Syllabus for AP English (literature)

English Literature and Composition Course Syllabus 2014-2015

Mr. Vilbig—Midwood High School

Areas of Focus

New York State Common Core ELA Standards

This course will align with the New York State Common Core Standards, which detail skills you’ll be expected to master as preparation for college. We will focus on the following:


Reading Standards for Literature

1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

3. 
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)



Writing Standards

1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Explore and inquire into areas of interest to formulate an argument.

a. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.


Speaking and Listening Standards

1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Language Standards

1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.


5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.


6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Course Introduction

Advanced Placement English is an annual class taught to only the best English students in lieu of another senior English class. In both degree of difficulty and in quantity of material read, the course will be among the most challenging you’ve experienced at Midwood. Students taking the course will be expected to interpret the nuances of language in order to achieve comprehension, to learn to see how symbol, metaphor, tone, setting, and point of view create meaning. In this class, the focus will be on how language creates meaning, and students will be asked to think about that meaning in more complex ways.

Advanced Placement English is challenging and rewarding. Students taking the course should not be primarily interested in achieving college placement or credit (although this may happen for some of them), but instead in the rewards of careful and rigorous study to produce the skills needed to develop a widened background and a deepened sense of the value and purposes of literature and how it applies to our lives. For you information, the AP Literature and Composition Exam will take place on Wednesday, May 6, at 8 a.m.


The class demands literate writing ability. Students write several timed essays in class and several multi-page papers at home. These formal responses include analytical papers addressing: 1) how writers employ language to achieve effects in their works; 2) the social, cultural, or historical ramifications of the works. Argumentative essays that focus on the particular elements of artistry and style writers employ to create a work’s aesthetic merit will also be assigned. In addition, students will write more informal assignments, including personal responses and reader’s notebook entries. At-home papers and responses will undergo a workshop process, in which early drafts are evaluated and receive feedback from small student groups and from me, and final papers are reviewed and rewritten based on my comments. Your workshop group will review your rewrite, where you’ll again receive feedback from me and your group. All formal written work will be assessed for complexity of thought and for correctness and complexity of language. This class will include specific lessons focused on the use of effective rhetoric, the development of each writer’s unique voice, the establishment of appropriate tone, and a growing awareness of and capacity to employ differing tones based on the purpose of a piece of writing and its intended audience. By the end of the school year your own diction, syntax, sentence complexity, and awareness of tone should be considerably improved.

As minimum requirements for entering the class, students must love to read and do it as a leisure activity, in addition to reading what is assigned them for school.
Students who have not previously read The Scarlet Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and a major work of Dickens will be instructed to read them during the summer before they begin taking the class. These seminal works of literature are basic background material.

This course is designed to comply with the curricular requirements described in the most recent AP English Course Description.

With each work we study, students will note the unique diction and syntax of the author and be asked to write informal assignments making use of new vocabulary and sharing their insights about diction and syntax in their readers’ notebooks.

Although reading assignments may vary from year to year, the selections for the calendar year 2013-2014 follow, as an indication of the extent and difficulty of the course:

Hamlet (purchased as will be another Shakespeare play to be announced)

Several of the books in the Old and New Testament with related poetry and short fiction

The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner (purchased)

Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky

The Secret Sharer, Conrad

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier

Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison

The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

Heart of Darkness, Conrad

The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan

Poetry throughout the school year.

In addition, students will use as reference books Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing (6th edition) and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.

Every student will keep a reader’s notebook. Every nightly reading assignment will be followed by specific homework questions to be handed in twice weekly and an informal reader’s reaction recorded in the notebook. Students will note intellectual and emotional reactions to developments in plot, theme, and authors’ use of language, including selected new vocabulary words and uses. I’ll review these notebooks twice a month and will comment on students’ notebook observations. In addition students have the following required tasks:

Regular quizzes on advanced literary terms and their application to poetry and prose

Timed essays using AP style questions

Revisions of graded essays to provide a chance to reframe ideas and improve technical skills, including improving writing vocabulary

Personal Response essays (a more informal opportunity for self-expression)

Persuasive essays (intended to spark debate; students will learn the rhetorical strategy of “procatalepsis” whereby the writer raises and answers potential objections to his own argument, thereby strengthening his position against attack).

Creative Writing (modeling sonnets, villanelles, concrete poetry etc.; writing a parody of a selected author’s style, and /or a prose modeling Faulkner’s stream of consciousness).

