AP Lit Syllabus for 2011-12

AP English Literature and Composition 2011-2012
Semester I Syllabus: The Soul’s Journey
(subject to change)

This course is designed in accordance with guidelines established in the Advanced Placement English Course Description. Our particular study will consistently involve the idea of the journey in literature, that process of transformation which might begin with an actual voyage but which will inevitably become a journey of the hero’s soul, the spirit. This idea has been used by writers and storytellers from Dante to Jack Kerouac, but it is my hope that students in this class will also begin to believe over the course of the year that they are likewise moving toward some resolution, or at the very least toward certain significant new understandings of literature. In fact, I think this is the best way to come to literature – in the faithful belief that we, too, are part of the great unfolding story.
Of course, to reach the destination will take daily discipline as well as vision. This is a college­level course, after all, so students will be expected to participate in seminar­style discussions, to gain and show command of literary analysis and its terms, to read closely for meaning, to evaluate and integrate critical resources in their studies, and to write in a variety of modes about what they have read. In short, by the end of the year, they will have acquired all the tools necessary to become excellent students of literature. This is not to say that students will be deprived of opportunities to develop their own unique voices, as the course will also include several creative writing workshops in which students will try their hands at poetry and fiction.
Reading materials will vary greatly, but a number of texts will derive from works written before 1900. The notion of a canon still has a great deal of relevance to this course of study, and I think students should have a degree of command over some of the books which have helped to form the foundation of Western culture. However, our more modern studies will include Samuel Becket’s Waiting For Godot as well as recent works by Billy Collins. The Bedford Introduction to Literature will be our standby, and most of the poems we cover this year will come from that text. As noted, students will offer some sort of writing on everything we cover this year, as they continue to develop what Flannery O’Connor termed “the habit of writing.” Some of these exercises will be full­ blown critical research projects, and others will be purely reader­response pieces.
Naturally, students must bring specific materials with them to class each day, in addition to the required texts. Pens and a notebook are necessary, of course (I suggest two notebooks, in fact – one for notes on discussion and a separate one for vocabulary words and literary terms and concepts). Students should also procure pocket dictionaries for in­class use. And while we are addressing matters of ordinance, students will beexpected every day to adhere to the ancient rules of good scholarship: be prompt, be courteous and respectful even in the heat of debate, and be ready to contribute something to the course every single day. Remember, we only meet four times a week for 55 minutes at a pop, so we must be steadfast as devotees of the literary word.

