10th Grade Writing Syllabi

UPDATED for the 2024-2025 School Year: This syllabus is for a year-long course in AP® English Literature and Composition. The curriculum features 10 units on works of literary merit written by diverse authors — works which appear frequently on the AP Literature Exam.

Core Texts: The literary texts featured on this syllabus — from Macbeth and Frankenstein through The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God — are guaranteed to motivate high engagement from modern-day teenagers! The curriculum was designed to be inclusive and intersectional with respect to race, class, and gender. Each unit features higher-order discussion questions, frequent writing tasks, literary device exercises, and longer writing assignments which amount to rehearsals of the FRQ essays on the AP Lit Exam.

Skills Objectives: This curriculum focuses on the six "big ideas" — as well as the advanced reading and writing skills — which the College Board has identified as the core components of AP Literature and Composition. It equips students with the terminologies and techniques for analyzing how six formal elements — character, setting, structure, narration, figurative language, and literary argumentation — deepen the content of a literary text.

Organization: The 10 units on this syllabus are organized chronologically, with the various texts corresponding to important literary movements: Renaissance, Romanticism, Modernism, Harlem Renaissance, Postmodernism, etc. But please feel free to re-organize and/or replace the units at your discretion. Because the syllabus is fully editable, you'll be able to customize the materials to suit your own literary tastes and/or the interests of your students — year after year!

Below is a list of the ten units and core texts featured in this AP Lit syllabus. Click on any link to view the complete teaching unit for that literary text....

Unit 1: The Renaissance

• William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1601) or Othello (1603) or Macbeth (1606)

• Stations Activity: Figurative Language in Shakespeare

• Discussion-Based Teaching Toolkit

Unit 2: Romanticism

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1831)

• How to Write an Analytical Essay

• How to Embed Evidence

Unit 3: Traditional Verse Forms

• The Sonnet: Shakespeare, Keats, Rossetti, McKay, & Angelou

• FRQ1 Practice: How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay

Unit 4: Modernism & the American Dream

• F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

Unit 5: The Short Story: Minimalist Realism

• Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants" (1927)

Unit 6: The Harlem Renaissance

• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1938)

Unit 7: Transnational Fiction

• Jhumpa Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter" (1999)

• Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (2003)

Unit 8: Contemporary Fiction: Diverse Voices & the Polyphonic Novel

• Tommy Orange, There There (2018)

Unit 9: Modern & Contemporary Poetry

• American Poets: Dickinson, Frost, Hughes, Bishop, & Brooks

Unit 10: Exam Prep

• Figurative Language Stations

• FRQ1 Practice: How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay

If you like this syllabus, you'll love the full-year AP Literature Curriculum — a mega-bundle of teaching resources to get you through the entire school year! The year-long curriculum features over 1,500 pages of printable teaching resources: reading quizzes, higher-order discussion questions, detailed answer keys, and FRQ writing prompts for every book. And it's currently on sale for over 50% off!! Click to learn more about the AP Literature Curriculum!

For what it's worth, every literature unit in my store was designed with rigor suitable for AP Literature. So feel free to assemble a curriculum which features the texts you're most excited about. After all, it's your passions that will prove most inspiring to your students! How about Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1599)? Willa Cather's My Ántonia (1918)? Nella Larsen's Passing (1929)? J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951)? Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959)?

Rigorous Resources is your one-stop shop for top-quality resources on complex literature by diverse authors. Every resource was created by a Ph.D. in English who has taught for 20+ years and published award-winning essays on authors like Sylvia Plath and James Baldwin. If you have any questions about this syllabus or any of the unit plans, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I love hearing from fellow teachers who share a passion for great literature. And I'll be eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with teaching AP Literature!

Happy teaching,

Adam Jernigan

adamjernigan@gmail.com

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P.P.S. This syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues and friends. If you'd be willing to leave a brief review of this free resource, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support!