Course Syllabus: 11 AP English Language and Composition Ingrid Vasilescu & Jeff Lange Description: This is a college-level course offered to eleventh-grade students. Its main focus is the essay and the study of language. Students will deepen their understanding of the ways in which writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. This course’s primary focus is on the world of non-fiction—from expository, analytical, personal, argumentative essays to print advertisements, news articles to reality shows, the Declaration of Independence to hip hop lyrics. You will have many opportunities to revise and turn in again. Its second focus is on both classic and modern pieces of literature. Additionally, I will give you preparation for the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam via timed writing, sample exams, lectures and some good advice. You will have many opportunities to revise your essays, and upon receiving constructive feedback that will direct you to focus on specifics and generalization, you will turn in the essay in a final format. We will also study the rhetoric of visual media such as photographs, films, advertisements, comic strips, and music videos. You will learn to use deductive reasoning in their essays — moving from the general to the particular — and inductive reasoning — moving from the particular to the general. Course Philosophy: As an AP course, this is a rigorous, college-level course. The reading is challenging; the writing is frequent and requires an independent mind. We will function as a community of learners. If you are committed to the work as well as to listening and learning from each other, this class will ultimately become one in which we are all teachers and students. Each member of the class will have a voice. We will learn from each other, read our writing aloud, work collaboratively on revisions, and share our thoughts, ideas, and observations with one another. Final pieces will be turned into me for grading and constructive feedback. Course Objectives as stated in the AP English Course Description By the end of this course students should be able to: ● ● ● ● ● ●
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Analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques; Apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing; Create and sustain arguments based on reading, research, and/or personal experience; Demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings; Write for a variety of purposes; Produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary source material, cogent explanations, and clear transitions; Demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary source material; Move effectively through the stages of the writing process with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review; Write thoughtfully about their own process of composition; Revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience; Analyze image as text;
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Evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers. Study the rhetoric of visual media such as photographs, films, advertisements, comic strips, and music videos.
Policies: 1. All work must be typed or written in blue or black ink. I will not read work in pencil. Double-space all essays (including drafts)!! 12 pt. font (no fancy stuff). 2. I will accept late work, but will lower the grade one full grade for EACH DAY that it is late. If an assignment is due on Monday, but you give it to me on Tuesday, the highest grade it can receive is a ‘B’; if it is turned in on Wednesday, the highest grade will be a ‘C’. Most major homework assignments or projects are assigned well in advance; therefore their due dates are very firm. If you know you are going to be absent, your work is due in advance. If you are unexpectedly absent, your work is due the day you return. It will not be accepted the following day as late work. Catastrophic events will be dealt with in an appropriate and sensitive manner. (Computer and other related hardware problems are not considered catastrophic.) If you miss an assignment due to an absence it is your responsibility to keep track. Refer to the assignment binder or a peer. 3. Come to class prepared and with the proper materials: the text we are studying, paper, notebook, pens, sticky notes, etc. 4. Demonstrate proper respect to your peers. During the year we’ll explore a lot of ideas, some of which you will agree, some of which you will not. Remember to show consideration for all those who share ideas. Grading: 1. Assessments (essays, exams, papers, and projects) 2. Homework/Class-work/Journals (unless otherwise noted) 3. Quizzes 4. Participation (discussion, peer-revising, preparation)
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Homework will be graded on a 10-points scale. 10-- Being the highest, meaning you exceeded expectations, 8—you met the expectations, 7—you attempted to meet the expectations but did not, and 5—you did not even try. Homework expectations: ● All answers are written in complete sentences that are clearly legible. ● All answers are thoughtful. ● All answers correspond to the questions posed. ● In order to receive 10 points, you must add the notes from our in-class discussion which follows all homework assignments. Please make sure you record any “aha” moments. For all other assignments you will be given a grading rubric or we will create one together in class and as a result of the rubric you will receive a letter grade for all collected assignments with the opportunity for revising and resubmitting for most assignments.
