AP English: Language & Composition Aaron Kline – Instructor General Course Description: Duration of Course- one year Two semesters, plus summer reading assignments Class Schedule: Weekly, M-F, 45 min. periods Students will take the AP English Language and Composition Exam in May Course Overview The course overview and objective for the course are taken from the AP English Course Description published by the College Board. Since the state purpose of the course is to “emphasize the expository, analytical and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and professional communication,” it is most appropriate that the reading selections provide models for such writing. The course texts, along with publication data, are listed in the Teacher Resources sections at the end of this syllabus. Grading System: All major assignments are worth 60% of a student’s grade. This includes process papers (which may conteain many steps worth lesser daily grades—including multiple revisions and edits). Graded copies of essays are kept in a portfolio which will count as a grade itself as well. Major assignments may include, but are not limited to, AP book reviews, annotated texts, essays, portfolios and exams over texts, vocabulary, terminology, etc. All minor assignments are worth 40%. These may include, but are not limited to, practice AP quizzes, minor writing assignments, drafts, grammar and mechanic quizzes, some dialectical journals, quizzes over readings, vocabulary (such as SAT practice vocabulary) and quizzes over literary terminology, etc. Grading scale: *A – (90-100) Students working at this level commit fully to every assignment with a willingness to examine their own thinking. All work demonstrates a level of thinking that is beyond the obvious and the superficial. Students come to class ready to discuss assigned readings as well as to perform all other classroom tasks for the day. All assignments are turned in according to departmental guidelines—including make-up work. At this level, it is expected that all work is the student’s own. *B—(80-89) Students working at this level commit fully to every assignment with a willingness to examine their own thinking. The majority of the student’s work demonstrates a level of thinking that is beyond the obvious and the superficial. Students come to class completely ready to discuss assigned reading as well as perform all other classroom tasks for the day. Most assignments are turned in according to departmental guidelines—including make-up work. At this level, it is expected that all work is the student’s own.
* C- (70-79) Students working at this level commit somewhat to every assignment and inconsistently demonstrate a willingness to examine their own thinking. A small portion of the student’s work reflects a level of thinking beyond the obvious and superficial, including a hesitancy to challenge themselves beyond past accomplishments in reading and writing, and demonstrating a negligible amount of progress in those areas. Students come to class minimally prepared to discuss assigned readings or perform all other classroom tasks for the day. A majority of assignments are turned in according to departmental guidelines—including make-up work. At this level, it is expected that all work is the student’s own. * D- (60-69) Students working at this level commit somewhat to every assignment and inconsistently demonstrate a willingness to examine their own thinking. Failure to fully prepare for discussions, and/or to complete readings and writings, generally hinder the student’s progress greatly. Several assignments fail to meet departmental guidelines—including make-up work, which may be very late or not completed at all. At this level, it is expected that all work is the student’s own. *F- (1-60) Students working at this level seldom commit to any assignment and demonstrate an unwillingness to examine their own thinking. The student’s work consistently reflects a level of thinking that is obvious and superficial. Students come to class ill-prepared to discuss assigned readings or to perform other classroom tasks for the day. Several assignments fail to meet district guidelines—including make-up work, which may be very late or not done at all. At this level, it is expected that all work is the student’s own. *0- The work is not the student’s own. The student has plagiarized or cheated. I do not accept late work. If any student has a good reason why an assignment may not be completed by the assigned deadline, he/she must obtain written permission for a deadline extension from me personally prior to the assigned deadline.
