Course Overview

We can do it: In senior year, all ACC students will take AP English. Together we’ll undertake reading, writing and discussions at a level that’s usually reserved for students in elite private high schools and affluent suburbs. It will be hard, and we can do hard work. One of our tasks this year will be to examine the discourse in our culture around high level academics – who it is “for,” who is capable of it and who, supposedly, is not. We’ll analyze the dynamics of knowledge and power, in terms of race, class, culture, gender, and the way language works in our texts, and in our understanding of ourselves and others.

We will read Plato and Dante, Shakespeare and Cervantes, Woolf and Joyce, Dostoyevsky and Camus, Borges and Marquez, Nietzsche and Foucault, Memmi and Fanon. We’ll read 5,000 pages, write 7 long papers, and discuss books every day at a college level. Students might need a bit of extra help at first, and that’s okay. I’m here to help during and after school. In my 10 years of teaching, I’ve seen students of all skill levels grow dramatically, and go on to succeed in college. Our graduates are succeeding in schools such as Harvard, Brown, Williams, Wesleyan, Tufts, Brandeis, Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley. Many more have started out at local community colleges. No matter where a student started from, no matter where that student is heading next, together we will get ready for college by doing college level work. In Senior English, you’ll do it every night until their final exam. At the end of the year, you’ll know they’re ready for higher education. I will give you a lot of demanding reading, difficult papers, challenging conversations, and a leg up here and there into higher level vocabulary, concepts, and skills. The real work is done by each of you, and it will become a source of real pride. Students will learn to show that pride in their current assignments, in their coming achievements, in their nightly homework, in their daily presence, and on the stage at graduation in June.

Course philosophy: This class is based on an educational philosophy known as constructivism, in which students actively construct their understanding of the subject at hand, rather than passively receiving knowledge imparted from the instructor. In a constructivist classroom, students play an active role as learners, which should prove both engaging and demanding. To make this strategy succeed, they must come to class prepared to actively engage in discussions. While class discussions are at the heart of the course, I will deliver a good deal of background and analysis on the texts we read, which I’ll mix into our conversations as “mini-lectures.” However, students must do original thinking in their comments and papers, rather than repeat what they’ve heard from me. All discussions will grow from your ideas on the readings we’ve done together, which I’ll work to deepen and expand. We will make our conversations more meaningful by going through our readings into new understandings of our lives, and the broader world.

Skills: Analytical thinking and writing are the most essential skills for college success, and receive the primary focus in Senior English. Students will read expert literary analysis and write their own in papers that demand original thinking, careful argument, and thorough grounding in textual evidence. When writing essays or speaking in class, we’ll learn to structure our communication for clarity and effective organization. Each night we’ll practice “active reading” by making notes on our ideas, in preparation for the next day’s discussion. We’ll learn to do “close readings” that look carefully at the small details of short passages, working to understand how a work’s local style, thematics and structure shape its broader meanings.

Of course, these sophisticated skills will amount to little if students don’t develop the self discipline to read every night, and write their papers on time. We’ll work on “accountable behavior” as a skill, discussing together the positive and negative habits of mind that lead toward or away from reaching our academic goals. We’ll practice metacognition, to observe and control the thinking that leads to our behaviors around school work. One of the most basic goals for accountability will be the development of reading and writing stamina. We’ll do lots of work, because students who can keep up with the higher pace of reading and writing in college have a better chance of graduating from college. In our written work, we’ll practice the self discipline of careful proofing, and on an individual basis, students who need help will work to write in standard English.

Critical Consciousness: As we develop our analytical skills, we’ll work to transfer them to our understanding of media, culture, power, justice, identity, and equality, in the concrete situations of our daily lives. Just as we can get better at reading the deep structures and meanings of books, we can get better at “reading” ourselves, our positions in the dynamics of knowledge and power, the historical forces that have brought us to this place together, and the culture’s narratives about who we are and where we belong. Together, we’ll discuss forces of oppression and of liberation within contemporary Boston and the wider world, by connecting what we’re reading in class to what we know about the story of our own lives, and of situations across the globe. We’ll dig deeper, and work at many angles to come to know ourselves and our communities in new ways, always struggling toward understandings that can help us improve our lives together.

Readings: In the 11^th grade, students read important works by U.S. authors, when they take the American Literature pre-requisite to the World Literature AP course in 12^th grade. In AP English, students will build upon and expand beyond their knowledge of American literature, by reading a broad selection of international texts. We’ll take an eclectic approach to our studies of world literature by reading a range of works, from sacred literature to epic and lyric poetry, drama, philosophy, fiction, and even a little economics and history. Often, we’ll look at theory to help gain analytical perspectives on the development of world literature – from the fields of psychology, comparative religion, sociology, art history, economics, literary and cultural studies, political philosophy, education, feminism, and Marxism, as well as postmodern and postcolonial theory. Through these diverse readings and analytical approaches, I hope the course will break down any narrow understanding students might have of “studying English,” and broaden the possibilities of cross-disciplinary scholarship in their futures. I will also work so that our reading about literature will not walk over the experience central to the course: each student’s personal encounter with the primary text.