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Categories:
In-class Daily Journal: At the beginning of each class period, you will be given an activity to complete in 5-10 minutes. These activities include but are not limited to; journal prompt, quizzes, reading comprehension activities, writing prompts, vocabulary exercises, proofreading and revising exercises, etc. Please maintain and collect all daily activities in your own section in your binder or in the journal. Reading: Because this class focuses mainly on non-fiction, you will be reading a variety of mostly brief essays by such authors as: George Orwell, Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Goodall, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Andy Rooney etc. You will also be reading excerpts from autobiographies and memoirs from Benjamin Franklin to Maya Angelou. Great works of fiction will not be forgotten in that you will be reading at least two important works of American Literature such as Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Through close reading you will develop your awareness of purpose and structure and be able to incorporate that into your writing. Writing: This course is an equivalent to a Freshman Composition course in college. Therefore, the writing will be rigorous and frequent. You will be expected to write at least on out-of-class essay (expository, argumentative, synthesis, analytical, etc.) every month. You will write in-class timed essay in preparation for the AP exam. You will commit yourself to extensive journaling and note-taking. You will write at least one longer paper each quarter. These longer works may require you to do research and to use the MLA format for your documentation. Most papers will be subject to peer revision and we will utilize electronic tools such as: Google documents, email, and the like. Once rough drafts are completed, students will conference with the teacher. The students will then revise, prepare, and submit the final versions of their essay. We practice different revision techniques, including layering, visualization, switching genres and trying different leads. Students meet in peer response groups wherein they help each other brainstorm, draft, revise, edit, and polish an essay that analyzes the rhetorical strategies of a newspaper editorial or another nonfiction text. The teacher offers formative feedback throughout the writing process.”With larger pieces such as The Great Gatsby, you will be required to write papers in which you analyze and interpret the author’s use of structure, style and theme. You may also be required to analyze the historical context from which the piece was written. Writing About/Responding to/Teaching Visuals: As a method for teaching visual image and graphic analysis, we will utilize Walter Pauk’s identified strategy (How to Study in College): Overview-Parts-Title-Interrelationships-Conclusion (OPTIC) O is for overview—write down a few notes on what the visual appears to be about. P is for parts—zero in on the parts of the visual. Write down any elements or details that seem important. T is for title—highlight the words of the title of the visual (if one is available). I is for interrelationships—use the title as the theory and the parts of the visual as clues to detect and specify the interrelationships in the graphic. C is for conclusion—draw a conclusion about the visual as a whole. What does the visual mean? Summarize the message of the visual in one or two sentences. Also, we will utilize Appendix B from Seeing and Writing (Donald McQuade and Christine McQuade) for additional instruction and pointers for interpreting data presented in graphics and images
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such as advertisements, photographs, and paintings. Sample visuals will be obtained from supplemental sources such as The New Yorker, newspaper articles, advertisements, and political cartoons. Students will revise writing assignments as they continue to hone their skills in a variety of writing techniques including: a. vocabulary enhancement b. sentence structure variety c. use of transitions and repetition d. use of both general and specific support to create a balanced and well organized argument e. diction, syntax, tone, and voice. Students will select one independent reading assignment per Quarter from a list of AP approved classic works essential to literary tradition and to college bound students. Students will evaluate the linguistic and rhetorical choices employed by the author. They will utilize input from various literary critics in order to support their own interpretation of the text. In addition, students will develop a thematic central idea relevant to a topic presented in each work. At the end of the Quarter students will present a five minutes mini-lesson in PowerPoint format one one significant literary element from their independent reading. Vocabulary and Grammar: Two keys to writing effectively and at a college-level are to have a rich vocabulary from which to choose the “best” word and to have the tools to use the words properly. A clear understanding of Standard English is very important. Experience has shown that a concerted effort to enrich your vocabulary can aid you considerably as both a writer and a reader. It will also help you improve your SAT and AP Language and Composition exam scores. We will work on vocabulary and grammar every week. We will utilize vocabtest.com where students practice SAT vocabulary words. A quiz on ten words is given each week, testing their ability to use the word in context and with the correct connotation by writing original sentences. Here students will practice sentence structure skills, voice, language, and the like.
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Units of Study Quarter 1 Aug-Sept.
INTRODUCTORY UNIT (1 week) ● Summer assignments due first day of class: The Columnist; A Prayer for Owen Meany; A Farewell to Arms. ● Review syllabus and contract (to be signed by students and parents) ● Overview of class online spaces and other digital tools ● In-Class analytical essays from the summer reading: once rough drafts are completed in class, students will then conference with me. The students will then revise, prepare, and submit the final versions of their essay Unit 1: Language—Why is written and spoken language important for one’s identity (how he/she defines him/herself? ● Focus on sentence structure and passive/active voice. ● Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (3 weeks): - Analytical Focus: Point of view, diction, tone, imagery, figurative language, magical realism. -Thematic Focus: self determination, others. -Watching the last 28 min of the film adaptation: What do visual film techniques add to the text? Consider visual images such as Janie’s house in Eatonville. Respond to a prompt explaining why the image is more powerful than the words one would use to describe it. -Analytical Essay: Pre-write, Draft, Peer edit, Revise, and Teacher Constructive Feedback with guidance for