AP English Literature
2 Semester Syllabus K. Hertz
nd
*All unit selections can be substituted for a piece of similar literary merit.
Written Analysis Focus:
Poetry and Prose analysis AP English Lit. style essay questions
In-depth grammar and vocabulary study—on going, with vocabulary
assignments
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Focus on grammatical elements is a chance to analyze and build on skills students have been working with
all year in their writing. However, it is a more in-depth look at how rhetoric and elements of style help
them to articulate their thoughts, and provide a chance for a student who has trouble articulating those
thoughts to look at the mechanics of writing in a more focused and formalized study, rather than the typical
mini-lessons and comments provided on paper.
We will review basic sentence types, syntax, usage, phrases and clause types, and parts of speech, as well
as study basic etymology of words to enhance vocabulary.
Literature Focus:
Romantic Novels
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte--Feb. 6 Comprehension quiz
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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This unit examines the various styles Romantic literature, including Gothic and Comedic. Students will
learn to identify between the two styles by viewing a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s romantic comedy,
Pride and Prejudice, while reading the gothic romance, Wuthering Heights.
We will discuss how an author shapes his or her style through diction, syntax, figurative language,
symbolism, and character.
In-Class Essay: This timed essay will expose students to a piece of literature they have not yet read in class,
but examine the romantic genre.
Romantic and Victorian Poetry
Robert Burns-“To a Mouse”
William Blake-“The Tyger”, “The Lamb”,
“The Chimney Sweeper” (both Songs of
Innocence and Songs of Experience)
William Wordsworth-“Lines Composed a
Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, from
“Ode: Intimations of Immortality”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge-“Kubla Khan”
and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Lord Byron-“She Walks in Beauty,”
from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto
IV”
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Percy Bysshe Shelley-“Ozymandias,” “Ode
to the West Wind”
Matthew Arnold-“Dover Beach”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson-“The Lady of
Shalott”, “In Memoriam A.H.H.”,
“Ulysses”, “Crossing the Bar”
Robert Browning-“My Last Duchess,”
“Porphyria’s Lover”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning-“Sonnet 43”
Dylan Thomas-“Do Not Go Gentle into
That Good Night”
This unit will focus on the study of sound, tone, speaker, metaphor, structure, and style. We will especially
focus on examining ode and lyric styles.
We will discuss the thematic connections between all the poems, but also examine the nuances between the
first and second generation of Romantic poets and influence of Romantics on Victorians.
Formative Assessment: Each student will be responsible for presenting and leading a discussion of a text in
this unit.
Formal Assessments: A Multiple choice test at the end of the unit. Timed writing on AP level question.
Victorian Drama
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Comprehension Quiz March 20
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With this piece we will explore the art of Victorian social satire and how Wilde comments on society
through their works. We will review dramatic irony and character dramatic terms.
In-class writing: Timed writing on AP level question.
—Spring Break—
Victorian and Early Modern Prose and Novella
James Joyce-“Araby”
Virginia Woolf-“Shakespeare’s Sister” from A Room of One’s Own
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This will review theme, structure, point of view, metaphor, setting, character and plot development.
Students will write in-class essays examining one or more of the aspects above in each of the stories above.
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad-- READ and REREAD this Text several times before
we formally study it in April!!!! Comprehension Quiz April 17
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This novella study is culmination of AP-specific skills. We will reread portions of the text together in class
to examine frame narrative, inference, symbolism, metaphor, setting, theme, and characterization.
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We will use this text for a final practice of sections of the exam with sample multiple choice sections, prose
analysis essays and help frame questions about the human condition which helps students to understand the
writing of the open essay question.
Tentative Practice Exam Day—Saturday April 22? or 29?
Wednesday, MAY 3, 2017—AP EXAM
Class Review and Literary Theories
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We will review texts read this year and discuss their literary merit.
After the exam we will study how we’ve studied literature this year with a brief introduction to literary
theories in conjunction with study of a Victorian author from the semester. Students will read a book of
their choice from a list of suggested authors and create a project that explains the book and what literary
theory they primarily read with and why. This essay is the written portion of the final exam.
