AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 1
AP English Language Composition Syllabus 20162017 Course Description The AP Language and Composition course is a collegelevel program that introduces students to a wide range of expository prose in order to broaden their scope of rhetorical ideas and deepen their awareness of the power of language. The course is designed to meet the rigorous requirements of a college level writing class and includes expository, analytical, personal, visual, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. These works provide examples of prose writings that students can emulate in their own writing experiences as they discover and create their own style and voice. The course provides students with the information and feedback necessary to read and write analytically, formulate theories, generate arguments based on the readings, and respond by composing articulate essays that utilize advanced elements of sentence structure, syntax, style, purpose, vocabulary and tone. The purpose of the AP English Language and Composition course is to help students write efficiently and with selfassurance in their college courses and in their future professions. Using rhetorical principles, students will learn how to become critical thinkers, and apply that knowledge to their writing by revising and improving their essay, as well as evaluating and editing peer essays. In addition, students will be required to thoroughly research relevant topics, synthesize information from a variety of sources, and document their knowledge in a cogent, well written report using proper MLA citations. REQUIRED TEXTS ● ● ● ● ●
nd The Language of Composition , 2 Ed, by Renee Shea, Laurence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses They Say/I Say : The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Herald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel 5 Steps to a 5 AP English Language 2016 – McGraw Hall
SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS ● ● ●
One Hundred Great Essays Robert Diyanni A variety of supplemental essay and short works posted online by the teacher Various pictures and illustrations
The AP Language and Composition course will be presented in thematic format and the grading will include the following: Formal Research Papers: Students will research topics of interest based on prior readings and class themes while developing and supporting a thesis. Students will require to submit a rough draft for peer editing, and a subsequent draft for individual assessment. A final paper will be handed in to the teacher on the due date. Rhetorical Response to Literature: Students will be required to analyze readings and write expository responses that identify the author’s purpose, audience, and tone citing specific examples from the text to
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substantiate the student’s claims. Students will also practice writing and analysing the synthesis, argumentative and rhetorical analysis essays. Analysing Visual Arguments: Students learn OPTIC, a strategy for analyzing visual arguments. Students will be provided with key guidelines and questions for reading images, advertisements, paintings, cartoons, and photographs that help students complete a close reading of visual text. Each student will provide three examples of visual text (advertisements, cartoons, etc.) and will write a short analysis of each using the OPTIC strategy. Timed Writing and Critical Reading Tests and Quizzes: A consistent element of practice, students will take multiple choice tests based on rhetorical strategies and their function in given passages. Students will take practice AP exams. There will also be quizzes which can range from rhetorical précis (a concise summary of the reading of both what the text says and what it does rhetorically) to rhetorical devices. Feedback: Teacher will provide student feedback by means of individual student conferences, small group and whole class interactions based on the task assigned. The Live Folder: This is the official AP English Language Work Folder/Portfolio. Conferences with the teacher are a must throughout the course for a complete individualized program. In this folder, students are to keep an organized collection of the following: ● ● ● ● ● ●
Completed, notyetgraded essays and writing (ready for collection at any time) Graded essays, including the 40 minute timed responses Rx work Book Records, Current Events, and/or Essay Reviews (Literature/Language based DBQs) Outside Book Analyses modeled after the AP examination with prompts created by the students Works in progress (Writing Process)
Vocabulary: Students will be encouraged to build their vocabulary by keeping logs of words they read in the various texts covered in class or through discussions to better appreciate the word choice of others in an attempt to enhance their own. Students will also create personal thesauruses of words that they can use to substitute in their papers for a more sophisticated read. Students will be expected to glean vocabulary from the various texts and create their own vocabulary flip file index. As a learning community, we will together create vocabulary quizzes as well as other forms of assessments to enhance their diction (class may use Quizlet). The Website: Teachers have access to their own Teacher created Webpages, the soon to be adopted District LMS: Schoology, and Edmodo or Google Classroom. Projects and Presentations: There will be projects throughout the year that will culminate to class presentations. Students will need to be prepared to express their ideas with support from their research and the texts while following the guidelines of the instructions from the teacher. Class Participation: Participation in class encompasses all class exercises from formal presentations to Socratic seminars regarding text analysis. During class discussions, students are encouraged to offer
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comments and critiques to support or refute claims given by concrete details for support. Students are to model correct interaction and argumentation techniques. Grading: Grades will be computed based on tests, quizzes, essays, homework, projects, research, and oral presentations. The students will be assessed using the Advanced Placement Rubric and given a point value. The quarter/semester grade will be based on short tests on readings (multiple choice modeled after the exam), writing (essays, journals, etc.), creative projects and activities (often collaborative), the AP Live Folder/Portfolio, and class participation. Class participation includes attendance, attentiveness, speaking, and showing a positive learning attitude. NOTE: The due dates for assignments will be posted in advance and students are expected to turn in assignments promptly. Student progress will also be posted at various intervals between school report cards so that students may closely monitor and assume ownership for their personal progress. Late work will not be accepted under any circumstances. Inclass essays will be graded using the same rubric that the AP evaluators use. Students are apprised of the grading scale by handout the first days of school. Numerical Average 90100 = A (7, 8, 9) 8089 = B (5, 6) 7079= C (3, 4) 6069= D (2) 059= F (1) Units of Study
