Blog: http://shermansapliterature.blogspot.com/
Teacher: Kyle Sherman
Course Overview and Expectations
As an Advanced Placement course, the expectations and requirements are difficult and accelerated. The structure for this course complies with the curriculum requirements described in the AP course description. The “work-load” of the course may seem very demanding, but it is essential if students in the program are to develop and practice the critical analysis and writing skills needed to complete the curriculum requirements and achieve success on the AP Literature and Composition Exam.
This course focuses on the critical analysis and intensive study of imaginative literature from various genres, periods, and cultures. Students will experience, interpret, and evaluate different works of literature through readings, class discussions, and various writing assignments.
Reading and Writing Assignments
Reading Assignments
As the course moves through different units, there will also be a major work of literary merit the students will be reading outside of class. Simultaneously, the students will have shorter reading assignments (i.e., essays, short stories, poems, excerpts of other works) that will be required. A variety of different major authors and their works from different time periods and genres will be read, analyzed, discussed, interpreted, and evaluated. Works from the genres of poetry, drama, fiction (novel and short story), and expository prose will be explored.
Every student must read all of the required assignments on time to be successful in this course. The amount of reading required for this course is vast and can seem overwhelming if a student does not plan ahead and dedicate themselves to reading on schedule. All readings and due dates will be announced in class and posted/update on the class Fusion website. Students should be prepared to actively discuss and/or analytically write whenever a major reading assignment is due.
Reading Check Quizzes: It should be assumed, by the student, that on the day major reading assignments are due, there will be a check quiz. These quizzes consist of three passages/quotations from the work. The student must select two of the passages and then identify and explain the significance of the passage to the work as a whole. These quizzes are meant to verify the depth at which each student read and to allow a student to practice analytical writing in a shortened time of twenty minutes per quiz. Many times the quotations on the quiz will be used to ignite the initial class discussions of the novel or play.
Writing Assignments:
Students will write for a variety of purposes using numerous different writing techniques and exercises.
Analytical/Critical Writing:
Students will write numerous critical papers throughout the course. These critical essays will be based on the student’s ability to experience, interpret, and evaluate different pieces of literature. Specifically, the student will use textual evidence to prove how stylistic elements (literary devices) and social historical values affect a reader while relaying an author’s purpose. The specific requirements of each writing assignment will be provided to the students and reviewed as they occur within each unit throughout the year.
Requirements for out-of-class papers and in-class timed writings will be reviewed with the students at the beginning of the year. All writings will be graded by the criteria stated on holistic rubrics and/or the 9-point scale similar to the one used to grade the AP English Exams. Suggestions and critiques are written onto each student’s papers by the teacher. Students are encouraged to come to tutoring to review these comments during mandatory school tutoring times.
As they write, the students ultimately evaluate the artistry and underlying social and cultural values through interpretation and argument. A tentative break-down of the critical writings required for the courses is as follows: (specific topics of papers are given in the unit descriptions)
Closed-Reading & Open-Ended Timed Writing Prompts 2-3 per 6-weeks
(released AP exam or AP Study Guide
writing prompts and passages)
Final Four Writing Project Within one month of the AP Exams
(student essays from writing portfolios)
Creative Writing Assignments:
Students will be asked to write creative assignments throughout the course. Each of these assignments will be graded through the use of a holistic rubric (of which students will receive at the beginning of each assignment) that will reflect the original parameters of each separate assignment. Students should assume the creative writing assignments may be proofread or shared with their peers during different stages of the assignment.
Each of these assignments will be given as enrichment to the material found in a unit or to allow a student to reflect in their own writing regarding the literature style being studied. The creative writing assignments include, but are not limited too:
reaction-response papers, journals, critiques, reflective/narratives (including college application essays and senior scrapbook entries), poems, parody, satire, annotations, rhetorical forms being studied, etc.
Additional On-Going Assignments
On-going assignments are scheduled continuously throughout the course and are considered a supplement to every unit. Students will be introduced to the requirements and expectations of all of the on-going assignments for the year during the first two-three weeks of school.
AP Multiple Choice Practice
Using released AP exams and class sets of AP study guides, students will practice AP multiple choice and annotation skills each six-weeks. The exercises to practice multiple choice questions will change and become more difficult with each grading period—allowing students to gradually become more confident with the multiple choice section of the AP English Exam. The students will follow the tentative AP multiple choice practice schedule listed below. However, additional multiple choice practices may be added as the results of each multiple choice exam are reviewed by the teacher.
A schedule to the AP Multiple Choice Practice is listed below:
1st six-weeks: 3 group practices; one passage for each practice
2nd & 3rd six-weeks:
students receive 2 passages and vocabulary found within the AP question stems
and answer choices; students annotate the passages; students take a multiple choice practice at the end of the six-weeks.
