• Course Overview and Expectations 

    As an Advanced Placement/Dual Enrollment course, the expectations and requirements are difficult and accelerated. The structure for this course complies with the curriculum requirements described in the College Board and San Antonio College course description. The “workload” of the course may seem very demanding, but it is essential if students in the program are to develop and practice the critical analysis and writing skills needed to complete the curriculum requirements and achieve success on the AP Literature and Composition Exam. 

    This course focuses on the critical analysis and intensive study of imaginative literature from various genres, periods, and cultures. Students will experience, interpret, and evaluate different works of literature through readings, class discussions, and various writing assignments.

    Books

    Reading Assignments 

    As the course moves through different units, there will always be a major work of literary merit the students will be reading outside of class. Simultaneously, the students will have shorter reading assignments (i.e., essays, short stories, poems, excerpts of other works) that will be required. A variety of different major authors and their works from different time periods and genres will be read, analyzed, discussed, interpreted, and evaluated. Works from the genres of poetry, drama, fiction (novels and short stories), and expository prose will be explored. 


    Every student must read all of the required assignments on time to be successful in this course. The amount of reading required for this course is vast and can seem overwhelming if a student does not plan ahead and dedicate themselves to reading on schedule. All readings and due dates will be announced in class and posted/updated in class. Students should be prepared to actively discuss and/or analytically write during every unit. 

    • Vocabulary:  Includes literary terminology as required for college-level writing, reading, and explication. Students will have Literary Glossary work due to over 5-7 new terms during every month of the year & cumulative tests over them per semester.  
    • Novels, Dramas, Major Outside Readings:  In this AP Lit/Dual Credit course students are not required to purchase their own copies of outside readings (novels and plays), but it is highly recommended. All readings will be available as PDF, audio, & study resources (ex. Sparknotes, Litcharts, Schmoop, etc) when available on Google classroom. All reading will be done outside of class. 
    • Self-Choice Novel: Each semester students will choose a self-selected novel and complete a summative project based on it. There will be a Summative Project for AP Lit students, while the Dual Credit Students will have the self-choice novel as their 3rd research paper. 
    • AP/DC Reading List: How To Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids by Thomas C. Foster, Counting Descent by Clint Smith, Hamlet & Sonnets by Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and supplemental pieces of poetry/a short stories from self-selection of 40 pieces.
    • GT Reading List: How To Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids by Thomas C. Foster, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hamlet & Sonnets by Shakespeare, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, The American Academy of Poet's 2022 Dear Poet Project, Dubliners by James Joyce, Metamorphosis, and more.  

     

    Writing Assignments: 

    Students will write for a variety of purposes using numerous different writing techniques and exercises. 

    • Analytical/Critical Writing: Students will write numerous critical papers throughout the course. These critical essays will be based on the student’s ability to experience, interpret, and evaluate different pieces of literature. As they write, the students ultimately evaluate the artistry and underlying social and cultural values through interpretation and argument. Specifically, the student will use textual evidence to prove how stylistic elements (literary devices) and social-historical values affect a reader while relaying an author’s purpose. The specific requirements of each writing assignment will be provided to the students and reviewed as they occur within each unit throughout the year. 
    • Requirements for out-of-class papers and in-class timed writings will be reviewed with the students at the beginning of the year. All writings will be graded by the criteria stated on holistic rubrics and/or the 6-point scale similar to the one used to grade the AP English Exams. Suggestions and critiques are written onto each student’s papers by the teacher. Students are encouraged to come to tutoring to review these comments during mandatory school tutoring times. 
    • Cold-Reading & Open-Ended FRQ ('Free Response Question') Prompts: Using released AP exams and class sets of AP study guides, students will practice writing Free Response Questions during every grading period. All pieces will be collected in an ongoing Writing Portfolio.
    • Analytical/Research-Based Papers (Dual Credit/GT Only)  Each semester the student will have three research papers. In each semester, the first two will be set for you around the current class units, and the third will be a self-selected novel.  During the days that AP is having Mock AP Tests, Dual Credit will be doing Research Days for their papers.