Grading and Homework Policy

Grades will be based on the following:

Tests, essays:  70 percent

Classwork, quizzes, homework, participation:  30 percent

Total: 100 percent


IMPORTANT: 


Grades are cumulative. That means the grades you make now count as much as the grades later in the semester. So it's important to work hard from the very beginning and not dig yourself into a hole in the first weeks of our class. We will use Skedula, an online grading system in this class. You’ll have your own account, where I’ll post grades. Your parents or guardians should be given access to your account.

Dropping of low scores. Because at-home essays are a key element of this class, absolutely no essay grades will be dropped ever. No exceptions. One low test score may be dropped during the course of the year at my discretion. A low classwork grade will be dropped each semester.

Late homework: Late homework must be turned in during the week in which it is assigned. After that, the assignment will be recorded as a 0.

Extra credit. There will be none.

Absent? What must you do? It is the student’s responsibility to make up work. If you’re absent, you must find out from a fellow student what work was done in class or for homework and get the work to me the following day.

Absent from a test? Do not be absent on test days. If you can provide a signed and credible note from a medical professional or family member, it will be your responsibility to speak with me about a make-up. More than one missed test day will result in a note to guidance and possibly a parental conference. Your absences on test days will be noted on your report card.

Attendance: You’re expected to be in class every day. Absent notes are required in every case if you are absent due to illness or family necessity.

Electronic devices:

Keep them in your pockets or bags. No use of electronic devices.

Honor Policy—Cheating and Plagiarism:

If you do the work of this class on your own, you’ll develop skills that will serve you well for the rest of your life. If you cheat, you’ll get no such benefits, and you’ll receive a 0 on the work in question. Your parents/guardian will be informed of your actions. THIS IS MY CHEATING POLICY AND HOLDS FOR A FIRST TIME VIOLATION. In addition, Midwood has a series of consequences for cheating that you should be aware of, which will occur in addition to my own response noted above. Cheating will expose you to the Midwood consequences too. By cheating you'll also violate my trust in you, and you’ll lose my respect.

Plagiarism: This is a particular form of cheating that requires a special note due to its ubiquity. When you take other people’s work and hold it out to be your own (whether another student’s work or something taken from the Internet), you are engaging in theft. Plagiarism won’t be tolerated. Plagiarism will result in a 0 on the work in question. The consequences enumerated in the Midwood plagiarism code will also be enforced.

Class Communications and Contacting Mr. Vilbig:

The best way to contact me is through Skedula, the online grading system we'll be using this semester. I can be reached by phone at: 718 724-8560.

Class Schedule

Unit 1- Introduction to course based on close readings of several poems: Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and Shakespeare, Sonnets 20, 73, and 116. This week introduces and expands on the following terms: denotation, connotation, meter, rhyme scheme, assonance, consonance, alliteration, sibilance, metaphor, allusion, synecdoche, metonymy. Students will study the poets’ words carefully to unlock the layers of connotative meaning and discover the relationship between the poems’ forms and their meanings. (September 4-9)

Unit 2 - Hamlet (Folger’s edition). The play is approached from several levels: as representative of the five-act form of Shakespearian tragedy; as a dramatic staging of several themes: thought vs. action, the nature of family responsibility, doubling (dramatic foils), revenge, incest; and as a masterpiece of metaphoric language. Besides examining moments in which the text produces clear meanings, we will also carefully analyze those sections where meanings are in dispute or are open to multiple interpretations, and we will look at how variants in language among our sources for the plays potentially change meaning (and lead to intense controversies). In addition, we will begin a discussion in this unit about what constitutes artistic merit and quality. Why is Hamlet regarded as a masterpiece? The concept of the literary canon will be introduced. (September 10-October 3)
Prior to the assignment of the first paper, several lessons on writing correct and complex expository English will be given. Among the topics covered will be writing the introductory sentence and paragraph, with stress placed on creating a complex sentence that simultaneously introduces the main concerns of the paper and includes specifics. Students will be divided into four-person workshops to mutually aid one another in building complex sentences from notes based on specific questions about metaphoric language.

On the last day of the play’s reading, the class studies Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech, contrasting Macbeth’s musings on life and death with Hamlet’s. (three weeks)
Assignments/Tests

In-class writing or homework assignments will ask students to discover and fully explicate three uses of metaphoric language in the scene or scenes that will be read the following day. In September, students will produce their college office autobiography and take a timed in-class essay test on summer reading. In addition, the first formal paper of the semester will be assigned and collected.

College Office Autobiography due: September 15.

