AP English Language and Composition Syllabus
AP English Language and Composition Syllabus
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Course Overview
The AP® English Language and Composition course is designed to enable students to write effectively and confidently in courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own communication abilities. The course emphasizes expository, analytical, and argumentative writing, as well as personal and reflective writing. In addition to aspects of classic and contemporary written rhetoric, such as essays, letters, and speeches, we also study the rhetoric of visual media and create our own written and visual texts. As recommended by The College Board’s AP English Course Description, May 2007, May 2008, our students also “read primary and secondary sources to synthesize material into their own compositions and cite sources recommended by professional organizations such as the Modern Language Association (MLA).”
The course is organized around contemporary issues as would concern informed citizens. In addition, we organize according to several concerns within the context of the issues addressed, sequencing the course by the issues and the development of reading and writing skills. As in the comparable college course, our purpose is “to enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers.” Our students are encouraged “to place their emphasis on content, purpose, and audience and to allow this focus to guide the organization of their writing.”
Our writing program recognizes “that skill in writing proceeds from students’ awareness of their own composing processes: the way they explore ideas, reconsider strategies, and revise their work.” Accordingly, we “emphasize this process, asking students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with revision aided by teachers and peers,” and we ask students to “identify writers’ strategies and then to practice them themselves.” To accomplish this goal, we write in both informal and formal contexts which include the following for informal writing: imitation exercises, journal keeping, collaborative writing, and in-class essays. For formal writing, students write expository, analytical, argument, and synthesis essays which call on them to evaluate the legitimacy and purpose of sources used in order to analyze, reflect upon, and write about a topic and to enter into conversations with other writers and thinkers. In these engagements, the students learn to read and write with increasing complexity and sophistication.
Course reading and writing should help students gain textual power, making them more alert to an author’s purpose, the needs of an anticipated audience, the demands of a subject, and the resources of language: syntax, word choice, and tone. By early May, students will have nearly completed a course in close reading and purposeful writing that should enable them to be successful on the AP English Language and Composition Exam. Success on this exam is rewarded with advanced placement, college credit, or both.
As this is a college-level course, performance expectations are appropriately high, and the workload is challenging. Students are expected to commit to a minimum of five hours of course work per week outside of class. Often, this work involves long-term reading and writing assignments, so effective time management is imperative. Because of the demanding curriculum, students must bring to the course sufficient command of mechanical conventions and an ability to read and discuss prose.
Grading System:
Major Grades: 70%: Major grades include tests based on readings, several of which reflect the complexity of multiple choice questions based on rhetorical function; reading journals; in-class writings; argumentative, analytical, and expository essays written both in class and out of class (writings which proceed through several stages including revision); vocabulary tests and integration of new vocabulary in written submissions; annotation of texts; research, and Socratic seminars.
Daily Grades: 30%: Quizzes to check for reading comprehension or vocabulary development; cooperative learning assignments based on syntax, style, grammar, analysis, and writing concepts.
Course Organization:
The course is organized in six-week units based on contemporary issues and aspects of the accompanying concerns. The written and visual texts are selected for the elements that accompany these issues. Each six-week unit requires students to acquire and use rich vocabulary, to use standard English grammar, and to identify and analyze the importance of a writer’s or speaker’s rhetorical choices and style. Therefore, students are expected to develop the following: a wide vocabulary; a variety of sentence structures; logical organization, a mature writing style indicating an effective use of rhetoric such as controlling tone; establishing and maintaining voice, awareness of audience and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure (College Board AP English Course Description, May 2007-2008, p. 8).
For readings, students must identify and analyze the following: thesis or claim, tone or mood, purpose and effect, audience and occasion, evidence, appeals to logos, ethos, pathos, assumptions or warrants, rhetorical function and style.
Texts:
Elements of Literature. Vol. 5. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2000.
Cohen, Samuel, ed. 50 Essays, A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/ St.Martin’s, 2004.
Lunsford, Andrea A. and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Everything’s an Argument. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2007.
Penfield, Elizabeth. Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition. 8th Edition. New York: Pearson, 2005.
Rosa, Alfred and Paul Eschholz. Models for Writers. 9th Edition. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2007.
The Houston Chronicle
The New York Times
The New Yorker
Some texts will be issued to students, while others are contained and used solely inside of the classroom.
Monographs:
Amusing Ourselves to Death (Postman)
The Awakening (Chopin)
Devil in the White City (Larson)
Huck Finn (Hawthorne)
In Cold Blood (Capote)
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
Sold (McCormick)
The Things They Carried (O’Brien)
The monographs listed above will be purchased by the students. They are readily available at local booksellers or online.
First Six Weeks Period: Understanding Rhetoric
Overview: Introduction of class rules, course syllabus, rhetorical terms and devices.
