These standards were extracted from the College Board’s official course description for AP English Literature and Composition.

Reading:

• Students will read works from several genres and periods (1500 – present).
• Students will make careful observations of textual detail, establish connections among their observations, and draw from those connections a series of inferences leading to interpretive conclusions
• Students will reflect on the social/ historical values a work reflects and embodies.
• Students will recognize that the English language has changed dramatically through history.
• Students will apply various critical perspectives to literary works.
• Students will analyze literary works to arrive at an understanding of their multiple meanings.
• Students will question the larger meaning, purpose, or overall effect of details and ideas presented in literary works.
• Students will assess the quality and artistic achievement of literary works and consider their social and cultural value.

Writing:

• Students will record their own impressions and emotional responses to literature through response and reaction papers, annotations, free writing, and reading journals.
• Students will write brief focused analyses on aspects of language and structure in the form of expository, analytical, and argumentative essays.
• Students will write creatively in order to explore the process and further deepen their appreciation of literary artistry.
• Students will employ a wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness.
• Students will use a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and coordinate constructions
• Students will organize information and arguments logically and employ specific techniques of coherence such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis.
• Students will write using a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail
• Students will demonstrate an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis.
• Students will periodically write under time constraints typical of essay exams in college courses.
• Students will write responses to “open” questions in which students are asked to choose a literary work and discuss its relevant features in relation to the question provided.

Research:

• Students will research topics as needed to understand literature and develop persuasive arguments.
• Students will cite sources using a standardized system of documentation.

Required Instructional Materials and Resources: (List required materials including SDOC provided textbooks, including any fees that apply, etc.)

1. Meyer, Michael.  The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martins 2008.  Print.

2. Novels may need to be purchased by students, based on school and classroom availability.

Optional Materials and Resources:

• Paper copies of poems, short stories, writing prompts (etc.) for annotation purposes
• AP exam preparation workbook (McGraw Hill, Barron’s, The Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc.)