COURSE DESCRIPTION
FALL SEMESTER
This course will explore techniques for analyzing prose and poetry developing critical thinking, reading, and writing skills at the beginning collegiate level. A Shakespearean play and two or three novels and/or plays will be included in the literature requirements. Students will study Chaucer, sixteenth century poetry, and 19th and 20th century poetry and fiction. Students will write a minimum of two essays of literary analysis outside of class, in addition to in-class timed writings. Students will also write personal statements for submission to various colleges as a part of the college application process. Students should be strong independent readers, thinkers, and writers to handle the academic rigor at this level; a strong work ethic is necessary.
SPRING SEMESTER
AP English B continues to help students sharpen their analytical skills in analyzing prose and poetry. The course will review literature in preparation for the challenging AP Exam in Literature and Composition. The course includes analysis of various types of literature, particularly explication of poetry, as well as techniques needed to write successful timed analytical essays. Students should be strong, independent readers and employ composition skills with a high level of competence before entering this course. Students will write multiple in-class literary analysis essays and reread and analyze three to five works of literary merit. Following the AP exam, the students willcomplete independent projects related to literature or career exploration.
This course will explore techniques for analyzing prose and poetry developing critical thinking, reading, and writing skills at the beginning collegiate level. A Shakespearean play and two or three novels and/or plays will be included in the literature requirements. Students will study Chaucer, sixteenth century poetry, and 19th and 20th century poetry and fiction. Students will write a minimum of two essays of literary analysis outside of class, in addition to in-class timed writings. Students will also write personal statements for submission to various colleges as a part of the college application process. Students should be strong independent readers, thinkers, and writers to handle the academic rigor at this level; a strong work ethic is necessary.
SPRING SEMESTER
AP English B continues to help students sharpen their analytical skills in analyzing prose and poetry. The course will review literature in preparation for the challenging AP Exam in Literature and Composition. The course includes analysis of various types of literature, particularly explication of poetry, as well as techniques needed to write successful timed analytical essays. Students should be strong, independent readers and employ composition skills with a high level of competence before entering this course. Students will write multiple in-class literary analysis essays and reread and analyze three to five works of literary merit. Following the AP exam, the students willcomplete independent projects related to literature or career exploration.
I love this class! I thought it would be boring and dry (a bit like how I imagine college lectures) but the class is filled with so many fun activities! Yes, we do have a lot of essays, analyzing, difficult questions, and outside reading and projects, but they are all so creative! My favorite moments in class has to be whenever we have to act out something (whether it be several different repetitions of a single line or the acting out of a full scene), because everyone's interpretations are different!
Currently putting in reasonable amounts of time into this class. The essays (both in class and take-home) stood out the most to me: they are harder than I had thought they would be. The actual course is fairly aligned with my expectations, doesn't require a huge time investment, yet isn't easy enough to get by without mustering up a fair amount of effort.
This course reminds me of Sophomore Honors English but AP level. There are more discussions on the literary work and less emphasis on annotations. The reading has not been too overwhelming as my teacher is very understanding of everyone's other commitments. I cannot say that I was excited to write three essays in six weeks or answer a multiple choice passage every Monday, but I know that it will be helpful in the long run.
My experiences have been pretty good. Aside from the poems, quotes, and passages that we had to analyze, the course allows us to pursue our interest. What stood out to me the most was the book review that we had to do on a book of our choice. The lack of instructions and rubric allowed us to do whatever we want, as long as it helps us answer the open prompt essay of the AP Lit exam. |
The reading was more challenging than I expected, but I enjoyed the range of topics and styles we are being exposed to. Usually there’s also extensive history behind the book and/or the author that factors in greatly. I think the assignments are far more in depth and require much closer reading and breaking down the text than in previous classes. Attention to detail is crucial. |
What this course ended up being like was relatively similar to how my expectations had envisioned them to be. Throughout the first semester, we’ve covered poetry, (philosophical) quote analyses, and AP prompt preparations, all of which were of varying principles and degrees of difficulty. The project on the AP prompts, in particular, stood out on top in difficulty, for we had to provide in-depth theme, archetype, plot, and character analyses for the length of an entire class period.
I really enjoyed this class, a lot more than I thought I would. The hands on experience and activities are a lot of fun and really instill the topics of the class into my head and help me connect each subtopic to a big idea. The groups projects really stood out to me because they gave me collaboration experience and flexibility. Analyzing books and poetry gave me insights to topics I had never considered prior to this class.
There is not as much homework as I expected; however, the writing is graded harder than I expected. There are not many lectures or discussions and most assignments involve in-class reading material. The class was easier than I expected but I am glad I took it.
Everyone has to participate in the class somehow. Usually I do not really like to participate in class, but in this class you really have to participate. |
The workload was not overwhelming; however the teacher requires AP-level discussions and responses after the reading. |