AP English Language & Composition Course Syllabus
Repetition builds the foundation. Applied practice develops the skills. Experience shapes the intellect.
English Language Arts is NOT simply the touchy-feely world of literary response. Language is a vital part of our identity. When we open our mouths, we “put our business in the street.” Even more importantly, language not only shapes the range of our thought but also dictates the manner in which we view/understand/interpret the world around us.
Students must learn the relationship between choice and intent. WHY does a writer use this particular world? WHY does the speaker conjure this image? WHY does the author repeat that phrase?
In using language, a writer/speaker makes choices designed to affect the reader/listener. Educators—particularly English teachers—must awaken students to the power of language.
“An AP Course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming
skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts
and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their
writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s
purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way generic conventions and
the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing. The AP Language and
Composition course …enables students to read complex texts with understanding and to
write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature
readers.” (The College Board, 2006)
Students entering AP English are already skilled in basic composition, and are proficient
in their use of standard English grammar and mechanics. Expected here is refinement of these skills to develop sophistication and stylistic maturity in writing. The students will demonstrate their writing skills through journals, timed essays, multi-draft essays and a persuasive research paper of some length.
The course will also emphasize critical reading of various prose styles and require
numerous essays demonstrating students’ skill in analyzing the standard rhetorical
modes. Thoughtful reading will be reflected in AP test practices-both objective and open-
ended questions, journals, daily assignments, class discussions and an individual oral
presentation based on independent reading. Additionally, in accordance with Indiana
standards, the course will follow a skeletal chronological core of the canon of American
literature.
Contact Information:
Mr. Edward N. Wevodau
ed.wevodau@gcisd.net
Conference Periods: 2 and 5
Lesson plans will be posted monthly to the website. The website is the primary conduit of information for our class. Message boards, web blogs, handouts, study guides, and all other materials will be posted to the site. Please add this site to your bookmarks. You are responsible to check the site if absent from class.
Grading
Grading percentages will be adjusted occasionally to reflect special projects and activities; however, the following basic breakdown will be used most grading periods:
40% = Released AP testing materials
30% = Literature
15% = Vocabulary
15% = Daily Grades (e.g., class participation, in-class assignments, homework, etc.)
Progress reports will be given at the mid-way point of each grading period to EVERY student. If the grade is below a 75%, the student is required to return it with a parent signature.
COURSE INFORMATION:
Summer Readings: Students are required to read two books over the summer. For the self-selected book, students will pull five short excerpts from the text that will be analyzed in a journal entries of 300 words. The journals will be assessed on the significance of the excerpt selected and the depth of thinking in the analysis. In addition, on the second day of school, students will also write a defend/challege/qualify essay on a given prompt connected to The Awakening. The essay will be assessed on the merit of evidence (i.e. embedded quotes) and the accuracy in addressing the prompt.
Required:
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Read one of the following:
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal by Eric Schlosser
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Stiff by Mary Roach
The Academic Paragraph and Multi-Draft Essays: The students will complete several multi-draft essays, including the following types: Literary Criticism, Persuasive argument, Description/Narration, Comparison/Contrast, and Multi-Source Synthesis. Papers will be assessed on the basis of strength of assertions, quality of evidence and sophistication of style. Requirements and expectations for each essay will be provided in advance. Students are expected to arrange a conference to discuss their writing between submissions.
Continued emphasis will be placed on the basic structure of the academic paragraph: Topic Sentence, Concrete Detail, and Commentary. (Terminology taken from the Jane Schaffer writing model.) Traditional essay structures will also be taught, alongside various strategies (e.g., essay beginnings, conclusions, sequencing, etc.)
Generally speaking, essays are evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Clarity of content
- Organization
- Appropriateness of tone
- Grammatical correctness
- Elements of style
- Interest and creativity
Subject matter will vary. Often, class discussion and contemporary news or issues will determine topics.
Research: Students will complete at least one extended multi-source research paper (MLA conventions) as well as several shorter papers. Generally speaking, most research assignments will be connected to AP American History studies correlated with our literary readings. Please be advised that some research papers may also be evaluated by American history instructors.
One research topic planned for 2008-2009 involves an analysis of the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case. Students must read the decision, research the Supreme Court justices’ references and legal reasoning, and then compose a report presenting their findings followed by an argument as to the appropriateness of the decision from a legal, moral, and practical standpoint.
