AP ENGLISH LIT. /GRADUATION PROJECT COURSE SYLLABUS – 2013-2014 Ms. Danner – Room 214 ______
Course Overview: This course is taught as a college level course which engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through close reading of selected literary works of recognized merit, students will deepen their understanding and enhance their pleasure in literature. Writing assignments will focus on critical analysis of literature and will include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Students have the option, at their own expense, of taking the Advanced Placement Literature exam which could result in the attainment of college credits. Students will also produce a research paper and project to be presented to a board of teachers and community members. Upon completion of the course, students will be prepared for the type of analytical and evaluative reading required of college-level work.
Course Policies: The following are the policies and procedures for this course. The focus of instruction and learning this year will be in the following areas: preparation for the AP Exam, skill-building in literary analysis, and rhetorical/analytical writing. The course will require fairly extensive reading and writing outside of class. Most assignments will be long term with some in-class writing and discussion of reading selections. There will be weekly reading, writing and discussion activities as well as related assignments for the senior graduation project. You may not have nightly homework per se, but will need to manage your time effectively to complete all assignments by their due dates.
Grading: Grades will be given in the following categories – Summer Reading assignments (3 grades total – summer work; Vocab and Book test) Essays and Shorter Writing assignments (in-class timed writings and outside of class) Occasional quizzes Written Tests (essay as well as objective questions) Projects – some group-based; some individual Skill Application Exercises/Annotations on selected texts Class Participation ‘Hot Seat’ Discussions* Graduation Project assignments**
As of the 2011-2012 academic year, assessments will be based on the following grade scale: 90 – above = A 80 – 89 = B 70 – 79 = C 60 – 69 = D 59 – below = F
*Hot Seat Discussions – at specific times during each 9 weeks, your name (or several names) will be drawn at random to lead the class discussion (or you may also at times be questioned by the class) re: a certain reading selection. You will need to be prepared daily to discuss a specific work. You will be graded on your familiarity/knowledge of the text, and your ability to discuss it intelligently. Once you’ve been on the ‘hot seat,’ your name will be removed from the list for a time to give all students an opportunity to lead class discussion. ** Senior Graduation Project – all assignments and deadlines for each phase of the senior Graduation Project will be posted in class, and must be turned in by the deadline to earn credit. A review of all material in the Graduation Project Student Manuals (for seniors) will be conducted in class once manuals are available for distribution.
**IMPORTANT NOTES** As a college level course, late work will not be accepted in this class except in the event a student is absent from school due to illness. In this case, the work must be submitted on the first day the student returns to school. In those cases where a student misses class due to a school-related activity or other event (college visit, vacation, etc.), the student must submit the assigned work BEFORE leaving.
NOTE – for all assignments relating to the senior Graduation Project, any LATE WORK will receive reduced credit if submitted ONE DAY after the original due date. Any work submitted later than that will receive NO CREDIT. It is the student’s responsibility to get the required assignment to school and submitted to the teacher by the deadline. Failing to do so could result in no credit for the assignment and potentially failing the course.
Plagiarism Because this is a college level course, it should be clearly understood that all students are expected to do their own work. For this reason, all essays/written assignments, except for those done in class, will be submitted to TurnItin.com to ensure all work is original.
The Seneca Valley School District has a ‘no tolerance’ policy on plagiarism or cheating of any kind. (For your reference, the complete policy can be found in the Student Conduct Manual.) Any incidence of plagiarism will result in a zero for the assignment and could result in losing credit for the entire course. A failing grade in this course could jeopardize a student’s eligibility for graduation.
Final Reminder: It is my sincere hope that you will learn a great deal during this course and find it enjoyable as well. If you have a question or concern relating to something in the class, please talk to me privately either before or after school. We should be able to resolve the issue between us. If necessary, I’ll be glad to discuss the situation with you and your parents to achieve a positive outcome. Remember: keep the lines of communication open. It is the best way to prevent any confusion or misunderstanding, and ensure that our year is a positive one!
Brief Description of Course This course is taught as a college level course which engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through close reading of selected literary works of recognized merit, students will deepen their understanding and enhance their pleasure in literature. Writing assignments will focus on critical analysis of literature and will include expository, analytical and argumentative essays. Students have the option, at their own expense, of taking the Advanced Placement Literature exam which could result in the attainment of college credits. Students will also complete an approved graduation project, portfolio and presentation to be presented to a board of teachers and community members for evaluation. Upon completion of the course, the student will be prepared for the type of analytical and evaluative reading required of college students.