First Semester Quarter 1

Week 1 Summer reading wrap­up and course introduction
Students should be able to identify and discuss the significance of quotes from Tess of the d’Urbervilles, one of their summer reading texts. This exercise will involve both written and oral responses. Students who do not succeed will be moved to Academic English IV.
This week, students will also review the previous year’s AP English Literature exam. Some of them will no doubt express trepidation at this, but it will mark a good chance for them to commit themselves to acquiring the analytical and critical skills necessary to perform well on such an exam.
Students receive semester syllabus and texts.
Weeks 2 and 3 Laying the groundwork
Students will re­read selected passages from Tess, pausing to illustrate the skills they may already possess in identifying literary techniques, devices, and outlining themes. Inevitably, new ideas will arise. Students will then break into pairs, choose selections, and read aloud, and together pursue the same exercise of examining language and meaning. Each pair will then report to the class. Students are required to take notes.
Students will also read a range of poems throughout these first two weeks and indeed every week this year. Some of these works might be quite old (even medieval ballads are fair game), while others will be 20th and 21st­century poems. Students will certainly wish to offer their spontaneous responses to the class, but here is where they will be encouraged to see how poetic form and meaning work together. This is also the time to begin to do away with some of their predispositions concerning poetry.
Certain poems will be selected for free­writing responses from students; students will simply react to these works and thus begin the process of discovering meaning in
them.
Texts for the week: Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Hardy) The Bedford Introduction to Literature (Myers)
Weeks 3 and 4 First prompts and papers
Students will respond to an AP­style prompt using a passage from a nonfiction literary piece (perhaps from John Donne or Jonathan Swift). Since most students will have just emerged from AP Language and Composition, students will be allowed here to work in a context they know, identifying rhetorical devices and author’s purpose, for example. However, after the writing exercise, we will look again at the piece to with an eye toward critical literary interpretation. What is the tone of this piece? What motifs has the author used to point us toward meaning? What linguistic devices are at work? These are the sorts of questions students will learn to ask themselves each time they peruse a literary passage.
During these two weeks, students will also begin work on their first analytical essay, drawn from our discussions of summer reading. We will review the writing process: pre­writing, outlining, drafting, and so on, but each student will be encouraged to begin to work independently and to utilize methods which seem to work well for him or her. Students will choose a theme among those which have come to light during our discussions of Tess, illustrate its use in the novel, and arrive at an understanding of that theme’s importance. Students will be allowed at least three periods to work in­class, during which time I will do spot checks and be available for conferencing as needs arise.
Students may also be beginning work on their college essays at this point in the year, which they may also bring to me for revision and conferencing; this will be an ongoing process for the fall.
Texts for the week: The Bedford Introduction to Literature (Myers)
Weeks 5, 6, and 7 Wuthering Heights
Here we will undertake our first major literary study of the year. I will devote two class periods to some discussion of Emily Bronte and her age – enough, at least, to provide a working context and enhance student understanding of key themes in the novel. Students will be expected to have finished the book by the end of week 5, and will show me their notations, questions, and vocabulary lists at that time. Pairs of students will also be assigned “character charting” in order to follow changes (or lack thereof) and episodes
in the various journeys of specific characters. For instance, one pair of students will follow Catherine Earnshaw as she makes her way gradually from Wuthering Heights to Thrushcross Grange and will show us the effectual distinctions in her character.
All students will respond to a Free Response Question in class, either the “confrontation of a mystery” or the “minor character” prompt. They may use their notes and will be scored according to a rubric. These scores will no doubt be somewhat low as students improve throughout the year and adapt to the demands of AP scoring for timed writing.
Our discussions of the novel will be focused and will result in topics for essays which will be due during week 9. Students will read some sections out loud to help support their ideas. We will address the effectiveness of the first­person framed narration, and we will also begin looking closely at motifs such as blood imagery, imagery involving boundaries, gates, doorways, and windows, animal imagery, biblical allusion, and so on. Students may also draw on what they know about the shift from the Romantic Period to the Victorian Age in literature and the manner in which this shift reflects economic and social change in England at the time. Our consideration of motifs should lead us to greater understanding of these themes in the book.
Therefore, crucial to our understanding of the novel will be a firm grasp of the ways in which it reflects significant social and historical changes in Britain during the mid­1800s. For example, class struggles brought about by the Industrial Revolution are clearly dealt with here. Students should be able to illuminate on these ideas in discussion and in their timed responses.
Texts: Wuthering Heights – Norton Critical Edition (Bronte) Poems from the Bedford Introduction to Literature (Myers)
Week 8 Dr. Faustus
We will read the entirety of Marlowe’s play aloud in class, integrating discussion of themes as they unfold. Through this conversation and through some background research, we will examine the influence of changes in the practice of Christianity during the English Renaissance, and we will try to ascertain whether Faustus himself is a villain or a precursor to the Romantic Hero. As with our study of the Bronte novel, the questions students articulate in their initial reading will become the seeds of these seminar­styled discussions.
Students will wrestle with a variety of in­class writing exercises on the play, including a Free Response question.
During this week, students will also be at work on their essay on Wuthering Heights, as drawn from our discussions of that novel. This essay will focus on historical
and social themes, and students will cite and interpret specific textual elements which illustrate these themes. For example, the student might be present an argument concerning Heathcliff’s effectiveness as a transitional character; certain changes in his behavior and attitude clearly result from tensions between an 18th­century Romantic world view and the advent of modern capitalism. For this essay, students will research and cite sources to support their ideas. I will allow some class time for drafting and for individual conferences with me.
