AP English Literature and Composition Syllabus
Course Overview
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The AP English Literature and Composition course follows the curricular
requirements described in the AP English Course Description and is designed to
fulfill beginning-college writing rudiments of rhetorical theory and application in
various writing modes as well as practice in careful reading and analysis of
literature culminating in the writing of the research paper.
The course will focus on the various writing modes of narrative-reflective,
descriptive, definition, classification, comparison, contrast, cause-effect, position,
and persuasion-argumentation. For this writing, the student will focus on the
planning, writing, and revision stages in formal and extended analyses. Each
paper will be submitted in double-space typed format accompanied by a
floppy/CD disk or flash-drive. In timed, in-class writings, the student will
concentrate on writing a strong, specific thesis statement to govern writing that
utilizes evidence from provided selections and/or personal recollection as in the
practice of the AP exam formats.
The student will read and analyze literary selections for structure, theme, and style
(diction, tone, figurative language, historical-period application, motif, and
symbolism). The annotation of texts and the discussion of the techniques will
serve as resource material for evaluating the literature in verbal and written
literary analysis format.
The student will learn and practice SAT vocabulary each week of the six weeks
(with the exception of the final week of the six weeks) for the school year. In the
fall semester, vocabulary exams will concentrate on spelling, definition, and
context use. In the spring, vocabulary exams will add the AP multiple choice
focus to the context use portion of the exams.
Exemplary AP English Literature and Composition Objectives
The following objectives are based on the AP objectives given in the Teacher’s Guide to
Advance Placement Courses in English Literature and Composition, published by the
College Board.
For the literature component, students should develop or refine abilities to
 Read critically, asking pertinent questions about what they have read, recognizing
assumptions and implications, and evaluating ideas;
 Read with understanding a range of literature that is rich in quality and
representative of different literary forms and British historical periods;
 Read a literary text analytically seeing relationships between form and content;
 Describe how language contributes forth literally and figuratively to the meaning
of a work;
 Respond actively to a literary work by describing its stylistic features;
 Draw conclusions about the themes of a work;
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Think reflectively about what they have read and discussed and apply their
findings to their own lives; and
Value literature as an imaginative representation of truth or reality.
For the composition/writing component, students should develop or refine abilities to
 View writing as a process (prewriting, writing, rewriting);
 Write as a way of discovering and clarifying ideas;
 Respond directly and efficiently to questions that require a timed essay,
organizing quickly and clearly, focusing on major points that provide a competent
response to the question asked, and developing each major point fully;
 Write appropriately for different occasions, audiences, and purposes;
 Use the conventions of standard written English with skill and accuracy;
 Maintain a consistent tone and appeal through precise syntax, phrasing, and
diction to developing a personal and mature style;
 Collect date from secondary sources, use it judiciously demonstrating synthesis of
those various sources while documenting it accurately in MLA format; and
 Write creatively for personal enjoyment and pleasure of others.
Content Requirements
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Read and discuss literary works as assigned
Write creative, informal, and formal extended and in-class timed responses
Write sentences and paragraphs on focused vocabulary and sentence structure
requirements
Present information orally in presentation format
Perform with mastery on all unit tests and final exams
Syllabus (by units)
Pre-Course Assignment
Approximate # of weeks: 2
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For summer reading, the students will read two novels – usually two
novels from among Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte –
for which they will respond in a dialectical journal to accompany the
reading. Students must respond to questions to show evidence of
having read the selection and of having noted the author‟s use of
various appropriate techniques including symbolism, imagery,
foreshadowing, prophecy, cultural elements, conflict, irony, tone, and
theme. Students also respond to sample AP type multiple choice
questions for one of the reading selections. During the first two weeks
of school, students will respond to objective tests over the novels and
an AP style timed essay question such as “In many works of literature,
parent/child conflicts play a central role. Choose one or more such
conflicts in Wuthering Heights OR The Metamorphosis and discuss
how the conflicts contribute to the meaning of the novel as a whole.”
Anglo-Saxon Unit (449-1066)
Approximate # of weeks: 3
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Students will read The Epic of Beowulf, The Seafarer, and AngloSaxon riddles from the Old English tradition to appreciate the
beginnings of English literary heritage and to demonstrate
understanding of Old English poetic devices of alliteration, kenning,
epithet, and cultural elements of the comitatus, mead hall, ring-giver,
and fatalism as it complements the tone of the ancient literature.
Students will complete personal resumes of academic achievements
and educational goals.
