Tuesday - Friday Full AP Lit baseline test in class
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Gatsby Map
A Map of NY (East & West Egg) in Gatsby...
Click on the link to see a map made of the Hamptons, as described by Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby.
http://www.swisseduc.ch/english/readinglist/fitzgerald_fscott/gatsby/map.html
http://www.swisseduc.ch/english/readinglist/fitzgerald_fscott/gatsby/map.html
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
A.P. Lit syllabus
AP
English Literature & Composition
Teacher:
Ms. O’Donnell
“Our high respect for a well-read person
is praise enough for literature.”-T. S. Eliot
Course Overview:
The AP English Literature and
Composition course is designed to engage students in the careful reading and
critical analysis of sophisticated literature. Through the close reading of
selected texts, students will deepen their understanding of the ways writers
use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they
read, students will consider a work's structure, style, and themes, as well as
such smaller-scale elements such as the use of figurative language, imagery,
symbolism, and tone.
The course focuses on world
literature from the 1600’s to the present. Selections will represent various
literary genres: poetry, novels, short stories and dramas. As noted in the AP
English Literature Course Description, the complexity of the works studied
require students to read with a discerning eye, recognizing that the depth of
the literature offers rewarding insights into the “human condition.”
Reading strategies will promote a
substantiated interpretation of the author’s purpose as facilitated by the
author’s technique. We will analyze how authors effectively use sentence
structure to enhance meaning, vary sentence beginnings to guide the reader, use
strong verbs to add power to the writing and manipulate punctuation to control
flow.
Finally, writing is an integral part
of the AP English Literature & Composition course. Assignments will focus
on the critical analysis of literature and will include expository, analytical,
and argumentative essays. Writing instruction will include attention to
developing and organizing ideas in clear, coherent, and persuasive language; a
study of the elements of style; and attention to precision and correctness.
Expectations:
- Come to class having read the assigned texts
and prepared to discuss its attributes.
- Be
prepared for class. Bring all
necessary materials with you. You
will not be excused to go to your locker during class to obtain any
materials once the class has started.
- Be
prompt to class. Tardiness will not
be tolerated. Many classes will begin with a quick reading quiz. Those who
arrive with an unexcused tardy or unexcused absence will receive a zero on
the test/quiz.
- Have
respect for yourself, your teacher and your classmates; put-downs, bullying, racist
remarks, and profanity will NOT be tolerated.
·
Take care of your books. Missing or destroyed
books must be paid for at the end of the semester/year.
v School
rules will be enforced. No hats, cell phones, iPods, mp3 players, video
games, etc.
v Participation
is expected and graded as it enhances learning. All students will be expected
to contribute on a regular basis through the following: asking and answering
questions; submitting homework, papers and projects on time; reading and
discussing literature; contributing to a conducive classroom environment.
v
Students
are expected to annotate the text using post-it notes. (If students purchase
their own copy of the books, they can write directly in the text.)
Homework, Absences
& Late Assignments: Homework
is to be completed daily & will be posted on our class blog. Homework will not be accepted late unless
you are absent that day.
Each student is responsible for missed work. “I didn’t know”
is not an acceptable excuse. All assignments are posted daily. It is the
student’s responsibility to obtain any and all work missed from the teacher
while they were absent. The teacher will
not track down students with missing work.
Papers are to be written &
edited to meet all deadlines (10 pts a day for lateness) & are not accepted after 5 days. All work must be each student’s own work,
unless specified as “group work.” (See below for definition of plagiarism and
cheating.) “Sharing” homework is the same
as “borrowing” homework. All
parties involved will receive zeros.
Required
Student Materials:
ü 3 Ring binder
ü 5 dividers
ü Pens, pencils/erasers, highlighter
ü USB or google doc.
ü 5 packages of sticky notes (for
marginal notes in texts/novels)
Anticipated
Readings:
Full-length
pieces:
Hamlet
The Catcher in the Rye
A Streetcar Named Desire
Anthem
The Great Gatsby
The Grapes of Wrath
Short Stories:
“By
the Waters of Babylon”
“The
Yellow Wallpaper”
“A
Jury of Her Peers”
“Cathedral”
“Sonny's
Blues”
“Hills
Like White Elephants”
“A
Pair of Tickets”
“The
Lady with the Dog”
“Young
Goodman Brown”
“A
Hunger Artist”
“The
Story of an Hour”
“Araby”
“Odour
of Chrysanthemums”
“A
Rose for Emily”
“The
Use of Force”
“A
Good Man is Hard to Find”
“Gorilla,
My Love”
“Girl”
Poetry:
“How
Do I Love Thee?”