4th six-weeks: students receive 2 passages in advance; students annotate the passages,
students take a multiple-choice practice at the end of the six-weeks.
5th six-weeks: Students will take a MOCK multiple-choice practice.
Students will also have an opportunity to create their own AP formatted multiple choice questions during different assignments throughout the year.
Art Analysis
To try and help develop students’ ability to understand tone and the stylistic elements in literature, they are exposed to art appreciation lessons. At the beginning of the school year, the teacher will provide several famous paintings for the students to examine and discuss as a class. After modeling the process, each student will be paired with another to student; they will bring their own painting and will lead a class discussion.
Using the paintings allows students to develop their interpretive and evaluation skills quickly. It is also useful in helping students learn how to understand universal themes and how to relay evidence within the paintings to “back-up” their opinions of the themes and stylistic choices of the artist. These brief lessons help enhance skills students use in their writing along with having them make connections between all artistic art forms.
Senior Blog
Each six-weeks students are required to post blogs, which represent an event, occasion, or memory that happened during the six-weeks period. Students will also include a narrative which explains the significance of the item to the event or occasion. The narratives should be descriptive, creative, and reminiscent. After the AP Exams are complete, each student creates a digital “Senior Scrapbook” that includes blog highlights, a mantra/logo, prologue, and other required elements that change with each AP class. The scrapbooks are unique and should reflect each senior’s final days in high school, their unique personalities, and their artistic expression.
Vocabulary
Includes literary terminology, SAT/ACT vocabulary lists, and study of denotative and connotative meanings of vocabulary from the major reading assignments.
Writing Improvement
Students are expected to display their best composition skills whenever writing. (This includes formal and informal—critical and creative writing assignments.) There will be lessons and emphasis on different areas of writing improvement as needed throughout the course. An emphasis will be placed on strong word choice, sentence variety, Standard Written English, and effective organizational techniques.
Writing Portfolio
Students will be writing a minimum of two timed essays each 6-weeks. Two of the essays will be used to evaluate specific skills or areas of writing through different assessment strategies. One of these essays will be graded using the AP essay rubric of 1-9 and will count as an assessment grade. Students will have the opportunity to select which essay will be submitted for assessment.
The collection of all timed writing essays will be kept throughout the year. They will use the essays they have written throughout the semester as rough drafts in a writing project (Final Four), which gives a student an opportunity to reevaluate their own writing and revise their own products right before taking the AP Exam.
Student Grades
All assignments will be graded with either holistic rubric (provided by the teacher) or on the 9 point College Board Writing assignment scale. Students will be assessed for what they do well, and are expected to use teacher comments, suggestions, and conferences to improve throughout the course.
The grade distribution follows the Memorial Pre-AP/AP Policy and is as follows:
Major Assessment Exams, Projects, Essays, Timed-Writings, 60%
(4 per six-weeks) Presentations, Scrapbooks
Minor Assessment Quiz 30%
(6 per six-weeks)
Separate Category Class Work, Class Discussions 10%
(2 per six-weeks)
100-90 = A
89-80 = B
79-75 = C
70-74 = D
0-69 = F
Retesting
- All students will be given up to 3 days to substitute the retest grade for the failing grade, but the grade will be no higher than a 70%.
- The student must participate in some form of re-teach/tutoring prior to the re-test.
- Homework grades, class work, and quiz grades to not apply.
- The teacher will have the option of assigning an alternative assessment in lieu of the original.
Late Work:
- The teacher will have the option of assigning an alternative assignment in lieu of the original.
- Daily class work and homework do not apply.
- For late work, all students will be given 3 additional days to make-up an assignment if late (with a progressive grade penalty of 10% or 10 points per day).
- If excused absence/s, the student will be given the total # of absent days (up to 3) to make up an assignment without penalty.
In extenuating circumstances with absences, the campus principal will make a decision on the assignment and make-up days. Teacher will have the option of assigning an alternative assignment in lieu of the original.
Schedule of Units, Readings, Major Assessments
- The time-length of each of the units and the order in which they occur during the school year, may change from year to year—
- Major assessments will each have detailed assignment sheets with objectives, expectations, clarification of topics, etc.
Course Introduction:
(2 weeks) Introduction to AP Course and Elements of Effective Writing and Interpretation
Summer Reading--The Great Gatsby
Unit One: The Great Gatsby—Experiencing the Different Elements of Literature and Writing
(4 weeks)
Focus & Purpose: Students will examine the objectives and expectations of AP English Literature and Composition (allowing them to transition from the Language and Composition course). They will review literary terminology, practice annotation of closed passages, seek textual evidence of literary elements (imagery, language, syntax, symbolism, irony, setting, point of view, conflict, characterization, figurative language, tone/attitude, theme), and understand the need for understanding a work as a whole.