Texts: Dr. Faustus (Marlowe) Poetry this week will include selections from Milton’s Paradise Lost, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, and from Dante’s Inferno.
Week 9 Quarter 1 wrap­up
We will use this week to finish up our work on Faustus, final drafts of the Wuthering Heights essays, and to assess student performance thus far, including their efforts on in­class prompts.
terms.
This week will also afford time for review of vocabulary lists and new literary
Quarter 2 Weeks 1, 2, and 3 Frankenstein
For our study of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we will follow much the same pattern we pursued with Bronte. Students will come in with notes, questions, and vocabulary lists. Again, we are dealing with a framed narration as well as a number of important characters, and again, pairs of students will be assigned character charts. As before, students will be asked to keep track of various motifs. The class’s in­depth experience with Wuthering Heights should result in a much more savvy approach to this novel.
Although Shelley’s novel actually precedes Bronte’s historically, it allows us to consider some questions which may seem much more timely to our students. For instance, to what degree should science tamper with Nature? If we do gain the power to generate life, for what purpose might we use that power? Is it in the nature of humans to be kind and compassionate, as Victor’s creature is in the beginning of the story? Finally, both Victor and his monster undertake a voyage – how does this parallel each one’s spiritual journey?
Students will offer a variety of written responses to the novel, including those based on Free Response Question prompts. The “allusions to myth” prompt might work well, given the influence of the Prometheus story in this novel. In any case, several of these writing exercises will be informal and exploratory.
For the most part, students will lead our discussions, taking up those questions outlined above as well as some they have themselves considered during their reading. Their essays, due during week 5, will once again grow out of these conversations, but this time will also include support from a number of critical resources – primarily those in the back of the Norton Critical Edition.
Texts: Frankenstein, Norton Critical Edition (Shelley) Poems for this unit will again be connected thematically and historically to the novel; they will include works by the Romantic poets and also pieces from T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats.
Week 4 and 5 Frankenstein essay and viewing exercise
Students will be allowed several class periods to draft their essays and to meet with me individually.
For this assignment, students may again take an historical approach, as they did with Bronte. For example, how does the Romantic writer’s view of Nature manifest itself through Victor’s ambitions and failures? However, students may also write an analytical essay in which they deal with the novel’s structure and the techniques employed here by a master storyteller.
We will also view various films which either adapt or somehow use the Frankenstein story, including the 1937 film and the more recent (and certainly more faithful to the novel) version starring Kenneth Branagh and Robert DeNiro. Students will be asked to ponder the question of Hollywood’s sometimes­odd revisions of this particular work.
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Weeks 6 and 7 A Streetcar Named Desire
After a brief introduction to the play, the playwright and his era, we will read Tennessee Williams’s drama aloud together in­class, pausing at the end of each scene and act for comprehension and discussion. Together we will chart character development, motifs, and ultimately, themes. Certainly some questions will arise: What is the curious
nature of Stanley and Stella’s relationship? What is distinctive about the setting for this play? Where does Blanche’s journey, her “streetcar” ride, if you will take her?
We will view the 1951 Elia Kazan film adaptation and consider the ways in which a stage drama, in this case, was adapted for the screen.
Writing on this work will be done in class, including short answer responses as well as two AP­style prompts. These timed responses will focus on character development and conflict in 20th­century drama.
Texts: A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams) Various 20th­century poems, the Bedford Introduction to Literature (Myers)
Weeks 7 and 8 As I Lay Dying
This novel, one of Faulkner’s briefer efforts, should tie in well with our study of the Williams play, for it is also concerned with changes occurring across a distinctive region of the United States, and yet, as does Streetcar, it touches on the proverbial universal ideas.
Students by this time should feel quite confident in their ability to take notes, develop vocabulary lists, generate questions, spot motifs, and begin to identify main ideas. This time, though, we will encounter some new literary devices and techniques, as students will be grappling with Faulkner’s highly inventive and experimental style. Given the structure of this novel, our charting of characters in this case will be crucial.
For this unit, discussion will be purely student­generated. Students will pose questions drawn from their reading. Instinctively these questions usually lead to a consideration of Addie’s character – was her behavior in life illicit, and sinful? Or was she justified in her actions? What are the spiritual implications of the strange journey undertaken by the Bundren family? Is Addie’s life suggestive of the moral decay of the post­Civil War South, or can we find some hope in the intensity of her passions?
Students will answer Free Response prompts during our study, and they will, of course, write essays on this important work. Essays will grow out of themes the students themselves will have identified. This essay will be due at the end of week 9.
Texts: As I Lay Dying (Faulkner) Selected poems from John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, and Richard Eberhart
Week 9 As I Lay Dying essay
After tying up loose ends concerning the novel, students will have time during class to gather critical resources, to work on essays and to meet with me. Again, the pattern of question/discussion/clarification/essay will form the “bones” of the writing process. Supporting arguments from at least three critical writings on Faulkner must be included this time around. Essays may focus on historical and social context, on Faulkner’s insights into the human mind and heart, or on structural elements of this unique narrative.
Once again, individual conferences – which in truth may sometimes simply be informal, clarifying conversations about essay ideas, rather than editorial exercises – will be an important part of this process.
Midterm Exam
Since the midterm exam is only 80 minutes, it will not require additional outside reading but will be based on two pieces (one prose piece and one poem) which will not be familiar to the students but which will be relevant in theme to other works we have studied throughout the semester. Students will be asked to read these passages carefully and then respond to a series of questions on them.

