12AP Literature and Composition

Fall 2019-Spring 2020

Instructor: P. Barraza

Room: B208

Phone: (310) 395-3204 Ext: 71278

Email: pbarraza@smmk12  &  95bruinsfan@gmail.com

Office Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 3:30-4:30 and by appointment

 

Introduction

The AP English Literature and Composition course focuses on reading, analyzing, and writing about imaginative literature (fiction, poetry, drama) from various periods. Students engage in close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, and symbolism. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret literary works. The AP English Literature and Composition course includes intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on works of recognized literary merit. The majority of texts and reading material are based on the representative authors’ list found within the AP® English Literature and Composition Course Description published by The College Board. One of the goals of the course is to teach students to derive meaning from a text’s structure and style, in addition to analyzing figurative language, theme, diction, and other literary devices. This course engages students in a thorough, intensive study of several genres and literary criticism such as psychoanalytic theory, feminist theory, deconstruction, and reader-response theory.

Big Idea Objectives

Big ideas serve as the foundation of the AP English Literature and Composition course and enable students to create meaningful connections among course concepts. They are threads that run throughout the course and revisiting them and applying them in a variety of contexts helps students to develop deeper conceptual understanding. Below are the big ideas of the course, along with the enduring understanding associated with each one:

Character:Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms represented by those characters.

Setting:Setting and the details associated with it not only depict a time and place, but also convey values associated with that setting.

Structure:The arrangement of the parts and sections of a text, the relationship of the parts to each other, and the sequence in which the text reveals information are all structural choices made by a writer that contribute to the reader’s interpretation of a text.

Narration:A narrator’s or speaker’s perspective controls the details and emphases that affect how readers experience and interpret a text.

Figurative Language: Comparisons, representations, and associations shift meaning from the literal to the figurative and invite readers to interpret a text.

Literary Argumentation: Readers establish and communicate their interpretations of literature through arguments supported by textual evidence.

Selection of Texts

Issues that might, from a specific cultural viewpoint, be considered controversial, including depictions of nationalities, religions, ethnicities, dialects, gender, or class, are often represented artistically in works of literature. AP students are not expected or asked to subscribe to any one specific set of cultural or political values, but are expected to have the maturity to analyze perspectives different from their own and to question the meaning, purpose, or effect of such content within the literary work as a whole.

Basic Class Expectations

AP English Literature students are expected to be mature and have the motivation level equivalent to those in collegiate classrooms. Students are expected to work hard, and the hope is that the reward received in preparing for future coursework will make the expended effort well worth the prize.

• Preparedness: Students are expected to read and complete all assignments before coming to class. There will be interaction, discussion, and/or group work every day.
• In-class writing, discussions, and workshops: While there will be some teacher-led discussions, and necessary lectures from time to time, the overwhelming goal for this course is for students to drive prepared discussions, group activities, and writing each day. Please note that in-class group work cannot be recovered if it is missed. Because of the forum-like atmosphere of the AP English Literature classroom, student interaction is required.
• Class Participation: Student participation is required. Students are expected to bring individual thoughts, considerations, and opinions to a discussion. While there are no wrong answers or thoughts, student preparation allows for in-scope contributions versus misguided and haphazard responses to essential questions. Diversity of thought offers perspectives that can inform conversation, offer insightful dialogue, and present potentially new avenues of discourse.
• Format for Papers: All papers must be formatted using 12-point Times New Roman font only and must be double-spaced with 1-margins on all sides. Always follow the style guidelines of the Modern Language Association (MLA), particularly with regard to parenthetical and reference citations. Please be mindful that content and form matter with the production of your academic papers.
• Homework/Late Work: Present all work in class, in person, and on time. The homework is designed to prepare students for class discussions, tests, and essays. Assignments must be turned in typed and on time, fully completed. However, there will be several opportunities to revise selected essays in order to benefit from the writing process and earn a more desirable grade on a particular piece of writing.  It is especially important to keep up with the reading; many 12^thgrade students have a challenging schedule, and need to plan their time very carefully. Make-up tests and/or late assignments will be accepted after the due date only for an excused absence for the entire day.  Please inform me in advance if you have a planned absence so we can make arrangements.
• Grades:Your grades are based on the quality of your work.  Hard work is necessary, but I only grade the results of it. Grades will be based on the percentage of the total points earned during each semester.
• Absences: It is the student’s responsibility to request make-up work. If students attend school at any time during the day an assignment is due, students are required to submit their assignments.
• Fieldtrips: School sports, events, activities, and/or excursions are not valid reasons for not submitting work on time.
• Make-up Exams: Any student that is absent on the day of a test is expected to make up the test during office hours or at an arranged time immediately upon the student’s return to class. If the student does not report to make up the exam within the agreed time frame, no credit (0%, zero) will be given for that exam. Tests may not be made up during class or another class period. It is in the student’s best interest to be present on all exam days.

