Welcome to AP Literature & Composition

Unit 1: Short Fiction I

📚 ~10 Class Periods

Unit Overview

Understanding character, setting, plot, and narrator is fundamental to interpreting fiction. Unit 1 builds on your previous literature studies while establishing a foundation for the advanced skills and knowledge necessary for AP success.

This unit focuses on examining how these fundamental elements function in a text, moving beyond simple identification to deeper analysis of how literary elements create meaning.

🔍 What You'll Learn

Character Analysis
Identify textual details that reveal character perspective and motives
Setting & Context
Recognize how specific details convey and reveal setting
Plot Structure
Understand how plot orders events and creates meaning
Narration
Identify narrators and analyze point of view functions
Literary Arguments
Develop paragraphs with defensible claims and textual evidence

🏗️ Building Your Foundation

Rather than rushing into full essays, you'll spend significant time developing the fundamental skill of crafting claims and defending them with textual evidence.

  • Practice various strategies for gathering textual evidence
  • Learn to identify patterns and relationships in evidence
  • Develop claims that require defense rather than stating obvious facts
  • Master paragraph structures and proper text citation

🎓 Setting You Up for Success

This unit establishes essential skills you'll use throughout the entire AP course. By mastering close reading for evidence and constructing defensible claims, you'll be prepared to tackle increasingly complex texts and write sophisticated literary arguments.

Assignment 1

Vocabulary for your composition book.

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Assignment 2

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin.

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Assignment 3

Class Discussion

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