Why are you calling this the "early fall reading list" instead of "AP summer reading"?
The College Board has increasingly discouraged summer reading to be assigned. Nevertheless, the summer can be a time for productive study and preparation. With those two dissimilar forces in mind, I have tried to design an AP preparation list that would be largely self-directed.
How is this work self-directed?
For example, rather than having students read and do flash cards for 98353984892 literary terms, I have provided them with Quia and other resources to study the most common ones. I have encouraged students to focus on terms they do not know and merely scan or briefly review the ones they do.
Are students accountable?
Students are not directly accountable for literary terms. I will not, for example, be checking bundles of flash cards. However, these are terms students are going to be expected to know by the start of class, and I will proceed with the understanding in mind that these terms are part of the students' working vocabulary.
Do we have to buy books?
Buying books is preferable, yes, but by all means, seek out the least costly versions of any book I've assigned. I recommend actual paper copies for a number of reasons, including ease of annotation, but also because multiple studies have demonstrated greater retention of information that way.
How are you going to test on the books?
Early in the year, I will give you a series of probably about five free-response questions from the AP in previous years. You will choose which one to answer. You'll then write a comparison/contrast essay in which you look at the ways in which your books dealt with that common element. For example, let's say you choose to write about both King Lear and Things Fall Apart. What are both works saying about the disintegration of power? What are both books saying about the erosion of the relationship between parents and children? Since this will be an in-class essay, knowing how to answer the question depends in large part on knowing the books very well.
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Early Fall Reading
First, congratulations on taking an important and challenging course in your high school career. I know you’re aware that this course will be fairly intensive. You will be required to read a number of full-length novels and analyze them in depth; additionally, you will also be required to write a significant number of full-length essays, including in-class essays and those requiring research.
You have been provided with the novels you will need for the early fall reading unless you joined the class late. If that is the case, it is up to you to purchase the novels or check them out from the public library. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me:
Remind: You are REQUIRED to sign up for Remind.com. Please do this as soon as possible. This is the school text message service where I will remind you of upcoming due dates or last-minute changes. I heartily encourage and invite your parents/guardians to sign up for Remind as well.
Please text @prufrock to the number 81010. This will sign you up.
REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE:
YOU WILL BE GIVEN ASSESSMENTS IN THE EARLY FALL OF THE FIRST QUARTER COVERING THIS MATERIAL.
OF COURSE, YOU MAY CHOOSE TO BEGIN READING AND STUDYING THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS.
HOWEVER, YOU MAY BE PRESSED FOR TIME AND MAY WISH TO BEGIN WORK OVER THE SUMMER.
THAT IS WHY THIS OPTION HAS BEEN PROVIDED FOR YOU.
Assignment #1: Read and annotate How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Read and annotate How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. For this assignment, you will read and annotate the above book. You may annotate in a number of ways, specifically by writing in the margins, using Post-its, or trying any combination of the above. Besides Post-its, do NOT have annotation that is physically separate from the book itself . You are responsible for reading and annotating chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 19, 20, and 21. Of course, feel free to read the rest of the book.
Will this assignment be directly assessed? YES.
How will you assess our annotation?
I will ask you to turn to a random page in the chapters I assigned. If you don’t have meaningful annotation for that page, I’ll ask you to turn to another one. If you don’t have meaningful annotation for that page either, you will not receive credit. Please be aware that this assignment is fairly stringent because you will have an extended period of time in which to get it done.
Okay, so what counts as “meaningful”?
Good signs: I see the author’s name, I see specific words relevant to Foster’s point, and meaningful responses to the ideas he raises.
Bad signs: No names, no specifics, generic questions that could apply to anything.
Extended conversation or commentary with an idea on that page
Thorough questions about issues raised on that page
Meaningful comparisons to relevant, high-quality films or works of literature
Bad example: “What does this word mean?”
Good example: “When Foster is saying that all kinds of meals in a work of literature are a form of communion, does this apply to non-Western or non-Christian texts too? This is such a heavily loaded word!”
Assignment #2: Read and Analyze Poetry
The AP exam is 60% poetry. Below, you will see a selection of poems and authors that are “frequent fliers” on the AP exam. Choose any SEVEN of those poems below. Annotate them thoroughly, paying particular attention to diction, literary devices, tone, and overall message. You will need to find and print copies of each of the poems you have chosen.
Will this assignment be directly assessed? YES.
How will you assess our annotation?
I will ask you to turn in your seven annotated poems early in the year. Your poems’ annotations should be done directly on the text, if at all possible. If you need additional paper or whatever, you can staple it to the poems.
I will expect meaningful annotations throughout. Please see the directions below for “How Do We Annotate Our Poems?”
AP English Literature and Composition authors and poems:
1. Elizabeth Bishop: “The Fish” 2. Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress” 3. Wilfred Owen: “Dulce et Decorum Est” 4. Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess” 5. Emily Dickinson: “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--” 6. William Shakespeare: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” 7. John Donne: “The Flea” / “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” 8. T.S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” / “The Waste-Land” 9. Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night” 10. Robert Frost: “Out, Out--” 11. Anne Bradstreet, “The Author to Her Book” 12. William Butler Yeats: “That the Night Come” / “The Second Coming” 13. Langston Hughes: “Harlem” 14. John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 15. Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” 16. H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), “Helen” 17. Margaret Atwood, “Siren Song” 18. W. H. Auden, “That Night When Joy Began” 19. Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Douglass” 20. Yusef Komunyakaa, “Facing It”
How Do We Annotate Our Poems?