Students will complete the written essay for one of the current topics
on the Texas Common Application. This essay will be submitted as
double-spaced according to the word limit of the essay with a
floppy/CD disk or flash-drive.
Students will read the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Students will write in a dialectical journal responding to the author‟s
use of various techniques in the novel including setting,
characterization, conflict, symbolism, irony, tone, and theme.
Emphasis will be placed upon the author‟s development of the theme
of the duality of man‟s nature and its application to the Anglo-Saxon
unit of study though a modern novel.
Students will respond to a timed in-class essay over the novel with a
topic such as “Setting is a term that denotes the locale and historical
time in which action occurs in a narrative work. Setting can be used
for various purposes in novels and plays (to help establish meaning, to
establish atmosphere, to contribute to themes) and is more important in
some works than in others. Discuss the importance and uses of setting
in Lord of the Flies. Avoid plot summary.”
Students will be given a list of literary terms that they are unfamiliar
with (Baconian Theory, Billingsgate, Verfrumdungseffeckt, etc.) from
which they will choose one term. They will compose one fanciful
definition essay (prior to actually knowing its denotation) and one
formal definition essay for this term. Both essays will be submitted in
double-spaced format with CD/floppy disk or flash-drive submission
Students will respond to a unit test.
Medieval Unit (1066-1485)
Approximate # of weeks: 4
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Students will read various medieval ballads, selections from The
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, a selection from The
Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, and Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight by Master Anonymous.
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Students will analyze literature for cultural elements and
characteristics of that literary style including ballad elements, frame
story, chivalry, physiognomy, and the feudal system.
Students will compare/contrast a modern ballad to a medieval ballad
with respect to the characteristics: incremental repetition; questionanswer format; conventional phrases; simple, simple beat; supernatural
events; sensational, sordid, or tragic subject matter; refrain; and the
omission of details. This will be a written composition with a rough
draft and a typed, double-spaced submission with a CD/floppy disk or
flash-drive.
Students will write a cause-effect essay analyzing elements of the
literature or the historical time period or a combination of the elements
in a topic such as “What causes the pardoner‟s greed and what effect
does greed have on the life of the pardoner in Chaucer‟s „The
Pardoner‟s Tale‟ as reflected in his own story-telling?” This will be a
written composition with a rough draft and a typed, double-spaced
submission with a CD/floppy disk or flash-drive.
Students will write creatively for one pilgrim in the prologue of The
Canterbury Tales making his/her description and other characteristics
of contemporary quality. The student will maintain traits of the
prologue: physical qualities of the pilgrim, personality qualities of the
pilgrim, clothing of the pilgrim, and praise/condemnation of the
pilgrim. Stylistic requirements include using a minimum of ten iambic
pentameter rhyming couplets. Special attention will be paid to the
physiognomy of the pilgrim in making him/her a reflection of
contemporary society. Bonus points will be given if the student
dresses in the attire of the contemporary pilgrim during class
presentation.
Students will read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and respond in a
journal to various questions of literary techniques in the novel, but
with special emphasis on the journey motif of the medieval time
period. Students are encouraged to discover the significance of the
journey as it applies to the unit‟s literature. Students will respond in
class to a timed essay topic such as “Novels, like epics, often portray a
character that grows and develops as a result of a journey he makes,
whether by purpose or by divine intervention, and the obstacles,
people, or events he encounters along that journey. Discuss how this
theme is developed literally and figuratively in the novel and how
Siddhartha grows and develops as a result.”
Students will respond to a unit test.
Renaissance Unit (1485-1600)
Approximate # of weeks: 4
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Students will read various sonnets by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Edmund
Spenser, William Shakespeare, and Sir Philip Sydney; various
Cavalier poems by Robert Herrick, Andrew Marvell, Sir John
Suckling, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Richard
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Lovelace; poems and prose by John Donne; and The Tragedy of
Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
Students will demonstrate understanding of the differences between
the three major sonnet forms: Petrarchan, Spenserian, and
Shakespearean. Students will apply the sonnet conventions to the
sonnet samples and determine the theme of the poems.
Students will compose an original sonnet using the sonnet form of
their choice with additional requirements being five sonnet
conventions and three different figurative devices. Students will
present these orally to the class but will also turn in a typed, doublespaced copy of their work along with any prewriting or rough drafts.
Students will demonstrate understanding of the carpe diem theme in
the cavalier poetry.
