Teaching and Learning

Prerequisite: English department approval based on placement criteria.  A student whose semester grade falls below a B- will meet with the teacher and parent to discuss the best placement for the student second semester.

 

AP English Literature is designed, in part, to prepare students to take the AP Literature and Composition exam.  This exam emphasizes the skills of close reading and analysis of style through poetry and fictional prose.  This course gives students the opportunity to hone their close reading and argumentation skills, makes them more comfortable with poetry analysis, and provides them practice in writing both at-home and in-class responses to literature.  Four themes govern the course:  Identity and Perception, Truth and Illusion, The Nature of Good and Evil, and Finding Purpose.  Major texts include Invisible Man, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet, As I Lay Dying, Heart of Darkness, The Inferno, All the King’s Men, and Waiting for Godot. In addition to these works, students read poems, short stories, and essays and complete an Independent Reading Assignment each semester. During first semester, students complete a research paper on a major author and read A Tale of Two Cities or Pride and Prejudice. During second semester, they give a poetry presentation lasting most of a class period and read White Noise or Catch-22. Students are required to write, conference, and revise five compositions each semester.  Students begin the author project the summer before AP Literature begins.