AP Summer Assignment 2018-2019 1. Read Homer's The Iliad translated by Robert Fagles 2. Read Albert Camus' The Stranger 3. Study the List of Greek Names, their stories, and their place within the Greek Pantheon. 4. Download the following instructional materials: o The Iliad Vocabulary o Greek Mythology Allusions o Crafting Strong Titles o Introductory Strategies o Rubric for Writing about Literature o Know the genre conventions of tragedy, and the tragic hero according to Aristotle in his work, "Poetics" 5. Upon return, you will have an in class essay. This will allow you the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the text and on demand writing skills. The questions (each block will have a different question) will be a Free Response, Open Ended question from the AP Exam. You may access examples of these questions, from 1999 to the present, in the College Board web site. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition/exam The first day of class, we will review the AP Rubric and writing strategies, which includes the following instructional materials: “Crafting Strong Titles” and “Introductory Strategies”. All of these items are included with this summer assignment, if you want to examine them in advance. 6. You will also take a series of multiple-choice tests. The first one will be on The Iliad Vocab and the reading. The next ones will be on Greek Mythology Allusions (the List of Greek Names). These tests are 20 questions multiple choice tests once a week. Since the tests are 20 questions, you will be tested on the first 20 words on the list, starting with Acheron River and ending with Calliope. The next text will cover the next 20 words after Calliope and so on. 7. The first week of class, bring The Iliad so we may review it on a deeper level 8. The third week of class we will address Existentialism and apply it to The Stranger. At that time we will review and discuss The Stranger with non- fictional, supplemental readings. 9. The first novel you will read is Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky. I have the Norton edition. You can find this text at any bookstore or library. Any translation or publication will do, it is always interesting to compare and contrast translations, however if you have a different translation (other than the Norton), your pages will not match mine. 10. In addition to studying the Greek Allusions: List of Greek Names it is recommended (although not required) that you read Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. The Iliad: Vocab and Context The following vocabulary will help place the Iliad in context and help you understand the work better. Genre Conventions for the Heroic Epic The following seven terms are genre conventions for the heroic epic. On a separate sheet of paper, write a though definition of each term, provide an example of each genre convention from The Iliad. Epic Similes Epic Repetition Flashbacks Heroic Epithets Invocation of the Muse Medias Res Elevated Language On a separate sheet of paper, write a through definition of each word, then use the word in a sentence that makes it relevant to The Iliad. Anthropomorphic Achaeans Argives Kleos Aristiea moria Danaans Ilion Rhapsodos Dactylic hexameter Hubris Catharsis Hamartia Introductory Strategies Features of a good introduction: Introductions need to catch the attention of the reader The main purpose of an introduction is to present and frame a writer’s thesis announcing what the essay will illustrate. Many instructors like to see the thesis as the last sentence in the introductory paragraph Your introduction like the essay itself depends on your situation: What are you writing about, who are you writing to, what is your purpose? If your situation is formal, such as addressing the board of trustees at your school for money to increase the media center holdings, your introduction is likely to be serious and direct. Your introduction reveals your voice right away-the sound of your personality that you want to project. If your essay is humorous, your introduction should convey a humorous tone or attitude toward your subject. Opening Lines or Hooks: Start with a dramatic incident or a vivid, detailed description Such as the description of a concentration camp for an essay on Maus I or I Start by explaining the thesis Ironically, at one point everyone feels alone in a crowd of people, left out or like they do not belong. Start with a historical review The history of genocide suggests all cultures experience xenophobia as a form of patriotism. Start with a question or a problem Is too much imagination a bad thing? (essay on Amanda or Laura in Menagerie) Start with a contrast “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Start with a quotation: “If ‘all art is useless’ as Oscar Wilde says, then Holden from Catcher in The Rye teaches us nothing. Start with an idea to be refuted. Introductions to Avoid: Definitions from a dictionary “According to Webster’s Dictionary…” Explicitly declaring what you will do: “In this essay, I will…” Apologies or Disclaimers “I’m not really an expert on this but…” Dean Memering, William Palmer, Discovering Arguments. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 2007 Rubric for Writing about Literature In Class Essay 8-9: These well-written essays use topics appropriate to the assignment and explain their ideas convincingly. Superior papers contain a strong thesis, are specific in their references, and are free of plot summary not relevant to the topic. Writer goes beyond the obvious. In their analysis, writers will discuss how the author uses the literary elements in the work (for example, diction, imagery, character, pace, irony, point of view, and tone). The essay need not be without flaws, but it demonstrates the writer’s ability to discuss a literary work with insight and understanding and to control a wide range of the elements of effective composition. 6-7: These essays demonstrate the writer’s ability to analyze a literary work, but they reveal a more limited understanding than do papers in the 8 range. They also discuss appropriate topics and ideas but are less developed, less perceptive or less specific than 8 papers. They deal accurately with the use of literary devices (diction, tone, and so forth) in the work, but are less effective of less thorough than 8 papers. They deal with the question, but with less maturity and control than the top papers. Generally, 7 essays present a more developed analysis and a more consistent command of the elements of composition than essays scored 6. 5: Superficiality characterizes these essays. They choose suitable topics or literary elements, but the explanation of the topics is vague or over-simplified but accurate. Their discussion of meaning may be pedestrian, mechanical or inadequately related to the chosen scene. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. They usually demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of composition and are not as well conceived, organized or developed as the upper half papers. The writing however is sufficient to convey the writer’s thoughts, but these essays are not as well conceived and as developed as upper-level papers. 3-4: These lower-half essays may choose an acceptable topic or thesis, but fail to explain how supporting material develops the topic. Their analysis is likely to be unpersuasive, perfunctory, or underdeveloped or misguided. The meaning they deduce may be inaccurate or insubstantial and not clearly related to the thesis. Part of the assignment may be omitted altogether. Typically, these essays contain significant misinterpretations of the question or the work they discuss. They may also contain little, if any, supporting evidence, and practice paraphrase and plot summary at the expense of analysis. The writing may convey the writer’s ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as organization, language or mechanics. 1-2: These essays compound the weakness of essays in the 3-4 range. They seriously misread the play, novel, or poem, or feebly respond to the question. In addition, they are poorly written on several counts, including many distraction errors in grammar, and mechanics. Although the writer may have made some effort to answer the question, the views presented have little clarity or coherence. Essays that are especially inexact, vacuous, ill-organized, illogically argued and/or mechanically unsound should be scored a 2 to 1. Crafting Strong Titles Most people don’t take their titles seriously enough. You usually can tell a lot about an essay by the time you’ve read the title. It is your advertisement to your reader about the general worthiness of what you’ve written. If you’re lazy about your title, this can send the unintentional message that you’ve been lazy in some way about your whole essay. In other words, a dull title can mistakenly tell your reader that you’re not particularly proud of what you’ve written, and that it isn’t really worth his or her time to read it. You may or may not intend this, and your essay may or may not be brilliant, but either way, a lifeless title suggests an equally lifeless essay. Get in the practice of asking a lot of your title, and when you can’t generate one that fulfills your high expectations, take that as a sign that there may actually be something still lacking within the essay itself. A good title should do at least three jobs: 1. Declare the topic in some way 2. Say, "READ ME!" 3. Suggest a worthwhile task to accomplish If your title doesn’t do these three things, your reader might suspect that the essay doesn’t either.