Advanced Placement English

Tentative Syllabus

September

Secrets, Dreams, and Lies

Literature Boot Camp: How does one write, think, and talk about literature?

Ken Kesey,One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Larry Watson, Montana 1948

Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Dystopia

Choice Novels

Orwell, 1984

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake

Aldus Huxley, Brave New World

Early October

TBA – class decision

The Great Gatsby

Harlem Renaissance Poetry

Mid October to Mid November

Independent Reading and book / author presentation

Sula, Toni Morrison

The Shipping News, Annie Prioux

The Prodigal Summer/ The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy Tan

House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende

In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez

Alias Grace/ Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood

Mama Day, Gloria Naylor

One Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley

The Color Purple, Alice Walker

Poetry

British Poets

American Poets

Contemporary Poets

Poetry Terms and aspects of poetry

Experimenting with form

November – December

Illusions that Bind

King Lear

EXAM – Practice AP test

January

The Shadow Self: What is the nature of good and evil?

Historical Background

Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Russian Literature 19^th century)

Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

Dante, The Inferno

Stevens, “ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

Character Dissection Paper

Practice test

February - March

Illusion and Reality: what is the nature of truth?

Sophocles, Oedipus Rex

Orwell, “Poetics and the English Language”

Aristotle, Poetics

related poetry

Shakespeare, Hamlet

Character Analysis

Hamlet film

Hamlet in ten minutes

April

Consumed: how does memory help us heal? How do we forgive the injustices of the past?

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Mary Oliver, “Crossing the Swamp”

Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom”

Lucille Clifton, “Slave ships”

May

Comedy of Manners and the Victorian Age –

Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest & excerpt from Lady Windermere’s Fan

Movie

Practice test and review

Post A.P. Test – we’re almost there. . .

The Human Project

Senior Portfolio

Gratitude Wall