Tags:
Ms Garr
garr_s@surreyschools.ca (please email me if you would like to receive regular mark updates/communication)
Sullivan Heights Secondary School
604-543-8749
AP English Literature and Composition is a class that allows students to earn college credit and as such incorporates extensive reading of a wide range of literary works, reading for close detail as well as literary devices and structure, reading of challenging works with recognized literary merit, and responding to reading that demonstrates thoughtful inquiry. Students will be expected to articulate responses orally in rich discussions as well as with intelligent, insightful and sensitive critical analyses of literary passages in both impromptu and prepared essays.
AP Exams consist of dozens of multiple-choice questions scored by machine, and free-response questions scored at the annual AP Reading by thousands of college faculty and expert AP teachers. AP Readers use scoring standards developed by college and university faculty who teach the corresponding college course. The Readers’ scores on the free-response questions are combined with the results of the computer-scored multiple-choice questions; the weighted raw scores are summed to give a composite score. The composite score is then converted to a grade on AP’s 5-point scale.
AP GRADE QUALIFICATION
5 Extremely well qualified
4 Well qualified
3 Qualified
2 Possibly qualified
1 No recommendation
Unit Information:
I Short Fiction:
Works by Katherine Mansfield, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Kate Chopin, and Ernest Hemingway
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Focus on Plot, Character, Theme, Point of View, Symbol and Irony, Emotion and Humor and Fantasy
II Poetry:
A wide selection works will be covered from various texts including The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Robert Frost Harold Bloom
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Form and Purpose, Sound and Sense, Diction, Attitude and Tone, Imagery, Allusion, Theme, Pattern, Structure and Sound, The Process Essay
III Drama: Hamlet and King Lear William Shakespeare, and The Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen
Content and/or Skills Taught:
The purpose of this study of drama is to expose students to a selection of stimulating individual works of literature and to increase their ability to analyze and appreciate single works. Students will define elements unique to drama and characteristics that drama shares with fiction and poetry. Finally, students will develop the ability to identify themes that link works of literature, works of different genres, and historical contexts.
IV Novels: Awakening Kate Chopin, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austin, Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell, The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood, Monkey Beach Eden Robinson.
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Plot, Gender and Character, Setting, Social Context, Point of View, Allusion, Imagery, and Symbolism, Irony, Religious Context,
V Non-Fiction
Includes works by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelo, Joan Didion, E.B White, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mary Wollstonecraft, James Baldwin
Content and/or Skills Taught:
Rhetoric: meaning, purpose, audience, method and structure, language (emphasis on development and implementation of sophisticated and effective vocabulary), Writing Process: organizing, drafting (includes lessons on grammar and sentence structure), revising, peer review, editing
VI Literature Circles
Literature Circles allow students to choose, read, discuss and respond to a novel of their choice. They allow students to read at their own pace, and make personal connections to what they are reading.
VII Writing Unit:
The purpose of the writing unit is to provide students with ample opportunity to reflect on strengths and weaknesses in their writing as well as to see progress.
Process writing provides the teacher and student an opportunity to review and revisit students’ work, and required components include a combination of formal expository, persuasive and analytical essays as well as creative and informal writing assignments.
Writing blocks will also incorporate lessons on: Style, Correctness, Clarity, Cohesion, Emphasis (tone and voice), Word Choice, Punctuation and Elegance.
Class rules/expectations:
- Attend all classes, on time unless excused by parent or guardian.
- Complete all assignments on time unless you have met with me prior to the assignment due date to arrange an extension. Marks will be deducted from late assignments (10% per class).
- Be an active and engaged learner.
Required Materials:
- Pocket Dictionary & Thesaurus
- Pens, pencils, post-its, dividers
- AP Literature and Composition Study Guide (purchase from Ms. Garr in September)
Evaluation:
Impromptu Writing: 20%
Process Writing: 20%
Summative Assessments: 20%
English 12 Provincial Exam: 40%