Syllabus
AP Language and Composition.
Joan Snyder
Mountain View High School, Mesa, Arizona
Overview
Enrollment: any 11th grade student who has completed the advanced sophomore
English program, and any other student who is willing to work to his
potential and achieve beyond the state’s minimum standards. AP classes
are open to anyone who is motivated and willing to work hard. Students
who have not completed the advanced sophomore program are encouraged
to take their American Literature requirement during summer school prior
to his junior year.
Class Size:
Between 25 – 30 students.
Evaluation: Daily Assignments:
15%
Reading guides
Graded Discussions
Imitation Exercises
Daily work
Self Assessment
Vocabulary:
15%
Exercises
Tests
Performance:
60%
Essays
Research
Projects
Tests
Final Exam:
10%
Timed Essay
Critical Reading
Vocabulary, terms
Points are converted to percentages which are then translated into letter grades using a
standard scale. 100%-90% = A etc.
First Quarter - Getting students ready for academic rigor.
Close Reading:
Teaching students to read critically by receiving direct instruction in:
annotating
interacting with the text
dealing with denotation and connotation
how to make an inference
making connections
summarizing
by identifying (STAMP) :
S.
subject
T.
tone
A.
audience
P
purpose
M.
message
 Students use the above techniques and strategies to read a text for the whole
meaning and for specific information. Graded discussions revolve around these
strategies and their effect on the passage and meaning using following selections:
Being A Man
Paul Theroux
The Cosmic Prison
Loren Eisley
On Compassion
Barbara Ascher
Some Dreamers of The Golden Dream
Joan Didion
Why I Write
Joan Didion
Politics and the English Language
George Orwell
Allegory of The Cave
Plato
Once More To The Lake
White

We also read Machiavelli’s The Prince. Students fill in a ‘cloze’ procedure study
guide. We also have both whole class and small group discussions once a week
as they are reading. Students take a teacher-generated multiple choice, short
answer, true/false test at the end of the unit.
Writing:
 Their first in-class writing assignments are graded using the A.P. 9 point rubric
which is stapled to every essay. Each essay has a great deal of written feedback
on it by the teacher. Since writing is thinking made visible, rather than just asking
them to rewrite the essays, I ask them to analyze what they can do to improve and
then write a 1 page report. This process forces them to meta cognitively think
about their own writing skills and their own thinking processes. Students can also
rewrite some of their essays provided that they incorporate those changes that I
have made and include some of their own revisions too. All changes and
revisions are highlighted and submitted with the original.

We study past students essays and begin to model the way students can move
beyond the formulaic 5-paragraph essays. We also study professional essays to
understand unity and inherent organization.
 We also study and copy passages from professional writers and then, in writing
journals, imitate those passages. This study includes the identification and
analysis of the way writers develop coherence, diction, tone and sentence variety.
Specific Assignments include:
 An “Invention” piece that goes through the writing process of prewriting,
drafting and editing. There are also past student models that we look at
and analyze as a class. At each stage students are given teacher feedback
and writing group feedback too. This piece introduces students to
narrowing topics, using what they already know, and ways to develop
complexity in their own writing. Each graded paper comes back to the
student with written feedback from the teacher. Students also have the
opportunity to rewrite the paper again using the same process as before.
This means that they practice good writing skills and can see how their
papers have changed from the beginning to the end of the writing process.
 A descriptive essay in which students chose some scene that they know
well and then write about that scene using the 5 senses. We focus on
introductions, conclusions, voice, sentence variety and creating mood.
This paper also goes through the prewriting stages, a draft and editing.
The paper is also returned with written feedback from the teacher.
Students have the chance to rewrite their papers thus reinforcing good
writing skills.
Rhetoric:
 Diction, denotation, connotation, syntax and repetition, tone and mood.
Grammar and Usage:
 Subject verb agreement, pronoun antecedents, clauses, phrases,
subordination, and coordination.
Vocabulary:
 A continuation of the vocabulary program that is used in advanced
sophomore English. We include lists of rhetorical terms and high
frequency words on the SAT. Tests are given weekly and are cumulative
so there is a continual review of words and terms. They also include a
critical reading portion. When the tests are given back on Mondays, the
critical reading portion of the test is reviewed and discussed by the whole
class.
Graded Discussions:
 After an assigned reading, each piece is discussed in a whole group
discussion. This allows the teacher to direct the discussion and show
students the different strategies that professional writers use. At first
students just react emotionally to the writing, by using such ideas that the
‘writer tries to draw the reader in’ etc. By the end of the semester, the
discussion is much more academic and students refer to the text to support
their points. Everyone is required to add to the conversation. It’s an idea
that I got from Chris Baldwin at one of his conferences.
Fiction and Independent Project
 Students chose a pre-1900 novel and fill in the short-form response guide
borrowed from, again, Chris Baldwin. The day they turn in those short
forms, they write an in-class essay as a response to a unique question that
pertains to their novel. Each essay is graded according to the AP rubric
and has teacher feedback. These essays cannot be rewritten.
