AP English Language and Composition
Course Overview
Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of American non-fiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students will develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of rhetorical structures and strategies, while simultaneously strengthening their own writing.
Course readings feature expository, analytical, argumentative, personal and creative literature from a variety of American authors and historical contexts. Because today’s students live in a highly visual world, they also study the rhetoric of visual images such as photographs, paintings, films and advertisements, comic strips, and graphics. These “visual” texts will be analyzed both as related to written texts and as texts themselves. Readings are grouped through the philosophical movements of American Literature, focusing on the non-fiction of that time period while pulling contemporary essays and editorials fitting to the style, rhetoric or themes discussed. Summer reading is also required
Writing assignments are frequent and varied. Assignments include informal writing to include imitation, journaling and collaborative in-class responses to process writing for personal essays, analytical, argumentative, and synthesis essays. Self edits, peer edits, conferencing and essay rewrites (after my initial scoring) are substantially targeted in all writings throughout the course of the year. Essays are scored using the generic AP rubric.
Additionally, students will be instructed in the mechanics of writing, including, but not limited to: sentence structure variation, subordination and coordination; knowledge and use of a wide ranging vocabulary, rhetorical strategies, logical organization to include transitions, research skills and the appropriate construction of MLA parenthetical documentation and works cited page.
In addition, students will be exposed to the language and focal points of the multiple choice section of the test as they create questions of their own concerning the various pieces assigned in class. An intensive multiple choice testing experience will occur later in the second semester as preparation for the May exam.
As this is a college level course, performance expectations are appropriately high, and the workload is challenging. Students are expected to commit to a minimum of five hours of course work per week outside of class. Often, this work involves long term reading and writing assignments, so effective time management is important. Because of the demanding curriculum, students must bring to the course sufficient command of mechanical conventions and an ability to read and discuss prose.
Course Planner
Unit: Introduction to Rhetoric, Argument, and AP Expectations
First Quarter
The Language of Composition
Thomas Friedman Hot, Flat and Crowded
Kenneth C. Davis America’s Hidden History
Sherwood Anderson Winesburg, Ohio
This course begins with a two week introduction to rhetoric, including Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle, and terminology associated with rhetorical strategies; techniques of annotation to include close reading, analysis and terminology associated with language and literature; and instruction in synthesizing sources and the vocabulary of research. Discussion of the writing process, journaling expectations, and an overview of the AP exam will also take place. Additionally, students will take a practice AP Language and Composition exam to use as a basis for self assessment both before and after completion of the course.
Moreover, analysis will focus on three prose pieces read over the summer. For instance, looking at rhetorical strategies and determining a style thumbprint for Friedman to arguing whether Winesburg, Ohio is a series of short stories or a novel to whether the artwork of Bosch is appropriate for the purpose of Friedman’s book. These summer readings will also be incorporated appropriately throughout the year as complimentary sources or texts used during synthesis essays. Students will have kept a double journal entry or annotated text of each piece to be utilized during essays and discussions. Students will be asked to identify as many of the following elements in each work, thus beginning a course long study of rhetorical strategies. Elements include: thesis or claim, tone or attitude, purpose, audience, and occasion, evidence of data, appeals (logos, pathos, and ethos), assumptions or warrants, style, organizational patterns, and the use of detail to develop a general idea
Also introduced within the first few weeks of school is the Editorial Annotation, a year long, weekly response. Students will choose an individual syndicated editorial, annotate for structure, rhetoric, argument, create a SOAPStone, and discuss how these strategies connect to Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle. The purpose is to expose each student to different rhetorical strategies within contemporary text while also educating them on issues of our modern national and global world which will be useful in making connections to the more antiquated text used throughout the year.
Units that follow will consider the philosophical, historical and stylistic concerns of the various movements throughout American Literature. This organization follows the AP United States History course taken by many juniors, as well as the framework provided in the AP Literature course taken as seniors, which primarily focuses on the British canon. Pieces will primarily be comprised of non-fiction, however, fictional pieces may be utilized as they appropriately coincide with rhetoric, argument, or are complimentary to the non-fiction. Within the scope of these writings, vocabulary will be considered in context in order for each student to build upon their personal dictionary.
Unit: Early Colonial/Puritan
First Quarter
William Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation
Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter
Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Arthur Miller The Crucible
This unit will consider the Puritan purpose of writing, Plain Style as it applies to purpose, and various tones and perspectives of Calvin theology as they exist in the 1600 time period. While Bradford and Edwards are exemplary of this literature, students will contrast Hawthorne’s point of view of the Puritans through the proof of diction, extended metaphor, and other rhetorical devices. Miller’s piece will be used as another contrast tool, but also as an introduction to the logical fallacies as they will appear in the next unit.
Major Assignments:
In addition to in class formal essays, students will write a synthesis essay incorporating
materials listed above in addition to America’s Hidden History by Davis as it applies to
an HL Mencken quote.
Students will also write an argument paper utilizing the Classical Model regarding the first half of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
Unit: Enlightenment/Rationalism
First Quarter/Second Quarter
Patrick Henry “Speech in the Virginia Convention
Thomas Paine “American Crisis”
Benjamin Franklin “Speech in the Convention”
George Washington “Farewell Speech”
Various political cartoons dealing with the Enlightenment and like contemporary issues.
This unit will draw contrast from the Puritan era in order to clarify what the Age of Reason exemplified in the United States during the time of the revolution. The differences between Calvinism to Deism, purpose of writing, types of writing, and stylistic characteristics will be addressed as students analyze the pieces mentioned above for rhetoric and argument. Logical fallacy analysis and persuasion will be a main focal point of style.
Major Assignment:
In addition to in-class formal essays and journal entries, students will write a
comprehensive comparison/contrast analysis of the rhetorical strategies employed in two
of the pieces listed above. For instance, identify and argue which is the most influential piece of Revolution Era writing discussed in class.
