For accessing our library resources at PHS please use the link below.

Access PHS Alexandria

Here is a copy of the information/fact sheets for parents and student athletes related to concussions and sudden cardiac arrest.

Parent/Guardian – please read the fact sheets regarding concussion and sudden cardiac arrest and ensure that your student athlete has also received and read these fact sheets. After reading these fact sheets, please ensure that you and your student athlete sign the Student Concussions and Sudden Cardiac Arrest Acknowledgement Form and Signature Form for Parents and Student Athletes, and have your student athlete return the form to his/her coach.

Here is a copy of the Code of Conduct for Students Representing Penn High School.

This document is designed to inform students and parents about valuable information relating to participation in interscholastic and other extra-curricular activities at Penn High School.

Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition

Summer Reading/Writing 2024-2025

Instructor: Mr. Coffee, mcoffee@phm.k12.in.us 

Students registered for the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition course (0329) will receive their Summer Reading task as a shared document via email from Mr. Coffee near the end of the 2023-2024 school year. The parent email of record in Skyward will also receive that shared doc. The summer reading task will be available at the Penn High School website and through Kingsmen Nation sent from Mr. Galiher to all Penn students. 

Students enrolled in AP English Lit are typically seniors; although, it is not required that a student be a senior to participate in AP Lit. Students who believe they are improperly registered and should have received a Summer assignment should participate in the task and contact their counselors immediately in August 2024 as the school year gets under way. 

N.B. The AP English Lit Course Description published by College Board (Effective Fall 2014) indicates that students enrolling in this course “should read widely and reflect on their reading through extensive discussion, writing and rewriting . . . [and] should assume considerable responsibility for the amount of reading and writing they do” (5). Additionally, this course seeks to engage “students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone” (7). – Any reading students complete this summer should be done with this in mind. 

The AP English Literature Course and Exam Description published by College Board (Effective Fall 2020) establishes that: 

Over the course of their literature studies in secondary school, and by the end of their AP English Literature and Composition class, students should have studied a variety of texts by diverse authors from a variety of time periods ranging from the English Renaissance to the present. However, students may not be prepared to read and analyze the most challenging literature from the very beginning of the course because students have not yet developed proficiency in the content and skills necessary to engage such literary works. The texts that students read should accommodate their current reading skill proficiency but also appropriately challenge them to further develop their reading skills. (117)

It is important to remember as students read this summer and through the coming year: “[T]he universal value of literary art [often] probes difficult and harsh life experiences,” and as a result: 

fair representation of issues and peoples may occasionally include controversial material. Since AP students have chosen a program that directly involves them in college-level work, the AP English Literature and Composition Exam depends on a level of maturity consistent with the age of 12th-grade students who have engaged in thoughtful analysis of literary texts. . . AP students should have the maturity, the skill and the will to seek the larger meaning through thoughtful research. Such thoughtfulness is both fair and owed to the art and to the author. (“Course Description,” 2014, 8) 

In order to truly learn, we must often be uncomfortable. College Board states: 

Issues that might, from a specific cultural viewpoint, be considered controversial, including depictions of nationalities, religions, ethnicities, dialects, gender, or class, are often represented artistically in works of literature. AP students are not expected or asked to subscribe to any one specific set of cultural or political values, but are expected to have the maturity to analyze perspectives different from their own and to question the meaning, purpose, or effect of such content within the literary work as a whole. (“Course and Exam Description,” 2020, 117). 

The texts students will read this year may contain the aforementioned mature content (students have four independent reading choices that they may select from novels or plays that have appeared as suggested titles on previous AP Exams). Our responsibility as scholars is to confront such material and understand why it is there. As I tell students from the start, any discomfort we may feel is akin to that we feel when we’re watching something with our parents, and that scene has to come on. 

*At the end of this document, please find a list of texts which we have read in this class in the past. Please note that we will not read all of the texts listed. Those listed and those assigned for summer reading represent the content a student might expect and the reading stamina an AP Lit student ought to have. 

Recall Test: Students’ summer reading grade will be determined by a multiple-choice test on all three texts and an in-class timed essay over only one of the pieces students are responsible for this summer (students will choose which selection they will write about, and they will choose the prompt to which they will respond). Assessment will not occur until September 9 (Gold)/10 (Black). This gives us an opportunity to address questions face to face regarding the reading. We encourage students to complete the reading before school begins, but there is no writing assignment due on the first day. The multiple-choice and in-class essay will be recorded as two of the first scores of the school year. In addition, the writing task will also serve as a baseline by which to measure academic growth and mastery of skills of each student.