A second planned topic involves the question of global warming. Students will be asked to research arguments on whether there is or isn’t global warming caused by human behavior. Students must present their findings in well-reasoned papers that carefully balance scientific fact and reasoned inferences. Especial emphasis will be based on the credibility of sources and the reliability of information during this activity.
AP Test Practice: Throughout the course, students will be assessed via released AP exam materials. Expect a released AP Multiple Choice exam at the end of each grading period. Also, most Fridays, students will complete a timed writing in class. Official AP grading criteria, as given by the CollegeBoard, will be used for these assessments. Performance on released AP exam materials will constitute the majority of one’s grade for each marking period. Frequently, the literary passages on the exam will be used for class discussion as well.
American Literature Studies and Critical Reading Skills: Students will complete units documenting the evolution of American literature. They will make note of the historical contexts and the stylistic features representative in the works of major authors. Students will be assessed both in writing and orally on their ability to demonstrate the trends of the American canon.
Readings for the course include excerpted as well as full-length fiction and non-fiction texts. Students are expected to complete readings outside of class and come prepared to discuss the texts beyond a superficial level. The students’ reading is inherently assessed by all class activities. Please see the attached listing for this year’s reading plan. As local, national, and world events unfold, your teacher will also supplement the readings with contemporary news and magazine articles, opinion-editorial writings, and selected visual media.
Texts and extended readings planned for 2008-2009 include the following:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Readings for Writers (checked out from school)
The Concise Anthology of American Literature (checked out from school)
Discussion: Discussion in class will take various forms ranging from graded formal Socratic Seminars to informal classroom chats. Students will be assessed on their meaningful contributions to discussions at all levels. Frequently, class discussions will be held on-line outside of class. Your teacher’s website contains message boards and web blogs. Students may be required to post to these sites, with grades taken for the quality of written expression and argument. You may wish to visit my website to view some exceptional discussions saved from last year’s classes.
Contemporary Rhetorical Connections: We are surrounded by rhetorical language—from television to radio, from the Internet to our teachers, from our peers to our parents. All seek to influence us in some manner through verbal and nonverbal language. The Advanced Placement English Language exam assesses our ability to recognize these rhetorical processes. Do we understand the rhetorical intent (or purpose) of a person’s speech? Do we recognize the intended effect on the audience? Can we understand WHY the person has chosen the utilized strategies (as opposed to other means)?
The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Exam tests a student’s ability to recognize the relationship between choice and intent. The exam largely eschews the imagined, preferring nonfiction literature such as essays, news reporting, expository letters, historical analysis, etc. Within the past few years, exam writers have released questions asking students to consider the rhetorical use of modern media, including television, blogs, and talk radio. Without question, the exam has taken greater and greater steps towards emphasizing real world application of rhetorical concepts.
Political campaigns are a perfect vehicle to teach and analyze rhetorical strategies. Campaigns are fluid, constantly in motion and forever changing. To win an election, a candidate must win a plurality of votes. To win votes, a candidate must convince others to cast votes on his or her behalf. Fundamentally, then, a political campaign is a rhetorical process.
As our major, ongoing project this year, AP students will be assigned to a contemporary Presidential campaign. Working as a team, assignees will follow a particular campaign, collecting data and analyzing decisions. Groups will attempt to understand HOW the candidate plans to convince others to cast their votes for him or her. As events unfold, groups will attempt to understand WHY the candidates make changes to their campaign strategies. The words HOW and WHY are central to Advanced Placement analysis: To be able to answer these questions demonstrates understanding of the rhetorical nature of language.
This aspect of our studies will go beyond the written. Campaign advertisements, speeches, and other visual media will be examined for rhetorical strategies. The critical thinking skills taught in Advanced Placement English goes beyond the written word. “Language” cannot be reduced to simply words on a page.
Oral Presentations: Connected with the on-going political campaign project, students—either as individuals or as groups—will be assigned to give updates on the campaign and its aftermath. The focus of these mini-presentations will be to show awareness of current events and politicians use rhetorical strategies to shape our thoughts and understandings. Presentations will require a visual taken from the media. Presenters will show the visual, explain the circumstances, and then analyze the rhetorical processes.
Vocabulary: Students will be provided with a vocabulary text emphasizing Latin and Greek root words alongside contemporary SAT vocabulary terms. Through the year, connections between words will be highlighted using deconstructive vocabulary strategies. For example:
Somniferous SOMN (sleep) + FER (carry) + OUS (adjective) Definition: Sleep-inducing, or something that brings sleep.