Course Information Each unit of study in this course requires students to acquire and utilize rich vocabulary, to use Standard English grammar, to understand the importance of diction and syntax in an author’s style, to closely analyze literature and poetry. Therefore, students are expected to develop the following through reading, discussion, and writing assignments: a wide-ranging vocabulary use appropriately and effectively a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions and emphasis a balance of generalization of specific illustrative detail, and an effective use of rhetoric—including controlling tone, establishing and
maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure
For most reading assignments, students must identify the following: thesis or claim tone or attitude purpose audience and occasion evidence or data appeals: ethos, pathos, logos style (how the author communicates his/her message—which always include diction and syntax) organizational patterns found in the text, i.e. main idea, detail, comparison/contrast cause/effect, problem/solution, etc. use of detail to develop general idea Vocabulary: Students will work to gain vocabulary and practice using new terms in context in order to develop a wide-ranging vocabulary to be used appropriately. [SC12] Additionally, students are presented with ten words per week from Smith and Dewar’s SAT and PSAT Prep Materials. Ten students write their own original sentence, provide the definition, the part(s) of speech and the etymology on some type of handout for the class with these SAT words. Discussion: The course offers many opportunities for students to collaboratively practice the skills they need, derived from my belief that learning can only occur if students have opportunities to check their understanding and clarify their thinking. Additionally, throughout the year, students will participate in a modified Socratic Seminar (sometimes inner/outer circle). Style: Because style is a major component of writing skill, students review the use of appositive phrase, participial phrases, and absolute phrases to improve the quality and sophistication of their writing. Initially students imitate models of such sophisticated styles, and later students will produce authentic pieces of writing utilizing these techniques. Students will locate examples of tropes to be analyzed such as anaphora, anadiplosis, antimetabole; tropes such as synecdoche, metonymy, metaphor, simile, etc. will also be studied and analyzed as well. [SC13] Writing: Students will maintain a portfolio comprising all modes of writing. This includes weekly journals completed throughout the year that focus on various types of writing and which comprise many purposes – ranging from practicing sophisticated writing and sentence structure, like those included in Sentence Combining for High School by Don Killgallon, to more personal, reflective writing selections, such as those thematically based around Randy Paush’s The Last Lecture . Likewise, students may be expected to dissect or
respond to miscellaneous quotes from texts we are reading or those important based on content, sentence structure, writer’s craft, etc. When quotes are presented, students explain the author’s assertion, defend, challenge, or qualify that assertion, noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to the author’s point of view. Portfolios are periodically reviewed, and journals graded based on the requirement on said writing selection. Students will also complete a college application essay based off of the prompts on the Texas Common Application. Typically narrative in format, this essay will require a student to write multiple drafts before attaining a final, polished product worthy of collegiate review. Essays will be reviewed by teacher, graded, and then expounded upon in small, one-on-one conferences with the author. Each semester ends with a formal research paper that adheres to the standards as established by the Modern Language Association. See semester information below for further information. Students must read professional articles from databases, books, periodicals, and approved websites and then, in turn, discern what information to utilize in their essays. Students must have their thesis statements approved by me prior to writing the paper. Students learn to use deductive reasoning in their essays – moving from the general in particular – and inductive reasoning – moving from the particular to the general. Students are expected to use a balance of primary and secondary sources. Rubrics for expectations are distributed and explained in advance of essay submission. Students are given a checklist of items to edit in their essays. Students meet in peer response groups wherein they help each other brainstorm, draft, revise, edit and polish their essay. An end product exists after the author makes several revisions, and then the final product, with all of its drafts and a final works cited is submitted for teacher review. Submissions are made to Cengage’s Insite to ensure that no parts of the essay are plagiarized. Students are familiarized with Purdue University’s The Owl website. Handouts, are also distributed and explained early in the year. After submission of essays, generalized problems or concerns are noted by me. These issues are then illustrated and corrected in mini-lessons with the class to improve writing. Students are also given released AP prompts periodically. Students place these in their portfolios and submit their prompt of choice when requested to do so. These are graded using the AP rubrics. Reading Cards Over each novel or play studied, students will complete an AP Book Review. This short form asks students to note literary movement, tone, setting, characters, themes (and examples of text of those themes), point of view, a synopsis or summary of text, important scenes, important symbols or motifs, and then other miscellaneous information.