Unit Information Unit Name or Timeframe: Summer Reading Assignment Students will be required to complete reading and analysis of 4 works from a reading list and submit written work for evaluation at one assigned date during the summer break.
Content and/or Skills Taught: Students will be required to complete close reading of the texts and experiment in analysis that cannot be done by reading online summaries of the texts. Some of the selected works include: Group #1: (students choose two) Crime and Punishment Othello Great Expectations Pride and Prejudice Wuthering Heights A Passage to India As I Lay Dying Moby Dick
Group #2: (students choose two) The Awakening The Sun Also Rises The Kite Runner Catch-22 Ceremony Portrait of the Artist as a The Poisonwood Bible Invisible Man Young Man
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Students will write one analytical essay from prepared questions and one reader response reflective or creative piece for each assigned reading. Students will record a minimum of 5 quotations and questions each relating to each of their selected texts, and record a minimum of 25 vocabulary words for each text. Students will complete historical and biographical research for key facts reflecting both the year of authorship and the author’s life. Students will complete an extensive list of definitions for key literary terms used throughout the class. Students, upon return to school, will rewrite a summer essay based on peer evaluations. Students, upon return to school, will take an objective test based on their reading selections. Students will be given opportunities throughout the course to employ several different rewriting techniques, such as using a topic/form grid, ‘lightening’ revision read alouds, instructor conferencing, annotating, paragraph summaries, peer outlining, etc. to revise their written assignments.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Short Story - Genres, Commercial vs. Literary Fiction, Evaluating Literature. (4 weeks) Focuses on informative, interpretive and evaluative reading, the nature of art and a review of literary terms and genres using various short story selections from textbook. Students will examine sample AP essays for content and style, write practice AP questions and do peer evaluation of the results.
Content and/or Skills Taught: Selected short stories from Perrine’s “Sound and Sense.” Students will consider characterization, setting, theme, point of view, plot, symbol and allegory. Focus on tone, figurative language, allegory and imagery. Students will be introduced to literary criticism, especially archetypal as it relates to “Young Goodman Brown.” Particular emphasis will be given to comparing commercial and literary fiction.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Two comparative essays assessing the literary qualities of “A Most Dangerous Game” vs. “Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber” and “A Jury of Her Peers” and “A Municipal Report” or “A New Leaf” and “Roman Fever.” ‘Hot Seat’ and ‘Socratic Circle’ discussions led by students. Written assessments of literary elements. Journals enumerating archetypal and allegorical elements to be shared prior to an analytical essay on “Young Goodman Brown.” Practice AP writings in class and via group assessments. Reader response journals to assess student reactions to the readings. Alternately, students will keep a notebook including annotations, vocabulary, notes and parallel articles on each major reading assignment. All literary analysis will be evaluated for strength of thesis, specific support from the texts, development of logical argument and warrants, diction, syntax and variety of sentence structure, and grammar and mechanics. Scoring by rubric and teacher comments.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Nature and structure of language change in English. (3 weeks) Students will examine the changes in English from Old to Modern English and how they were influenced by historical and cultural changes.
Content and/or Skills Taught: Language History of English as demonstrated in the epic “Beowulf” and the origins of the short story in selections from “Canterbury Tales.” (Grammar, vocabulary, phonemes.)