Second Quarter: refining skills
Close Reading
 We continue reading and analyzing professional examples using our
STAMP process focusing a lot more on tone. I provide a list of 100
effective adjectives along with several short passages. Students work
together and independently to analyze the passages.
 I introduce timed Multiple Choice Tests to encourage students to become
comfortable with close reading under time constraints.
 I present the different rhetorical modes and focus on compare/contrast by
using former AP test models. Students learn to analyze an essay in terms
of an adjacent piece.
Specific Assignments include:
The Man without a Face
Royko
The Chase
Dillard
Modest Proposal
Swift
Shooting An Elephant
Hemingway
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Sedaris
Sis! Boom! Bah!
Reilly


We also read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Students fill in a ‘cloze’
procedure study guide. We also have both whole class and small group
discussions one a week as they are reading. They take a teacher generated
multiple choice, short answer, true/false test at the end of the unit.
Students study W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming, at the same time and we discuss
and relate that poem and its images and themes to Achebe’s novel
Writing
 We continue to strengthen our understanding and writing of authentic essays.
We continue our analysis of complementary passages using AP Prompts and inclass timed writing assignments.
AP Prompt
Steinbeck
 I introduce the terms synthesis and speculation and encourage students to think of
them as requirements for good writing.
 We also begin to write a synthesis, comparative literature essay. This brings
together the ideas in Machiavelli’s The Prince and the plot and characters of Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart. It is a completely supervised essay and goes through all the
prewriting steps of brainstorming, outlining, rough drafting and editing. This happens
both as a whole class, for direct instruction and editing, individual coaching and small
groups for brainstorming and pre-outlining. This essay is completed, but not graded
before the end of the first semester. Students can rewrite this essay after it has been
submitted to me and coached side by side. Students sign up for this activity throughout
the second semester coming in both before school and during lunch.
 I introduce the 40 minute essay. We spend time dissecting prompts and
discussing ways to go about addressing it. At the beginning, I discuss one day,
and then hand out a clean copy on the next day and have the students write on the
same prompt. As the semester progresses students work under increasing time
limitations until we finally get to the 40 minute essay. By the end of the
semester we have moved on to ‘cold prompts’ All essays are scored using the AP
9 point rubric, and all essays have hand-written, teacher feedback on them.
 We continue copying passages, and imitating style. Students continue working
and interacting with the professional examples in their writing journals
Rhetoric
more in-depth tone and syntax analysis
Grammar and usage
transitions, parallel structure, placement for emphasis, sentence variety and voice
activities include imitation exercises now
Graded Discussions
We continue these, though less frequently, and use them as a means to analyze
and discuss ideas about passages. We apply the terms and techniques that we
have been studying to the passages. Very often students make connections
between the pieces, and begin to add depth to their own knowledge.
Vocabulary
The weekly tests continue to review continually and also give students valuable
practice at critical reading passages. Literary terms are also added into the mix.
Fiction and Independent Project:
Students choose a post 1900 novel from a list. The “quotes Project” means that
they must identify ten significant passages in addition to the one “Quote of the
Novel” as they read. Their written project includes an explication of each passage
and its significance to theme or character, as well as a letter to me about how they
enjoyed reading so closely. By the time they are done, they really begin to value
the close reading process.
This paper is graded in a student teacher conference. We look at strengths and
weaknesses which help students be able to evaluate their own writing and identify
areas that need improvement.
-
Second Semester: strengthening weaknesses and building on strengths
By the end of the first semester students accept the responsibility for their own learning
and are recognizing both weaknesses and strengths in their own reading and writing
skills. Now it’s up to all of us to find ways to strengthen the weaknesses and build on the
strengths.
Close Reading and Writing
We continue copying passages and imitating style in our writing journals.
Coaching of the Machiavelli/Achebe essay continues before lunch and after school.
I spend the semester helping students to understand and discover nuances of language.
We learn about compare/contrast, satire, argument versus persuasion and dated language.
Specific Assignments include:
Compare/Contrast
 Direct instruction on various methods of comparing and contrasting. In-depth
analysis of several pieces, both student and professional as we move toward a
timed writing.
Lee and Grant
Catton
White Buffalo Woman vs. Artemis
Sioux & Greek Myths
Two Ways to Belong In America
Mukherjee
Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood
Aria
Meditation 17
Donne
Released AP prompts:
Audubon/Dillard – birds
Okefenokee Swamp
Dickens/Austen marriage proposals
Coca Cola Essay It’s The Real Thing
Satire
 Direct instruction on the strategies, purpose and tools of satire.
Swift
A Modest Proposal
 Students write the essay and then we go through the released AP essays and grade
them – stronger-than-week, weaker-than-strong on the AP Reader scale. Students
rate their own essays and then write a compare/contrast, 1 page analysis between
their own paper and the student test examples A whole-class discussion allows
them to see the details they might have missed and also lets them add their own
observations to the conclusion.
