AP Language and Composition
T. Strickland
2015-2016 Course Syllabus
Term 3
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a wide variety of college-level reading,
writing, and analysis. Students are to be aware of the rigorous nature of an AP English course; reading
and writing assignments will be extensive and frequent. It is common to be working on two or three
different assignments at once. Deep thoughtfulness, analysis, effort, and regular attendance are
expected and required for success in this course. This is a college-level course, and I expect that
students who take this course will reflect respect for the teacher, the course, and other students.
Additionally, do not assume that high grades received in previous upper-caliber classes will guarantee an
A in this class; a strong work ethic and a commitment to growing as a learner is necessary. Students
should expect a challenging workload including daily readings, written responses, long-term reading and
writing assignments, projects that develop comprehension of required concepts and skills, and in-class
discussions concerning author’s purpose, usage of resources of language, tone, and awareness of
audience.
This course engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods,
disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Through reading selected works, students’ writing and reading
should make them aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and
subjects as well as how generic conventions and resources of language contribute to the effectiveness of
writing. Much of class discussions and activities will focus on the author’s technique, meaning, and
expression of ideas. All required readings promote student awareness of writers’ rhetorical choice,
purpose, and audience awareness. Students are expected to have a firm knowledge of grammar, syntax,
and paragraph structures taught in previous English classes as an effort to build upon and strengthen
prior knowledge to reach a more complex understanding of the effect of language on a piece of writing.
Most of our readings will be from that of the nonfiction genre; however, we will study literature from
various time periods and genres.
Advanced Placement Curriculum Requirements
The College Board outlines the following curricular requirements for a course to be designated as
Advanced Placement:
C1. The course teaches and requires students to write in several forms (e.g., narrative, expository,
analytical, and argumentative essays) about a variety of subjects.
C2. The course requires students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with
revision aided by teacher and peers.
C3. The course requires students to write in informal contexts (e.g., journal keeping, collaborative
writing, and in-class responses) designed to help them become increasingly aware of themselves as
writers and of the techniques employed by the writers they read.
C4. The course requires expository, analytical, and argumentative writing assignments that are based on
readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres.
C5. The course requires nonfiction readings (e.g., essays, journalism, political writing,
autobiographies/biographies, diaries, history, and criticism) that are selected to give students
opportunities to identify and explain an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques. When
fiction and poetry are assigned, their main purpose should be to help students understand how various
effects are achieved by writers’ linguistic and rhetorical choices.
C6. The course teaches students to analyze how graphics and visual images both relate to written texts
and serve as alternative forms of text themselves.
C7. The course teaches such research skills as the ability to evaluate, use, and cite primary and
secondary sources. The course assigns projects such as the researched argument paper, which goes
beyond the parameters of a traditional research paper by asking students to present an argument of
their own that includes the analysis and synthesis of ideas from an array of sources.
C8. The course teaches students how to cite sources using a recognized editorial style (e.g., Modern
Language Association, The Chicago Manual of Style).
C9.
The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before
and after students revise their work, that helps the students develop these skills:
a.
A wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively
b.
A variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination
c.
Logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition,
transitions, and emphasis
d.
A balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail
e.
An effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, an
achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure.
Student Evaluation
Students’ grades will come from objective tests, major compositions, weekly quizzes, daily practice
assignments, major projects, and other activities completed both in and out of class. A student’s
average will be derived from the following:
•
55%
Tests—unit tests, final compositions, major projects
•
35%
Daily—quizzes, practice assignments, homework, composition drafts
•
10%
Term Exam
In compliance with the Biloxi Public School District policy, grades for this course will be awarded as
follows.
•
A = 100-90
•
B = 89-80
•
C = 79-70
•
D = 69-65
•
F = 64 and below
As this is a college level class, late work will not be accepted.
Retest policy- To retest, students must successfully complete a remediation assignment (including after
school tutoring) and retest within 10 days of receiving his or her score on the original test. If, at the
teacher's discretion, a student does not put forth sufficient effort on the original test (turns test in after
a very short length of time, does not appear to have worked through EACH question thoroughly and/or
to the best of the student's ability), the teacher may elect to not allow the student to reteach/retest. All
daily/missed work relating to the test must be complete before the retesting process may begin.
Unit 5: Identity and Issues with Identity
Throughout this unit, students will explore literature from various genres that deal one's identity and
the issues that often accompany identity. Students will be exposed to many different types of writings
of various styles. They will be expected to compose a synthesis essay during this time and complete
released multiple choice questions that relate to this theme.
The synthesis will require the students to cite a minimum of four of the readings that focus on identity.
Students will create a paper that conveys a commonality of identity between all of the sources.
Students will be required to use MLA format. I will conference with the students at two different times
during the writing process. The first one will be during the drafting process when they will need to
identitify the sources they will utilize, and the second time will be during the revision/editing stage. The
final draft will be a minimum of 750 words. *Students are not limited to texts within this unit. If
something that we read previously in the year fits, they may use that source/reading. In this paper, the
sources have been provided to the student, which mirrors the synthesis essay on the AP exam.
Some of the readings/assignments for this unit are the following:
•
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
•
Virginia Woolf, "Shakespeare's Sister"
•
Judith Ortiz Coffer, "The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria"
•
N. Scott Momaday, "The Way to Rainy Mountain"
•
Bharati Mukherjee, "Two Ways to Belong in America"
•
Nancy Mairs, "On Being Cripple
•
Rhetorical analysis of The Great Gatsby
•
Synthesis identity paper
The two readings from Unit 1 (Alexie and Douglas) would also work as strong sources for the synthesis
paper.
Unit 6: Science, Technology, and Nature
This unit will allow students to read and respond to pieces that are related to science, technology, and
nature. Students will complete a series of writings (i.e. introductions, body paragraphs, entire essays)
during this unit that vary in mode to accompany the subject matter.
Science and Technology readings are the following:
•
Russell Baker, "The Plot Against People"
•
Edgar Allen Poe, "Sonnet-To Science"
•
Walt Whitman, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronmer"
•
Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Nature readings are the following:
•
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature
•
Mark Twain, "Two Views of the River"
•
Excerpts from Into the Wild
•
Asher B. Durand, "Kindred Spirits" (painting)