AP Language and Composition | English (2023)

Course narration:Students in this introductory college-level course carefully read and analyze a broad and challenging selection of nonfiction prose, deepening their understanding of rhetoric and how language works. Through careful reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composition skills. Course reading features explanatory, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. Students review and edit essays, letters, speeches, photos, and imaginative literature. Notable authors include Mary Roach, Byron Stevenson, Aristotle, William Pope, John Milton, Truman Capote, Dan Rather, Greg Lukianoff and Steven Greenblatt. Reading and writing are required in the summer. Students prepare for the AP® English Language and Composition Examination and may receive advanced placement, college credit, or both based on satisfactory performance.

Course learning objectives:Overall learning objectives are determined by the AP English Language and Composition credit components listed in the AP English Language and Composition Course Description.

1. Students are required to write essays in a variety of forms, including narrative, explanatory, analytical, and argumentative styles. Essay topics will also address a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, ethical and environmental concerns, the influence of popular culture on Western thought, educational policy, and personal experiences. Students are expected to master a variety of prose styles and genres.

2. Students must master the writing and proofreading process. Students routinely write, creating multiple drafts, while working to constantly improve their techniques through focused composition workshops, peer review sessions, and faculty conferences.

3. Students keep binders for drafts and informal writing practices. Students will respond to nonfiction, literature, their own writing, and the writing of their peers. Portfolios are used to reflect on an author's intent and style. Students are encouraged to generate ideas, imitate rhetorical styles, and experiment with new forms of expression.

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Evaluation system:Students are tested on their mastery of grammar, rhetoric, style, vocabulary, repetition strategies, speaking and listening comprehension and comprehension. Students are expected to write daily and add new material to their folders at the end of each class. During the school year, students will review at least four draft portfolios. In addition to these assignments, students create a large summary essay at the end of each assessment period. Students demonstrate understanding and competence by taking AP practice tests, vocabulary tests, and reading tests.

We will use a point system in this course. Points are adjusted to match the difficulty of tasks in the following categories:

• Small essays/drafts, homework, class work

• Major/revised compositions

• Questionnaires, tests, symposiums and projects.

Daily tasks:Daily assignments include grammar practice, fast informal typing, annotated passages, close reading/rhetorical charts, sketching, research, rough drafts, peer editing sessions, vocabulary practice, timed writing assignments, and writing preparation. Some of the daily tasks are placed in the writing folders. Others are collected for immediate evaluation.

Writing Assignments: Students are assessed at each stage of the writing process. Students create a series of drawings that are placed in their writing cases. During each assessment period, students review at least one draft of their choice through a combination of desktop publishing, peer publishing, and conferencing. Final drafts are typed and sent to turnitin.com.

tests and quizzes

• In each assessment period, students take two practice exams assessed in AP English Language and Composition. Students will use assessments to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The writing portion of the exam will be marked in accordance with the grading guidelines provided by the College Board. Data is collected and stored for rectification purposes.

• Questionnaires are used to assess each student's ability to identify rhetorical features, style, reasoning, and topic elements. Students will also take regular reading comprehension tests to demonstrate that they have read and understood assigned texts. Vocabulary and grammar tests are held every two weeks.

Course materials:

• Aufses R., Pankiewicz M., Scantlon L., Shea R. The language of composition. Third Edition, 2018. Printing.

• Stevenson, Bryan. Only mercy. New York. mirror and grey. 2015

• Cheap, Mary. Stiff: The strange life of human corpses. New York. W.W. Norton and Company. 2003

Essential questions:

1. How do writers use rhetoric as a powerful persuasion tool?

2. How do writers use different spellings to address a variety of rhetorical situations?

3. What are effective strategies for decoding different types of text?

4. How do authors build powerful arguments?

5. How do style, diction, word choice, and intonation affect meaning?

6. Why is writing and proofreading important to successful writing?

7. What is effective research?

8. How do the authors synthesize the sources into a reasoned argument?

9. What rhetorical strategies do artists use when creating art, music, film, literature, and poetry?

Unit 1: Introduction to rhetoric and theories of writing

• Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicolas Carr

• Anne Lamott First Shit Drafts

• Plato's Allegory of the Cave

• The Decline of Geoffrey Nunberg's Grammar

• Everything You Need to Know About Successful Writing in 10 Minutes by Stephen King

