The Literary 100

Beyond the fact that you completed the prose portion of the final today, the Scholar Quiz team is now in possession of Daniel S. Burt's The Literary 100, which ranks writers of poetry, plays, novels, and the like.

I thought I would share the highlights, and you could debate how true this list is from your own reading ethos.

1. Shakespeare     2. Dante       3. Homer      4. Tolstoy      5. Chaucer     6. Dickens       7. Joyce      
8. Milton      9. Virgil      10. Goethe       11. Cervantes       12. Shikibu      13. Sophocles    
14. Faulkner      15. Dostoevsky      16. T.S. Eliot     17. Proust      18. Austen      19. George Eliot
20. Yeats      21. Pushkin      22. Euripides      23. John Donne       24. Melville                                
25. Keats (seriously, 25!)       26. Ovid       27. Tu Fu      28. Blake       29. Aeschylus      30. Flaubert
31. Kafka       32. Moliere       33. Wordsworth       34. Aristophanes       35. Mann       36. Ibsen
37. Chekhov      38. Henry James      39. Nabokov      40. Whitman       41. Balzac       42. Swift
43. Stendhal       44. Hardy        45. Shaw     46. Hemingway      47. D.H. Lawrence      48. Baudelaire 49. Beckett      50. Woolf      51. Pope      52. Rabelais     53. Petrarch       54. Dickinson      55. Poe 56. Fielding      57. Conrad      58. Robert Browning      59. Camus      60. Charlotte Bronte
61. Emily Bronte (what is with the lack of Bronte love?)      62. Racine       63. Twain    
64. Strindberg      65. Zola      66. Borges      67. Xueqin      68. Boccaccio       69. Voltaire    
70. Sterne      71. Thackeray      72. Percy Shelley (uh, where is Mary on this list?)     73. O'Neill
74. Stevens      75. Byron       76. Garcia Marquez       77. Walter Scott      78. Neruda
79. Musil      80. Tennyson      81. Flannery O'Connor      82. Catullus       83. Garcia Lorca
84. Hawthorne       85. Dreiser       86. Ellison       87. Trollope      88. Fitzgerald      89. Hugo        
90. Tagore      91. Defoe      92. Gunter Grass       93. Xun       94. Forster       95. Bashevis Singer
96. Jun'ichiro      97. Wright       98. Stein        99. Motokiyo       100. Oscar Wilde

You're welcome to send me an e-mail with your thoughts on this list, or just wait to share during our after school AP Lit sessions on Monday and Tuesday. As mentioned - several instances I recall - in class, these after school cram sessions are that last chance to practice the skills and review terminology for the AP exam next week. It would behoove you to come to both of these sessions. We will start with multiple choice, move into poetry prompt and writing, look at prose prompt necessities, figure out what texts to use for free response, and work with poetry and AP Lit cards. This will be the cycle for review. Our super cram on Monday will go as many cycles as needed. I have so many prompts on hand for you.

The Last MC Test

We are 6 days away from the AP test!!!! To have one more practice under our belts, today's class was all about the MC component. You will have this back tomorrow so that you may check out any errors and review types of questions on the MC exam.

If you have not taken the poetry prompt, you need to schedule a time to take the prompt either after school or during a study hall. This prompt needs to be made up as soon as possible.

If you have not taken the MC exam, you will need to schedule a time to take the exam either after school or during a study hall.

Plot for the rest of the school year:

Friday - Prose prompt exam, after school session
Monday - After school cram session
Tuesday - After school session
Wednesday - Breakfast for AP Lit exam, AP Lit exam, Alternative Assessment exam during block hours
Thursday - Present your given chapter of Wuthering Heights for the class (Aaron - chapter 19; Cameron - chapter 20), watch some of the film
Friday - Free Response exam
Last Week - Finish Wuthering Heights & movie, discuss literature, do something or another to wrap up our class

Remember, we do not have class on Monday and Tuesday. If you want additional practices for your AP exam, come to the after school sessions to practice multiple choice, poetry passages, prose passages, free response passages, and terms.

