Course Description



AP Language and Composition

Course Description

Based on curricular requirements found in the most recent AP English Course Description, AP English Language and Composition encourages students to enter into conversations with texts, to become active readers, and, through active reading, to become more accomplished writers. The course includes intensive study and discussion of the ways writers use language to provide richness and complexity of meaning and the ways they present this meaning through the work’s purpose, structure, tone, style, and use of rhetorical modes, strategies, and devices.

Students close read and analyze a variety of works, mostly nonfiction, from various periods and disciplines, making careful observations of the textual details, historical context, and social and cultural value. Students use their observations to write analytically about the works they have studied. In addition, a wide variety of writing assignments allows students to develop their own writing skills with an eye not only to their subjects, but also to their purposes, the needs of their audiences, and the uses of language and rhetoric.

Course instruction and teacher feedback are designed to develop the student’s clarity and style, including the following:

• Vocabulary development

• Variety of sentence structure

• Logical organization

• Balance of detail

• Effective use of rhetoric

Student writing will be evaluated holistically for clarity of purpose, clear and logical organization, ample and coherent supporting detail, command of mechanics, inventive sentence variety, powerful and effective vocabulary, skillful use of transitions, and insightful content.

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition gives students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school through rigorous college-level instruction and College Board Testing. All students completing the course take the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam in May. A score of 3, 4, or 5 on this exam may result in college credit depending on the credit allowed by the institution of higher learning.

Grading Scale

60% Projects, tests, and major papers

20% AP Exam preparation

10% Informal writing (journals, in-class, reflective, etc.)

10% Daily (vocabulary, grammar remediation as needed,

reading quizzes, active participation)

Writing in a workshop setting

Teaching college-level writing skills is an ongoing process throughout the year. Individual and group activities encourage students to take risks with their writing and to realize that writing is a process that includes invention, drafting, and revising. Not only does the AP teacher provide feedback in a variety of ways to spark effective revision, but students also receive instruction in analyzing prompts, creating rubrics, and constructively editing peers’ papers. Students are required to keep a portfolio of informal and formal writings so that they can self-assess their progress throughout the year. As a result of the workshop setting, students practice revising effectively with attention to clear and logical organization, careful choice of words, ample support of key ideas, smooth transitions, and mature, varied syntax.

Active Reading

Teaching active critical reading is also an ongoing process. Students read for meaning through annotation and various forms of exploratory informal writings (focused freewritings, says/does writings, reader reaction/reader response journals, etc.). After instruction and practice using literature circles and Socratic circles, students are able to guide discussions that explore multiple meanings of texts. Students are also instructed to “read like a writer” by shifting their focus from what a text says to how an author uses language and rhetorical devices and strategies to achieve his purpose. Writing brief explications and interpretations based on careful attention to textual details ensures that students not only recognize an author’s strategies, but also substantially support their own ideas about a work of literature by staying close to the text.

Active Reading Guide

Answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss the selection:

Adapted from NCTE Presentation, Carter Hammond from Eau Gallie High School in Melborne, FL

1. What is the main idea/theme of the selection?

2. In what ways does the author support his main idea/thesis?

3. Is the support logical and consistent? Find examples.

4. What words are you unfamiliar with? What do you think they mean from their use in context? Look them up.

5. How are words used denotatively?

6. What is the author’s style? Write a five-sentence paragraph imitating this style.

7. Find seven to ten examples of literary/language elements.

8. Write a prompt for this selection.

9. Summarize the selection in no more than five sentences.

10. What other selections (movies, poems, articles, paintings, plays, music, etc.) can you relate to this passage?

11. What allusions are used? Are they successful?

12. What is the attitude of the author? How is it similar to or different from that of the narrator? How do you know this?

13. What is the tone of the passage? What words does the author use to help convey this tone?

14. What is the intended and probable effect of the passage?

Reader Response Journal

From Reading Response Logs by Mary Kooy/Jan Wells, Pembroke Publishers Ltd., Markham, Ontario, Canada L3K9 1996

Journal instructions:

A reading journal is an effective way to keep a record of your reading responses—positive or negative, sure or unsure. It offers a chance to respond personally, to ask questions, wonder, predict, or reflect on the characters, events, literary elements, or language of a text. As you read, take time to record your observations. You may do this as ideas strike you or after you have read a small portion of the text, for example ten pages. Write often and record as many of your observations as possible. Do not summarize. Instead, record your textual observations. Some of the first nine week’s essays will reflect your responses, so take time and care when writing in your journal.

If you are having trouble beginning an entry, try some of these “starters.” I was impressed by. . . I noticed that. . . I wonder about. . . Some questions I have are. . . I don’t understand. . . I now understand why/how/what. . . Something I appreciate/don’t appreciate/wonder about is. . . I predict. . . An interesting word/sentence/thought is. . . This reminds me of. . . I never thought. . . I was surprised by. . .

Please keep in mind that these responses are not meant to be a personal diary. They are meant to be read by others and should relate only to the assigned material. You will be sharing your journal in class, so keep this in mind as you write. When sharing you will have the opportunity to confirm, clarify, and modify your responses through discussion.

Generally, three stages of student work are exhibited in these journals. You should strive for stage three.