Final Exams
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Multiple Choice Final exam is cumulative and includes some application sections that contain pieces we
have not read in class, but deal with similar themes, structure and style of literature we have read over the
semester.
Project Presentation exam
AP English Literature & Composition Exam Info
Format
Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Time: Exam, itself, is 3 hours; plan on being at the exam from 7:30 am-12:00 am
(The extra time is to include instructions and breaks.)
Section I: Multiple Choice
50-55 questions (60 minutes)—45 % of your grade
Four or five prose and/or poetry passages: 10-15 questions per passage
Section II: Three Essays:
(120 Minutes)—55% of your grade
1. Analysis of poetry
(40-minute essay on a poem provided on the test or comparison of two poems)
2. Analysis of prose
(40-minute essay on a given story, novel excerpt or essay)
3. Open essay
(40-minute essay on a given literary topic supported by the student’s own reading)
SCORING
Score Meaning
5—Extremely
Qualified
4—Well
Qualified
3—Qualified
2—Possibly
Qualified
1—Not
Qualified
Mrs. Hertz’s
Global
Equivalent first-
Grade distribution
Grade distribution
year college
on this test in 2016
on this test in 2016
course grade*
9.1%
7.4%
A
43.6%
17.7%
A-/B+
34.5%
29.4%
B-,C
10.9 %
33.4 %
C, D
1.8%
12%
D/F
*Course grade at GHS reflects a lot more than what you can do on one single day of testing in May, and
therefore may not directly correspond with the projected college equivalency.
The Writing TABOO* List!
1. No Name -- Let us not belabor the obvious.
2. Incorrect Heading -- Your name, period, date, and teacher must appear in the upper left hand corner of
the first page of any formal essay. (This is MLA proper format.)
3. Illegible Handwriting -- You may use manuscript or cursive, but your work must be readable.
(Of course, you may often also type or use a word-processor.)
4. Unacceptable Paper -- Use only the front side of standard notebook paper. Paper will be unacceptable if
it is fringed, two-sided, or abused.
5. Unacceptable Writing Materials -- Use blue or black ink only for all regular assignments. You should
bring two pens to class in case one runs out of ink.
6. Unacceptable Corrections -- Use the proofreading marks given in class or correction fluid.
7. Unacceptable Margins -- Respect the margins provided on notebook paper.
8. Incorrect Punctuation of a Title -- When in doubt, ask. Otherwise, follow these guidelines:
“Quotation Marks”
Underlining OR Italics
short story
novel
short poem
book-length poem
chapter in a book
full-length book
article in a magazine
name of magazine
article in a newspaper
name of newspaper
entry in an encyclopedia
name of encyclopedia
episode of television series
name of television series
song
opera
essay
movie
√Also direct quotations, words
√Also names of ships, airplanes, trains,
used in a special sense, slang,
works of art, words or numbers used as such
or dialogue.
and foreign words and phrases
9. Mechanical Errors Which Are Gross Illiteracies -- Proofread carefully for the following:
Failure to capitalize I
Incorrect use of its or it’s
Incorrect use of they’re, their, or there
Incorrect use of two, to, or too
Incorrect use of your or you’re
Use of the words hisself, theirselves, alot
Failure to capitalize a proper noun (specific person, place, thing)
Failure to capitalize the first word of a sentence
Failure to punctuate the end of a sentence
Failure to indent for a paragraph
Misspelling of literature, poem, poetry, writing, author
Error in use or spelling of any other words on the “No Excuse Word List”
10. Plagiarism -- Deliberate plagiarism is claiming, indicating, or implying that the ideas, sentences, or words of
another are one’s own. It includes copying the work of another, or following the work of another as a guide to ideas
and expression that are then presented as one’s own. Accidental plagiarism is the improper handling of quotations
and paraphrases without a deliberate attempt to deceive. If the plagiarism is accidental, the student may correct and
rewrite the paper, but will be penalized a letter grade.
* Polynesian word for a sacred prohibition put upon people, things, or acts
which makes them untouchable, unmentionable, and absolutely forbidden.