The archetype of the hero pattern will be examined as is reflected in “Beowulf.” Students will experiment with translations from Old and Middle English. Students will research the Anglo Saxon period and compare the material culture of the Sutton Hoo treasure with the themes and story of “Beowulf.” Students will research and examine the Middle Ages and the societal changes that influenced the writing.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Presentations – Anglo-Saxon Culture Writing Assignment – Compare/contrast the translations of Seamus Heany and Burton Raffel. Experimental assignment in translation difficulties using a close reading of multiple translations of “Beowulf.” Writing Assignment - Apply the archetypal hero pattern to “Beowulf.” Writing Assignment - Choose one of the “Canterbury Tales” and analyze it using modern short story terminology (Theme, Characterization, Structure, Genre). Objective quizzes All essays are 2-4 pages in length. All literary analysis will be evaluated for strength of thesis, specific support from the texts, development of logical argument and warrants, diction, syntax and variety of sentence structure, and grammar and mechanics. Scoring by rubric and teacher comments. Socratic circle discussions.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Tragedy and the Development of Drama from the Greeks through Shakespeare. (4 Weeks) Drama traced from the ancient Greeks (“Oedipus Rex”) through the commercial theatre of Shakespeare (Hamlet, Othello, or Taming of the Shrew). Content and/or Skills Taught: Historical background on the origins of drama (Powerpoint). “Oedipus Rex” - Aristotlean tragedy and the structure of Greek theatre. Aristotlean tragedy in “Oedipus Rex” and “Hamlet” (or Othello or Taming of the Shrew) - Analysis of the difference between tragedy and catastrophe in the ancient and modern sense. The artist vs. the commercial writer in the Renaissance (the Shakespeare authorship question). Close reading of “Hamlet” for theme, influence and language development. Major critical theories in the study of “Hamlet.” All literary analysis will be evaluated for strength of thesis, specific support from the texts, development of logical argument and warrants, diction, syntax and variety of sentence structure, and grammar and mechanics. Scoring by rubric and teacher comments.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Writing assignments – Critical Essays of 3-5 pages Is "Oedipus Rex" a tragedy? (Fate vs. free will) Research project and presentation – “Who is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays?” Paper – Read a published critical essay of "Hamlet." Summarize. What type of literary criticism is being used? What support has the author used? What is your reaction to the essay and its support? "Hot Seat" and Socratic circle discussions. Mid-term at this time will consist of sample AP essay and multiple choice tests. Teacher will model and give examples of proper responses.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Developing Genres of the 18th Century - Nonfiction, creative nonfiction, novel and satire. (3 weeks)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Overview of the literature and material culture of the 18th Century – How art reflects life. (Powerpoint and group analysis of music, art, landscape architecture, costuming, architecture, etc.) Nietzsche’s theory of Dionysian and Apollonian cultures. Similarities and differences between fiction and nonfiction. Origins of creative nonfiction in DaFoe’s "Journal of the Plague Year." Credibility in primary sources - “Diary of Samuel Pepys” (applying indices of credibility) Juvenalian and Horatian Satire - "A Modest Proposal"; Pope’s “Rape of the Lock”; Voltaire’s "Candide" - Examination of the techniques of satire, including hyperbole, understatement, parody, burlesque, sarcasm, irony. Transition from "Age of Reason" to Romanticism. Dryden’s "Marriage" and Byron’s "She Walks in Beauty."
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: "Book in a Day" reading and presentation on "Candide" Student-produced written satire modeled on studied examples. Written analysis of "Modest Proposal" as a need, plan, benefit logic case. (Close reading). Student produced creative nonfiction requiring research on "Liar’s Contest" examining how a writer makes reader believe him or her. Objective quizzes. Unit Name or Timeframe: Romanticism and Its Antithesis (2 Weeks) Explanation of Romanticism and its genres - Poetry and Novel Henry James "Turn of the Screw" - Romanticism or satire of Romanticism? Hawthorne’s The Birthmark, Poe’s The Raven – identify elements of Romanticism
Content and/or Skills Taught: Credibility and the Speaker - Dealing with the unreliable narrator Close reading of a novel with a wide range of literary interpretations. Developing the persuasive argument. Identifying author’s use of select literary elements to construct meaning.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Students will prepare a mock coroner’s jury to determine the cause of Mile’s death in the novel. Judge and jury will determine the most likely scenario based upon strength of argument and support from the text. Students will also prepare a written "brief" of their argument dividing thesis, evidence and warrants into sections. Evaluation by rubric.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Realism and the Self (Origins of psychological criticism) (2 weeks)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Students will read Ethan Frome or House of Mirth by Wharton and Dreiser’s Sister Carrie. Background reading and considerations will include: Basic outline of Freudian personality development, "Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development”. Students will apply concepts of outside readings in the social sciences to understand development of selected literary texts.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: ‘Hot seat’ and Socratic circle discussions. Reader response essay - "Who Am I" (Identity) Write a literary analysis using the outside readings as a frame of reference for discussion. (Psychological criticism) All literary analysis will be evaluated for strength of thesis, specific support from the texts, development of logical argument and warrants, diction, syntax and variety of sentence structure, and grammar and mechanics. Students will demonstrate understanding and proper application of literary criticism. Scoring by rubric and teacher comments.