific works or compare and/or contrast the way two authors treat a
specific theme. These questions are the starting point of a classroom discussion or a Socratic
seminar; or these are questions that will be recycled and used in future exams as essay topics for
the class.
Teaching Strategies
Since most students have difficulty analyzing poetry, poetry lessons start with simple and
fun activities such as reading tongue twisters, riddles and poetry with a clear pattern of rhythm
and rhyme. At this point, students are introduced to rhyme schemes along with the poetic
terminology that is easier to identify. Within a few weeks, after analyzing poems, which are not
in the official AP list, students become familiar with additional terminology. Once students
master the analysis process, then the transition is made to analyzing the official poems on the
reading list.
Students practice essay writing as part of their assessments and by writing them
throughout the semester. The writing of effective essays is an arduous job and the following
transition is followed until students demonstrate a clear understanding of this process. The first
step in this process is a critical analysis of a model student essay. This basic first step is done in
the form of a lecture to the entire class. Its central purpose is to analyze the essay focusing on
structure, organization, content and language usage. The essay is then graded as a class using the
AP grading rubrics provided by the College Board. This step is crucial in identifying what is
expected of the student and is repeated with every exam taken either as an entire class or as a
student individual reflection.
During the first semester, the focal point is on thematic and text analysis essays. The
thematic analysis essay must demonstrate how one or more authors treat a theme in their work.
A theme is given with a choice of four/five works and students must select two works to
compare and/or contrast this theme or develop the theme further. Once students have mastered
this type of essay, then they move on to the writing of a text analysis essay. This essay requires
students to analyze a critical commentary about a particular work from the required AP list.
Occasionally, the format for this essay may vary and students will need to write a well
developed answer to a series of questions from a passage from one of the readings in the
required AP list. By adapting the essays written in class to reflect those of the actual College
Board exam allows students to be more familiar with the material and improve their performance
in the exam.
During the first part of the second semester, student preparation is targeted to the
evaluation and analysis of poetry. The students are given a poem that is not on the official AP
reading list and the students are to write an essay usually analyzing theme, literary techniques,
format of the poem and relate the format of the poem to the theme or content of the poem.
The student assessments differ also from one semester to another and are designed to
reflect an increasing understanding of the writing process and the readings in class. During the
first semester, one regular exam is given, in addition to one midterm and one final exam. The
first and the midterm examinations are twoday long exams that consist of reading
comprehension and analysis questions and two essays; thematic analysis or text analysis. The
final exam is a simulated College Board AP Literature exam minus the poetry selection.
Because of the increased student familiarity with the exam format, the second semester exams
are all entirely simulating that of the real exam in May, including thematic, text and poetry
analysis as well as reading comprehension and analysis.
Most of the cultural aspects of a country/society are taught along with any given work.
Initially, students are given a demonstration on how to use the Internet as a tool to find
biographical information on the authors as well as historical information during the writing
period, information on the politics and society and any articles or written texts that might give
them information on the perspective of that particular culture. Finally, they receive a list of
several web sites to begin their research, which is usually done during class time, at home or at
school during library hours. After this, the students form expert groups to give their presentation
of any relevant information pertaining to the society, history and culture of the literary work.
Students also, discuss differences and similarities found within their research with those of our
American culture. For example, the group that runs a research on La casa de Bernarda Alba by
Federico García Lorca might point out that in Spain, in the 1930s, it might be normal to see a
family in mourning (guardar luto) and dress in black for eight years. This tradition was
followed to show respect for the person that had died in contrast to our country and society
nowadays, where this cultural tradition is not followed as closely. This activity allowed the
students to demonstrate an understanding of why people, because of the “norms” of society, act
the way they do. Students were able to see that gender, age, social class and the place where
people live, affects people’s behavior and their language use.