Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition - Curriculum NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
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NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
Advanced Placement
English Literature
and Composition
Curriculum
Grade 12
NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
Office of the Superintendent
60 Neptune Blvd.
Neptune, NJ 07753-4836
July 29, 2015 Document C1#1NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP BOARD OF EDUCATION
Jason A. Jones, President
Chanta L. Jackson, Vice President
Dwayne Breeden Scott Fields
Laura G. Granelli Monica Kowalski-Lodato
Michelle A. Moss Donna Puryear
SCHOOL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION
Michael Lake, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent of Schools
Bertha L. Williams-Pullen
Assistant Superintendent of Schools
Matthew Gristina, Ed.D.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
Peter J. Leonard
Business Administrator/Board Secretary
Peter I. Bartlett
Assistant Business Administrator/Assistant Board Secretary
Kathleen M. Skelton
Director of Special Services
Jennifer M. Clearwaters
Director of School Counseling Services
Gerald Glisson
Administrator for Co-Curricular Activities & Athletics
Kathleen M. Thomsen
Supervisor of Early Childhood EducationELEMENTARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
Principals
Lori B. Burns, Early Childhood Center
Lakeda D. Demery, Shark River Hills
Sally A. Millaway, Ed.D., Gables
James M. Nulle, Green Grove
Arlene M. Rogo, Ed.D., Midtown Community
Jerard L. Terrell, Ed.D., Summerfield
MIDDLE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
Mark K. Alfone, Ed.D., Principal
Michael V. Smurro, Vice Principal
Marjory V. Wilkinson, Vice Principal
HIGH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
Richard W. Allen, Principal
Titania M. Hawkins, Vice Principal
James H. Whitson, Vice Principal
SITE ADMINISTRATOR
Tara L. Stephenson, Poseidon ECHS
DEPARTMENT CHAIRPERSONS
Thomas Decker
Audra Gutridge
Robert Hamm
Charles M. Kolinofsky
Joshua Loveland
Dawn Reinhardt
Karen Watt
Candice Wells
Hillary L. WilkinsNEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH
LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
CURRICULUM
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................i
District Mission Statement ............................................................................................... ii
District Educational Outcome Goals .............................................................................. iii
Course Description........................................................................................................... iv
Curriculum
Unit Title Page
Course Overview: Reading and Writing Assignments ..................................................... 1
Assessments and Grading .................................................................................................4
Summer Reading Requirements ....................................................................................... 5
Course Pacing ................................................................................................................... 7
Textbooks........................................................................................................................ 16
College Board: AP Literature and Composition Course Description ............................. 17NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Acknowledgements
Neptune Township School District is dedicated to preparing our students with the skills and
knowledge necessary to be effective contributors and active participants of the 21st century. As
students advance through the grades and master the standards in reading, writing, speaking,
listening, and language, they are able to think critically and are effective communicators.
The Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Curriculum guide was developed for
Neptune High School based on the College Board Curriculum Framework. It is our hope that this
guide will serve as a valuable resource for the staff members who teach this course and that they
will feel free to make recommendations for its continued improvement.
The content of this course meets and exceeds the requirements of the Common Core State
Standards for English Language Arts. It has met the rigorous standards the College Board has to
designate a class “Advanced Placement” and as such, is aligned to the Advanced Placement
Literature and Composition test.
Significant course time is given to critical reading, analytical, argumentative and explanatory
writing, and as a result, this course exceeds the requirements of the Common Core State
Standards. This course will better prepare students for the HSPA, SATs, AP tests, and PARCC.
It is with great pleasure that we acknowledge the professional experience and talent of the
curriculum developer, Lance Henrickson, High School English teacher. Thank you for your
endless effort and dedication in promoting the highest quality education for the students of
Neptune.
iNEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
DISTRICT MISSION STATEMENT
The primary mission of the Neptune Township School District is to prepare all students
for life in the twenty-first century by encouraging them to recognize that learning is a
continuing process. It is with high expectations that our schools foster:
• A strong foundation in academic areas, modern technologies, life skills and the arts.