 

Course Goals and Objectives

This course provides students with the intellectual challenges and workload consistent with a typical undergraduate college English literature/humanities course, at the completion of which, students should be able to:

• critically read and analyze American, Latin American, and British literatures in several genres from the 16th century to contemporary times.
• write, revise, and edit an interpretation of a piece of literature that is based on a careful observation of textual details, considering the work’s structure, style, and themes; the social and historical values it reflects and embodies; and such elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.
• write, revise, and edit formal, extended analyses and timed, in-class responses.
• write, revise, and edit formal, extended analyses outside of class.
• write to understand through informal, exploratory writing activities that enable students to reflect upon their reading and their thinking, within the process of writing.
• write to explain through expository or analytical essays in which students draw upon textual details to develop an extended explanation/interpretation of the meanings of a literary text.
• write to evaluate through analytical or argumentative essays in which students draw upon textual details to make and explain judgments about a work’s artistry and quality and its social and cultural values.
• draft, revise, and edit essays reflecting a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively.
• draft, revise, and edit essays employing a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination.
• draft, revise, and edit essays using a logical organization scheme, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis.
• draft, revise, and edit essays which balance between generalization and specific, illustrative detail.
• draft, revise, and edit essays that effectively utilize rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure in essay construction.

The Exam Overview

An additional goal of this course is to help prepare you to do well on the AP English Literature and Composition exam (Wednesday, May 6^th, 2020).This course will introduce you to the expectations of the AP examiners and will provide many opportunities for practicing writing and reading in the exam format. The AP English Literature and Composition Exam assesses student understanding of the skills and essential knowledge outlined in the course framework. The exam is 3 hours long and includes 55 multiple-choice questions and 3 free-response questions. The details of the exam, including exam weighting and timing, can be found below:

I          55 Multiple-choice questions          (45% )            1 Hour

II.       3 Free-response questions               (55%)            2 Hours

	Question 1: Poetry Analysis (6 points)	40 minutes recommended per essay
	Question 2: Prose Fiction Analysis (6 points)
	Question 3: Literary Argument (6 points)

Plagiarism, Collusion, and Cheating

Plagiarized papers or projects will receive a grade of “0” (zero)–no exceptions. Cheating or collusion—defined as unauthorized collaboration—will also result in a grade of “0” (zero) on that paper, project, or test.

Course Grading

Process Culminating Essays (Approximately40% of semester grade)

Timed Writings (Approximately 25% of semester grade)

Tests/Quizzes(Approximately 15% of semester grade)

Homework/In-Class Exercises/In-Class Forums (Approximately 10% of semester grade)

Common Place Book/Artistic Expressions (Approximately 10% of semester grade)

 

Sample of Core Novels & Plays

(NOTE: Short stories and poems will also be consistently included throughout the year)

(1^stSemester)

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

Ceremonyby Leslie Marmon Silko

There There by Tommy Orange

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

(Winter Break)

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

(2^ndSemester)

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

A Streetcar Named Desireby Tennessee Williams

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Pupil Fees, Deposits and Charges

Students enrolled in Santa Monica High School are not required to pay any fee, deposit, or other charge for participation in an educational activity offered by the school or the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, except as authorized by law. Donations are sought and accepted for various activities and supplies, and are at times critical to the continued success of classes and activities, but donations are voluntary.

Recommended Materials

Listed below are recommended materials for students taking AP Literature. These materials are not required, and full participation in the course does not require the purchase of any of these materials. State law requires us to provide a public education free of charge. Subject to certain exceptions, the right to a free public education means we cannot require students or their families to purchase materials, supplies, equipment or uniforms for any school activity, to pay security deposits for access, participation, materials, or equipment, or to make donations to a class activity or program.

Recommended Materials:

Pens & Paper

Common Place Journal

3-Ring Binder

A Final Note

I am available for extra help during my office hours or through an appointment if those hours are not available to you.  Please feel free to ask for my assistance at any time during the year. It is extremely important that you continually advocate for yourself when it comes to having success in any of your courses.  Truly, I am looking forward to a great year together.

Sincerely,

Barraza