Advanced Placement Literature & Composition
Course Description:
This course is modeled after a first-year college literature survey course with a concentration in American literature. To thoroughly prepare you for the AP exam, however, not all works are American. A wide array of time periods and genres will be explored, including poetry, drama, novels, short fiction, and graphic novels. The course is also designed to introduce critical theory to deepen our study of literature and enable us to participate in the ongoing discourse surrounding the texts we read.
Requirements, Expectations & Procedures:
Technology:
Each day you should come to class with your device charged and ready for use. All assignments will be disseminated via TEAMS, in conjunction with our class notebook in OneNote. Familiarity with these platforms is integral to your success. All class texts will also be shared virtually but print copies will also be available. If you miss a class session, please make sure you take the time to review the materials/assignments/discussion notes, etc. to ensure your readiness for the next class.
Reading:
The texts assigned for this course are often challenging and require multiple readings. This means that all reading assignments are to be completed prior to our study of a given text so that you are prepared for a closer re-read in class. For each major work, you will be assigned engagement notes which will vary in format throughout the year. These notes should be prepared while you read and should be brought to class to support your participation in class discussions. While they will be graded, their primary role is to promote more informed class participation and deeper analysis as you read.
Participation:
This is a literature course, so the expectation is that you will be an active participant in all class discussions and activities. While it is obvious that not all students have the same comfort level when it comes to speaking in front of the class, it is a course requirement to contribute to all discussions. This means you should speak during every class session. Your comments should be addressed to the entire class, not just directed at me, and you should seek to build on the thoughts others have shared. If you feel that you could use some support in how best to contribute to these discussions, I would be happy to provide suggestions or strategies during an extra help session.
Please note that the implication behind participation is presence. Attendance is crucial to participation, so it is integral that you make every effort to attend all sessions and remain informed about what transpired during any unavoidable absences. Obtaining this information is your responsibility and a key component to your success.
We will be reading many thought-provoking texts this year and looking at them in ways which may be unfamiliar to you. There is a strong emphasis on ensuring that all voices are heard, especially those that have been historically marginalized. All discussions should be entered into with respect and maturity.
Writing:
You will have many opportunities to write in this course, both formally and informally. Your writing is a representation of your thought process and an indicator of your work habits. Good writing takes time and attention to detail and is the product of a thorough process. Your written work is primarily how you will be assessed. You will participate in timed written assessments as well as writing that takes several weeks to prepare.
Anticipated Longer Assignments:
- College Essay/ Personal Essay
- AP-Style Timed Essays (Poetry Analysis, Prose Fiction Analysis, & Literary Argument)
- Critical Theory Analyses (Ranging from 3-10 pages in length)
Discussion Boards:
Digital discussion boards will be utilized throughout the course to extend and enhance our classroom discussions. Due to the constraints of a forty-minute class period, it is impossible that we will be able to delve into all aspects of the works we will be studying. The discussion boards will allow you to consider additional facets of the works and talk to one another in a different way. Your posts should be well conceived and should always use direct references to the text to support your ideas. They should both respond to your peers’ posts and present your own ideas. As will become our custom, you should maintain the integrity of the discussion by posting at least three times for each unique assignment.
AP Exam:
While the AP exam is not our only class goal, it cannot be denied that it is an important culminating assessment that you will take in May. Every day will prepare you for that assessment, even if it is not explicitly mentioned on a given day, but the below components of our coursework will directly address the exam.
We will be using AP Classroom as additional support to prepare for the AP exam.
This means you must have access to your college board account, and you must complete all assignments disseminated through AP classroom.
As mentioned above, you will be writing several AP-Style timed essays as part of your graded coursework. Additionally, we will examine model essays and practice preparing responses to AP-style prompts collaboratively and individually.
In conjunction with the AP Classroom assignments mentioned above, we will also practice the multiple-choice questions included in the first half of the exam. You will be provided with a Princeton Review workbook to supplement our classwork.
Vocabulary, both in general and content specific words, is often an obstacle for students. Throughout the year, you will work towards building your vocabulary. Using a glossary of literary terms, you will create a teaching tool that will help you and your peers tackle this obstacle.
Structure of Exam:
The AP exam will be administered digitally this year on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 8am. It is a three-hour exam, divided into two parts.
Part I: 55 Multiple Choice Questions (45%)
Part II: Free Response (55%)
- Poetry Analysis Essay
- Prose Fiction Analysis Essay
- Literary Argument Essay
Additional Class Protocols:
Cell Phones: There is no denying that cell phones can be used as tools, supporting many of the things we do throughout the day. That said, there is no place for cell phone use in an academic setting when we have one to one devices that can provide any service we may need to complement our learning. Cell phones are not permitted to be used during our class period.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Similar to cell phones, there is a time and place for the use of AI. Throughout the year, we will discuss how/when it may be appropriate to utilize this technology. It is not, however, appropriate to use AI to complete your assigned work. If the purpose of assignments is for me to assess your understanding and guide your learning, AI does nothing to contribute to that. The use of AI will be deemed plagiarism, and those assignments will not receive credit.
Office Hours/Extra Help:
As noted above, I offer extra help sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. You are encouraged to attend these sessions whenever you would like to check in or need additional support. These sessions will review and expand on classroom instruction.
Grading:
Your grade will be generated using the following metric:
45% Major Assessments (formal writing assignments & presentations)
35% Minor Assessments (paper proposals, discussion boards, reading engagement notes, etc.)
20% Work Habits (participation, preparation, contributions to the classroom community, timely completion of work, quality of work, etc.)
Your final course grade will be generated using the below metric:
22.5% Quarter Grades
5% Midterm
5% Final
Course Texts: (Not listed in order of study.)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Othello by William Shakespeare
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Fences by August Wilson
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature edited by Michael Meyer
Some of the Short Stories & Poetry:
“The Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston
“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
“A Renouncing of Love” by Thomas Wyatt
“Since There’s No Help” by Michael Drayton
“A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne
“The Flea” by John Donne
“The Apparition” by John Donne
“Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“London’s Summer Morning” by Mary Robinson
“The World is Too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth
“Does it Matter” by Siegfried Sassoon
“Eve Remembering” by Toni Morrison
“In Medias Res” by Michael McFee
Non-Fiction:
Critical Theory Today by Lois Tyson
AP Princeton Review Workbook
Various critical analyses of literature taken from the Babylon VRC and JSTOR.
Various thought-provoking news articles.
Exemplar academic essays.
Films: (mostly shown in excerpts if time permits)
Othello, directed by Oliver Parker (1995)
Fences, directed by Denzel Washington (2016)
The Grapes of Wrath, directed by John Ford (1940)
The Kite Runner, directed by Marc Forster (2007)
Persepolis, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi (2007)
The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann (2013)
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