Souderton Area High School
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Syllabus
A detailed notebook on all readings is required and will be worth 100 pts per rating period. All papers
must be preceded by a rough draft that has been through peer response.
Week 1 Chronological and Philosophical Timeline of English Language Literature
Using a variety of references, students will create a graphic organizer representing English language
literature from Beowulf to the Contemporary period.
o Collaborative participation in creating bulletin board timeline 50 process pts.
o Completion of a personal graphic organizer of the timeline that includes personal
connections along the continuum.
50 product pts.
Week 2 Critical Approaches to Literature
o Assignment for day 1: Read Chapter 32 Critical Approaches p 2011 and “Young Goodman Brown.”
o In class day 1: In a jigsaw, explicate one of the approaches using “Young Goodman Brown” p 391.
50 process pt.
o Day 2: A closer look at the approaches
o Research and report on the topics below. Create a one-page handout for the class.
50 content pts.
Structuralists: Claude Levi-Strauss
Determinism: Social Darwinism, Naturalism, Thomas Hardy,
Stephen Crane
Psychological: Freud and psychodynamic theory
Archetypal: Carl Jung, Northrop Frye
Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida, “semantic tension”
Reader Response: Louise Rosenblatt, phenomenology
o Assignment for day 4: A second look at the summer paper
o Day 4 Conferences on summer papers
o Day 5 Revision of summer papers
50 product pts.
Week 3 Reading, Responding, and Writing about Literature
o Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 1 pp. 1-25.
o In class day 1: Using reciprocal reading, read, with a partner, pages 25-43 and complete reciprocal
reading response guide.
50 process pts.
o Day 2: Create a rubric for assessing a written analysis of a literary work. Use the domain-scoring
guide as a template.
Present and argue for the validity of your rubric using information from chapter 1.
50 product pts.
o Day 3: Evaluate your revised summer paper using the approved rubric and write an evaluation
commentary that justifies your score.
50 content pts.
o Day 4: Exploration of the AP Literature Exam
o Day 5: Essay Test: Demonstrate understanding of critical approaches through analysis of one short
story
50 content pts.
Week 4 Elements of Fiction
o Assignment for day 1: Read Chapter 2 p 54-63, “A Rose…” p81-7 and p104-111
o In class day 1: Seminar discussion of summer reading
50 process pts.
o Assignment for day 2: Read “The Things They Carried” and write a two-page written response that
demonstrates analysis of elements of short fiction.
o
50 product pts.
o In class day 2: Beowulf and Morte D’Arthur--reading and discussion
o Assignment for day 3 Read selected tales from Canterbury Tales.
o In class day 3, 4 Canterbury Tales seminar discussion
50 process pts.
o Day 5 Canterbury Tales critical paper (5-7 pgs) that explores the relationship between the tale and its
teller from a socio-critical point of view
100 skill assessment pts.
o Notebooks due 100 process points.
Week 5: People and Places in Fiction
o Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 4 pp 154-160
o In class day 1: Faulkner profile
o Assignment for day 2: Read “Barn Burning.” P160
o In class day 2: Read “Two Kinds” and p 194 for seminar
50 process pts.
o Assignment for day 3: Read chapter 5 pp 210-216
o In class day 3: Read “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” p227 and p 250-6
o Assignment for day 4: Read chapter 6 pp258-62
o In class day 4: Read “Araby” and p 269, 288-94
o Day 5: Essay test: Demonstrate understanding of characterization, point of view, and setting through
question responses that draw from several stories.
50 content pts.
Week 6: Style in Fiction
o Assignment for day1: Read chapter 7 pp 296-302
o In class day1: Review of types of sentences and frequent usage errors
o Assignment for day 2: Read “Luck” p 320
o In class day 2: Read pp 328-34 for seminar discussion
o Assignment for day 3: Read chapter 8 pp 337-342
o In class day 3: Read “Story of an Hour” p 342 and pp373-9 for seminar
50 process pts.
o Assignment for day 4: Read chapter 9 pp 380-5
o In class day 4: Read “Chrysanthemums” and pp 417
o Day 5: Steinbeck Profile and Critical paper on short story that analyzes stylistic elements including
tone
50 product pts.
Week 7: Theme—Meaning and Message
o Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 10 pp 438-443
o In class day 1: “The Lesson” p 444 and pp 493-5
o Read Chapter 12A p623-56
o Day 2,3,4: Summative Assessment Critical paper ( 5-7 pages)
Select one element of narrative fiction and write a five-page comparison/contrast paper that includes one of
the short works studied in this unit and either Great Expectations or The Invisible Man. Use of secondary
critical work is suggested. If used, all secondary sources must be cited. 100 skill assessment pts.
o Day 5: Essay test: Demonstrate understanding of symbolism and theme.