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Realism and Gender criticism (3 weeks) Students will choose a novel based upon gender roles in society. (""Madame Bovary" by Gustav Flaubert or "Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton.)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Background reading – The Feminine Hero Pattern, excerpt from R.D. Laing’s "Politics of Experience” articles on role prescriptions; “The Good Wife”, from GoodHousekeeping 1950. How societal roles affect characterization in the realistic novel. How novels are analyzed using Feminist and New Historical criticism.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Objective test Group study guides based upon chosen novel. Presentations on chosen novel to expose the class to additional literary works. Hot seat and Socratic circle discussions
Written critical analysis of chosen novel using feminist or New Historical criticism. All literary analysis will be evaluated for strength of thesis, specific support from the texts, development of logical argument and warrants, diction, syntax and variety of sentence structure, and grammar and mechanics and use of literary criticism. Scoring by rubric and teacher comments.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Modernism, Existentialism (3 weeks)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Students will examine the effect of existentialism and world events on literature of the 20th century. Readings may include Camus’s "The Myth of Sisyphus," Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and Albee’s "American Dream/Zoo Story." Analysis of accuracy and author intent in narrative development, as well as stylistic considerations
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Students will write an analysis of the existential elements of The Metamorphosis or Modernist elements of Heart of Darkness. Students will research the historical-political aspects of key literary movements and apply them to the texts. Students will evaluate the racist tendencies if any through comparison with and analysis of Achebe’s essay on Heart of Darkness.
Unit Name or Timeframe: Poetry and Its Genres (4 weeks)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Students will intensively study both the literary aspects of poetry (poetic language, imagery, poetic technique, sound etc.) and the relationship between poetry and literary time period. Students will examine epic, narrative, monologue, rhymed and metered verse, free and blank verse. Both structure and meaning will be emphasized. Particular attention will be given to answering multiple choice questions about poetry such as are found on the AP test. Poems in various genres will be selected from the Perrine text.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Poetry journal – Compare and contrast various poems surrounding a particular theme. Double-sided journals – Students will respond in writing to various readings of the text. Poetry presentations – group work to prepare and present an analysis of poetry. Poetry reading protocols - dividing a poem into sections for reflection and annotating privileged words. Write extended literary analysis of selected poems. Unit Name or Timeframe: Intensive AP Practice (1 week)* *(Additionally, skills for test-taking will be reinforced throughout the course.)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Group and individual examination of AP multiple choice and essay questions and preparation for the free response section of the AP Literature exam. Tips for better testing results
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Practice AP Exams
Unit Name or Timeframe: Senior Graduation Project (4 weeks, spread throughout the school year)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Students will prepare, plan and execute a Senior graduation project loosely related to the thesis of their research paper, prepare an extensive portfolio of their project and present their project in a 10-minute speech before a board comprised of faculty and community members.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Senior Graduation project consisting of 20 hours of work outside of school in research, self- improvement, community improvement or volunteer activities. Portfolio of project Presentation before a board
Unit Name or Timeframe: Modern novel and favorite novel excerpts (2 weeks) (At the end of the year following the AP test and Graduation project presentations)
Content and/or Skills Taught: Reading as a life-long activity College reading lists "Favorite novel" reading lists Modern novels which cannot be presented in their totality are discussed for the aspects that make them ‘quality’ works.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: Preparation of a "future" reading list based on student’s chosen novels. Presentations sharing the student’s favorite novels. Oral presentation grade.
Textbooks Title: Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense Publisher: Heinle Published Date: 14 August, 2001 Author: Thomas R. Arp Second Author: Greg Johnson Description: Textbook used for major short stories, poetry and some plays
Other Course Materials Material Type: Audiovisual Materials, Internet
Description: “Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxons” – video - Scholastic "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" - video "Hamlet" – video - Kenneth Branaugh version “Othello” – video – Lawrence Fishburn version PBS Video "In Search of Shakespeare" “Death of a Salesman” – video - Dustin Hoffman version "Ego Boundaries or the Fit of My Father’s Shirt" - Robert Sapulsky, Psychology Today The Bible as Literature Elements of Poetry – video - Scholastic Additional novels, stories, poems, and articles as mentioned in syllabus.
Additional Information Requirement: State senior Graduation project requirement
How Course Meets Requirement: Project, portfolio, and presentation on a subject of the student’s choice.