AP English 12 Course Information and Documents:

• Course description, College Board standards, and syllabi
• Vocabulary: tone words and QUIA review games
• Poetry notes: Everything You Need to Know about Poetry, 10 Easy Lessons in How to Read Poetry, theme statements, tonal scale, scansion, rhythm & meter, imagery examples, ballad, common meter, ode, sonnet, villanelle, other poetry concepts
• Literary terminology: Bedford/St. Martin's glossary,  Dr. Kip Wheeler's literary vocabulary
• Literary analysis: literary analysis basics, evidence triangle, using quotations as evidence
• AP Exam information: exam basics & MC strategy; timed-writing basics; timed-writing tips; Question 3 suggested titles; Ten Commandments of the AP Examination
• Feedback: Boyd's writing marks, rubric for literary analysis, rubric for timed AP essays 

Unit 1 

What Lies Beneath the Surface

Summer Reading 2009 (instructions)

Essential Questions:

• What is concealed beneath the façade of perfection in societies and individuals?

• In societies that strictly categorize people, how do individuals define and/or maintain their identities?

• How do authors emphasize duality and contrast within characters and their settings?

• What techniques do authors use to create the impression of reality within fictional works?

Week of 3 August 2009

• 8/3-4/09 summer reading assignment DUE (instructions)
• tone vocabulary group 1
• small-group rhetorical analysis of Snow Falling on Cedars pages 183-185 (rhetorical triangle notes)
• 8/5-6/09 summer reading assessment (AP Exam free-response topics)
• literary terminology pre-test
• colors personality test (personality traits) 
• colors personality personal narrative draft (Boyd's narrative)

 Week of 10 August 2009

• small-group discussion of verisimilitude in Snow Falling on Cedars, Life of Pi, The Handmaid's Tale
• writers' workshop: colors personality personal narrative drafts (rubric)
• discussion of returned free-response essays; revision assigned (AP Exam free-response rubric)
• thesis statement writing (AP exam thesis MadLibs)
• discussion of classic novel literature circle texts and assignment (Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations)

Unit 2 

Quest for Identity: the Individual defined in Society

Essential Questions:

• Is identity innate or created?

• How does an individual transcend society’s expectations?

• How does social class affect a person’s identity?

• How do authors effectively express a character’s internal conflict?

Resources:

• online texts: Emma (character genealogy), Mayor of Casterbridge, A Tale of Two Cities, Pygmalion, The Taming of the Shrew

 Week of 17 August 2009

• tone vocabulary group 2
• thesis statement writing (AP exam thesis MadLibs)
• writers' workshop: colors personality personal narrative drafts (rubric)
• revision workshop: summer reading free-response essays
• Pygmalion introduction (first impressions visual activity, language & appearances pre-reading, Susan Boyle video clip & makeover article from Huffington Post, myth background, character list, Comedic Ladder) 
• introduction to Socratic seminar (basic instructions, organizer, rubric)
• reading and analysis of Pygmalion Act 1  

 Week of 24 August 2009

• discussion of Pygmalion literary responses(assignment instructions); reading and analysis of Acts 2 & 3 
• 8/25-26/09 summer reading free-response revisions DUE
• 8/25-26/09 Socratic seminar: summer reading novels (basic instructions, organizer, rubric)
• theme statement writing: summer reading novels (notes, format)
• small-group discussion of classic novel (Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations)

Week of 31 August 2009

• 8/31/09 & 9/01/09 classic novel analysis DUE (Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations)
• 8/31/09 & 9/01/09 QUIZ: tone vocabulary groups 1 & 2 (QUIA review games) 
• reading and analysis of Pygmalion Acts 3 & 4 
• peer review: colors personality personal narrative drafts (rubric)

 Week of 7 September 2009

• reading and analysis of Pygmalion Acts 5
• tone vocabulary group 3
• small-group discussion of classic novel (discussion topics; Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations)
• introduction to The Taming of the Shrew  (characters; Elizabethan theater conventions; literary terminology; thematic concepts; assessment activities instructions)
• reading and analysis of The Taming of the Shrew induction
• 9/11 & 14/09 Pygmalion literary responses DUE (assignment instructions) 

 Week of 14 September 2009

• writing portfolio set-up and reflection on returned summer reading in-class essays
• in-class writing prompt for Pygmalion: "People can become--or, indeed, are--what others think they are or treat them as being." (H. J. Oliver)
• 9/15-16/09 classic novel analysis DUE (Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations)
• tone vocabulary group 4
• AP exam multiple-choice practice
• discussion of The Taming of the Shrew assessments (instructions) 
• reading and analysis of The Taming of the Shrew 
• 9/17-18/09 colors personality personal narrative drafts DUE (rubric) 

Week of 21 September 2009

• discussion of college application essays (Common Application topics)
• reading and analysis of The Taming of the Shrew 
• lesson on evidence and quotations in analysis (evidence triangle, integrating quotations)
• small-group discussion of classic novel (Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations) 
• 9/25 & 28/09 classic novel analysis DUE (Emma, Mayor of Casterbridge, OR A Tale of Two Cities; assignment instructions; literary analysis notes; tips for integrating quotations) 

Week of 28 September 2009

• reading and analysis of The Taming of the Shrew 
• 9/29-30/09 TEST: in-class essays on Pygmalion and literature circle novel

Week of 12 October 2009

• 10/13-14/09 Misanthrope fall break BONUS assignment DUE (instructions; online text) 
• introduction to sonnet form
• reading and analysis of The Taming of the Shrew
• introduction to Song of Solomon (character chart, assignment instructions)
• 10/15-16/09 Pygmalion take-home essays DUE

• in-class writing prompt for The Taming of the Shrew: "Society is a masked ball, where everyone hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding." (Emerson, "Worship" from The Conduct of Life, 1860)
• drafting of college-application essays (Common Application topics)

Unit 3 

Destiny: the Individual shaped by Heredity and Environment

Essential Questions:

• Is a person's identity limited by birth and experiences of the past?

• Does the world around a person determine identity?

• What force has a greater effect on the creation of identity: nature or nurture?

• How do authors convey the impact of external conflict on internal conflict?

Week of 19 October 2009 

• reading and analysis of sonnets
• AP exam multiple-choice practice with sonnets
• reading and analysis of The Taming of the Shrew
• Writers Workshop of college-application essays (Common Application topics)  

Week of 26 October 2009

• 10/22-23/09 discussion of Song of Solomon chapters 1-6 DUE (instructions)
• peer review of college-application essays (Common Application topics)
• 10/27-28/09   The Taming of the Shrew assessments DUE (instructions)

Week of 2 November 2009

• 11/3-4/09 discussion of Song of Solomon chapters 7-11 DUE (instructions)

Week of 9 November 2009

Week of 16 November 2009

• 11/16-17/09 discussion of Song of Solomon chapters 12-15 DUE (instructions)