AP English Language and Composition Syllabus
Jane Bowden
Goose Creek High School
AP Language and Composition Curricular Requirements
CR 1: This course teaches students to write in several forms and about a variety of
subjects. The formal writing assignments include narrative, argumentative, analysis, and
synthesis.
CR 2: At the beginning of the course, emphasis is placed on development of
comprehensive thesis statements, as well as topic sentences. Students work on
prewriting, which includes thesis statements, topic sentences, quotations from the text, as
well as notes on sources where appropriate. Rough drafts of major essay assignments are
evaluated through peer review before the final deadline. The teacher indicates areas
needing improvement by circling the problem areas, questioning, and writing a brief
narrative to each student. As the year progresses, more emphasis will be placed on peer
and self-editing, and the teacher will indicate problem areas in the students’ writings as
needed.
CR 3: A great deal of writing will take place in informal situations in this course. Some
examples include responses to literature and nonfiction studied in class as well as a class
journal.
CR 4: The writing covers a variety of types, including narrative, argumentative,
analytical, and synthesis. These writings are often based on the reading of a wide variety
of prose styles and genres.
CR 5: A large portion of this class will include the reading and analysis of nonfiction
pieces. These selections will include essays, speeches, articles, memoirs, and letters.
CR 6: Graphics and visual images are used to relate to written texts when appropriate.
Students will analyze advertisements, excerpts from documentaries and films, as well as
cartoons and graphic novels.
CR 7: This course teaches research skills, and in particular, the ability to evaluate, use,
and cite primary and secondary sources. Although the primary research unit is in the 3rd
nine weeks synthesis project, research will be conducted on a smaller scale within each
unit of study.
CR 8: MLA style is used in this course and is taught in detail in preparation for the
synthesis project. Students will be held accountable for both MLA style and
documentation throughout the year.
CR 9: Students will receive feedback on their writing in this course. I will complete
guided revision as well as one-on-one conferencing with each student. In addition, I am
available several days a week outside of class to help students with any area of difficulty.
Finally, all of my comments on graded assignments are geared toward revision. The
portfolio at the end of the year showcases most of the graded writing assignments as well
as student revision.
Writing will be assessed using AP style scoring guides. These assessments will also include
direct instruction on the following writing skills: Content, Organization, Voice, Word Choice,
Fluency, and Conventions.
1st quarter—Introduction to Close Reading and Rhetoric
Lessons will include the following:
Definitions and examples of rhetorical devices
Parallelism and repetition
Allusions and analogies
Embedding quotes
Introduce SOAPS (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, and Speaker)
Evaluating rhetoric in advertising CR6
Everything’s an Argument Chapter 13 (Style in Arguments) and Chapter 1 (Everything is an
Argument)
Multiple Choice AP passages
Anonymous Paper Swap and Peer Revision CR9
Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics
Documenting using MLA format CR8
PSAT Prep
Writing Assignments—CR1
Major multi-draft essay topic—Narrative essay with an epiphany (This assignment is used
primarily for diagnostic purposes.) CR2
Your assignment is to write a personal narrative about an epiphany you have experienced. You
may write about any event or moment in your life in which you had a suddenly realization about
the essence, truth, or meaning or something (exceptions: you may not write about Santa Claus,
the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, or any other similar character or story—be original and write
about something that is unique to you!). Choose something that you remember well and that is
meaningful to you.
Timed writings and student examination of sample essays—Focus on argument. CR4
Years of AP questions and topics will include several of the following:
Reading selections will include several of the following: CR5
Nonfiction
Abraham Lincoln “Gettysburg Address”
John Donne “No Man is an Island”
Ronald Reagan “Challenger Speech”
Elie Wiesel “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech”
Markus Zusak The Book Thief
Thomas Paine “The Crisis”
Chief Joseph “I will fight no more forever”
Winston Churchill “We shall fight them on the beaches”
Fiction
Walt Whitman “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed”
Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God
2nd quarter—Deepening Appreciation of Rhetorical Strategies; Introduction to Analysis
Lessons will include the following:
Everything’s an Argument Chapters 2, 3, & 4
Introduce Logos, Ethos, and Pathos
Multiple Choice AP passages
Rhetorical Précis
Allusions, foreign phrases, and literary terms
Grammar, usage, and mechanics
Using primary and secondary sources CR7
MLA format CR8
Anonymous paper swap and Peer Revision CR9
Writing Assignments—CR1
Students will write in both informal and formal contexts to gain authority and learn to take risks
in writing. Journal keeping, collaborative writing, and multi-draft revised essays will all be a part
of the AP Language class.
