D Block: Updates on Research progress.

Hi Everyone: In the comment section, please let me know how things are going with your research.  Try to articulate your main argument, as best you can, and how things are coming together in your work.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

More Resources for AP Test Day

For the Multiple Choice section:

http://www.education.com/study-help/article/ap-english-literature-multiple-choice-question/

http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/rgunnar/files/multiple-choice%20strategies.pdf

Resources for Test Day: May 8th

For your browsing convenience, here are some useful links to parts of the AP Central Page.

For sample free response essays and commentary (scroll down to the end of each free response type for commentary):

 http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/2002.html

For test-day dos and don'ts: 

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/test-day

 

For a visual map of how the test is arranged:

 

 http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-english-literature-bookmap-2014.pdf

 

Beyond these things, try looking up multiple choice test strategies and record some advice that you think will help.  We've talked about strategies in class, but with these kinds of tests there is no one-size-fits-all approach.  Try to think in terms of time management and what suits you best: will you want to take a peek at the questions before reading a selection, or start reading right away and then answer the questions that are least time-consuming first?  

King Lear Motif Assignment, Acts III and IV

Hi Everyone: Please respond to the passage you have chosen in class (Tuesday, April 1) in the comment section below.  See the previous motif assignment for directions or clarification.  Only one passage is necessary for both acts.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

King Lear Motif Assignment Act II

Hi Everyone: Please respond to your chosen passage in the comment section below.  See the previous motif assignment for directions or clarification.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

Independent Reading Check-in for Term 3: Guidelines.

Please see the following for the end-of-quarter reading check-in, probably due around April 4:

Independent Reading & Research Term Three

Now you can turn more of your attention to your independent reading and research project.
You'll turn in evidence of the reading on or before March 23.You're expected to read between 500 and 1000 pages or so by the end of the term. (If you're reading difficult experimental fiction you'll likely read closer to 500 pages and if you're reading popular children's fiction you'll be expected to hit 1000.)
The goal of this reading is to prepare for the paper you will write during the fourth quarter. The notetaking and writing you do about the reading you are doing during third quarter will help you a lot when you write the paper.

There are three different ways you could show evidence of your reading and thinking.Option 1: Keep a quotation response journal. You should have a quotation and response for every twenty to thirty (20-30) pages or so. Your responses should often relate to the central question and/or thesis in your proposal.

Option 2: Keep a double-entry notebook. Take notes -- quotations, paraphrases, other information -- on the left side of your notes & on the right side write down your thoughts about the information on the left side. What you write on the right side should often relate to the central question and/or thesis in your proposal. You should have a page of notes for every twenty to thirty (20-30) pages or so of your reading.

Option 3: Write short, informal, exploratory essay responses (300-500 words or so). You should write an essay for every fifty to sixty (50-60) pages or so of reading. These responses should discuss the reading in terms of your central question and/or provisional thesis.

King Lear Motif Assignment

Choose a particular monologue or passage of dialogue to analyze. (1) In your analysis demonstrate an understanding of the passage's meaning within its context. (2) Also, identify and discuss the significance of (at least two) motifs within the passage. What does the use of the motifs reveal, particularly about characters, conflicts, and themes? (3) Finally, discuss the relationship between how the motifs are presented in the passage and how the motifs are presented elsewhere in the play. Post your response below. At the beginning of your post include your name, name the motifs, and quote the passages (include act.scene.line).

Personal Poetry Anthology Directions.

AP English Literature and Composition

Personal Poetry Anthology
1. Email me your theme.
2. Bring typed copies of seven of the fifteen poems to class on ____________________

3. Bring a draft of one of your own poems to class on ____________________
4. Bring a draft of the introduction to class on ____________________
5. Completed project is due ___________________

Theme: ___________________________________

For this assignment, you will prepare a poetry anthology. For our purposes, poetry will include song lyrics. The anthology will be unified by a common theme, and must consist of the following minimal requirements:

Criteria                                                                                                    Title of Poem (Author of Poem)

1. A late sixteenth or seventeenth                        à

century poem (Elizabethan,

Metaphysical, Cavalier)

2.  A nineteenth century poem                             à

(Romantic, Gothic, Victorian)

3.  A twentieth century poem                               à

(modern or post-modern)

4. A twenty-first century poem                             à

(post-modern)

5. Lyrics to song                                                     à

6. A sonnet (or poem written in                          à

another traditional form: sestina,

terza rima, rondeau, villanelle, etc.)

