Syllabus for AP Literature and Composition

 

Sutton High School Mission Statement: At Sutton High School, we are committed to providing a foundation on which all students have the opportunity to pursue academic excellence and personal development in a safe, supportive, and challenging learning environment.

 

English Department Mission Statement: The Sutton High School English Department maintains a high standard of learning in which every student has an opportunity to develop and refine reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking skills and to become personally responsible for his or her academic growth.

 

The English Department assumes responsibility for the following SHS Learning Expectations:

                        The Sutton High School student is an effective communicator.

                        The Sutton High School student is a critical thinker.

                        The Sutton High School student works independently.

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Overview of AP English Literature and Composition

 

Description: An AP course in English Literature and Composition should engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students should deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to produce both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students should consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.

 

Literature: Reading in an AP Literature and Composition course should be both wide and deep. To fulfill the wide requirement, literature in this class will be studied as a survey of British literature, primarily from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Literary analysis, both interpretive and evaluative, will be the focus. Besides determining a work’s literary artistry, the social and historical values reflected and embodied in the work will be considered. In addition, students should get to know a few works very well or deeply. These works, significant novels and plays, will be used for the one free response essay on the AP exam. Summer reading titles, among others, may be used for this purpose.

 

Composition: Writing assignments will focus on the critical analysis of literature and will include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. The goal of the composition is to increase students’ ability to explain clearly, cogently, and even elegantly what they understand about literary works and why they interpret them as they do. Frequent timed essay writing in and out of class will give students practice in the type of composition required on the AP exam. Other writing assignments, both formal and informal in nature, will also be assigned. Though not a requirement for the AP exam, research will also be assigned.

 

The AP Exam: All students who enroll in this class are expected to take the AP exam in May. While the value of the course is certainly not limited to students’ performance on the exam, preparation for the exam will be a priority. What is required of students taking the exam? Students must be able to read pre-twentieth century prose and poetry as well as more modern selections. They must be able to recognize and explain irony. They must be intimately familiar with a core of standard literary terms. They must have a grasp of traditional grammar. They must be able to read and write under severe time constraints. Finally, they must have experience in the practical realities of multiple-choice testing.

Text: Adventures in English Literature, Harcourt Brace, an anthology

 

Summer Reading Titles:

 

            Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Native Son by Richard Wright

 

 

Available In-Class Titles:

 

Grendel by John Gardner

Macbeth by Shakespeare

Othello by Shakespeare

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Equus by Peter Shaffer

 

 

The “Weekly Drill”

 

To prepare for the rigors of the AP exam, a number of activities will take place weekly throughout the year. These will include “close reading” sessions, timed compositions, and a general vocabulary list.

• “Close reading” sessions will focus on discussion of literary and stylistic elements that create an effect in short poems or prose quotes. Some of these selections will be taken from text studied in class, and others will be unfamiliar to students. The purpose of the exercise is to develop the ability to give informed, detailed comment on short selections that are often isolated from the full context of complete works. This skill is required on two of the three essays on the exam.
• Timed compositions will be given in and out of class regularly as preparation for the AP exam essays. Composition topics will initially be based on summer reading titles (open response type essays) and works studied in class. Other compositions will be based on close reading of an excerpt from various texts. Most of the composition prompts will be taken from past AP exams.
• A vocabulary list of 25 useful or significant words will be chosen by individual students from each longer work that we read; these will be submitted as a homework grade. Criteria for selection: a significant or interesting general vocabulary word that the student either does not know or whose meaning the student would want to confirm, amplify, or refine. Each word selected by the student should be numbered, its source cited, and a single dictionary definition provided that corresponds to the use of the word in the text. The purpose of the assignment is to give evidence that students are independently increasing/developing their vocabularies and building awareness of the linguistic environment in the works they study. On the AP exam often a single word in a poem or prose selection is pivotal to some important element in interpretation or analysis, and ignorance of the word’s meaning stymies or misinforms the student’s response. It’s advisable that students keep a binder for the class in which assignments and handouts can be organized. 

 

In addition, because of its importance in style analysis, a basic knowledge of traditional English grammar is essential. A project early in the year will have students do research and present to the class findings on some aspect of the parts of a sentence, phrases, and clauses.

 

Grading: Grades will be based upon weighted averages in three categories: homework, quizzes, and tests, and all assignments will be placed in one of those three categories. Summer reading essays will comprise a single test grade. It goes without saying that all homework and reading assigned in an AP class should be completed on time and to a high degree of quality. Missed work should be made up promptly per school regulations. Participation in class is essential in the seminar format and will be graded on its quality, consistency, and usefulness for the progress of the group.

 

Communication: The AP program requires students to be motivated, ambitious, self-directed, and independent learners. It is important that students also be as reflective about their learning as they are about analysis of literary texts. Any questions or problems should be communicated to me as soon as possible. Outside of the school day messages can be directed to 508-581-1640, extension 4191, or howlandc@suttonschools.net.   

 

Mr. Howland

Room 209

Sutton High School