English III Advanced Placement
English Language and Composition
Course Syllabus
S. Paiz
Course Overview
Students in the AP English Language and Composition course read and analyze prose written in a variety
of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Students work at becoming skilled writers who compose
for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading will make students aware of the interactions
among a writer's purposes, audience expectations, and subjects. Through close reading and frequent
writing, students will develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of
purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. This course allows students to
write in a variety of forms— narrative, exploratory, expository, and argumentative– on a variety of
subjects from personal experiences to public policies, from imaginative literature to popular culture.
Students will frequently confer about their writing with teacher as well as with their peers. But the
overarching purpose in this writing course is to enable students to write effectively and confidently in
their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, this
composition course 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.
Fall Semester
The fall semester is focused on expository and narrative writing, imitating the style of various writers in varied
discourses. Rhetorical devices are studied and strategies for annotating and analyzing are explored and developed.
Students are expected to read and write daily. Major essays are first peer edited in writing workshops before a
copy is turned in for grading using the nine-point AP rubric.
Journals
Each day, students are given a prompt from Voice Lessons to further their study of diction, imagery, tone, syntax,
and detail. Each lesson includes a text excerpt followed by two questions which students use as a springboard for
analysis. These are completed in the first five minutes of class.
Strategies
Students are instructed in the SOAPSTONE and PIGSAC strategies and utilize these as a basis for text analysis in the
first two nine-week grading periods and as a reading strategy for the remainder of the year. They are introduced to
the argumentative strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos. These elements are the focus of the majority of texts
throughout the year. Students receive several opportunities to work collaboratively and engage in meaningful
discussions to not only reflect and think aloud, but also to question and value the thoughts and interpretations of
others. Students are arranged in pairs to encourage such collaboration on a daily basis; group arrangements are
changed with every grading period. In addition, students are assigned various group presentations, Socratic
Seminars, and speeches to further their opportunities to engage an audience.
Style
Writing skills comprise a major component of this course, so students are given further instruction in varying
sentences beginnings and phrasings to improve the complexity of their writing. In addition, students are instructed
in the rhetorical schemes and tropes of writing to further aid their analysis of text and to bring sophistication to
their own writing through imitated practices.
Spring Semester
The final two-nine week grading periods will complete students’ study and practice of various discourses. They will
also begin a semester long study of persuasion and argumentation. The character of Iago in Shakespeare’s tragedy,
Othello, will serve as a good starting point for persuasion and demonstrate how easy it can be to manipulate the
(weaker) minds of others.
Researched Argument Paper
The majority of the final grading period is spent on individual research and writing time for this major paper.
Students must include:
1. A minimum of eight sources
2. A minimum of two visuals
3. A bibliography page, cited in MLA format
4. Footnotes or in-text citations
Students are given deadlines to meet which include:
1. Claim
2. Three sources, each with a précis and MLA citation of the source
3. Two additional sources, each with a précis and MLA citation; and a visual, which includes an
explanation and MLA citation.
4. Bibliography page in MLA format
5. Rough draft
6. Final copy
Students may conference with the teacher or their peers. Writing workshops are held every other week for peer
editing and feedback opportunities. This paper counts for two major test grades. Each deadline is a daily grade.
Evaluation
Daily assignments (quizzes, class work, journals, etc.) 60%
Test/Major Writings
40%
The course is constructed in accordance with the guidelines described in the AP English Course Description.
Course Outline
First Semester
1st 9 Weeks – Course Orientation, Rhetorical Awareness, Recognizing and Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies
Required Reading
The Language of Composition
Chapter 1 – “An Introduction to Rhetoric: Using the ‘Available Means’”
Chapter 2 – “Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Analysis”
Chapter 3 – “Synthesizing Sources: Entering the Conversation”
Chapter 9 – “Language”: Readings could include
 “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” – Richard Rodriguez
 “Politics and the English Language” – George Orwell
 “Mother Tongue” – Amy Tan
 “From Disclosing the Mind” – Ngugi Wa Thiong’O
 “Always Living in Spanish” – Margorie Agosin
 “Studying Islam, Strengthening the Nation” – Peter Berkowitz and Michael McFaul
 Bilingualism in America: English Should Be the Official Language – S. I. Hayakawa
 “Monkey Bridge” – Lan Cao
 “For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15 and Why I Could Not Accept Your Invitation” – Naomi
Shihab Nye
World of Ideas
Part Two: Justice
o “The Defense of Injustice” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
o “Civil Disobedience” – Henry David Thoreau
o “Declaration of Sentiments” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton
o “Letter from Birmingham Jail” –Martin Luther King Jr.
