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AP ENGLISH LITERATURE MANIFESTO
Congratulations on making into AP English Literature, thus making you part of the crème de la crème (You’ll get that reference later.) This class will delve very intensely into many of the greatest works of literature ever penned of both the classical and modern era. This class will focus heavily on the writing skills and the understanding of literary elements such as tone, diction, syntax, and figures of speech that will be necessary for you to earn a passing score on the AP English Literature Test. In addition to the passing score, I hope that your passion for reading and writing (for which you have already provided evidence, or else you wouldn’t be here right now) will become even more intense and crystallized.
There will be many types of writing assignments throughout the year. You will be regularly writing informal responses in a journal to the various works of literature we will read. You will also be writing a wealth of in-class essays that will be taken from or replicate past AP English Literature essay prompts. At times, you will be asked to compose a work that emulates the style of one of the writers that we study. In addition, there will be many exercises to help you improve your command of sentence and paragraph structure.
Here is the proposed schedule for this school year. Note that this schedule only deals with the reading and writing about the various novels and plays that I have chosen. In addition to what you see below, there will be many other types of assignments. You will take many multiple choice quizzes from actual AP tests, reading and writing about many different styles of poetry and prose, doing in-class exercises culled from the workbook Voice Lessons, as well as performing many other activities. There might be a few minor changes here and there (especially if there is an excess of fire drills or similar interruptions), but I will try my best to keep us on track with what follows:
#1: Aug. 14-16
Review summer reading texts.
#2: Aug. 19-23
Essay test on August: Osage County, The Interestings, or A Confederacy of Dunces
Start reading in class Macbeth
Start reading at home One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#3: Aug. 26-30
Continue reading in class Macbeth
Continue reading at home One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#4: Sept. 3-6 (no school on Monday)
Continue reading in class Macbeth
Essay test on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#5 Sept. 9-13
Multiple Choice and Essay test on Macbeth
Start reading at home The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
#6 Sept. 16-20
Start reading in class The Misanthrope by Moliere (Richard Wilbur translation)
Continue reading at home The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
#7 Sept. 23-27
Continue reading at home The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
Finish reading The Misanthrope (with various excerpts from other translations)
#8 Sept. 30-Oct. 4
Essay test on The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
Start reading in class The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
#9 Oct. 7-Oct 11
Essay test on either The Importance of Being Earnest of The Misanthrope
Start reading at home Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
#10 Oct. 15-18 (no school on Monday)
Continue reading at home Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Start reading in class Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley
#11 Oct. 21-25
Essay test on Never Let Me Go
Start reading in class Oleanna by David Mamet
#12 Oct. 28-Nov. 1
Start reading at home Push by Sapphire
Start reading in class The History Boys by Alan Bennett
#13 Nov. 4-8
Start reading at home The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Essay test on Oleanna, Doubt, or The History Boys
#14 Nov. 12-15 (no school on Monday)
Continue reading at home The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Start reading in class A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
#15 Nov. 18-22
Essay test on The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Push or A Doll’s House
Start reading at home Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
#16 Nov. 25-26 (Thanksgiving Wed-Fri.)
Continue to read reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
#17 Dec. 2-6
Start reading at home Silk by Alessandro Baricco
#18 Dec. 9-13
Essay test on either Silk or Frankenstein
#19 Dec 16—20 (Finals)
Final exam (one hour multiple choice)
Read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn over the break
#20 Jan. 13-17
Essay test on Gone Girl.
Start reading at home The Road by Cormac McCarthy
#21 Jan. 21-24 (no school on Monday)
Continue reading at home The Road by Cormac McCarthy
#22 Jan. 27-31
Essay test on The Road
Start reading at home either Goodbye, Columbus or Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
#23 Feb. 3-7
Continue reading at home either Goodbye, Columbus or Portnoy’s Complaint
Begin reading in class Equus by Peter Shaffer
#24 Feb. 10-14
Begin reading in class Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
Essay test on either Goodbye, Columbus or Portnoy’s Complaint
#25 Feb 18-21 (no school on Monday)
Essay test on either Equus or Machinal
Start reading at home Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
#26 Feb 24-28
Continue reading at home Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
#27 Mar. 3-7
Essay test on Therese Raquin
Start reading in class Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
Start reading at home either Slaughterhouse Five or Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
#28 Mar. 10-14
Continue reading at home either Slaughterhouse Five or Breakfast of Champions.
Start reading in class How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel
#29 Mar. 17-21
Essay test on Slaughterhouse Five or Breakfast of Champions.