7. A poem translated                                             à

from another language

8. A poem that you have written                                à

containing an allusion

9. A poem that you have written                                à

using a traditional or invented form

10. A poem that you have written                              à

that is a strict, loose, or homophonic translation

11. A poem that you have written                              à

in any form

12. Free choice                                                        à

13. “ “                                                                     à

14. “ “                                                                     à

15. “ “                                                                     à

You must include

a. A title page with MLA information (See Compass page ___.)

b. A dedication and epigraph page

c. An introduction (500-1000 words introducing the theme, briefly explaining the relationship between the poems and the theme, and reflecting upon the theme) or a shorter introduction (300 words) with annotations of each poem.**

d. A table of contents with titles, authors, and the criteria fulfilled by each poem

e. A minimum of fifteen (15) separate poems/songs. (See requirements above.)

f. A Works Cited page, including discography (MLA format See Compass page _____)

You may include:

a. More of your own poems, more translations, more poems in any category

b. Illustrations and/or photograph (Art taken from other sources much be cited)

c. More than one song lyric

d. A mixed-CD/mixed-tape with the song(s) and poems

Description of Independent Reading Project.

Independent Reading Project

Below are the options we will discuss for your independent reading project for the third and fourth quarters.  Soon I will ask you to post a comment below telling us (1) what option you have picked (the options are explained below), (2) what you plan to read to get some background on your option (if it's a website post the URL; make sure it's a scholarly source), and (3) what novel, play, or other lengthy work (for example, a collection of stories or poems) of literary merit you plan to read and respond to before the end of term two.

Some preliminary research on your part is necessary. Wikipedia is a useful tool for preliminary research (though you should not rely on Wikipedia research in scholarly writing).

Option 1: Bildungsroman. You might continue your study of the Bildungsroman genre (1) by consulting several sources -- starting with this one -- to learn more about Bildungsromans and (2) by reading a couple bildungsromans in addition to the one's you've already studied.

Option 2: Ur*-Narratives (Sacred Texts, Myths, Fairy Tales). You might continue your study of how writers, poets, and other artists use older, archetypal stories -- Bible stories, Greek myths, German fairy tales, etc. -- to create new stories, films, poems, paintings, etc. (We've already studied how Joyce, several painters, and several poets have made use of the Daedalus-Icarus myth.) You will (1) investigate an ur-narrative (a myth, a fairy tale, etc.) and (2) explore how several writers (and perhaps filmmakers, poets, and visual artists) have made use of the original story. (You might modify the assignment to look at how a couple different myths/tales are used.)
*"Ur" is Germanic in origin. In English it is sometimes used as a prefix meaning "original" or "prototypical".

Here are a few books that are based on myths, sacred texts, or folk tales:
* Here's a link to a list of books based on Greek mythology.
* William Butler Yeats wrote several plays based on Celtic mythology and tales.
* Anne Sexton wrote Transformations, a book of narrative poems based on German fairy tales.
* John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden include many Biblical allusions. Grapes of Wrath allusions include The Book of Job, the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis, and the story of the Hebrews and the Promised Land (Numbers, etc.) East of Eden is built around the Cain and Abel story in Genesis.

Option 3: Author Study. You might continue your investigation of one of the authors we have studied so far this year: Calvino, Ellison, Rhys, Bronte, Joyce. Or you might want to study another major author. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the author's life and cultural context and (2) her/his literary output beyond what you have already read.

Option 4: Literary Movement. You might continue your investigation of a literary movement that we have touched upon this year: Romanticism, Gothicism, Victorianism, Modernism. Or you might want to study another literary movement. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the -ism and (2) representative literary works from the movement.

Option 5: Literature of a Culture. You might continue your investigation of the literature produced by a particular culture. The works we have read so far this year have come out of several cultural contexts: Italian, African-American, Anglo-Caribbean, English, Irish. Or you might to want to study the literature of another culture. You will (1) investigate the literature produced by the particular culture and (2) read representative literary works from the culture.

Option 6: Critical Lens. You might study literature using a particular critical lens:gender studies, critical race theory, queer theory, Marxist literary criticism,psychoanalytic (Freudian) literary criticism, archetypal literary criticism,ecocriticism, deconstruction, etc. (Click here for Wikipedia's "literary theory" page for more ideas.) You will (1) investigate the critical theory and (2) read literary works "through the lens" of the critical theory.

Option 7: Something else that you concoct and propose. This something else should have a research component and a literary component.