Summer Reading in-class test: September 19

Advanced Placement English Essay on a play by Shakespeare selected from a list provided by me will be due at the same time as the reading of Hamlet in class ends.  (Rough draft due September 29; Final draft due October 6)

Essay Assignment: While we are reading Hamlet, you will select another Shakespeare play from the list below. You are to read it and make careful notes of Shakespeare’s use of language to create meaning, being particularly observant about the use of metaphor. As you take notes, try to observe if there is a pattern to the metaphoric devices used. If you were reading Romeo and Juliet, for example, you would certainly notice the celestial comparisons to sun, moon, and stars, which are rampant throughout the play.

You should write a paper of at least six pages in Times New Roman, font size 12 (which should be standard for all papers in this class), discussing how language is used to create meaning. Double space this, as you will all of your papers, so there is room for me to write comments. Do not write a plot summary and if you touch on theme, do so only as part of a discussion about how language helps develop theme. Annotate quotes with act, scene, and line numbers (e.g. I: iii, 3-10). Try to group your selections by type of metaphor.

You will not be able to be exhaustive, because to do so would mean writing a book. Select important examples of language use and be careful to explain how the metaphors work. Where literary devices involving the sounds of words enhance meaning (e.g. “the master mistress of my passion”), try to note these as well.

You must rely on your own brain to do this work. Your only source should be the play. Do not read critics, study guides or use the resources on the Internet. If you do, you will get a 0.
Write well. Make use of the no-no list to correct errors.

You may select from the following plays: King Lear, Othello, Richard III, A Midsummer Night ‘s Dream, Henry IV Part I, Macbeth. If you wish to choose another play, consult with me to obtain permission.

If you have previously read one of these plays, chose another one! Use this opportunity to broaden your knowledge.

Remember: Where are the words? How do they work? What do they mean?

By the rough draft due date, students should have wrestled with these questions and have produced a serviceable paper. As for all major at-home writing assignments, you will receive feedback from me and members of your workshop group. You are expected to make changes in your draft that reflect these comments and transform your paper from a serviceable one to one that is striking.

When the paper is returned, students will rewrite based on extensive comments made by me. This rewrite will again be reviewed in your workshop group and include feedback from me. This is true of all of the papers described below. My own comments will include discussion of the acuity of the students’ literary findings, as well as nuts and bolts issues such as consistency of verb tense, proper sentence structure, proper punctuation, and more precise vocabulary.

As a transition to Unit 3, we do a close reading of three of John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, contrasting Donne’s use of sonnet form with Shakespeare’s.

Unit 3 - Selections from Genesis, Exodus 1-21; Leviticus 19; 2 Samuel 11 & 12; Isaiah 1-5, 42, 58; Ezekial 17-18; all of Mathew; John, 11. This study concentrates on the myriad symbols emerging from the bible. Students are asked with each reading assignment to note symbols (for example: number symbolism, water symbolism, phallic symbolism) as well as to study the document as a reflection of an ancient, oral tradition. We will see the interconnectedness between Old and New Testament traditions, which is why we read selections from the prophets before reading Mathew. We will understand the parables as a form of allegory. We deliberately read the King James edition because of its enormous influence on the writers of much of English literature, while noting that newer translations may be more faithful to the original Hebrew and Greek.

In several cases we will compare earlier and later translations and focus on controversies or debates involving translation and interpretation of texts. Societal issues such as nation building, incest, sexual inequality, righteousness, and the importance of family and clan are discussed. In addition we’ll read excerpts from Mìlton’s Paradise Lost and two short stories, Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues.” Each of those stories is studied in relationship to biblical themes and for the complexity of its own language. (October 6-October 24)

Assignments/Tests

Students will take the Advanced Placement English Bible Test (October 17), and write an essay on “Rappaccini’s Daughter” or “Sonny’s Blues.” (Rough draft due October 31; final draft due November 3.) There will also be in-class or at-home short responses assigned that will concentrate on understanding key symbols. The following is an example:

PSALM 23

A Psalm of David

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Above is the most famous of all the Psalms. Discuss the relevance of at least two of its central images and its message to the lives of each of the following biblical figures: Adam, Noah, Joseph (of Genesis), Moses, and Jesus. Please be aware that this does not mean the Psalm was written about these figures. It means that one can apply its message to them.
Advanced Placement English Essay example: “Rappaccini’s Daughter”: (Rough draft due October 31; Final Draft due November 3)

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” is among many other things Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling of the Garden of Eden story from Genesis. How are symbolism and detail used by Hawthorne to strengthen the connection between the stories? How else is language used to connote deeper meaning? You should locate several examples of how Hawthorne uses language to create theme. This is typical of an AP exam’s emphasis on syntax and diction. The more subtly you are able to identify the usage of language, the better your own grade will be. REMEMBER: DO NOT REPEAT THE CLASSROOM DISCUSSION.