For this unit, the major text is In Cold Blood. Discussions and assignments will focus on Capote’s writing style and major rhetorical features in narrative nonfiction. Students will also be introduced to the importance of language and rhetorical choice by reading, studying, and discussing essays selected. AP Multiple Choice techniques will be introduced as well as AP free response writing. Students will write in a variety of styles: analysis, argumentation, and narration. The narration essay will go through several stages and revisions. The teacher will emphasize, when conferencing with the student, syntax, diction, organization, use of detail, tone, voice, and audience. Newspapers are used for discussion and for continuing awareness of contemporary and timeless issues.
Readings:
• Angelou, Maya. “Living Well. Living Good.”
• Baca, Jimmy Santiago. “Coming Into Language”
• Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood
• Dillard, Annie. Excerpts from An American Childhood
• Everything’s an Argument, Chapters 1, 2, 3
• Lo, Andrea. “Finding Myself through Language”
• Momaday, N. Scott. “Shadow Catcher”
• Morrison, Toni. “Acceptance Speech Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize”
• Murray, Donald. M. “The Stranger in the Photo is Me”
• Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant”
• Sontag, Susan. “On Photography”
• Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue”
• Welty, Eudora. “Listening”
Viewing:
• Clips from Capote
• “The Power of Pictures” introduces LIFE Special Issue 150 Years of Photography: Pictures that Made a Difference.
Assessments:
• Vocabulary quizzes
• Test – rhetorical terms and devices
• Dialectic journal – In Cold Blood
• Out of class essay: Select several family photographs that include, and possibly even feature, you. Then, using one picture as a point of departure, write an essay of your own that, like Murray’s, draws upon its author’s personal life circumstances yet reaches beyond them in service of its argument. As you undertake and revise your essay, consider an audience that would appreciate the argument that emerges from your melding of a particular photograph with the words and ideas of your essay.
• Socratic seminar: issues of conformity and nonconformity; connections among texts
Compositions:
• First person narrative: Imitation of Angelou essay with attention to organization of details, images, and dialogue (written outside of class with peer review and editing, teacher conferencing and revising) or
• Expository essay: personal photographs
• In-class AP prompt: Orwell/Gandhi
• In-class AP prompt: Eudora Welty
Second Six Weeks Period: Understanding Satire
Overview: During this six weeks period, the major focus will be on contemporary and classic satire with Twain’s Huck Finn as a major text. Magazine articles, critical essays, and other essays will be layered into the course to complement the novel. Discussions, writing assignments, and cooperative learning assignments will be used for this study. A major emphasis will be the study of satire—not only how it pertains to the novel, but also examples of satire in everyday life. Students will write a parody of the satirical “Advice to Youth,” an argumentation essay with peer review and editing, and an in-class essay. AP Multiple Choice practice will take place, as well, and contemporary issues will be discussed in connection with texts. Imitation/Argument will include attention to arrangement, voice, and effect of humor and satire.
Readings:
• Ascher, Barbara Lazear. “On Compassion”
• Barry, Dave. “How to Vote in One Easy Step: Use Chisel, Tablet”
• Clemens, Samuel. “Advice to Youth”
• Clemens, Samuel. “Letter to William Dean Howells”
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Excerpts from On Reliance
• Everything’s an Argument, Chapters 4-7 and 13
• Franklin, Benjamin. “Letter of Recommendation”
• Foreman, the Honorable Ed. “Letter to the Honorable Ed Foreman from J. B. Lee, Jr.”
• Goodman, Ellen. “Breaking the Hungry Teen Code”
• “Girl Moved To Tears By Of Mice And Men Cliffs Notes” The Onion
• King, Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
• Lester, Julius. “Morality and Huck Finn”
• Marino, Gordon. “Me? Apologize for Slavery?”
• Marx, Groucho. “Letter to Warner Brothers”
• Rosen, Trevor. “Texas Nerds Celebrate ‘Geek Week’”
• Smiley, Jane. “Say it Ain’t So, Huck”
• Swift, Jonathan. “Meditations Upon a Broomstick”
• Swift, Jonathan. The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces “The Preface of the Author”
• Thoreau, Henry David. Excerpts from Walden
• Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• White, E. B. “Letter to Gas Company”
Viewing:
• Herblock, “Read to me what it says, Dad”
• “Slumping Box Office” and other images from The Onion
• Political cartoons from NY Times and Statesman
• Clips from The Colbert Report and The Daily Show
Assessments:
• Quizzes – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Elements of satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Vocabulary quizzes and test
• Presentations of satire in pop culture with analysis of elements of satire
• Socratic seminar: effects of humor and satire in argumentation
Compositions:
• Imitation/Argument: Parody of “Advice to Youth” entitled “Advice to Parents.” Students will write the essay outside of class with peer review, revision, and sharing of selected passages of individual essays with class.