We conclude with a 40 minuted timed writing on a released AP prompt:
On Seeing England for the First Time
Kincaid
Persuasion
 I introduce students to visual arguments. We analyze visuals such as pictures,
editorial cartoons and graphs to determine message before comparing them to
same-subject written passages and evaluating the effectiveness, and persuasive
strategies of each of each.



I introduce the strategies of persuasion and propaganda as well as logical
fallacies. Students bring in advertisements and label the different propaganda
appeals. We then discuss those ads as a class.
I go into speeches for persuasion and they read and analyze speeches. This
includes practicing all the skills they have learned for close, critical reading. and
answering both rhetorical questions identifying propaganda and persuasive
strategies on the speeches.
Inaugural speech
J.F. Kennedy
Concession speech
Al Gore
th
4 phillipic against Mark Antony
Cicero
A New Beginning
Barbara Jordan
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln
Reply to The Government
Chief Seattle
I Have A Dream
M.L. King
Students choose a topic and write their own 3 minute speech using some of the
persuasive strategies that they have studied. After the test, they deliver (just read)
their speech to the whole class.
Argumentation
 I introduce argumentation as a hybrid of persuasion.
 Students write a paper that synthesizes different sources of information, and
critical analyzes the issue they have chosen to focus on. This includes both
written sources and visual sources.
 Students chose a controversial, current topic and do research over a 3-day in the
library. I am available at all times for consultation during the process.
 This is, again, a teacher directed and coached multi-step writing process. There is
teacher feedback at every step of the process.
 This is an 8 page research paper that includes a correct Works Cited/Consulted
page.
 There is direct instruction on including documenting quotes, summaries and
paraphrases, as well as how to set up a works cited page.
 Brainstorming to an annotated bibliography, to outlining, to 2 drafts and editing
and revising.
 Students have to include a graph in the paper, and must use a visual source as one
of their sources.
 This year the topics included: stem cell research, global warming, the legalization
of marijuana, the effect of video gaming and affirmative action.
 Papers are returned with written teacher feed back and may be rewritten for a
higher grade
Dated language
We read and discuss the first piece and then discuss the multiple choice questions and
answers
Specific Assignments include:
Life of Samuel Johnson
Boswel
l
AP Prompts
Lord Chesterfields Letter to his son
Lady Mary Wortley Montague’s letter to her daughter
Charles Lamb’s letter to William Wordsworth
Timed essay:
Sir George Saville’s apology for Charles I
Multiple Choice tests
 In preparation for the multiple choice tests, I provide several short passages from
released exams as well as passages from the conferences that I have attended that
ask students not only answer the questions, but also to annotate and indicate
where in the passage the found evidence for the answer. I pair students and ask
them to complete this activity. We have whole-class discussions about correct
answers, and spend time asking students who got the answers correct to tell the
rest of the class how they went about it. This meta cognitive activity really helps
students who are not quite as quick at multiple choice testing.
 Students practice multiple choice tests.
Vocabulary
 Students continue to take tests that cumulate past tests and also include critical
reading excerpts. This finishes the continuation of the study they began at the
beginning of their sophomore year. However, there is less focus on vocabulary
now and more focus on test preparation.
Writing
 Students also complete a “This I Believe” Essay. This is modeled on the NPR
program and hooked into the Global Youth Fund’s This I Believe Essay Project.
Students brainstorm, but they do not outline the essay. There is one rough draft
which is heavily edited, this time, for voice. They have student models available
for them to read. Students then have to upload their essays on line along with a
photograph and a short bio. The results are printed up by the students and posted
on a bulletin board outside my room.
 Students also produce, as a final project after the AP test, a writing portfolio.
Students are encouraged to revise for a final time. The portfolio includes:
3 of their best timed writings
descriptive essay
invention piece
description essay
research paper
comparative literature - Machiavelli/Achebe paper
RESOURCES
Course Text
Orgel, Joseph R., Ph.D. Building an Enriched Vocabulary. New York: Sadlier-Oxford,
1999.
Student References
Bloom, Lynn A., ed. The Lexington Reader. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and
Company, 1987.
Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2004
Cooley, Thomas. The Norton Sampler.New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979
MLA Handbook
Roskelly, Hephzibah, and David A. Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading
and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
Teacher References
Bloom, Lynn A., ed. The Lexington Reader. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and
Company, 1987.
Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2004
Cooley, Thomas. The Norton Sampler.New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979
MLA Handbook
Roskelly, Hephzibah, and David A. Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading
and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
White, Fred D., and Simone J. Billings. The Well-Crafted Argument. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company 2005.
Yagelski, Robert P., and Robert K. Miller. The Informed Argument. 6th ed. Boston:
Wadsworth, 2004.