o “A Theory of Justice” – John Rawls
o “The Central Human Functional Capabilities” – Martha C. Nussbaum
Part One: Government
o “Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching” – Lao-tze
o “The Qualities of the Prince” – Niccolo Machiavelli
o “The Origin of Civil Society” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
o “The Declaration of Independence” – Thomas Jefferson
o “The Greatest Danger, the State” – Jose Ortega Y Gasset
o “Ideal Democracy” – Carl Becker
o “Total Domination” – Hannah Arendt
Everything’s an Argument
 Chapter 6 – “Structuring Arguments”
 Chapter 12 – “Style in Writing”
Novel: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave – Frederick Douglass (summer
reading)
o “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” – Frederick Douglass
o “The Lessons of the Hours: Why is the Negro Lynched?” – Frederick Douglass
Assessments:
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One (1) Carrousel discussion based on analysis of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Three (3) short writes: brief responses to statements made by famous writers
One (1) argument analysis jigsaw discussion of three texts, with synthesis questions (topic: Justice)
One (1) synthesis assertion essay, incorporating statements from famous writers in different time periods
(topic: Justice)
Rhetorical analysis exercises (visual and prose text)
Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises (Sentences Composing for College)
Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
Three (3) timed writings: rhetorical analysis
2nd 9 Weeks – Deepening of Rhetorical Strategies and Imitation of Argument
Required Readings
The Language of Composition
Chapter 6 – Community
 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” – Martin Luther King
 “Where I Lived, and What I Lived for – Henry David Thoreau
 “All Happy Clans Are Alike: In Search of the Good Family” – Jane Howard
 “The New Community” – Amitai Etzioni
 “Commencement Speech at Mount Holyoke College” – Anna Quindlen
 “Walking the Path Between Worlds” – Lori Arviso Alvord
 “New York Day Women” – Edwidge Danticat
Chapter 13 – Politics
 “On Seeing England for the First Time” – Jamaica Kincaid
 “A Modest Proposal” – Jonathan Swift
 “The Destruction of Culture” – Chris Hedges
 “National Prejudices” – Oliver Goldsmith
 “Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid” - Virginia Woolf
 “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” – Henry David Thoreau
 “Every Dictator’s Nightmare” – Wole Soyinka
World of Ideas
Part Three: Individual
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“Self-Reliance” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Individualism and the Intellectuals” – Emile Durkheim
“Of Our Spiritual Strivings” – W. E. B. Du Bois
“The Individual and the Pattern of Culture” – Ruth Benedict
“The Individual in the Chains of Illusion” – Erich Fromm
Everything’s an Argument
 Chapter 11 – “Proposals”
 Chapter 9 – “Evaluations”
 Chapter 8 – “Arguments of Definition”
 Chapter 17 – “Fallacies of Argument”
Novel: Walden – Thoreau
Assessments
 Two (2) timed writings: argument
 One (1) timed writing: rhetorical analysis
 Three (3) assertion short writes: brief responses to statements made by famous writers (annotation)
 One précis of a criticism on “Self-Reliance” by Emerson
 Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
 Essay: Argument of Proposal (approximately 1000 – 1500)
 Essay: Argument of Evaluation (approximately 1000 – 1500)
 Semester Exam (multiple-choice, argument timed writing, annotation)
Second Semester
3rd 9 Weeks – Argument: Using Personal Experience as Evidence,
Required Readings
The Language of Composition
Chapter 10 Science and Technology
o “The Bird and the Machine” – Loren Eiseley
o “The Method of Scientific Investigation” –T.H. Huxley
o “The Reach of Imagination” – Jacob Bronowski
o “The Future of Happiness” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
o “The Blank Slate” – Steven Pinker
o “Silence and the Notion of the Commons” – Ursula Franklin
o “Into the Electronic Millennium” – Sven Kirkerts
o “Transsexual Frogs” – Elizabeth Royte
Chapter 4 – Education
o “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” – Francine Prose
o From Education – Ralph Waldo Emerson
o “Superman and Me” – Sherman Alexie
o “Best in Class” – Margaret Talbot
o “A Talk to Teachers” – James Baldwin
o “School” – Kyoko
o “Eleven” – Sandra Cisneros
World of Ideas
Part Six: Nature
o “The Four Idols” – Francis Bacon
o “Natural Selection” – Charles Darwin
o “The Sunless Sea” – Rachel Carson
o “Nonmoral Nature” – Stephen Jay Gould
