The Advanced Placement Literature and Composition course is designed to teach high school students to thoroughly analyze and emulate works of “literary merit” at the college level through extensive reading, writing, and discussion-based initiatives. As such, we will talk every day about some vital aspect of literature as it relates to writing, including: rhetorical devices, disposition or structure, and style (diction, syntax, figurative language, mechanics). The kinds of writings in this course are varied but include writing to understand, writing to explain, and writing to evaluate. All critical writing asks that you evaluate the effectiveness of a literary piece, but to be an effective evaluator, one must understand and explain. The essence of literary study is the combination of these three approaches to writing.
This class will function as a true workshop; therefore, you will write a good deal, and you will revise certain pieces of your writing into polished final drafts. You will also produce a final writing portfolio. In the process of these workshops, you will be exposed to your conscious choice of diction and the appropriate use of words, your ability to create varied and effective syntactic structures, your capacity for coherence and illustrative details, and, overall, your ability to combine rhetorical processes into an effective whole. Our exploration of chosen literary works will serve to develop these competencies in various modes of writing. What I expect most of all from our class is hard work and careful reading on the part of the individual and ready, mature, insightful discussion on the part of the class.
READING: The most important requirement for this course is that students read every assignment and that they read it with care and timeliness.
Continued in course syllabus (see Syllabus at right).
The COURSE CALENDAR will assist you in managing your time. Please examine each week ahead of time so that you know what materials or texts you must bring with you to class. Dates are subject to change as circumstances require and those changes will be announced in class. Unless a change has been announced, you will be accountable for due dates on this calendar.
Click HERE for the course syllabus. Please note that texts and assignments are subject to change based on student needs, outside events, timing, etc. In addition, you may click HERE for the general unit guides, which includes texts and authors we will read, along with the AP skills they target. Again, these are subject to change.
Summer Reading
Future AP Lit students will read and annotate two texts this summer–a novel and excerpted chapters from a nonfiction text. **There will be an assessment on these texts at the end of the third week of school. At that time, please be prepared to show your annotated novel.
Below are descriptions of the novels. Use this link for some guidance on annotation as you read.
Novel CHOICE:
The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is the story of Gogol Ganguli and his family. It centers largely on Gogol and his conflicts over his own identity, rooted primarily in his feelings about his own name, but also in his experience as the American-born child of Indian parents. It is in part a coming-of-age story, but follows Gogol through his adult years as he struggles with his name, his generational and cultural conflicts with his parents, his vision of what America is, and his romantic relationships.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is narrated by its protagonist, Amir, and begins by setting up a flashback to his childhood in Afghanistan. For Amir, the “face of Afghanistan” is his friend and servant, Hassan, yet he betrays Hassan in a way that traumatizes Hassan and scars Amir himself. Amir’s path to redemption spans his move to America, which should be his fresh start except that he can’t forget his sins, and a return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and a devastating confrontation. ***CW: This novel includes some strong content.
The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nahesi Coates, is a surrealist story set in the pre-Civil War South, concerning a superhuman protagonist named Hiram Walker who possesses photographic memory, but who cannot remember his mother, and, late in the novel, is able to transport people over long distances by using a power known as "conduction". (Wikipedia)
The following is a list* of novels and plays we will work with this year. You will need to have actual copies of these texts so that you can annotate them thoroughly. Book annotations will be checked and graded throughout the semester.
Novels
Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, OR The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, OR Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Plays
A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams
Othello, by William Shakespeare
*This list is subject to change, but the majority of these titles are what we will be doing this year, if you would like to get a jump start on them. We will read the plays in class together, and you will read the novels out of class and be prepared for seminars and writing tasks centered on those novels. The novels are listed in the order in which we will read them, so if you're starting early, start at the top of the list. :)
a working CMS student Google drive account
Notebook: a 2-inch binder with specified dividers (**see below) and loose-leaf paper
Pens (blue or black); pencils (#2)
index cards
sticky notes
highlighters (in several colors)
Please see below for donation suggestions. :)
As this is a college level class, I'm not planning to do notebook checks. However, organization is often a major key to success and to preparing for assessments and writing. I strongly recommend keeping an organized notebook with your notes, activities, and drafts.
I suggest the following breakdown for your notebook. You might choose to further divide materials, perhaps by individual novels. You will want to choose something that works for the way you think, but one way or another, you should have some kind of structure.
Short Prose Unit Materials
Poetry Unit Materials
Novel Unit Materials
Drama Unit Materials
Each notebook entry should be dated and titled.The daily objective and lesson-essential questions must be entered each day.
Remind is a phone app that will help classes run more smoothly and efficiently. I have included the text information for each class that students and parents can sign up for. Through this app, I will be able to send reminders about major assignments or anything important to the class without you or I sharing personal phone numbers. Make sure you text the correct code (including the @) to the number associated with the correct class period:
AP Lit A Day Group:
Text @nowackya to 81010
AP Lit B Day Group:
Text @nowackyb to 81010
Parent Remind:
Text @nowparent1 to 81010
Please make sure to sign up for the CORRECT block! Otherwise, I’ll think you didn’t submit something you may have submitted. I am not hunting for names--please pay close attention!
The enrollment key/password for everyone: LCheater
1A:
3A:
4A:
1B:
3B:
4B: