Advanced Placement Literature and composition
Potential O.A.A. members,
Congratulations for participating in the 2017-2018 Advanced Placement Literature and Composition courses. A.P. Literature is a demanding course which requires students to engage in the critical and close reading of literature. Students will not be focusing onwhatthe author is saying; rather, we will analyzehowthe author uses language to produce meaning. Over the course of the school year we will explore a diversity of genres and literary time periods from the sixteenth century Renaissance through the postmodern period of today.
A.P. Literature and Composition is a year-long commitment with the course’s purpose aligning with A.P. testing in May. My philosophy is that all students will be prepared and expected to take the A.P. exam. Though reading is the basis of our curriculum, students will also be responsible for several writing assignments including analytical, expository, and literary criticism essays, as well as A.P. free response questions including the style analysis essay, poetry analysis essay, and novel response.
The structure of our class will be completely student-centered and based on the assigned readings and core texts. The number one way to succeed in this class is to be prepared by reading everything on time and with care, as well as by participating in our literature based class discussions. You are expected to read at home.Students in A.P. must learn to think independently, as well as challenge the ideas of their peers in a respectful manner. Keep in mind, there is always a possibility for unannounced quizzes or in-class writing assignments.
My hope is that by the end of two semesters, we will complete the following works (note that due to time constraints and class dynamics, the literature is subject to change):
Invisible ManCrime and PunishmentInfernoMacbeth
HamletThe TempestBrave New WorldThe Glass Menagerie
A Doll’s HouseFencesCatch-22Heart of Darkness
AwakeningThings Fall ApartCeremonyWaiting for Godot
Independent PlayIndependent Novel
I have great expectations for the upcoming year. This class will be a holistic journey into literature and writing. The work will be hard, but the journey is well worth it to prepare you for the strenuous nature of college.
Please view the back page for your
summer reading assignments.
SUMMER ASSIGNMENT
Your summer task will be to read two novels, completing a data sheet for each work. You will then compose essays about both texts. The novels are:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translation by Constance Garnett
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Assignment 1:
Complete a data sheet for each summer novel. Data sheets are located on my GCHS webpage under assignments. Alternatively, you can email me to receive the document. Data sheet answers must be written by hand on the printouts. There will be a 20-point deduction if it is typed.
Assignment 2:
Students will write essays for Crime and Punishment and Invisible Man using the prompts below. These essays should be typed in MLA format (see OwlPurdue MLA Citation online) and should be 600-800 words. You are expected to use quotations and cite the novel; therefore, you should have an MLA Works Cited page.
Prompt 1 – Crime and Punishment: According to critic Northrop Frye, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Examine how Dostoyevsky utilizes a tragic figure to function as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of Crime and Punishment as a whole.
Prompt 2 – Invisible Man:Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Using Invisible Man’s unnamed narrator, show how that character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions or moral values.
These novels will be an introduction to the course. We will immediately be using these texts to begin studying and analyzing literature. The data sheets and essays are due on the first day of class; data sheets are test grades and the essays are essay grades. There is no exemption to this policy, and failure to turn in your data sheets and essays that day will result in a zero. Please make sure you properly cite any articles or sites that you use for authorial background and time period.
Both novels are readily available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or you can purchase a used copy at McKay’s in Chattanooga. Thrift stores may also have them in stock.Please ensure that you select the correct translations and correct novels; do not purchase THE Invisible Man by H.G. Wells.
If you have any questions during the summer, please feel free to email me at .
In addition, I will hold two summer work sessions at the GC Media Center. These will be on June 27 and July 18, 2017 from 4-6 p.m.