AP Lit: Some 'Poems' with Links

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love – Christopher Marlowe, 1599

The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd – Sir Walter Raleigh, 1600

To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell, 1681 (p721 in the Perrines's)

The Flea – John Donne, 1633 (p812)

Song – John Donne, 1633 (p958)

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John Donne, 1633 (p720)

When I Consider How My Light is Spent - John Milton, 1673

The Lover: A Ballad – Lady Wortley Montagu, 1747

The Lamb – William Blake, 1789 (p793)

The Chimney Sweeper – William Blake, 1789 (p756)

The Tyger – William Blake, 1790 (p794)

The Chimney Sweeper – William Blake, 1790

Kubla Khan – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1816 (p951)

Song of Myself, 1 - Walt Whitman, 1855/1881/1892

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (#465) - Emily Dickinson, 1896

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant (#1129) - Emily Dickinson, 1945

The Second Coming - William Butler Yeats, 1921

Leda and the Swan - William Butler Yeats, 1924

Sailing to Byzantium - William Butler Yeats, 1927

More to come...

Novels into Film: Second Semester Final Presentation

What you need to do:

1. Read a book.
2. Choose one major literary device: plot, character(s), theme(s), symbol(s), other.
3. Watch a movie interpreting your book.
4.  Compare how the movie handled--or didn't handle--the [insert major literary device] found in the novel.
5. Prepare a five-minute class presentation (15 slides @ 20 seconds per slide) on the book's use of [insert major literary device] vs. the movie's use of the same.

Suggestions for how to do Step 5 (any of the following used individually or in concert could help your presentation):

• Talk about what interested you about the novel/film, and how the subtle/obvious nature of the [major literary device] that was present in the novel was/wasn't handled in the film satisfactorily.
• Write a simple compare-and-contrast paper about your topic and read it to the class. (You really need to be more creative than this, but this would be the bare minimum needed to "pass.")
• Create a slide show/PowerPoint with highlights from your presentation to guide your audience as you teach your topic.
• Bring in the DVD (or a link on the Internet) and show a BRIEF clip from the movie to illustrate your claim(s) about your topic. By "brief" I mean anything up to the length of a movie trailer, but it could include a series of shorter clips used to support your findings. 
• Dress up in a school-appropriate costume to narrate your presentation. Note: you really should not dress up like a Spartan warrior to talk about Pride and Prejudice, but dressing up like a samurai to discuss Kurosawa's interpretation of Shakespeare would be acceptable as long as the costume is not a substitute for analysis. Costumes are only window dressing; therefore, this is entirely optional.
• Interpretive dance followed by a five-minute class presentation on book's use of [insert major literary device] vs. the movie's use of the same.
• Watch the "making of" section of the DVD and find out if the filmmakers had to make compromises/refused to make compromises in the translation of the novel to film. There may even be some kind of production notes online that discuss similar topics, particularly for popular older films or newer films with big marketing budgets. Note: this is called "research," and its inclusion is always encouraged in a scholarly presentation.
• Be creative and come up with another way to impart information about a topic to an audience of your peers. Your target audience is about 15-18 years old; don't bore them.

List of Films Any of these films would be excellent choices, but this list is by no means exclusive. If you have another book that isn't on here, run it by me to make sure that it's acceptable (in other words, something with a little more literary oomph than Captain Underpants).

• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• Journey to the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne
• Adventure by Jack London
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• Terms of  Endearment by Larry McMurtry
• Horseman Pass By by Larry McMurtry
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
• The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
• Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
• Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
• A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
• A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
• Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
• The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
• Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
• Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
• <enter title here> by William Shakespeare 
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
• The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• Washington Square by Henry James
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Due Date

The due date for this project is rolling, meaning that people will volunteer to present either the 4th, 5th, or 6th six-week grading period. While that will mean that the first round has to go sooner, there is an advantage to not-have to rush at the end when everyone else is doing senior-stuff.

Novels into Film - Diagnosis: Blanche D.

In order to prescribe an appropriate therapy, the medical staff of Central Louisiana State Hospital need your help in establishing a background for their newest patient, Miss Blanche D______ (redacted for patient confidentiality purposes).