Students will demonstrate understanding of tone and the various poetic
devices of conceit, apostrophe, personification, metaphor, simile,
paradox, oxymoron, in Donne‟s works “A Valediction Forbidding
Mourning,” “Song,” “Holy Sonnet 6,” and an understanding of the
prose techniques of rhetorical devices, inference, metaphor, analogy,
syntax, tone, and theme in Meditation 17.
Students will complete a multiple choice AP styled test over the
Donne selections.
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the dramatic terms (soliloquy,
monologue, aside, comic relief, foil, etc.) and apply them with the
tragic elements (tragic hero, hamartia, catharsis, catastrophe,
recognition, etc.) to The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Students will write creatively making a witch‟s brew poem following
the style of Shakespeare in his brew in Act IV, scene i.
Students will test after each act of the drama and at the conclusion of
the entire play will answer an AP style open ended question such as
“Many novels and dramas communicate messages about the nature of
good and evil on the human psyche. Consider how The Tragedy of
Macbeth deals with the nature of good and evil and how it shapes the
motivation and action of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. What does the
author seem to be communicating about the natures of good and evil?
Support your answer with events from the play.”
Students will respond to the semester‟s final exams.
Late Renaissance Unit (1600-1660)
Approximate # of weeks: 3
 Students will read various selections: Sir Francis Bacon‟s Axioms
from his essays and “Of Studies”; selections from Genesis, Psalms,
and Luke from the King James Version of the Bible; selections from
the Koran; a tale from the Panchatantra; selections of Buddhist
traditional parables; several concise Saadi sayings; a sample of Taoist
Anecdotes; some Analects of Confucius; four Jabo proverbs; and John
Milton‟s “On His Blindness” and a survey of Paradise Lost.
 Students will demonstrate understanding of various literary elements
and devices in the literature including tone, theme, parallelism,
repetition, epic conventions (invocation, epithets, and similes),
metaphors, personification, paradox, and apostrophe.
 Students will appreciate evidence of cultural similarities in various
religious texts by finding thematic parallels.
 Students will analyze Paradise Lost for epic conventions – invocation,
similes, hero, adventures, epithets -- and compare and contrast it to the
religious literature studied earlier. Students will appreciate the
selection as a modern epic reflecting the religious goals of the author.
 Students will respond to an in-class AP style writing in which students
analyze a passage from Paradise Lost and a paired passage from
Genesis. They will be required to analyze the passages for stylistic
devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, tone, and theme.
Research Unit
Approximate # of weeks: 4
 Students will choose one literary analysis
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(archetypal/symbolic/mythical criticism, feminist/gender criticism,
formalist/new critical/structural criticism, historical/topical criticism,
moral/intellectual/sociological criticism/
psychological/psychoanalytical criticism) to apply to their primary
selection for research.
Primary sources are selected from a list of British, Irish, and
Commonwealth classics. Students choose the selection, read it, and
analyze it based on the chosen literary criticism method.
The student will complete practice worksheets on creating proper
bibliography entries on cards, on Works Cited pages, and on creating
proper note cards for summaries, paraphrases, and quotes.
The working thesis statement must be submitted prior to collecting
quotes, paraphrases, and/or summaries from secondary sources that
include at least two websites or databases and six to eight scholarly
reference books.
Library time is spent on locating and differentiating between
acceptable and useful sources.
The research paper is expected to reflect proper MLA format for
internal, parenthetical documentation and Works Cited.
The entire paper should reflect three areas of emphasis (author, literary
criticism, and novel recommendation) in 6-10 pages of double-spaced
typed manuscript with CD/floppy disk or flash-drive submission.
18th Century Age of Restoration (1660-1800)
Approximate # of weeks: 4
 Students will study works by Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Samuel
Pepys, Daniel DeFoe, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and Thomas
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Gray. World literature focus will include works by Voltaire and
Goethe.
In addition to analyzing literature for characteristics of the Age of
Reason (logic, human nature, imitation of models, order, critical
authorities, empirical observation, scientific processes, and common
sense), the student will also analyze stylistic and figurative elements in
the literature including, but not limited to, satire (irony,
understatement, parody, caricature)with Swift , Pope and Voltaire;
heroic couplet with Pope; mock epic characteristics with Pope;
objective details and subjective details with Pepys and Defoe; and
poetic elements that show the transition to Romanticism with Goethe
and Gray.
