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AP English Literature and Composition
Curriculum is available at the MBOE website
An AP audit description follows. This audit is a guide to course
content and skills and meant as a guide. Specifics details may
change.
Course Description
AP English Literature will engage students in the careful reading
and critical analysis of substantial fiction, drama and poetry.
Students will engage in an in-depth reading of works from various
genres and periods, as well as comparative pieces from other
cultures. Students will read and respond in individual, literal,
critical, and evaluative ways to texts. Most of the course focuses
on interpreting and analyzing fictional works and poetry as well as
examining the social and cultural values they convey. Elements such
as the author�s use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and
tone are examined in exemplary prose and poetry in order to
understand how authors use language to create meaning and pleasure
for readers. Emphasis will be placed on close readings of texts,
developing interpretations and connecting parts of works to the
whole, in terms of both structure and theme; students will
frequently be asked to select passages significant to an
understanding of theme, character and author�s craft.
Reading
Assigned class readings are paired with outside readings that
stimulate students to make connections between texts and encourage
the application of understandings derived from whole class
instruction. Such readings will frequently be accompanied by free
response or focused response journals which encourage students to
read critically. Assigned reading is monitored through open-ended
questions, in-class discussion, and both announced and unannounced
quizzes employing a variety of formats from multiple choice to short
essay. Students� written responses will be used to generate class
discussion and to encourage reflection and interpretation. The
sharing of written work and regular peer editing opportunities will
help foster a writer-friendly atmosphere.
The study of poetry will be grounded in the basics of determining
speaker, audience, purpose, occasion and meaning; as the study of
poetry progresses, however, students will be provided with poems
that model uses of particular rhetorical forms and figurative
devices until they are proficient in articulating how poets create
emotion and experience.
Students will illustrate their ability to analyze, understand, apply
and evaluate the themes and critical elements of fiction, poetry and
drama through discussion, through oral and written projects, and
through process and in-class timed essays. In additions they will
practice for the AP exam by answering AP-style prompts in forty
minute timed situations that mirror the AP Literature essays and by
completing Applied Practice units. The latter will familiarize them
with multiple choice questions and identify unfamiliar literary
terminology. To facilitate critical reading and writing, foster
effective diction and in preparation for PSATs and SATs, students
will study vocabulary. Students will take the AP Literature and
Composition exam in May as the AP English Literature final exam.
Writing
Writing instruction focuses on vocabulary usage, sentence structure,
organization, thesis development with a balance of generalization
with specific detail, and effective use of rhetoric. Instruction
and feedback are provided to help students analyze and improve their
own writing and identify both strengths and difficulties.
Individual conferences, peer editing sessions, and discussions of
techniques to improve writing are integral to the course. Frequent
opportunities are given for students to write and rewrite both timed
in-class essays and process essays. Students will engage in peer-
conferral and revision activities. At least two essays per semester
will be taken through the writing process from pre-writing
through drafting, revision and editing but students will regularly
write reflections, analyses and evaluations. One on one teacher-
student conferences will take place in the first and second marking
period and thereafter as needed.
Skills
Students will read and respond in individual, literal, critical, and
evaluative ways to literary, informational and persuasive texts.
Students will
� describe the text by giving an initial reaction to the text
and by describing its general content and purpose.
� interpret the text by using prior knowledge and experiences.
� reflect on the text to make judgments about its meaning and
quality.
� analyze text and task, set purpose and plan appropriate
strategies for comprehending, interpreting and evaluating texts.
� generate questions before, during and after reading,
writing, listening and viewing
� make and confirm or revise predictions.
� use the structure of narrative, expository, persuasive,
poetic and visual text to interpret and extend meaning.
� make inferences about ideas implicit in narrative,
expository, persuasive and poetic texts.
� use a variety of strategies to develop an extensive
vocabulary.
Students will produce written and oral texts to express, develop and
substantiate ideas and experiences.
Students will
� engage in a process of generating ideas, drafting,
revising, editing and publishing or presenting
� engage in writing and speaking through frequent reflection,
reevaluation and revision.
Students will apply the conventions of standard English language in
oral and written communication.
Students will
proofread and edit for grammar, spelling, punctuation and
capitalization
speak and write using conventional patterns of syntax and
diction
use variations of language appropriate to purpose, audience
and task
Students will explore and respond to classic literary texts that
have shaped Western thought
explore and respond to modern literature
recognize literary conventions and devices and understand
how they convey meaning
demonstrate an understanding that literature represents,
recreates, shapes and explores human experience through language and
imagination
Essential Questions
Who is the intended audience for the author�s work?
