Poetry Reading Assignment

The poetry section of Perrine's begins on page 645 and is divided into 16 chapters. Each of those chapters consists of anywhere from 3-9 pages of introductory/explanatory narrative (with a few poems included as examples), a textbox with the heading "REVIEWING CHAPTER ____", and several pages of poems and critical reading questions. By Tuesday September 8 you need to have read the narrative parts of each of those chapters. You should read and consider the poems included as examples, but you do not need to answer the questions or read any of the poems that appear at the end of the respective chapters.

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

Fever Chart Assignment

Hamlet: The Fever Chart

The purpose of the fever chart assignment is to allow you to do a close reading of the text, which will lead to an essay that supplies evidence for the idea you are developing. The basic idea of the fever chart is that you are tracking Hamlet’s psychological state through the course of the play, using your own created (sanity-insanity) scale as the “Y-AXIS” and using direct quotes from the play as the “X-AXIS.” A careful look at the fever chart will allow you to draw conclusions.

You can choose to do Hamlet alone or you can have several lines for several different characters. Some traditional questions/issues have been Hamlet’s outer v. his inner life, Polonius’s observation that “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it,” and the theme of appearance versus reality. You do not have to focus on Hamlet, however, but might want to consider the characters of Claudius, Ophelia, or Gertrude and their respective psychological and emotional plights. If you are brave, you might also consider a topic/chart that combines Hamlet and Moby-Dick.

Sample Fever Chart Scoring Rubric:

Originality of Format (20 pts.)
Use of the Text: # of citations (40 pts.)
Presentation: Art, Construction, Neatness (20 pts.)
Clarity and Demonstration of Thesis (20 pts.)

Total _________

Comments:

Week 31

We will spend the week reading and discussing Hamlet. You will need to bring your copy of the play to class everyday. Tuesday 3/31 will be a reading day. You should be through Act II by Wednesday and finished witht he play by Friday.

You will also need to be working on your Hamlet Fever Chart. We will discuss this assignment (which is due next Wednesday 4/8) in class, but the links below will be helpful.

http://mtsnetworks.net/ngeorge/
http://casgex.tripod.com/index.html

Assignment for Monday 3/30

Read Act I, Scenes I and II of Hamlet and post responses to the following questions. These will be recorded as homework grades...15 pts. each if you do them reasonable well, 0 if you have not posted by the beginning of class Monday.

1. What portents appear in Act I Scene I? What does Horatio think these signs mean? What portents appeared in Moby-Dick? Do you think Shakespeare influneced Melville in this regard? Why or why not?

2. In his soliloquy, Hamlet uses the image of an unweeded garden. What is Hamlet comparing to a garden? What are the weeds? Who is responsible for tending the garden? If Hamlet were the chief gardener, how do you think he would go about restoring the garden?

Week 29

Reading: Perrine's The Elements of Drama, Ch 1. pp 1027-1030; Ch. 3 pp. 1209-1216; Oedipus Rex through Scene 1 (pp. 1216-1231)

M: MC Practcie

T - Th: Watch Moby-Dick, discuss reading

F: CPS Quiz on reading (15 pts.)

HW: finish Oedipus Rex

Week 28

Papers due Friday!

M & T - MC Practice

Tues. HW: Review Ahab and Starbuck quotes/charatcer analyses from blog.

W - AP Prompt Essay (in library comp lab. e-mail to me when done.)

Th - Essay Day...I will BRIEFLY read over and comment on any drafts brought to class.

F - Papers Due; AP Prompt Samples