Guiding Questions: How can a person’s goal/dream become destructive? How do the expectations of society influence a person’s decisions? How do the ”smaller” elements of style help develop the theme as a whole in a work?
Major Literary Work: The Great Gatsby
Major Assessments: Multiple Closed-Reading Annotations from Gatsby
A closed-reading timed writing based on a Gatsby passage
Open-Ended timed writing—AP prompt
Unit Two: Life’s Experiences and Choices
(4 weeks)
Focus & Purpose: Students will study the form of the narrative and how to use their own stylistic voice to write for a purpose using their own experiences.
Guiding Questions: How do childhood challenges and experiences influence a person’s choices, goals, and the opportunities they seek as an adult? How does the use of dialogue, antidotes, and strong diction help develop a person’s voice and relay their own experiences to others? Do the ‘clothes’ make the person?
Major Literary Work: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Major Assessments: Passage analysis
Open-Ended timed writing—AP prompt
Unit Three: Poetry—The Concise Form of Ultimate Expression
(3 weeks) (Introduce—continuous until the AP Exam in May)
Focus & Purpose: Through this on-going unit students will learn to interpret, evaluate, and appreciate the beauty of poetry. Students will initially use the TPCASTT method—analysis questions will extend from this method.
Literary Works: Scheduled readings from The Bedford Introduction to Literature & Perrine’s Sound and Sense;
selected poems from other resources
Major Assessments: Sonnet Project
Multiple closed-reading timed writing AP prompts
Evaluating Poetry Assignment
Critical/Analysis Paper (spring semester):
Topic: A selected poet and the cultural value of his/her work.
Synopsis of Unit:
The poetry unit will begin with a two week introduction before starting the tragedy unit which contains King Lear. The first three weeks will be an introduction of poetry. Students will be exposed to the different time periods and movements of poetry, specific terminology, and will begin to become aware of the sounds and appropriate way to read and discuss poetry in the unit introduction.
As the unit progresses, students will have weekly reading assignments. (The students will receive a schedule at the beginning of unit outlining the specific chapters and selections for each due date.) They will be responsible for reading the selections for the week, while also completing detailed analysis of one of the poems. On designated “poetry days” the students will use the analysis to lead the discussion of their selected poem in class discussions. The students should be prepared to share their evaluation of the poem and answer questions about the poem from both the teacher and their peers.
The written weekly analysis is used during their Evaluating Poetry Assignment two weeks before the AP Exam.
Unit Four: Tragedy and the Flaws of Humanity
(3 weeks)
Focus & Purpose: Elements of tragedy and its effects on humanity and society’s
flaws will be discussed. There will also be an emphasis on the tragic hero and the consequences of individual choices.
Guiding Questions: How do different cultural influences define tragedy? Debate: Humanity creates tragedy in society? Or, traditions of society cause human tragedy to occur?
Major Literary Works: King Lear
selected essays and short stories
Major Assessments: King Lear Character Analysis Project
Open-Ended timed writing—AP prompt
Senior Renaissance Day
Students will read The Road by Cormac McCarthy during the Holiday Break and semester exam reviews.
Unit Five: Heroes and Life Journeys
(4 weeks)
Focus & Purpose: Students will define the different types of Anti heroes in literature and examine their goals, accomplishments, and outcome of their journeys.
Guiding Questions: What characteristics define the different types of heroes? (tragic, ancient, epic, modern) What implications does a hero’s decisions have for the people they are in contact with? Can a hero’s life journey have consequences for society?
Major Literary Works: excerpts from
Beowulf (multiple translations examined)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
Major Assessments: Beowulf passage analysis
Frankenstein passage analysis
Unit Six: Satire & Irony
(3 weeks)
Focus & Purpose: Understanding the different levels and purpose of comedy in literature.
Guiding Questions: How does the use of humor in literature influence an audience’s views on a “serious” subject/issue? What are the differences of the different forms of comedy and their purpose? (comedy of idea, manners, farce, low, parody, satire)
Major Literary Works: Candide by Voltaire
selected essays, short stories, film clips, music lyrics
Major Assessments: Parody Writing Assignment
Satire of Modern Day Issue
Short Story: A Tragicomedy
Closed-Reading Timed Writing—AP prompt
Open-Ended timed writing—AP prompt
Unit Seven: Cultural Traditions and Values
(3 weeks)
Focus & Purpose: Examine how cultural traditions and values are represented in literature and how these values are represented in today’s society.
Guiding Questions: How do members of different classes, genders, and societies view cultural traditions and values? What is the purpose of an individual conforming to their society’s traditions? What causes the traditions and values to change?