• Visual: Create a parody of advertising in pop culture using Photo Story. Include music and bibliography.
• In-class AP Prompt: The Onion
Third Six Weeks Period: Man versus Society
Overview: While the focal text of this unit is The Scarlet Letter, nonfiction writings will be used in conjunction with the novel—particularly editorials. Students will complete an essay with peer editing and revision. During the six weeks, the synthesis unit will be introduced and various exercises will accompany the study. These activities will culminate in writing a synthesis essay. AP multiple choice practice will occur and contemporary issues will continue to be discussed with attention to the rhetorical choices of the speakers and writers.
Readings:
• Cheshire, Jr., William P. “Small Things Considered: The Ethical Significance of Embryonic Stem Cell Research”
• Cohen, Eric. “The Real Meaning of Genetics”
• Gregory, Dick. “Shame”
• Goodman, Ellen. “Putting In a Good Word for Guilt”
• Everything’s an Argument, Chapters 8, 10, 11, and 22
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter
• The Hinxton Group. An International Consortium on Stem Cells, Ethics and Law
Consensus Statement, February 24, 2006
• McElroy, Wendy “Victims from Birth”
• Mitchell, C. Ben. “The Return of Eugenics”
• Pitts, Leonard. Editorials
• Rhodes, Jonathan “Building a Public Conversation on the Meaning of Genetics”
• Sandel, Michael J. “The Case Against Perfection”
• “The Return of Shame” from Newsweek
• Wright, Robert. “Who Gets the Good Genes?”
• Zoloth, Laurie. Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Washington, DC, September 29, 2004.
Viewing
• Bryant, Adey. “Frankenstein” cartoon
• “Human Genetics Alert” cartoon
• Rembrandt. “Nightwatch”
• Cartoons parodying The Scarlet Letter
Assessments:
• Test on The Scarlet Letter
• Annotations of The Scarlet Letter with attention to rhetorical devices and function
• Vocabulary quizzes and test
• Motif presentations (based on motifs in The Scarlet Letter)
• Socratic seminar: medical ethics in Hawthorne’s novel
Compositions:
• Expository Essay: “What is truth?” (with peer editing and revision)
• Comparison – Analyze the persuasive qualities of Zoloth’s speech and Cheshire’s essay. Then write an essay in which you examine the qualities of each text and explain which one presents more persuasive argument regarding stem cell research.
• In-class Synthesis Essay: Reconsider several of the texts presented in this collection that address issues of medical ethics. Then write an essay that synthesizes at least three of the texts for support, and take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the claim that public understanding of the aspects of genetic engineering is critical to the nation or the global society. or
• In-class Synthesis Essay: In an essay that synthesizes from three to five of the provided sources for support, take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the claim that boxing should be banned.
Fourth Six Weeks Period: Rhetoric in Conflict
Overview: Students will read and study several texts related to armed conflict, specifically to Vietnam, in this unit. O’Brien’s style in The Things They Carried will be closely examined with particular attention to the effects and believability of truth and fiction. Along with the texts, time will be spent viewing photographs and documentaries. These will be closely examined and discussed with a focus on rhetorical purpose and effect. Students will research a particular soldier who died in Vietnam, write a biography and a detailed letter in the persona of this soldier. An annotated bibliography will accompany this expository essay. In addition, students will create a multi-media presentation to include visuals, music, and text which will be posted on a wiki created by the instructor.
Readings:
• Boswell, James. Excerpt from “On War”
• Caputo, Phillip. Prologue to A Rumor of War
• Catiline. Speech to troops, 62 B.C.E.
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Excerpt from On Duties
• Eisenhower, General Dwight D. “Message to Invasion Troops”
Eisenhower, President Dwight D. “Farewell Radio and Television Address to the
American People”
• Everything’s an Argument, Chapters 10, 12, 15, and 20
• Kennedy, John F. “Inaugural Address”
• Ignatieff, Michael. “I am Iraq”
• Johnson, Lyndon B. “Gulf of Tonkin” speech
• MacArthur, Douglas. “Commencement Address.” Michigan State University
• Mead, Margaret. “Warfare: An Invention—Not a Biological Necessity”
• “Melhus, Troy. “Quiescent Objector”
• NPR. Transcript of Presidential Speeches during War Time
“A Statement of Conscience”
• O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried
• Quindlen, Anna. “Waiting, One Hand Behind”
• Selected song lyrics
• Selections from Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam
• Students select for independent reading: Philip Caputo’s Rumor of War or Michael Herr’s Dispatches
• Vandeventer, Paul. “That Time My Brother Bought Wasn’t Worth It”
Viewing:
• Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam documentary
• In the Shadow of the Blade documentary
• Photographs from Larry Burrows’ Vietnam
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
“Patterns of Major Armed Conflicts” graph
• Photo Essays from the internet: Vietnam and other armed conflicts
Assessments:
• Documented biography of military person whose name is on the Wall with annotated bibliography
• Multi-media presentation to accompany biography with separate bibliography
• Journal – The Things They Carried with attention to organization, details, images, and other notable rhetorical choices
• Informal journal responses
Compositions:
• Soldier biography (expository writing with correct MLA citations and annotated bibliography)
• Synthesis essay Develop a position in response to the following question: Is war part of an effort toward its eventual eradication or is it an inevitable element of human existence?