Semester 2 Syllabus The Soul’s Journey

Quarter 3 Weeks 1, 2, and 3 Satire
Success in critical thinking about literature demands an understanding of irony. Although irony is not necessarily dependent upon a satirical tone, certainly exposure to satire can enhance student understanding of this key concept.
For this unit, we will read aloud together a number of important satirical pieces, including selections from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Twain’s “Letters From the Earth,” and current pieces from Andy Borowitz and the Onion. Students will also be asked to bring in contemporary examples. I briefly define a literary satire as “a humorous work which pokes fun at social institutions, sometimes with the intent to change those institutions.” We will endeavor to test this description by scrutinizing satiric intent and techniques for each piece and trying to determine the social impact of each one.
During the course of this project, students will respond to three prompts from satirical Question 2s. We will then discuss these prompts to ensure that students have some grasp of irony and tone.
Finally, students will write their own satires, using one of the model formats we have studied. In essence, this assignment is intended to help students understand the subtlety of satire as a form of argument. They will share these with the class.
Weeks 4, 5, and 6 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
As established, students will call on their critical reading and note­taking skills as they engage in study of this important work. They should arrive at the beginning of week 3 with vocabulary lists, thorough notes, and questions for discussion. Any background information necessary for our study should also be student­generated this time.
I will create a prompt for this unit. Student on­demand writing at this point in the year should address complex ideas, literary devices, offer supporting evidence, and employ an effective prose style.
Discussions for this unit should be wide­ranging. Joyce deals with themes as disparate as identity, memory, family relationships, and the effect of Catholicism on the artistic temperament. As we trace Stephen’s journey of the soul, our conversations should be also be quite varied. The traditional elements of setting, character, etc. will certainly come under scrutiny, but this will also be an excellent opportunity to focus on internal conflict in a modern work.
This unit will culminate in essays dealing with themes culled from our discussions. Much has been written about his book, and students will again be called upon to incorporate critical resources in their responses. Students will have ample opportunity to bring in rough drafts and to meet with me individually to discuss their progress; the final essay will be due at the beginning of week 7.
Texts: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Norton Critical Edition Selected poems of Yeats and Heaney
Weeks 7 and 8 Modern poems
(Joyce essays due at the beginning of this week)
Here we will undertake a formalized study of poetry in the context of modernist theories. First we must refine the definition of modernism which we began with our study of Joyce and see how this term can be applied to 20th­century poems. Certainly we will always take note of poetic forms and techniques, but in this case we will be concentrating on poetry as an art­form reflective of a given age. For instance, the war poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are a compelling record of soldiers’ experiences, and we cannot understate the impact of World War I on the shape of
literature in this century. From there we will move on to explore the works of T.S. Eliot, Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Sylvia Plath, and a host of others.
Each student will be required to choose a poem for class study and then lead a discussion of that work. We will also spend two days with released poetry multiple choice questions. Finally, students will prepare comparison/contrast essays based on two poems we will have covered in this unit. Unlike the free response efforts on poetry during weeks two and three of the course, these essays will constitute detailed analyses of poetic technique and overall theme. The paper will be due at the end of week 8.
Texts: The Bedford Introduction to Literature
Week 9 Waiting for Godot
Our coverage of modern works will be capped off with a reading of Becket’s absurdist play. Although I think that students will have a good deal of fun with this work, it will also be a good illustration of many of the more somber ideas associated with modernist and post­modernist works.
Students will use their close study of the play as fuel for responses to a writing prompt at the end of the week.
Text: Waiting for Godot