Major Literary Works: The Road (students will read The Road during the Holiday Break and semester exam reviews)
selected essays and short stories
Major Assessments: Closed-Reading Timed Writing—AP prompt
Open-Ended timed writing—AP prompt
The Road passage analysis
Unit Eight: Society, Culture & Immigration
Part I: 4 weeks;
Spring Break—students will focus on culturally focused work
Part II: 3 weeks
Focus & Purpose: Extending off of the discussions from the previous unit, students will examine how the rules and cultural views of an immigrant society can cause cultural clashes and other issues.
Guiding Questions: How important is it to the immigrant to be accepted in their new society? How does an individuals cultural alienation reflect the society they are part of?
Major Literary Works: Independent Selection
selected essays and short stories
Major Assessments: Open-Ended timed writing—AP prompt
Socratic Discussions
Textbooks and Materials
Required and Provided through the school’s Textbook Room:
The Bedford Introduction to Literature—Michael Meyer
Perrine’s : Sound and Sense—An Introduction to Poetry (11th edition. Thomson Wadsworth, 2005)
The Handbook to Literature (9th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003)
Novels, Dramas, Major Outside Readings:
In the AP Literature and Composition course, the students are not required to purchase their own copies of outside readings (novels and plays), but it is recommended. All of the following readings can be checked out through the school library—class sets are available. (The following list is given alphabetically by title.)
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain
King Lear, William Shakespeare
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Candide, Voltaire
Beowulf, Seamus Heaney Translation
5 Steps to a 5: AP Literature & Composition—should be purchased as a consumable workbook by the student
Selections and excerpts—provided by the teacher in either class sets or handouts:
Harvey, Michael. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003.
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (9th edition. New York:
Pearson, 2005.
The Bedford Reader (7th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000)
The Norton Anthology of English Literature I & II (5th edition. New York: W.W. Norton &
Co., 1986.
Ways In: Approaches to Reading and Writing about Literature and Film (2nd edition.
Boston: McGraw Hill, 2003.
Helpful Website Resources Mentioned throughout the course:
Additional websites can be added throughout the school year. When they are added, and announcement will be made in class at the site will be posted on the class Fusion resource page.
AP 4 Class Expectations
Attendance:
The challenging curriculum of this course requires students to be on time and prepared to participate every day. Excessive absences will hinder the learning process and results in a student falling behind.
Students will be responsible for having a classmate’s phone number in case of an absence(s) so they can place a call to find out what they missed. On the students’ return they should be prepared for class participation and immediate completion of any missed assignments. All assignments and due dates are posted on the course’s Fusion website.
In the case of an absence due to school activities, students will be held responsible for taking tests or completing assignments prior to the day of absence.
If a student is absent on the day of an exam or mandatory writing/presentation/master grade day, the students will only be allowed to make up the work the day of return if the absence is excused through the attendance office. Because major writing assignments and exams are announced in advance—there is NO negotiation on this policy! Any student who is caught “skipping” will be subject to the school discipline policy (see student rules & regulations handbook).
If there is an emergency, assignments can be sent directly to the teacher via Gmail.
Tutoring:
All students are encouraged to attend tutoring whenever needed. Tutoring will be offered during the following times:
Monday & Tuesday 4:15-4:45 p.m. Wednesday 7:40-8:10 a.m.
If a student needs further tutoring, they only need to ask the teacher, in advance, and another time will be scheduled for the student. Additional AP Exam tutoring will be offered through Saturday AP Academies throughout the school year.
Tardy:
Tardies will be handled in accordance with the school tardy policy.
Remember: 3 tardies = 1 absence for credit and exemption purposes.
Assignment/Homework:
Follow the proper procedure when turning in any assignments or work. All homework will be handed into the file tray found near the classroom door during the first 5 minutes of the class period—unless otherwise specified. Students also have the option of emailing their prior to the class period.
Participation:
Students are expected to participate and come to class prepared. Success is an AP course can only be achieved in full participation occurs daily! The Socratic Circle Discussion Method will be part of the curriculum and will include grades equivalent to quiz scores.
Classroom Rules/Expectations: RESPECT: Respect yourself. Respect the teacher. Respect others.
Classroom Rewards: Students will have an opportunity to receive extra credit throughout the year.
Electronic Devices: Electronic devices such as cell phones and MP3 players are only allowed for instructional purposes pertaining to our class. Be prepared to have all electronic devices taken away if they are visible and being used inappropriately in class. If you have a problem with this policy, you will be asked to discuss it with an assistant principal.
Cheating: Plagiarism of any kind . . . internet downloads, copying another student’s work, summarizing Cliff, Barron, Monkey, or any other kind of “Notes,” etc. IS considered cheating!!! If a student is found cheating on any assignment, quiz, essay, exam, or project—the situation will be handled as follows:
Teacher conference with student
Phone Call and/or Parent Conference
A zero will be recorded as the student’s grade.
The teacher will be unable to write a college recommendation in the future for the student.
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