Students will also begin scaffolding and researching their own argument paper on a topic of their choice. This paper is a year long project requiring the student to choose a topic, research a variety and multitude of primary and secondary sources regarding a chosen topic, formulate a position and thesis, determine an audience, and support through credible, appropriate sources. This paper will utilize MLA format in a six page paper with five sources. This paper will culminate sometime during the second semester.
Unit: Romanticism/Gothic Romanticism/Transcendentalism
Second Quarter
Various poems by Cullen Bryant, Longfellow, Whitman, and Dickinson
Edgar Allan Poe “Cosmic Philosophy”, “Fall of the House of Usher”
Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (revisit)
Herman Melville various chapters of Moby Dick, Bartleby
Ralph Waldo Emerson various essays and excerpts from Nature and Self Reliance
Henry David Thoreau various excerpts from “Civil Disobedience” and Walden
Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Once again a contrast will be made to prior movements as Romanticism differs in subjective from objective, pathos from logos, and individual from social or spiritual. As the country begins to define itself as a nation in the 1800’s and in conjunction with other world entities, a search continues for individual rights, liberation and what America represents. The wide scope of this unit delves into the independent optimism of Transcendentalism to the dark psychological depths of Gothic Romanticism and how style (of a more creative, poetic bent), technique, purpose and audience plays a role in each of the pieces listed above.
Major Assignment:
Students will do a more intensive series of in class essays in order to annotate, pace, and
respond more effectively in a timed setting. Some of these prompts include:
How Poe’s “Cosmic Philosophy” is reflected within “Fall of the House of Usher”
Identifying the argument and strategies used within Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”
Students will write a synthesis essay analyzing and arguing the role of the individual within society using certain excerpts from Romantic/ Transcendental literature and Enlightenment writing used appropriately as support for stance.
Unit: Realism/Naturalism
Third Quarter
Frederick Douglass The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
Stephen Crane “ A Mystery of Heroism” and “Open Boat”
Ambrose Bierce “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Abraham Lincoln “Gettysburg Address”
Sojourner Truth various excerpts from Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Occurring during another war, this movement allows for controversial, highly rhetorical pieces that mirror similar techniques and arguments found within the Enlightenment text. Looking at life through a clear lens, the literature of the Civil War provides a subjective viewpoint through a realistic clarity as many narratives and speeches are studied for audience, purpose and technique. New literary and organizational techniques and debatable topics will also be addressed in the fiction presented in this movement.
Major Assignment:
Students will culminate the individual argument paper within this unit. Issues of audience, credible sources, MLA formatting, Classical Model, editing and other issues of the writing process will be addressed.
In class timed writings include, but not limited to:
Style contrasts between Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass excerpts
Argue the stance of heroism in Crane’s short stories through use of literary technique
and rhetorical device
Form an argument as to whether or not Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be censored. Students will utilize various texts provided for them to synthesize discussion.
Unit: Modernism
Third Quarter
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath or Upton Sinclair The Jungle
Eudora Welty “A Worn Path”
Flannery O’Connor “The Life You Save May be Your Own”
Ernest Hemingway “In Another Country”
Faulkner “A Rose for Emily” and his Nobel Prize Speech
This American movement brings about a spiritual dearth, a moral ambiguity, and identity crisis at the turn of the century. How those issues are reflected in the themes and styles of the literature will be discussed. Spreading into the historical events of WWI, WWII, and the Great Depression, students will consider varied authorial style, technique, organization, and tone within the literature listed above and those discussed in prior movements.
Major Assignment:
Identify and analyze the style differences between three of the writers discussed in class.
Students will argue whether or not their chosen novel (Steinbeck or Sinclair) is an accurate depiction of the historical situation it means to portray. Students will need to research and cite primary and secondary sources within their support of chosen thesis.
Unit: Contemporary Writing and Intense Test Preparation
Fourth Quarter
Approximately two weeks before the test, students will closely examine editorials, political cartoons, and other opinion pieces within sources such as Newsweek, Time, New York Times, or Atlantic Monthly and the writings of Fareed Zakaria, George Will, or Ezra Klein, for example.
While students have been exposed to timed writings of the various essay types and multiple choice questions designed to strictly adhere to the College Board exam, more intensive testing will occur with the use of released exams and practice tests from Barron’s AP English
Language and Composition.
Unit: Novel Justification and Preparation for AP Literature
Fourth Quarter
Students will work in groups of three to choose a contemporary novel that is appropriate, relevant, and potentially could be taught within a public school curriculum. After reading and researching various elements of the novel, the group will do a series of assignments to justify their choice.
-create a promotional campaign persuading a target audience to adopt the book into the curriculum which includes:
Brief synopsis of four published book reviews
Persuasive essay arguing the merits of the book
Teachable moments within the book and four activities that utilize these moments
A justification for the novel despite adult language, inappropriate scenes, etc.
Grading Guidelines
-In order to maintain the expectation and integrity of the AP Exam, essays, AP MC, and longer writings will be based upon scoring guidelines from the AP Language and Composition determined by the College Board.
AP grade / Class grade9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0 / 95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
50
0
Obviously an essay written in March should exceed the score of an essay written in October by that same student. In order to balance a realistic learning situation, completion of various class assignments, analysis and synthesis of text in a group collaboration, projects, exams and quizzes dealing with terms and vocabulary throughout the year will be based on total number of points per quarter These assignments are in addition to AP test preparation. Student progress is constantly monitored to assess for mastery of learning and appropriateness of quarter grades.
Evaluations include:
Writing assignments (in class, researched, formal essays, and journals) are scored using the 9 point rubric of the AP Language and Composition exam: 50%