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CURRICULUM PROGRAM: Advanced Placement
COURSE TITLE: AP English Literature and Composition
CALENDAR YEAR: 2012-2013
GRADE LEVEL: 11-12
CODE: LAL613
TYPE: GL,AP
CREDITS:
COURSE LENGTH: 36 weeks
Major Concepts/Content: AP English Literature and Composition is designed for students willing to accept an intellectual challenge and is intended to engage creative and analytical thinking skills. Students will experience, interpret, and evaluate challenging imaginative literature of recognized importance. Reading and writing are approached as reciprocal processes in this course, and students will have multiple opportunities to recognize and implement good writing and appreciate exemplary literature. What a student reads lends itself to what a student writes; what a students writes enhances and extends their understanding of literature and the writer’s craft. Students will write to understand, explain, and evaluate literature in a clear and cogent style. Although critical analysis of the literature is the primary focus of this course, students will have the opportunity to write creatively. Timed responses mirroring the demands of the AP exam will be a frequent form of evaluation. Though the system has an open enrollment policy, students should understand this is a college class taught in a high school classroom and is designed to culminate in the AP Literature and Composition Exam. Those who are enrolled in AP Literature and Composition may expect a more intense workload; the breadth, pace, and depth of material covered exceeds the standard English class. This course is the equivalent of an introductory college level literature class with college level requirements. It is intended to be both rigorous and challenging. Students are expected to take the AP exam at the end of this course.
Major Instructional Activities: This course provides a “representative” background in the “deliberate reading and critical analysis” of British and American literature in addition to readings drawn from several genres (poetry, drama, fiction, and expository prose) and cultures dating from the sixteenth century to the present. This wide reading will allow students to appreciate the linguistic changes that have occurred with the English language. Readings will be numerous and collegial discussions amongst the students will deepen their understanding of the use, structure, and impact of language embodied in a literary work. Wide reading will provide students the opportunity to explore and appreciate trends in linguistic styles across time. In addition to reading numerous works, students will get to know a few pieces well from multiple perspectives.
Course Objectives: Learn a personal and collective process for making meaning of a literary work, connect this meaning to other pieces of literature, and recognize thecommonality of the human experience as expressed through literature. Apply the language and vocabulary of the discipline to explain their understanding and interpretation of a literary work. Recognize the environmental and historical values manifested in a piece of literature.
Course Philosophy: The class is an interactive learning community in which both student and instructor become deeply engaged in the discussion, production, and analysis of literature and writing. Because this is an introductory college level course, students will read a variety of genres and exchange ideas and understandings with their peers, learn to apply the critical thinking skill of analysis, and integrate this skill into their writing. Identifying and evaluating the components that make a piece of literature whole and meaningful on a personal and academic level will be an integral part of this class. Risk taking and questioning are encouraged.