Name__________________________________________________________
Ms. Wu
AP Literature
15 September 2014
Unit 2: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
*Dates and assignments may change according to our needs. Ms. Wu will announce any changes in advance.
Monday
Tuesday
Block
Friday
Sep 15 Writing/Revising
Sep 16 Reading
Sep 18 Reading
Sep 19 Reading
Revise passage analysis
Streetcar Multiple Choice How to conduct a close
Check out Streetcar
Essential Questions
reading
HW: Finish Mrs. C slides if
not done (Focus on slides 2-4).
Streetcar 1 (26 pgs)
Use W’s stage directions to
draw setting (3-8). Use
colors described.
Sep 22 Reading
Close Reading Continued
HW: Streetcar 2 & 3 (41
pgs). Essential Questions
(EQ’s) and Quotes. Details
TBA.
HW: Streetcar 4 (15 pgs)
Annotate Blanche’s speech
thoroughly. This will
serve as 1 of 2 choices for
RA.
HW: Streetcar 5 & 6 (32
pgs). Annotate Blanche’s
speech thoroughly. This
will serve as 1 of 2 choices
for RA.
Sep 23 Reading/Writing
Reading Assessment:
Blanche’s Scene 4 or 6
Speech (Draw cards)
Sep 25 Modified Block
*Bring laptops to class.
“The World I Live In”
Close Reading & Synthesis
SS Prep Work Time
Sep 26 *Bring laptops
SS Prep Work Time
Speaking Workshop
HW: Streetcar 7-9 (34 pgs)
EQ’s and Quotes. Details
TBA.
Sep 29 *Bring laptops
Streetcar
Socratic Seminar 1
HW: Streetcar 10-11 (29
pgs). EQ’s and Quotes.
Details TBA.
Sep 30 *Bring laptops
Streetcar
Socratic Seminar 2
HW: SS Prep Part I:
Paper + Turnitin
HW: SS Prep Part II:: Paper
+ Turnitin
Oct 3
Listening Notes & Eval:
Paper + Turnitin
HW:
Speakers: Scoring Guide
Coaches: Scoring Guide
Listeners: Revise notes
*I am collecting S & C.
Oct 6 Rally Schedule
IRP Book #1
Timed Write (45 min)
HW:
Speakers: Scoring Guide
Coaches: Scoring Guide
Listeners: Revise notes
*I am collecting S & C.
Oct 7 Earthquake Drill
Streetcar TW Prep
Outlining & Writing
Workshop
Oct 2 *Bring laptops
Streetcar
Socratic Seminar 3
Listening Eval Work Time
HW: Streetcar Plot
Pyramid
HW:
-Review Streetcar. Know
the play & W’s meaning of
the work well!
-Bring British novel
-Bring student ID’s to class
for Song of Solomon check
out.
HW: Listening Notes &
Evaluation: Paper +
Turnitin. Bring IRP novel
to class.
Oct 9
Streetcar Timed Write
Calibration
Song of Solomon Check Out
Bring British novel
HW: Read at least 35-40
pages of your British
novel. No written work.
Just read.
IRP Novel Work Time
HW: Finish IRP Plot
Pyramid. Review for
timed write.
Oct 10 Homecoming!
Minimum Day
“The People Could Fly”
HW: Song of Solomon 1,
other homework TBA
Streetcar Unit Practice Prompt 1972
In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama
introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or
the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way and why it is significant to
the meaning of the work as a whole.
AP Literature Unit 2: The American Drama
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
“Streetcar is a cry of pain; forgetting that is to forget the play.”
~Arthur Miller on Streetcar (xi)
Writer and literary critic Arthur Miller calls A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams a work in
which “a writer’s soul, a single voice…almost miraculously envelop[ed] the stage” (Miller xi). Written and
performed for the first time in 1947, Streetcar created memorable characters who found a place in the fabric of
American culture because they represented it so powerfully. It also launched the careers of the iconic Marlon
Brando and lovely Jessica Tandy, virtual unknowns at the time, who would both go on to win Academy Awards
later in their careers. Vivien Leigh, who had already won an Oscar for her portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with
the Wind (1939), received a second Oscar for her portrayal of Blanche in the 1951 film version.
Why has this drama received such critical acclaim? How and why does it have enduring relevance? We will
examine these questions and more as we study A Streetcar Named Desire, a play that Arthur Miller aptly calls “a cry
of pain.”
Essential Questions
 How do socioeconomic status, cultural background, and gender shape a person’s perspective of the world?
 Specifically, to what extent does our gender give and limit our power?
 How and why do our primal instincts both strengthen and destroy our humanity?
 What are the consequences of pursuing overwhelming desire?
 In what ways does retreating into fantasy help and harm people trying to cope with reality?
 To what extent is emotional and psychological pain the driving force of human relationships and, more
broadly, the human condition? In other words, is pain what connects us and defines what it means to be
human?
 Literature: How do setting, symbolism, and diction create character and conflicts?
Unit Objectives: To learn how to analyze a writer’s narrative style by deepening our understanding of literary
devices and how they create character and conflict; to understand how these literary devices contribute to the
meaning of the work as a whole.
Focus Skills
Reading
1. Analyze how literary devices create character, conflict, and narrative style
2. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
3. Determine the meaning of the work as a whole and analyze its development over the course of the text to produce a
complex account
Speaking and Listening
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building
on others’ ideas and expressing our own clearly and persuasively.
2. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence.
Writing
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and
sufficient evidence.
Academic Language
1. Vary strong active verbs in writing.
2. Write precisely and concisely (cut the fluff).
3. Use artful transitions within and between paragraphs.