Stage I: A literal surface encounter with the text. The work of students at this level will have some or many of the following characteristics:

*lacks a critical interest in the narrative

*primarily summarizes the selection

*unsupported by evidence from the text or experience

*makes predictions that are unrealistic or improbable

*fails to ask questions or hypothesize

*uses stereotypical responses

*uses images drawn from movies or television

*entries are too short

*confusion about the text and the story

*off-topic responses

Stage II: Evidence and understanding and appreciation of text. The work of students at this level will have some or many of the following characteristics:

*does not summarize, but rather reflects upon the narrative

*personal connections between text and student’s own experiences are made

*predictions are plausible given the scenario (but may change after further reading)

*demonstrates an ability to understand characters’ motivations

*quotes from text for support

*ability to hypothesize and predict

*evidence that students are engaged in the text

Stage III: Synthesis and evaluation of the text. The work of students at this level will have some or many of these characteristics:

*a strong interest in the material as evidenced through an awareness of levels of meaning

*judgments are textually and experientially based

*predictions are thoughtful and keenly observed

*character analysis is consistent with the material presented

*shows an understanding of character motivation

*comparisons and connections are found between text and other literary and artistic

works

*recognizes the author’s writing choices and reasons for those choices

*recognizes the energy and deliberateness of the writing process

*awareness that their own personal beliefs may differ from those expressed in the text

*demonstrates an awareness of point of view

Essay Scoring Rubric

Adapted from AP Central

8-9 (93-100) These essays are well-organized and well-written. With apt and specific references to the passage, they will analyze in depth and with appropriate support. While not without flaws, these papers will demonstrate consistent control over the elements of effective composition. Top essays will be especially precise and express perceptive ideas with clarity and skill.

6-7 (85-92) These essays are less precise, developed, or aptly supported than papers in the highest ranges. They deal accurately with the prompt but may not be as convincing or thorough as the highest range papers. These essays express ideas clearly but with less maturity and control than the better papers. Generally, essays scored a 7 present a more developed analysis and a more consistent command of the elements of effective composition than essays scored a 6.

5 (75-84) These essays, while correct in their assumptions, are not as clear, convincing, or accurate in their attempts to address the prompt. Their discussion of the literary strategies is thin, and although they may contain telling observations, these papers may not contain significant understanding of the passage. Analysis is vague, mechanical, or overly generalized. Although the writing is adequate to convey the writer’s thoughts and is without important errors in composition, these essays are not as well conceived, organized, or developed as upper half papers. Usually they reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing.

3-4 (65-74) These lower-half essays attempt to address the task, but they have been written by individuals who only superficially understand the passage. The analysis may be limited, incomplete, or off-base, and discussion may be misguided, unclear, or undeveloped. These papers often paraphrase rather than analyze the text. The essays often lack persuasive references to the text, and generally the writing demonstrates limited control of diction, organization, syntax, or grammar.

1-2 (0-64) These essays compound the weaknesses of the 3-4 papers. Although some attempt may be made to answer the question, the writer’s views are presented with little clarity, organization, coherence, or supporting evidence. These writers seriously misunderstand the passage. Frequently these essays are unacceptably brief, repetitious, or vague. Poorly written on several counts, they may contain distraction errors in grammar and mechanics.

Organization

Adapted from NCTE Presentation, Carter Hammond from Eau Gallie High School in Melborne, FL

Teacher instruction includes the following:

Essay A piece of writing that analyzes different components of a subject.

at least four paragraphs long, an essay will contain an

introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction The first paragraph of an essay. It contains the thesis statement,

usually at the end of the paragraph.

Body Paragraph A middle paragraph in an essay. It develops a point you make

that supports the thesis and contains supporting evidence in the

form of references to the text and quotes as well as explanation

and analysis of these references.

Conclusion The last paragraph in your essay. It sums up the ideas presented,

reflects upon them, and makes application.

Thesis A sentence with a subject and commentary. The thesis is what you

will try to prove with the body paragraphs and their supporting

evidence.

Pre-Writing The process of getting concrete details down on paper before

you organize your essay into paragraphs. Can be bubble clusters,

outlines, diagrams, or columns.

Concrete Details Specific details that form the backbone or core of the body

paragraphs and include facts, specifics, examples, plot references,

and quotes.

Commentary Your comments or opinion about something: not concrete detail.

Includes opinions, insights, analysis, interpretation, explication,

and reflection.

Topic Sentence The first sentence of a body paragraph. This must have a subject

and commentary for the paragraph. It does the same thing for the

body paragraph that the thesis does for the whole essay.

Concluding Sentence The last sentence in a body paragraph. It is all commentary and

gives a finished feeling to the paragraph.

Shaping the Essay Done after pre-writing and before the first draft, it is an outline of

your thesis, topic sentence, concrete details, and commentary.

First Draft The first version of your essay.

Final Draft The final version of your essay.

Peer Response Written responses and reactions to a partner’s paper.

Chunk One sentence of concrete detail and two sentences of commentary.

This is the smallest group of unified thoughts you must write. Your

body paragraphs are made up of chunks of thoughts.

Weaving Blending concrete details and commentary in a body paragraph.

Students evaluate their own and peer essays for organization based on the following:

Introduction

Includes thesis (usually placed at end of introduction)

Includes sufficient background information (3 or more sentences)

The thesis addresses the assignment.