• A positive and varied approach to teaching and learning.
• An emphasis on critical thinking skills and problem-solving techniques.
• A respect for and an appreciation of our world, its resources, and its peoples.
• A sense of responsibility, good citizenship, and accountability.
• An involvement by the parents and the community in the learning process.
iiNeptune Township School District
Educational Outcome Goals
The students in the Neptune Township schools will become life-long learners and will:
Become fluent readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and viewers with comprehension
and critical thinking skills.
Acquire the mathematical skills, understandings, and attitudes that are needed to be
successful in their careers and everyday life.
Understand fundamental scientific principles, develop critical thinking skills, and
demonstrate safe practices, skepticism, and open-mindedness when collecting, analyzing,
and interpreting information.
Become technologically literate.
Demonstrate proficiency in all New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCCS)
and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Develop the ability to understand their world and to have an appreciation for the
heritage of America with a high degree of literacy in civics, history, economics and
geography.
Develop a respect for different cultures and demonstrate trustworthiness,
responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.
Become culturally literate by being aware of the historical, societal, and multicultural
aspects and implications of the arts.
Demonstrate skills in decision-making, goal setting, and effective communication,
with a focus on character development.
Understand and practice the skills of family living, health, wellness and safety for
their physical, mental, emotional, and social development.
Develop consumer, family, and life skills necessary to be a functioning member of
society.
Develop the ability to be creative, inventive decision-makers with skills in
communicating ideas, thoughts and feelings.
Develop career awareness and essential technical and workplace readiness skills,
which are significant to many aspects of life and work.
iiiADVANCED PLACEMENT
ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND COMPOSITION
CURRICULUM
COURSE DESCRIPTION
(10 Credits)
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition is a year-long course divided into two
semesters, each consisting of 4 marking periods. The course features a demanding
reading list in which students must analyze, interpret, and synthesize great works of
literature and poetry. Students must take responsibility for their own learning and further
develop their critical thinking skills using multiple intelligences.
AP English Literature and Composition is designed to be a college level course, and
promises to intellectually challenge each student and provide a comparable workload to a
typical undergraduate English course.
Advanced Placement Literature is designed to comply with the curricular requirements
described in the AP English Course Description. Thus, the goal for students is that they
read critically, think analytically, and write critically and clearly. The course includes an
intensive study of representative works of both British and American writers as well as
works written in several genres from the sixteenth century to contemporary times.
A student who receives a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP Exam will be granted college credit at most
colleges throughout the United States.
Writing is certainly a primary focus of the course. Instruction focuses on clear
expectations for student writing: the need for a clear thesis and the importance of using
textual details in each analytical paper to support the thesis, on both in-class, timed essays
and outside of class analysis essays. Your papers will be examined for effective word
choice, inventive sentence structure, effective overall organization, clear emphasis, and
above all, excellence of argument, including a clearly stated thesis and exhaustive
supportive evidence as well as a clear, persuasive, elegant connection of this evidence to
your overall argument. [SC11, SC12, SC13 & SC14]
Lesser “papers” will be written regularly in class to spur thinking, stimulate discussion,
and focus on issues of plot, characterization, and theme; these may or may not be handed
in.
Students will be required to maintain notebook (or computer file) for vocabulary,
grammar, and class discussion / response to literature.
Students will be required to read regularly outside of class. The intent of this assignment
is to broaden their reading experience and improve fluency.
ivCourse Overview: Reading and Writing Assignments
How Course Meets Requirement:
Multiple choice practice
Essay questions practiced and graded by a rubric
Peer editing of essays based on rubric
Rewriting of essays based on comments and insights
Analysis and critique of exemplar essays
Reading: Preliminary list of novels, dramas, and anthologized material: [SC1]
• The Oedipus Trilogy, Sophocles
• Othello, Shakespeare
• A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams
• How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster
• Short fiction and essays — as selected
• Poetry — as selected
• Modern novels — as selected
• Reading, Writing, and Thinking: Literature and Composition, Jago
Writing: Students will receive frequent opportunities to write and rewrite formal,
extended analyses and timed, in-class responses.
