Syllabus for AP English
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of this class is to enrich the students’ lives through exposure to some of the world’s greatest literature. The intention, aside from preparing the students to pass the AP tests and prepare for college level writing, is to help expand the students’ horizons intellectually and creatively through an in-depth analysis of literature and a strict yet creatively challenging response through writing. The AP class is designed to prepare the students for freshman level college work, to read, analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of a literary work and to explain by speech and writing why and how the literary work is effective. To aide us in our analysis of what makes great literature great, we will follow the curricular requirements as outlined in the AP English Course Description.
I view this class as a workshop in which there is opportunity to explore and to improve, which means, dear students, that you will write and then write some more to improve and expand upon your ideas. You will exercise your higher critical thinking by searching for the most effective diction, the strongest syntactical structure, and by creating logical and coherent organization in your essays. You will also balance generalizations with specific and supportive details that you have gleaned from scrupulous analysis of the text. You will always have the opportunity to rewrite an essay, incorporating all the corrections that I have made and then submitting the revision (and the original draft) for a higher grade.
The goal is to make you a better, more thoughtful reader, a stronger, more graceful writer and a deeper, more incisive thinker.
READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
Reading Assignments
The people who thrive in this class are usually the ones for whom reading is not a chore but a joy. There is a great deal of reading in this class, some of which you must do on your own. The only work we will read almost entirely in class is Hamlet; unfortunately, there is simply not enough time to read all of Crime and Punishment, Frankenstein and Madame Bovary in class in two months. Some of this glorious literature you must read by yourself. You will be assigned a reasonable amount of pages to read per night (what you might consider reasonable, however, may not be the same as what I consider reasonable) which we will discuss in class the next day and then we will read a bit more together. You will be given essay topics (prompts) with excerpts from the novel to analyze. You will do group and individual work to explicate the text for theme, tone, and figurative devices. You will also do some fun activities such as socratic circles, “hot seat” and presentations. But most of all, you will write, which leads us to.....
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
Critical:
You will be assigned at the end of your junior year two books, and the end of your fall senior semester another two books to read over your vacation. In your close reading of these novels, you will write critical essays that are based on close textual analysis of structure, style (figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone) and social/historical values.
At the end of the second semester (after the AP test) you will do a senior project which will require you to do a five to ten page research paper on a literary genre of your choice, which you will then present to a panel of teachers (think of it as practice for your doctoral orals when you defend your thesis before a panel of university professors).
Creative:
The fun stuff. You will also be given many opportunities for creative writing. One of the bonuses of studying what makes great literature great is that it helps the student become a better writer and I know that a few of you have dreams of writing. You will be asked to write poems, or short writing samples that take on the style of various authors and/or genres. One assignment will be to imitate the styles of Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe; another assignment is to write about the things students carry in their backpacks in the style of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a lesson plan I learned about during an AP training session. This is an effective way for you to learn about selection of detail. Each assignment is designed to show that you understand the artistic techniques employed by the writer and can then demonstrate these techniques in your own writing. The techniques include structure, theme, tone and style (diction, syntax, figurative language, symbolism and tone).
IN-CLASS WRITING, QUIZZES AND EXAMS:
The in-class writing and some of the quizzes will be culled from AP-based examinations from the past. Other exams will be on vocabulary, literary terms, poetry terms and on our literary readings.
GRADING:
Yes, grades are important, but learning is priceless and since the purpose of this class is to learn, you will be given many opportunities to do just that. If you are not happy with a grade, either on a test or an essay, you have the opportunity to revisit the test, the essay and/or the information and to redo the test or essay for a higher grade. You may rewrite the essay incorporating the corrections I have made on your first essay and then turn in both the original and the revised draft. If the revisions are significant, then your grade will be raised by one letter grade. For example, if you received a “C/C” (each essay receives two grades - one for content; the other for writing) and you rewrite it (incorporating the corrections) then your essay grade will be raised to a “B/B”. Same policy holds with the tests: you may rewrite the test questions, the corrected answers and why they are correct; then turn in both the original test and the revised test and your grade will be raised by one letter grade. There is no reason for anyone to fail or make a low grade in this class.
GRADING SCALE:
* *
The class is only going to be as good as you and I make it. I cannot make it fun and lively by myself. You need to bring something to the class as well - which is an open, curious mind that is receptive to exploring new ideas, high intellectual energy and a positive attitude.
THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER
The students will turn in at the beginning of the semester their two forms (one long/one short) on the reading assignment given to them by Mr. Itkin, your AP English Language teacher at the end of last semester. You get to choose on which book you write the long form. The two books have usually been The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Beloved by Toni Morrisson. If you did not have Mr. Itkin last year for AP English then you are excused from doing this, but you may do it for extra credit.
As a friendly review we will go over the literary terms which you have already learned in AP Language but you may have forgotten over that long wonderful summer break. The students partner up and then - with my suggestions - select five literary terms which you will research and then present in as entertaining and educational way as possible to the rest of the class. After the presentations are completed, I compile your questions and answers on the literary terms into a test to see how well you have taught and learned the material.
