English 12 AP is a course designed to allow students the opportunity to read,
interpret, and analyze various works the instructors have selected to
demonstrate major concepts, themes, intellectual trends, and literary forms
found throughout the course of English literary history. As indicated in the
HCPSS Course Description Catalog, the course is taught at the
second-year-college level. Students will study works of English literature
from its very beginnings in the Anglo-Saxon era to the modern and post-
modern works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In addition to the
study of English literary history, students will also be required to create
and present a major research project. Students will also complete various
short writings and public speaking projects on a variety of subjects. All
class activities and course work are designed to prepare students for the
English AP exams and their university careers.
12 AP novels/plays from which the instructors may choose:
The Inferno - Dante
Pride and Prejudice ¬- Austen
The Stranger - Camus
The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
Memoirs of a Geisha - Golden
Invisible Man - Ellison
The Metamorphosis - Kafka
Cry, the Beloved Country - Paton
Pygmalion - Shaw
Murder in the Cathedral – Eliot
A Streetcar Named Desire – Williams
The Glass Menagerie – Williams
A Man for All Seasons - Bolt
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Albee
Waiting for Godot - Beckett
Hamlet - Shakespeare
King Lear - Shakespeare
Othello – Shakespeare
Candide – Voltaire
The Importance of Being Earnest - Wilde
Other texts as ordered
2012-2013, T. KNOX
Outside Readings
Semester One
Hamlet, September
Crime and Punishment, October
The Stranger/ Waiting for Godot, November
A Doll's House/ An Enemy of the People, December
Semester Two
Homesick Restaurant/ Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, January
Jude the Obscure or Tess of the D'Urbervilles, February
Othello, March
Pride and Prejudice, April
Your Choice (of my suggested titles), May
Units from the anthology, Elements of Literature
Old English/ Medieval Period September
-- kennings, riddles
-- "The Seafarer"
-- "Beowulf"
-- Medieval ballads
The Renaissance November
-- group presentations
17th and 18th century authors December
-- Milton
-- Swift
-- Pope// Addison
-- Johnson/Boswell
The Romantic Period, 1800-1832 January
The Victorian Period, 1832-1901 February
The Modern and Post-Modern Period, 1901-Present May
-- Eliot
-- Yeats
-- Orwell
-- Thomas
-- Heaney
-- Woolf
Non-Fiction Unit October
-- The Bedford Reader
Poetry Unit March and April
-- Sound and Sense
T. KNOX 2012-13 GRADING POLICY
HOWARD HIGH SCHOOL
Grading Scale - Howard County Standard Scale:
89.5 - 100 % = A
79.5 - 89 % = B
69.5 - 79 % = C
59.5 - 69 % = D
Below 59.5 % = E
Your grade/average will be based on the total number of points you earn out of the total number
possible. This may vary each quarter, depending on the number of assignments and their point
values. To calculate your grade/percentage, divide the number of points you have earned by the total
number of points possible during each quarter.
Factors that will influence your grade:
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS* and QUIZZES may be assigned points, which will be added to the point
total. *Late homework will be accepted ONLY in the event of an excused absence.
ALL OTHER MAJOR, PREANNOUNCED ASSIGNMENTS will be reduced by ONE letter grade for every
unexcused day late. The writing process includes many steps, and students must also show evidence
of completing ALL steps of compositions and projects. NO assignments will be accepted for credit
after THREE unexcused days late.
VOCABULARY STORIES will count for 30 points each and will be governed by the statement just above.
SPEAKING AND LISTENING ACTIVITIES may also count as tests or quizzes and evaluated as announced
in advance.
Each student is expected to bring her/his current TEXTBOOK/NOVEL, LOOSELEAF BINDER WITH PAPER,
PEN, and SCHOOL AGENDA BOOK to every English class.
Students are encouraged to ask questions, question vague intellectual authority, actively participate
in class DISCUSSIONS frequently, and to FULLY PARTICIPATE in all class activities.
• RULES, POLICIES, and PROCEDURES— It is the student’s responsibility to know and follow all HoHS
rules, policies, and procedures as specified in the “Howard High School Pride” booklet, aka “Agenda
Book,” pp. 13-27. Consequences will be assigned according to the PBIS Discipline Ladder.
• ABSENCES— Assignments missed because of excused absences are to be made up within the
corresponding number of days absent as per school policy (1 day absent = 1 day to make up
assignment; 2 days absent = 2 days make-up time, etc.) or are recorded as zeroes.
It is the student's responsibility to provide documentation for all absences and to complete make-up
work in a timely manner.
• MISSED ASSIGNMENTS that have been scheduled prior to a student’s absence are expected to be
completed promptly upon a student’s return to school. Please contact me individually (in person or
via email) to arrange a convenient make-up time after school. You may expect that make-up tests
will be different in format and scope. If you are late to school and miss our class on the day that an
assignment is due, leave your assignment with the secretary in the front office and ask that it be put
in my mailbox. When possible, students should send long-term written assignments into school on
the due date.
• HONOR CODE--All students are expected to complete their own work during every academic
situation.
In a case of plagiarism/academic dishonesty, all parties involved risk losing credit for the assignment.
Parents will be notified, and a disciplinary referral may be submitted to the front office.
• STUDENT RECORDKEEPING--Keep track of your grades: these may be checked online periodically.
Your report card grade should not be a surprise to you.
For more up-to-date information and assignments, go to my pages at
http://teacherweb.com/MD/HowardHigh/School/TKNOX
I am available before and after school in the English Office, B107, except for Monday afternoons.
Don’t be a stranger.