• SC5 The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and
rewrite timed, in-class responses.
• SC6 The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and
rewrite formal, extended analyses outside of class.
• SC11 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing
assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that help the
students develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately.
• SC12 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing
assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that help the
students develop a variety of sentence structures.
• SC13 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing
assignments, both before and after the students revise their work that help the
students develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to
increase coherence. Such techniques may include traditional rhetorical
structures, graphic organizers, and work on repetition, transitions, and
emphasis.
1• SC14 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing
assignments both before and after they revise their work that help the students
develop a balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail.
• SC15 The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing
assignments both before and after they revise their work that help the students
establish an effective use of rhetoric including controlling tone and a voice
appropriate to the writer’s audience.
Students will:
• Write to understand: Informal, exploratory writing activities that enable students
to discover what they think in the process of writing about their reading (such
assignments could include annotation, free-writing, keeping a reading journal, and
response/reaction papers)
• Write to explain: Expository, analytical essays in which students draw upon
textual details to develop an extended explanation/interpretation of the meanings
of a literary text
• Write to evaluate: Analytical, argumentative essays in which students draw upon
textual details to make and explain judgments about a work’s artistry and quality,
and its social and cultural values.
• SC8 The course requires writing to explain: Expository, analytical essays in
which students draw upon textual details to develop an extended
interpretation of a literary text.
• SC9 The course requires writing to evaluate: Analytical, argumentative
essays in which students draw upon textual details to make and explain
judgments about a work’s artistry and quality.
• SC10 The course requires writing to evaluate: Analytical, argumentative
essays in which students draw upon textual details to make and explain
judgments about a work’s social, historical and/or cultural values.
In addition to analytical and argumentative writing tasks, other requirements may
include:
• Reaction/response papers: written responses to specific topics beyond
superficial readings where students are asked to consider the topic and relate it to
the work being read. Reaction/response papers allow students to describe their
initial response or reaction to a text, without involving any revision of the writing.
2• Dialectical notebook: a double-entry notebook in which students record direct
quotations from the reading on one side and their personal response to the quoted
passage on the other.
o SC7 The course requires writing to understand: Informal/exploratory
writing activities that enable students to discover what they think in the
process of writing about their reading (such assignments could include
annotation, free writing, keeping a reading journal, reaction/response
papers, and/or dialectical notebooks).
• Annotation: requires interaction with a book beyond a superficial reading. It
involves the asking (and sometimes answering) of thoughtful and provocative
questions raised as students read a work. Annotation includes some form of
marking such as highlighting, noting passages, references to other sections of the
work, tabbing, but is always accompanied by guiding questions that students
encounter on their way to closer, deeper reading. Annotation can take many forms
and should be included among the acceptable forms of informal writing, but what
distinguishes annotation from mere note-taking is the inclusion of student
responses to the text, whether those responses are questions posed to the
characters or author or statements about the student’s response or reaction to the
text.
3Assessments and Grading
We will on occasion have an essay examination that asks students to synthesize their
understanding of their work. These exams are to help students respond to literary
questions in a way much less restrictive than the AP-based “exams” that form the in class
writings on literature.
Students will be asked to free-write their responses to the reading on a regular basis.
Students should bring a free-writing notebook to each class so they are prepared for this
informal writing exercise, which is designed to explore what they learn as they read.
[SC7]
In-class writings will primarily be AP-based examinations, though there will also be
quick-response, in-class writings as a basis for discussion. I will not announce quizzes
ahead of time, and we will have a number of them, both straightforward reading ones and
ones that ask you to engage an idea. Reading quizzes will always be given during the first
five minutes of class; if you come in late, you may not take the quiz.