“Mid-Term
Break”
“The
Fury of Overshoes”
“Let
me not to the marriage of true minds”
“A
Last Confession”
“Barbie
Doll”
“London”
“Those
Winter Sundays”
“The
Ruined Maid”
“A
Certain Lady”
“She
Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”
“To
a Louse”
“We
Real Cool”
“I
celebrate myself, and sing myself”
“The
Flea”
“Dover
Beach”
“Morning
Song”
“After
great pain, a formal feeling comes”
“My
Papa's Waltz”
“[I
dwell in Possibility---]”
“That
time of year thou mayst in me behold”
“A
Red, Red Rose”
“Shall
I compare thee to a summer's day?”
“I Am
Like a Rose”
“One
Perfect Rose”
“The
Sick Rose”
“A
narrow Fellow in the Grass”
“What
lips my lips have kissed”
“My
mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”
“Sonnet”
“Do
Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
“Africa”
“Kubla
Khan”
“Yet
I Do I Marvel”
“[Because
I could not stop for Death--]”
“Death,
be not proud”
“Journey
of the Magi”
“The
Road Not Taken”
“Harlem
(A Dream Deferred)”
“Fern Hill”
Papers: All final draft papers will be
edited and typed following MLA format:
Double spaced
Times New Roman 12 pt. font
The title centered on the first page
(no title page please.) The title will not
be bolded or underlined and will be in Times New Roman font.
Margins will be 1” spaced (this is
not standard and will need to be adjusted).
Pagination will occur in the lower
right hand corner of each page.
All formal papers will be submitted
electronically to TurnItIn.com in addition to a hard copy
Heading in the upper right hand
corner single spaced as follows:
Student’s
Full Name
A.P.
Literature and Composition
Ms.
O’Donnell
Date
assignment is due
Academic Integrity: PLAGIARISM
WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! Cheating is
defined as giving or receiving any form of information related to a graded
assignment. (We will discuss plagiarism
and the concept of intellectual property in detail.) A zero will be given to
each student for the assignment(s) involved; the teacher will contact the
parents; and the student will be referred to the administration.
Make-up
Policy: Students have the same
number of days they were absent to complete and hand in work they missed. IT IS THE STUDENT’S
RESPONSIBILITY TO REQUEST MAKE-UP WORK FROM THE TEACHER. Students may not interrupt a
class in order to obtain missing work.
Grading: *Each
marking period is worth 20%
*Mid-term is worth 10%
*Final
exam portfolio is worth 10%
Quarterly
Breakdown Scoring Equivalency
Homework:
15% A=
90-100
Class
work & Participation: 15% B= 80-89
Tests
& Quizzes(& test analysis) 35% C= 70-79
Writing
& Blogging: 35% D= 60-69
F= 0-59
*Students who do not maintain a 60% average for
their Yearly grade will not receive credit for the course and will either need
to attend summer school for the credit or retake the course the following year.
Extra Help: I encourage you to seek help. Please make an appointment
before/after school or during a prep period.
Test Debate
/Analysis:
The Test Debate / Test Analysis
process seeks to prepare students for the rigors of state and national testing
which is used to determine student’s educational progress. Research has shown that the activity builds
critical thinking skills by encouraging students to think conceptually about
(in our case) a work of literature. Such skills are necessary to excel on the
AP English exams, as well as the SAT and ACT exams, which all require students
to differentiate between good answers and best answers. This is what makes
these tests so challenging—students seek absolutes rather than recognize the
subtle differences in answers. A simplistic way to illustrate the process would
be to say that the multiple-choice test turns into a short answer exam where
partial credit is given. A student will never be penalized for an answer that
is "correct," but this process allows them to earn points back on
questions that they originally marked "wrong."
Test Analysis Process:
The class debates the conceptual
question using Socratic Technique:
Step 1:
One of the participants initiates the discussion by phrasing
one or more questions.
(Question on exam…)
Step 2:
This is followed by the presentation of a response that sets
forth hypotheses, which are
developed through demonstration.
Step 3:
Refutation and cross-examination, takes place.
Step 4:
The final phase consists of a modification of the original
position held by
each participant. The desired end result is shared meaning
and enlarged understanding.
(Golden, Berquist, & Coleman,1983)
The student, after hearing the
discussion, draws final conclusions about the
question, which is done in the form
of Test Analysis.
Some Basic Guiding Principles for Test Analysis:
Identify the underlying point in the
assertions of others.
Don't be afraid to use quotes.
Don’t totally ignore what others say
while going on to something else.
Don’t strip away the context of a
situation unless the question suggests you should do so.
The final score on the test is
determined by the student’s final stance on the question, reflection on class
discussion and ability to convey content knowledge and metacognition.
