During the first semester poetry is the focus of AP English, a genre-based study of British and American literature designed to provide opportunity for college level work with the possibility of gaining advanced placement and/or credit in college English upon successful completing of the AP English Literature Examination in May. We use Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense as the core text. The emphasis is on close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing. The topics for poetry include diction, imagery, figurative language, structure, musical devices, rhythm and meter, and tone. We end the semester reading Faulkner’s Light in August, a summer reading assignment.

During the second semester fiction and drama are the foci. For the first two-thirds of the semester, we read Joyce’s Dubliners, a complement to Faulkner; for the last third we read a variety of plays including Wilson’s Fences and Miller’s Death of a Salesman. As with poetry, the emphasis is on close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing. Assessment comes from frequent formal essays, weekly vocabulary tests, and infrequent in-class writings and tests.