Underline the first and last SENTENCES (NOT JUST LINES). Preview the passage by reading the first sentence, the last sentence, and by skimming the text in between to determine the scope of the work. By carrying out this step first, you gain an overview that allows for effective pacing. You also have a road map on which to base predictions and questions about the text.
Find all different or “funky” punctuation or SYNTAX and circle it. Discover obvious concentrations of unusual or otherwise significant syntax and their purpose. Look for changes in sentence length, sentence order, use of punctuation, and typographical elements such as italics, sentence inversion that creates rhetorical questions, etc. Mark this predominant syntax. This marking provides visual cues throughout the passage which will often guide the reader to the part of the passage that conveys the most meaning-the crux.
Discover the SPEAKER; write the name and point of view label at the top of the passage. Look for such things as the number of speakers and the narrator’s point of view-this is most often either first person (narrator as major character, narrator as minor character) or third person (omniscient, limited omniscient or objective). Unless otherwise specified, analyze from the speaker’s vantage point. Note anything that gives a clue about the speaker’s attitude. Be able to specify who is talking and how that person(s) feels about what is happening in the passage.
Discover the SITUATION; write one clear sentence on the top of the page about what happens in the passage. (Be sure to examine the title of the piece if it has one.) All passages have aconflict of some kind. Be able to answer the questions: What is the conflict? How is it resolved?
Draw a line in the passage where the major SHIFTS occur. Look for diction or word choice changes in the time, speed, or character attitude/speech to find the shift. SHIFTS are often indicated by changes in structure, syntax, or diction, such as wording that evokes certain connotations and sudden changes in tone, sentence length, rhythm, punctuation, or patterns of imagery. Find areas of the passage where you can locate the most changes, and closely annotate them.
MESSAGE: What was the overall point or message of this work? Please do NOT have this answer exceed more than about one or two lines total. DO NOT write a long disquisition.
Assignment #3: Know Your Lit Terms
Directions: As a fundamental part of being in AP, you will need to know your major literary terms. Not only should you be able to define them, answering questions such as, “Define and give an example of synecdoche,” but more importantly, you should be able to explain their function(s) in a text.
Shortly after the beginning of the year, I will conduct assessments on your knowledge of literary terms. Those assessments may include relatively easy questions such as, “Define and give an example of a metaphor,” but please do be assured they will eventually become harder. Questions such as, “Explain Tupac’s use of metaphysical conceit in the song ‘Me and My Girlfriend’” would be relatively typical in terms of difficulty.
Will this assignment be directly assessed?NO.
How will you assess this indirectly? I will expect to see the evidence of your work in the assessment I give you early in the year. If you already know your literary terms, then some light review should suffice. If you don’t know some of them, especially some of the terms on the Quizlet link, review those more.
For help with literary devices and terms you can try the following resources:
More than almost any other single factor, having substantial experience reading high-quality fiction is a key to success on the AP exam. We will be doing a number of different units during the year, and your two works of fiction will help you prepare for them. Additionally, you will be given an assessment early in the year. Your reading will help prepare for that assessment.
You will notice that the works are paired. This is because there is a thematic or other meaningful connection between them, however unlike or disparate they may seem. YOU MUST READ BOTH BOOKS IN THE PAIR. No mixing and matching, please.
You will notice that some books are listed or paired more than once.
AN IMPORTANT WORD ABOUT CONTENT: THIS IS A COLLEGE-LEVEL CLASS. As such, the themes, scenes, and language in our texts, especially those intended for independent reading, may contain adult content or scenes which are in some way objectionable to you or your family.
PLEASE RESEARCH YOUR WORK CAREFULLY. Assume any recent work probably has adult content or themes. There are several pairings here which contain works acceptable to general audiences (ex: Frankenstein/Dorian, Lear/Darkness) etc. If you have a major objection to the works assigned, please email me and we will work together toward a mutually acceptable resolution.
PAIR ONE Colson Whitehead,The Underground Railroad AND ALSO Toni Morrison, Beloved
PAIR TWO Mary Shelley, FrankensteinAND ALSO George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion
PAIR THREE Euripedes, MedeaAND ALSO Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima
PAIR FOUR William Shakespeare, King LearAND ALSO Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
PAIR FIVE Ralph Ellison, Invisible ManAND ALSO Toni Morrison, Beloved
PAIR SIX Charlotte Bronte, Jane EyreAND ALSO Jean Rhys, The Wide Sargasso Sea
PAIR SEVEN Mary Shelley, FrankensteinAND ALSO Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
PAIR EIGHT Joseph Conrad, Heart of DarknessAND ALSO Bram Stoker, Dracula
PAIR NINE Octavia Butler, FledglingAND ALSO Bram Stoker, Dracula
PAIR TEN Euripedes, MedeaAND ALSO Toni Morrison, Beloved
PAIR ELEVEN Chinua Achebe, Things Fall ApartAND ALSO William Shakespeare, King Lear
PAIR TWELVE Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the DayAND ALSO William Shakespeare, The Tempest