Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
each week. Word root discussions and mnemonic stories will be used to
enhance vocabulary awareness and usage skills.
2) Each week an average of ten terms (a combination of student-submitted
words and instructor-provided relevant rhetorical terms and words commonly
appearing on AP and SAT exams) will be added to vocabulary journals.
These lists will be the basis for vocabulary quizzes (mostly sentence
completion and paragraph composition) administered four to five times per
quarter.
3) Appropriate word choice and correct use of vocabulary is expected in written
assignments. The use of wide-ranging denotative and richly connotative
language is rewarded.
Other Projects and Assessments
1) Homework will usually consist of reading and informal writing assignments,
including SOAPStone analyses, journal entries, and reaction papers.
2) Students should expect regular reading checks and quizzes that require a
working knowledge of textual details from assigned reading. Quizzes will
often provide opportunities answer multiple choice questions that require
students to answer reading passage questions similar in approach and format
to those on the AP English Language exam.
3) Tests, administered quarterly, will be similar in format to the AP English
Language examination and will include multiple choice passage analysis
items and in-class essay response.
4) Students will occasionally prepare projects and presentations to enhance
class experience and foster greater appreciation of reading selections and
their historical, social, and cultural significance. Students are encouraged to
incorporate technology (power point presentations, digital photography, and
digital video) and art (illustration, music, and, dramatic performance) into
projects when appropriate.
QUARTERLY SCHEDULE
Readings are grouped thematically around two or three broad issues each quarter
and will primarily include essays, speeches, and letters. Often these will be
supplemented by the viewing of various non-print media resources. Poetry, short
stories, and a novel and/or play are also included each quarter to help demonstrate
how various effects are achieved through rhetorical and linguistic choices made by
writers. A number of workshops aimed at helping students understand and apply
rhetorical theory, grow as readers, and enhance writing skills will be provided
throughout the year. Rhetorical strategies, vocabulary, and composition skills
explored in workshops will be applied and practiced in a variety of formal and
informal writing assignments. Listed below is a quarterly breakdown of some of the
focal works students will read, workshops that will be facilitated, and representative
writing assignments that will be completed. Some of these works may change
with/without notice depending upon class needs:
INTRODUCTORY UINT:
The Basics of Rhetoric, Composition, & Style
Everythings An Argument
Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Analysis & Synthesizing Sources
FIRST QUARTER
Theme 1: Education and Society
Major Novel: Waiting for Superman
Readings: For Julia in Deep Water (John N. Morris); I Know Why the Caged Bird
Cannot Read (Francine Prose); A Talk to Teachers (James Baldwin); Superman and
Me (Sherman Alexie); This is Water: Some Thoughts Delivered on a Significant
Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (David Foster Wallace); College Is a
Waste of Time and Money (Caroline Bird)
Theme 2War, Peace, and Politics
Major Novel: The Crucible
Major Novel: All the Kings Men
Readings: The Things They Carried (Tim OBrien); The War Prayer (Mark Twain);
Introductory Notes to The Crucible (Arthur Miller); excerpts from The Prince
(Niccolo Machiavelli);,Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid (Virginia Woolf); National
Prejudices (Oliver Goldsmith); Military-Industrial Complex Speech/1961 Address to
Congress (Dwight D. Eisenhower); Politics and the English Language and
Shooting an Elephant (George Orwell); Every Dictators Nightmare (Wole
Soyinka); The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln); other instructor-selected
essays, letters, and speeches; student-selected essay(s); counterpoints and
miscellaneous readings
Theme 3On Writing
Readings: Excerpts from One Writers Beginnings (Eudora Welty); excerpts from
On Writing (Stephen King); How to Write a War Story (Tim OBrien); selected
sections from The Lively Art of Writing (Lucille Vaughn Payne); excerpts from On
Writing Well (William Zinsser); How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (Paul McHenry
Roberts); other instructor-selected essays, letters, and speeches, student-selected
essay(s); counterpoints and miscellaneous readings
First Quarter Workshops:
o The College Board and the AP ExaminationInformation about the
program, format of the AP exam, and use of the scoring rubric;
students will take a diagnostic AP exam from released materials.
o Rhetorical FoundationsAn examination of Aristotle, the rhetorical
triangle, rhetorical appeals, rhetorical strategies, and rhetorical modes;
students will recognize logical, ethical, and emotional appeals in formal
writing and popular media; students will also be able to analyze and
evaluate rhetorical strategies in essays.
o Composition Workshop I: Responding to the PromptA look at the
process of turning a statement prompt into a question that can be
answered in a clear and specific thesis statement; students will
practice responding to prompts in short writing assignments, then
apply skills to essay assignments.
o Composition Workshop II: Getting OrganizedSuggestions for going
beyond the five-paragraph theme and writing strong introductions,
conclusions, and transitions; students will apply strategies to in-class
and out-of-class essays.
o Composition Workshop III: A Balancing Act: General Ideas/Specific
DetailsAn in-depth consideration of the importance of going beyond
plot summary by supporting abstraction and general ideas with textual
reference and concrete details; students will examine an essay and
use four colored highlighters to mark generalizations, abstractions, and
textual references made through paraphrase and direct quotation;
students will then revise the essay, demonstrating the ability to balance
generalization and details, correctly incorporating direct quotes.
o Composition Workshop IV: The College Application Essay
Discussion of the college application process and particulars of the
application essay; students will bring in sample college application
essay prompts, brainstorm ideas, and begin essays for at-home
completion.