• Read to Write by Stephen King

• Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass

• Learning to Read by Malcolm X

• On Carrying a Joan Didion Notebook

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Unit 2: Deep Reading, Rhetorical Analysis and Argumentation Analysis

• Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

• What It's Like to Get Tattooed by Zora Neale Hurston

• People and Peace, Not Profit and War by Shirley Chisholm (Model)

• "People and peace, not profit and war" by Milutin Gjaja

• 2016 Hilary Clinton Award Speech (Rhetorical Analysis Essay)*

• Star Wars Robert Eberts

• The C word in Anna Quindeln's hallways

• Offenders and Voting Rights by the NY Times Editorial Board

• On incapacitating Nancy Mairs

• The Way We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson

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Unit 3: Education

• In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria (Argumentative Essay)*

• "A Conversation with the Masters" by James Baldwin

• I'll say enough about David Sedaris one day

• Independent Writing Assignment (students have two weeks to complete this assignment): How do popular movies portray school life? Pick a movie, maybe even an old one, and use the movie to explain how you would feel about high school. Possibilities include 10 Things I Hate About You, The Breakfast Club, Bring it On, Clueless, Cooley High, Dead Poets Society, Easy A, Friday Night Lights, Grease, Mean Girls, The Principal, Rushmore, To Sir, with Love , Freedom Writer and Lean on Me.

• The Education of Women by Daniel Defoe

• My Friend, Nicholas Kristof's Former Muslim Extremist

• Have we lost sight of the promise of public schools? by Nicole Hannah Jones

• What I Learned: A Sentimental Education from Kindergarten to Twelfth Grade by Roz Chast

• (Synthesis work based on the excerpts below) *

• Massachusetts Board of Education Report by Horace Mann (271 - 273 Language and Comp)

• Let the teenagers taste adulthood (274 – 275 Language and composition)

• Meditation in Schools in the United States (276 Languages ​​and Comp)

• Why We Urgently Need to Bring Vocational Training Back to Schools by Nicholas Wyman

• What America Can Learn from Smart Schools Elsewhere by Amanda Ripley

• How High Schools Destroy the Classroom by Leslie Nguyen - Okwu

• Let's Pay High School Students To Go To School And We'll Like Brentin Mock

• This school wants to revolutionize learning with technology by Amy Rolph

Unidade 4: Cultura Pop

• Hip Hop Planet by James McBride (argumentative essay)*

• Mark Twain's Corn-Pone Opinions (Timed Multiple Choice Assessment)*

• The Opulence of Despair by Ray Bradbury

• High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Films by David Denby

• Did superheroes kill the movie star? By Angelica Jade Bastien

• Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Banquet Speech

• "A Hard Rain is A-Gonna Fall" and "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan (Rhetorical Analysis of a Song)*

• (Synthesis or argumentative essay based on the excerpts below) *

• Die Power Elite de C. Wright Mills

• dr Clooney I assume? A map of the famous recolonization of Africa by Dave Gilson

• West Memphis Three: Internet Campaign, Hollywood Powered Its Launch by Brad Knickerbocker

• Why Celebrity Activism Does More Harm Than Good, by Andrés Jiménez

• Jim Carry Please Shut Up About Vaccines by Jeffery Kluger

• Who really benefits from celebrity activism? By Georgia Cole, Ben Radley and Jean-Benoit Falisse

• Beyoncé and Why Celebrity Activists Matter by Joshua Ostroff

• Should athletes stay in sports? By Jay Caspian Kang

Unit 5: The Environment - 8 Lessons

• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

• Excerpt from The Road by Cormac McCarthy

• "A Fable for Tomorrow" by Rachel Carson (creative rewrite)*

• Extract from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Timed Multiple Choice Assessment)*

• Natural Man by Lewis Thomas (One Page Rhetorical Analysis)*

• Terry Tempest Williams' One Breast Wife Clan

• A Moral Atmosphere by Bill McKibben

• Why science is so hard to believe by Joel Achenbach

• (Synthesis essay or rhetorical analysis based on the excerpts below) *

• Michal Pollan's Unhappy Meals

• The Locavore Myth by James McWilliams

• The Carnivore's Dilemma by Nicolette Hahn Niman

• Let Them Eat Dog by Jonathan Safran Foer

• A Good Food Manifesto for America by Will Allen

• Waste Not by Aliza Eliazarov

• Could insects be the miracle food of the future? By Emily Before

• Lab-raised meat could save far more than livestock lives by Bahar Gholipour

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Unit 6: Gender

• In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens de Alice Walker (ensaio argumentativo)*