We usually start with the analysis of these prompts in order to prepare early for what awaits us in May:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
“The Dead” by James Joyce
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The first prompt we use is from The Handmaid’s Tale. The prompt is: What figurative devices does Atwood use to reveal character, power dynamics and tone? For our first analysis, we use a technique from the 2003 summer AP session at U.C.L.A. We write down all the details from the excerpt (examples: ice cubes, white counter, red Aztec hearts) and then write a free response listing all the connotations surrounding the selected details. From this we compile a grid with cross referencing of all the figurative devices that are used. For example, a detail such as Aztec hearts can be used both as metaphor and as imagery. From this we try to surmise patterns that Atwood has created using metaphors, imagery, and other figurative devices, etc. After analytical discussions, we then set to work on the essays which the students finish at home. The next day, we do a brief discussion on any problems the students may have had on the writing of the essay. After the essays are graded and returned to the students - with copious notes and comments made by me in the margins, they are encouraged to rewrite their essays, incorporating the corrections made on their papers, for a higher grade.
We tackle the Capote and Joyce essays within the next month or so as a breather between units to get them started on thinking, reading and writing analytically on literature.
Unit One: The Beginnings of Western Thought
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Excerpts from Aristotle’s THE POETICS
Sophocles’ THE OEDIPAL CYCLE
The course is taught chronologically starting with the Greeks since so much of Western Thought and literature arise from the Greek philosophers and writers. We begin with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” which serves as a perfect metaphor for what we are trying to do - to see the reality and not the illusion that obscures our vision and makes us believe that we see the truth. We read, discuss and analyze Plato’s words and then we write essays that express our interpretation of the flickering flames and the blinded soul who ventures forth from the cave, and how that may apply to our modern lives. We then continue on in our investigation to read excerpts from Aristotle’s The Poetics. The class breaks into groups and after analyzing different sections of Aristotle’s views, and after making posters, writing lectures, and creating skits (this is after all, a performing arts magnet) we present their findings to the rest of the class. Armed with this new knowledge of Aristotle’s philosophy on poetry and tragedy, we attempt to tackle The Oedipal Cycle. We read, analyze and discuss the Oedipus story, along with additional supplementary information on Carl Jung’s concept of the “collective unconscious”, Sigmund Freud’s “Oedipal Complex” and Greek myths. At the end of this investigation we write one to three essays on the three plays.
Before each writing assignment, we analyze what the prompt is asking for, we examine the excerpt looking for evidence to support a theme, tone, motif, and figurative language, and how these devices relate to the prompt. After the writing of the essay we then do a “post mortem” on the piece and examine what we got right and what we perhaps missed. Interspersed with our travels back into the olden days of the Greeks, are multiple choice tests and essay prompts that I have culled from the rich harvest of the past AP years. I do try to keep the prompts germane to what we are reading in class, but that’s not always possible. I have gained enough confidence - or foolhardiness - to attempt to create from the class readings my own prompts and questions patterned after the AP exams.
THE MONTH OF OCTOBER:
Unit Two: The Ancient Mists of Western Civilization and the Misty Beginnings of English:
Beowulf
The Canterbury Tales
Following the Greeks, if we have time, we do a very brief overview of the development of the English language, and read excerpts from Beowulf and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, which gives us a taste of the medieval and a feel for the epic. This leads us to Hamlet.
As we walk along the misty moors of ancient northern Europe, we also make time to stop off at the Vocabulary Workshop and grab some more vocabulary and of course, do some fun grammar.
Books Used:
Vocabulary Workshop; Level F by Sadlier-Oxford
Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition; fourth course
In order to access the different learning modalities of the students (many of whom are dancers and singers) I will have them break into groups of four, choose five words from their vocabulary lists and then create a song and dance which incorporate the sound, the rhythm, the meaning of the words and the correct usage of the words, which they then perform for the amusement and education of the rest of the class. The performers love these assignments! The nonperformers hate them.
We also continue reading and analyzing prose and poems and their multiple choice questions. These excerpts are used as breathers between units to keep them relaxed yet ready for May. In the past, depending on the students and their ability levels and what we are reading at the time, we have read:
“The Sow” by Sylvia Plath
This lesson plan on Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Sow”, was gleaned from an AP workshop. To aid the students in visualizing and thus increasing their understanding of difficult texts, the poem is divided among groups of students who then draw pictures illustrating their portion of the text. We then create a mosaic of the poem by piecing the drawings together. This lesson plan is particularly useful for our students because we are about to embark on - for them - the most treacherous of journeys - sixteenth and seventeenth century literature - which they sometimes have a difficult time understanding. One trick we use in deciphering Shakespeare is to visualize or draw a picture of a difficult passage. Sylvia Plath’s “The Sow” is a useful introduction to that technique.
To aid in our understanding of selection of detail and what it reveals about character, we read an excerpt from the beginning of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. We then empty the contents of a willing participant’s purse and/or backpack and then analyze what the contents reveal about the person. We then write a short piece imitating the style and format of Tim O’Brien’s novel, but changing the soldier characters to high school students and the contents of their backpacks and what it reveals about them.
THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER:
Unit Three: Carpe Diem; The English Poets and Playwrights
Hamlet (Folger’s Edition)
Elizabethan Sonnets: Sonnet #18, #29 and #31.
During the segment on Hamlet, we begin our analysis of poetry: the various forms of the sonnets, and the poetry terms such as enjambment and caesura. We are tested quite heavily on the poetry terms, we write many essays and of course, we analyze the themes and the characters in the play. Since this is a performing arts magnet and most of the students are performers of various disciplines, we also act out some of the scenes. Of course, the Kenneth Branagh video of Hamlet is a wonderful adjunct to teaching the play - since plays are suppose to be acted out and watched and not just read.
We follow up Shakespeare with a few of the following poets, whose works are excellent training ground for exploring tone, symbolism, and rhythm. The poets’ works and their biographies to be found in England in Literature:
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Edmund Spenser
Christopher Marlowe
and from the Jacobean Era, the following poets:
John Donne (“Meditation”, “Love’s Diet”)
Andrew Marvelle (“To His Coy Mistress”)
Ben Jonson (“On the Death of His Son”; “On the Death of His Daughter”)
Robert Herrick (“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”)
We also try our hand at writing sonnets and poems in the “Carpe Diem” vein to test our understanding of the technical aspects of the poetic format and the genre.
THE MONTH OF DECEMBER:
Unit Four: “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” The Romantic Poets:
Books Used:
Literature, Structure, Sound, and Sense
England in Literature
N.T.C.’s Dictionary of Literary Terms
Barrons: AP English Literature
Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary
AP College Board prompts and multiple choice selections
Poets Covered:
William Wordsworth :“On the Sonnet” (AP Multiple Choice selection)
Percy Bysshe Shelley:“To Wordsworth”, “England in 1819”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “Ozymandias”
Lord Byron:“She Walks in Beauty”, “When We Two Parted”
John Keats:“La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, Compare and contrast John Keats’ poem “Bright Star” with Robert Frost’s “Choose Something like a Star” (AP Prompt)
William Blake: “The Lamb”, “The Tyger”; Compare and contrast the two poems, “The Chimney Sweep” (AP prompt, 2005)
While we are reading and analyzing the Romantic poets we also study the political and social events and theories of the time. We also study poetic terms: foot, meter, spondee, iamb, trochee, dactylic, rhyme, etc. The students break into groups, are assigned poetic terms which they research and then present to the class (with a little assistance from the teacher). To reinforce the students’ understanding of the poetry terms, we then take a test. If a student is displeased with the results of a test s/he may always rewrite the questions and the corrected answers for a higher grade.
We have some fun assignments too: we try to unscramble puzzles made of fun poems using the various poetic feet (iambs, trochees, spondees, etc). AP poetry and essay excerpts from the literature of the sixteenth through the nineteenth century are used for multiple choice tests and essay prompts.
Vocabulary and grammar work are interspersed with the above work . Lesson plans from past AP Workshops are used to address various issues: parallelism, varying sentence beginnings; sentence construction, etc.
Because we are a multitrack school, we have a very long break in January and February where we try to meet twice a week for two hours but that is not - unfortunately - always possible because my students have hectic schedules juggling jobs, career, home and other class commitments. During the break I assign to the students Frankenstein and a short form for them to complete and turn in during the first week of March.
THE MONTHS OF JANUARY and FEBRUARY:
Unit 5: The Beginning of Modern Society
Books Used:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevksy
Commentary on the Works of Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kafka by William Hubben
Excerpts from Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche
For Crime and Punishment, we explore Nietzsche’s theories on the Ubermensche, read excerpts from his Will to Power, and read about the theories of Faurier and Jeremy Bentham. The students break into groups, read, explore, question and then present their findings on the readings to the rest of the class. We also do about three to five AP style prompts based on excerpts from Crime and Punishment, which, using the AP prompts as a guide, I have culled from the novel. If we have time, and we rarely do, we may do a Socratic dialogue on the characters from the novel. We sometimes do “hot seat” where students will compose questions and answers for various characters and then assuming the persona of one of the characters s/he will defend and explain the behavior of the character.
THE MONTH OF MARCH:
Unit 6: The Rise of the Modern Woman
Texts Used:
Madame Bovary
Excerpts from The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov
Various excerpts on free will and determinism
If we have time we read Madame Bovary and explore the concepts of determinism and feminism. We do between three to five AP style prompts based on the literature. We also do Socratic dialogues and of course, essays.
We continue doing selected prompts from the AP College Board. Some of the selections we have studied in the past include but are not limited to the following:
“The Birthday Party” by Kathryn Brush
“It’s a Woman’s World” by Eavan Boland
“Eros” : Compare and Contrast the poetry of Robert Bridges and Anne Stephenson
THE MONTH OF APRIL:
MODERN ALIENATION AND ANXIETY
Books Used:
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
Introducing Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb
Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kafka by William Hubben
Following this we begin a unit on modern alienation and existentialism, in which we read Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS and study Kafka’s life. I use a cartoon book on Kafka’s life and and works with illustrations by R. Crumb as an adjunct to the readings, which the kids really enjoy. R. Crumb, the master of the alienated modern man, brilliantly captures with his illustrations Kafka’s world of sexual and personal frustration and doubt.