The thesis is specific and interesting.

Body

Has two or more paragraphs

Each paragraph has a topic sentence containing main ideas.

Main ideas relate to thesis.

Each paragraph has several chunks containing a concrete detail sentence and two

or more sentences of commentary.

Evidence is sufficient and helps support thesis.

Commentary clearly explains evidence.

Transitions are clearly signaled.

Each paragraph has a concluding sentence.

Ideas are clearly developed leading to a logical conclusion.

Conclusion

Shows insight by drawing conclusions or making applications

Gives a finished feeling

Sentence Structure:

From NCTE Presentation, Carter Hammond from Eau Gallie High School in Melborne, FL

Teacher instruction includes the following:

Length

1. telegraphic (shorter than 5 words)

2. short (approximately 5 words)

3. medium (approximately 18 words)

4. long (30 or more words)

Consider: Does the sentence length fit the subject matter? Is there variety?

Why is the sentence length effective?

Sentence Pattern Elements

1. declarative (statement)

2. imperative (command)

3. interrogative (question)

4. exclamatory (exclamation)

5. simple (1 subject and 1 verb)

6. compound (2 independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunction or ;)

7. complex (independent clause and 1 or more subordinate clauses)

8. compound-complex (2 or more principal clauses and 1 or more subordinate)

9. loose (makes sense before ending)

10. periodic (only makes sense when the end is reached)

11. balanced (phrases balance each other in structure, meaning, or length)

12. natural order (subject before predicate)

13. inverted order (predicate before subject)

14. split order (subject in middle of a two-part predicate)

15. juxtaposition (normally unassociated things are placed next to one another)

16. parallelism (grammatical similarity between sentences or sentence parts)

17. repetition (words, phrases, sounds, ideas are repeated)

18. rhetorical question (asked for effect—no answer expected)

Improving Sentences

From NCTE Presentation, Carter Hammond from Eau Gallie High School in Melborne, FL

Students evaluate their own writing and the writing of their peers based on the following:

1. List the number of loose, balanced, periodic, and parallel sentences. If you have no sentences of one of these types, rewrite some in that style.

2. Count sentence length and find the average of the length. If your sentences are too short, combine some into compound and compound-complex.

3. Find the longest sentence. Determine the length of the sentence before and after it. If that long sentence is not preceded or followed by a shorter one then shorten one of them.

4. Count simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence structures. If there is no variety, then rewrite some sentences to include these types.

5. Count the number of “to be” verbs. Change the ones that can be better expressed as action verbs.

6. Count parallel constructions. If there are few, then rewrite to include parallel elements.

7. Check the beginnings of sentences. If more than half begin with the subject, then rewrite to include various beginnings.

8. Check comma usage.

9. Count semicolon usage. Find a pair of sentences that would be better punctuated with a semicolon.

10. Find inverted sentences. If there are none, then write one.

11. Find all instances of “there is” or “there are” and eliminate as many as possible.

12. Find all instances of “it” and eliminate if possible.

13. Find all instances of “this” or “that” used without a noun. Rewrite and add noun.

14. Check apostrophes and colons.

15. Check for slang, trite expressions, and immature words. Rewrite to show sophistication of expression and mature vocabulary.

Revising Your Writing

From The AP Vertical Teams Guide for English

Students will chart paragraphs of their essays using the following format:

Sentence # / First Four Words / Special Features / Verbs / # of Words per Sentence

As a revision technique for a students’ own writing, completion of the chart helps signal writing problems such as lack of variety of sentence length, repetition of identical sentence structure, passive voice, poor verb choice, and repetitive sentence openings.

Students use the chart to revise for rhythm improvement, diction, and syntax to enhance the meaning and effectiveness of their writing.

Style Analysis

From Jane Schaffer’s Teaching Style Analysis to AP English Students Second Edition, Jane Schaffer Publications San Diego, CA 1999

The teacher will provide specific instruction on the following sixteen rhetorical devices for style analysis:

1. tone

2. attitude

3. diction

4. language

5. figurative language

6. figure of speech

7. detail

8. imagery

9. point of view

10. perspective

11. organization

12. narrative structure

13. form

14. syntax

15. sentence structure

16. phrasing

Students will also learn the following organization format for a style analysis essay and practice style analysis essays throughout the course:

Paragraph 1- Introduction

Paragraph 2-Diction analysis

Paragraph 3-Detail analysis

Paragraph 4-Point of view analysis

Paragraph 5-Organization analysis

Paragraph 6-Syntax analysis

Paragraph 7- Conclusion

Note

This syllabus is the collaboration of multiple teachers in our district. Our district curriculum for junior English classes focuses on American literature. While our AP English Language and Composition course includes a variety of American drama, poetry, and fiction, the focus is on close reading and analyzing the various selected texts, nonfiction and fiction, and recognizing the effects achieved by the writer’s choices. The entire scope of texts and assignments indicated for each thematic unit allows for selections based on the interests and needs of both teachers and students. Teachers are meant to select a few of these texts for careful study, not attempt to cover them all.