Questions on reading quizzes will be straightforward and simple as long as you’ve done
the required reading.
Grading: Students are graded as follows:
Assessment of work completed in AP English Literature and Composition will most often
be done by using an AP style rubric.
Rubrics will be made available to students prior to beginning an assignment, especially a
long-term project.
Writing assignments will be graded primarily for content, however, grammatical
correctness and style will certainly count in the overall assessment.
Students are encouraged to study and know the qualities of each level of paper assessed
by AP readers. Students will be awarded a grade of A, B, C or RW (rewrite) on all drafts
that they are ready to have evaluated.
Students will be given the opportunity to rewrite papers until they are minimally at the
“C” level.
Timed writings and essays will be scored using a 9-point rubric similar to the rubric used
in scoring AP exam essays. These scores will then be converted to number grades.
SC5 The course includes frequent opportunities for students to write and rewrite timed,
in-class responses.
4Advanced Placement Summer Reading List
The following works and assignments may vary from year to year. Summer reading
is mandatory and failure to read any four of the following novels and complete
three of the accompanying assignments may result in removal from the class. (SC1)
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer
The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
The Shipping News, Anne Proulx
Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Alchemist, Pablo Coelho
Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaardner
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
Native Son, Richard Wright
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Emma or Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Tiger’s Wife, Tea Obreht
Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A Thousand Splendid Suns or The Kite Runner, Khaled Hussein
Black and Blue OR One True Thing, Anna Quindlen
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Dracula, Bram Stoker
5A Death in the Family, James Agee
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Quiet American or The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
The Unbearable Lightness of Being or Immortality, Milan Kundera
The Fixer OR The Natural, Bernard Malamud
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
Content and/or Skills Taught and Assessed
Critical reading from the major authors, periods, forms, and works in
American, British and world literature
Understanding and analyzing language denotatively and connotatively
Analyzing passages of prose, poetry and non-fiction for style, which is affected by
diction, syntax, details, language, as they create/influence tone
Identifying and analyzing literary selections’ irony, tone, mood, allusion,
figurative language and symbolism as they contribute to purpose/meaning
Participating in cooperative learning and a variety of oral activities to elicit
meaning from literature.
Expanding vocabulary through bi-weekly vocabulary words (taken from PSAT/
SAT word lists), context clues, and analogous relationships of words
Pre-writing, writing, proofreading, editing and re-writing skills
Timed writings utilizing generalization and the effect of specific details from
works
Summer Reading Assignment
• Write a two- to three-page response/commentary (typed, double-spaced, 10–12-
point font, etc.) on one of the novels above. Your commentary on the novel must
be a well-written response to the work as a whole. Remember to support all of
your comments and arguments by referring specifically to the text and using
passages from the novel wherever appropriate.
• Complete 2 reader response logs for any 2 works. Each log should be numbered
from 1-20, following the model in your packet.
• Read and complete the dialectical journal from a selected novel or play
• Consider the relationship between the characters and the setting in a selected
novel or play and compose a 6 paragraph analytical essay.
6Course Pacing
Unit # Title Approximate
Timeframe
1 Critical Reading and Writing 2 weeks
2 Classic and Modern Tragedy 4 weeks
3 Literary Criticism 3 weeks
4 Approaching Poetry 2 weeks
5 Metaphysical Poetry and the Use of Conceit 2 weeks
6 The Romantic Era 2 weeks
7 The Victorian Era 2 weeks
8 Conformity and Rebellion 4 weeks
9 Bridge to Modernism 2 weeks
10 Modernism 4 weeks
11 Humor, Satire, and Irony 3 weeks
12 Identity and Culture 4 weeks
“Unit 1: Close Reading and Writing (2 weeks)
This unit asks students to analyze specific elements of author’s craft from a selected
novel. [SC3]Elements include the development of tone and character and the use of
voice, diction, dialogue, flashback and specific detail. In addition, AP Literature course
expectations and texts will be discussed and distributed. Summer readings will also be
reviewed and assessed. [SC1]
Texts:
“What is Close Reading?” handout
From “My Antonia,” Willa Cather
“To an Athlete Dying Young,” A.E. Houseman
From The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
“My Father’ Song,” Simon Ortiz
Major Assignments/Assessments:
Reading journals [SC2, 7]
Timed writing requiring analysis of summer reading and/or other texts discussed in
class [SC5, 6]
7Unit 2: Classic and Modern Tragedy (4 weeks)
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts,
of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new
information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and to
gain personal fulfillment.