Strategies Students will receive instruction in the SOAPSTone strategy as well as strategies for analyzing prose, poetry and visual texts. Assertion Journals: In the first six weeks, students receive one quote per week from a write whom we will be studying sometime during the course of the year. For each quote, students must provide a clear explanation of the writer’s assertion, then defend or challenge it, noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to the student’s point of view. These “short writes” are only 300 to 400 words, just enough to practice a key concept in argumentation: acknowledging alternative point of view. Students will also create “short writes” analyzing the rhetorical devices used in the quotes. Finally, students will identify and practice using language that develops tone and style. Fall Semester activities include, but are not limited to: AP English Course Description, Class Rules and Responsibilities, AP Grading System, Rhetorical Terms (definitions), Rhetorical Modes, Rhetorical Devices, AP Multiple Choice Questions Practice, various Essay assignments (including AP timed writing), journal writing, novel study, argument analysis, media analysis, formal research project. Course Planner: The fall semester is dedicated to developing a fluency in key aspects of argumentative writing, introducing critical thinking strategies and the canons of rhetoric, reviewing key style concepts, and exploring major themes in expository and argumentative writing. At least once a week students write a weekly journal (as outlined above). These journals are generally a page in length and are graded periodically to ensure growth in writing and to provide feedback to the students. Students are expected to employ more sophisticated sentences and rhetorical techniques as we learn of these in class. Such practice allows students to grasp a sense of self and to build writing techniques such as parallel structure, transitional paragraphs, and appropriate balance and sequencing of generalization and specific detail. Stylistic elements, such as the use of appositive phrases, participial phrases, and absolute phrases are reviewed and then incorporated into the weekly journal entries and into future major essays. Unit One: Course Orientation, Introduction to Close Reading & Rhetorical Awareness August 24- October 1 In the fall semester students analyze summer reading selections— the first, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter . Our purpose in reading this novel is to study it, not merely as a work of fiction, but as a masterpiece of language . While students may or may not find the novel to be entirely enjoyable, we must, as readers, draw attention to the details of language .
Style involves the author’s choice and arrangement of words in sentences (diction and syntax), the use of sensory and/or figurative language, the tone, and the mood. Look for such things as the length and complexity of the sentences; the use of words that are obscure, and occasionally, archaic; his allusions (Old Manse, the War of 1812 in “The Custom House”, etc.); the balanced, often parallel syntax; the occasional metaphors; the excessive—by modern standards—punctuation; and the tone of friendly formality. As you read, think of adjectives that describe Hawthorne’s style. Think “outside the bubble”, too: How was this style created, and what is its effect on the reader? Students analyze chapters of The Scarlet Letter , using the TPCASTT method (see above for more information). In addition to The Scarlet Letter , students will read a variety of essays, such “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” “How Religion in the United States Avails Itself of Democratic Tendencies,”as well as excerpts from The Crisis . Unit Two: Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is dissected for use of parallel structure in sentences, use of antithesis, the historical background (French Revolution), use of tropes, etc. Students are encouraged to utilize databases to locate and report on criticisms over the text. Such findings are cited using the Modern Language Association’s Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Students engage in Socratic discussion over text, create dialectical journals, annotate novels, timed AP writing prompts and they write journals over selected quotations to analyze the author’s style. A formal, multiple choice test, accompanied by a short essay finalizes this novel. Likewise, the semester includes studying rhetorical strategies and syntactical devices. Students are exposed to definitions and examples of epistrophe, anaphora, epanalepsis, etc. Then, students go into modern advertising to complete a search to locate examples of these devices, they analyze these examples for the creator’s purpose, effect of devices and/or structure, and finally, students create their own examples of products using these devices and strategies. Shorter reading selections are interspersed throughout the semester from various writing-focused texts, such as the anthology Back to the Lake , and other short essays. Students read about “entering the conversation,” “responding to others,” “summarizing,” “quoting,” and discovering how to defend, challenge, or clarify in an argument. Class discussions and debates are held over each reading, and students then mirror the author’s style to write their own essay. For example, when students read “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko, students write about and discuss whether or not Zinczenko’s argument that fast food options and availability are creating an obese society. We will also read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," The Declaration of Independence, and Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, completing annotation activities as well as AP Exam Prep focusing on use of appeals in primary documents.