First Quarter of Term

Introduction to Rhetoric, Close Reading, and Synthesis

Overview

Using Chapters 1, 2, and 3 in the class text, The Language of Composition, students review elements of rhetoric, practice close reading, and learn to synthesize sources. Topics covered include the Aristotelian triangle; types of appeals; patterns of development; rhetorical modes; analyzing style; talking with texts through annotation, dialectical journals, and graphic organizers; analyzing visual texts; formulating positions; and incorporating sources effectively. Also, during the first days of the course, each student takes the sample multiple-choice questions from the 2006 Course Description as a diagnostic test. The test is administered again in the spring so that students can see their growth as active analytical readers over the course of the year.

Authors and works may include:

Jody Heyman’s Washington Post article, “We Can Afford to Give Parents a Break”

Albert Einstein’s letter to a sixth grade student on prayer

Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer’s essay “Not by Math Alone”

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”

Queen Elizabeth’s speech on the death of Princess Diana

Earl Spencer’s eulogy for Diana

Joan Didion’s “Los Angeles Notebook”

John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address

Robert Putnam’s from Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Various visual texts (advertisements, charts)

Roger Ascham’s from Toxophilus

Sample Assignments

Keep a reader response journal for the readings in this unit. Explore the issues raised in these selections through freewriting, casual personal reaction, etc. Exchange journals with peers and teacher for feedback on ideas. Make note of essay ideas that these readings and writings inspire.

Write informally about the appeals Jody Heyman uses in her argument exposing the poor treatment of mothers in America. Discuss the strategies she uses to make her argument effective.

Analyze a political cartoon in terms of the rhetorical triangle and the appeals it uses. Pay attention to the interaction of written text and visual images. (from The Language of Composition)

Read four texts concerning the death of Princess Diana. Compare their purposes and examine their effectiveness in achieving their purposes. (from The Language of Compostion)

Keep “terms” flashcards on relevant rhetorical terms. Add to them throughout the year.

Using the annotation in the text as a model, annotate an essay supplied by the teacher. Discuss annotations with peers in small groups.

“Talk” with a text supplied by the teacher through a dialectical journal, a “says/does” analysis, or a graphic organizer. Use your “talk” when the text is discussed in class.

Write an essay analyzing the diction and syntax in Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Revise after teacher feedback on organization, content, and use of textual evidence to support assertions.

Using several sources related to requiring community service for a high school diploma, write a synthesis essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify the statement: High schools should make community service mandatory. Document all sources. Revise after teacher feedback in individual conferences.

Second Quarter of Term

Politics and Persuasion

Overview:

This unit will explore the use of language for persuasion in politics, focusing on documents, speeches, and articles from American history and other nonfiction works dealing with current political issues facing our nation as well as other nations. Readings will explore the relationship between the citizen and the state, and readers will analyze persuasive techniques including establishing common ground with the audience, clearly defining the issue, appealing to logic and emotion, refuting possible objections, etc. Students will also identify and analyze logical fallacies or propaganda devices in these persuasive works and evaluate the effectiveness of others’ persuasive pieces as well as craft persuasive writings of their own.

Authors and works may include:

Patrick Henry’s speech to the Virginia Convention

Selections from Thomas Paine’s The Crisis

Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence”

Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”,

Virginia Woolf’s “Thoughts on Peace during an Air Raid”

Henry David Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”

George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”

Chinua Achebe’s “The Empire Fights Back”

Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech

Sample Assignments:

Study a comprehensive list of logical fallacies/propaganda techniques. Keep a journal over the course of the unit recording examples of these techniques seen in advertisement of commercial products (TV, magazine, etc.) and seen in political debates. In a personal writing, students will explore how these devices have affected their purchasing and thinking.

Analyze Patrick Henry’s speech to the Virginia convention, identifying the persuasive devices such as repetition, addressing opposition, and appeals to emotion (including scare tactics). Explore his use of logical fallacies such as Argumentum Ad Populum and Either/Or Reasoning. In a well-developed essay, evaluate why his message was so effective. Revise essay after peer evaluation of organization.

Identify satirical techniques such as exaggeration, sarcasm, parody, situational irony, allegory, and burlesque. Analyze Swift’s A Modest Proposal, exploring how he uses language to carefully craft an essay persuading the reader to do or believe something by showing the opposite view as absurd. Analyze Swift’s emotional appeals and use of repetition to persuade. Teacher will provide specific written feedback on student’s sentence structure and style. Students will revise before essays are graded according to the AP rubric.

Analyze language techniques such as repetition, vivid language, parallelism, etc. appropriate for crafting persuasive arguments. Identify examples of parallelism in The Declaration of Independence, analyzing the effect of Jefferson’s logical argument substantiated by parallel examples. Explore how these parallel examples emphasize the colonists’ sense of injury, how they build emotional appeal, how they create balance, and how they make the final conclusion seem inevitable. Present your conclusions in a well-developed essay, revising and resubmitting after peer and teacher feedback on organization and style.

Explore current political issues through newspaper and magazine reading and in-depth discussion. Select an issue of interest, and write a letter to the editor of the local paper, persuading readers to change their view, adopt a view, or take some action on a current issue.

Write a well-organized, well-researched persuasive essay on a political issue. Lay out the issue, define any relevant terms, and state a debatable proposition in the affirmative in the introduction. The body should include at least three major paragraphs each supporting the writer’s position and offering facts, statistics, evidence from reliable sources, and quotes from authorities and possibly self-knowledge. The body should also refute major objections, even acknowledging their validity before pressing the argument. The conclusion will drive home the writer’s opinion and summarize major arguments. Use writing techniques such as repetition and parallelism and avoid flaws in reasoning. Document using MLA style and revise after peer and teacher review of first draft.