Summer Reading Requirements:  Over the course of the summer, actively read three texts: 

• As You Like It by William Shakespeare – Please note that As You Like It will be this summer’s Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival professional production, opening August 22 and running through September 1. 
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

If students have accessed this document electronically, As You Like It and Jane Eyre are the only two that legally appear in the public domain, and links to them are provided. Wide Sargasso Sea does have pdfs on-line, but I cannot share them. Regardless, I recommend hard copies for note-taking purposes. These texts will serve as reference points this year, and they may appear as a recommended title for students to write about on the AP Literature Exam in May 2025. Additionally, they represent the variety of literary challenges we will face both in class and on the AP exam in May 2025. 

In other words, if students struggle with Shakespeare, Bronte, and Rhys, they may want to reconsider their course of choice for the year. Granted, students will not be left alone with difficult texts throughout the year. If they are willing to give it the effort, we will seek ways to make meaning from our reading together (and students are not entirely alone this summer either, as I am available for students’ questions via email through the summer). Therefore, before reconsidering because of a struggle, students should remember to ask for help. 

While reading the texts, students should annotate as they read. (If students purchase a Kindle or Nook version of the text, annotations are still strongly encouraged but may be done electronically.) 

Please share this handout with parents/guardians so that they know our purposes.  If students have any questions at any time, please do not hesitate to contact me at mcoffee@phm.k12.in.us 

This is not an exercise in just jumping through hoops. There are thematic ideas that are introduced through these three pieces that will span the year. Additionally, it is crucial that students have as much literature in their toolbelt as possible in preparation for the AP Exam. The first title has appeared 5 times as a suggested title on the AP exam, the second title has appeared 21 times, and the third has appeared 6 times.

I recommend students do not wait until the last minute to begin reading these texts. Below, please find suggestions for how to focus their reading. 

Keep an eye out for the thematic motifs identified below:

• Many works of literature feature characters who accept or reject a hierarchical structure. This hierarchy may be social, economic, political, or familial, or it may apply to some other kind of structure. Be able to identify a character who responds to a hierarchy in some significant way. Then, be able to analyze how that character’s response to the hierarchy contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole. 
• Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience. Be able to identify a character who experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place, then be prepared to analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates an interpretation of the work as a whole. 
• Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Be able to select a character who deceives others. Then, prepare to analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole. 

Remember–when reflecting on the impact of a thematic idea on an interpretation of the work as a whole, to merely state that without that moment or action or character (just for example), the text wouldn’t be the same, one’s reader’s response would then be, “well, duh.” Also, the impact on the interpretation is not that the thematic idea merely furthers the plot. 

An interpretation of the work as a whole is its universal thematic statement. It is the overarching message about life or humanity, as stated or implied through the piece of literature. It is not a single word. For instance, Macbeth’s theme is not ambition. Rather, Macbeth’s ambition to “jump the life to come” and to “know the future in the instant” violates natural order and results in suffering far beyond what he imagined when the seed was first planted in his mind by the weird sisters. In other words, through Macbeth’s ambition, Shakespeare reveals the need to exhibit patience in the will of the universe.  

Similarly, Lord of the Flies’ theme is not savagery. Rather, Jack’s hunters’ cruelty in Lord of the Flies reveals that without parents and policemen and neighbors to keep a watchful eye, no matter how civilized we may think ourselves to be, we are not insulated from losing ourselves to temptations.

Again, if students have any questions, they should contact Mr. Coffee at the email provided above. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Representative texts from previous years of AP English Literature and Composition (I will sometimes read something over the summer and realize that I just have to find a way to incorporate it – James by Percival Everett and The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock):

Medea by Euripedes The Oresteia by Aeschylus

Beowulf trans. Burton Raffel Grendel by John Gardner

Hamlet by William Shakespeare Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Henry IV, Part One by Shakespeare “Master Harold” . . . and the boys by Athol Fugard

King Lear by Shakespeare A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

Macbeth by Shakespeare The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Othello by Shakespeare The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

The Tempest by Shakespeare Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot Becket by Jean Anouilh 

1984 by George Orwell The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Tess of the D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

The direct line to the Fine Arts ticket office is 258-9520 for information about performances and how to buy tickets. 

testtest1test2

JUNIOR YEAR     26

ENGL 111 English Composition          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: Demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in ENGL 025 or ENGL 093 and ENGL 032 or ENGL 083. Designed to develop students’ abilities to think, organize, and express their ideas clearly and effectively in writing.This course incorporates reading, research, and critical thinking.Emphasis is placed on the various forms of expository writing such as process, description, narration, comparison, analysis, persuasion and argumentation. A research paper is required. Numerous in-class writing activities are required in addition to extended essays written outside of class.