Students will determine the difference between Horatian and
Juvenalian satire from excerpts from Swift‟s Gulliver’s Travels and
the essay “A Modest Proposal”, Pope‟s essays, and various authors
such as Voltaire and Twain. Students will apply the techniques of
satire to the selections for understanding. Students will then write
their own satire over a topic of their choosing in which they use three
of the four satire devices studied in the unit. The satire should be
double-spaced typed at least two pages in length with CD/floppy disk
or flash drive submission.
Students will analyze “An Essay on Man” for the heroic couplet
structure and its effect on theme. Students will analyze the diction,
alliteration, and antithesis as well as the Age of Reason elements in the
selection.
Students will complete an analysis of Goethe‟s Faust and Gray‟s
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” for evidence of the turn
from Age of Enlightenment toward Age of Romanticism. Students
will be divided into two large groups for the purpose of the analysis
and will complete a graphic organizer of the characteristics in their
assigned selection by providing line evidence from the poem. The
students will then present their findings to the class allowing for
discussion of those characteristics. The findings of the analysis will be
discussed in order to show the rejection of 18th Century focus and a
bridge to the Romantic poetry of the 19th Century.
Students will complete a unit test.
Age of Romanticism (1798-1832)
Approximate # of weeks: 4
 Students will study the Romanticism characteristics (subjective,
individual, change, experimentation, the imperfect, detail, the wild,
radicalism, individualism, supernatural, etc.) and apply them to
teacher-led examples including “Kubla Khan,” and “The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner.”
 Poems for analysis, discussion, and presentation include Robert
Burns‟ “To a Mouse,” William Blake‟s “The Tyger, “ “The Lamb, “
“The Poison Tree,” The Chimney Sweeper poems, William
Wordsworth‟s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,”
“She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways,” “Composed Upon
Westminster Bridge,” “The World is Too Much With Us,” Byron‟s
“She Walks in Beauty,” “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” Percy
Shelley‟s “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind,” John Keats‟ “On
First Looking into Chapman‟s Homer,” “When I Have Fears,” “La
Belle Dame sans Merci,” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
 Students will receive assignments of poetry groups and poem selection
in which they will be required to analyze the poem for poetic devices
and theme AND create a PowerPoint presentation with appropriate
photos or illustrations for class presentation. Students will be allowed
two class periods for creating the notes for the computer, two class
periods for the creation of the PowerPoint slides complete with an
appropriate handout for the class members, and one day for the
presentation itself. For each group, the class time spent in groups for
initial analysis is one daily grade; the PowerPoint disk/flash drive
submission is one test grade; the handout is one daily grade; and the
presentation is one test grade. A rubric for each portion of the
assignment will be given to the students prior to the first class day of
work on the assignment.
 Students will complete a two-day unit test in the format of the AP test
with a multiple choice section and an essay portion. For the multiple
choice, students will be given a sonnet not previously studied in the
unit such as Wordsworth‟s “London, 1802.” On day one, they will
answer 14 questions on figurative devices, tone, syntax, diction, and
theme. On day two of the test, they will compose a written response
on an essay question such as that from the 2001 Released Exam,
Question 1 using “London, 1802” by Wordsworth and “Douglass” by
Paul Laurence Dunbar. (I usually add to the prompt that the student
must analyze similar poetic devices used in the poems.)
Victorian Age (1832-1901)
Approximate # of weeks: 3
 The student will read and analyze Joseph Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness
and discuss the aspects of Victorianism, including economic
influences, social progress, reform, decorum and authority,
intellectualism, doubts, skepticism, denial, and realism. The students
will complete a self-produced PowerPoint to be submitted on a
CD/floppy disk or flash-drive that analyzes one aspect
(characterization, motif, image, theme, etc.) of the novel as it is
developed through the three parts of the novel. The student will be
required to find a quote from each part of the novel that exemplifies
his/her element and then locate a photo to illustrate the significance of
the quote. The photo may be from public domain as found on the
Internet, or it may be from the students own digital photography. The
PowerPoint will be limited to ten slides with the final slide including
the student‟s critical conclusion about the author‟s use of their element
focus in the novel. The rubric will delineate the values for the quotes,
photos, backgrounds, transitions, text fonts and colors as appropriate
for the assignment.
 The student will also analyze a survey of Victorian literature by
various authors “Tears, Idle Tears,” “The Eagle,” “Flower in the
Crannied Wall,” “Ulysses,” and “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred, Lord
Tennyson; “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins; “Dover
Beach” by Matthew Arnold; “The Darkling Thrush” and “Ah, Are
You Digging on My Grave?” by Thomas Hardy; “When I Was One
and Twenty,” “To An Athlete Dying Young,” and “Is My Team
Ploughing?” by A.E. Housman, and the world literature influence of
Leo Tolstoy in “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”.