Related AP Practice:

2003 (Question 2) Speech to persuade African-Americans to join Union army

2002B (Question 2) Caesar’s arguments for going to Senate or staying home

2002 (Question 1) Lincoln’s vision for future of nation

1992 (Question 1) Queen Elizabeth’s speech to her troops

2006B(Question 3) Essay on compulsory voting

Third Quarter of Term

The American Dream: Money, Class, and Work in America

Overview

It is the promise that drew and still draws millions to our shores-- the American Dream. But what is it: financial success, happiness, freedom, opportunity? Lionel Trilling stated that America is the “only nation that prides itself upon a dream and gives its name to one.” Poet Archibald MacLeish said, “There are those, I know, who will reply that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right, it is. It is the American dream.” Noble words, but what is the American Dream and what, if anything, does it mean today? Is the promise empty? What happens to a country’s people when they can no longer count on the dream? This unit will explore the various meanings of the phrase “American Dream” and how that dream or the failure of it has shaped and influenced our lives.

Authors and works may include:

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams”

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing”

Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography

Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory”

Carl Sandburg’s “The People, Yes” and “Chicago”

W.H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen”

Who Killed the Electric Car (documentary)

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room(documentary)

Langston Hughes’ “Dream Deferred,” “I, Too,” “Mother to Son,” “Let America Be America Again”

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”

Eric Liu’s “A Chinaman’s Chance: Reflections on the American Dream”

Jeff Parker’s “The Great GAPsby Society” (cartoon)

Charles Murray’s “The Coming White Underclass”

Henry David Thoreau, from Walden (on economy from the first chapter)

Thomas Jefferson’s The Declaration of Independence

Sample Assignments

Write an extended definition essay on the phrase “the American Dream.” Use at least three of the strategies for defining which were reviewed in class (giving examples, analyzing qualities, attributing characteristics, defining negatively, using analogies, and giving functions). Peer edit in small groups before submitting to teacher.

After instruction on the history of the American Dream and using ideas generated in the definition essays, students discuss the concept of the American Dream. At the end of the discussion, students write a journal entry explaining their own American Dream and how they plan to achieve it.

Thomas Wolfe wrote “I believe that we are lost here in America, . . . I think that the true discovery of America is before us. I think the true fulfillment of our spirit, of our people, of our mighty and immortal land is yet to come.” React to this quote in your reading journal.

After reading Death of a Salesman, write an essay in which you examine the cause(s) of Willy Loman’s tragic downfall. Consider such things as flaws with the American Dream, flaws with Willy’s perception of the American Dream, and flaws in Willy’s own character. Support your views with ample evidence from the text. Revise according to teacher comments on effective rhetoric.

In your reader response journal, react to independent readings for this unit in a variety of ways. For instance, use says/does analysis, answer close reading guideline questions, annotate copies, or dialogue about the selection with a peer.

Write an essay analyzing the American Dream as it is presented in The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, or A Raisin in the Sun. Keep in mind the questions we have asked ourselves throughout this unit. Consider what part of the American Dream fails for the characters in these works. Plan on two conferences with the teacher to discuss your progress and problems and to touch base for additional help. Before the second conference, use the sentence analysis form (from The AP Vertical Teams Guide for English) to check your syntax. When you submit your final draft, include a self-evaluation of writing process form.

View a documentary related to this unit. In your reader response journal, identify what this documentary has to say about our society. Look carefully for bias. During class discussion, be able to use pertinent examples from the film to support your assertions.

After watching a film version of Death of a Salesman, analyze the film as you would a text. Consider the director’s choices concerning the set, lighting, music and sounds, transitions from scene to scene, etc. Compare and contrast the director’s choices with the author’s staging choices in the play. Analyze the differences in the play and the film. Evaluate how effective the director’s choices are in enhancing the overall meaning of the work.

Focusing carefully on rhetorical purposes and techniques, analyze the similarities and differences in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” and Eric Liu’s “A Chinaman’s Chance: Reflections on the American Dream.” Explain how each writer achieves his purpose. Before you begin, complete a says/does analysis for each work.

Modeling the passage from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech where he uses repetition and parallel structure to describe his dream, write your own version, paying close attention to syntax. Add visuals and music and present your creation to the class.

Related AP Practice:

2006 (Question 2) Hazlitt “On the Want of Money”

2005 (Question 3) The Singer Solution to World Poverty

2000 (Question 3) from King Lear-quote on relation between wealth and justice

1996 (Question 3) Lapham on the American faith in money

1995 (Question 2) Goodman “The Company Man”

1993 (Question 3) Forster “My Wood” on possessions

1983 (Question 2) Carlyle arguing on the nobility of work

1982 (Question 1) What constitutes happiness

Second Quarter of Term

The Research Paper

During the year, all students complete a 1500-word minimum, formal researched position paper on an issue of their choice using either MLA or APA documentation. They must present an argument of their own that analyzes and synthesizes a variety of sources, including at least one visual source, to support their argument. Students are encouraged to incorporate both primary and secondary sources into their papers. The teacher provides feedback and guidance through each step of the writing process, and the papers go through several revisions after students have individual conferences with the teacher. Before the paper is submitted, students complete a checklist concerning organization, coherence and unity, transitions, support of ideas, syntax, documentation, and grammar, usage, and mechanics. After the paper is submitted, students complete a self-evaluation form that reflects their writing process, problems that were clarified, and further needs. The culminating activity is a presentation of the paper to the class.

