AP LITERATURE PREVIEW
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE PREVIEW
AP Literature is a challenging course for many students in their senior year. With SpringLight's preview class, students can prepare the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills in order to prepare both for the AP exam and improve preparedness for AP LIT curriculum at local high schools.
Students will:
- Guided classic literature reading: read classic novels, stories, and dramas
- Intensive reading on classic poems
- Writing assignments and feedback on writing assignments
- Heavy drill in reading comprehension, especially with regard to passage-based reading
- Development and mastery of specific strategies for writing the three AP LIT essays:
- the poetry essay,
- the prose fiction essay
- the free response essay on your chosen novel
Required Texts
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Selected short stories and poems to be distributed by the instructor
Description from the College Board: AP English Literature and Composition is an introductory college-level literary analysis course. Students cultivate their understanding of literature through reading and analyzing texts as they explore concepts like character, setting, structure, perspective, figurative language, and literary analysis in the context of literary works.
Syllabus
| Course Date/Subject | Assigned Reading | Homework |
| Poetry Unit | ||
| June 19—The Classics: English Poetry | John Donne (“The Good Morrow,” “The Sun Rising”),Robert Herrick (“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”), and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (“Sonnet 43”) | Literalization Assignment |
| June 26—Poetry in the 20th Century: Diversity in America | Selected poems by Langston Hughes (“Harlem,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”), Cathy Song (“Adagio,” “The Kindness of Others”), Nikki Giovanni (“Dreams,” “Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like”), and Layli Long Soldier (“Talent”) | AP Exam Q1 Practice |
| Longer Fiction Unit—Beloved by Toni Morrison | ||
| July 3 | Beloved Book 1 | Reader’s Journal |
| July 10 | Beloved Book 2 | Prepare for “Putting Sethe on Trial” Activity |
| July 17 | Beloved Book 3 | Exam Q3 Practice |
| Short Fiction Unit | ||
| July 24 | Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge” | |
| July 31 | Amy Tan “Two Kinds” and Jamaica Kincaid “Girl” | Exam Q2 Practice |
| Drama Unit—Hamlet by William Shakespeare | ||
| August 7 | Hamlet Act 1 & 2 | Reader’s Journal |
| August 14 | Hamlet Act 3 & 4 | Exam Q1 Practice |
| August 21 | Hamlet Act 5 | Final Reflective Essay |
DISCLAIMER: Assignment schedule is tentative and subject to change at the teacher’s discretion.