The Last Poetry Prompt

We started your final test today - a chance for a last practice before the official one in eight days! In absentees will need to set up a time to complete this portion of the exam. Ideally, this would occur after school, but study hall options are available.

AP Lit After School Sessions

Just a reminder that AP Lit study sessions are every day after school this week and will be an avenue for you to practice multiple choice passages, poetry prompts, prose prompts, and free response prompts (plus play with cards and add to your tally sheet, which fourth hour still needs to create). While scholar quiz practices are still happening this week, you will still receive a great deal of attention, tips, and techniques to help you with the exam.

When Isabella Married Heathcliff...

During today's class, you completed an individual close read and 2-3 paragraph analysis (depending on your individual assignment). Hopefully, this practice set up a mood for characterization and analyzing a passage for your upcoming AP test. Read chapter 15 for tomorrow and be ready for the first part of the exam!

Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite shoes. AP Lit voting closes on May 2!

Heathcliff, the Man

As we all noted during Friday's discussion, Heathcliff is now a man! And, that means he is taller, a better dresser, more clean than previously noted, ready to show off his mysterious new wealth -- complete with that still enviable hair. Oh, he's also ready to give Cathy a taste of her own medicine with Isabella's naive infatuation at full speed. Those poor Lintons! They don't have the capacity or the cruelty to match those Earnshaws!

For Monday, you will need to be through chapter 14.

Our last full test will commence on Tuesday.

Shoe Voting 2017

As evidenced by the glee from the class, you are just excited as I am to see what shoes I will be buying to celebrate teaching AP Lit this year. The rules are simple: vote for 2 different shoes each day. Voting ends on May 2, so make sure to vote! You are welcome to come in before your zoo trip to put in your votes. I know last year became very heated with students campaigning for certain shoes to win. And, make sure you vote on the AP Lit tally page. Starting Thursday, AP Lang will have a separate vote.

The Heights - Then & Now

During today's class, you close read a two-page excerpt from Lockwood's sojourn at the Heights and Nelllie's narration of her past experience with our young Heathcliff (swoon), Cathy (saucy), and Hindley (seething) when the Earnshaw family controlled the Heights! We will finish this close read share on Thursday's class. No additional reading required.

Enjoy the zoo -- have a requiem for Byron as you stroll through the animal exhibits, enjoy the beautiful weather, and celebrate that you are not stuck in an ACT room.

Hello, Heathcliff

Our class today was the introduction to our first narrator (yep, there's two), my beloved Mr. Heathcliff (that handsome gypsy), and the world of the Heights. For Tuesday, you will need to have read through chapter 6. We will continue to focus on characterization, setting, and class structure.

Thanks for my birthday song this morning, ladies :)

Tentative Schedule for AP Lit Study Sessions:

April 19 - 2:30-4:00
April 20 - 2:30-4:00
April 21 - 2:30 -4:00
April 24 - 2:30-4:00
April 25 - 2:30 - 4:30
April 27 - 2:30 - 4:00
April 28 - 2:30 - 4:00
May 1 - AP Lit Cram 2:30-5:30
May 2 - 2:30 - 4:00

May 3 (testers only): Breakfast in Room 404 beginning at 6:50.

Each study session will feature a minimum of a MC section, poetry prompt, prose prompt, free response prompt, poetry term cards, tone term cards, and AP yellow cards. Points earned during study sessions will add to your extra credit tally cards. You may arrive at any time during the study session, but you will not be able to go back to any practices you miss. You may go to any or all of these sessions. I will have Scholar Quiz practices going on during many of these days, which means I will be multi-tasking between the 2 groups.

Marx, and not Bernard

After we read Brave New World as our book club selection this year, you will probably have a better understanding of the title of this blog post.

1. The free response prompts were returned with a plethora of 9 scores reflecting the usage of characterization, milieus, various critical theories, and multiple examples from your selected texts.
2. The overall score of your AP tests were stellar: thirteen 9 scores this time around.
3. We read our common poet tone paragraphs featuring some variegated results of that nature walker Wordsworth in the big city, that innocently experienced Blake, and that saucy Bryon with his ever present Boatswain.
4. We turned in the 3 tone charts and the tone paragraph.
5. We read "To the Men of England" by Shelley to transition from our Romantic poets into the realm of Marxist criticism. Time to start using terms such as proletariat and bourgeoisie to analyze the social class structures.
6. You have my beloved Heathcliff in your possession. Read the Emily Bronte bio in the back and make sure you understand the family tree in the front of the novel.

