Advanced Placement Literature Summer Requirements: 2015
We hope you have a restful summer! We have some information and assignments for you. If you have any questions, please let us know. Email: or .
This packet will prepare you for success in AP Literature. It includes:
I. Summer Assignment: page 2 (one novel and two essays are required)II. AP Lit Essay Essentials: page 3
III. The AP Literature Examination: page 4
IV. Literature Terminology (study these—they are assumed knowledge on day 1!)
· General Literature Terms: page 4+
· Literature Terms Specific to Drama (page 4+) and Poetry (page 6+)
1. Please visit apcentral.collegeboard.com in order to familiarize yourself with the AP Literature course and exam. You should explore the site thoroughly. Carefully examine the format and breakdown of the test. You should know how many multiple choice questions you will be required to answer and how many essays to write. Look at the tips and any sample questions.
2. Buy the 2015 or 2016 edition of our review book: The Princeton Review: Cracking the AP English Literature Exam. Order this right away and email us immediately if there is a problem. Review books will be collected during the first week of school and will count as a homework grade. Read the introduction and guide. Get VERY familiar with the literary terms and definitions provided! You will be quizzed on the lit terms and test format when you return to school in September. You shouldn’t complete any of the practice samples yet.
3. Collect and organize your notes and novel study guides from English 10. You are responsible for all literary terms and techniques (there are lists on the AP Lit Website—review them!). You will be quizzed on these terms when you return to school in September. Be sure to brush up on your poetry analysis.
4. Many of the authors we will study in this course have allusions to mythology and the Bible. Familiarize yourself with these works. You may already feel confident in your background in these areas, but if you don’t you may want to take a summer field trip to Barnes and Noble or Borders and browse their reference guides in these areas. You may make notes for yourself or purchase one of the guides. Also, if you are taking an English elective, Greek Mythology would be a wonderful choice – understanding myths will help you understand all literature.
5. You must have a three-ring binder, lined paper, a highlighter, black or blue pens and a two-pocket folder for this class.
6. One more RECOMMENDED purchase: A Sparkchart for Literary Terms. This handy guide fits in your three-ring binder and is available at Barnes and Noble as well as online. It is approximately five dollars and worth every penny! The ISBN number for the chart is 1-41140-0631.
There are Two Required Writing Assignments:
(NOTE: before writing your essays, review the Essay Essentials, page 3)
Essay #1: For this essay you must read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (be attentive to the questions in the novel’s study guide, which is posted on Ms. Diana’s website; the guide will surely help you on your way!). After you have read the novel with care, write your first essay IN PEN, following the task below. (Yes, this means you will have one draft of this essay, a handwritten draft, IN PEN. Bring it to our first class in September.)
TASK: A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Focus on one symbol in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the workand what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.Essay #2: The following poem is by Caribbean writer Derek Walcott. Read the poem with care, annotating your copy. (Mark it up! Underline significant words, lines, and phrases; write in the margins! Make it clear in your annotations that you understand the work!)
1. Then, writing by hand IN PEN, write an essay as directed by the task below.
2. After you have completed your first draft, take a bit of time away from your essay. Sleep on it. THEN reread your essay, editing where necessary, before typing a second draft. Make sure your second draft is in between 1 1/2 -2 typed pages, double-spaced (do not go over two typed pages). When you are incredibly happy with draft two, staple it on top of your handwritten draft—be prepared to hand in BOTH drafts on the first day of AP Lit. (Yes, this means you will have two drafts of this essay, a handwritten first draft and a typed, second draft.)
TASK: In the following poem by Caribbean writer Derek Walcott, “XIV” from Midsummer, the speaker recalls a childhood experience of visiting an elderly woman storyteller. Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-developed essay, discuss the speaker’s recollection and analyze how Walcott uses poetic devices to convey the significance of the experience.XIV
With the frenzy of an old snake shedding its skin,
the speckled road, scored with ruts, smelling of mold,
twisted on itself and reentered the forest
where the dasheen1 leaves thicken and folk stories begin.
Sunset would threaten us as we climbed closer 5
to her house up the asphalt hill road, whose yam vines
wrangled over gutters with the dark reek of moss,
the shutters closing like the eyelids of that mimosa2
called Ti-Marie; then—lucent as paper lanterns,
lamplight glowed through the ribs, house after house— 10
there was her own lamp at the black twist of the path.
There’s childhood, and there’s childhood’s aftermath.