The three weeks preceeding the AP test we are doing about two to three essays and two to three multiple choice selections each week. A partial list of the selections used in the past are as follows:
Excerpts from:
The Crossing by Carmac McCarthy
“The Pupil” by Henry James
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
“The Hawk” by Robert Penn Warren
Open Response Prompt: “Literature is the question without the answer”
“Facing It”
“The Habit of Perfection” by Emily Dickinson
“We Become Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson and “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Burns
THE MONTH OF MAY:
Unit 7: PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE
Books Used:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Excerpts from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Selected letters from American soldiers in Iraq
Selected poems by:
Siegfried Sassoon
Wilfred Owen
Rupert Brooke
In this time of increasing paranoia and political and military unrest, All Quiet on the Western Front is a timely novel to explore. I intersperse the Erich Maria Remarque novel with excerpts from The Things They Carried and modern dispatches from the current Iraqi conflict. We also read the beautiful and deeply stirring poems by the World War l poets, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke.
Unit 8: THE SENIOR PROJECT
After the AP exam the student will then do research on a literary genre of their choice. Complete with bibliography, the students will write a five to ten page research paper which they will then present to a panel of three to five teachers.
THE MONTH OF JUNE:
Unit 9: EXISTENTIALISM
Texts Used:
The Stranger by Albert Camus
“The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus
Excerpts from Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov
Excerpts from “Existentialism” by Jean-Paul Sartre
“Man Against the Darkness” by W.T. Stace
“The Christian Commitment” by Reinhold Niebuhr.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
We are now in the 20th Century where, in preparation for Albert Camus’s The Stranger, we read excerpts from “Existentialism” by Jean Paul Sartre, “Man Against the Darkness” by W.T. Stace and “The Christian Commitment” by Reinhold Niebuhr. We then tackle the very perplexing and unsettling story of Mersault. We also try to do a little bit on the Algerian conflict which serves as a background for the story.
THIS IS THE END:
Texts and Film Used:
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Excerpts from Literary Terms; A Practical Glossary by Brian Moon
“Apocalypse Now” by Francis Ford Coppola
Then, in a state of exhaustion I attempt - before the kids can rally and stage a complete and total rebellion - to get in one more assignment and that is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. We analyze the book’s racist slant from the position of fore grounding and privileging. We also analyze the book from a political aspect and explore the damaging and morally degrading aspects (for both the colonized and the colonizer) of colonialism. At this point we also watch in conjunction with Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola’s film APOCALYPSE NOW, which is the modern adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel.
Interspersed with the readings are vocabulary, grammar, writing and analytical assignments which I have gleaned from the many AP workshops I have attended.
I teach in an inner city performing arts magnet that is year round, which means that the day is long - starting at 7:30 am and not ending until five pm or much, much later. The kids come from all different parts of sprawling Los Angeles and since we don’t have reliable mass transit, they must rely on the school buses. This means that the kids, most of whom are all high achieving performers, don’t get home until late - sometimes eight or nine o’clock at night. Combine this with the two and a half month gap in the middle of the school year - from the end of December to the first week of March - and one can see that it is a maddening dash to try to teach in a deeply thoughtful and provocative way so much material. We cannot cover everything that I would like (and which I find important and needing to be taught) and in the last two years I have found it impossible to take Madame Bovary along for the ride and have had to regretfully leave her by the roadside. Perhaps this year we can visit Flaubert after the AP test. As a year round school, our semester ends on June 30th so we still have plenty of time - despite the students’ protest - to continue reading and discussing.
Another thing I would like to address is the emphasis on the white male canon and our attempts at introducing to our students the voices of those who have been marginalized, who have been dispossessed and struggling, who may speak to our students who are themselves dispossessed and struggling.
During the summer break between their junior year and the beginning of their senior year, their AP English Language teacher and I have assigned the following books for them to read and do a short and /or long form. These books include, and may vary from year to year, Toni Morrisson’s Beloved and The Bluest Eye, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. There are many other great books to read and this, of course, just scratches the surface.
TEXTS
Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp -- LITERATURE: Structure, Sound and Sense (Harcourt, Brace College Publishers)
John Pfordresher and Gladys V. Veidemanis -- England in Literature (Scott, Foresman)
Cameron Thompson -- Philosophy and Literature (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)
Kathleen Morner and Ralph Rausch -- N.T,C.’s Dictionary of Literary Terms
(N.T.C. Publishing Group)
Brian Moon -- Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary (N.T.C. Publishing Group)
Jerome Shostak -- Vocabulary Workshop (Sadlier - Oxford)
John E. Warriner Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)
Plato -- “Allegory of the Cave”
Aristotle -- The Poetics
Sophocles -- The Oedipal Cycle
Beowulf
Geoffrey Chaucer -- The Canterbury Tales
William Shakespeare -- Hamlet
Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
Fyodor Dostoevsky -- Crime and Punishment
Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary
Franz Kafka -- The Metamorphosis
Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
Albert Camus -- The Stranger
Joseph Conrad --- Heart of Darkness
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of this class is to enrich the students’ lives through exposure to some of the world’s greatest literature. The intention, aside from preparing the students to pass the AP tests and prepare for college level writing, is to help expand the students’ horizons intellectually and creatively through an in-depth analysis of literature and a strict yet creatively challenging response through writing. The AP class is designed to prepare the students for freshman level college work, to read, analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of a literary work and to explain by speech and writing why and how the literary work is effective. To aide us in our analysis of what makes great literature great, we will follow the curricular requirements as outlined in the AP English Course Description.