Hello, Romantic Poets

For homework, you are to take your poet, select one of his tones, and compose a paragraph from his perspective and tone on modern day society. Noah, you have Blake; Pam, you have Byron.

Meanwhile, you now have the prose essay back, and we discussed Byron's tones throughout his poetry.

That Byronic Tone

After reading "She Walks in Beauty," packet selections, and "Childe Harold," you are to create a tone chart for Byron with three tones and at least three textual examples for each tone. We will chat about that tomorrow, and then discuss your little creative tone paragraph assignment. Afterwards, we will be moving into Marxist criticism and Wuthering Heights, so that you have a little Easter weekend reading.

Byron, That Scamp

With our computer woes continuing, I have not been able to update this week, so I hope that everyone has kept up to date with where we are in the land of AP Lit. Currently, we are reading the works of Lord Byron, including "She Walks in Beauty," "So we'll go no more a roving," "Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull," When We Two Parted," and "Epitaph to a Dog." Have those close read, consider Byron's tone, and imagine a reality t.v. series with you and Byron (or, at least that's what Cameron suggested).

Lambs, Tigers, and Chimney Sweeps, Oh My!

In both classes, we analyzed Blake's "Revolution," "London," "The Lamb," "The Tyger," "The Chimney Sweeper" (both versions) to look at the many beliefs and quizzical nature Blake had regarding society, religion, and class structure.

For homework, you are to complete a tone chart for Wordsworth and a tone chart for Blake. If you were absent, I would stop by tomorrow and pick up the chart for completion.

Fourth hour, don't forget to bring in t-shirt money by Friday if you are purchasing one.

Transitioning to Blake

After wrapping up Wordsworth's "World," we read Blake's biography in the textbook, analyzed his paintings (feel free to Google some), and started analyzing his poetry. Second hour is in the midst of the French Revolution while fourth hour has yet to start a Revolution.

Fourth hour, don't forget t-shirt $ is due by Friday! If you haven't had a chance, make sure to sign up for your color and size tomorrow.

Best MC Ever!

I just finished the grading of the MC test for your AP Lit exam, and the results are quite stellar: 27 had 50% or higher (goal 1), 20 had 60 or higher (goal 2), 14 had 70% or higher (goal 3), and 5 of you already have a 2 on the AP test prior to the evaluation of the written portion (goal 4).

And, on a personal victory, I scored 52 out of 55 -- the best MC I have ever had for AP Lit - or Lang for that matter. I would be quite over the moon about that, but your teacher did do one no-no on the test: I forgot to answer one of the questions! I had it down to two even and completely ignored the one question left to answer! What might have been!

By the way, one of you did come quite close to my score with 50 out of 55. Sometimes I post initials, but this time I am going to stay mum until the big reveal.

Overall, we do have some reviewing to do of the exam - particularly close reading, comprehending difficult prose, breaking down poetry, and improving scores through test strategies.

Friday's class was all about Wordsworth and his "Expostulation," " Lucy," "To a Skylark," and "World." We analyzed in 3 groups, we read "World" and completed the first stages of a box prompt, and you received a packet of Blake poems for Monday's class.

On Monday, we will have time to wrap up "World," learn about Blake, look at some of his art work, and start his poetry. The poets left are Byron, Shelley, and Keats -- then, we will be doing a large tone review with all their work that involves charts and tone paragraphs. Plus, there is the test to return and analyze, which will probably begin on Tuesday. So much to do before our test in four weeks. Four weeks! Don't fret -- I have plenty for us to do in class and after school sessions (which will begin after SQ districts). There are MC selections, prose passages, poetry passages, free response boxes to fill out (remember that list I gave you long ago?), cards, buzzers (Anna), and so much more.