AP English Language and Composition
Student Name: ______Guardian Name: ______Guardian Email: ______Guardian Phone#:______
AP English Language and Composition
Student/Parent Contract
Dear AP Language Parent and Students:
By enrolling in this course, students have agreed to try their absolute best to pass an AP exam which will be administered in the beginning of May. The exam is extremely challenging and requires a year of consistent hard work and dedication. AP classes, of course, look excellent on their transcript when applying for colleges. Passing the exam at the end of the year could result in college credits! More importantly, studies have shown that students who enroll in AP classes perform better when in college. Here are student expectations:
l Students complete homework assignments. Homework is given almost every night. Students have at least 1 hour of homework for this class a day. Some assignments, however, may require additional time to complete.
l Students will maintain at least a 70% average in AP English Language.
l Students are expected to participate in independent studies. Reading homework must completed as assigned.
l Students must complete the research project. The research assignment is given during 3rd quarter.
l Students are expected to study/review even if an official assignment isn’t given for that evening.
l Students agree to attend coach when they need additional help.
l Students will adhere to the rules of the syllabus provided.
This class enables students to handle reading, writing, and course work at the college level. I am very dedicated to my class, my students, and Randallstown High School. My door is open to parents and students for questions/concerns. We need to create a partnership to do what is best for your son/daughter in order to prepare them for their future. Thank you for your commitment!
PARENT SIGNATURE: ______DATE: ______
STUDENT SIGNATURE: ______DATE: ______
AP Language and Composition 2017-2018
Summer Assignments
The following pages include the summer reading assignment for AP Language and Composition for the 2017 -2018 school year. These assignments are due September 29th. No late assignments will be accepted under any circumstances. You should work on these assignments consistently throughout the summer; procrastination will not work in your favor.
STOP. You’ve already begun reading, but are you using good reading practices? Every time you read from now on, whether you’re reading the next great American novel, or an article in Teen People, you must train yourself to annotate the text. Read with a pen in one hand, the text in the other, and a highlighter clenched between your teeth. When you annotate a text, you are not only being an active reader, but you are also engaging with the text and focusing on the literary and rhetorical devices in a profound way.
ANNOTATING simply means marking the page as you read with comments and/or notes. The main reason you should annotate your books is to aid in understanding. When important passages occur, mark them so that they can be easily located when it comes time to write an essay or respond to the text. Marking key ideas will enable you to discuss the reading with more support, evidence, and/or proof than if you rely on memory.
ANNOTATING MAY INCLUDE:
· Highlighting key words, phrases, or sentences
· Writing questions or comments in the margins
· Bracketing important ideas or passages
· Connecting ideas with lines or arrows
· Highlighting passages that are important to understanding the work
· Circling or highlighting words that are unfamiliar
SPECIFIC ITEMS FOR ANNOTATION MIGHT INCLUDE:
· Literary elements (symbolism, theme, foreshadowing, etc.)
· Figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, etc.)
· Diction (effective or unusual word choice)
· Syntax (order of words, phrases, or sentences; punctuation)
· Vocabulary words (words that you are unfamiliar with—and therefore must look up—or words that catch your attention)
As you begin your summer reading assignments, it is absolutely critical that you train your reading and annotation skills. For that reason, it is suggested that you purchase each of the following books. While it is green and free to take out books from the library, or sometimes even to download them on an e-reader, doing so does not permit you to easily underline, highlight, mark up, question, yell at, or cry on the text.
Part I: Ethan Frome
Read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Annotate the text, but don’t become obsessive. Every sentence need not be annotated, but every page should be. Don’t go crazy. Take your time with this text.
Part II: Ethan Frome Essay After you finish reading Ethan Frome, it is time to flex your analytical muscles a bit. Some say that the most important skill in AP Lang is the ability to write effectively, coherently, and critically, but they miss a crucial step. Before one can write critically, one must think critically. Now that you have read serious critical analysis of the Ethan Frome, it is time for you to complete your own thorough analysis of the novel. Write a 4-6 page essay on one of the topics below. Do not use secondary sources. You may only use your novel (your primary source).
· What does it mean to be moral in the novel?
· What role does the cat serve in the novel?
· Is there an anticlimax in the novel? Explain.
· Of what is the pickle dish symbolic?
· Discuss the distribution of power within the household and attribute a cause for this distribution.
These questions are intentionally open-ended. I am looking for your best analysis of the text. Draw conclusions. Think outside of the box. Make connections to what you already know and to your gut feelings.
Part III: The Scarlet Letter
Read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
As you read the novel, you will be keeping dialectical notes. These are a way for you to interact with the text on a personal and consistent level throughout your reading. This can make it difficult to do your reading on the go (sorry, but this is not a beach reading assignment!).
As you read, train yourself to annotate the text! You will not get a thorough understanding of this novel (or quite frankly, any novel) based on a quick read through.
As you read, you will be keeping dialectical notes. The dialectical journal is a type of double-entry, note-taking students use while reading literature. In the two columns, students write notes that dialogue with one another, thereby developing critical reading and reflective questioning.
As you read, keep a dialectical journal for your reading. This journal will consist of a minimum of 30 quotations for the novel and must be typed.
Select at least one quotation for every few pages. As you respond to the quotations, focus on the ways in which the author uses language to create an effect. What is it about the language that stands out and makes the passage distinctive? How does the passage reflect the author’s style and reveal larger themes of the work? (See journal example below.) Use rhetorical terms, tone words, narrative elements, etc. to help with your explanation.