Students will also note the evolution of the tragic form. Among these texts are fiction,
nonfiction classic, and contemporary works.
Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an
understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human
experience.[SC10]
The following works will be read and discussed, and may vary from year to year.
August Wilson, Fences
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Sophocles, Antigone
Aristotle, Poetics
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Arthur Miller, "Tragedy and the Common Man"
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
William Shakespeare, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
Joseph Cambell, The Power of Myth
“Penelope,” Dorothy Parker
“Siren Song,” Margaret Atwood
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Read "A Room of One’s Own" by Virginia Woolf. Students will work in groups,
and prepare a paper and oral presentation comparing the essay to Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
Read “A Hero’s Journey” by Joseph Campbell, and then prepare a Prezi on the heroic
traits of a protagonist from a literary work. Present to class.
Read Miller’s "Tragedy and the Common Man" and exemplify the thesis by
discussing the character of a tragedy
Textual analysis on each work read in class [SC8}
Reading journals (SC7)
8Unit 3: Literary Criticism (3 weeks)
Students will be introduced to literary criticism and learn the different ways in which a
work of literature can be approached and interpret. Freudian, Historical, Feminist, and
Marxist theories are amongst the types of criticism which will be discussed.
Major assignments:
Students will choose a text that they have read in class, and use the school database to
find scholarly interpretations of the selected text, and then summarize any three. [SC8, 9,
10]
Unit 4: Approaching Poetry (2 weeks)
Students will begin their study of poetry with the sonnet form, and we will
analyze the form and its use of literary devices used to convey a theme. Material
will include she definition of the sonnet, elements of a Petrarchan sonnet, as well
as elements of Elizabethan and Modern Sonnets. We will note the changes in
structure and subject content of the sonnet over time, which will lead me to
provide an overview of the Elizabethan, Neoclassical, Romantic, Victorian, and
Modern movements. Literary devices such as caesura, enjambment, symbol,
paradox, oxymoron, and couplet, will be introduced, as well as a poem from past
year’s AP test. [SC2, 7, 8]
The following poets will be studied for style, content, and historical perspective.
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Shakespeare
Edmund Spenser
John Milton
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
William Wordsworth
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Edgar Allan Poe
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
• Timed writing — literary analysis comparing and contrasting two sonnets
including samples and scoring guide. [SC6]
• Direct Composition Instruction: compare/contrast, thesis statement [SC8]
9Unit 5: Metaphysical Poetry and the Use of Conceit (2 weeks)
Students will do close readings of several poets of the period and recognize the
careful uniformity and number of syllables per line.
In addition, they will come to understand and identify literary devices such
metaphysical conceit, rhyming couplets, paradox, allusion, simile, metaphor,
alliteration, and enjambment. [SC2]
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Read selected lines by Alexander Pope
Create your own rhyming couplets mirroring the style of Pope
Explicate and answer questions on Ben Johnson’s "On My First Son," "On My
First Daughter," and "The Noble Nature"
Students will recognize the characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry by studying the
following works of John Donne:
o "Go and Catch a Falling Star" "Song"
o Timed writing of Donne’s "Broken Heart."
o "The Flea"
o "Death Be Not Proud"
o "A Valediction Forbidding Morning" "The Sun Rising"
o Holy Sonnet XIV"
View successful student essays; discuss; allow opportunities for rewriting (SC11,
12, 14)
Timed writing using a previous AP prompt (SC5, 6)
Unit 6: The Romantic Era (2 weeks)
Students will recognize the elements of the Romantic Movement, including themes,
styles, and inspirations. They will learn about the historical period and how it influenced
the poets of the time.
