Course Goals:  You will be extremely well prepared for the challenges that lie ahead in college and beyond.  You will be a more skilful, thoughtful and critical reader of prose and poetry.  You will become a powerful essayist.

Activities: Building upon the skills and techniques we developed last semester, we will focus on a number of key ways in which literature and other texts are perceived. In addition to the typical methods of analysis with which we are already familiar, we will study literary theory and its philosophical underpinnings. We will study several novels and plays in addition to many poems and a number of shorter selections.  In addition, you will have the opportunity to read several works you choose yourself and to report on your readings.
While building critical faculties, our study will also aid in preparing you for the AP English Exams in early May.

Readings:
Hardy, Thomas, Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Chopin, Kate, The Awakening
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Wilson, August, Fences
Shakespeare, King Lear
Amis, Martin, Time's Arrow
DiYanni, Literature
Independent Readings

Writings
Weekly reading journal
Flash Poetry journal (in class)
AP timed essays
3 prepared essays: February 6, March 1, March 31