Instructor Name: Keith Kirchner

Cindy and Bill Simon Technology Academy High School

AP Literature Syllabus 2015-2016

Instructor Name: Keith Kirchner

Room:305

Email:

Tutoring Hours: By appointment

ABOUT ME

First off, congratulations on making it to your final English course in high school, but, by no means, your final English course. My name is Keith Kirchner, and I am excited to be your English teacher during your Senior year. I graduated from Fresno State University with a B.A. in English-Education. I grew up in Fresno, California and moved to Highland Park, Los Angeles,where I currently live, with my wife of three years. I (obviously) enjoy literature and writing, but I also enjoy baseball (Go Giants!), hockey (Go Sharks!), and watching movies. I am looking forward to being apart of your final high school year and sending you on, prepared, to future academic endeavors!

AP LITERATURECOURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will not only provide you with the opportunity to master both the standards and skills to pass both the AP Exam and High School English; it will also prepare you to pursue your future academic endeavors with a wide, but deep, understanding of British and American Literature. Throughout this course, you will have opportunities to gain familiarity and close-readvarious literary texts (novels, poems, essays, plays, and short stories) that span from the 16th century to the 21st; you will have opportunities to think critically in regards to these texts both independently and as a collaboration with a partner, a small group, and/or the whole class; and you will have numerous opportunities to demonstrate comprehension, analysis, and insightful interpretation through writing (and revising) craftily with varied syntax (sentence structure), elevated diction (vocabulary), rational flow (logic), and proper fluency (significance of ideas).While it is not expected that you enter the class as a skilled and masterful reader/writer, it is expected that you consistently focus your efforts on using the resources provided for you (teacher revisions, peer revisions, etc.) to continue your growth as a reader/writer.

TEXTS

For Selections:

The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume 1; Nina Baym

The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume 2; Nina Baym

The Worlds Greatest Short Stories; James Daley

The Longman Anthology of World Literature; David Damrosch and David L. Pike

The Norton Anthology of English Literature; Stephen Greenblatt

The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories; Tobias Wolff

Teacher-Supplied Handouts

Novels:

Slaughterhouse V; Kurt Vonnegut

Frankenstein; Mary Shelley

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; Philip K. Dick

Play:

Hamlet; William Shakespeare

As Resource:

Poems, Poets, and Poetry; Helen Vendler

How to Read Literature Like a Professor; Thomas C. Foster

Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory; X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia, and Mark Bauerlin

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms; Ross Murfin and Supriya M. Ray

YEAR BREAKDOWN of READING and WRITING

We will be progressing through the year with a focus on numerous pieces of literature various literary movements. As such, we will be working with numerous genres throughout the course, while simultaneously looking at the various themes authors have employed throughout literary history.

Summer Unit
READING / WRITING
Thomas C. Foster’s How To Read Literature Like a Professor
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button /

1. You will compose a Response to Literature Essay on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that applies strategies and lenses presented from Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

Unit 1
READING / WRITING
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse V, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death /

1. You will compose an argumentative essay that looks at the judgments and criticisms the authors place on the society and the social, cultural, and/or historical values: After studying the society and numerous events in World War II, what criticisms does this text have on the society that is largely in place?
2. You will write your own vignette by observing a modern war. You will be required to use a similar style and voice as Vonnegut, as well as utilize irony. Finally, you will explain how the literary devices used in both your piece and Vonnegut’s piece affect the meaning of the vignette and provide depth.

Unit 2
READING / WRITING
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Shakespeare’s sonnets
Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Sir Walter Raleigh’s The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd /

1. You will write your own soliloquy from the perspective of one of the characters besides Hamlet. Having analyzed other soliloquys from Hamlet, you will use literary devices in your own and explain how they work to provide deeper meanings.
2. You will write an interpretation (essay) of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets that focuses on the form, imagery, and tone of the piece.

Unit 3
READING / WRITING
**NOVEL: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
John Keats’ selections
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher /

1. You will write an interpretation on the novel, Frankenstein, in regards to its theme, structure (frame-narrative), and imagery.
2. Having read an analytical essay on one of the short stories of this unit in regards to the short story’s social and/or historical values, you will write an analytical piece of your own on the short story, as well as respond to the comments of the analytical essay in regards to its comments on the short story’s social and/or historical values.

Unit 4
READING / WRITING
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach
Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess
**Novel: Choice-Text /

1. Students will analyze and write an interpretation (essay) on the play based on its themes and tone.
2. Students will analyze and evaluate their choice novel through its artistry and literary quality to argue for its place in literary canon.

Unit 5
READING / WRITING
Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat
Raymond Carver’s Cathedral
John Cheever’s Swimmer
Dorothy Allison’s River of Names /

1. Students will analyze the tone throughout these pieces and explore how each author addresses a key component of human nature through imagery, tone, and theme.

Unit 6
READING / WRITING
**NOVEL:Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party
T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock /

1. Students will wrestle with the question: What does it mean to be human? They will analyze and write a Response to Literature in how Philip K. Dick establishes a dystopian future and answers precisely the above question.