In order to receive the maximum points possible, journal entries must:
· Be at least 2/3 page long for each entry
· Address a variety of rhetorical strategies (not just half metaphors, half similes, for example)
· Provide clear evidence of how the rhetorical techniques and strategies develop the overriding ideas of the works
· Include insightful analyses of quotes used and adhere to MLA format.
· Split your entries equally among detail, imagery, diction, syntax, tone (minimum 6 entries each)
Journal examples:
“Everything about our session pleased me: the smallness of the room; the noise of the janitor’s broom hitting the edge of the long hallway outside the door; the green of the sun, lighting the wall; and the old woman’s face blurred white with a beard. Most of the time we took turns, I began with my elementary text. Sentences of astonishing simplicity seemed to me lifeless and drab: “The boy ran from the rain…She wanted to sing…The kite rose in the blue.’ Then the old nun would read from her favorite books, usually biographies of early American presidents. Playfully she ran through complex, calling the words alive with her voice, making it seem that the author somehow was speaking directly to me. I smiled just to listen to her. I sat there and sensed for the very first time some possibility of fellowship between a reader and a writer, a communication, never intimate like that I heard spoken words at home convey, but nonetheless personal.” / 64 / Rodriguez, here, relies primarily on syntax and imagery to accurately convey this important moment. He takes the time to list in series the positive things about the session. This listing of various details with active diction helps the reader to conjure a real life image of the author’s perception. He even takes the time to convey the exact sentence of simplicity he read. The active diction of the sentences evoking various images seems “drab” to him. While the “blurred white” faced woman evokes a “ fellowship between the reader and writer”. The exchange between his words and the woman is a parallel to the transformation he feels with different literature. The sentence structure gets more complex as the author struggles internally to come to the realization of the “personal” fellowship he experiences. To mark the clarity in his thoughts toward the end of the passage makes a distinction between the “intimate” and “personal”. The italics here emphasize the clarity and confidence of the inner thoughts of the character at this point.“Throughout college and graduate school, I thought of myself as an orthodox Catholic. I was a liberal Catholic. In all things save the liturgy I was a liberal. From the start I despised the liturgical reformation. In college chapels I would listen to folk singing and see plain altars draped with bright appliqué banners: JOY! GOD IS LOVE. One Sunday I would watch dancers in leotards perform some kind of ballet in front of the altar; one Sunday there would be a rock mass; one Sunday the priest encouraged us to spend several minutes before the Offertory introducing ourselves, while a small bad jazzy combo punched out a cocktail mix. I longed for the Latin mass. Incense. Music of Bach. Ceremonies of candles and acolytes.” / 112 / Here we have a few ideas that seem contradictory, but upon careful inspection reveal the true nature of the author’s thoughts. The seeming contradictions are indicative of the fine lines that the authors draws to differentiate his belief as an individual. First contradiction image and idea is that of an orthodox and liberal. The dual personality of the author is visible here as he thinks of himself as an orthodox but is a liberal. Although this sounds like a impossible paradox. The author draws the distinction describing that his attraction comes from affinity for orthodox liturgy. He gains no peace from the various reformed liturgies he experiences. Everything about these liturgies he describes as unceremonious and plain and unpleasing. The altars are “plain”, the banners are “bright”. Everything he feels is too loud. Utilizing loud capital letters to convey their messages carries out this image and idea. The capital letters do not evoke peace despite the message. The church has “some type of dancers”, “rock mass”, “bad jazzy combo”. All of these creating unharmonious images. His frustration reaches a high and towards the end he refers to the peace he longs for. The syntax and diction here becomes very simple. He is simply punctuating ideas and memories, things he craves. He defines the music and ceremonies, rather than describing it as “some type” of music. He craves “Bach, Incense.” Therefore, using diction, syntax, and imagery elements, he creates the picture of his internal restless chaos.
Focus Points for Dialectical Notes:
Tone Vocabulary: Like the tone of a speaker’s voice, the tone of a work of prose expresses the writer’s feelings. To determine the tone of a passage, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the subject of the passage? Who is its intended audience?
2. What are the most important words in the passage? What connotations do these words have? (Diction and syntax set the tone.)
3. What feelings are generated by the images of the passage?
4. Are there any hints that the speaker or narrator does not really mean everything he or she says? If any jokes are made, are they lighthearted or bitter?
5. If the narrator were speaking aloud, what would the tone of his or her voice be?
Language Words-Used to describe the force or quality of the entire piece
Like word choice, the language of a passage has control over tone. Consider language to be the entire body of words used in a text, not simply isolated bits of diction, imagery, or detail. For example, an invitation to a graduation might use formal language, whereas a biology text would use scientific and clinical language.
Different from tone, these words describe the force or quality of the diction, images, and details AS A WHOLE. These words qualify how the work is written. So when discussing an author’s choice of words (diction), do not say, “The author uses diction to make a point.” Do say, “In his use of pedantic diction, Chesterfield reveals the value he places upon education.”
Part IV
After you have finished reading the novel, you will be writing an analysis essay. For this novel, you will choose your essay topic. You are limited to 4-6 pages, so your topic needs to be appropriate for a paper of that length. Sometimes the smallest of things in a novel can create the most meaning. Do not be afraid of the minute; they can be the most fun! (I once wrote a 35 page paper on two words in Hamlet.) You may feel insane in doing so, but you will be forcing yourself to think critically and to delve head first into the text. Start by going through your dialectical notes and choosing one, or a few notes that are similar, that particularly interest you or provide insight into the rhetorical style of the novel. The paper should relate to your focus points for reading: detail, imagery, diction, syntax, tone.