After reading these texts, students will write an essay over a controversial topic for which they are passionate, paying special attention to the formulation of their argument. Once essays are complete, students trade papers and write either rebuttals or affirmations of their peers’ essays. Then, the original author is allowed to revisit, revise his/her essay. The final product is submitted (with all drafts and commentaries) to me, and I then write back to the student my perspective on his/her argument. Final versions are then resubmitted. The culmination of the semester is a final, formal research paper based on the topic, to be determined by student, and approved by me. The paper must adhere to MLA guidelines, must include notecards, a variety of sources, outline, draft, peer review and a final, typed copy that follows collegiate protocol. Students annotate text and create dialectical journals over the text. Students read the how-to and see examples from the text Writing: A Manual for the Digital Age. Further examples and information is provided in class along with handouts from Purdue’s The Owl over pertinent topics and issues. Spring Semester This semester begins our discussion of drama. Students should have read A Raisin in the Sun for Summer Reading, so our semester begins there. We will add in Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie to our discussions, noting what dramatic tropes each playwright utilizes, and how these dramas are connected. Tone will be a primary focus here, and we will develop our literary discussions from this point. Towards the end of each play’s discussion, students will participate in timed AP Essays covering a certain topic found and deliberated in class. Following our discussion of drama, students will read selected pieces of poetry, preparing a discourse regarding the poets’ styles. Poets such as Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda and Evie Shockley will be among the pool of poets considered for class discussion. Students will participate in Socratic Seminars and explicate the poems. In addition, when students read Neruda’s poem “Ode to Walt Whitman,” students will be asked to fill in a graphic organizer noting the subject of the stanza, sound devices present, figurative language used, juxtaposition of words, epanalepsis used, participles present, use of paradox, allusions present and examples of imagery. Students will be asked to analyze diction and theme. This poem will also be compared stylistically to one of Whitman’s own poems. Students will be asked to write a brief one-page essay illustrating these differences. Outside reading – students will be given a list of texts to choose a book from the AP reading list to read. Students will complete an AP Book Review over the text (explained earlier). Additionally, students may be asked to take exams over these selections and to write an essay analyzing a key element from their chosen reading (these will vary depending on selection). For Extra Credit this semester, students will read “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and create a dialectical journal looking specifically for examples of theme,
character, and tone. Students will also be given a choice of essay prompts over the selection – to look at the examples of tone and analyze the techniques Gilman uses to develop a theme in the story, to analyze how Gilman uses point of view and anthropomorphism to explore and represent a descent into madness, or to write about how this short story can be read as a Gothic horror tale, as a semi-autobiographical account of a mental breakdown, or as a social commentary on the way women were viewed and treated by society in this time period.
Task and Prompt: Students will choose a current event that reflects one of the themes that we studied this semester. • Research the topic through different types of sources (newspapers, magazines, news stories, interviews, online sources, radio broadcasts, visuals, etc.). • Take careful notes, making sure that the student cites his/her sources accurately using MLA format. • Develop an argument about this topic. • Establish a claim. • Then integrate a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. • Use the sources to support the position; avoid mere paraphrase or summary. • The argument should be central. • Remembering to attribute both direct and indirect citations, using MLA format. (Give credit where credit is due.) • Create a Works Cited page using MLA format. • Plagiarism will result in a zero. (Students are given a 5 page document that defines plagiarism, gives examples of plagiarism, and outlines consequences. Students are written up for plagiarism, they receive a 0 on the assignment, and in the case of dual credit courses, they are denied credit for the course.) Resources Include, but are not limited to: Blakesley, David and Jeffrey L. Hoogeveen. Writing: A Manual for the Digital Age; With Brief Exercises. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. Print and Web. Dickens, C. (1859). A Tale of Two Cities. London, England: Chapman and Hall. Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Random House, 1959. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: Seventh Edition. New York, 2009. Print. Pausch, Randy and Jeffrey Zaslow. The Last Lecture. New York: Hyperion, 2008. Print. Smith, Sharon and Walter Dewar. Smith and Dewar SAT/PSAT Materials. 2004. Print.
