• BALDWIN HIGH SCHOOL

    ADVANCED PLACEMENT LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

    SYLLABUS 2019-2020

    Mrs. Taormina

    516-434-6100

     

     Office Hours:    

     Tuesday 7:00 to 7:30a.m.

     Thursday 2:45 to 3:15p.m.

      Room 611B



    Anthology:

     

    Literature & Composition, Second Edition

     

    NOVELS:

     

    The Bluest Eye, The Awakening, Heart of Darkness, All the Pretty Horses, Frankenstein, The Things They Carried  

     

    Non-Fiction: 

     

    On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

    Two works from summer reading list

    Author biographies

    Relevant historical, political, religious backgrounds

    Relevant influential philosophies/theories and beliefs

    Medical journals/reports on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bi-Polar disorder

     

    Interviews

    Documentaries




    SHORT WORKS 

     

    The Yellow Wallpaper, The Use of Force, Hills Like White Elephants, A Clean Well-Lighted Place, and selections from Literature and Composition




    DRAMA:

     

    Othello by William Shakespeare

    Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

     

    Non-Fiction

     

    Research historical settings

    Prevalent attitudes/beliefs in time periods of plays

    The American Dream

    Arthur Miller – background  

    William Shakespeare – background



    POETS:

     

    A variety of poetry will be interspersed throughout the year. The following list of poets is subject to change, depending on relevance to themes/discussions/interest during the course of our studies.

     

    Ammons, Boland, Browning, Cullen, Dickinson, Donne, Eliot, Gallagher, Hardy, Heaney, Horikawa, Kennedy, Lorde, Marvell, Merwin, Millay, Parker, Plath, Rich, Rilke, Rossetti, Shakespeare, Shelly, Wordsworth, etc., etc.








    AP English Literature and Composition

    Mrs. Taormina

     

    Course Description:

     

    The Advanced Placement Literature and Composition course requires students to examine challenging literary works, closely. Exploring readings from a variety of time periods, we will consider how an author creates meaning and engages readers through the use of devices such as structure, symbolism, imagery, and tone. The course follows the curricular requirements described in the College Board's AP Course Description.

     

    Course Goals:

    • expand vocabulary as used in writing; this includes apt word choice and critical analysis terminology
    • read critically various literary genres (poetry, drama, and prose) from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century and understand the works' complexities and richness of meaning
    • analyze selected works in regard to tone, structure, content, figurative  language, theme, point of view, and style
    • consider how the historical and social context reflects and affects a work's meaning
    • write critical analyses of literature including expository, analytical, and argumentative essays - Students will use appropriate literary terminology in these analyses.
    • write with increased grace and style, following the conventions of standard written English
    • prepare a writing portfolio that includes both responses to literature and personal writing
    • using criticism as the basis, prepare and write an interpretative literary research paper on a novel. The paper must follow accepted MLA procedures.
    • prepare students to take the English Literature and Composition Advanced Placement Exam

     

    Reading Assignments:

     

    You will be expected to read regularly and carefully in this class. Because of the number of works covered, their density, and our focus on close analysis, you must allot more time for reading assignments than you may have done in previous courses. I suggest you purchase a personal copy of as many of our texts as possible. Being able to highlight and annotate key quotes and passages within the text will be very helpful.

     

    Essential Reading Skills:

     

    • Close reading of text to interpret the passage's textual details, considering structure, style, themes, and social/historical values reflected