AP Literature and Composition
Summer reading letter
May 16, 2017
Dear Advanced Placement Student and Family:
Welcome to AP Literature and Composition! Before junior year ends, I want to make sure students understand the requirements of this course. The AP Literature and Composition course is a rigorous, college level course. Students who take this AP course should be prepared to do extensive reading and writing throughout the year. In addition to reading and writing, regular attendance and class participation are required. Please make a commitment to attend class every day. Students also need to be prepared to work independently and make their own work schedule. Often I will assign reading with a date that it needs to be completed as opposed to assigning pages to be read night by night. This is based on the college reading model. I also expect all students to take the AP test in May – this is an essential part of the class.
In order to start the year with a common literary background, I am asking all Advanced Placement Literature students to read and write on a work this summer. The work we are reading is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – a novel about appearance versus reality involving a mysterious woman whose appearance haunts a young artist. Victorian novels are usually long and complex – I encourage you not wait until the week before school begins to start your reading! This novel has been made into a film, and you might want to view it to supplement your reading. To complement the novel, I am asking students to complete an essay. Choose two characters in the novel and discuss how the two act as foils to each other. Please do not retell the story; instead focus on how characters relate to the overall theme, et cetera. You should know that I consider quotations from the text to be essential to a top quality essay. The essay should be 3-4 pages long and should be typed and double spaced. It will be due two weeks after the beginning of the fall semester. Please also be prepared to submit it to Turnitin.com (a plagiarism search engine). Also important - within the first ten days of school, you will be given an objective multiple choice exam on the book.
Feel free to contact me with any questions. I would be happy to help you over the summer with any problems that arise. My email address is [email protected]. I hope you enjoy the novel and have a happy and restful summer, and I look forward to seeing you in the fall.
Sincerely,
Nancy A. Overson
AP Literature and Composition Teacher