What is the author�s attitude towards his or her subject?
What literary and rhetorical methods does the author employ to
create meaning?
In what ways is this text similar to other texts?
How does the author use a particular form to express his or her
message?
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to generate thoughtful and analytical
discourse on prose and poetry texts in discussion and in writing.
Students will use the literary elements of a text (theme,
setting, symbolism, imagery, conflict, etc.) to draw conclusions
about a text.
Students will identify the salient features of a text�s form
and content.
Students will compare the main ideas and the use of language
in similar texts.
Students will read important classics in various genres of
the British and Western literary tradition in order to understand
the human experiences that they convey.
Students will demonstrate proficiency in writing the
critical essay using standard English.
Students will become familiar with the format and content of
the AP Literature and Composition exam.
Students will expand their vocabulary.
Evaluation
:
� tests
� quizzes
� homework assignments
� process and timed essays
� class participation
� oral and written projects
� reader response journals
Textbooks
Glencoe Literature: British Literature. Ed. Beverly Ann Chin et al.
New York:Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 2000.
Novels and Plays
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Knopf, 1994.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Bantam, 1983.
Beowulf. Ed. Seamus Heaney. New York: Norton, 2000.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Avon, 1982.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Bantam, 2003.
Gardner, John. Grendel. New York: Vintage, 1989.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Perigee, 1954.
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. New York: Vintage, 1995.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. New York: Washington Square Press,
1992.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Signet Classic, 2000.
Sophocles, The Complete Plays of Sophocles. Antigone. New York:
Bantam,1982
---. The Complete Plays of Sophocles. Oedipus the King. New York:
Bantam,1982
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. New York: Avon, 1976
Supplemental Texts
Applied Practice in Frankenstein. Austin TX: Applied Practice Ltd.,
2001.
Applied Practice in Great Expectations. Austin TX: Applied Practice
Ltd., 2000.
Applied Practice in Macbeth. Austin TX: Applied Practice Ltd., 1999.
Applied Practice Supplemental Guide Poetry Selections. Austin TX:
Applied Practice Ltd., 2003.
Murphy, Barbara L, and Estelle Rankin. 5 Steps to a 5 on the
Advance Placement English Literature Exam. New York: McGraw-Hill,
2004.
.
Course Outline
Concepts/Emphasis
Curriculum Units
Structure; Style; Theme;
Setting; Point of View; Characterization;
Suspense; Mystery
Thesis development
Symbolism
Allegory
Epic poetry;
Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon poetry ;
figurative language
Hero/antihero
Point of View
Forms of poetry
(Ballad, epic)
Structure of tragedy; tragic hero; blank verse; comic relief
Imagery; Irony; Motif
Elements of Tragedy
Sonnet; Pastoral
Sound devices in poetry; ( rhyme, meter, repetition, alliteration)
Denotation/Connotation
Rhetorical devices (anaphora, apostrophe)
Figurative language (Metonymy and Synecdoche)
Gothic novel; Romanticism; Symbolism; Frame Story;
Use of allusion
Forms of Poetry (Elegy, Ode, Dramatic Monologue, Villanelle)
Elements of Greek theatre and Greek tragedy
Satire
Comedy of Manners
Rhetorical Devices
(polysyndeton, asyndeton)
Comparing Literature to Film
Vocabulary Review
Personal Narrative
Unit Title:
Summer Reading
Content and/or skills taught:
Students are required to read a total of three novels over the
summer and complete reading journals for each text. They are
assigned William Golding�s Lord of the Flies and David Guterson�s
Snow Falling on Cedars and may choose one title from the approved
free choice selections. Some examples of these selections are
Watership Down, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Growing
Up, A Man for All Seasons, Martian Chronicles, Mists of Avalon, Jane
Eyre, The Stranger, Moll Flanders, Sister Carrie, Demian,
Siddhartha, A Taste for Death, The Painted Bird, Into the Wild, A
Gesture Life, The Color Purple, The Butcher Boy, The Heart is a
Lonely Hunter, All My Sons, The Picture of Dorian Gray, To the
Lighthouse, Cat�s Cradle.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Students are tested on both Lord of the Flies and Snow Falling on
Cedars. They are also given an in-class, timed essay prompt on Lord
of the Flies. The students are required to choose one of 3 AP-style
essay prompts to apply to their free choice read and complete a
process essay.