specific and generalization. An extended interpretation of the novel that is based on a careful observation of specific textual details, and generalization considering such elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Teacher feedback will include instruction on specific techniques to increase coherence such as repetition, transitions, and coherence. I will provide instruction and feedback before and after you revise your work, in order to help you develop the following skills: ￮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 and specific, illustrative detail; ￮An effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure; ￮A wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively. I will provide feedback before and after with ongoing comments on your writing on critical thinking, evaluating sources and resources, using specific details to support general conclusions, revising for the best possible way to use the language to express ideas as clearly, concisely, and elegantly as possible. Your diction will be appropriate to a college-level audience, including avoidance of Pidgin, slang and clichés, and the ability to use synonyms when necessary to avoid repetition. Students keep a dialectical journal following a sample I will provide. On the left side of the journal page they write meaningful passages from the work they are reading. On the right
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side of the page they write their responses to those passages. They then share their writing in group and class discussions. Using Definition—Read and analyze Judy Brady’s I Want a Wife, and Gloria Naylor’s The Meanings of a Word. ● Rhetoric—What is it and what do I need to know? (Rhetorical triangle, Rhetorical Devices: Parallelism; Isocolon; Antithesis; Anastrophe; Parenthesis; Apposition; Ellipsis; Asyndeton; Polysyndeton; Alliteration; Assonance; Anaphora; Epistrophe; Epanalepsis; Anadiplosis; Climax; Antimetabole; Chiasmus; Tropes; Simile; Synecdoche; Metonymy; Antanaclasis; Paronomasia; Syllepsis; Anthimeria; Periphrasis; Personification; Hyperbole; Litotes; Irony; Onomatopoeia; Oxymoron; Paradox ). Unit 2: The Natural World—What is the relationship between man and nature? ● Focus on imagery, literary devices, and tone. ● Using Description—Read Joan Didion’s The Santa Ana and Judith Ortiz Cooper’s Silent Dancing. ● Walden, blogs and various modern essays ● Write an expository essay that recalls a childhood experience. Pay close attention to your narrative voice. Your expository writing informs, explains, clarifies, and defines the writer’s voice—How does one establish his/her voice? Unit 3: Importance of Dreams: Why should man strive to achieve his dreams? ● Focus on argument—ethos, pathos, logos, syllogism, logical fallacies, and other rhetorical devices. ● Using argument and persuasion—Read Edward Koch’s Death and Justice and David Bruck’s The Death Penalty. ● Write an argumentative essay in which you pick a debatable topic. Find two articles that describe two viewpoints and analyze who does the better job of arguing his/her point of view. You will receive instruction on how to demonstrate the ability to evaluate, use, and cite primary and secondary sources using the recognized MLA editorial style. Student will write sample thesis statements for group analysis, then will compose assertions to best prove the chosen thesis statements. Arguments and counterarguments will be evaluated. Persuasive techniques will be discussed and employed. ● The Great Gatsby ● Structure of the exam—What’s on it? How do I study for it? Unit 4: Freedom and Responsibility: Is liberty and justice for all attainable? ● Focus on thesis and opinion ● Using Classification—Read Russell Baker’s The Plot Against People and Stephanie Ericsonn’s The Way We Lie. Students will receive instruction on organizational techniques based on Aristotle’s Rhetoric, including such structures as compare and contrast, division and classification, cause and effect, and use of examples. ● Write an essay in which you classify unconscious patterns of speech into categories of your own devising by using the systematic arrangement of ideas or main points in an orderly way so that the writer’s purpose is clear. The thesis is well stated and logically developed. Each point is clearly linked to the point that precedes it and/or follows it through the use of appropriate transitional devices. The conclusion is ●
Quarter 2 Oct-Dec.
Quarter 3 Jan.- Mar.
Jan.- Mar. cont’d
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Quarter 4 April -May
rationally drawn from the ideas that come before it. Please refer to the handout I have provided for you in a previous mini-lesson reflecting a variety of transition words, phrases, or sentences that logically link two different ideas or paragraphs together.You may want to be humorous. ● Letters from a Birmingham Jail, Declaration of Independence ● The study of style—syntax, structure, diction, using literary devices, etc. Unit 5: The Human Condition: In the face of adversity, what causes some people to prevail while others fail? ● Focus on cohesion and unity ● Using Synthesis—Read Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal and William F. Buckley’s Why Don’t We Complain. ● As a class, we will brainstorm possible thesis statements, assertions, collect and evaluate the best proof for your assertions. ● Write a synthesis essay in which you examine the causes of the male/female divide in entertainment. Use various sources and synthesize the information in your essay. Cite your sources and use parenthetical documentation. Focus on integrating discrete pieces of information in order to create new or more fully developed understanding of the topic, and write critically about a range of ideas and facts. ● Homeless by Anna Quindlen, Disability by Nancy Mairs, Professions of Women by Virginia Woolf ● Scarlet Letter
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Resources: Aaron, Jane. 40 Model Essays: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Banzhaf, John, and Morgan Spurlock. Super Size Me. 2003. 96 min. (viewing text) Corbett, Edward P.J. and Robert J. Connors. Style and Statement. New York; Oxford University Press. Escholz, Paul, and Alfred Rosa, eds. Models for Writers: Short Essays for Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Penguin. Jefferson, Thomas. The Declaration of Independence. http://www.constitution.org/usdeclar.htm King, Martin L. Jr. Letters from a Birmingham Jail.
www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf -
Roskelly, Hephzibah, and David Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing. New York: Longman. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Houghton/Mifflin. Donald McQuade, Christine McQuade. Seeing and Writing, 4th ed. Macmillan Higher Education, 2010 Their Eyes Were Watching God, videoclips, directed by Darnell Martin, 2005 Various essays will be passed out from your teacher, as well as several media/visual formats.
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