Scoring: You may
earn up to the full amount of points that question was worth on the
exam. Superficial or irrelevant evidence, illogical arguments, or incomplete
discussions will reduce your awarded points. Alternative opinions might not be
agreed with, but will certainly be respected--and rewarded--as long as the
textual evidence supports them.
Test Analysis Sample Response:
The following is an exemplary
analysis of a conceptual test question on Joseph
Conrad's Heart
of Darkness:
3. The main reason Kurtz turns his
back on his former existence is:
(A) his need for power
(B) his desire to be free from
society’s limitations
(C) his personality flaw: lack of
restraint
(D) the attractiveness of the Id
(E) his fear of what he had become
I initially chose answer (E) his
fear of what he had become. As Kurtz gives in to his savage instinct he drifts
away from the restraints of society and begins to live a life of self-loathing
in which he is unable to reconcile his former moral code with his present
actions. He understands he has been transformed into someone who could not
re-assimilate into Western society and cannot fathom how he would act if he
were to return. The class chose answer (D) the attractiveness of the Id. In
justification of this answer choice, as (classmate’s name here) explained, “Kurtz shows the flaws that plague society; his
desire to break away from society’s restraints grows until he is presented with
the opportunity to escape.” (Another classmate’s name here) noted that, “the setting of the jungle intensifies Kurtz’
savage instinct, to which Kurtz is drawn.” According to the class, it is this
luring of the Id that prevents Kurtz from returning to society. According to
this answer, Kurtz must associate giving into his Id with freedom from
society’s confines. However, Kurtz does not find freedom in succumbing to his
Id; rather, he is more tightly bound to society’s codes by his own guilt. The
longer Kurtz stays in the jungle, the more savage he becomes, indulging in his
personality flaw, which as answer (D) suggests is his lack of restraint, which
manifests itself in acts such as the horrific display of decapitated heads on
the stakes. The greater this flaw is magnified, the farther away from society
he goes and the harder it becomes to turn back, which is why Kurtz turns his
back on society. Thus, I think the correct answer is (D) his personality flaw:
lack of restraint.
Rationale and Research Support for
Test Debate/Test Analysis:
The importance of this research
stems from the foundational belief that learning can only be meaningful if the
learner has a conceptual latticework on which to hang the new information
learned. Most high achieving students do this instinctively. They have developed
an inherent ability to connect what they are learning to what they already
know. Thus, the importance for educators is that strategies and educational
practices must be employed that requires all students to think conceptually,
activating existing knowledge when learning new material. The theoretical
research connects test debate and test analysis to the constructs of John
Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and David Ausubel. The theoretical foundation
of this study is supported by the constructivist view that learning is the
process of building knowledge from interpretation of experience. Dewey’s (1938)
progressive model suggests that information be connected to earlier experiences
involving actual life experience and articulation of facts and ideas (Dewey,
1938). Piaget (1969) and Vygotsky (1962) expanded the scope of this
constructivist connection by suggesting that knowledge was formed through a
process of continuous self-construction suggesting that the formation of
intellect is a process of development. Ausubel (1962) asserted that learning
should activate prior knowledge and make connections during what Ausubel calls discovery learning. During this process
students rearrange information while integrating it with existing cognitive
structures. This study’s contention was that as students understand the
metacognitive aspects of test debate and test analysis, they greatly improve
their understanding of the conceptual aspects of academic courses, and also
better master the content acquisition required for any meaningful learning.
Some teachers continue to assess students’ understanding using traditional
methods while others have embraced the progressive view that meaningful
learning requires students to maintain an active role in their learning. This exploratory
study considered students’ perspectives on the cognitive processes associated
with test analysis and test debate as a means to determine the effectiveness of
this mode of assessment.
Recent research in the area of
critical thinking ties the historical perspective to current research by
considering how critical thinking provides students with the skills needed to
connect course content with true conceptual understanding. Tsui’s (2002) case
study research contends that today’s students are provided with educational
experiences that increase content retention, but do not promote students’
ability to improve higher order thinking skills. She observed that class
discussion and reflective writing, two key components of test debate and test
analysis, promote critical thinking. Lynd-Balta’s (2006) study investigated the
impact of specific classroom activities on critical thinking skills in an
undergraduate neuroscience course. Lynd-Balta concluded that requiring students
to apply content knowledge through problem solving promotes critical thinking
skills without sacrificing content retention. Using course content to reflect
on existing belief systems is similar to the educational goals of test debate
and test analysis. Schwarm and VanDeGrift (2002) studied the impact of
classroom assessments on critical thinking by focusing on how classroom
assessments can be used to discover students’ conceptual understanding as well
as content retention. The researchers concluded that as students better
recognized their own misconceptions the students were forced to critically
think about the depth of their learning through consistent metacognitive
processes. Students realized the benefit of thinking critically about the depth
of their understanding (Schwarm & VanDeGrift, 2002).
