AP Lit and Comp with Ms. TerefCourse Overview

(as students enter, shake their hands and introduce myself)

DAY 1:“What will your verse be?”https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=R_zsMwCOoEs (louder, no subtitles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS1esgRV4Rc (not as loud, has subtitles)

DAY 1:What will your “verse” be?What could be another word for

“verse?”(voice, music/melody that rises from the pages of your writing – college essay ,AP essays, cover letters…)

Activity on next slide! (until 9 am and 12:58 pm)

DAY 1:Activity: Listen to your own “verse”

(15 minutes?)1. Quietly go out in the hallway w/ a pen and notebook.You’ll see posters hanging on the lockers with passages2. read each passage quietly and record your

impressions in short hand; (I’m not collecting this): Look for what speaks to you; listen for your own music; drown out the others’ music.

3. Select the one piece of music that speaks to you, and you only. Drown out peer pressure.

(5 minutes) 4. Stand in front of the poster you chose.

- Talk to one or two peers who have selected the same one and SHARE your reasons and LISTEN to their reasons for choosing that piece.

- Record in shorthand the most interesting and unique reason from your peers.

DAY 1:Activity: Listen to your own “verse” (cont)(15 min)Report out on your findings – whose “verse”

captured your attention? Why? PRACTICE S.O.L.A.R.!!!

How does this relate to your college essay, job interviews, AP Lit writing, any writing, you, to life?

7 MIN. BEFORE THE BELL: - intro + Benito Cereno (today or tomorrow),

calendar, textbook pick-up (Razor and Sula)

Day 2: Show the calendarCollect Benito Cereno paperPass out the syllabus (at home, in

15 min.,read the syllabus, alternating between skimming and close-reading, AND annotate for tomorrow – for our Q&A.

Textbook pick-up: Razor and SulaThis PPT

Day 2: On a sheet of paper:Your name:What should I call you?Your “verse:”Are you a Scholar? Yes or NoFavorite movies:Favorite bands/artists/music:What should I know about you to be a

good teacher to you? Be specific.Desired college major? Why?Did you take AP Lang? What score?

Feelings about the exam.

DAY 2: Ms. Teref: CV (Curriculum Vitae)-not my verse MA in Applied Linguistics, UIC, PhD

candidate at Georgetown (cautionary tale about UCLA vs. Ivy League schools)

Taught at UIC, Columbia CC, CCC, RHS, Von Steuben

Scholarly Work: AP Lit reader/judge, Past President of TESOL, presented internationally, nationally (NCTE in Nov, 2014) research paper on exigent writing, grant writing (multiple essays- much like college essays), advocating for changes to NCLB on Capitol Hill, published a book of poetry translations: http://www.hostpublications.com/books/assembly.html

Faculty Advisor for Ricochet Review, poetry magazine out of Von: http://ricochetreview.wix.com/mainpage

Ricochet Review: do you write poetry? Do you want to schmooze and network with established poets?Do you want to include publishing credits in your college essay?

Hobbies (What’s my verse?):

Travel and POV: England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece,Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, St. Lucia, Aruba, Holland, Belgium… probably elsewhere…Guess what country this is (what’s my verse?)

Gardening, make-up, music (metal: goth, doom, funeral, industrial…), Scandinavian crime mysteries

Why should you care?Why do you think I wanted to tell you about

myself? (read people/situations from many POVs not just my own; understand, find the alcoves within yourself where you can

understand, and not react, lose your cool – but understand the human condition)

Lifetime detective: what makes people tick? Literature is excellent practice for understanding break-ups, jealousy, hatred, greed, love, sex, dysfunction, abuse, poverty, riches, spirituality, materialism –in other words – the HUMAN CONDITION.

- When you read, you don’t feel alone. C’mon, don’t tell me there aren’t some topics that you’d rather die than discuss with your friends, or God forbid, parents… that you need to read about in order to understand and learn more about.

Reading people/situations vs. projecting oneself (aka identifying w/people)

What’s the difference?Which is more effective? Why?How do you know when one is

identifying with/projecting oneself vs. reading people/situations (don’t judge and defend – but REVEAL, REVEAL to yourself, and if need be, others )

What canonical works are we reading this year? – all grown-up lit

The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham

- “life is a razor, and I walked the line of that silver blade” (Iron Maiden “The Evil That Men Do,” AC/DC album…)

S

Setting: Chicago and Paris, post World War 1 -1920’s

Themes: PTSD, love, vengeance, spirituality vs. materialism, asceticism vs. hedonism, social commentary (ex. Dark Knight Rises)S. Maugham, English

Sula by Toni MorrisonSetting: Ohio, post

World War I, 1920’sThemes: friendship,

betrayal, cheating, racism, PTSD, social commentary

T. Morrison, American Nobel Prize Winner

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde(our 19th cent.Victorian/Gothic requirement)

Oscar Wilde, Irish

Themes: decadence, hedonism vs. asceticism , narcissism, drugs, lots of drugs – opium, mostly.