Writing: Every student takes two hours of English each day, the first hour focused on literature, and the second on writing. In senior year, students will work to develop their analytical and creative writing, through prewriting exercises, group discussions, vocabulary enrichment, exemplar analysis, teacher coaching, and peer feedback. Students will receive instruction and feedback before and after their assignments. Students will revise their writing, working toward flawless standard English, a wide-ranging and expressive vocabulary, and a variety of sentence structures crafted to develop flow and rhythm in their prose. We’ll work on rhetorical skills, including tone and voice. Students will reflect on the intended audience of their writing, and fit their style to the purpose of each piece. As we analyze the connections between form and content in our nightly readings, students will work to incorporate these stylistic devices in their own writing, in creative and analytical work, to become self-conscious craftsmen of prose and poetics.

History: The course will move in chronological order, and we’ll constantly ask ourselves how literature and ideas connect and transform over time. Throughout the year, we’ll examine the “history of ideas,” to trace out how humans have thought about themselves and their world over time – and how historical, political, cultural and economic developments have given shape to the literature we read. For example, we’ll examine the development of the modern notion of self, where the idea of unique personality and  personal agency arises in contest with ancient fatalism and medieval anonymity – so that in the Renaissance we find complex notions of interiority and depth of character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We’ll discover that many of our fundamental notions about life have historical roots beneath which lie very different constructions of the universe, and our place within it.

The AP Exam: Seniors who have demonstrated sufficient skills will be encouraged to take the AP Exam in English Literature and Composition, and fee wavers will be offered to qualifying students, based on both financial need and preparedness. Regular vocabulary tests, as well as timed essays in term 1 and at midyear, will simulate AP test conditions and demands. However, exam preparation is not at all the focus of the course. Our focus will be on readiness for the rigors of college, where, generally, careful and critical thinking, open ended questions, long papers, and class discussions will be the rule.

A fresh start: No matter how well or poorly students have done in school before, I hope they’ll look at their senior year as a chance to begin anew, to reinvent themselves as students, to discover passions in their learning that they might pursue through college, and career. If they stay open for new ideas and ways of being, I believe they’ll get more from the course, and their lives outside it. Learning in Senior English is about learning to see differently, to see with fresh eyes our selves, and our work together.

Scaffolding: By the year’s end, students will read 40 pages each night, write a 2000 word paper integrating analysis of form and content with outside research, deliver well organized and deep contributions during class discussion, and range a penetrating vision through literature, culture, history, philosophy, identity, race, gender, class, and the webs of power/knowledge that structures our daily discourse, in the very ways we know ourselves and others.

To get there, I’ll increase the demands of the course over time. It is therefore essential for students to maintain solid effort and attendance each term. Students who miss too much class, or disengage for too long, will find their work even more difficult when they return. Scaffolding the work load, so students can gradually build the skills they’ll need for college, will benefit those who maintain consistent attendance and effort.

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Term 4

Average pages / night

25.1

23.6

37.6

41.9

Historical Periods

Ancient

Medieval-Early Mod.

19^th-20^th centuries

20^th century

Class discussion

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Term 4

Facilitation

Guiding questions for organization and better analysis, while I record comments on the projector screen for more careful structure and clarity.

Guiding questions for deeper analysis, with less use of the projector.

Some group work.

Guiding questions for integrating analysis of form and content, with little use of the projector.

More group work.

Fewer guiding questions, and no use of the projector.

Much group work.

Papers

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Term 4

Length

1250 words

1500 words

1750 words

2000 words

Analysis

Content, some form

Content, more form

Form and content

Form, content, research

Topical focus

Ancient myth

Medieval/Modern ethics and values

Modern identity

Enlightenment rationalism

Modernity and its discontents

 Postmodern theory

Postcolonial literature, theory, and race

Multiple Intelligences, Multimedia, Multisensory

Though we focus in class on oral and written analysis, I work to incorporate other sensory modes to help all learners access the curriculum. During the first semester, I type comments on a computer projector so we can slow down the conversation, and structure analysis visually, to model feedback and coaching in a way that’s accessible for students who learn more visually. When possible, I perform physical analogies for abstract concepts, and try to get students in on the movement, too. For example, when teaching the concept of a close reading, we go into the hallway, using it as a metaphor for a text, and “read” the small details of its style, structure, and meaning. Kinesthetic modeling helps some learners grasp a concept that’s otherwise elusive. To learn the skill of formal analysis, we’ll look at art history slideshows, and do close readings of film. I’ll even include some culinary experiences as we read a Mexican novel with a kitchen as the central setting. I’ll work to engage learners on many levels, to bring ideas to fuller life.

Vocabulary development for the analysis of form

To help prepare you for the analysis of form in class discussions, papers, the AP exam, and eventually college, you’ll need to learn the specialized vocabulary of that discipline. During each unit, I’ll introduce key terms to help build your understanding of formal analysis, and you’ll be tested occasionally for your understanding of these terms. The tests will simulate AP exam conditions, with multiple choice questions in which you’ll apply your knowledge of formal analysis on passages of literature I select for you. Below, you’ll see the terms we’ll cover over the course of the year. Definitions for the terms follow each unit in the overview section.