AP Language and
Composition
Mrs. Heidi Hayes
• Core Focus: Developing informed, thoughtful, engaged
citizens.
• Increasing students’ capacity to enter into consequential
conversations with others about meaningful issues and
contribute to the conversations
• Engaging with outside sources in reading, writing, and
research
• Writing is a significant component, but the core skill is the
ability to read well and address questions about the content,
audience, purpose, and strategies used by an author to
convince an audience.
• Read like writers and write like readers.
Course Information
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Be creative and original in your thinking
Always ask why and how do you know for everything
Find evidence to back up everything you say
Think analytically and critically
Notice details that others might skip over
Read carefully and engage with the text
How to Get an A
• Multiple Choice: 52–55 Questions | 60 Minutes | 45% of Exam Score
• All questions based on passages from non-fiction texts
• 4-6 non-fiction texts, at least one pre-1900
• Each excerpt is accompanied by several multiple-choice questions
• Free Response: 3 Prompts | 2 Hours 15 Minutes | 55% of Exam Score
• Synthesis: Students read several texts about a topic and create an
argument that synthesizes at least three of the sources to support their
thesis.
• Rhetorical Analysis: Students read a non-fiction text and analyze how
the writer’s language choices contribute to his or her purpose and
intended meaning for the text.
• Argument: Students create an evidence-based argument that responds
to a given topic.
Test Overview
• Students should always check with their chosen schools
for updated information, but as of August, 2014:
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UVA accepts a 5 for 3 credits
VT accepts a 3 for 3 credits, and 4 or 5 for 6 credits
JMU accepts a 4 or 5 for 3 credits
GMU accepts a 4 for 3 credits or 5 for 6 credits.
AP Credit
• Note: If a student has an IEP, they have to specifically
apply to the College Board to receive their
accommodations on the AP Exam. Check with Guidance
for help with this.
Special Ed
• Email is best: heidi.hayes@lcps.org
• Phone: 571-252-2200 ext. 82038
• The easiest way to speak with me by phone will be to
email me asking for a phone call
• I will respond to emails or phone calls within 24 hours
during school days
Contacting Me
• Follow me on Twitter: @HayesSBHS
• Tweet to #HayesAPLang if you like
• Edmodo.com, Group Code: zgwxr9
Website Information
• Students can and should bring a technology
device to school. A laptop is the most useful,
but a phone, iPad, or other device is fine.
• Options are available for students who do not
have their own device
One To The World
• The focus is on connecting lessons from the
classroom to the larger world. If you would be
willing to come speak to students, video
conference, work with me on a project, etc.
please email me ASAP so that we can set
things up.
One To The World
• Students need to buy: They
Say, I Say, by Graff and
Berkenstein (3rd Edition)
• Students need to complete
the summer assignment
ASAP
To Do ASAP