• Auszug aus Virginia Woolfs Professions for Women (Timed Multiple Choice Assessment)*

• I want a Judy Brady wife

• Just Walk By: A Black Man Reflects His Power to Transform Public Space by Brent Staples

• Losing My Religion for Jimmy Carter Equality

• Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin

• Feminism is for all of Bell Hooks

• Why Wonder Woman is a Masterpiece of Subversive Feminism by Zoe Williams

• (Synthesis work based on the excerpts below) *

• Marlboro Man von Leonard McCombe

• Being a Man by Paul Theroux

• The Myth of Male Decline: Male Roots and Trauma by Stephanie Coontz

• Toxic Masculinity Kills Men by Kali Holloway

• The Perils of Masculinity by Roberto A. Ferdman

• The hard, adrenaline-pumping truth about 'Toxic Masculinity' by Frank Miniter

• Man Trap Emily Bobrows

• Talking to Boys Like We Talk to Girls by Andrew Reiner

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Unit 7: Justice

• Between Me and the World of Ta - Nehisi Coates (Argumentative Essay)*

• Auszug aus On the Duty of Civil Disobedience de Henry David Thoreau (Timed Multiple Choice Assessment)*

• Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix vs. Injustice Leads to Greed and Opportunity by Sandow Birk

• (Rhetorical comparison/evaluation based on the statements below) *

• Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

• John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address

• Statement on United States Immigration and Refugee Policy by Roland Reagan

• Presidential Comments on the 50th Anniversary of Selma from Barack Obama to Montgomery Marches

• Justice and the Passion for Vengeance by Robert C. Solomon

• Hell Hole by Atul Gawande

• American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens

• The irrationality of natural punishments by Jennifer Lackey

• Why Corrupt Bankers Avoid Jail by Patrick Radden Keefe

• (Synthesis work based on the excerpts below) *

• Should neo-Nazis have freedom of speech? By Thane Rosenbaum

• No, there is no "hate speech" exception to Eugene Volokh's First Amendment

• Free speech is the most effective antidote to Sean Stevens and Nick Phillips hate speech

• Freedom of Expression Isn't Always Valuable: That's Not Lata Nott's Point

• The case for curbing hate speech

• Free Speech by Signe Wilkinson

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Unit 8: Money

• Ministry in Florida by Barbara Ehrenreich

• Scratch Beginnings de Adam W. Shepard

• Excerpt from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (Timed Multiple Choice Assessment)*

• The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie

• "A Memory of Christmas" por Puck Magazine

• About Lars Eightner's Container Diving

• The Singer Solution to Global Poverty by Peter Singer

• Human needs and division of labor under Karl Marx's rule of private property

• (Argumentative essay based on quotations)*

• (Synthesis work based on the excerpts below) *

• Make the First Two Years of College Free: An Inexpensive Way to Expand Access to Higher Education in America by Sara Goldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall

• The Case Against Free College by Matt Bruenig

• The Value of a College Education and the Impact of Student Loan Debt on Major Life Decisions (Charts) by Gallup, Inc.

• Making College Free for Everyone by Bernie Sanders

• The Case for a Free College by Keith Ellison

• There Is No Way College Can Or Should Be Free By Thomas Sowell

• Is the Freie Universität really free? By Anya Kamenets

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Unit 9: Independent/community book study

• Mercy Only: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

• Stiff: The Strange Life of Human Corpses by Mary Roach

• On Barbara Lazear Ascher's Compassion

• National Prejudice by Oliver Goldsmith

• Created to Leave: Some Thoughts on Lee Smith's "Culture"

• Why am I leaving J.D.'s house? advance

• A GoFundMe campaign is not Ted Closson's health insurance

• (Synthesis work based on the excerpts below) *

• Stopping online abuse is not impossible. Here We Start by Laura Hudson

• Online Bullying (Graphic) by Pew Research Center

• Online forums are a lifetime for isolated parents of disabled children by Emma Sterland

• Subject Change: Art and Attention in the Internet Age by Sven Birkerts

• How the Internet Brings the World Together Dex Torricke-Barton

• Partners of My Heart: On Making Friends on the Internet by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

• Is social media separating us from the big picture? by Jenna Wortham

• Constant sharing makes us competitive and depressed By Emerson Csorba

informal writing:

• Students maintain a writing portfolio. The portfolio includes a checklist with all the necessary components, including organizers for rhetorical analysis, grammar worksheets, vocabulary terms and definitions, informal writing reflections, timed writing assignments, essay drafts, review sheets for peer-reviewed articles ​by peers and writing workshop. Handout Students meet with the teacher twice per assessment period. Portfolios are evaluated during each conference.