Grammar and Syntax:
Syntax = syn (together) + tax (arrangement), or the arrangement of words in a sentence
Syntax (noun), Syntactical (adjective)
In writing, our thoughts are expressed through words. First, we choose what words to use. This word choice, or selection, is called diction. Syntax refers to how we arrange the chosen words to express thoughts. Note that a writer can choose innumerable ways to express the same thought via diction, detail, and arrangement:
I went to the store in the morning.
In the morning, I went to the store.
I drove to the store this morning.
After sunrise, I went to the store.
To the store I went in the morning.
In the morning to the store I went.
In the morning to the store went I.
This morning I awoke and dressed and hustled to the store.
And so on.
As writers, we tend to use certain patterns to arrange our words into sentences. Being unique, we have our own “favorite” sentence patterns; such distinctive choices contribute to our style. From an AP standpoint, we want to pay careful attention to a writer’s syntax. A writer’s choice of word arrangement may contribute to the meaning. Consider three of the above examples:
I went to the store in the morning.
To the store I went in the morning.
In the morning to the store went I.
Observe the three positions of the subject “I.” The emphasis in each sentence shifts. The first emphasizes “I,” the second “store,” and the third “morning.” In other words, the focus shifts from person to place to time. A writer can choose what element to emphasize by its placement in the sentence. The information is the same, but the emphasis differs—thereby potentially affecting the meaning in the context of the larger passage.
On the AP test, you cannot analyze every sentence. Instead, look for patterns that appear throughout the selection. Ask yourself: Might this pattern in some way contribute to the point the author makes? Also, look for “standout sentences”—that is, a sentence whose pattern or arrangement stands in marked contrast to the surrounding ones.
Syntactical analysis is difficult and takes much practice. Our class will spend a considerable amount of time learning how to write advanced syntactical structures. This course of study also necessarily includes punctuation, which renders the sentences meaningful and understandable.
Terms associated with this study include but are not limited to the following: absolute phrases, appositive phrases, adjective clauses, adverb clauses, participial phrases, parallelism, balance, periodic sentence, loose (or cumulative) sentence, simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, compound-complex sentence, and repetition.
Creative Writing: To know the art, one must be an artist. Frequently, students will be asked to compose short creative writing in which they must use the same tools as professionals. For example, students might be asked to compose a paragraph using an extended metaphor to describe an abstract concept. Or, students might be asked to compose a two-page description using intentional repetition, an angry tone, and foreshadowing. These “recipe writings” challenge students to apply and practice language skills. We are to become writers—not just effective analysts. Occasionally, students will be asked to write imitations of professional models. Sometimes sentences, sometimes short passages. In general, creative writings will be posted to the class message boards.
Stylistic and Rhetorical Analysis: As the backbone of the course, students will learn and practice on a daily basis how writers use the resources of language for effect. The following concepts will be addressed daily:
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT: All writings are rhetorical.
Any poem, short story, novel, essay, etc., contains certain ideas or feelings. The writer wishes for the reader to understand his or her thoughts or feelings. In Advanced Placement parlance, the writer conveys certain feelings, attitudes, thoughts, or ideas. Both the multiple choice and essay section measure whether students understand the relationship between an author’s choices and the author’s intent. First, the student must understand what it is that the writer wants him or her to understand, think, or feel. Next, the student must recognize HOW the writer makes choices designed to get the reader to think/feel/understand as the writer does.
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT: The author’s choices reveal the author’s intent.
Writers make choices. The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Test measures a student’s ability to understand WHY a writer has made particular choices, e.g.:
Why use that word? (diction)
Why use that simile? (figurative language)
Why use intentional repetition? (sentence structure)
In class, we have discussed a series of stylistic and rhetorical devices. Test-takers must understand these terms and be able to explain why and/or how a writer uses them for effect.
Film as Literature: To start the second semester, our class will view and examine the film classic Citizen Kane, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Though visual in appearance, film begins as a written screenplay. In framing shots, cinematographers use the same strategies as writers; however, writers rely on the reader’s imagination. Filmmakers do the visual imagining for us. Our short study will emphasize the point that stylistic and rhetorical expression is not merely confined to the written word.
AP Essential Terms: The following list is not complete but does represent terms students must know entering the exam.
