AP Exam Registration

Message from Ms. Coghlan:

If you are planning on taking an AP TEST in the spring, please stop by the main office to pick up a registration form from Dawn.   The cost for each test is $89. If you change your mind and do not choose to take the test, you will still be charged a $15 fee.  All registrations and fees must be turned into Dawn Fitzgerald in the main office by Thursday, March 13  If you have any questions about the AP TEST please see Mrs. Coghlan.

Should I take the AP Exam?

Do you know exactly where you're going to school next year?  Then check the list below, get on your institution's website, or call up your admissions counselor and ask them!  You will automatically, FOR FREE get DMACC Lit 101 Introduction to Literature credit (3 of them) just for successfully completing this semester of AP Lit.  Ask your institution if they will transfer those credits AS LITERATURE CREDIT.  If yes, don't pay $89 to take the AP exam.  Take your free credit and run.  If they say it'll transfer as ELECTIVE credit but you'll still have to take a required lit class at that college, ask what you would have to earn on the AP exam to exempt you from that course.  The $89 is definitely worth an entire semester course of college.  (It's also cheaper than even one credit at any institution.)

The Big 4

U of I:  Lang Credit:  Neither DMACC credit OR AP credit will get you out of your required Advanced Rhetoric class, but taking the AP exam and getting a 4 or 5 will earn you 4 elective credits (rather than 3 credits).  Lit Credit:  Scoring a 4 or 5 will fulfill your gen ed Interpretation of LIterature course.  You'll need to talk to the institution about transferring DMACC credit as it appears to depend on what course of study or which college you're applying to.

ISU:  Lang Credit:  DMACC credit takes the place of ENG 150 at Iowa State which is the same thing you get for AP credit.  Lit Credit:  Your DMACC credit takes the place of ENGL 201.  Therefore, DO NOT take the AP exam.

UNI:  Lang Credit:  DMACC credit will transfer but will not get you out of the required 1A course.  However, earning a score of 3, 4, or 5 on the AP exam WILL get you out of it.  Lit Credit:  Your DMACC credit will transfer as your required 3B (same as scoring a 3 on the exam).  However, if you DIDN'T take Lang last year (or you didn't score at least a 3), scoring a 4 or 5 will get you out of 3B AND the 1A course.

Simpson:  Lang Credit:  DMACC credit will transfer as elective English credit but will not take the place of the course.  Earning a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP exam will give you 4 elective English credits (rather than 3).  Lit Credit:  DMACC credit transfers as ENG 110.  Therefore, do NOT take the exam.

Extra Credit Opportunity

It's a drama quarter and we've read some drama now.  

For extra credit:

• Attend a theater production
• Write a 1-pg journal--what you saw, the experience of watching drama be performed after studying its origins and critically reading some, etc.
• Staple your ticket stub to that page of your journal

Some opportunities I know of coming soon:

Our Town  Feb. 14-23 in Des Moines

Night of the Soul  Feb. 13-18 at Simpson

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest  Going on now through Feb. 16 at Des Moines Playhouse

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing  Feb. 28-Mar. 16 at Des Moines Playhouse

True West  Going on now through Feb. 15 at Tallgrass Theatre Company in West Des Moines


If you know of others, let me know and I'll consider/approve them as well.

Modern Drama and Collaborative Project

Modern Drama Collaborative Project

Assignment:

Choose one of two plays to read:  A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen or Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.  You will be grouped with others who choose to read the same play so you can discuss that play, help each other understand it, and write a collaborative analysis.

Objectives:

• Critically read and analyze drama more independently
• Consider the ways a modern play fits or even changes the definition of tragedy that Aristotle laid out
• Collaborate with peers to write a lit analysis using critical lenses
• In this case, collaboration means learning to reconcile your own interpretation with others’.  You should question people--ASK for evidence of why they think the way they do. Expect your peers to ask you to do the same.  This questioning shouldn’t offend any of you.  Those questions are fair AND they force you as a reader to examine and find the evidence for why you think the way you do.  Having to do that will make you ALL better readers and will definitely make your analysis stronger.

Directions:

1. Choose the play you’d like to read.  Turn in your choice to me.
2. Read the play critically, taking notes in your journal and writing a one (or two)-pager as soon as you finish, addressing what you think the theme is, the details that you noticed as support for that, and your initial thoughts on whether or not it is a tragedy.  Submit these to Turnitin by Tuesday at 8 am!

Tragedy Exam

It appears we have some impending weather so here is what's happening with Lit this week:
The exam will be Thursday regardless of what happens Tuesday night/Wednesday.  Tuesday is supposed to be independent reading.  Bring your book but I will also do some exam review at the beginning of the period before giving you time to read. If we have class on Wednesday, it will be all reading time.

The exam on Thursday is a one-day test:  three long-answers and two sections of multiple-choice questions.

You will need to know:

• Greek theater--what it was, significance, Sophocles' role in it, etc.
• Definition of tragedy--what was Aristotle's definition, what's important as we move ahead with tragedy
• Oedipus the King--understand the play, characters, how it fits into Aristotle's definition
• Hamlet--understand the play, characters, how it works as a tragedy, your conclusions and understanding of the topics of our discussions

One of the multiple choice sections will focus on the overall reading of Oedipus the King.  The second section will include a passage from Hamlet and will focus on close reading skills within that specific passage.

One of the long answers will focus on Hamlet and will give you four options to write about.  Choose the one you feel best about.

To prepare, spend time with your journal.  You should have good notes for Poetics, Oedipus, and Hamlet.  Look at the details you noted regarding the questions, notes you took in class regarding discussion, AND your concluding answers to each of the Hamlet questions.  (If you haven't gone back to write a concluding answer for yourself for each question, do it now in preparation for the exam.)

Big Hamlet Questions

Things to think about as you continue to wrestle with what you think about Hamlet, what you think it's about, whether he's crazy, what his tragic flaw is, etc.:

• The King makes a statements that their love for Hamlet overshadowed their reason.  Besides its irony, might that statement have something to do with the theme of the play?  Is there a motif of reason vs. love?  Which actions seem to have reason outweighing love and which seem to show love outweighing reason?
• Is the King mad at Hamlet because Hamlet knows his guilt OR is he mad, ironically, because Hamlet killed someone the King loved?
• Is Gertrude guilty in all of this?  Of what?
• If Ophelia can go crazy from the loss of her father, is that evidence for Hamlet's madness due to the death of his...plus other stuff?  Or is she a foil to Hamlet?  Does she come across as clearly insane to his fake crazy?  Or does he look an awful lot like her but deals with it differently?
• Lots of cycle of life stuff in this play, decay, disease.  What do you think is the significance of that?
• Do you think he actually loved Ophelia?  What you believe will likely affect your thoughts on his actions, madness, and ultimately, the theme of the play.