• Sometimes students receive a thesis statement prepared by the professor. The thesis statement can be linked to the unit reading or to a contemporary article. Students are then expected to formulate a paragraph that supports this thesis. Students are encouraged to develop their own ideas and arguments.

• Students are responsible for creating a fortnightly post on the discussion forum. The publication serves as an open forum for student writing. In some cases, students are responsible for responding to an article of the week. Other times, students are given the opportunity to create personal narratives, respond to current events, or review a product, restaurant, television show, or event. Students maintain the discussion forum, but the teacher actively monitors it. Students must provide constructive feedback to two peers using the blog commenting feature.

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Writing workshops:

• For any major writing assignment, students are expected to attend a writing workshop. The writing workshops will serve three functions: (1) serve as a brainstorming space for brainstorming and thinking development; (2) provide a forum for pair editing exercises; and (3) allow student work to be graded against assignment rubrics. Although the workshops are initially teacher-led, students are expected to independently complete the workshops for the second assessment period.

• Writing workshops begin with mini-lessons on some elements of the writing process. These mini-lessons focus on vocabulary development, sentence structure, organization, use of evidence, and effective use of rhetoric. Mini-lessons can take the form of direct instruction, modeling practice, extensive reading, or guided experimentation. Each lesson represents an ongoing effort to improve a student's writing. Lessons are recorded and stored on the classroom website for students to access at any time.

• Vocabulary building classes can include, but are not limited to, classes based on using academic vocabulary in context, avoiding clichés and jargon, and knowing synonyms to avoid repetition.

• Sentence structure lessons may include, but are not limited to, lessons based on compound sentences, complex sentences, complex compound sentences, the use of dependent clauses, apostrophes, correct citation integration, and the proper use of non-sentence structures. standardized.

• Organizational lessons can include, but are not limited to, lessons based on rhetorical structures, logical organization, and use of transition devices.

• Lessons on using evidence can include, but are not limited to, lessons based on assertions, objections, general and specific details, and ways of reasoning.

• Effective rhetoric lessons can include lessons based on clarity, changing audiences, and keeping voice and intonation consistent throughout sentence structure, among other things.

• The teacher provides formative feedback throughout the writing, reviewing, and presentation process. Once designs are complete, students must implement feedback into the final design. The evaluation must be confirmed by the students in the final essay.

• When commenting on individual drafts, the teacher maintains a list of top concerns for each writing assignment. This list is then given to students for discussion in writing workshops.

contemporary connections

• Students are expected to read the week's articles throughout the unit. These contemporary readings will link thematically or contextually to the standard texts. Students perform a SPACE CAT analysis for each external reading. Occasionally, study groups are formed, with each group responsible for choosing a topic for the rest of the class to respond to. Students who make the selection send in a completed questionnaire and a written reflection expressing the virtues of peace.

vocabulary

• Students receive a package containing a combination of SAT, academic and unitary vocabulary. Students are tested weekly on their ability to identify the word in context and use it in an original sentence.

regular reviews

• Reading Quiz: Students are given a quiz about most reading that takes place outside of class. Questionnaire to assess students' comprehension and application of reading strategies.

• Vocabulary Tests: Students are expected to have a solid grasp of the vocabulary used in the unit. Vocabulary comes from textbook readings as well as unit specific vocabulary.

• Grammar quiz: Students will participate in a variety of grammar exercises throughout the unit. Students are tested on these concepts as needed.

• Cumulative Essays: Students will review at least one essay per grading period. These essays have a higher point value than the drafts in their portfolios.

summer reading:

• The Mime of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas a Generation, de Greg Lukianoff e Jonathan Haidt

• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

• Epidemic of Narcissism: Life in the Age of Rights by Jean Twenge

• Bully: Shakespeare in Stephen Greenblatt's Politics