I view this class as a workshop in which there is opportunity to explore and to improve, which means, dear students, that you will write and then write some more to improve and expand upon your ideas. You will exercise your higher critical thinking by searching for the most effective diction, the strongest syntactical structure, and by creating logical and coherent organization in your essays. You will also balance generalizations with specific and supportive details that you have gleaned from scrupulous analysis of the text. You will always have the opportunity to rewrite an essay, incorporating all the corrections that I have made and then submitting the revision (and the original draft) for a higher grade.
The goal is to make you a better, more thoughtful reader, a stronger, more graceful writer and a deeper, more incisive thinker.
READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
Reading Assignments
The people who thrive in this class are usually the ones for whom reading is not a chore but a joy. There is a great deal of reading in this class, some of which you must do on your own. The only work we will read almost entirely in class is Hamlet; unfortunately, there is simply not enough time to read all of Crime and Punishment, Frankenstein and Madame Bovary in class in two months. Some of this glorious literature you must read by yourself. You will be assigned a reasonable amount of pages to read per night (what you might consider reasonable, however, may not be the same as what I consider reasonable) which we will discuss in class the next day and then we will read a bit more together. You will be given essay topics (prompts) with excerpts from the novel to analyze. You will do group and individual work to explicate the text for theme, tone, and figurative devices. You will also do some fun activities such as socratic circles, “hot seat” and presentations. But most of all, you will write, which leads us to.....
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
Critical:
You will be assigned at the end of your junior year two books, and the end of your fall senior semester another two books to read over your vacation. In your close reading of these novels, you will write critical essays that are based on close textual analysis of structure, style (figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone) and social/historical values.
At the end of the second semester (after the AP test) you will do a senior project which will require you to do a five to ten page research paper on a literary genre of your choice, which you will then present to a panel of teachers (think of it as practice for your doctoral orals when you defend your thesis before a panel of university professors).
Creative:
The fun stuff. You will also be given many opportunities for creative writing. One of the bonuses of studying what makes great literature great is that it helps the student become a better writer and I know that a few of you have dreams of writing. You will be asked to write poems, or short writing samples that take on the style of various authors and/or genres. One assignment will be to imitate the styles of Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe; another assignment is to write about the things students carry in their backpacks in the style of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a lesson plan I learned about during an AP training session. This is an effective way for you to learn about selection of detail. Each assignment is designed to show that you understand the artistic techniques employed by the writer and can then demonstrate these techniques in your own writing. The techniques include structure, theme, tone and style (diction, syntax, figurative language, symbolism and tone).
IN-CLASS WRITING, QUIZZES AND EXAMS:
The in-class writing and some of the quizzes will be culled from AP-based examinations from the past. Other exams will be on vocabulary, literary terms, poetry terms and on our literary readings.
GRADING:
Yes, grades are important, but learning is priceless and since the purpose of this class is to learn, you will be given many opportunities to do just that. If you are not happy with a grade, either on a test or an essay, you have the opportunity to revisit the test, the essay and/or the information and to redo the test or essay for a higher grade. You may rewrite the essay incorporating the corrections I have made on your first essay and then turn in both the original and the revised draft. If the revisions are significant, then your grade will be raised by one letter grade. For example, if you received a “C/C” (each essay receives two grades - one for content; the other for writing) and you rewrite it (incorporating the corrections) then your essay grade will be raised to a “B/B”. Same policy holds with the tests: you may rewrite the test questions, the corrected answers and why they are correct; then turn in both the original test and the revised test and your grade will be raised by one letter grade. There is no reason for anyone to fail or make a low grade in this class.
GRADING SCALE:
* *
The class is only going to be as good as you and I make it. I cannot make it fun and lively by myself. You need to bring something to the class as well - which is an open, curious mind that is receptive to exploring new ideas, high intellectual energy and a positive attitude.
THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER
The students will turn in at the beginning of the semester their two forms (one long/one short) on the reading assignment given to them by Mr. Itkin, your AP English Language teacher at the end of last semester. You get to choose on which book you write the long form. The two books have usually been The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Beloved by Toni Morrisson. If you did not have Mr. Itkin last year for AP English then you are excused from doing this, but you may do it for extra credit.
As a friendly review we will go over the literary terms which you have already learned in AP Language but you may have forgotten over that long wonderful summer break. The students partner up and then - with my suggestions - select five literary terms which you will research and then present in as entertaining and educational way as possible to the rest of the class. After the presentations are completed, I compile your questions and answers on the literary terms into a test to see how well you have taught and learned the material.