o “The Mystery of Dark Matter” – Michio Kaku
o “Genetic Engineering” – Francis Fukuyama
Everything’s an Argument
Chapter 19 – Evaluating and Using Sources
Chapter 20 – Documenting Sources
Novels: Choose from:
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Angela’s Ashes
Othello
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When I Was Puerto Rican
Burro Genius
Hunger of Memory
Assessments
 Three (3) assertion short writes: brief responses to statements made by famous writers (annotation)
 One (1) timed writing: synthesis writing
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises (Sentences Composing for College)
 Ten-entry writer’s notebook
 One (1) personal essay (500 – 1000)
 Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
 Research paper (typed, MLA citation)
Second Semester
4th 9 Weeks
World of Ideas
Part 7 – Ethics and Morality
“The Aim of Man” – Aristotle
“Morality as Anti-Nature – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Morality and Religion” – Iris Murdoch
“The Land Ethic” – Aldo Leopold
“The Ethics of Eating Meat” – Peter Singer and Jim Mason
Part 5 – Mind
“The Allegory of the Cave” – Plato
“Fourth Meditation: Of Truth and Error” – Rene Descartes
“The Oedipus Complex” – Sigmund Freud
“The Personal and the Collective Unconscious” – Carl Jung
“A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences” – Howard Gardner
“Thinking Machines” – Steven Pinker
“Neuroscience – The New Philosophy” – V. S. Ramachandran
The Language of Composition
Chapter 11 – Popular Culture
“High-school Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies” – David Denby
“Corn=Pone Opinions” – Mark Twain
“Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic” – Brent Staples
“We Talk, You Listen” – Vine Deloria
“Dreaming America” – Danyel Smith
“Show and Tell” (graphic essay) – Scott McCloud
“Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 is a Chorus without a Hook, A Movie without and
Ending”
Assessments
 College Research Argument (synthesis writing, 1500 words)
 Research paper (typed, MLA-citation)
 Three (3) assertion short writes: brief responses to statements made by famous writers (annotation)
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises (Sentences Composing for College)
 One (1) timed writing: rhetorical analysis
 One (1) timed writing: synthesis
 Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
 Major Activities/Learning Experiences:
The student will be able to:
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analyze the basic syntax of a sentence, emphasizing coordination and subordination in order to enable
them to see differences in meaning, focus, and rhythm by reviewing various prose compositions and their
own writing.
 participate in unstructured or directed sentence combining exercises to increase the syntactic complexity
in student essays producing sophisticated structures like the absolute phrase and other participle
constructions.
 imitate the work of established authors, making note of the major features of an author’s style and the
effects on the reader and the message.
 write brief analyses of how content and rhetoric interact in their classmates’ work.
 read selected prose and analyze rhetorical and stylistic strategies authors use to convey meaning through
timed writings.
 demonstrate an understanding of a literary term by creating visual products and finding real-world
examples of those terms.
 use a rubric to evaluate his/her writing as well as the writing of others.
 write essays which clearly and effectively satisfy a given purpose and are targeted toward a specific
audience.
 define and utilize specific literary terms in their analyses of works of literature.
 read, summarize, and analyze selected works.
Materials/Resources:
 The Language of Literature
 The Language of Composition
 Novels such as The Scarlet Letter, the Metamorphosis, Huckleberry Finn, and others.
 Killgallon’s Sentence Composing
 Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary
 Op-Ed pieces from various newspapers
 Specific passages from texts such as The Bedford Reader, Short Essays for Composition, and Everything’s
an Argument.
Absences:
 AP students must strive to keep absences to a minimum. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to
contact me next day to collect work. You have two days for every absence to turn in and collect the
work. If you are absent for more than two days, contact me before or after school to get the work and
receive more detailed instructions. If you know you are going to be absent, please let me know so that I
can get the work to you as quickly as possible.