This is not the Shakespeare play paper. It is not enough to locate and translate metaphors. You must show how the words you select are important in creating meaning—how they link the story to Genesis or how they develop character or theme.

There are many papers on “Rappaccini’s Daughter” on the Internet. Be aware that your work will be checked against these and other sources. A friendly reminder: use your own brain only in writing these papers.

As always I am interested in your own syntax and diction. Write carefully and make sure you abide by the strictures of the no-no list! As always the papers should be double-spaced in Times New Roman, font size 12. The papers should be at least six pages long.

As we conclude this unit, we spend several days on Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry, moving from the religiously motivated poems to those that deal with social issues, particularly those that involve race and class. This prepares us for:

Unit 4 - Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury. We begin with a two-day discussion of “A Rose for Emily.” The discussion introduces Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha Saga and its attendant social concerns. We discuss the importance of understanding the difference between the narrative voice and the author’s own viewpoint, and we stress several examples of metaphoric and symbolic language in the story.

During the reading of the novel, particularly during the confusing opening two sections, students are asked to recognize time changes in the narratives and to focus on how each boy’s diction illustrates his obsessive concerns and illuminates character traits of the other people in the story. (November 3-December 1)

Assignments/Tests

Students are evaluated with two written documents: a timed in-class essay and a long paper.
Advanced Placement Literature Timed In-Class Essay, The Sound and the Fury (November 14)

An example of the kind of question you could expect: Is The Sound and the Fury a “masterpiece of Oedipal ambivalences” or a “monument to the south’s social concerns”? (Harold Bloom) Choose one of the above thematic interpretations and support it with specific references to the first two sections of the novel and to the relationships of each of the three brothers to Caddy. How do the first two narrative styles of the novel contribute to the thematic interpretation you have chosen? Avoid plot summary.

Advanced Placement English Essay, The Sound and the Fury (Rough Draft due November 26; Final Draft due December 1)

Example: The Benjamin, Quentin, and Jason sections of The Sound and the Fury pose obstacles to understanding for even the careful reader. Each narrator has special problems which prevent clear communication, and each narrator is “speaking to us” through the twentieth century stream of consciousness approach. Despite these obstacles, we become aware of each narrator’s concerns.
Citing examples from the text not discussed in class and analyzing the particular diction of each of the Compson boys, answer the following questions: What problems do the brothers share, and which ones are unique to each? To what extent are their problems influenced by their particular cultural heritage and their personal experiences in the family?

How does the particular diction of each narrator shed light on his character and his conflicts? Again, choose illustrations we did not examine in class.

Remember: As always in this class, what are the words? How are they used? What do they mean literally and metaphorically and how do they connect with text’s larger commentary about life?
How has Faulkner`s use of stream of consciousness contributed to our understanding of Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and their complex family relations?

Finally, as part of your discussion of stream of consciousness, in your view how effective is Faulkner’s employment of the stream of consciousness as an artistic technique? Does it enhance the work’s artistic power? How? (Hint: How does it contribute to our understanding of Benjy, Quentin, and Jason, and their complex family relations?) In your view, what role did Faulkner’s use of the stream of consciousness technique play in the novel’s inclusion in the literary canon?

Avoid plot summary.

Unit 5 - Crime and Punishment. In this unit we study Dostoevsky’s success in writing a psychological novel more than thirty years before Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. We examine the techniques that make readers sympathetic to Raskolnikov, despite his many disagreeable qualities. We note the many ways each character is a representation of the myriad facets of Raskolnikov’s character and note how doubling is used throughout the novel to indicate the theme of divided self. We closely examine the first of Raskolnikov’s dreams (the dream of the beaten horse) to indicate how it stands for virtually all of the relationships in the novel. We discuss the psychology of the criminal mind, including Freud’s dream theory, and the frequent use of Christian symbolism related to Sonia’s role in Raskolnikov’s redemption.

We supplement the doubling motif by reading Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and watching Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. (December 2-January 6)

Assignments/Tests

Students will write two short papers (one at home, one as a timed in-class exam, in which they will analyze how Dostoevsky uses setting, doubling, and other symbolism to create meaning, based on passages that they will choose in the case of the short paper and that I will choose in the case of the timed in-class essay.

