A GENERAL(always subject to change) OUTLINE OF THE YEAR:
2007-2008
Quarter I:
“Who Am I and How do I Get There: The Search for Self in Literature”
The Hero’s Journey
Senior year is the final chapter in the odyssey of high school, a time during which you will inevitably look back on your life and recall the experiences that have made you who you are. As we embark on our odyssey in this course, you will have to confront who you are as readers and writers of literature. I invite you on this journey, but be forewarned, as Dante had to wrestle with his sense of identity in the midst of the horror of hell, so too will you be challenged to wrestle with your identity as a student of literature. I am, however, confident we will reach our Paradiso if we work together.
The first quarter texts all revolve around the theme of identity and how hero, villain and everyone in between struggle for meaning about who they are and what their lives are about. This is the hero’s journey we will explore in detail. As we read and discuss the various texts we will use the essential questions below as touchstones:
-How are we as much a product of our environment as we are a reaction against it?
-How is who we want to be as revealing as who we are and how we are perceived by others?
-How are our failures as important as our successes?
-How is our sense of self both a product of our past and our hopes for the future?
-How is the journey more important than the destination?
-How does the giving up of self lead to a greater understanding of self?
Texts:
The Inferno(summer reading) Dante Alighieri
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
The Awakening Kate Chopin
How To Read Literature Like A Professor Thomas Foster
-Introduction and Chapters 1, 9, 11, 21
Topics And Skills:
What is “literature”?
Contemporary theories of literary analysis: Archetypal Criticism
Writing About Point of View- Robert’s
Writing About Character- Robert’s
Writing About Imagery- Robert’s
Comparison/Contrast of Texts
Writing About a Close Reading-Robert’s
Literary Terms
Strategies for the AP test- multiple choice and timed essays
Quarter II:
“Who Am I and How do I Get There: The Search for Self in Literature”
Madness and Folly: Is Much Madness Divinest Sense?
In our search to understand ourselves and others, we often experience moments of clarity when we least expect it. This could be when we are feeling most lost and confused, perhaps on the edge of a certain degree of madness. What we glean from these moments can sometimes be the most sane ideas about life and our place in it. Is this what Emily Dickinson meant when she wrote, “Much Madness is Divinest Sense”? As we continue our journey through literature this year, we will focus this quarter on the theme of madness.
Essential Questions:
How much of reality is a construction by those in power?
How is one person’s definition of sanity another person’s definition of madness?
How is madness sometimes the only sane response to a situation?
Texts:
King Lear Shakespeare
A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley
Topics and Skills:
Psychoanalytic Criticism/Feminist Criticism
The Drama
Writing About Plot
Writing about Setting
Literary Movements
Close Analysis
Literary Terms
Strategies for the AP Test
Independent Reading:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Alice in Wonderland
Jane Eyre
Far Sargasso Sea
Quarter III:
“Who Am I and How do I Get There: The Search for Self in Literature”
Love and Laughter: Life’s Medicine?
In all this search for meaning what would life be without love and laughter? As Valentine’s Day approaches, we will explore literature that features how the fierce power of love can both destroy and create. To lighten the mood, we will visit the world of satire the second part of the quarter.
Essential Questions:
How does love both hurt us and heal us?
How does love both destroy and create?
How can a person be serious and funny at the same time?
Why use humor to present your views about a serious topic?
What are the differences between obvious satire and subtle satire?
Texts:
Beloved Toni Morrison
A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
Candide Voltaire
Cyrano de Bergerac
Topics and Skills:
Post-Colonial Criticism
Writing about Irony (Roberts)
Writing about Tone (Roberts)
Techniques of Satire
Close Analysis
Literary Terms
Strategies for AP Test
Independent Reading:
Wuthering Heights
The Color Purple
The Handmaid’s Tale
Cyrano De Bergerac
Quarter IV:
“Who Am I and How do I Get There: The Search for Self in Poetry”
Poetry as a Vehicle for Exploration about Self and Society
During this final quarter of AP English 12, we will focus on poetry and its power to convey meaning differently from literature. We will learn how to analyze a poem by examining the author’s use of poetic elements such as metaphors, allusions, symbols, and meter. The poems we will be reading and discussing will be organized by theme and reflect a variety of time periods and authors.
Essential Questions:
-What is good poetry?
-Is all poetry created equal?
-What are the tools needed to understand poetry?
-How does sound create sense in poetry?
-How is poetry as much the result of breaking the rules as it is about following them?
Possible themes and poems:
The Power of Poetry: “The Aim Was Song” Robert Frost
“Had I the Choice” Walt Whitman
“Blackberry Eating” Galway Kinnell
“These are the days when birds come back” Emily Dickinson
The Power of Nature: “Break, break,break” Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“The Landcrab” Margaret Atwood
War/ Sacrifice/ Loss: “Anthem for Doomed Youth” Wilfred Owen
Youth and Innocence: “Songs of Innocence” William Blake
Fathers/Mothers: Mary Oliver, Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds
Topics and Skills:
Poetic Form and Elements
Close Analysis of a poem
QUARTER I:
Week 1: 9/-9/
1. The Odyssey(9/13)
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Week 2: 9/-9/
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Week 3: 9/-9/
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Week 4: 10/-10/
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Week 5: 10/-10/
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Week 6: 10/-10/
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Week 7: 10/-10/ ()
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Week 8: 10/-10/ 1. Quarter Review (10/) 2. Quarter Exam (10/)