Metro High School
Wilfred Moore, principal
4015 McPherson Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63108
367-5210
James Economon
ADVANCED PLACEMENT IN LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 1 & 2
Philosophy
The St. Louis Public School system recognizes that schools should foster the greatest possible growth and development of the mental, physical, and personal aspects of the students so that they may function in society. We believe that the students need a structured, sequential development of the skills which maximizes their ability to listen, speak, read, write, observe, and think critically. These skills are highly interrelated, mutually enforcing and reinforcing, and essential to effective communication. Language is the fundamental means by which thoughts, ideas, feelings, and emotions are conveyed. Therefore, a variety of planned instructional strategies will be used stressing teacher-student interaction so that the student will learn to organize and express thoughts through speaking and writing, and writing, and will receive, reflect upon, and evaluate the thoughts of others through reading and listening. Students must be given the means of enjoying and appreciating literature that fosters an understanding of life.
Focus
In an AP course in English Language and Composition, students are engaged in the careful reading of literary works. Through such study, they sharpen their awareness of language and their understanding of the writer’s craft. They develop critical standards for the independent appreciation of any literary work, and they increase their sensitivity to literature as a shared experience. To achieve these goals, students study the individual works: their language, characters, meanings, action, and themes. They consider its structure, value, and its relationship to contemporary experience as well as to the times in which it was written.
Students will study intensively representative works from various genres and periods. They will concentrate on works of recognized literary merit, worthy of scrutiny because of their richness of thought and language, chosen to challenge the students. Both their reading and writing will make them aware of the interaction between authorial purpose, audience needs, the subject itself, generic conventions, and the resources of language: syntax, and writing will make them aware of the interaction among authorial purpose, audience needs, the subject matter, generic conventions, and the resources of language: syntax, word choice and tone.
In this course, students are involved not only in the study of literature, but also the study and practice of writing. They will learn to identify and use various modes of discourse, and to recognize the assumptions underlying various rhetorical strategies. Through speaking, listening, and reading, but chiefly through their own writing, students should become more aware of the resources of language.
The writing assignments will focus upon the critical analysis of literature and include essays in exposition and argument. Although most of the writing in this course will be about literature, discussion and writing about different kinds of subjects that should further develop the student’s sense of how style, subject, and audience are related. A desired goal then is the honest and effective use of language and the organization of ideas in a clear, coherent, and persuasive way.
Another feature of the course is the analysis of stylistic effects created by varied syntactical choices, by different levels of diction and by assorted literary techniques. This will be accomplished by regular evaluation, discussion, and composition based upon examples taken from professional writers.
AP/IB English is both demanding and intellectually stimulating. It requires the student’s best effort consistently and emphasizes developing the independence of though and maturity to think and write critically in preparation for the advanced placement exam and IB requirements and evaluations. To accomplish this active class participation and discussion are vital. This experience is invaluable for testing students’ ideas and interpretation of what they have read. While earlier in their studeies of literature, teachers often told students the meanings of stories and poems. This practive no doubt has vale since there is information that needs to be explained about historical periods, schools and thought, and certain authors and their works. Now, the student muse exercize confidence, as well as formulate and defend meanings they have gleaned upon their own.
Finally, the students will evaluated based upon their effective readings and class discussions.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
(Keyed to Missouri Show Me standards)
The students will learn how to approach multiple-choice questions and free response questions typically employed on the AP exam through previously used AP questions.