Third Quarter of Term

Individual’s Place in the Community

Overview:

This unit will explore the use of language expressing a writer’s views on his or her place within a larger community and explore the conflicts which arise when one’s beliefs, economic standing, personality, race, language, or gender do not conform to community ideals. Through analysis of primarily nonfiction writings, students will analyze the impact of the class, gender, and racial roles that society creates and enforces and the role of language in both revealing who we are to others and separating us from others.

Authors and works may include:

Selections from The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass

Selections from Richard Wright’s Black Boy

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Henry David Thoreau’s Where I Lived and What I Lived for

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s from Self-Reliance

Amitai Etzioni’s “The New Community”

Anna Quindlen’s from Being Perfect

Lori Arviso Alvord’s “Walking the Path Between Worlds”

Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings”

Virginia Woolf’s “Professions for Women”

Paul Theroux’s “Being a Man”

Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman”

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” and “How It feels to Be Colored Me”

George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”

Marjorie Agosin’s “Always Living in Spanis”

S. I. Hayakawa’s “Bilingualism in America”

Geoffrey Nurnburg’s "How Much Wallop Can a Simple Work Pack?”

Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”

Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Girl Who Wouldn’t Talk” from The Woman Warrior

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” and “Much Madness is Divinest Sense”

Langston Hughes’ “Harlem”

Sample Assignments:

Keep a reader response journal for this unit, exploring the force in each work which isolates the author from the community. Participate in in-depth discussions analyzing the writer’s attitude towards both the force and the ensuing isolation. Which writers see their race, class, gender, language, etc. as a hindrance or an obstacle to be overcome and which view these forces as expressions of their uniqueness? Do society mores cause these differing attitudes or is there something within the individual which accounts for the difference? Teacher will provide oral feedback in class discussion as students strive for level three responses.

In essay form, analyze Fredrick Douglass’ complex attitudes towards his new-found freedom (excitement, fear, isolation) and the choice of diction used to present these attitudes. Explore the figurative language used to express his elation upon his escape and his fear of the kidnappers who would try to return him to slavery. Analyze his use of language to explore his isolation from the community even when he becomes free. Use sentence structure/style chart to identify possible stylistic problems and revise work accordingly.

Write an essay in which you discuss the rhetorical strategies Judith Ortiz Cofer uses in “The Myth of the Latin Woman.” Pay particular attention to the mix of personal anecdote and more direct analysis. Teacher provides written feedback on organization, and students revise accordingly.

Write an essay tracing and analyzing the way King balances the twin appeals to religion and patriotism throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Does he ultimately emphasize one over the other? If so, why do you think he made that choice? In addition, examine and analyze the appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos. Peers evaluate essays for organization and style and provide both written and oral feedback. Essays are graded according to AP rubric.

Write an essay in which you discuss the rhetorical strategies Zora Neale Hurston uses to convey her attitude toward prejudice. Pay particular attention to her use of counterarguments and her tone. Who is her audience? Compare/contrast her attitude with that of another writer. How is the point of view different? Teacher provides specific feedback on organization and style/structure through individual conferences with student. Students revise, and essays are graded according to AP rubric.

Write an analysis of three different “languages” you speak. Define them and explain when and why you shift from one to another; what do you gain from such shifting? Although you should write primarily in Edited American English, you might include passages or sentences in the other “languages.” These need not be entirely different languages such as Spanish or Chinese, but they might include computer language, slang you use with your friends, sports jargon, and so forth. (Keep your teacher in mind as an audience—someone who may not know all of your languages but who is open to learning about them.)

Related AP Practice:

2005B (Question 1) Hardships of labor on African-Americans

1997 (Question 2) Fredrick Douglass autobiographical passage

1984 (Question 2) Compare/contrast two definitions of freedom

2004 (Question 3) Unspoken rules and belonging

2003B (Question 2) Relationship between the individual and society

1981 (Question 3) Struggle for definition

2001 (Question 2) George Eliot to women on development of a writer

Third Quarter of Term

Education

Overview

Education. Students have spent more than a decade trying to attain it, but can they define what constitutes a true education? Is education a particular body of knowledge or is it more? Who decides what comprises public education in America? Is public education preparing American students to take their places in an ever-changing, global society? This unit stimulates students’ thinking about the value of their educations by exploring the question “To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?”

Authors and works may include:

Francine Prose’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read”

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Education”

Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” and “Indian Education”

Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”

Benjamin Franklin, from The Autobiography

Frederick Douglass, from My Bondage and My Freedom

Emily Dickinson’s “The Brain Is Wider Than the Sky”

Louise Gluck’s “The School Children”

Margaret Talbot’s “Best in Class”

James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers”

Kyoko Mori’s “School”

Billy Collins’ “The History Teacher”

Sandra Cisneros’ “Eleven”

Sample Assignments

Keep an “issues” journal on independent readings in education. Document each article using correct MLA works cited form. Summarize each article and integrate at least two quotes using correct MLA parenthetical references and signal phrases. Analyze structure, language, and rhetorical devices. Personally react to the article.