Late Work:
Each nine weeks a student receives two late passes that he/she is able to use on specific assignments. Each
late pass allows you to turn in an assignment up to two days late. Late passes are not accepted on tests,
research projects, presentations, or major essays. As a reward, students who complete their work on time
and do not need to use the late passes can submit them at any time for an added one point (per late pass)
added to your average for any nine week period. Late passes are not replaceable. If you lose it, you must
hand-copy it from a peer and submit it. I keep track of the passes you turn in and only accept two per nine
week period. You can save them from the first nine weeks to the second nine weeks and from the third to the
fourth nine weeks. They do not roll over from semester to semester.
Class Participation: We will be reading various works and studying different pieces and it is imperative that you
participate as actively as possible. Not only does this allow you to develop listening and critical thinking skills, but
it makes the class much more dynamic as you come to know each other and learn more about yourself and the
issue by hearing different opinions and takes on a subject.
Out of Class Readings:
 You will be expected to read various works on your own time outside of class. You will receive a reading
schedule to pace you and will take an examination after each work. You will be expected to monitor your
own reading comprehension as we move along by whatever method works for you. I will provide study
questions as guiding points as you read the work. These count for grades and are designed to help you
identify some of the more important aspects of the work.
Time Management:
 Please keep in mind that you will more than likely need to devote one hour to this class a night for
homework, preparation for class discussions, and work not completed in class.
Cheating:
 Cheating is not only ethically wrong and will get you nowhere, but is also not tolerated. Cheating on any
assignment in this class be it a vocabulary assignment or study questions for a novel will earn you a failing
grade for the assignment.
Class Rules:
We have many things to accomplish this year which will be easier if we think of ourselves as a group working
towards individual and class goals. In order to accomplish these goals, we must all abide by the following basic
rules.
1. Be prompt. S.A.I.S.D tardy policy will be strictly enforced. No exceptions.
2. Be prepared and ready to go once the bell rings. Always bring materials to classes.
3. Come to class with the right attitude and a willingness to learn.
4. Respect your instructor and your peers by not talking while I am speaking or while anyone else is speaking.
Everyone will have a chance to be heard and to voice their opinions.
5. Demonstrate appropriate behavior at all times. In appropriate conduct is rarely a problem in AP III. However,
should you choose to act inappropriately, I will warn you about it once. Seating may be changed, a conference
with the student and instructor will be held, or a parent may be contacted. If you continue to misbehave, I will
mark “Behavior disrupts learning” on your report card which will reflect negatively on you when you apply to
universities. Do not risk this. In extreme cases, you will be referred to an administrator for appropriate action.
6. Come to class in S.A.I.S.D. dress code. This means wearing the right color shirt (and undershirt) and the right
color pants. No flip flops or piercings allowed. No hats or hoodies are to worn in class.
7. No cell phones will be used in class unless the instructor notifies you that it is a TECHNOLOGY DAY. Phones, CD
players and IPODS and any other electronic devices will be confiscated. I should not see any phones or devices on
your desk even if they are turned off. If you choose to violate the school policy on electronics, the school
consequences will be carried out.
8. Actively participate. As this is an Advanced Placement course, it is expected that students complete all
assignments and participate in all class discussions, presentations, and activities.
Criteria for Assignments:
 Accuracy
 Content
 Writing Style
 Effectiveness
 Organization
 Depth of commentary
 AP quality work (work that is not AP quality will not be accepted).
 Neat and legible (work that cannot be read will be returned to you ungraded).
Hours for Assistance:
 I am available for tutoring every Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:15 – 5:00 p.m. If at any time you have a
question, do not understand an assignment, or want to discuss a given work, please make arrangements
before or after class to meet with me. Your success in this class is based largely on how much of yourself
you are willing to commit to the coursework. Parents may call 533-8144 to schedule a conference. My
conference period is fifth period.
Teacher Resources
Course Texts:
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American
Slave. New York: Signet Classic 2005.
Jacobus, Lee A. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. 8th ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.
Killgallon, Don. Sentence Composing for High School Students.
Lunsford, Andrea A. and Ruszkiewicz, John J. Everything’s an
Argument. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.
Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlon, and Aufses, Robin Dissin. The Language of
Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden; or, Life in the Woods. New York: Dover
Publications, Inc., 1995.
Course Supplements
Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2004.
College Board. AP English Course Description. New York: The College Board, 2007.
Dean, Nancy. Voice Lessons—Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone. Gainsville: Maupin House, 2000.