ADVANCED PLACEMENT – LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION Mrs. Holbrook
Code: E563 Full Year (11) (1 credit)
(rank weight 1.06)
Prerequisite: Must have successfully completed English 10 Honors with high marks and excellent writing skills. Students are accepted only by departmental selection and approval.
Objectives:
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
· 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 your own writing;
· create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience;
· demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in your own writing;
· write in a variety of genres and contexts, both formal and informal, employing appropriate conventions;
· produce expository and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate, specific evidence, cogent explanations, and clear transitions; and
· move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
-adapted from Professional Development for AP English Language and Composition, 2005
Literary Works:
Full Length Works (may include, but not limited to):
Ethan Frome Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Beloved
Catcher in the Rye Macbeth
The Great Gatsby The Crucible
Oedipus Rex The Glass Menagerie
A Streetcar Named Desire The Writing Life
A Separate Peace Our Town
The Bell Jar
Texts (may include, but not limited to):
Advanced Placement Writing I (The Center for Learning)
Everything’s an Argument with Readings (Bedford)
The Language of Composition (Bedford/St. Martin’s)
The Art of Styling Sentences (Barrons)
Assessments (may include, but not limited to):
Rhetorical Analysis (fiction, non-fiction) Oral Presentations
Argument Analysis Business Letter
Synthesis Essay Thesis Paper
Regents Exam Essays Creative Writing
Research Paper/Project Book Review
In-class Timed Essays Précis writing
NYS Comprehensive Regents Examination – January
College Board AP English Language and Composition Examination – May
First Semester Outline:
Regents Preparation (January Administration)
Listening, Reading for Comprehension, Genre Literary Analysis, Critical Lens
Multiple Choice Question Strategies
PSAT/SAT Preparation
AP Language and Composition Preparation
· Rhetorical and Style Analysis (fiction, non-fiction)
· Multiple Choice Question Strategies
· Strong Introductory Paragraphs
· Writing Techniques - Sentence Structure and Style
· Literature (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, The Crucible, The Great Gatsby)
· Précis writing
Creative non-fiction writing
Grammar and Usage
Vocabulary
Piece of the Week Project - your choice of selections (first quarter)
POW - Newspaper Columnist Project (second quarter)
Second Semester Outline
AP Language and Composition Preparation
· variations on the Argument Essay
· Synthesis Essay
· Rhetorical analysis review
· Multiple Choice Question Strategies
· Exam Practice with Time Restrictions
Literature (Beloved, Macbeth, Oedipus)
Grammar and Usage
Vocabulary
Research Paper/Project (third/fourth quarters):
25 % of the final exam for the course will be a 10-page research paper. (Another 25% will be the Literacy Portfolio. The remaining 50% of the final exam grade is your score on the Regents Examination.)
AP Examination:
· required if student wants AP designation on the transcript
· date is mid-May
· cost to student will be announced
· results are sent to students’ homes in July
· exam is 3-1/4 hours
· multiple-choice = 45% of score, 60 minutes for this part
· performance on three essays = 55% of score, 135 minutes for this part
Course Expectations:
· First and foremost, and more important than any exam or paper or grade, we will create an environment of respect for all human beings in our classroom.
· Plagiarism is a very serious offense. Papers will receive zeros. Your integrity and reputation, your status in class, your membership in the National Honor Society, and your acceptance at favored colleges/universities will be jeopardized.
· Contribute to class discussion on a regular basis - offer an interpretation, answer a question, ask a clarifying question, state an opinion that relates to the topic at hand. Each of your voices is very important!
· You will have daily homework. Check my website often: http://www.wappingersschools.org/johnjay/site
· Take notes, always, on paper of your choice. Be organized! Use looseleaf for classwork that is collected. Work done at home should be typed (double-spaced). Assignments that run two or more pages should be STAPLED BEFORE coming to class.
· All assignments are to be handed in during class or by 2 p.m. on the date due if you are in the building for any part of that day. No late papers. Period. If your computer/printer konks out at 1 a.m., handwrite the paper. (Stock up on ink cartridges. Plan ahead.)
Papers turned in after class is over but before 2 p.m. must NEVER be left anywhere for me. Hand them to me personally. If a paper is not handled this way, and it is lost, you are responsible and must take the consequences.
· See me if any problems arise. We can work out most problems if we address them early enough.
· Quarter grades are based on the average of the total number of accumulated points per quarter. The research paper and portfolio will each count 25% of the final exam grade; the NYS Regents Exam 50% of your final exam grade.
As practice makes a better musician, a better runner, a better driver, or a better actor, so too does practice make a better writer. Welcome!
NOTE:
This course, equivalent to a first year college course, is designed for the exceptional student writer who wishes to accept the challenge of a college-level writing course. Students enrolling in this course are expected to take the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Exam.
Those not taking the test will have their transcripts changed to indicate English 11 Honors rather than Advanced Placement.