AP Literature

Advanced Placement Literature & Composition is designed to give students the experience of a first-year college survey course. In addition to strong focus on British literature, they may expect to also read from a broad cross section of literature drawn from multiple periods, cultures and genres from the 16th to the 21st century. Such texts, “of significant literary merit,” engage students in the close reading, interpretation and critical analysis of imaginative literature. In addition to a consideration of mechanical and stylistic elements, students are made aware of the social and historical contexts out of which these works have emerged and the cultural values which they embody. Of equal importance to reading is composition, which reinforces student reading. Thus, students will compose expository, analytical and argumentative essays about short fiction, novels, poems, dramas and expository prose with stylistic maturity that includes the evaluation and synthesis of ideas incorporated from secondary sources and critical theorists. Emphasis is placed upon vocabulary development and long-term reading and writing tasks involving independent research and analysis. Completion of the AP Literature & Composition exam in early May of the junior year is required.

units:

1. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing

2. Sound & Sense: An Introduction to Poetry

3. Identity & Culture (Romantics vs. Realists, The Awakening, and A Doll's House)

4. Tradition & Progress (Carpe Diem, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Things Fall Apart)

5. Conformity & Rebellion (The Sonnet, Hamlet, and Death of a Salesman)

6. War & Peace (otherwise known as AP Literature Exam Prep)

7. Post-AP Exam Student Choice Unit

useful info:

AP Literature Syllabus

Grading scale:

• Essays = 40%

• Presentations = 15%

• Mini-paper composite = 15% 

• Personal progress check composite = 10%

• Attendance, participation, quality of class participation, improvement, excitement, etc. = 20%