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Quarter 4 Weeks 1­4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
After a comprehensive study of 20th­century works, students now return to an original and familiar American voice in Mark Twain. As always, they will practice critical reading skills and essential note­taking skills completing required notes and outlining questions for discussion. These should indicate a thorough understanding of narrative and satiric techniques as well as the thematic importance of the journey.
However, more so than with any other work we encounter this year, our discussions will focus on important historical and social changes in 19th­century America, in particular on the issue which to a great degree has defined the American experience and identity: slavery.
Released Question 3s: “contrasting pieces;” “alienated characters;” and “thoughtful laughter;” how a character responds to the “standards of a fictional society.”
There should be little to discuss now regarding prompts except conclusions and time limitations.
Students will handle nearly all the discussion of Huck Finn, including any necessary background information. There will be no major essay on this unit, but student partners should prepare at least four additional practice prompt questions over the course of the unit. Students will read and critique one another’s responses, and I will score them.
AP Exam Weeks 5­9 The senior paper
For this assignment, students write a lengthy critical analysis of multiple works in order to draw conclusions among them. The task’s purposes are both to apply critical reading, writing, and thinking skills and to model college assignments in length, depth, and time management. These essays might be argumentative and evaluative: for example, the writer may argue that the war poems of Wilfred Owen are more truthful and thus more effective than those of, say, Sassoon. They work full time on these for the remaining weeks.
The purpose of this assignment is to get students to think and write about two works of literature at once. They apply what they’ve learned on their own by finding common ground regarding theme, style, technique, characters, etc., among a single author’s works or comparing and contrasting two works that treat the same subject or are from a particular era or culture.
Students are encouraged to pursue something which they would like to study in greater depth. They might begin with an author, an idea, a culture, a country, a time period, a genre, or an issue. They must include at least two full­length novels or two collections of short stories or poetry or three plays.
Students are expected to read well, as has been modeled all year, and to produce their notes. They may consult additional sources for background, critical, cultural, or historical information; if so, they will include a Works Cited page.
They will show me at least two drafts before handing in a final. Here is the schedule:
3rd quarter: choose two books (with teacher approval) week 1 of 4th quarter: start reading and take notes week 7 “ “ “ : first draft and conferences week 8 “ “ “: second draft
week 9 “ “ “: final draft due
Texts for the year:
Becket, Samuel, Waiting for Godot, Signet Books
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Norton Critical Edition
Faulkner, William, As I Lay Dying, Penguin Books
Hardy, Thomas, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Norton Critical Edition
Marlowe, Christopher, Dr. Faustus, Dover Thrift Edition
Myers, The Bedford Introduction to Literature
Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Norton Critical Edition
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, Norton Critical Edition
Twain, Mark, Huckleberry Finn, Norton Critical Edition
Williams, Tennessee, A Streetcar Named Desire; Signet Books

Academic English 4 syllabus

ACADEMIC ENGLISH IV

Course Overview/General Syllabus

2011-2012 Mr. Palmer, Ms. Krauss, Mr. Trippe, Ms. Cass

*Texts: Models for Writers (Rosa and Escholz – rhetoric and composition handbook, featuring essays); Reading and Writing from Literature (Schwiebert – literary anthology, featuring fiction, poetry, drama) or similar; A Good Man is Hard to Find (O’Connor); Dubliners (Joyce); Winesburg, Ohio (Anderson); The Things They Carried (O’Brien); Leaving Home (various authors); The Glass Menagerie (Williams); Fences Wilson); Hamlet (Shakespeare); Death of a Salesman (Miller); The Kite Runner (Hosseini); The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (McCullers).  A wide range of other texts (poems, essays, short stories, plays) will be studied in this course in connection with course units. Films studied may include Do You Speak American?, The Glass Menagerie, Apocalypse Now!, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Hamlet; Gran Torino..

*Purpose of course:

This full year course includes a number of related units. Course activities are designed to help you to:

     • deepen understanding of increasingly complex but rewarding texts (expository, persuasive, literary, and visual);

     • develop, write, and edit thoughtful, purposeful essays and plan and execute effective oral presentations to others;                 

     • apply research skills to inquiry, both rhetorical and literary.

     -be prepared for post secondary study, the military or employment

*EXPECTATIONS & REGULATIONS:

 Class Work and Attendance

-The school’s attendance and tardy policies will be strictly enforced, right up until the end of the year.

-You are responsible for all work missed.