Assignment

Students will adopt the perspective of a psychotherapist and prepare a brief case study (350-750 words) of Miss Blanche. The task is to describe the habits and behaviors which drove the patient to the asylum; specifically, students must address the following:

• what are the patient's symptoms?
• what patterns of dysfunctional behaviors may have contributed to committing the patient to the asylum?
• are their any specific circumstances or events that may have precipitated her arrival?
• and finally, based on these patterns of behaviors and circumstances, is recovery possible in the immediate future, or is the patient to be committed for a long term (or even permanent) care?

Please note that this is not a typical book report, and as such students should not simply summarize the events of the play. The central question to answer (using the bulleted questions above as a guide) is how did the patient come to arrive at the asylum, and why.

Due Date:

September 24, 2019

4:45pm

AP Literature 2019-2020 Summer Reading Explosaganza!

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
-The Tempest, Act III, sc ii, 129-130


Welcome! You've made it to AP English Literature and Composition! Here is your complete summer reading assignment:

Read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale by the end of the summer. Be ready to talk about it on day one. That's it. That's the whole assignment.

Here is a link to the version I will be using that I picked up on Amazon, but you can pick up a copy wherever you like, and any version is okay as long as it is the unedited, unabridged, original version.

Recommendations for how to read this book:

• Actually read the book. Sure, watch the series, too, if you like. Nothing substitutes for reading the actual text, and you will be found out.
• Start a character log in a notebook. Every time a new character is introduced, put that character's name at the top of a new page and make a short note about when that character is introduced. Every time something major happens to that character, make a short note on a new line.
• Check out the "notes that Spark the imagination" AFTER you have read the original. Again, nothing substitutes for reading the actual text, but there are several after-market aids to help you out, and there's no reason not to use them. Here's one I like (slightly risqué): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01VOISj8Fq0

See you next year!

AP Lang Final: Rhetorical Desserts

What: Final

When: Exam Day

Sign up for a rhetorical device or term on my classroom door, then look up definitions and examples. Consult with your teacher to make sure you fully understand the device or term you've selected.

Make, bake, or creatively assemble a breakfast food, dessert or snack food that either 

a) clearly defines your term, 

b) clearly illustrates your term, or 

c) clearly exemplifies your term.

Example: You bake a cake, and on it you write Marie Antionette. Historical allusion: "Let them eat cake." You CANNOT just bring a box or bag of something and smack a label on it, you have to put forward some effort to actually create something original.

It's a two-part grade: your presentation, and the thing you make.

1. You have to make a two-minute presentation covering your definition, your examples, your thought process in creating your offering, etc.
2. You bring your item -- enough for 10 or so folks to sample and enjoy -- and your own serving utensils, napkins, etc. (Note: do not break the bank unless you just want to make that much. There will be plenty to go around if we all make a little.)

It is possible to do this project alone or in pairs, but the expectations for greatness will be commensurate to the number of people (ie, two people should mean twice as good as one). 

When presentations are done, we head to the Green Room to enjoy your work and each other's company for the last time this year.

Devices to be Presented (you will sign up for one of these):

1. Anaphora

2. Epistrophe

3. Rule of 3

4. Power of One

5. Epizeuxis

6. Asyndeton

7. Polysyndeton

8. Hyperbole

9. Invective

10.Rant

11.Sarcasm

12.Syllogism

13.Oxymoron

14.Paradox

15.Alliteration

16.Allusion

17.Analysis

18.Litotes

19.Metonymy

20.Onomatopoeia

21.Metaphor

22.Simile

23.Long periodic sentence

24.Loose cumulative sentence

25.Appositive

26.Epithet

27.Aphorism

28.Anecdote

29.Enumeration

30.Antimetabole

31.Amplification

32.Antiphrasis

AP Lit: Tabletop Shakespeare, or "Diners, Drive-Ins, Daggers, and Dunsinane"

Who: One person solo, or a group of five

What: Stage any one act of "The Scottish Play" using items you would ordinarily find on a table in a diner, drive-in, dive, BBQ joint, Scottish pub, Waffle House, IHOP, cafeteria, or city cafe

How: Interpretive Video Project with a Writing Component

Why: Demonstrate your understanding of the play

When: By April 8th (Blue) or April 9th (Silver)

Particulars:

You will need to stage one act of Macbeth on a table using only the kinds of things you might find on the table at an ordinary mid-scale restaurant. Solo projects only need to stage one act of their choice whereas group acts need to stage the entire play (one act each). Each student will "perform" their chosen act using the items as players, blocking the action, reciting critical lines, and acting out the scenes in order. You will also need to record a video of this performance for submission with your dramatis personae, both of which are due on or before your class' due date. Your recording must be a Quicktime file or MP3, i.e. a non-esoteric, commonly-playable file that could be easily accessed by my mother.