50 content pts.
Week 8: Poetry
Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 15 pp 724-730
“My Last Duchess” p 734, pp751-7
In class day 1: Read Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
Assignment for day2: Read chapter 16 pp 758-63
In class day 2: Complete reading and discussion of “Paradise Lost”
Book 1, Book 2, excerpts from Books 3-12 then T.S. Eliot’s “Preludes” and pp 770, 783-89 for
seminar discussion
50 process points
Week 9: Poetry cont.
Assignment for day 3: Read chapter 17 pp 791-97
o In class day 3: The Romantics beginning with Wordsworth’s “London” and pp817, 818-21, 1080-87
o Day 4: Workshop and research: Critical Analysis: Poetry of the English Canon
( Select a work by Milton, several sonnets, or other work by approval) Due Day 1 week 9
50 product points
o Day 5: Mid-Term
100 skill assessment points
Notebooks due
100 process points
o Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 18 pp 828-36, “Theme for English B,” p 847and pp861-6.
o In class day 2: Discussion, analysis, presentation of poems from chapter 18
50 process pts.
o In class day 3: Read chapter 19 pp 868-84
o Assignment for day 4: “Porphyria’s Lover”p 885 and p 912-21
o In class day 4: Read chapter 20 pp 923-35 and Victorian poetry
o Day 5 Essay test: Poetry
50 content pts.
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Week 10
o Assignment for day1: Read chapter 21 pp 967-73 and pp 999-1006.
o In class day 1: Read Chapter 22 pp 1007-10 using reciprocal reading guide
Then, in groups of three, select from among the poems related to myths, read, analyze, and explicate for
the class. Create a one-page handout.
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50 product pts.
Day 2: Present as above.
Assignment for day 3: Read chapter 23 pp 1047-54 and pp 1073-79
In class day 3: Dickinson and Frost-- read and discuss 50 process pts
In class day 4: e e cummings, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Millay, Pound, Plath, Whitman.
In class day 5: Research and workshop--Critical analysis: A Poet: His Life and Work
50 product pts.
Week 11
o Day 1: Seminar discussion: Mrs. Dalloway
50 process pts.
o Day 2: Summative Assessment: Write an analysis of the use of poetic language in which you
explicate at least one element of sound play and one use of figurative language and the effect on
theme in either Mrs. Dalloway, Paradise Lost, or Canterbury Tales. Use of critical secondary sources
is suggested. If used, all secondary sources must be cited.
o Day 3: Evolution of the novel as a literary form Richardson to Russo
o Day 4: Brave New World discussion of first 1/2
o Day 5: Brave New World discussion of second ½
Week 12
o Day 1: Summative Assessment as above due___
o Day 2: AP Literature exam practice
100 skill assessment pts.
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Day 3: AP Literature exam practice
Day 4: Brave New World Essay test
50 content pts.
Assignment for day 5: Read chapter 26 pp 1265-83
In class day 5: “Before Breakfast” and pp 1306-, 1337-44
Notebooks due
100 process pts.
Week 13 Drama
Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 27 pp1347-1362
o Day 1: Oedipus Rex Film
o Day 2: Lear Analysis and Performance: Film
o Day 3: Reading and discussion --King Lear
50 process pts
o Day 4: Two-Page soliloquy analysis due___
50 product pts
o Day 5: Essay test: King Lear
50 content pts
Week 14
Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 28 pp 1579-87
o Day 1: Shakespeare’s Comedy: Midsummer Night’s Dream
o Day 2: Midsummer
o Day 3: Midsummer
50 process pts
o Day 4: Two-page analysis of comic element due 50 product pts.
o Day 5: Essay test --Midsummer
50 content pts.
Week 15
Assignment for day 1: Read chapter 29 pp 1696-1701
o Day 1: Glass Menagerie read/discuss
o Day 2: Glass Menagerie read/discuss
o Day 3: Two-page character analysis due
o Day 4: Read pp1838-1841 and pp1867-1873
o Day 5: Enemy of the People read/discuss
50 process pts.
50 product pts.
Week 16
Day 1: Film –Death of a Salesman
Day 2: Death of a Salesman discussion
Day 3: Notebook and writing folders due
100 process pts.
Day 4: Research/work time for summative assessment: Write a comparative analysis of a dramatic
element in one major play from the unit and another play by the same author or related style. Use of
secondary critical sources is suggested. If used, all secondary sources must be cited.
Summative assessment due____
100 skill assessment pts.
Final Exam: (20% of course grade) AP Literature Released Exam scored using College Board
formula