Advanced Placement English 11: Language and Composition English Language and Composition (taken from AP Central College Board: Course Description) http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/repository/52272_apenglocked5_30_4309.pdf Introduction 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. Goals The goals of an AP English Language and Composition course are diverse because the college composition course is one of the most varied in the curriculum. The college course provides students with opportunities to write about a variety of subjects and to demonstrate an awareness of audience and purpose. But the overarching objective in most first-year writing courses is to enable students to write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, most composition courses emphasize the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and professional communication, as well as the personal and reflective writing that fosters the development of writing facility in any context. In addition, most composition courses teach students that the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing they must do in college is based on reading, not solely on personal experience and observation. Composition courses, therefore, teach students to read primary and secondary sources carefully, to synthesize material from these texts in their own compositions, and to cite sources using conventions recommended by professional organizations such as the Modern Language Association (MLA), the University of Chicago Press (The Chicago Manual of Style), and the American Psychological Association (APA). The AP English Language and Composition course follows this emphasis. As in the college course, its purpose is to enable students to read complex texts with AP Language and Composition 1
understanding and to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers. An AP English Language and Composition course should help students move beyond such programmatic responses as the five-paragraph essay that provides an introduction with a thesis and three reasons, body paragraphs on each reason, and a conclusion that restates the thesis. Although such formulaic approaches may provide minimal organization, they often encourage unnecessary repetition and fail to engage the reader. Students should be encouraged to place their emphasis on content, purpose, and audience and to allow this focus to guide the organization of their writing Category Weight Writing 30% Reading 25% Vocabulary 15% Reading Response Journal (RRJ) 15% Other 15% tions; demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings; demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources; move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review; write thoughtfully about their own process of composition; revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience; analyze image as text; and Upon completing the AP English Language and Composition course, then, students 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 their own writing; create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience; write for a variety of purposes; produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources, cogent explanations, and clear transi- AP Language and Composition 2
evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers. Grading: The course is weighted to allow for a more accurate assessment of a student s competency for the course. Late essays and major assignments will suffer a 10% grade reduction per day late. Homework of some sort can be expected on every night (reading, essays, journals, etc.). Grade sheets will be anonymously posted in the room on a periodic basis. Detailed individual progress reports can be requested at any time. Curriculum Map: First 9-weeks: Rhetoric and Language The study of Rhetoric and Language Webquest Chomsky, Wittgenstein, Lundt, Lakoff Rhetorical Terms Evaluate author s purpose excerpts from The Onion A Modest Proposal Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God other works Argument and Logic Aristotle s Rhetoric AP Language and Composition 3
Deductive/ Inductive, fallacious arguments, Rogerian, Classical, Toulmin Analyzing Non-textual messages/ advertisements Defend, Refute, Qualify Essay practice AP prompt Literature Component = Foundations of American Literature Walden Individual Chapter presentations The Crucible Historical Context Essay My Antonia Nature and Landscape Language Early American Literature Native American myths, Puritan works, Franklin, Hawthorne, etc. Commas, semicolons, hyphens, ellipses, etc. Second 9-weeks: Research and Argument Senior Research Graduation Paper 5-7 page researched argument essay MLA Documentation Argument and Debate Unit Debate hot topics utilizing argument techniques Synthesis Essay practice AP prompts MLA format Quote Integration Literature Component = Freedom and Human Rights Night Researched Genocide Powerpoints I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Autobiographical Pr inciples Journal Jefferson, Paine, Stanton, Hughes, Malcolm X, Italics, Underline, Capitalization, quotations AP Language and Composition 4
Third 9-weeks: Rhetorical and Style Analysis Style Analysis Tone, Diction, Detail, Point of View, Organization, and Syntax Style Analysis Assessment Simulate author s style (Holden Caufield) History of Philosophy Powerpoint Personal philosophy adaptation Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Dostoyevsky, Chomsky, Kant, Schopenhauer PSSA review Reading comprehension Persuasive and Narrative essays Conventional errors and edits Rhetorical and Stylistic Term Assessment Test on terms and apply terms to critical reading Rhetorical and Stylistic Analysis essay Practice AP prompts Literature Component = Philosophical Inquiry Anthem Compare/ contrast philosophy essay Waiting for Godot Whitman, Emerson, Hemingway, Confusables, Irregular Verbs, Pronoun usage, subject verb agreement Fourth 9-weeks: Stylistic Writing and Test Preparation AP Language and Composition 5
Individual Writing Review Individual Style analysis review Rewrite essays with different audience Write style mimic activities (Holden Caufield) Literary Term Application and Assessment Review literary terms and apply to modern excerpts and poetry Timed AP Writings Synthesis essay Defend, Refute, Qualify essay Rhetorical and Stylistic analysis Literature Component = American Dream Glass Menagerie Grapes of Wrath Intercalary chapter analysis Great Gatsby Parallelism, sentence variety, transitions, wordiness, Textbooks and Materials: Barnet, Sylvan and Hugo Bedau, eds. Current Issues and Enduring Questions, 4 th edition. Boston: Bedford Books, 1993. Elements of Literature: American Literature, Fifth Course. Orlando: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 2005. Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon, eds. Signs of Life in the USA, 2 nd Edition. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. The Princeton Review s Grammar Smart. New York: Villard Books, 1994. The Norton Reader, 4 th edition. Arthur M. Eastman, ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1977. Yagelski, Robert P., and Robert Keith Miller. The Informed Argument. New York: Heinlein, 1998. Novels Walden I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings AP Language and Composition 6
Night My Antonia Great Gatsby The Grapes of Wrath Anthem Waiting for Godot The Glass Menagerie AP Language and Composition 7