Journal Writing / Blog Writing
These shorter reflective writing
assignments require students to draw conclusions, weigh and comment on the
assertions of their classmates, and make connections between themes studied and
the outside world. The journal entries and blog posts provide students with
opportunities to reflectively comment on key course concepts.
Students
Should:
v
Recognize the necessity to use
critical thinking skills when completing these tasks.
v
Metacognitively reflect on what they
think & assess the foundations of their beliefs in regard to the prompt.
v
Address the assertions of others by
respectfully seeking clarification and additional support for their claims
v
Recognize the difference in audience
when writing a blog compared to a journal
How to Write a Literature Based Journal/Blog:
v
Use journals to
explore literary, cultural, historical, international/national/ local issues.
v
Be informed. Research
and reflect on issues before you put your pen to the paper. This task is
designed to improve your ability to expand the topics discussed in class.
v
Make connections
between the topics discussed in class and other literary works, aspects of
popular culture that you observe, and personal experiences you may have.
v
Use Standard English
to write your blogs. This is academic writing.
v
Pay attention to the
length requirements indicated on the rubric.
v
Do not merely repeat
the comments you heard in class. Make your own insightful observations and
comparisons. Show the reader that you are thinking.
Exam Overview: *Beginning with the May 2011 AP Exam
administration, total scores on multiple-choice sections will be based on the
number of questions answered correctly. Points will no longer be deducted for
incorrect answers and, as always, no points will be awarded for unanswered
questions.
Test format: 3 hour exam / 150 point
scale / only receive one score from ETS
Section I:
(60 minutes)
45% of grade
50-55 multiple-choice questions
4 or 5 prose/poetry passages - 10-15
questions each
Section
II: (120 minutes)
55% of grade
27 max. points (0-9 per essay)
analysis of a poem / analysis of
prose / open essay
each essay read by different
evaluator
essay holistically scored
Part I: Suggestions
& Explanation
4, 5 or 6 literary passages
Some poetry and some prose
Do not pre-judge difficulty of
pieces of literature
Answer all questions
Types of Multiple
Choice Questions:
Allusion Question
Very specific question
Hard to answer correctly if you do
not recognize the allusion
Easy if you know the allusion
Context
Definition
Testing vocabulary
Replace the word in the passage with
the answer and judge
Dominant
Device
Dominant lit device of technique
What does the author do the most:
use participles, use imagery
Trick: could use all answers, but
which is most dominant
Effect
Question: the sentence or line in these
questions usually-
Introduce an idea
Set the tone
Solidify something
Serve as a thesis
Infer/Suggest
Look for deeper meaning
Do not be afraid to pick the obvious
answer
Literary Devices
Eliminate the ones you know are
wrong
Pick from remaining
Except
Questions
X-out all of the correct answers
What is left is the except answer
Passage
as a Whole
Idea present throughout the work
All or many answers my be present,
but pick most predominate
If answer fits for only part – it is
wrong
Most abstract usually wrong
Answers with exact words from text
are usually wrong
Pronoun/Antecedent
What noun is the pronoun referring
to
Usually not the most obvious choice
Replace pronoun with the noun to
test possibilities
Quotes
Look for answer that represents main
point in the quote
Do not be distracted by the main
idea of the passage
Structure
of a Poem
You must know types of poem
Look for clues in rhyme scheme
Stanza construction
Lyric types
Narrative types
Tone
Check combinations
If one word does not apply – it is
wrong
“According to the speaker”
(Trick) only what the speaker means
at that point
Usually specific to the subject
matter
Testing context relevance
Part II: Suggestions &
Explanation
Essays 1 and 2 (poetry / prose interpretation):
The intro is key:
Grab the readers attention
Know your audience: AP teachers and
college professors
Include titles and authors
Use a quote or smart turn of phrase
to show style
Use frequent quotes
Do not plot-tell
If lit device is identified in the
question you must use it in essay
If no lit element is mention is
mention you must insert the appropriate some that you select
Essay must show how the author’s
technique supported the author’s purpose
Use powerful verbs and vary sentence
structure
Vary sentence beginnings
Essay 3 (novel or play read during class):
You must select an APPROPRIATE work.
Note the phrase: “Then write.” Identify the specific points
Plan response based on these points. Use
powerful verbs and vary sentence structure. Vary sentence beginnings
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