AP 4 Basic Course Outline The titles listed below are grouped by unit. This list will be supplemented by other texts, films, and related materials. Vocabulary and Grammar units will be a staple of the class. This list is subject to revision. Unit One: Exploring Human Nature and Ignoble Deeds Paradise Lost The Inferno Crime and Punishment Heart of Darkness Richard III Hamlet Pardoner’s Tale Miller’s Tale Reeves Tale Cry the Beloved Country Frankenstein Unit Two: Love, Hate, and Jealousy Wuthering Heights Othello King Lear Invisible Man Arcadia The Knight’s Tale Emily Bronte William Shakespeare Ralph Ellison Thomas Stoppard Geoffrey Chaucer John Milton Dante Alighieri Fyodor Dostoyevsky Josef Conrad William Shakespeare Geoffrey Chaucer Alan Paton Mary Shelley
Unit Three: Portraits of Conformists and Non-Conformists Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man The Stranger Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead The Catcher in the Rye A Doll’s House The Wife of Bath’s Tale Rhinoceros A Clockwork Orange East/West Unit Four: Poetry Survey The final unit in the course will consist of a survey-style reading of numerous pieces. A note on purchasing texts: I strongly recommend that students consider purchasing many of the assigned texts in the course. The reason for this is simple: Having your own texts will enable you to engage in active critical reading, including making annotations directly on the texts. I also believe that any AP student should own these particular pieces of literature. James Joyce Albert Camus Thomas Stoppard J.D. Salinger Henrik Ibsen Geoffrey Chaucer Eugene Ionesco Anthony Burgess Salman Rushdie
Summer Reading Requirements Students are often more comfortable handling the rigors of the AP curriculum if they read the texts more than once. Indeed, the philosophy espoused by the creators of the AP English program, The College Board, assumes as much in the design of curriculum. To this end, students should make an attempt to read as much as the above curriculum as possible over the summer. The following texts are required: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Paradise Lost The Inferno Crime and Punishment Hamlet King Lear Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man A Clockwork Orange
We will begin the course with essays and quizzes on Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno, respectively. Classroom Expectation Summary AP English Literature and Composition is a vigorous course that demands accountability in various ways. Students are expected to have exceptional writing skills, exceptional reading comprehension skills, and a commitment to the rigors of the course. Additionally, all AP students are expected to take the AP English Literature and Composition exam in May. Students are scored primarily on their in-class essay writing and reading quizzes. Typical quizzes will provide five quotations from an assigned text and ask students to identify the speaker, explain the content and context of the quotation, as well as the manner in which the language applies to the over all theme(s) of the piece. Students are expected to be in class. Attendance is among the more serious of considerations to ponder in taking AP English 4. If you plan on consistently miss school for any number of reasons, including college visits, school-sponsored activities, sports, vacation, etc., you should seriously weigh the consequences of taking the AP English course. Missing class for any reason does not exclude students from completing required assignments. Like the university-level course AP emulates, the expectation is that you attend class each and every day. As a consequence, class discussion and direction assumes that you will be in class. Changes in curriculum occur frequently in response to various factors during the course of the year. Students who attend class each day develop a stronger awareness of such changes, the reasons behind them, and are more readily able to adapt. Please keep in mind this simple statement: AP English 4 is not a correspondence course. Final Notes
1. Copies of Paradise Lost, Crime and Punishment, Hamlet, etc., are available in room 263. 2. My website is located at http://teachers.northallegheny.org/acaruso (Note: this will take you to an outside link.) Students with questions are encouraged to email me at acaruso@northallegheny.org.