Compostion Prompts:
o Informal Writing/Visual Image Response: Find three magazine or
newspaper advertisements, each of which illustrates at least one of the
three basic appeals (logic, ethics, emotion). Clip the ads and write an
analysis of how the advertiser appeals to the public.
o Informal Writing: A good poem may be similar to a good essay in the
way it uses images and literary or rhetorical devices to make a point
about an issue. Identify an issue Robert Lowell addresses in For the
Union Dead and analyze his use of images and strategies in the
o
o
SECOND QUARTER
Theme 4Humor and the Art of Satire
Major Novel: Animal Farm
Readings: A Modest Proposal (Jonathan Swift); The Rape of the Lock (Alexander
Pope); Hasty Pudding (Joel Barlow); Lady Windermeres Fan (Oscar Wilde); Lost
in the Kitchen (Dave Barry); selected essays from The Onion; selected excerpts
from comic routines by Andy Sedaris, Jerry Seinfeld, Lewis Black, and other
GRADING
Grades assigned in AP English Literature & Composition will be categorized by type
and weighted according to three levels, as indicated below. Unless otherwise
noted, essays will be scored using the AP general rubric and homework, and project
work will be scored using activity-specific rubrics.
20%
30%
50%
Mid-Term & Final Exams count as 10% of each semester grade. Be sure to note the
grade weighting used for AP classes as specified in the state grade point average
conversion table provided in your school handbook.
POLICIES & PROCEDURES NOTES
Primary texts, current works being studied, notebook, and pen/pencil
should be brought to class each day unless otherwise instructed.
Levels One and Two assignments will not be accepted late. Level three
assignments will be subject to the English Department policy for late
assignments (10 points deducted per day); no major assignments or test
make-ups will be accepted after one week past the due date without
approval.
Students will be expected to read longer works mostly outside of class,
take appropriate notes, answer assigned questions, prepare a Critical
Reading Portfolio (CRP) entry, and be prepared for class discussion by
the specified date.
Most essays grades will be evaluated using our AP English Language &
Composition General Rubric.
Class discussion in AP is extremely important. Each student is expected
to keep up with all assignments and contribute to class discussion as
much as possible.
Students and parents should be aware of the challenging nature of AP
coursework. Parents and students are encouraged to contact the
instructor if there are any questions or concerns about the class or our
syllabus.
WEB RESOURCES
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about.html
AP Central: Information for students and parents about AP courses and testing
college information
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
An online writing lab
http://www.usd.edu/engl/resources_ac.html
Links to online writing labs, Thesaurus, dictionaries, research tips, and timed writing
tips
http://www.bartleby.com/141/
Stunk and Whites Elements of Style
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm
Best site for documentation guidelines; includes APA, MLA, and other citation styles;
includes guidelines for incorporating documentation into an essay
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Grammar review for specific areas of language usage; allows for individualized
instruction on grammar usage
http://www.wordcounter.com/
Type in a paper and the software will analyze it paper for overused words
AP English Language & Composition
Critical Reading Portfolio Guidelines
For each novel and drama we read in class, you will prepare a Critical Reading
Portfolio (CRP) entry. It is important to read each work of literature with pen and/or
highlighter in hand to take notes in the text or in your notebook. You will use your
notes to prepare CRP entries, which should be word-processed and turned in for
Level 2 grades by each submission deadline. Please print TWO copies of each
entryone for your own portfolio, and one for a class portfolio. These CRP entries
will be used for class discussions and writings, but they will also come in handy as
review material to use prior to the AP Exam. Each entry should have the following
ten numbered and labeled sections:
Section I: Significance of Title
Briefly discuss the significance of the title. Is it an allusion to an event or another
work? How is the title thematically connected to the body of the work? Does it have
multiple meanings? Explain.
Section II: Author
Briefly discuss the author and how the work reflects the concerns of its creator. Who
is the author? What are his/her major themes issues? How does the work
demonstrate concerns important to the author and the social issues, values, and
culture of his/her time?
Section III: Setting
Describe the time and place in which the action occurs. How is it related to the time
period in which the work was written? What is significant about the setting? How is
the setting connected to thematic concerns?
Section IV: Plot
Briefly summarize the plot, using standard formats of basic plot structure as they
may apply: exposition, initial incident, rising action, turning point, climax, falling
action, and resolution. Discuss conflict and any other devices that significantly
impact plot.