ADVANCED PLACEMENT BRITISH LITERATURE CURRICULUM
for Pius X High School
RATIONALE
This course is designed to prepare students for college English courses. Students learn to analyze challenging literature through reading, discussing, and writing about the works of British authors from the Anglo-Saxon period to the 20th century. Students may choose to take the advanced placement exam in order to receive three hours college credit in English after completion of this course.
GOALS
1. Further develop an understanding and appreciation of literature
2. Apply the values found in literature to basic Christian values
3. Improve writing style through the use of journals, reaction papers, analytical pieces, and research papers
4. Understand how the stages of literature developed historically and chronologically
5. Advanced preparation for college English classes
OBJECTIVES
1. Become familiar with the elements of British literature
2. Become familiar with the authors of British literature
3. Use critical thinking and reading strategies to gain a fuller understanding of British literature
4. Use British literature as a springboard for writing creatively
5. Use British literature as a springboard for writing critically
STUDENTS WILL READ THE FOLLOWING WORKS:
THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD
The Seafarer translation by Burton Raffel
The Wife's Lament translation by Charles Kennedy
from Beowulf translation by Burton Raffel
Anglo-Saxon Riddles translation by J. Duncan Spaeth and Michael Alexander
THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD
from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
from Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
from The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus --Christopher Marlowe
The Taming of the Shrew --William Shakespeare
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Song John Donne
Holy Sonnet 10 John Donne
Holy Sonnet 14 John Donne
Meditation 17 John Donne
On My First Son Ben Jonson
To the Memory of My Beloved Master, William Shakespeare Ben Jonson
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent John Milton
On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three John Milton
from Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan
THE RESTORATION AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
from A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
from Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
THE ROMANTIC AGE
My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold William Wordsworth
It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free William Wordsworth
Ode to the West Wind Percy Bysshe Shelley
To a Skylark Percy Bysshe Shelley
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be John Keats
To Autumn John Keats
Introduction to Frankenstein Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
THE VICTORIAN AGE
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
ASSESSMENT
1. READING QUIZZES--Quizzes will be used to determine students' understanding and completion of reading assignments.
2. TESTS--Test with objective questions and an essay question will be given at the completion of each unit.
3. READING JOURNALS AND REACTION PAPERS--Students will respond to the literature through writings they will keep all semester.
4. PORTFOLIOS--One reaction paper and the research paper will be included in the four year portfolio.
5. GROUP WORK--Groups will work in class on projects and presentations they will share with the whole class.
6. A research paper is due before the end of the semester.
7. FINAL EXAM--This exam is administered at the end of each semester on designated testing days or we will take a field trip to Sheldon Art Gallery for the purpose of writing creatively on a student selected piece of art..
This Page Last Updated on April 18, 2000