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651-744-4900

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651-744-4906

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651-293-5433

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275 North Lexington Pky
Saint Paul, MN 55104
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Course Description
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Old Town, Prague, Czech Republic
The Advanced Placement English course in Literature and Compositionengages students in the careful reading and critical analysis ofimaginative literature.  Through the close reading of selectedtexts, students should deepen their understanding of the ways writersuse language to provide both meaning and pleasure for theirreaders.  As they read, students should consider a work’sstructure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements asthe use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.   The course includes an intensive study of representative worksfrom various genres and periods, concentrating on works of recognizedliterary merit.  The works chosen invite and gratify rereading,and not, like ephemeral works in such popular genres as detective orromance fiction, yield all (or nearly all) of their pleasures ofthought and feeling the first time through.     Reading in an AP course should be both wide and deep. Studentswill read works from several genres and periods—from the sixteenthcentury to the twentieth century—but, most importantly, they should getto know a few works well.  Students should read deliberately andthoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity, to absorbits richness of meaning, and to analyze how that meaning is embodied inliterary form.  In addition to considering a work’s literaryartistry, students should consider the social and historical values itreflects and embodies.  Careful attention to both textual detailand historical context should provide a foundation for interpretation,whatever critical perspectives are brought to bear on the literaryworks studied.      Writing is also an integralpart of the AP English Literature and Composition course, for the APExamination is weighted toward student writing about literature. Writing assignments will focus on the critical analysis of literatureand will include expository, analytical, and argumentativeessays.  Although critical analysis will make up the bulk ofstudent writing for the course, creative writing assignments may helpstudents see from the inside how literature is written.  Suchexperiences will sharpen student’s understanding of what writers haveaccomplished and deepen appreciation of literary artistry.  Thegoal of both types of writing assignments is to increase student’sability to explain clearly, cogently, even elegantly, what theyunderstand about literary works and why they interpret them as they do.

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Please eMail questions or comments regarding website management to: brian.reinhardt@spps.org -  any other questions should directed to the main iffice number, (651) 744-4900
St. Paul Public School System, District #625