Fifth Six Weeks Period: The Nature of Man
Overview: This is an especially long grading period, so while students will read and discuss a narrative nonfiction selection, a major focus of this unit will be working toward the AP exam itself in addition to a study of nature writers. Multiple choice exercises, perusing anchor sets from the Exam Reading, and dissecting prompts will occur. An emphasis will be placed on visuals, and students will have to examine and write an argumentation essay focused on the rhetorical aspects of selected political cartoons. Students will discuss and write responses in class about contemporary issues on a weekly basis.
Readings:
• Ackerman, Diane. “The Round Walls of Home”
• Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek An excerpt from “The Fixed”
• Ericsson, Stephanie. “The Ways We Lie”
• Everything’s an Argument, Chapters18, 19
• Flannery, Tim. “The Slow Awakening”
• Havel, Vaclav. “The Quiver of a Shrub in California”
• Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City
• Overviews of sociopathic and psychopathic behavior from on-line journals
• Machiavelli, Nicolò. “The Morals of the Prince”
• Mukherjee, Bharati. “Two Ways to Belong in America”
• Plato. “Allegory of the Cave”
• Rodriguez, Richard. “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”
• Thomas, Lewis. “The Lives of a Cell”
• Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, excerpt from “Brute Neighbors”
• White, Gilbert. “Letter to fellow-naturalist in another part of England”
• Students select for independent reading: Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Henry David Thoreau’s Walden
Viewing:
• Various websites about the Chicago World’s Fair
• Photographs pertaining to the Chicago World’s Fair
• Earth from Apollo 17 October 26, 1997
• Political cartoons
Assessments:
• Socratic seminar: Sociopaths and Psychopaths in The Devil in the White City
• Vocabulary quizzes and test
• Rhetorical Strategy Analysis and Argument based on assessment of selected political cartoons with revision after peer editing or teacher conference
• Synthesis – Consider the focus of the excerpts from Dillard and Thoreau, Thomas’s essay, and the White letter. Write an essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify the argument that small elements of life on earth contribute to or explain some aspect of human interaction with the natural world. Refer to at least three of the texts for support.
Compositions:
• Photo essay – Compose a collage of images that present our planet in ways that others might not consider important. Write captions for each image, and write an expository essay that conveys your attitude toward each image in your collection. Document each source, including photographs or other media of your own creation you might use.
• Documented Argument – Conduct your own investigation into the issues of climate. Write a researched argument (complete with MLA documentation) that defends, challenges, or qualifies Tim Flannery’s statement that “We know enough to act wisely.”
• In-class argumentation essays written on old AP prompts: King Lear and Susan Sontag
Sixth Six Weeks Period: Rhetoric Will Change the World
Overview: This entire six weeks will be devoted to preparing for the AP exam. All readings will be essays and editorials and will be discussed and analyzed in class. Students will practice AP multiple choice and free response writing. Discussions of world events and vocabulary study will continue.
Readings:
• Douglass, Frederick. “Learning to Read and Write”
• Eighner, Lars. “On Dumpster Diving”
• Everything’s an Argument. Selected chapters for review of strategies
• Golding, William. “Thinking as a Hobby”
• Gordon, Mary. “More Than Just a Shrine: Paying Homage to the Ghosts of Ellis Island”
• Havel, Vaclav. “Words on Words”
• Hayakawa, S. I. “Words with Built-in Judgments”
• Hogan, Linda. “Dwellings”
• Ivins, Molly. Editorials
• Mairs, Nancy. “On Being a Cripple”
• Pitts, Leonard. Editorials
• Quindlen, Anna. Editorials
• Sanders, Scott Russell. “The Inheritance of Tools”
• White, E.B. “Once More to the Lake”
• Will, George. Editorials
• Woolf, Virginia. “The Death of the Moth”
Viewing:
• Selected political cartoons analyzed as presentations of argument
• Selected tables, graphs, and charts to accompany essays analyzed for purpose and effect
Compositions:
• Synthesis essay on Televised Debates (from AP Central)
• Frederick Douglass AP prompt (in class)
• Nancy Mairs AP prompt (in class)
• Lewis Lapham AP prompt (in class)
Assessments:
• Vocabulary quizzes and test
• Socratic seminars: selected topics
• Practice AP exam (2001 or later released exam)
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