All classes will begin with the reading of the class journal. CR3
Major multi-draft essay topic—Rhetorical analysis of a speech. Students will select a speech that
we haven’t studied in class and write a well-organized and well-written analysis of the speaker’s
rhetoric. CR2
Timed writings and student examination of sample essays in the 2nd quarter will focus on
analysis. CR4
Reading selections will include several of the following: CR5
Nonfiction
Martin Luther King “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Abraham Lincoln “Address in Independence Hall” Feb 1861
Frederick Douglass “What to the Slave is the 4th of July”
Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Video “The Life and Times of Nelson Mandela” www.nelsonmandela.org
William Ernest Henley “Invictus”
Theodore Roosevelt “The Man in the Arena”
Alice McGill Molly Bannaky CR6
Fiction
Alan Paton Cry the Beloved Country
Excerpt from film Invictus CR6
3rd quarter—Understanding and Developing Synthesis
Lessons will include the following:
Multiple Choice AP passages
Allusions, foreign phrases, and literary terms
Grammar, usage, and mechanics
Using primary and secondary sources CR7
Anonymous paper swap and Peer Revision CR9
Focus on research will include activities from Part IV of Everything’s an Argument (Finding
Evidence, Evaluating Sources, Using Sources, Plagiarism and Academic Integrity, and
Documenting Sources) CR7
Timed writings and student examination of sample essays—Focus on synthesis (Question 1 on
AP exam) CR4
Writing Assignments CR1
Students will write in both informal and formal contexts to gain authority and learn to take risks
in writing. Journal keeping, collaborative writing, and multi-draft revised essays will all be a part
of the AP Language class. Timed writings and student examination of sample essays in the 2nd
quarter will focus on synthesis. CR4
Casebook— Contemporary life is marked by controversy. Choose a controversial local, national,
or global issue with which you are familiar. Create your own synthesis question. Then, you will
research this controversy. Gather a variety of sources, including written, auditory, or visual that
address this topic. Make sure that you include a variety of opinions as well as a variety of
sources. CR6, CR7
Annotated bibliography—Complete an annotated bibliography in MLA format, including
summary and evaluation of each source. CR8
Essay on synthesis topic— Then, using appropriate evidence, write a well-organized and well
written essay that carefully considers the opposing positions on this controversy and proposes a
solution or compromise. CR2, CR4
Reading selections will include several of the following: CR5
Nonfiction
Stephanie Hanes “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” p 482
Skip Hollandsworth “Toddlers in Tiaras” p 490
Jack Shakley “Indian Mascots—You’re Out!” p 520
Michael Martinez Chicago Tribune “Yuma High School Criminals”
Eric Mortenson “A Diversified Farm Prospers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley” p 691
Christopher Pelletier “The Locavore’s Dilemma” p 703
Lisa W. Foderaro “The Well-to-Do Get Less So, and Teenagers Feel the Crunch” p 823
Laurence Shatkin “Education Pays, but Perhaps Less Than You Thought” p 854
John Marsh “Why Education is not an Economic Panacea” p 912
Fiction
Selections from Khaled Hosseini
Poetry from www.rawa.org.
4th quarter
Understanding and Developing Argument; Focused Preparation for AP exam, and
applying to college
Lessons will include the following:
Multiple Choice AP passages
Allusions, foreign phrases, and literary terms
Grammar, usage, and mechanics
Satire
Making a visual argument: Cartoon and Stereotypes (p 531-534 in Everything’s an Argument)
CR6
Using primary and secondary sources CR7
Anonymous paper swap and Peer Revision CR9
Writing Assignments CR1
Students will write in both informal and formal contexts to gain authority and learn to take risks
in writing. Journal keeping, collaborative writing, and multi-draft revised essays will all be a part
of the AP Language class. Timed writings and student examination of sample essays in the 4th
quarter will focus on final preparation for the AP exam. All classes will begin with the reading
of the class journal. CR3
Major multi-draft essay—Students will complete an essay for a college application. These essays
will be based on the Common Application which is available online. (www.commonapp.org)
CR2
Timed writings and student examination of sample essays—Focus on all three questions
(Argument, Analysis, and Synthesis) Topics covered will be selections listed above that weren’t
covered in the previous three quarters. CR4
Reading selections will include several of the following: CR5
Nonfiction
“Big Brother versus Little Brother” and “Little Brother is Watching”
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10
Mark Twain “The Presidential Candidate”
Jonathan Swift “A Modest Proposal”
William Lutz. “Doublespeak.”
Fiction
George Orwell 1984
Shelley, Percy Bysshe “Ozymandius”
Yeats, William Butler “The Second Coming.”
A 20th century novel of the students’ choosing (with teacher and parent approval)
Student Evaluation--Students will be evaluated on the basis of major papers, homework, quality
and character of class participation and involvement, quizzes on readings and lessons, and AP
style writing prompts. The class will meet every other day on the A/B schedule throughout the
school year. The grading scale in Berkeley County Schools is as follows:
A 93-100
D 70-76
B 85-92
F 0-69
C 77-84
Within the course, the percentages toward the final grade will be as follows:
Daily work = 20 %
Quizzes and minor projects = 30 % Major grades =50%