Example: Often in literature, a literal or figurative journey is a
significant factor in the development of a character or the meaning
of a work. Write a well-organized essay in which you discuss the
literal and/or figurative nature of the journey and how it affects
characterization and theme
Supplementary Activities/Assignments:
Assigned readings in 5 to 5
Diagnostic test in 5 to 5
Vocabulary study
Grammar lesson on active/passive voice
_________________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Heroic/Epic Tradition
Content and/or skills taught:
Beowulf and Grendel
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Timed essay: A Parody is a literary or musical work in which the
style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or
for ridicule. Read the parody �Grendel�s Dog, A fragment from
Beocat� by Henry Beard, and explain in an essay how Beard�s work
parodies Beowulf.
Consider focusing on 2 or 3 of the following:
� Language and style: i.e. the use of kennings or alliteration
� the themes of fate or heroism
� characterization
Grendel's Dog: A Fragment from Beocat
by the Old English Epic's Unknown Author's Cat
(Modern English verse translation by the Editor's Cat)
from Henry Beard's Poetry for Cats
1 Brave Beocat, brood kit of Ecgthmeow,
2 Hearth-pet of Hrothgar, in whose high halls
3 He mauled without mercy many fat mice,
4 Night did not find napping nor snack-feasting.
5 The wary war-cat, whiskered paw-wielder,
6 Bearer of the burnished neck-belt, gold-braided collar-band,
7 Feller of fleas, fatal, too, to ticks,
8 The work of wonder-smiths, woven with witches' charms,
9 Sat on the throne-seat, his ears like sword-points
10 Upraised, sharp-tipped, listening for peril-sounds,
11 When he heard from the moor-hill howls of the hell-hound,
12 Gruesome hunger-grunts of Grendel's Great Dane,
13 Deadly doom-mutt, dread demon-dog.
14 Then boasted Beocat, noble battle-kitten,
15 Bane of barrow-bunnies, bold seeker of nest-booty,
16 "If hand of man unhasped the heavy hall-door
17 And freed me to frolic forth to fight the fang-bearing
fiend,
18 I would lay the whelpling low with lethal claw-blows;
19 Fur would fly and the foe would taste death-food.
20 But resounding snooze-noise, stern slumber-thunder,
21 Nose-music of men snoring mead-hammered in the wine-hall,
22 Fills me with sorrow-feeling for Fate does not see fit
23 To send some fingered folk to lift the firm-fastened latch
24 That I might go grapple with the grim ghoul-pooch."
25 Thus spake the mouse-shredder, hunter of hall-pests,
26 Short-haired Hrodent-slayer, greatest of the pussy-Geats.
Process Essay: Choose one topic below
1.Compare and contrast the view of the heroic code in Beowulf and
Grendel.Discuss the role of the shaper in Grendel.
2. Discuss the view of kingship presented in Beowulf and Grendel.
3. Is Grendel evil, maligned or misunderstood? Compare his
depiction in Grendel and Beowulf.
Outside read:
Ralph Ellison�s Invisible Man
Reading Response: Why do the protagonists of Grendel and Invisible
Man operate outside the mainstreams of society? Discuss.
Supplementary Activities/Assignments:
Vocabulary study
Grammar lesson on pronoun usage, and parallelism
Composition lesson on subordination, sentence combining, and
achieving sentence variety
__________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Elizabethan Drama and Poetry
Content and/or skills taught:
Students read Macbeth and selections of Elizabethan poets (Wyatt,
Spenser, Sydney, Marlowe, and Raleigh)
Close Reading of texts in class
Drama: Focus on conventions of drama, setting, dialogue, suspense,
plot, subplot, exposition, inciting action, rising action, climax,
falling action, denouement, resolution, foil, dramatic irony, theme,
soliloquy, and other vocabulary pertinent to the study of drama as
well as the conventions of Shakespeare�s theater, historical
background and Elizabethan culture.
Poetry: Focus on the English and Italian sonnet and the pastoral
poem.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Students complete close reads on selected passages (Opening witches�
scene, Lady Macbeth�s first monologue, Macbeth and the murderers,
sleepwalking scene, �Tomorrow and tomorrow� soliloquy, etc.).
TIMED ESSAY (35-40 minutes)
In the passage below from Act 3, Scene 3, of Macbeth, Macbeth speaks
to Lady Macbeth about his intention to have Banquo murdered. In an
essay, discuss what the language of the passage conveys about plot,
character, theme and Shakespeare's imagery.
1 Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
2 Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
3 Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
4 And with thy bloody and invisible hand
5 Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
6 Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow
7 Makes wing to the rooky wood;
8 Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
9 While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
10 Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
11 Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
Outside read:
Othello
Reading Response: With which tragic hero do you sympathize more,
Othello or Macbeth? Why?
