Advanced Placement Literature and Composition

The Lit Circle Assignments.,

Monday, MAY 23
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel *** Molly, Leighton, Elizabeth, Haley, Tim.

Twelfth Night, by Wm. Shakespeare *** Tristan, Jordan, Prithwis, Ellen, Henry “The Big H” Patterson.

Tuesday, MAY 24
Atonement, by Ian McEwan *** Michaela, Ben, Matt L. *** <-- BEFORE LUNCH

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje *** Mihoko, Izzy, Jenna, Erin, Jan.

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien *** Nate and Rachael S.

Wednesday, MAY 25
STOPPARD PLAYS: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and The Real Inspector Hound. Stephanie, Hannah, Paige, Breana, Nick, Abby.

SHAW PLAYS: Shaw’s One-Acts, Shaw’s Style, Shaw’s Pygmalion (scenes on video?)
Justin, Mike S., Claire, Ambika, Patrick.

How Did I Do with EROS????

Today’s essay prompt – a comparison & contrast essay on poems involving Eros – can be found on AP Central under 2003 (“Form A” – i.e., not Form B).

I encourage you to review the Scoring Guidelines, the Scoring Commentary, the Student Performance Q & A, the Scoring Statistics (which have changed a bit since 2003, btw!), and above all, the "Sample Responses to Q1” – i.e., the student essays, which include a high-scoring, a middle-scoring, and a low-scoring essay written in 2003.

Amazing Student Essay on a Poem by Ted Hughes

AP Rehearsal Essay, due THIS MONDAY, APRIL 4

In a well-written essay of four to six paragraphs (i.e., AP-exam length), respond to one of the following prompts:

1. Discuss the strategies Tennyson uses in “Ulysses” (Sound & Sense, p. 114) to characterize the venerable speaker of the poem. In other words, “What kind of person is [Ulysses] as Tennyson represents him?” (S & S, p. 116).

2. Discuss Robert Browning’s use of imagery, dialogue, and irony to establish the character of the Duke in “My Last Duchess” (pp. 135-136).

3. Discuss the literary methods used by Houseman to establish Terence’s philosophy of life in “Terence, this is stupid stuff” (pp. 19-21).

Practice embedding quoted lines (i.e., up to 20%)!

Please type & double-space for peer editing.

VIRTUES OF A STRONG C & C ESSAY: Macro-virtues: • Strong organization – org. you maintain. • Maintain a consistent tone. • Balanced consideration of both poems. • Respond to the prompt – don’t omit anything the prompt asks of you! Don’t digress! Micro-virtues: • Maintain one verb tense. • Embedded quotations, used in grammatically appropriate “beds”! • Limit your observations to a few well-chosen topics – avoid sprawl! • Use the language of C & C: ...on the one hand // on the other hand. ‘Here’ (one thing) vs. ‘There’ (another thing). Author A addresses the situation (one way), whereas Author B addresses the situation (differently).

Two Contrasting Works of Art

For Monday's class, March 7, 2011:

Bring two contrasting examples of a single art form -- one from the Neoclassical or Enlightenment era and one from the Romantic era.

You could "bring" (via e-mail) two landscape paintings, for example. Or you could bring (via iPod) two string quartet movements: one by Mozart (1780s) and one by Robert Schumann (1830s). You could bring two sculptural busts, or two excerpts from plays. Or two poems. Or two paragraphs from representative essays.

When you share your selections with the class, be prepared to explain what distinguishes one as a Neoclassical piece and the other as a Romantic-era piece.

[Note to future college freshmen: a convincing university-level explanation avoids words like 'swirly' and 'flow'!! Do your best to describe specifics. No points off for citing credible authorities.]

Modest Proposals

Form a group of five or six people and create a modest proposal in the form of a group essay. Your essay should propose a specific policy change in an aspect of school life, school rules, state or local policy, or contemporary life as it affects you and your peers.

See our textbook for general advice -- pages 568-570 -- but also feel free to consult modern satirical sources (The Onion, The New Yorker, et al.) for help with tone, humor, and style.

Your final product should take the form of a 1-2 page essay -- typed and double-spaced, in a 12-pt. font - that you submit on or before Friday, March 4.

Stumped by a Word?

Hie thee to the Oxford English Dictionary online. The New York Times called the O.E.D. "the greatest project in dictionary making in the history of the English Language." University English professors will expect incoming A.P. students to be familiar with the O.E.D.

The Oxford English Dictionary is free to all Woodbury English students. To access the O.E.D., go to the Media Center page on the school website. Click on the link to the Oxford English Dictionary. The username is whsroyals, and password is whsroyals.

WHS Media Center Web page link.

(The definition of your word? Maktoub.)

The Structure of the May A.P. Exam in Literature & Composition

Part I - Multiple-Choice Questions - (60 min.)
55 questions based on five poetry and prose selections - 17th to 21st century (60 min.).

Part II - Free-response Essays (120 min.)
Question #1 - Written response to a single poetry selection (40 min.).

Question #2 - Written response to a single prose selection (40 min.).

Question #3 - Written response to a prompt on a broad literary topic - e.g., character foils, setting, plot structure, symbolism, irony, alienation - relying on one novel or play that you already know well as your primary example (40 min.).

We'll hold exam rehearsals from time to time during the school year; however, students should also practice at home. We obviously cannot rehearse for a 3-hour exam within a 55-minute class period! Test yourself on questions from past exams on AP Central (answer key provided). Also, we encourage you to buy and use published practice booklets.

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition - English 12

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Online Glossaries of Literary Terms

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