We usually start with the analysis of these prompts in order to prepare early for what awaits us in May:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
“The Dead” by James Joyce
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The first prompt we use is from The Handmaid’s Tale. The prompt is: What figurative devices does Atwood use to reveal character, power dynamics and tone? For our first analysis, we use a technique from the 2003 summer AP session at U.C.L.A. We write down all the details from the excerpt (examples: ice cubes, white counter, red Aztec hearts) and then write a free response listing all the connotations surrounding the selected details. From this we compile a grid with cross referencing of all the figurative devices that are used. For example, a detail such as Aztec hearts can be used both as metaphor and as imagery. From this we try to surmise patterns that Atwood has created using metaphors, imagery, and other figurative devices, etc. After analytical discussions, we then set to work on the essays which the students finish at home. The next day, we do a brief discussion on any problems the students may have had on the writing of the essay. After the essays are graded and returned to the students - with copious notes and comments made by me in the margins, they are encouraged to rewrite their essays, incorporating the corrections made on their papers, for a higher grade.
We tackle the Capote and Joyce essays within the next month or so as a breather between units to get them started on thinking, reading and writing analytically on literature.
Unit One: The Beginnings of Western Thought
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Excerpts from Aristotle’s THE POETICS
Sophocles’ THE OEDIPAL CYCLE
The course is taught chronologically starting with the Greeks since so much of Western Thought and literature arise from the Greek philosophers and writers. We begin with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” which serves as a perfect metaphor for what we are trying to do - to see the reality and not the illusion that obscures our vision and makes us believe that we see the truth. We read, discuss and analyze Plato’s words and then we write essays that express our interpretation of the flickering flames and the blinded soul who ventures forth from the cave, and how that may apply to our modern lives. We then continue on in our investigation to read excerpts from Aristotle’s The Poetics. The class breaks into groups and after analyzing different sections of Aristotle’s views, and after making posters, writing lectures, and creating skits (this is after all, a performing arts magnet) we present their findings to the rest of the class. Armed with this new knowledge of Aristotle’s philosophy on poetry and tragedy, we attempt to tackle The Oedipal Cycle. We read, analyze and discuss the Oedipus story, along with additional supplementary information on Carl Jung’s concept of the “collective unconscious”, Sigmund Freud’s “Oedipal Complex” and Greek myths. At the end of this investigation we write one to three essays on the three plays.
Before each writing assignment, we analyze what the prompt is asking for, we examine the excerpt looking for evidence to support a theme, tone, motif, and figurative language, and how these devices relate to the prompt. After the writing of the essay we then do a “post mortem” on the piece and examine what we got right and what we perhaps missed. Interspersed with our travels back into the olden days of the Greeks, are multiple choice tests and essay prompts that I have culled from the rich harvest of the past AP years. I do try to keep the prompts germane to what we are reading in class, but that’s not always possible. I have gained enough confidence - or foolhardiness - to attempt to create from the class readings my own prompts and questions patterned after the AP exams.
THE MONTH OF OCTOBER:
Unit Two: The Ancient Mists of Western Civilization and the Misty Beginnings of English:
Beowulf
The Canterbury Tales
Following the Greeks, if we have time, we do a very brief overview of the development of the English language, and read excerpts from Beowulf and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, which gives us a taste of the medieval and a feel for the epic. This leads us to Hamlet.
As we walk along the misty moors of ancient northern Europe, we also make time to stop off at the Vocabulary Workshop and grab some more vocabulary and of course, do some fun grammar.
Books Used:
Vocabulary Workshop; Level F by Sadlier-Oxford
Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition; fourth course
In order to access the different learning modalities of the students (many of whom are dancers and singers) I will have them break into groups of four, choose five words from their vocabulary lists and then create a song and dance which incorporate the sound, the rhythm, the meaning of the words and the correct usage of the words, which they then perform for the amusement and education of the rest of the class. The performers love these assignments! The nonperformers hate them.
We also continue reading and analyzing prose and poems and their multiple choice questions. These excerpts are used as breathers between units to keep them relaxed yet ready for May. In the past, depending on the students and their ability levels and what we are reading at the time, we have read:
“The Sow” by Sylvia Plath
This lesson plan on Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Sow”, was gleaned from an AP workshop. To aid the students in visualizing and thus increasing their understanding of difficult texts, the poem is divided among groups of students who then draw pictures illustrating their portion of the text. We then create a mosaic of the poem by piecing the drawings together. This lesson plan is particularly useful for our students because we are about to embark on - for them - the most treacherous of journeys - sixteenth and seventeenth century literature - which they sometimes have a difficult time understanding. One trick we use in deciphering Shakespeare is to visualize or draw a picture of a difficult passage. Sylvia Plath’s “The Sow” is a useful introduction to that technique.
To aid in our understanding of selection of detail and what it reveals about character, we read an excerpt from the beginning of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. We then empty the contents of a willing participant’s purse and/or backpack and then analyze what the contents reveal about the person. We then write a short piece imitating the style and format of Tim O’Brien’s novel, but changing the soldier characters to high school students and the contents of their backpacks and what it reveals about them.
THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER:
Unit Three: Carpe Diem; The English Poets and Playwrights
Hamlet (Folger’s Edition)
Elizabethan Sonnets: Sonnet #18, #29 and #31.
During the segment on Hamlet, we begin our analysis of poetry: the various forms of the sonnets, and the poetry terms such as enjambment and caesura. We are tested quite heavily on the poetry terms, we write many essays and of course, we analyze the themes and the characters in the play. Since this is a performing arts magnet and most of the students are performers of various disciplines, we also act out some of the scenes. Of course, the Kenneth Branagh video of Hamlet is a wonderful adjunct to teaching the play - since plays are suppose to be acted out and watched and not just read.
We follow up Shakespeare with a few of the following poets, whose works are excellent training ground for exploring tone, symbolism, and rhythm. The poets’ works and their biographies to be found in England in Literature:
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Edmund Spenser
Christopher Marlowe
and from the Jacobean Era, the following poets:
John Donne (“Meditation”, “Love’s Diet”)
Andrew Marvelle (“To His Coy Mistress”)
Ben Jonson (“On the Death of His Son”; “On the Death of His Daughter”)
Robert Herrick (“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”)
We also try our hand at writing sonnets and poems in the “Carpe Diem” vein to test our understanding of the technical aspects of the poetic format and the genre.
THE MONTH OF DECEMBER:
Unit Four: “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” The Romantic Poets:
Books Used:
Literature, Structure, Sound, and Sense
England in Literature
N.T.C.’s Dictionary of Literary Terms
Barrons: AP English Literature
Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary
AP College Board prompts and multiple choice selections
Poets Covered:
William Wordsworth :“On the Sonnet” (AP Multiple Choice selection)
Percy Bysshe Shelley:“To Wordsworth”, “England in 1819”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “Ozymandias”
Lord Byron:“She Walks in Beauty”, “When We Two Parted”
John Keats:“La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, Compare and contrast John Keats’ poem “Bright Star” with Robert Frost’s “Choose Something like a Star” (AP Prompt)
William Blake: “The Lamb”, “The Tyger”; Compare and contrast the two poems, “The Chimney Sweep” (AP prompt, 2005)
While we are reading and analyzing the Romantic poets we also study the political and social events and theories of the time. We also study poetic terms: foot, meter, spondee, iamb, trochee, dactylic, rhyme, etc. The students break into groups, are assigned poetic terms which they research and then present to the class (with a little assistance from the teacher). To reinforce the students’ understanding of the poetry terms, we then take a test. If a student is displeased with the results of a test s/he may always rewrite the questions and the corrected answers for a higher grade.
We have some fun assignments too: we try to unscramble puzzles made of fun poems using the various poetic feet (iambs, trochees, spondees, etc). AP poetry and essay excerpts from the literature of the sixteenth through the nineteenth century are used for multiple choice tests and essay prompts.
Vocabulary and grammar work are interspersed with the above work . Lesson plans from past AP Workshops are used to address various issues: parallelism, varying sentence beginnings; sentence construction, etc.
Because we are a multitrack school, we have a very long break in January and February where we try to meet twice a week for two hours but that is not - unfortunately - always possible because my students have hectic schedules juggling jobs, career, home and other class commitments. During the break I assign to the students Frankenstein and a short form for them to complete and turn in during the first week of March.
THE MONTHS OF JANUARY and FEBRUARY:
Unit 5: The Beginning of Modern Society
Books Used:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevksy
Commentary on the Works of Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kafka by William Hubben
Excerpts from Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche
For Crime and Punishment, we explore Nietzsche’s theories on the Ubermensche, read excerpts from his Will to Power, and read about the theories of Faurier and Jeremy Bentham. The students break into groups, read, explore, question and then present their findings on the readings to the rest of the class. We also do about three to five AP style prompts based on excerpts from Crime and Punishment, which, using the AP prompts as a guide, I have culled from the novel. If we have time, and we rarely do, we may do a Socratic dialogue on the characters from the novel. We sometimes do “hot seat” where students will compose questions and answers for various characters and then assuming the persona of one of the characters s/he will defend and explain the behavior of the character.
THE MONTH OF MARCH:
Unit 6: The Rise of the Modern Woman
Texts Used:
Madame Bovary
Excerpts from The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov
Various excerpts on free will and determinism
If we have time we read Madame Bovary and explore the concepts of determinism and feminism. We do between three to five AP style prompts based on the literature. We also do Socratic dialogues and of course, essays.
We continue doing selected prompts from the AP College Board. Some of the selections we have studied in the past include but are not limited to the following:
“The Birthday Party” by Kathryn Brush
“It’s a Woman’s World” by Eavan Boland
“Eros” : Compare and Contrast the poetry of Robert Bridges and Anne Stephenson
THE MONTH OF APRIL:
MODERN ALIENATION AND ANXIETY
Books Used:
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
Introducing Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb
Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kafka by William Hubben
Following this we begin a unit on modern alienation and existentialism, in which we read Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS and study Kafka’s life. I use a cartoon book on Kafka’s life and and works with illustrations by R. Crumb as an adjunct to the readings, which the kids really enjoy. R. Crumb, the master of the alienated modern man, brilliantly captures with his illustrations Kafka’s world of sexual and personal frustration and doubt.