Timed In-Class Essay (December 19)

Short paper (Rough draft due January 5; final draft due January 6)

Unit 6 - Intensive poetry unit. We undertake an intensive exploration of 200 years of language poetry. Individual students are assigned to read and lead discussions of poetry by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Arnold, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Hardy, Eliot, Cummings, Williams, Stevens, Frost, Auden, Jarrell, Ginsburg, Rich, Plath, Sexton, and Heaney. During the unit, we study three essay questions on poetry from previous AP tests. Two are answered as timed in-class exams. The whole unit is preparation for the largest assignment of the year, which the students accomplish over intersession: (January 7-February 6)

Assignments/Tests

Advanced Placement English Poetry Project (First workshop of very rough draft, the first day of spring term, February 3; final draft due February 9.)

Poetry Essay Assignment: For this assignment, you will write an analytical, argumentative essay in you will make your case for the artistic quality and merit of a selected English language poet. To begin, you will select an English language poet, making sure that you clear the subject with me during the first two weeks of January or before. Then choose five major poems of the poet, reproducing the entire text of all five. Your essay will:
Introduce your view of the artistry and quality of the poet’s work as seen through the five poems you’ve selected. What makes this poet’s work great? Why should it be included in the canon? What uses of language, choice of subject matter, poetic techniques, emotional resonance, or philosophical commentary prove the works’ enduring power?

Next, as a means of backing up your assertions in 1., do the following for each of the five poems, making sure in each case to show how your analysis links to your view of the poem’s and the poet’s artistry and merit:

Explicate each poem thoroughly, paying attention to both denotation and connotation.
Identify the meter and the rhyme scheme, if applicable. Are meanings and senses of the poem end-stopped or enjambed?

How does the poet make use of sounds? Notice repetition, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

What are the key symbols and images in the poem? Has the poet made use of simile, metaphor, personification, allusion, synecdoche, and metonymy? Make sure any of these devices are detailed and explained fully.

Does the poet write in a recognizable form? Does he/she write sonnets, ballads, or odes? Are the poems telling epics (heroic stories of a people) or other stories (narratives)?

What is the relationship of the content of 2-5 to the meaning, theme, tone, and mood of the poem?

Do the poems resemble one another in form and/or theme? Can you reasonably speculate on the principal ideas or worldview of the poet, based on your study of the poems?

The paper should be thoughtful and based totally on your individual reading. Do not consult critics or study guides. Do not include poems previously discussed in class. Depending on the timing of the intersession, it’s likely that you won’t have an opportunity to workshop the paper prior to handing it in; or at least the workshop session will be curtailed. (The final paper will be reviewed in workshop, in our customary manner.) That means you’ll need to bring all your skills to bear to produce a technically perfect and proofread result; use The No-No List as a guide. All papers must be typed in our standard format.

Unit 7 – Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain. After initial discussions of the civil war setting and the story of Odysseus, we begin a process in which students are asked to initiate all lessons. Their homework sheet begins this way: For all reading assignments, you will note examples of language you believe are rich in imagery, metaphor, or symbolism and further conclude how these devices may be related to themes in the novel, either those we have already noted or new ones. At least once during the reading of the novel you will be expected to prepare a brief explication of a chapter, or section of a chapter. You will then lead a class discussion on the examples of language use you’ve selected, and how language develops theme, character, and other important elements of the narrative. (February 9-February 27)

Assignments/Tests

Students will complete at least two in-class or at-home short writing assignments and one timed in-class exam. The short writing assignments will give students selected text from Frazer’s novel. In one case students will be asked to find examples of vivid language in the selected passage and explain how that language is used to convey Inman’s view of life. Discuss images and metaphors that work effectively. In addition show how some of this language may be seen as foreshadowing events to come. Additionally, students will write another short response showing how a selected general quote (in the style of the AP Exam’s free-writing section) applies to the novel.

Timed In-Class Essay, Cold Mountain (February 27): You will be presented with a passage selected by me and write on the following topic:

This is an exercise in syntax and diction. Write fully and carefully. Allot your time well.

