Course Syllabus

English 12AP Literature

Day One: Block B

To preserve our right to liberty, we must take responsibility for our choices.

Faculty: Dwight Hillis and Ms. Gin

I am available during break and lunch hours for a tutorial in 219.

Asynchronous Google Meets will be available for you to drop in between 1:10 and 1:45.

Please contact me at dhillis@stgeorges.bc.ca between 7 am and 7:30 pm if you need to reach me.

If you need to talk to me in person, I can be available from 8:30 am to 8:55 am in 219

This is a paperless classroom.  All daily lesson plans, assignments essays, quizzes, and tests will be posted on the Assignments window and appear on your calendar.  Anything that is listed on the Pages window can be used at any time to assist your work.  

Course Description

            The AP English Literature and Composition course engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style and themes, as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.

Instructional Aims. Based on the B.C. Ministry of Education curriculum, students will learn through the following experiences:

• Read for enjoyment and to achieve personal goals
• Construct meaningful personal connections between self, text, and world
• Transform ideas and information to create original texts, using various genres forms, structures, and styles
• Use metacognitive strategies to think about our own thinking, strengths, and weaknesses
• Demonstrate the understanding of multimedia, formal speech, discussion, and performance presentation

Learning Outcomes. Based on the B.C. Ministry of Education curriculum, students will learn and be evaluated on the following knowledge and skills:

• Evaluate the relevance (using credibility and significance of purpose) and reliability (using bias, propaganda, and excluded voices) of texts
• Analyze a text based on its purpose (audience and theme), structures (organization), features (diagrams, maps, charts), and literary elements
• Analyze the social and/or cultural values and perspectives that are communicated through the author’s use of language
• Analyze multiple texts to justify a nuanced, unifying theme
• Demonstrate strategic speaking skills (volume, pace, inflection, and emphasis) for the appropriate text
• Demonstrate strategic body language skills (gestures, stance, movements, eye contact) for the appropriate task
• Effectively use rhetoric, literary devices, style (implicit or explicit thesis), and descriptive language to craft a composition appropriate for its purpose
• Create effective, informative written work by using conciseness of language, logical development of ideas, use of transitions, and development of the thesis
• Communicate clear opinion support with specific evidence in a given style
• Use the conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, and punctuation correctly given the context
• Use diction (connotation, verb choice) and syntax (parallelism, modifiers, sentence types) according to communication style and audience
• Correctly cite sources of information using MLA style for both in-text and Works Cited citations

Core Competencies:

• Communication-The communication competency encompasses the set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media.
• Thinking- The thinking competency encompasses the knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development. It is through their competency as thinkers that students take subject-specific concepts and content and transform them into a new understanding. Thinking competence includes specific thinking skills as well as habits of mind, and metacognitive awareness.
• Personal and Social- Personal and social competency is the set of abilities that relate to students' identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society. Personal and social competency encompasses the abilities students need to thrive as individuals, to understand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purposes in the world.

Literacy

            This course embeds literacy practices within every lesson. You’ll learn critical reading skills to help you critically read, interpret, and analyze prose. You’ll observe how the literary techniques you’ve explored in prior units unfold over the course of longer works and analyze how characters develop and interact over the course of a narrative.  You’ll delve deeper into the roles of character and conflict in fiction and explore how a narrator’s perspective can colour storytelling.

            Students will be asked to demonstrate understanding through comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation tasks. You’ll develop your interpretation of literature further by examining how contrasts, ambiguous language, and various other techniques can add layers of meaning to a literary work.

You will also be asked to share ideas using oral, written, and visual communication in both formal and informal settings.

Course Expectations: AP Literature is a comprehensive course modelled on a university styled English study.  The reading load is at a higher level, and students are encouraged to keep up on it so that they can better participate in class discussions and Harkness classes.  AP students are expected to complete all assignments on Canvas as well as keep up on further readings for synthesis work.  Student assessment on Close Reading Analysis will occur in each class and written and quiz work will occur weekly.  AP students will hand in all papers and classwork to Canvas and Turnitin.

            The course includes an intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on works of recognized literary merit:

King Lear                                                                                 William Shakespeare

Frankenstein                                                                             Mary Shelley

All Quiet on The Western Front                                                Erich Remarque

Old English Poets

Romantic Period

American Poets

Existential Poets

The pieces were chosen to invite and reward rereading and do not, like ephemeral works in such popular genres as detective or romance fiction, yield all (or nearly all) of their pleasures of thought and feeling the first time through. The AP English Literature and Composition Development Committee agrees with Henry David Thoreau that it is wisest to read the best books first; the committee also believes that such reading should be accompanied by thoughtful discussion and writing about those books in the company of one’s fellow students.

            Writing instruction includes attention to developing and organizing ideas in clear, coherent and persuasive language. It includes the study of the elements of style, and it attends to matters of precision and correctness as necessary.

Throughout the course, an emphasis is placed on helping students develop stylistic maturity, which, for AP English, is characterized by the following:

• a wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness;
• a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and coordinate constructions;
• a logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques of coherence such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis;
• a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail; and
• the effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis.

English Department Course Weighting Descriptors:

Writer’s Craft                                                 25%

• Grammar and editing skills: Coordination, Subordination, and Conjunctive Adverbs
• Take-home assignments and/or multi-day assessments, group or individual
• Multiple-literacy representations
• Peer/self-editing
• Metacognitive responses to personal work

In-class Writing                                               25%

• In-class writing: essays, free writes, stand-alone responses
• Timed responses and performance tasks
• Cross-grades
• Reading and Viewing                          25%

• Reading comprehension, interpretation, reflection
• Multiple choice and short answer assessments
• Bloom’s sheets
• Canvas discussions

Oral Language                                                25%

• Presentations
• Harkness, Socratic Arguments, debates, discussion-based assessment
• Student self-assessment of engagement during small/full-class discussions

Writing the AP exam is recommended but your choice.