#30 Mar. 24-28
Start reading in class The Shape of Things by Neil Labute
Start reading at home 1984 by George Orwell
#31 Mar. 31-Apr. 4
Essay test on Clybourne Park, How I Learned to Drive or The Shape of Things
Continue reading at home 1984 by George Orwell
#32 Apr. 7-11 (no school on Monday)
Essay test on 1984.
Over Spring Break, reread a novel that you read in high school (which may include this class)
#33 Apr. 21-25 (Star testing April 22-30)
Essay test on April 21 based on the novel that you reread.
Review.
#34 Apr. 28-May 2
Review.
#35 May 5-9 (AP TEST Thursday, May 8)
Review
#36 May 12-16
Work on Senior Speeches
#37 May 19-22 (Senior Finals)
Senior Speeches
GRADING POLICY
Here at CHAMPS, students are given letter grades sans plusses nor minuses. Therefore, the grading breakdown is thus:
90% or higher = A
80%--89% = B
70%--79% = C
60%--69% = D
59% or lower = F
WARNING: Mr. Bailey does not believe in “grade inflation” (i.e., the raising of a grade at the end of the semester for no other reason other than to bump a student up to the next grade). Therefore, it is important that you work the entire semester towards the grade that you wish to see on your report card.
TARDY POLICY
If you are tardy thrice per semester, you will receive a Behavior Log that will warn you that any subsequent tardies will be punished with a detention in which you may not talk nor play with any electronic doodads.
In addition, we will have several mulitiple choice quizzes and other types of tests throughout the year. Some will be regularly scheduled and some will appear out of nowhere. If you come to class after the tardy bell rings (but within five minutes of the bell ringing), you may take the quiz, however you will be docked 50% of the grade you would have received. If you come to class five minutes late (or later), you may not take the quiz at all and you will not be given any opportunities to make it up.
If you come to class late for a major test (which is usually worth 100 points or more), you will have 20% of your grade that you would have received docked.
Also, if you come in late (but within five minutes) of a quiz or a test, you will not be given extra time to complete it. Therefore, you may not have time to finish it.
Oh, and if you have the chutzpah to walk in late to class brazenly carrying something like a cup of coffee from Jack in the Box, prepare to have it taken from you and thrown away.
LATE WORK POLICY
Late work will be handled at my discretion. If you have work due on a day in which you have an unexcused absence, I will not accept it all, late or otherwise. I might accept journals or other writings that are turned in late for half credit if you just could not finish them in time. I might make certain exceptions based on your specific situation (e.g., college visits, family emergencies, etc.)
ELECTRONIC DEVICES
Although I would prefer you reading your e-books on an actual e-reader (e.g., Kindle, Nook, iPad), I will allow you to read the assigned works off of your cell phone if necessary. If you are clearly using your cell phone to text, play games, or for any other non-scholarly purpose, it will be confiscated from you. If I have to confiscate it more than once, a parent will have to pick it up from the school.
BATHROOM POLICY
If you need to use the bathroom during class time, go ahead and ask Mr. Bailey. Maybe he’ll let you go; maybe he won’t. The second time you ask him, he might let you go as well.
However, the third time you ask him if you may use the restroom during class time, you will have to copy by hand all of the following translations (These will be known simply as “Bathroom Translations”):
ENGLISH: Thank you for allowing me to use the bathroom.
SPANISH: Gracias por permitirme utilizar el baño.
FRENCH: Merci de me permettre d'employer la salle de bains.
GERMAN: Danke für das Erlauben mir, die Toilette zu Badezimmer.
ITALIAN: Grazie per permettere che me usi la stanza da bagno.
PORTUGESE: Obrigado permitindo que eu use o banheiro.
MORSE CODE: - .... .- -. -.- / -.-- --- ..- / ..-. --- .-. / .-.. . - - .. -. --. / -- . / ..- ... . / - .... . / -... .- - .... .-. ------.-.-.-
You will have to do this for homework; you may not work on it in class. (If you are working on it in class, Mr. Bailey will just throw it away and you’ll have to start from scratch.) Mr. Bailey will not grade your upcoming vocabulary homework until you turn in the above translations.
The fourth time that you ask Mr. Bailey if you may use the restroom, you will have to copy all of the above translations twice. The fifth time that you ask him, you will have to copy the translations three times. The sixth time that you ask him you will have to copy the translations four times. And so on and so on.
If you can produce an actual doctor’s note in which said doctor informs me of a specific medical condition in which you might need to utilize the bathroom facilities at a moment’s notice, I will excuse you from the above assignment.
By the way, the above translations (save for the Spanish and Morse Code ones) come from the Babel Fish website and therefore are in all likelihood extremely inaccurate. (Lo siento.)
If you can go the whole semester without interrupting class to ask to go to the bathroom, you will be given 20 extra credit points on the day of the finals.