Defend, challenge, or qualify the following statement by Francine Prose: Traditionally, the love of reading has been born and nurtured in high school English class.” (from The Language of Composition, Chapter 4)

Write an essay identifying and explaining Emerson’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques in the essay “Education.” Revise after feedback on organization, support of ideas, and effective use of rhetoric through peer editing and individual conference with teacher.

Compare and contrast Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me” and his poem “Indian Education” both concerning the education of Native Americans. Discuss the choices Alexie makes to achieve his purpose.

After reading Margaret Talbot’s views on valedictorians in “Best in Class,” write an essay proposing an alternate approach or approaches to the traditional grading system. Interview teachers, parents, and students for their ideas and include their comments. Discuss the pro’s and con’s of your alternatives as compared to the traditional system.

In your reader response journal, analyze Baldwin’s use of pronouns in paragraphs 8 and 9 of the essay “A Talk to Teachers.” What is his purpose in alternating between first, second, and third person? (from Chapter 4 of The Language of Composition)

Write a letter to the principal arguing for the addition of a new course (be creative here) to the curriculum. Use all three of the appeals in your letter, and provide ample support for your argument.

Synthesize education sources in Chapter 4 of The Language of Composition to defend, challenge, or qualify Leon Botstein’s statement that “The American high school is obsolete.” Use correct MLA documentation. Revise according to peer and teacher comments.

Related AP Practice:

2004B (Question 2) 1901 essay on the censoring of books and art

2000 (Question 1) Eudora Welty on reading

1996 (Question 1) Lady Mary Wortley Montague on the education of her granddaughter

2006B (Question 1) On the thinker vs. the reader/intellectual

2005B (Question 3) Thomas on the value of mistakes

2003B (Question 3) Take a position on cheating

Fourth Quarter of Term

Nature

Overview:

This unit will explore the use of language expressing a writer’s views on his or her relationship with nature and explore what man can learn from nature as well as the dilemma which arises when technological progress and the preservation of nature conflict. Through analysis of primarily nonfiction writings, students will analyze the impact of nature on man, man on nature, and explore man’s responsibility to nature.

Authors and works may include:

Selections from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature”

Selections from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

Selections from Donald Culross Peattie’s The Road of a Naturalist

Chief Seattle’s “Message to President Franklin Pierce”

Wendell Berry’s “An Entrance to the Wood”

Wagari Muta Maathai’s 2004 Nobel Prize Speech

Joyce Carol Oates’ “Against Nature”

Bill McKibben’s It’s Easy Being Green

Selections from Richard Conniff’s Counting Carbons

Selections from E.O. Wilson’s The Future of Life

Selections from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Flower in the Crannied Wall”

Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”

Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”

Emily Dickinson’s “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church”

William Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and “The Tables Turned”

Sample Assignments:

Keep an issues journal for this unit, exploring the conflict between technological progress and preservation and conservation. Read selections from the text as well as magazine articles, newspaper articles, and other essays that deal with a current related issue. Summarize the articles, analyze the rhetorical devices of the articles, and write a personal reaction to the articles in this journal. Begin each entry with publication information of the article cited in MLA style.

Write a descriptive essay describing a place in nature you have experienced. Include vivid imagery that appeals to at least four senses in your description, and carefully select adjectives to convey the beauty of the natural environment. Peers will provide oral feedback on the effectiveness of the imagery and adjectives used for description, and students will revise accordingly.

After specific instruction from the teacher, students review the sixteen stylistic or rhetorical terms for style analysis as well as a basic organizational format for style analysis. Using “The Rattler” from Peattie’s The Road of a Naturalist, students practice a style analysis essay by writing an introduction which identifies two different attitudes the writer has towards the snake and a body which analyzes the diction Peattie uses to present his complex attitude towards nature. Students highlight words in the passage with strong connotations then use these as carefully integrated quotes in the body of their essays along with their own commentary which analyzes the connotation of the quotations. The teacher will model this process and provide specific oral feedback as students practice tone and diction analysis.

Write a narrative essay where you recreate a nature experience for your readers and convey your attitude (admiration, awe, fear, etc) towards the experience as well as create a mood (peaceful, gloomy, etc.) for the reader through the narration. Choose words with powerful connotations to create the mood and narrate the experience. The teacher will provide specific written feedback on the student’s diction, highlighting words with powerful connotations and suggesting improvements where needed. Students revise and resubmit.

In the selection from Silent Spring, students will analyze through verbal and written response the following questions: why doesn’t Carson mention her “contention” until she is nearly finished with the piece? Is her argument inductive or deductive? How do you know? Also, why does she tell the reader what her “contentions” aren’t before stating what they are? What response from her readers might she anticipate at this point in their reading?

Read Joyce Carol Oates’ “Against Nature” and write at least three journal entries of nature memories. Compare your memories to the memories Oates recounts.

After reading and discussing the first two chapters of Silent Spring, consider Carson’s statement: “If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem.” Write an essay explaining how the framers of the Constitution might protect the environment if they were writing the Constitution today.

After reading, annotating, and discussing the first three chapters of Emerson’s “Nature,” reread paragraphs one and two. In an essay consider how Emerson uses comparisons and distinctions to characterize nature and how the characterization helps him achieve his purpose.

