Mrs. Fanjul's AP Literature Class

AP English Literature expands and develops skills in critical reading and writing about literature. Authors are chosen from the AP English Course Description for the English Literature and Composition Exams and those appearing on previous AP Literature and Composition Exams. Works are at a reading and content level appropriate for college freshmen. The course stresses a critical awareness of genre, theme, and style, focusing on British, American, and world literature. Writing assignments emphasize the refinement of personal expression and style at a level equivalent to composition assignments at the freshman college level.

Each unit involves writing exercises, including formal extended analyses, timed in-class responses, microessays which enable students to learn methods of analysis they will use in extended essays, and reading logs. Topics for microessays and timed writing are assigned; given a range of possibilities, students select the topics for their own major essays.

Not all writing is analytical. The college essay unit involves a freewriting journal on a variety of prompts similar to college application essay prompts; this journal becomes a resource for students as they revise toward a college application essay. In the modern American novel unit, students keep a reading journal which provides the notes for a graded discussion and the basis for their essays on the novel. Students also reflect upon their own writing process in written self-assessments each semester. Other units have creative responses such as writing a villanelle, sestina, or ode.