Hamlet by the BardThemes: suicide,

regicide, deicide, fratricide, Oedipus Complex, incest, hating one’s cheating parents, bloodbath, love, religion…

Hamlet and his babysitter, Yorrick

The Trial by Franz KafkaOur world-lit requirement)

German-speaking/writing Jewish Bohemian (now Czech Republic)

“Kafkaesque”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaWgRw78Y1M

Themes: red tape (mindless bureaucracy), guilt, dystopia, totalitarianism, elastic justice, sex, sexism, sexual objectfication

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (our modern US lit requirement)

K. Kesey, US (orderly at a mental hospital)

Themes: mental illness, emasculation, Oedipus Complex, rape, sex, sexism, racism

How does AP Lit translate into your college essay?Exigence – the urgency/desire to convince

your audience, show that you care either about your own future or about a character in a novel or about a poem – you want to split yourself open and write about what hurts, what is uncomfortable while maintaining your intellectual integrity, humility, autonomy – and create a story around it.

Flannery O’Connor: “Every child who has survived his/her childhood has a story to tell.” You do, too. And not just about yourself.

Ex. grant money + 6 essays cf. Gates Millennium =9 essays)

How does AP Lit translate into your college essay?There is only one YOU. Find who you are and

always have a recognizable voice, whether writing a college essay, a party invite, an essay in AP lit. Write from the gut, find you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnAyr0kWRGE Dead Poets’ Society (save this for College Essay – don’t play today)

If you don’t think you have a voice – we’ll help you unshackle it, unleash it – it’s there, but buried underneath a ton of peer pressure, family pressure, boyfriend/girlfriend pressure, trauma…

Do you want to be in the black or in the red? Who and where are you as a student and as a person regarding your education?Exigence vs. indifferenceurgency vs. dead seaactive vs. passiveinteresting vs. boringprestigious school vs. overly expensive for

profit school no one has heard ofDevil Wears Prada (analysis example) +

how an 8 or a 9 thinks OR how a motivated, inspired student thinks:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LVptO7o4L8

- On the AP essay scale (9 –points): who’s a 3 and who’s a 9 in this scene. Why?

“You think this has nothing to do with you?” – why take AP Lit? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmayC2AdkNw

“Excrement! Rip it out!” Dead Poets’ Society A GPA boost – being graded on a 6-pt. scale Saving money by testing out of college courses College readiness Even if a college of your choice doesn’t accept AP

credit, AP is a hallmark/brand, and colleges want to see that you are ambitious

Build confidence – even if your choice of college may not accept AP credit, if you get a 3, 4, or 5, you KNOW that you have all of the intellectual traits needed to succeed. You know that you know how to think and write – and that knowledge, once internalized within you, will give you a huge confidence boost.

AP Lit Exam Breakdown:Multiple Choice= 45% = 1 hour, 55

questions- Preparation? In class + extra credit

opportunities before school + Saturdays

ESSAY PORTION= 55%, 3 essays, 2 hours Essay Question 1: 1 or 2 poems, previously

unseen- Preparation: From January till the exam in

May, active preparation – no worries- my students always do well on poetry, unlike the rest of the Universe.

Why take AP Lit?U of C visit: test scores, GPA, progression in

taking challenging classes, what if you had a bad year? TMI, Where’s Waldo?

AP Lang vs. AP Lit : nonfiction vs. fiction,lit a bit harder, a 3 on AP Lang translates into

a 2 or a 3 (if you possess exigence) on AP Lit. If you get a 5 on the AP Lit exam, know that

you are Ivy League material. Period.Knowledge, powerful and seductive

conversation peace – all novels we’re reading are general education and pop cultural references.

AP Lit Exam Breakdown:Essay Question 2: a previously

unseen prose text- Preparation: From October till the

exam, in-class prepEssay Question 3: an essay on

one of the novels we’ll be reading this year.

- Preparation: All year round: every novel we read will be a paper – I’ll help – you’ll never be left hanging.