Goal 1(1,2,5,6,7,8) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal 3 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,6,8) ; Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
The students learn to discover meaning in literature by being attentive to language, image, character, action, argument, and other techniques and strategies authors employ to evoke responses in readers. Goal 1 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8) Goal (1, 2, 3, 4) Goal (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,5,6) ; Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
The student learns to formulate and justify literary interpretations by close reading and references to details and patterns discovered in literary selections. Goal 1 (1,2,3,4) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal 3 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,5,6,8) ; Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
The students learn to compare and modify their interpretations with those proposed by other classmates and published literary scholars. Goal 1 (1,2,5,6,7,8) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,5,6,8) ; Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
The students will review various forms of genres, structures, and forms of prose, poetry, and drama they may encounter upon the AP exam. Goal 1 (1,2,5,6,7,8) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal 3 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,6,8) ; Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
The students will learn to recognize prominent characteristics of various author’s literary styles. Goal 1 (1,2,5,6,7,8) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal 3 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,5,6,8) ; “Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
The students will learn to select and arrange information and ideas in writing effectively for given purposes and modes of discourse. Goal 1 ( 1,2,5,6,7,8) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,5,6,8)
The students will learn to shape language in a variety of rhetorical patterns so that sentence structure, diction, and literary techniques serve purpose, mode, and audience. Goal 1 (1,2,5,6,7,8) Goal 2 (1,2,3,4) Goal 3 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Goal 4 (1,4,5,6,8) ; Communication Arts (1,2,3,4,6)
Students should recognize, understand, and apply to their reading these literary terms:
Alliteration
Allusion
Analogy
Anastrophe
Apostrophe
Assonance
Blank verse
Characterization
Conceit
Connotation/Denotation
Dialect
Dramatic monologue
Elegy
Epigram
Figurative language
Foreshadowing
Heroic couplet
Hyperbole
Imagery
Inference
Irony
Lyric
Metaphor
Metonymy
Mood
Onomatopoeia
Paradox
Pastoral
Personification
Plot
Point of view
Rhyme
Rhythm
Satire
Setting
Simile
Sonnet
Sterotype
Style
Symbol
Synecdoche
Theme
Tone
Students should understand and be able to employ the following reading skills:
Perceive cause and effect
Recognize comparison and contrast
Draw conclusions/make generalizations
Distinguish between fact and opinion
Use various reference material
Identify main ideas and supporting details
Predict outcomes
Recognize propaganda and faulty reasoning
Identify author’s purpose
Summarize
Make inferences
Link literature and cultural values
Distinguish similarities and differences in literary genres
Students should be able to recognize, understand, and make use of the following vocabulary skills:
Affixes
Analogies
Context
Dictionary
Sentence completions
Etymologies
Pronunciation key
Roots
Thesaurus
Meaning in context
Students will be able to understand and practice the following thinking skills:
Classifying
Evaluating
Generalizing
Synthesizing
Students should be able to demonstrate these speaking and listening skills:
Compose orally
Orally
Participate in discussion
Engage in debate
Interpret a selection read
Individually or participate
In group oral interpretations
Students should be able to demonstrate these writing skills and techniques:
Writing narrative,
Comparison/contrast
Explanatory, cause
And effect, and
Persuasion
Supporting ideas
Paraphrasing
Using evidence effectively
Writing about drama
Write about plot or plot devices
Write about characters
Write about character
A.P.A and M.L.A. style
Writing a research paper
The writing process
Writing a personal narrative
Writing about setting
Writing about point of view
Writing about theme
Writing about an author’s
Style
Writing about mood or tone
Writing about symbolism
Writing about poetry/short fiction
Syllabus
Higher Level Divided into Four Compulsive Parts
Part 1 (First Semester Junior Year)
*Three World Literature Works Studied as a Group as required by IB Programme
*Anitgone by Sophocles
Antigone by Jean Anouile
Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot
From the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
“The Wife of Bath’s Prolouge and Tale”
Galileo by Bertold Brecht
Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
*Hebba Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
*Miss Julie by August Strindberg
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Lesson” and “Girl” by Toni Cade Bambara
“Eveline” and “Araby” by James Joyce
“Patterns” by Amy Lowell
“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath
“Pawnbroker” by Maxine Kumin
“How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Assorted Essays by James Baldwin’s Notes on a Native Son, Stephen Jay Gould’s “Women’s Brains,” Maxine Hong Kingston’s “ No Name Woman,” Nancy Mair’s On Being a Cripple”, Deborah Tannen’s “ There is no Unmarked Woman “and Virginia Wolf
These are related by their focus on female protagonists, family, self-relization, love/alienation, marriage, and emancipation.