20162017 AP Lang Pacing Guide Date
Unit
Activity/Reading
Assessment
August 15 August 17
Class Intro
Collect summer work Syllabus Contract due Friday 19 Personal note card First reading memory activity Me in 5 words on live folder Pair para activity with 5 words
Establish Live Folder/Portfolio
August 18 September 2
Synthesis
Evaluate the 6 readings Deconstruct essay Reverse map essay Update writing using inventory toolbox Review rubric and scoring guide Objectives: Finding the source Understanding validity of source
Deconstructing an Argumentative Essay using sources and evaluating sources from data collection
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Analyzing claims the speakers of the source makes Stating the claims from the speaker Using rhetorical language Defending your arguments August 22 September 9
Introduction to Rhetoric
Lou Gehrig Farewell Speech SOAPStone Ethos: King George Speech Pathos: ACLU The Man on the Left (advertisement) Logos: Alice Waters Slow Food Nation Rosa Parks Visual Cartoon Objectives: Voice and tone Rhetorical vocabulary Making inferences OPTIC (visual analysis) Making predictions Questioning the text
Determining effective and ineffective rhetoric Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice timed writing
September 11 Close Reading Analysis Writing a close September Queen Elizabeth’s speech to the Troops analysis 23 at Tilbury Argumentative Annotating Joan Didion The Santa Ana Essay Groucho Winds Marx Dear Warner Virginia Woolf The Death of the Moth Brothers Objectives: Timed writing SOAPSTone Argumentative Analysis Essay Annotation Exploring key concepts of a text Noticing language of the text Following the arc of the arguments Challenging the arguments September 26 Analyzing October 7 Arguments
Defining arguments Tom Roles Crazed Rhetoric cartoon Staking a claim fact and value Roger Ebert Star Wars Objectives: Thesis statements closed, open, counterargument Developing thesis statement Combining different ideas to create an
Developing a thesis for Argumentative, Rhetorical, and Synthesis essays
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original argument Using expert documents and turn it into your own words Blending sources Avoiding summaries October 10 October 21
Presenting Evidence
Logical fallacies: relevance, accuracy and insufficiency First hand evidence Fabiola Santiago In College, These Americans Citizens are not Created Equal Second hand evidence: historical information Objectives: Avoiding logical fallacies Using appropriate quotes Citing sources Synthesizing information
Identifying logical fallacies Political cartoons writing/ discussion/ gallery walk Timed writing a Rhetorical Essay
October 24 Shaping November 10 Argument
Classical oration Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer Not by Math Alone Induction and Deduction Malcolm Gladwell from Outliers Objectives: Defending, challenging, and qualifying arguments Analyzing pros and cons Discussing the most persuasive case Developing a position
Use of Toulmin Model Writing an Argumentative Essay
November 14 Analyzing November Visual Texts 22
Polyp Rat Race Essay in progress Alfred Steiglitz the Steerage Photo Tom Toles Heavy Medal Objective: OPTIC Overview of the subject Deconstruct the parts of the visual Read the title Determine interrelationships within visual and make connections Draw conclusions about the meaning of the visual
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November 28 Synthesizing December Sources 16
Sources to inform an argument Laura Hillenbrand from Seabiscuit Appeal to an Audience Steven Pinker Words Don’t Mean what they Mean Conversation Millennials Rising Community Service Mission Statement Volunteering Resuming Padding Mandatory Volunteerism Youth Attitudes Objectives: Writing an argument Evaluating sources: reading to understand and supporting arguments Citing sources properly Synthesizing sources by connecting ideas and blending sources
Writing a Synthesis Essay\Culminating Conversation pick three timed writing
Final
Multiple Choice 5255 questions
Final
Winter Break Education December 19 January 6
Brave New World
Rhetorical journal Rhetorical Analysis and discussion in class
January 9 February 3
Education
Ralph Waldo Emerson from Education James Baldwin A Talk to Teachers Objectives: Surveying the text Predicting and asking questions Reading for understanding Considering the structure of the text Summarizing and responding Connecting reading to writing Identifying aspects of each society for comparison to support arguments and draw conclusions
Notes and Annotation Fallacies Ethos, Logos and Pathos Writing an argumentative synthesis essay timed writing
February 6 February 10
Education
Project
Debate Multiple choice practice
Amy Tan Mother Tongue
Argumentative
AP
February 20 Language
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March 3
George Orwell Politics and the English Writing Language Walt Whitman Slang in America Firoozeh Dumas, The “F Word”
March 6 March 17
Community
Henry David Thoreau Where I Lived and What Lived for Richard Rodriguez Aria A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood
Close Reading Synthesis argumentative writing
March 20 March 31
Gender
Virginia Woolf Professions for Women Sojourner Truth Ain’t I a Woman
Close Reading Rhetorical writing
Spring Break Gender April 3 April 7
Like Water for Chocolate
Annotations and Argumentative Essay Controversial Topic regarding Gender Roles
April 10 April 14
Gender PRACTICE EXAM
Stephen Jay Gould Women’s Brains Deborah Tannen There is no Unmarked Woman Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman
Debate/Panel Discussions with Authors (Focus group socratic seminar)
April 17 April 28
Pop Culture
Mark Twain Corn Pone Opinions Discussion and David Denvy High School Confidential argumentative Andy Warhol Myths painting essay
May 1 May June 2 Test May 10
Project
Movie Final Movie Theme from any of the literature Presentation Small groups of three, pairs or singles Presentation 510 min displaying art work, film, or music video that portrays theme from second semester possible Q & A justifying theme
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