 Students will read literature and analyze the uses of figurative devices
in the selections with emphasis on possible AP styled questions. For
example, for “Dover Beach” students would analyze it to answer the
question: Explain how the Victorian period skepticism and doubt is
reflected in the poem by including analysis of such elements as
diction, imagery, allusion, rhythm, form, and theme.
 Students will respond to a unit test.
Twentieth Century and Contemporary Period (1901-present)
Approximate # of weeks: 3
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Students will read Animal Farm by George Orwell. Emphasis will be
placed upon the historical allegory in the novel as it applies to the rise
of dictatorships and various governmental styles in the twentieth
century. Students will be held accountable for questions over the
reading and for analysis of personification, allusions, imagery,
anthropomorphism, irony, and satire. Students will be required to
write a persuasive/argumentative essay in which they defend, rebut, or
qualify Orwell‟s concept of governmental corruption as expressed in
the novel.
Additional selections for analysis and discussion include Siegfried
Sassoon‟s “The Rear Guard,” Wilfred Owen‟s “Dulce et Decorum
Est,” Rupert Brooke‟s “The Soldier,” T.S. Eliot‟s “Preludes,” and
“The Hollow Men,” Graham Greene‟s “The Destructors,” William
Butler Yeats‟ “The Lake Isle of Innesfree,” and “The Wild Swans at
Coole,” D. H. Lawrence‟s “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” Elizabeth
Bowen‟s “The Demon Lover,” Dylan Thomas‟s “Fern Hill” and “Do
Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night,” W.H. Auden‟s “Musee des
Beaus Arts” and “The Unknown Citizen,” George Orwell‟s “Shooting
an Elephant,” Eugene O‟Neill‟s Before Breakfast, and Susan
Glaspell‟s Trifles.
Students will examine different modern poetry samples to appreciate
the wide variety of acceptable forms and themes.
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Students will analyze fiction, nonfiction, and drama for modern
themes on psychological concerns.
Students will choose one literary analysis
(archetypal/symbolic/mythical criticism, feminist/gender criticism,
formalist/new critical/structural criticism, historical/topical criticism,
moral/intellectual/sociological criticism/
psychological/psychoanalytical criticism) to apply to each selection.
Class discussion can take form in groups or panel discussions.
Students will complete a unit test in AP format.
Student Evaluation
 In class writing (test grade) consists of two types: free-response
questions taken from past AP Exams (taken in the timed format of the
exam) or from the 5 Steps to a 5 book as well as tests on the literature
of the class. Tests on the literature of the class consist of passageidentification questions in multiple-choice format, short answer
questions, and essay questions.
 Essays prepared outside of class (2-4 typed double-spaced pages)
count as test grades. The research paper (6-10 typed double-spaced
pages) counts 50% of the six weeks grade in which it is due.
 Test averages count 60% of the six weeks average while daily
averages count 40% of the six weeks average. Test grades include in
class and out-of-class essays, unit tests, journals, creative writings, and
PowerPoint slide shows. Daily grades include quizzes, discussions,
graphic organizers, and research practices for bibliography and note
cards.
Textbooks/Course Materials
Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and
Writing. 6th edition. Prentice Hall. 2001.
Elements of Literature: Literature of Britain with World Classics. Holt. 2000.
Nadell, Judith, John Langan and Eliza A. Comodromos. The Longman Writer:
Rhetoric, Reader, Handbook. 6th edition. Pearson-Longman. 2006.
Fowler, H. Ramsey and Jane E. Aaron. The Little, Brown Handbook. 10th edition.
Pearson-Longman. 2007.
Other Course Materials
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. NY: Random, 1994.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. NY: Modern Library, 2000.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. NY: Bantam, 2003.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. NY: Signet, 1997.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. NY: Perigree, 1954.
Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. NY: Bantam, 1981.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. NY: Bantam, 1986.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. NY: Signet, 1996.
1984. NY: Harcourt, 1949.
Potok, Chaim. The Chosen. NY: Crest, 1967.
Rankin, Estelle M. and Barbara L. Murphy. 5 Steps to a 5: AP English Literature. NY:
McGraw-Hill, 2002.
**Assorted British classics for primary source with the research paper.
Websites
AP Central – apcentral.collegeboard.com