Part 4 (2nd Semester Junior Year)
*Two Language Al Works and One World Literature Work Studied as a Group
M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
*The Shadow and the Act by Ralph Ellison
The Things They Carried by Tim Obrien
*Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Assorted Essays by Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, Jonathon Swift, Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Joan Didion, and Zora Neal Hurston
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
“Shooting and Elephant” by George Orwell
These selections are related by their focus on conscious, identity, liberation
Part 2 (1st Semester Senior Year)
*Four Language Al Works Chosen from Different Genres or Two Selections from Shakespeare and One Selection from Another Genre
*King Lear by William Shakespeare
*Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Beloved by Toni Morrison
*Selected Poetry by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Blake, and John Donne
Part 3 (2nd Semester Senior Year)
*Two Language Al Works and One World Literature Studied as a Group; All Chosen from the Same Genre
*A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
*Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard
*Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
These selections are related by their focus upon Genre and the themes of modernity and tradition, power, relationships, family, and desire.
AP/IB Assessment
As prescribed by the IB Programme, 70% of the students’ assessment will be measured by two written papers. These papers wil be set and evaluated by the IB Programme and administered on the dates consistent with IB deadlines and regulations.
Written Paper Component (50%)
Paper One (essay exam) 25%
Two Hours
Written commentary on a poem or a prose extract to which the techniques of literary analysis can be applied. The students may choose from the two texts for one written commentary.
Paper Two (essay exam) 25%
Two essay questions on the genre offered in Part Three and if relevant. A Part 2 work of the same genre (drama) and four questions. Only one question will be answered by the candidate.
World Literature Assignments (20%)
Two papers (1000-1500 words) written independently by the student, under the supervision of the instructor, during the program and assessed externally.
AP/IB Assignment 1 Comparative study of at lease two Part 1 Selections (10%) Antigone by Sophocles, Hedda Gabler, and Miss Julie
Rough copy due 2nd Semester junior year
IB (only) Assignment 2 Candidates will choose from 3 options
Rough copy due 1st Semester senior year
Choice 1 (2a)
Comparative study based on one world Literature work and one Language Al work, chosen from any part of the syllabus focusing on some link between selections (10%)
o Each student might select at least two or more literary works by different authors for the assignment. The aspects selected must focus on some pertinent link between the two or three works used for the paper. Students may choose any of the literary aspects or social and cultural aspects that the works have in common whether in comparison and/or contrast. (1500 words)
o The student might select two translations that allow the student to compare or contrast how the two translators’ capture of the spirit, style, meaning of the original. Discuss how the translators; interpretation create a unique perspective. Pay particular attention to the ways in which the diction, and word order help to create the tone in each of the selections. (1500 words not including the passages)
Choice 2 (2b)
Imaginative or creative piece of writing based upon one World Literature work or a combination of a World Literature work and a Literature A1 work Chosen from any part of the syllabus. This assignment should allow the student to apply principles or techniques of literary criticism in an insightful and imaginative way. This assessment must include a statement of intent preceding the actual text which will include a statement of identification (no more than 500 words) of the focus of the work, the nature of the project and its audience, the form, the targeted aspects of the presentation, and how these aspects will be explored.
The length of the statement will depend on the nature of the piece attempted and should, normally, not exceed 500 words. However, where the assignment takes the form of a single piece of writing, such as a short poem, the statement may be longer than the body of the assignment and longer than 500 words. For a postscript, extra chapter, additional scene, or pastiche, the paper may include an annotated version of the student version. Whatever the length of the assignment itself, the total word count must be between 1200 and 1500 words.
There are many possibilities for creative approaches to this assignment which, while giving the students an opportunity to exercise ingenuity and imagination, bring them to a deeper understanding of the work(s) being explore and to an increased appreciation of the writer.
o The diary of a character accompanied by critical comment by the student
o A director’s letter to an actor playing a particular role or scene
o An exercise in which the student turns the story or a portion of it into another form such as dramatic monologue, biblical parable, folktale or myth