The dramatis personae will be comprised of a list of all characters in your chosen act, what items will represent each character, and explanations for how the items represent the characters. Each of these explanations will be one paragraph in length with citations from the text substantiating the comparisons. (E.g., this bottle of Texas Pete represents Lady Macbeth and her spicy temper, as seen in Act II, sc iii, lines 132-56.) There is the expectation that the comparisons will be abstract; after all, mustard rarely moves around as much as Macduff. Would this have been more easily performed with sock puppets or action figures or My Little Ponies? Yes. Yes, it would have, which is why we wanted to see what you could do with condiments.

You: "But what items are found on a table in a diner, drive-in, BBQ joint, Scottish pub, Waffle House, IHOP, cafeteria, or city cafe?"
Me: Really?

Me: Okay. Salt, pepper, napkin dispenser, catsup, mustard, mayo, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, pepper sauce, creamers, sugar, sweeteners, butter, pancake syrup, international varieties of flavored pancake syrup, paper towel roll, menu, malt vinegar, horseradish, B&B plate, utensils, soy sauce, chop sticks, sweet and sour sauce, straws, whatever else you might ordinarily see on a table in a restaurant.

AP Lit: The Scottish Play

Introduction:

“Macbeth is a play about how dreams may become nightmares, how a castle that by day seems the pleasant seat of nesting birds is transformed by night into hell itself—with a grimly witty Porter at the gate. And how the world may be turned upside down: the sun refuses to rise the morning after Duncan has been killed and other strange phenomena are interpreted as disruptions of the natural order.

"The English court, in contrast, is represented as a haven, a place of grace and ‘healing benediction.’ Malcolm’s stay in England serves as an education into virtue. His conquest of Scotland, with the worthy English Siward in support, is made to seem like a restoration of nature, the moving trees of Birnam symbolic of spring and rebirth. The play was written in the first few years after King James united the thrones of Scotland and England: Macduff’s final entrance with the tyrant’s head and his announcement that the time is free express hope for an end to the uncertainty about the nation’s future which had attended the final years of the Virgin Queen’s reign.”

-from: Bate, Jonathan. “Introduction.” Macbeth. NY: Modern Library, 2009. vii-xxi. Print.

Reading:

Even though it is by far the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Macbeth is pretty dark and heavy:there’s a lot to dig up in so little space. In addition to the study guide that you will be completing, the following are hints to help you reap the full rewards of your reading time:

• Highlight, underline and annotate any ideas that you deem important as you read. Look for repeated symbols, ideas, or characteristics of characters.
• Use post-it notes (big or small) to remind you of key evidence in the text. Our focus this semester is to prepare for the AP prose analysis and open questions (Q1 & Q3) by developing your close reading skills. As we read the play, be on the lookout for good passages.
• Need some extra guidance? www.shakespeare-online.com is a good starting place.
• Here's the BBC School Radio's study guide: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0572w00 
• And Thug Notes: https://vimeo.com/221509584 

In order to make sure you have read the complete play, but also to ensure that you have your Spring Break to do as you will, here is a suggested reading pace.

• Feb. 25: Act I, sc i-iii
• Feb. 26: Act I, sc iv-vii
• Feb. 27: Act II
• Feb. 28: Act III, sc i-ii
• Mar. 1: Act III, sc iii-iv
• Mar. 4: Act IV, sc i-ii
• Mar. 5: Act IV, sc iii
• Mar. 6: Act V, sc i-iii
• Mar. 7: Act V, sc iv-vii
• Mar. 8: Act V, sc viii

Extra Credit:

You may earn up to 10 points back on your lowest major assessment by performing a memorized dramatic monologue from Macbeth in front of class on Apr. 3rd/4th. Grades will be based upon (1) accuracy, (2) dramatic performance/enthusiasm, (3) stage presence, and (4) creativity.

You must choose one of the following monologues: 

• Captain (I.ii.9-46)
• Lady Macbeth (I.v.1-33 or I.vii.39-67)
• Macbeth (I.vii.1-29)
• Macbeth (II.i.44-77), or 
• Macbeth (III.i.52-77)