ENGL 112 Exposition and Persuasion          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: A grade of “C”or better in ENGL 111. Builds on the writing skills taught in ENGL 111 and emphasizes research-based analytic and argumentative writing.

MATH 136 College Algebra          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: MATH 111 or demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in MATH 035 or MATH 043. Presents an in-depth study of functions, quadratic, polynomial, radical, and rational equations, radicals, complex numbers, systems of equations, matrices, rational fractions and exponential and logarithmic functions. MATH 136 and MATH 137 together comprise a standard two-semester college algebra and trigonometry course.

MATH 137 Trigonometry with Analytic Geometry          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: Successful completion of MATH 111 or demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or a grade of “C” or better in MATH 035 or MATH 043. Presents an in-depth study of right triangle trigonometry, oblique triangles, vectors,graphs of trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities

COMM 101 Fundamentals of Public Speaking          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: Demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in ENGL 025 or ENGL 093 and ENGL 032 or ENGL 083. Introduces fundamental concepts and skills for effective public speaking, including audience analysis, outlining, research, delivery, critical listening and evaluation, presentational aids, and use of appropriate technology.

HIST 101 Survey of American History I          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: Demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in ENGL 025 or ENGL 093 and ENGL 032 or ENGL 083. Covers major themes and events in history including exploration of the New World; the colonial period; causes and results of the American Revolution; the development of the federal system of government; the growth of democracy; early popular American culture; territorial expansion; slavery and its effect; reform movements, sectionalism; causes and effects of the Civil War.

HIST 102 Survey of American History II          TransferIN 3 College Credits

Prerequisites: Demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in ENGL 025 or ENGL 093 and ENGL 032 or ENGL 083. Covers major themes including the post Civil War period, western expansion, industrial growth of the nation and its effects, immigration and urban discontent and attempts at reform,World War I, the Roaring Twenties, social and governmental changes of the thirties, World War II and its consequences, the growth of the federal government, social upheaval in the sixties and seventies, and recent trends in conservatism, globalization, and cultural diversity.

SPAN 101 Spanish Level I          TransferIN 4 College Credits

Prerequisites: Demonstrated competency through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in ENGL 025 or ENGL 093 and ENGL 032 or ENGL 083. An introductory course in Spanish. Focuses on developing students’ capacity to use the language and to appreciate Spanish-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar acquisition.

SPAN 102 Spanish Level II          TransferIN 4 College Credits

Prerequisites: SPAN 101 or demonstrated competency in Spanish through appropriate assessment; demonstrated competency in reading and writing through appropriate assessment or earning a grade of “C” or better in ENGL 025 or ENGL 093 and ENGL 032 or ENGL 083. Continues the study of Spanish for students who have had the equivalent of one semester of college-level Spanish. Introduces additional grammatical structures and vocabulary to further develop speaking, reading, writing and listening skills as well as an appreciation of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.

Early College Glossary of Terms

• RIGOROUS: Challenging courses that prepare students for college and/or career.
• CREDIT: One credit of high school credit is earned for every semester (half-year) of high school coursework completed with a D or above.
• DUAL CREDIT: Courses that earn students college credits the same time they earn students high school credits. Not all classes students take in Early College are also worth college credits. College credit courses are listed in this manual.
• AP: AP stands for Advanced Placement; courses that have curriculum audited by the College Board (the makers of the SAT, college admission examination.) Students do not receive college credit for AP classes until they take the AP
• examination at the end of the year and score a 3, 4 or 5.
• COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS: The skills people need to succeed in college and the workforce. College readiness skills were once thought of as higher-order skills than those needed to go to work, but in today’s technically accelerated workplace, the skills are the same.