Moreover, students will look at art from the era as well and relate the art to the poems in
terms of style and content.
Readings and related texts
Coleridge, "Kubla Khan,” Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Robert Burns, "A Red Red Rose"
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "To a Skylark," "The Cloud", "In Defense of Poetry"
William Wordsworth," Lines Composed..." I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," She
Dwelt Amongst Untrodden Ways"
10 William Blake, "The Tiger," "The Lamb"
John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sanes Merci," Ode on a Grecian Urn,: Endymion"
Lord Byron, "She Walks in Beauty," She’ll Go No More a Roving"
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Assignments and Assessments [SC7, 8] [SC13, 14]
Identify devices such as ode, free verse, repetition, and apostrophe and poetry
from past year’s AP test discussed thoroughly.
Students view/grade range finders according to rubric, analyzing characteristics of
high scoring essays such as controlled tone and voice, transition, sophisticated
diction and sentence structure.
Write a timed analysis of poem after discussion. After teacher grades papers and
discusses areas for improvement with each student, students may rewrite.
Unit 7: The Victorian Era (2 weeks)
Students will recognize the themes, styles, and inspiration of the
Victorian poets. Terms such as dramatic monologue, elegy,
allusion, hyperbole, and paradox. Poem (s) from past year’s AP test will be
discussed thoroughly. (SC2, 8, 10)
Students view/grade range finders according to rubric, analyzing characteristics of
high scoring essays such as controlled tone and voice, transition, sophisticated
diction and sentence structure.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Timed writings from previous AP exams
Questions and discussions on the following works:
Tennyson- "Ulysses," Crossing the Bar," The Lady of Shalott"
Matthew Arnold-"Dover Beach"
Gerald Manley Hopkins-"God’s Grandeur"
Robert Browning-"My Last Duchess"
Choose a Victorian novel, such as Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice, to read
independently and create a multi-media presentation on Victorian elements
portrayed in the novel
Unit 8: Conformity and Rebellion (4 weeks)
Existentialism and the plight of the modern man will be examined. Students will note
stylistic devices such as free verse, stream of consciousness.
Major Assignments:
Read "A Primer to Existentialism" by Gordon Bigelow
11 Read The Myth of Sisyphyus" By Camus
Write a one page paper explaining why Sisyphus continues
pushing the boulder up the hill.
Read/discuss the following texts:
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The Plague, Albert Camus
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
“From the Metamorphosis,” (graphic novel), Peter Kuber
"The Bucket Rider", Franz Kafka
“To Max Brod.” Franz Kafka
“The Unknown Citizen,” W.H. Auden
“An Epitaph,” Matthew Prior
“The Collar,” George Herbert
“Song: To the Men of England,” Percy Bysshe Shelley
“Do Not Go Gentle Into the Good Night,” Dylan Thomas
No Exit, John-Paul Sartre
Assessments: (SC5, 12, 13, 14, 15)
AP question 3 open ended prompt response to one of the works
Timed Analysis of "Unknown Citizen" by W.H. Auden focusing on how writer
reveals the conflict between the individual and the state through use of irony.
View successful student essays and discuss elements that make them successful.
After students receive graded essays, discuss and offer opportunities for
revision/rewriting. [SC15]
Unit 9: Bridge to Modernism (2 weeks)
Students will read and study the works of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, and see
how their unique styles lead to a new period. Terms such as paradox, random
capitalization, free verse, allusion, and oxymoron will be studied.
Major Assignments and/or Assessments: (SC2, 4, 8)
Read the following works by Emily Dickinson:
"I’m Nobody"
"I Heard a Fly Buzz..."
"Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers"
"There’s a Certain Slant of Light"
"Much Madness is Divinest Sense"
"I Taste a Liquour Never Brewed"
Read the following by Walt Whitman
"When Lilac’s Last..."
12 "O Captain, My Captain"
"Song of Myself"
"I Hear America Singing"
Assessments:
Timed writing response to a previous AP prompt interpreting an Emily Dickinson
poem [SC15]
Analytical essay (SC8,9)
Prepare a lesson on your selected poem, discuss the poet’s use of devices such as
caesura, random capitalization, and free verse
Unit 10: Modernism (4 weeks)
Students will observe how literature and poetry reflect the human condition and how
literature reflects universal themes. (SC3, 4 5, 6)
Analyze, discuss, and answer questions from the following poets:
T.S Eliot, “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”
Thomas Hardy, “Channel Firing”
Sylvia Plath, “Daddy,” “Metaphors,” “Lady Lazarus”
W.H. Auden, “The Unknown Citizen,”
Robert Frost, “Out, Out,” “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “The Road
Not Taken,” “Mending Wall,” “Provide, Provide”
Wallace Stevens “Disillusionment at Ten O’clock”
William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow”
E.E. Cummings, “anything lived in a pretty how town”
Louis MacNeice, “Prayers Before Birth”
W.B Yeats, “The Second Coming”
Rudyard Kipling, “If,” “The White Man’s Burden”
Assessments:
Timed writing response to a modern poem used in previous AP exams
Unit 11: Humor, Satire and Irony (3 weeks)
Students will learn the definition of the different types of satire, and find examples of
satire in literature, poetry, television, and film.
Texts and Related Readings:
“Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut
“What’s the Smell in the Kitchen?” Marge Piercy
“Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy
13 “The Unknown Citizen,” W.H. Auden
“Life Cycle of Common Man,” Harold Nemerov
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
“A Modest Proposal” Jonathan Swift
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Major Assignments and/or Assessments:
Students will read a selected novel by Kurt Vonnegut, and compose a 6-8
paragraph argumentative essay discussing what Vonnegut is satirizing. (SC2,4,
10)
Students will complete a graphic organizer on the various targets of Vonnegut’s
satire using textual evidence [SC3,4]
Timed writing on an AP Sample using satire [SC15]
Satire project: students will find an example of satire from a magazine,
newspaper, television and film, and explain their satirical findings to the class via
a Prezi or other multi-media presentation[SC9]
Unit Name 12: Identity and Culture (4 weeks)
Analyze narrative techniques and point of view; examples of foreshadowing, symbolism,
allusion, and style. (SC1, 4, 10)
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
1984, George Orwell
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
The Catcher in the Rye , J.D. Salinger
Into the Wild-John Krakauer
Alexander Pope, “The Quiet Life”
William Wordsworth, “The World is Too Much With Us”
Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”
Yusef Kumunyakaa, “Slam, Dunk, and Hook”
Edward Hirsh, “Fast Break”
William Stafford, “Travelling Though the Dark”
Maxine Kumin, “Woodchucks”
Assessments:
Develop a compare/contrast essay based on the literary devices used in two
different poems
Read exemplars of compare/contrast poetry essays [SC8, 9]
Discuss the steps of a bildungsroman and how a novel follows that pattern
40 minute timed essay on the following: [SC5, 6]
14Choose a novel in which some of the most significant events are mental or
psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a
well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the
sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action.
Students will write, edit, and rewrite
15Textbooks
Bedford/St. Martin’s Literature and Composition: Reading, Writing, and
Thinking, Carol Jago
The Power of Myth , Joseph Campbell
The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Helen Vendler
Vocabulary Power Plus for the Sat, Book 4
Voice Lessons-Nancy Dean
McGraw Hill’s 5 Steps to a 5- English Literature
How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster
16Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Course Description:
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-english-literature-and-
composition-course-description.pdf
17NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
Office of the Superintendent
60 Neptune Blvd.
Neptune, NJ 07753
An Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Employer
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