She began to remember a the minute of the fireflies,
to the sound of pipe water banging in kerosene tins,
stories she told to my brother and myself. 15
Her leaves were the libraries of the Caribbean.
The luck that was ours, those fragrant origins!
Her head was magnificent, Sidone. In the gully of her voice
Shadows stood up and walked, her voice travels my shelves.
She was the lamplight in the stare of two mesmerized boys 20
Still joined in one shadow, indivisible twins.
1Dasheen: tropical plant with large leaves
2mimosa: Tropical plant whose leaves close or droop when touched or shaken
AP Lit: Essay Essentials—please check your essays for these issues:Titles:
· Have you created your own title, rather than using the title of the literary selection being analyzed? (Not all student essays have titles and this is an easy way to start off by emphasizing your thesis!)
· Have you punctuated titles correctly? (Remember that longer titles—novels, plays, etc.-- are underlined and shorter titles—essays, poetry, etc.—are in quotes.)
Intro:
· Does your opening paragraph specifically address the task and state the title of the passage? Does it mention 2-3 literary devices?
Body Paragraphs:
· Does each body paragraph contain a topic sentence that clearly addresses the task through literary devices? (Focus upon a literary device in your topic sentence—then support your claim in your body paragraph, citing specific evidence from the poem/novel/drama.)
Conclusion:
· A strong conclusion paragraph restates your thesis (through the use of different wording, of course; don’t merely repeat your intro in the same language) and summarizes your main points, tying your ideas together.
General / Overall:
· Most importantly, have you stayed on topic (does every sentence address the task)? Have you provided sufficient supporting information from the literary passage?
· Do you use literary devices—and have you used an adjective in before each literary device (when appropriate)?
For example, do not just say that a passage “uses diction.” “Diction” means “word choice,” so without an adjective before the word “diction” you have just stated that the passage uses words (and your reader will be thinking, “Duh!”). Specify what type of diction. Is the diction formal? Informative? Erudite? Colloquial? Repetitive? (So don’t just say “diction.” Or “imagery.” Or “tone.” Each literary device needs an adjective for support.)
· Have you quoted the literary passage? Have you embedded the supporting quotations into your text rather than using them as statements?
· Have you limited plot summary to supporting elements only?
· Have you avoided broad generalizations?
· Is your analysis written in the historical present tense?
· Have you eliminated all statements that offer praise or criticism of the literature or the author?
· In analyzing poetry, have you referred to the speaker rather than the author?
· Language: Be sure you use academic language. This means you have:
Ø Eliminated all contractions and informal language/slang
Ø Selected formal language and used specific details from the text to support your points. Remember that the best essays are unique—they sound like an individual voice, an intelligent individual voice. If your essay sounds dry and mechanical, even if you are making solid points and even if you remain focused on the task, your essay will not attain a high score.
Ø Varied syntax throughout. Syntax simply means “sentence structure.” Don’t have the same structure for each sentence, or even each paragraph. (For example, don’t begin three sentences in a row with the phrase “In the passage…” Again, even if you are making a good point, this is boring!)
Ø Refrained from saying “I think that,” “I feel that,” or “I believe that.” (“Kill the I” throughout.)
Ø Proofread your essay--is it grammatically correct throughout?
Ø Last—but surely not least—is your handwriting legible?
There are one hundred other things to add, but let’s keep this to one page. Bottom line? Read through your essays and examine the errors you are making (know yourself as a student—we each have things to learn!).
The AP Literature Exam:
1. Multiple-Choice: There are 55 MC questions on this section; these questions are based upon 4-5 poetry and prose passages provided.
2. The Essays: There are three essays on the exam:
ü Poetry: There will be one essay based upon a provided poetry passage (or sometimes it is a comparative between two poetry passages).
ü Prose: There will be one essay based upon a provided prose passage.
ü Open: There will be one essay in which you will need to analyze a work of literature that you select, based upon a specific idea. Some of the common Open Essay topics have been:
· Discuss the function of a character who serves as the main character’s sympathetic listener or confidant.
· Discuss a scene or character that provokes “thoughtful laughter.”
· Discuss a novel or play in which much of the “action” occurs internally, within the consciousness of a character or characters in the work.
· Discuss the use of contrasting settings in a novel or play.
General Literary Terms (Literary Terms Specific to Poetry Follow…)NOTE: this is by no means an exhaustive list of literary terminology (these are just the ones you are expected to know on day one); please the AP Lit website for the full listing!
