And this grey spirit yearning in desire / To follow knowledge like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. - Lord Alfred Tennyson, "Ulysses"
The AP English Literature and Composition Course is designed to broaden the students understanding and appreciation for imaginative literature. We will subject our texts to close analysis in order to understand the "hows," and we will examine them broadly and comparatively in order to understand the "whys." Through close reading, journaling, analytical writing, and persuasive writing, you will work to uncover the meaning and beauty of great works of literature.
The course assignments will lead you through an intensive study of style, structure, literary artistry, as well as historical and social context of the works, with an end goal of your developing an informed, critical, individual interpretation of the work and its value within the literary canon. If you want to keep intact the mysteries of how a text works, or you think that going too deep into a text "ruins it," then this is decidedly NOT the course for you. This course will stretch your understanding and appreciation for the ways in which great literature informs and expands our human condition. This course will undoubtedly be demanding, but ultimately my goal is that you will find that your time and effort have been well spent.
Another goal of this course is to prepare you for the AP Literature Exam. This class should provide you with the tools needed to score a 4 or 5 on the exam in May, as well as prepare you for the college level literature courses you will be taking in the future.
The following four questions will focus our discussions in class for the upcoming year. There are no definitive answers, but we will do our best anyhow.
This course develops students' abilities to engage in active discussion of texts. The seminar format provides opportunity for students to lead class discussions, aiding them in their ability to articulate and defend their insights into the literature in both written and verbal form. Through a focus on style and structure, students are guided to develop their powers of close analysis in the classroom, in advance of their written expressions.
I will provide instruction and feedback on students' writing assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that helps the students develop these skills: a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively; a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination, coordination, and correlation; logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis; a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail; and an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure.
Please see Rubrics under the "Information" tab for a detailed explanation of grading.