Unit 8 - Song of Solomon. This unit focuses on the metaphors and symbols Morrison uses to write a novel that addresses issues of race, gender, class, and family dynamics. We may supplement our reading by watching Episode One of the Eyes on the Prize television series, reading Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till,” viewing stunning photographs of the Birmingham demonstrations of 1963, and reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail.” We often read aloud pages of the book that capture the entertaining diction of several of the characters. When we have completed the novel, we read the “Song of Solomon” from the Old Testament and discuss its relevance, as well as the biblical origins of most of the novel’s names. (March 2-March 30)

Assignments/Tests

Students will be tested by passages selected by me for detailed explication in a timed in-class exam and by the writing of the last major paper of the school year.

Timed In-Class Essay, Song of Solomon (March 13)

Advanced Placement English Paper, Song of Solomon (Due March 30)

Essay Assignment Example: Citing and explicating specific examples of symbol, metaphor, syntax and diction from Song of Solomon, demonstrate how Toni Morrison has created a masterful novel, complete with gripping characterizations, plot, and several compelling themes. Avoid the examples we have discussed class and don’t simply mimic what other students have found; there is a treasure trove of literary ore we haven’t begun to mine! Avoid plot summary.

Unit 9 - The Great Gatsby. This one-week unit features close examination of the obvious symbols such as the green light, the eyes of Dr Eckleburg, the houses of Gatsby and the Buchanans, and the more detailed metaphoric description of both people and places. (March 31-April 14—including Spring Break)

Assignments/Tests

Students will write a short paper detailing metaphoric and symbolic language in a passage they select and show its relationship to important ideas or characterization in the novel.
Short paper, The Great Gatsby (Due April 13)

Unit 10 - Heart of Darkness and The Poisonwood Bible. Students will examine two novels set in Africa. Conrad’s use of light and dark to illuminate the darkness of human behavior returns us to themes in The Secret Share and Crime and Punishment. This also opens up discussion of imperialism as a political darkness in human nature. Marlow’s simultaneous identification with and repulsion for Kurtz is explored through Conrad’s masterful use of chiaroscuro. The way Kingsolver is able to tell her story through five distinct narrative voices is compared with the multiple narrations of The Sound and the Fury. Students prepare for the lessons by selecting language which illustrates the character of each narrator. Often the girls are talking symbolically without knowing it, though both Adah and Orleana are intentionally rnetaphoric. Political issues about the history of Africa, the Congo in particular, are addressed by readings from Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost and by lessons on Cold War politics. (April 15-May 8, including the week of April 27 to May 1, which will be dedicated to AP Test review.)

Assignments/Tests

Students select passages for close examination for both class discussion and short in-class or homework responses. In addition they will practice the free-response section of the AP Exam in a timed in-class essay.

Timed In-Class Essay, Heart of Darkness, The Poisonwood Bible (April 24)

Unit 11 – A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan. For the course’s final unit, we will read Egan’s 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning novel. In our work, we’ll continue our discussion of multiple narrative viewpoints addressed already in Kingsolver and Faulkner, and we’ll examine closely the novel’s complex structure of time shifts, comparing Egan’s approach with that found in Faulkner, Frazier, and Morrison, among others. This discussion of time shifts will lead us to examine how the novel’s time structure plays a role in developing its thematic commentary on time itself, and the role that loss, nostalgia, and change play in the lives of the characters. Students will also read selected passages from the opening section of Proust’s Swann’s Way—an important influence on Egan and her novel.

In addition, we’ll examine how Egan uses language to reinforce the novel’s theme of authenticity and its relationship to pop culture, and how music, used as a symbol, plays a role in the development of that theme. We will further discuss how Egan’s efforts to make sense of the emerging socially fractured world, shaped by the Internet and social media, compares to the efforts of earlier writers we studied to address important moral and social issues in their times. We’ll further note how Egan’s use of new communication technologies as narrative devices in her novel raises questions about the author’s and the text’s ambivalence about such technologies. (May 11-June 15)

Assignments/Tests

Students will create two group presentations (working with their table partners) in which they both identify key passages and explicate their meaning, and compare the work to other books or works we’ve read. Written outlines of the presentations will be turned in and graded, in addition to the presentations themselves.

Presentation will take place on Tuesdays for the remainder of the Unit.

Presentation Topic Examples:
1) You will select an element of artistry that you believe Egan employs in making her novel an aesthetic success and then you will employ your best arguments in supporting your view. How do her techniques as a literary artist compare to those of other writers we’ve studied?
2) Using a selected passage, explicate how Egan develops important ideas on the themes we’ve mentioned: authenticity, isolation, time’s passage, regret, and loss. Show how these human concerns were addressed in other works we read.