-You are expected to take notes and participate in class activities.

Homework

-Required

Preparation of Papers

-Longer papers are typed and in Mr. Ararat Style.

-Often, conferences and drafts are a prerequisite.

-Appropriate editing is expected of all work.

Late Papers

-As per school policy, late work handed in within two school days after the assigned due date, receives 60% of its “on time” value; as time passes the percentage drops at a rate determined by teachers.

Behavior

As a young adult, rather than an old child, your behavior should not be an issue.

Grades

-Teachers report your progress towards the course grade each quarter with A B C D F marks. Remember, it’s the year grade that carries “credit” with it. Built throughout the academic year, it becomes final at its close. Obviously, a course grade of “F” in this final required high school English course will torpedo your graduation plans, since the law requires you to earn four English credits for a high school diploma.

Common Assessments

Completing all of them is required for course credit:

-Synthesis Essay on Language

-What’s True? Essay

-Critical Viewing of a Film

-Interview- Turning Points

-Analysis of Two Short Stories

-The Senior Paper

Cheating

Don’t plagiarize, copy others’ work or offer any work other than your own best. Ever.

Laptops

Use them appropriately or lose them in class.

*COURSE COMPONENTS : Reading, Writing, Speaking, Viewing, Listening

Course units typically include what follows. Your teacher may, however, decide to address course components in a different order or configuration.

Unit 1: Looking Ahead / Moving On/ Introduction

                  You will consider what it means to succeed as a literate person in the adult world. What does it take to succeed in post-secondary study? You may write a personal essay associated with the “Common Application” or the “Personal Statement” as required by the University of Maine.

Unit 2: Voice and Language: Listening for Turning Points

                  As the course opens, you will read and work with essays, imaginative literature, and film concerned with language, culture, and identity. You will read texts and participate in discussions about language in general and the English language in particular. You will become familiar with the rhetorical situation (the interaction involving author, subject, and audience). You will write a synthesis essay on language. But there’s more to this unit than reading and analysis, as a “long term” first semester common assessment involves an eventual (typically December) presentation growing out of a planned interview with an “older” person. You will seek out and discern the “story” in a person’s life and represent the voice of your subject, utilizing research on language and identity.

Unit 3:  Considering Short Fiction: Defining Moments 

                  In connection with initial work with an anthology, you will read closely and reflect upon several works of short fiction (by writers such as Alice Walker, Dan O’Brien, Williams Carlos Williams, and others) then focus on several thematically-linked literary works by two or more major 20th century authors (e.g. James Joyce, Sherwood Anderson, Tobias Wolff, and Flannery O’Connor. During this unit, the routines for the year’s work with literary texts is established through the following activities: review of close reading strategies; literary terms and writing about literature; keeping a dialectical notebook; review of SOAPS and levels of questioning. The common/core assessment is a major essay exploring a challenging short story. You will use “Writing about Literature” techniques / approaches as you write a finished piece in response to reading.

                                   

Unit 4:  Leaving Home

                  Building upon the “Turning Points” theme, you will select and read stories and essays that are thematically-related (all pieces relate to changes in life circumstances, the subject of Leaving Home). In addition, you will typically view/read some major plays: The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun are typically assigned A common assessment associated with this unit involves a major paper based on focused viewing.

Unit 5:  What’s True: Connecting Texts

                  The Things They Carried is the central text, and leads to a common assessment involving close reading and analysis of related texts. Connections among printed and visual texts are thoroughly explored. For example, images of war are studied, along with a complex film text and written texts. We will study of the power of images and the realization of thematic vision in different texts during this unit, considering imagery, tone, characterization, and theme.

Unit 6:  Senior Paper

                  A major (and the school’s very first) common course assessment is The Senior Paper. Working with texts of substance and merit, you will conduct necessary research, develop a viewpoint and an argument and then write a major paper that represents your best thinking. You will show that you can appreciate and connect texts, access and consider information, fashion a coherent paper, support major ideas about your reading, and present the results.

Unit 7:  Last Words

                  Finality. You will read and study Shakespeare’s Hamlet and/or Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The final major assessment requires that you integrate your understanding of tragedy through engaged exploration and fluent consideration of theater.

End of Course exam

                  The comprehensive end-of-course final examination is required for all students except those who earn a B- or better for the 4th quarter and for the course.

8/09