Supplementary Activities/Assignments:
Vocabulary study
Assigned reading in 5 Steps to a Five
Applied Practice on Macbeth
__________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Romanticism
Content and/or skills taught:
Romantic Poets (Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth; Keats)
Major Assignments:
Process Essay focusing on setting, use of coincidence, or
characterization in one or two romantic works.
Outside read:
Mary Shelley�s Frankenstein
Group Discussion and presentation of the following questions on
Frankenstein
1. Examine the final setting of the novel. Why is the scene
fitting.
2. Find 3 or 4 passages that reveal the author�s treatment of
Nature. For each passage, discuss the style and its significance in
terms of what it reveals.
3. Describe the process of humanization that the creature goes
through. Show how it mimics human development.
4. Explain how the story of Adam and of Satan (see 121-123)
illustrate the central ideas and themes of the novel.
5. Explain the novel�s subtitle.
6. Identify 3 significant symbols in the novel.
7. Find 2-3 examples of Shelley�s use of light and dark imagery.
8. What are the major flaws of the novel?
9. Why is Frankenstein a relevant novel even though the
depiction of science and technology is primitive by today�s
standards?
Supplementary Activities/Assignments
Vocabulary study
Student-led poetry presentations
Debate or trial on Victor Frankenstein�s culpability
_________________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Poetry
Content and/or skills taught:
Selected Victorian and Modern Poetry ( Hardy, Hopkins, Housman;
Yeats; Auden, etc.)
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Outside read:
Kate Chopin�s The Awakening
Supplementary Activities/Assignments:
Vocabulary study
Applied Practice on selected poetry
Writing poetry
_________________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Greek Tragedy
Content and/or skills taught:
Students read Oedipus the King.
Students are given historical background readings and readings from
Aristotle�s Poetics. Terms from Greek theater are also presented:
chorus, strophe, antistrophe, hamarita, peripetia, hubris,
catharsis, skene, etc.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Outside read:
Sophocles� Antigone
Supplementary Activities/Assignments:
Vocabulary study
Dramatic Readings
_________________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Victorian Literature
Content and/or skills taught:
Students read The Importance of Being Ernest and Swifts� �A Modest
Proposal�
Students will be introduced to the nature and variety of satire by
exploring their own experiencing, examining political and social
cartoons and reading and/or viewing short satiric works
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Students will write a satire
Outside read:
Jane Austen�s Pride and Prejudice or Charles Dickens� Great
Expectations
Supplementary Activities/Assignments:
Vocabulary study
Scene Acting
_________________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Comparative Poetry
Content and/or skills taught:
PROCESS ESSAY
Study Mary Oliver's poem, "Magellan" and Alfred, Lord
Tennyson's "Ulysses." Then write a well-organized essay in which
you compare the perspective on risk-taking and the poetic
techniques employed to communicate that perspective. (Consider:
syntax, diction, imagery, figures of speech and tone.)
MAGELLAN
Mary Oliver
Like Magellan, let us find our lands
To die in, far from home, from anywhere
Familiar. Let us risk the wildest places,
Lest we go down in comfort, and despair. 4
For years we have labored over common roads,
Dreaming of ships that sail into the night.
Let us be heroes, or, if that's not in us,
Let us find men to follow, honor-bright. 8
For what is life but reaching for an answer?
And what is death but a refusal to grow?
Magellan had a dream he had to follow.
The sea was big, his ships were awkward, slow. 12
And when the fever would not set him free,
To his thin crew, "Sail on, sail on!" he cried.
And so they did, carried the frail dream homeward.
And thus Magellan lives, although he died. 16
ULYSSEYS
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with and aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 5
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 10
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all; 15
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades 20
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me 25
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire 30
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle -
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil 35
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail 40
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, 45
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me -
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads -you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 50
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 55
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 60
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though 65
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 70
Major Assignments:
Outside read:
Supplementary Activities/Assignments
Vocabulary study
Applied Practice on selected poems and pairs of poems
_________________________________________________________
Unit Title:
Post AP English Literature and Composition Examination
Content and/or skills taught:
Students write a college entrance autobiographical or personal essay
Cumulative vocabulary test
Students watch the film based on a work covered during the year or
related to a theme studied during the year ( Suggestions: First
Knight; Othello, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, The Importance of
Being Ernest)
Major Assignments:
Vocabulary Test
College Essay
Supplementary Activities/Assignments
This time is utilized to plan a trip to Yale University�s British
Art Museum where students participate in a planned program linking
art to literature and culture and/or a field trip to view a play at
Long Wharf Theatre.
Vocabulary
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