The three weeks preceeding the AP test we are doing about two to three essays and two to three multiple choice selections each week. A partial list of the selections used in the past are as follows:
Excerpts from:
The Crossing by Carmac McCarthy
“The Pupil” by Henry James
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
“The Hawk” by Robert Penn Warren
Open Response Prompt: “Literature is the question without the answer”
“Facing It”
“The Habit of Perfection” by Emily Dickinson
“We Become Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson and “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Burns
THE MONTH OF MAY:
Unit 7: PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE
Books Used:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Excerpts from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Selected letters from American soldiers in Iraq
Selected poems by:
Siegfried Sassoon
Wilfred Owen
Rupert Brooke
In this time of increasing paranoia and political and military unrest, All Quiet on the Western Front is a timely novel to explore. I intersperse the Erich Maria Remarque novel with excerpts from The Things They Carried and modern dispatches from the current Iraqi conflict. We also read the beautiful and deeply stirring poems by the World War l poets, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke.
Unit 8: THE SENIOR PROJECT
After the AP exam the student will then do research on a literary genre of their choice. Complete with bibliography, the students will write a five to ten page research paper which they will then present to a panel of three to five teachers.
THE MONTH OF JUNE:
Unit 9: EXISTENTIALISM
Texts Used:
The Stranger by Albert Camus
“The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus
Excerpts from Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov
Excerpts from “Existentialism” by Jean-Paul Sartre
“Man Against the Darkness” by W.T. Stace
“The Christian Commitment” by Reinhold Niebuhr.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
We are now in the 20th Century where, in preparation for Albert Camus’s The Stranger, we read excerpts from “Existentialism” by Jean Paul Sartre, “Man Against the Darkness” by W.T. Stace and “The Christian Commitment” by Reinhold Niebuhr. We then tackle the very perplexing and unsettling story of Mersault. We also try to do a little bit on the Algerian conflict which serves as a background for the story.
THIS IS THE END:
Texts and Film Used:
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Excerpts from Literary Terms; A Practical Glossary by Brian Moon
“Apocalypse Now” by Francis Ford Coppola
Then, in a state of exhaustion I attempt - before the kids can rally and stage a complete and total rebellion - to get in one more assignment and that is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. We analyze the book’s racist slant from the position of fore grounding and privileging. We also analyze the book from a political aspect and explore the damaging and morally degrading aspects (for both the colonized and the colonizer) of colonialism. At this point we also watch in conjunction with Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola’s film APOCALYPSE NOW, which is the modern adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel.
Interspersed with the readings are vocabulary, grammar, writing and analytical assignments which I have gleaned from the many AP workshops I have attended.
I teach in an inner city performing arts magnet that is year round, which means that the day is long - starting at 7:30 am and not ending until five pm or much, much later. The kids come from all different parts of sprawling Los Angeles and since we don’t have reliable mass transit, they must rely on the school buses. This means that the kids, most of whom are all high achieving performers, don’t get home until late - sometimes eight or nine o’clock at night. Combine this with the two and a half month gap in the middle of the school year - from the end of December to the first week of March - and one can see that it is a maddening dash to try to teach in a deeply thoughtful and provocative way so much material. We cannot cover everything that I would like (and which I find important and needing to be taught) and in the last two years I have found it impossible to take Madame Bovary along for the ride and have had to regretfully leave her by the roadside. Perhaps this year we can visit Flaubert after the AP test. As a year round school, our semester ends on June 30th so we still have plenty of time - despite the students’ protest - to continue reading and discussing.
Another thing I would like to address is the emphasis on the white male canon and our attempts at introducing to our students the voices of those who have been marginalized, who have been dispossessed and struggling, who may speak to our students who are themselves dispossessed and struggling.
During the summer break between their junior year and the beginning of their senior year, their AP English Language teacher and I have assigned the following books for them to read and do a short and /or long form. These books include, and may vary from year to year, Toni Morrisson’s Beloved and The Bluest Eye, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. There are many other great books to read and this, of course, just scratches the surface.
TEXTS
Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp -- LITERATURE: Structure, Sound and Sense (Harcourt, Brace College Publishers)
John Pfordresher and Gladys V. Veidemanis -- England in Literature (Scott, Foresman)
Cameron Thompson -- Philosophy and Literature (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)
Kathleen Morner and Ralph Rausch -- N.T,C.’s Dictionary of Literary Terms
(N.T.C. Publishing Group)
Brian Moon -- Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary (N.T.C. Publishing Group)
Jerome Shostak -- Vocabulary Workshop (Sadlier - Oxford)
John E. Warriner Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)
Plato -- “Allegory of the Cave”
Aristotle -- The Poetics
Sophocles -- The Oedipal Cycle
Beowulf
Geoffrey Chaucer -- The Canterbury Tales
William Shakespeare -- Hamlet
Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
Fyodor Dostoevsky -- Crime and Punishment
Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary
Franz Kafka -- The Metamorphosis
Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
Albert Camus -- The Stranger
Joseph Conrad --- Heart of Darkness
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