After reading, annotating, and discussing the first three chapters of Emerson’s “Nature,” consider this statement: “The production of a work of art throws a light upon the mystery of humanity. A work of art is an abstract or epitome of the world.” Write an essay that supports, refutes, or qualifies its assertion. Use evidence from your reading, as well as your own knowledge and experience to support your position.

Related AP Practice:

2001 (Question 2) Mary Oliver’s response to nature

1998 (Question 1) Lamb to Wordsworth- city over nature

2003(Question 3) Compare/contrast two descriptions of birds/nature

2004B (Question 1) From Silent Spring- ethics of poisoning pests

2005B (Question 2) Description of Mississippi River

1999(Question 1) Compare descriptive passages of Okefenokee swamp

1994 (Question 3) Narration/description on Santa Ana winds by Joan Didion

1993 (Question 3) Forester’s “My Wood” from autobiography

1986 (Question 1) Compare/contrast passages on western landscapes

Fourth Quarter of Term

Popular Culture

Overview:

This unit will explore the following question: To what extent does pop culture reflect our society’s values? Through reading, discussing, and writing, students will explore the relationship between our culture and our values, focusing on certain issues and/or items such as television and technology.

Authors and works may include:

David Denby’s “High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies”

Mark Twain’s “Corn-pone Opinions”

Brent Staples’ “Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic”

Vine Deloria, Jr.’s “We Talk, You Listen”

Danyel Smith’s “Dreaming America”

Scott McCloud’s “Show and Tell”

Teresa Wiltz’s “Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 Is a Chorus without a Hook, a Movie without an Ending”

Hans Ostrom’s “Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven”

Nikki Giovanni’s “Sanctuary: For Harry Potter the Movie”

Steven Johnson’s “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”

Corbett Trubey’s “The Argument against TV”

Julia Scott’s “He Doesn’t Like to Watch”

George Gerbner and Todd Gitlin’s “Is Media Violence Free Speech?”

Marie Winn’s “Television: The Plug-In Drug”

Pete Hamill’s “Crack and the Box”

Sample Assignments:

Close read works and keep a reader response journal which explores reactions, insights, and connections to the central theme for all the works. Teacher will provide feedback through class discussion on student responses as they strive for level three analysis and evaluation of the works.

Identify the SOAPS (subject, occasion, audience, purpose, and speaker) for any one of these works. What inferences can you make about the writer(s)?

After reading and discussing David Denby’s “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies,” write an essay answering Denby’s rhetorical questions: “Do genre films reflect reality? Or are they merely a set of conventions that refer to other films?” Use your own experience and teen movies you have seen as evidence.

After reading and discussing Mark Twain’s “Corn-Pone Opinions,” find examples of prose that are ornate and diffuse and examples that are compact and simple. Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the effects of the two types of language.

After reading and discussing Brent Staples op-ed piece, “Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic,” write an essay in which you discuss Staples’ assumption that popular culture can communicate an important message.

After reading the selection from the graphic essay “Show and Tell” by Scott McCloud, note that he begins with a series of panels about a boy demonstrating how his toy robot turns into an airplane. Though six of the panels have no words, the vignette appeals to both pathos and ethos. Discuss how McCloud accomplishes this; consider the words and drawing separately first, and then together.

Read, study, and synthesize the five texts in Conversation: Focus on Television. Use at least three of those sources in addition to your own observations and experiences to write an essay explaining whether you view television as beneficial or detrimental to society.

In “You Talk, We Listen,” Vine Deloria, Jr. introduces his subject by reviewing the stereotyping of minorities in the films of the 1940s and 1950s. How does this lay the groundwork for his argument? Why is this rhetorical strategy effective?

Read Teresa Wiltz’s “Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 Is a Chorus without a Hook, a Movie without an Ending.” The tone of the essay shifts several times. Find the transition points, and consider why Wiltz might have shifted the tone at each spot.

After reading several of the selections, write an essay about the influence of technology on contemporary life, culture, and/or education, using evidence from the pieces you use as well as from your observation and experience. Essays will be rated on the AP rubric.

In “Television: The Plug-In Drug,” Winn writes: Surely it stands to reason that the television experience is instrumental in preventing viewers from recognizing its dulling effects, much as a mind-altering drug might do.” Pete Hamill writes in his essay, “Crack and the Box”, “In short, television works on the same imaginative and intellectual level as psychoactive drugs. . . . For the junkie, the world is reduced to him and the needle, pipe, or vial; the self is absolutely isolated, with no desire for choice. The television addict lives the same way.” Read the two essays and consider the arguments that they present. Referring to both Hamill and Winn, write an essay in which you support or challenge their positions. Teacher will provide specific feedback on content and writing style of students’ essays through written comments and individual student-teacher conferences, then students will revise after reviewing sentence length, sentence structure, parallel constructions, active verb choice, punctuation, and appropriateness of diction.

Related AP Practice:

2006 (Question 1)—The plastic pink flamingo as a reflection of American Culture

1998 (Question 3)—Humorous letters between Coke and Grove Press

2006(Question 3)—On the value of public opinions

2003 (Question 1)—“Entertainment has the capacity to ruin society.”

1985 (Question 3)—About the state of television in America

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