YEAR BREAKDOWN of WRITING/DISCUSSION

We will be progressing through the year not only with reading, but also with writing. We will, thus, incorporate numerous writing strategies to not only increase our familiarity with writing, but to also familiarize ourselves with writing about literature.

Dialectical Journals

Students will keep either an electronic journal/notebook through Google Docs (digitally) or through a Composition Notebook (manually) in regards to the readings. In it, they will record their thoughts and initial interpretations of the readings, any questions that they have with the reading, and the feelings that readings provoke in them. These notes will be incorporated into daily discussion and will be looked at every other week for completion.

Class Discussions

While reading can be a very personal and private activity, it is not an isolated event and should not be treated as such. This class will breed fruitful discussion within peers, small groups, and whole class. By participating in this discussion, you are actively analyzing the readings and building on your own understanding through the different perspectives provided by your peers. Your active participation will not only be assessed based on the quality of your interpretations (i.e. thought was given) but will provide you with the best chance at getting the support to further your ideas and push you towards success with both the AP Exam and your future in academia.

Timed and Untimed Essays

Students will take both Timed and Untimed Essays as a way to provide them practice with the writing skills necessary to pass the AP Exam, as well as with the critical thinking and knowledge required of completing an academic paper. Through the act of writing these drafts, peer-editing, and revising, students will develop the skills necessary over time to ultimately succeed. Further, there will be two types of essays, cold-writes in which students respond to the prompt and process papers in which they respond to a prompt having been prepared through reading and analysis of an essay.

Analysis of (Peer and Published) Essays

In writing about the literature they will be analyzing, students will be reading literary responses from both their peers and published writers. In doing so, they will be analyzing effective writing and, then, integrating the craft into their own pieces. Students will focus on the use of diction (vocabulary), syntax (sentence structure), logical organization, details (both general and specific), and an effective tone and voice.

MATERIALS

In an attempt to save resources, we will be trying to limit paper-based work, however, it is still highly encouraged that you have the following materials:

•Black and/or Blue pen

•College-ruled lined paper

•Red pen

•Highlighter

•Post-It Notes

•Composition book (dedicated to this course)

•½ - inch binder (or section of larger binder) for handouts

•Headphones

•A Google Email

Google Docs/Drive set up

EXPECTATIONS

Because this room is more than just a class—it is a community––, we are ALL expected to uphold certain standards of behavior:

•PRODUCE QUALITY WORK

Your work reflects your character.

•RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENT

Listen to your Teacher, your Peers

•ENGAGE YOURSELF

Each moment is a learning experience if engaged.

•PROBLEM SOLVE

Be proactive—find solutions, not problems.

•Simon Technology Academy Policies and Guidelines ARE strictly in effect.

FAILURE TO COMPLY with these EXPECTATIONS will result in the following consequences:

•First offense

Verbal warning

•Second offense

One-on-one discussion with student

•Third offense

One-on-one discussion with student

Action plan (change of seat)

•Fourth offense

Student will complete Self-Evaluation

•Parent Signature

Student’s guardians will be contacted

•Fifth offense

Will be referred to administration

ABSENCE AND TARDY POLICY

The following policy will be strictly implemented in this class:

ABSENCE / TARDY
•You are expected to turn in any work that you missed during your absence.
Where do I get any missing work?
•You can find the tasks in the week’s DIGITAL AGENDA
You can get additional resources/materials from the teacher
•FAILURE TO TURN IN ANY MISSING WORK WILL RESULT IN POINT DEDUCTIONS FOR THOSE ASSIGNMENTS / •First offense
Verbal warning
•Second offense
Student will recover time during nutrition/lunch break and/or before/after school
•Third offense
Consequence for Second offense and
•Student’s guardians will be contacted
•Action plan will be created
•Fourth offense
Consequence for Third offense and
•Administration will be notified
GRADING SCALE
3.4-4.0 A
2.7-3.3 B
2.0-2.6 C
0-1.9 NP

GRADING

You will be assessed based on your mastery of the Common Core State Standards on a 1 – 4 scale. You will have multiple opportunities to demonstrate your mastery of the standards. To build and prove your mastery, you will be evaluated on the following:

Class Participation

•Effort

Formative Assessments

•DNAs, Homework, Classwork, Quizzes etc.

Summative Assessments

•Tests, Projects, Presentations, Essays, etc.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is both a violation of ethics and academic honesty. As such, it will not be tolerated. Any student who is caught plagiarizing will receive a 0 on that assignment. A student may only resubmit the assignment once the student removes all instances of plagiarism AND completes a reflection paper.

______

AP Literature Syllabus for 2015-2016 Agreement

Please read the syllabus, sign this slip, and have your student return this slip by Friday, August 7, 2015.

Student Name: ______Student Signature: ______Date: ______

Parent/Guardian Name: ______Parent/Guardian Signature: ______

1st Contact Number: ______2nd Contact Number: ______