· ACTIVE SETTING: a setting that impacts the story (as opposed to a PASSIVE SETTING, a story that could occur just about anywhere).
· ALLUSION: reference to a historical/literal person, event, or place, used to heighten the significance of a poetic image or a prose passage.
· ANAGNORISIS: the moment in which a person/character’s true identity/personality is revealed.
· ANTAGONIST: a person who fights, struggles, or contends against another; an adversary; an opponent; a person who opposes a main character in a play, story, or novel.
· ANTITHESIS: a strong contrast between two ideas; the direct opposite.
· BILDUNGSROMAN: fiction that describes the youthful development of a central character (a “coming of age” story that involves a character’s initiation / education).
· CHARACTERS: the folks we meet in literature (remember that these characters may be quite different, internally vs. externally—and you may want to specify this distinction in your writing).
Ø ROUND VS. FLAT: round characters are fully developed; flat characters are not.
Ø DYNAMIC VS. STATIC: a “dynamic character” in a literary work goes through changes or learns things as the story progresses; a “static character” stays the same throughout the work.
· CONFLICT: A conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. There are two main kinds of conflict in stories: INTERNAL (within a character’s mind) and EXTERNAL (between a character and an outside force).
· DIALOGUE: talking between two characters, or conversation.
· DRAMA: a composition written in poetry or prose in which a story is told by means of dialogue and action.
DRAMATIC TERMS (these terms, in general, are specific to dramatic works):ü ASIDE: when a character speaks directly to the audience with other characters on the stage (which is different from a soliloquy, when a character speaks his inner thoughts while alone on the stage).
ü BLANK VERSE: unrhymed iambic pentameter (IAMBIC: an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable; PENTAMETER: verse with five feet—of two syllables each—in a line); blank verse was the standard verse for Elizabethan theater. (IAMBIC PENTAMETER: a line of five metrical feet (ten syllables) in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.) For example, “To be, or not to be, that is the question”
ü CATHARSIS: a purging of emotions; the purification or “draining off” of repressed/dangerous feelings.
ü DRAMATIC FOIL: a character who exposes opposing traits in another character (for example, Prince Hamlet, who delays his response to his father’s murder, is a foil for Laertes, who has an immediate response to the murder of his father, Polonius).
ü EXEUNT: plural for “exit.”
ü HAMARTIA: the frailty / error of a tragic hero that brings about his peripedy, his reversal of fortune, his fall.
ü HUBRIS: excessive pride or self-confidence, a type of hamartia
ü PERIPEDY: the sudden reversal of fortune of a tragic hero; when the tragic hero moves from happiness to misery (from fortune to misfortune)
ü SOLILOQUY: when a character, alone on the stage, speaks directly to the audience
ü TRAGIC HERO: a person of stature who is neither villainous nor exceptionally virtuous who moves from happiness to misery (this sudden reversal of fortune is called peripedy).
ü ASIDE: when a character speaks directly to the audience with other characters on the stage (which is different from a soliloquy, when a character speaks his inner thoughts while alone on the stage).
ü BLANK VERSE: unrhymed iambic pentameter (IAMBIC: an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable; PENTAMETER: verse with five feet—of two syllables each—in a line); blank verse was the standard verse for Elizabethan theater. (IAMBIC PENTAMETER: a line of five metrical feet (ten syllables) in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.) For example, “To be, or not to be, that is the question”
ü CATHARSIS: a purging of emotions; the purification or “draining off” of repressed/dangerous feelings.
ü DRAMATIC FOIL: a character who exposes opposing traits in another character (for example, Prince Hamlet, who delays his response to his father’s murder, is a foil for Laertes, who has an immediate response to the murder of his father, Polonius).
ü EXEUNT: plural for “exit.”
ü HAMARTIA: the frailty / error of a tragic hero that brings about his peripedy, his reversal of fortune, his fall.
ü HUBRIS: excessive pride or self-confidence, a type of hamartia
ü PERIPEDY: the sudden reversal of fortune of a tragic hero; when the tragic hero moves from happiness to misery (from fortune to misfortune)
ü SOLILOQUY: when a character, alone on the stage, speaks directly to the audience
ü TRAGIC HERO: a person of stature who is neither villainous nor exceptionally virtuous who moves from happiness to misery (this sudden reversal of fortune is called peripedy).
· EPIPHANY: A moment of sudden intuitive understanding; a flash of insight; a scene, experience, etc. that occasions such a moment.