SOPHOMORE YEAR     3

*green indicates Ivy Tech curriculum is a part of the course

2315 ENGLISH 10/Ivy Tech Eng 095, Penn Academy Early College

2 Semesters 2 Credits Grade 10

Fee: $5.00

Paperback Purchase: $25.00

COURSE DESCRIPTION: English 10 PAEC is designed to prepare students for success in future dual credit classes, building on the literary and study skills they developed in English 9 PAEC. This course also pushes students to be prepared for the Accuplacer and PSAT tests, of which a certain level of competency is required for college credit classes. In addition to the curriculum developed by Penn teachers, Ivy Tech’s Integrated Reading and Writing Course will also be used to help make the above goals achievable. Students analyze and respond through reading, writing, speaking, and listening to a variety of fiction and non-fiction pieces of literature, as well as informational texts, giving students the necessary skills to be successful, college-level readers and writers.

2319 Biology, Penn Academy Early College

2 Semesters 2 Credits Grade: 10

Prerequisite: Integrated Chemistry Physics

Textbook Rental: $22.05 Fees:$8.00

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course highlights how biology applies to and potentially improves human life. To help students develop into productive and responsible citizens, they will make connections between biological concepts and their current and future lives. Through inquiry laboratory investigations, data analysis, demonstrations, reading, research, group discussion, and computer simulations, Early College Biology Honors provides a study of four major themes:

• Biochemistry and Cells-Organic molecules, cellular components and functions.
• Ecology-the study of the relationships between living organisms and the environment.
• Genetics-the study of the molecular basis of heredity and inheritance of traits.
• Evolution-the mechanism for change over time and the unity and diversity of life.

2317 US History, Penn Academy Early College

Course Title: U.S. History Detectives

2 Semesters 2 Credits Grade 10

Prerequisite: None

Fee: $5 Paperback purchase: $30

COURSE DESCRIPTION: US History Detectives is designed to introduce Early College students to the History of the United States with an investigative approach. In this course students will ask probing questions surrounding iconic mysteries from America's past. This course has students to step into the shoes of a history detective and tackle some of history's toughest mysteries. Students will evaluate conflicting evidence by examining sources, evaluating the context of those source, including identifying the differences between then and now. Additionally, students are expected to examine multiple sources to see what other sources say about the information found in primary source documents. This course requires close reading of primary sources to establish what the source says, its bias, tone, etc. The intent of this course is to equip students with research tools that they can use throughout their academic and lifetime careers.

2323 Spanish 2, Penn Academy Early College

2 Semesters 2 Credits Grade 10

Fee: $10 Textbook/Workbook Fee TBD

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Spanish 2 EC is the continuation of preparing the students to achieve dual credit through Ivy Tech in their junior and senior years. This course continues to focus on the important skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking while studying new tenses. Special emphasis will be placed on open-ended writing as well as oral proficiency that includes studying and applying pronunciation rules. Within this context, Spanish 2 EC provides students with opportunities to:

• Comprehend new language through dialogues, clip art, rhymes, visuals, video, and games
• Practice communication through listening exercises, paired activities, and group activities
• Answer questions and express personal opinions both verbally and in writing, as related to the student as well as readings in authentic settings
• Compare languages and cultures through grammar study, pronunciation, art, and readings in authentic settings
• Demonstrate all language skills through a variety of tasks and projects presented in the classroom

2327 CINS 101 Introduction to Microcomputers          TransferIN 3 College Credits

1 Semester 2 HS Credits Grade 10

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduces the physical component and operations of microcomputers. Focuses on computer literacy and provides hands-on training in four areas of microcomputer applications software: word processing, electronic spreadsheets, database management and presentation software. Use of a professional business computer application program is encouraged.

2325 Sophomore Resource, Penn Academy Early College

2 Semesters 2 Credits Grade 10

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Students in the Penn Academy of Early College will participate in a study hall class that serves the unique college-bound population. Early College teachers will lead the class and provide students with resources such as tutors, access to technology, and individual instruction to help students succeed. Resource at the sophomore level will specifically be designed to help Early College students prepare students with skills and resources to succeed in in a rigorous junior year of dual-credit college courses.

2321 Algebra II/Ivy Tech Math100, Penn Academy Early College

2 Semesters 2 Credits

Prerequisite: Geometry

Textbook Rental: $26.70 Fee: $3.00

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is for students with above average performance in math. It expands on the topics of Algebra I and provides further development of the concepts of a function, domain and range. Reviews linear equations, inequalities, graphing, and factoring algebraic expressions. Concentrates on properties of integer and rational exponents, systems of linear equations, radicals, radical equations, quadratic equations, functions including their graphs, and applications. Compared to Algebra II, the pace of this course is accelerated and topics are covered in greater depth. Students will gain experience using the graphing calculator. A scientific calculator is required and a graphing calculator is highly recommended.