AP Literature Overview

In the Spring, students will have the opportunity to take AP Exam offered by the College Board Association (SAT).  Students can register and pay by January of the year enrolled.  See the instructor or guidance counselor for details.

Credits: 

• 1 English Language Arts Credit

Pre-Requisites: 

• World Literature
• American Literature or Honors American Literature
• Composition 1 & 2

Students who do not meet prerequisites will be review by the ELA team on an individual basis to ascertain if the individual’s skills will meet the rigor of an Advanced Placement Course.

Course Summary:  In an AP level course, students analyze and evaluate perspective in connection to purpose, audience, and task biases. They cite strong, thorough textual evidence based on and related to the author’s implicit and explicit assumptions and beliefs. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the interaction between and development of themes or ideas over the course of a text or multiple texts. Students analyze and evaluate the impact of an author’s rhetorical choices (i.e., point of view, purpose, style) on their writing and reasoning, including claims and counterclaims, as well as precise language such as metaphor, simile, and analogy. They analyze seminal and foundational texts based on reasoning and rhetoric, as well as works of literature that reflect a variety of genres and major periods.

Students will move towards academic independence and college-and-career readiness. Students grapple with demanding texts by integrating previously learned skills to analyze and evaluate the writer’s premise, purpose, and argument in both informational and literary text. Students conduct sustained research projects and/or make strategic use of digital media to answer a question by evaluating, organizing and integrating multiple sources and complex ideas to make informed decisions on how the specifics relate to the whole.   Using previously learned competencies, students master skills such as asking their own questions, solving their own problems, and leading their own class discussions. Finally, students continue to develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening to master purposeful and independent expression.

Course Description:  Advanced Placement Literature explores literary works in various genres from around the world throughout literary history.  Special attention is given to the canon of literature that has been recognized as possessing high literary merit.  Students will explore the development of literature throughout time and learn to recognize common themes, structures, forms, archetypes, etc.

Students will perform close readings of the text in order to extrapolate inferred meanings and symbols that enhance not only the story’s plot but also the story’s overall effect.  Reading, interpreting, analyzing, and extending text beyond literal interpretations is integral to the study of literature in an Advanced Placement course. 

The approach to analyzing and interpreting the material involves students in learning how to make careful observations of textual detail, establish connections among their observations, and draw from those connections a series of inferences leading to an interpretive conclusion about the meaning and value of a piece of writing .

Most of the works studied in the course were written originally in English, including pieces by African, Australian, Canadian, Indian and West Indian authors.  Some works in translation may also be included (e .g ., Greek tragedies, Russian or Latin American fiction) .

In an ongoing effort to recognize the widening cultural horizons of literary works written in English, literature will include diverse authors in the representative reading lists. Issues that might, from a specific cultural viewpoint, be considered controversial, including references to ethnicities, nationalities, religions, races, dialects, gender or class, are often represented artistically in works of literature.

The principal focus in the AP course means that students gain awareness that the English language that writers use has changed dramatically through history, and that today it exists in many national and local varieties. They also become aware of literary tradition and the complex ways in which imaginative literature builds upon the ideas, works and authors of earlier times.  Because the Bible and Greek and Roman mythology are central to much Western literature, students should have some familiarity with them.  These religious concepts and stories have influenced and informed Western literary creation since the Middle Ages, and they continue to provide material for modern writers in their attempts to give literary form to human experience.  Additionally, the growing body of works written in English reflecting non-Western cultures may require students to have some familiarity with other traditions.

Writing will involve an analysis of text that allows the students to make judgments about the text while supporting their assertions with specific data from the text.  Furthermore, students must also explain their analysis and link their thoughts to specific examples, instances, or warrants.

Writing is an integral part of the AP English Literature and Composition course and exam.  Writing assignments focus on the critical analysis of literature and include expository, analytical and argumentative essays.  Although critical analysis makes up the bulk of student writing for the course, well-constructed creative writing assignments may help students see from the inside how literature is written.  Such experiences sharpen their understanding of what writers have accomplished and deepen their appreciation of literary artistry. The goal of both types of writing assignments is to increase students’ ability to explain clearly, cogently, even elegantly, what they understand about literary works and why they interpret them as they do.

Writing instruction includes attention to developing and organizing ideas in clear, coherent and persuasive language. It includes study of the elements of style.  And it attends to matters of precision and correctness as necessary.  Throughout the course, 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; 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 an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis .