Course Title: English 12 Advanced Placement Literature and Composition

Department: English

Grade Level: 12

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This program is designed as an introductory college-level course in reading and critical analysis of literature. Its purpose is to acquaint the student with significant forces in contemporary life and to demonstrate how these forces have affected literature. This involves language as a symbolic process and literature as experience preserved in language. It is also designed to help the student identify, describe and analyze the elements of each literary genre and to write competent, well-organized papers in a variety of styles, modes and voices. Students will participate in eclectic activities that will prepare them for the Advanced Placement Literature and Composition examination as well as success upon entering college; in addition, the course will address the California State Standards.

Length: One Year

Prerequisite for Enrollment: An A in English 11 or a B or better in English 11 Honors, a score of 76% or better on the STAR Exam, a rubric score of 5 or 6 on the English Diagnostic exam, and teacher recommendation (effort grade). The student must meet all 4 criteria.

Type of Course: College preparatory and meets graduation requirements.

COURSE OUTLINE

A. Literature:

1. The students will describe and analyze the structural elements of all genre – drama, poetry, the short story, the novel and the essay.

2. The students will identify and trace similar themes through the works of several authors.

3. The students will read, discuss and interpret and wide variety of major literary works.

4. The students will discuss and demonstrate relationships between literature and other disciplines.

5. The students will recognize and evaluate ethical, aesthetic and cultural values and identify and assess political and social issues in a given work.

B. Integration of Writing

1. The students will demonstrate an understanding of the writing process.

2. The students will write competent, well-organized

expository essays connected to the literary works they are studying.

3. The students will write in a variety of styles, modes and voices.

4. The students will edit and rewrite their own papers and edit and critique other students’ papers.

5. The students will practice timed writing on literary works in preparation for the Advanced Placement examination.

6. The students will read and analyze in a formal paper a number of works by the same author or a number of related works.

C. Vocabulary

1. The students will extend and refine their use of vocabulary through reading, writing and discussion.

2. The students will participate in dialogues, group discussions and panels.

3. In individual class presentations the students will present results of their various research projects.

4. The students will read aloud from poetry, prose and drama.

5. The students will demonstrate listening skills by written and oral response.

D. Grammar

1.The students will practice and refine their conventions of grammar and usage in their writing.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS

Students will read at least ten novels and plays and write a minimum of ten papers in various rhetorical modes. They will present oral reports on various aspects of the literature. In small groups they will focus of issues relevant to the course of study. Students will write essays in a variety of expository and rhetorical modes. Students will critique and correct their own classmates’ papers according to given rubrics. The instructor will utilize lecture, Socratic discussion, and technology, among other strategies.

EVALUATION/GRADING OF STUDENT WORK

B. Students will be evaluated on both formal and informal bases. Writing will be evaluated by the instructor, as well as by peers and by the student himself. Students will be required to apply the techniques of writing taught through the writing process.

C. Students will be given quizzes and tests to check for understanding of the literature and to determine the students’ ability to interpret what they have read and to make higher level connections.

D. Students will be responsible for reading the literature assigned and for the writing assignments determined by the instructor. Students will be responsible for group projects and reports.

E. Students are expected to attend class regularly and to participate constructively in classroom activities.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

A. Over 10 works emphasizing world literature from the following list will be read:

1. Oedipus Rex

2. Hamlet

3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

4. Gulliver’s Travels

5. Pride and Prejudice

6. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

7. Jude the Obscure

8. Tess of the Durbervilles

9. Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man

10. The Stranger

11. The Metamorphosis

12. Slaughterhouse Five

B. Poetry from Introduction to Poetry, X.J. Kennedy