APLC Syllabus and Frist Term Itinerary

AP Literature and Composition
Fall 2009

Objectives –

The main purpose of this course, beyond the obvious goal of understanding and appreciating the world’s great works of literature, is twofold…to hone your critical reading and writing skills to the point where you can pass the AP Literature and Composition Exam in May. The term hone is important here, as it is assumed that you already possess strong reading comprehension and writing skills.

Course Methods –

Needless to say you will be doing a tremendous amount of reading and writing in this course. Readings will frequently be accompanied by either individual or group analysis or response exercises. Writing assignments will be many and varied. We will obviously need to practice the type of timed, prompt-response essays that you will be asked to write in May (as well as practicing for the very difficult MC section). To this end, we will frequently write 40-minute prompt essays from past AP Exams. We will also read and score sample essays using the AP 9-point rubrics (I will typically not mark on your essays when I score them, because I will expect you to objectively, and accurately, score your own once you have familiarized yourself with the rubric and scored/ranked several samples.)

However, since passing the Exam will exempt you from the one real writing course you would otherwise take in college, we also need to spend a significant amount of time on the writing process. We therefore will have a number of longer writing assignments that will be “work shopped” during class and extensively edited and revised out of class. During the first semester, I will collect and assess draft versions of papers, and I will also assess your comments on/criticism of your peers’ papers. However, starting in the second semester, you will be expected to be able to effectively read and revise each others essays, and I will no longer collect or assess anything but final drafts of out-of-class papers. Like all literature classes, this one will be primarily discussion-based, though I will present important information through lectures from time to time.

Course Materials:

The text we will use for this course is Perrine’s. You will need a large three-ring binder for this class, preferably with at least one folder-insert. Each student will also need a black-and-white composition book which will be used as a response journal.






Grading –

Reading Comprehension Exercises (reflective response, explication, and analysis)
Quizzes (consisting of MC and short answer questions)
Unit Tests (some will be entirely MC questions, some will have MC and essay sections)
AP Essays (timed, in-class writing scored with 9-point rubric)
Longer Essays (out-of-class, careful revision required)

Homework –

You will ALWAYS have work to do for this course outside of class, and failure to do it will affect you grade. (If you haven’t read a poem or passage that I ask you to respond to during class, you’re obviously not going to do well on that assignment!) However, I will only rarely “take-up” homework assignments for points. When I do they will be scored on an effort-basis, so take advantage of the opportunity to pad your average.

Course Itinerary –

First Semester: Poetry & Short Fiction
Second Semester: Longer Fiction & Drama

Term 1 (Weeks 1-9)

Reading: Perrine’s “Writing About Literature” pp. 1-23; Elements of Poetry
(chapters 1-7, 9, and 11-13)
Mortimer Adler, “How to Mark a Book”

Research Assignments: Historical and Biblical Allusions (posted to blog)
One-Page Paper: Romantic Poets

Writing Assignments: 2 in-class AP-prompt essays
2 out-of-class papers, workshopped over a 2-week period