AP Language and Composition
2015-2016
Miss Olis [heather.olis@lcps.org]
Course Description
Students in this introductory, college-level course read and carefully evaluate a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose
selections, deepening their awareness of effective rhetoric and language usage. Through close reading and frequent writing,
students develop their ability to analyze language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while
strengthening their own composing abilities.
Course reading and writing activities will help students strengthen analysis skills, fostering students’ attentiveness to author’s
purpose, appeals to audience, and the resources of language: syntax, word choice, and tone. The critical skills that students
learn to appreciate through close and continued analysis of a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction texts can serve to assist
students in developing their own writing as students grow increasingly aware of these skills and their merit. During the course, a
wide variety of texts and writing tasks provide the focus for an energetic study of language, rhetoric, and argument.
As AP Language and Composition is an eleventh grade English course, the focus for most of the literature will be American, with
a specific respect for the evolution of various genres of work as viewed in chronology. Discussions of literature (both fiction and
nonfiction) will address historical context as it corresponds with the author’s purpose and perspective, with note given to
author’s style. Various literary works, covering a broad span of genres (including novels), will be assigned in pre-determined
increments, with the expectation that students read outside of the classroom and come to class prepared to question, discuss,
and analyze the text assigned. In order to be successful in this course, students must keep up with the accelerated pace of
reading assignments and come to class prepared to discuss and offer their interpretation with peers. Reactive reading, including
annotating and questioning, will be an expectation, as readers strive to make inferences, complete analyses, and discover
deeper meanings.
*Students enrolled in this course are expected to take the AP English Language and Composition College Board Examination on May
11, 2016; for more information visit the LVHS guidance office or browse the College Board website. [Monetary funds are available
through guidance for students who may need such support.] Students who choose not to take the College Board AP exam for this
course will be required to take a comparable teacher-created exam; this exam will be assessed and the score will be recorded as a
non-diagnostic grade in Phoenix. It is an expectation that you sit for this exam as part of the learning and assessment cycle of the
course.
Goals
Students will work with the teacher to accomplish the following:
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Analyze and interpret written and visual texts, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and
techniques
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Write in a variety of genres and contexts, both formally and informally, employing appropriate conventions
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Produce expository and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate,
specific evidence; cogent explanations; and clear connections and conclusions
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Create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience
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Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising,
editing, and rereading
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Develop logical organization within written compositions, by employing specific techniques such as parallelism and
transitions to increase coherence
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Engage in effective rhetoric and develop a stylistic maturity, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice,
and achieving appropriate emphasis through purposeful diction and varied sentence structure
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Cultivate an extensive, mature vocabulary to appropriately and effectively write for all occasions, while recognizing
language’s power to exploit and abuse along with its power to inform and inspire
Recommended Materials:
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Pens/Pencils
Notebook with folder/ Loose-leaf three-ring binder
High-lighters
Sticky notes
Flash drive
Assignment Expectations:
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All assignment information, project hand-outs, reference materials, and extra practice sheets may be retrieved from
the school web page under the teacher-specific page.
All reading assignments are to be completed prior to the class period for which they have been assigned with the
implicit expectation of full participation in class activities, discussions, and/or assessments based on these readings.
Homework is due on the date assigned, at the beginning of class. Assignments turned in at the end of class or any
time thereafter, will receive reduced credit; late assignments will only be accepted up to one week after the work has
been assigned.
Class Participation:
In addition to keeping up with readings and completing assignments outside of class, students are expected to be full
participants in class- this includes, but is not limited to, collaborative activities, reading and writing workshops, visible
interaction with assigned literature, and class discussions/Socratic seminars.
Grading:
Students will be evaluated on the following: class work and class participation, quizzes, reactive reading annotations,
projects and presentations, informal writings/applied practice, formal essays, class seminars. Grades will be based on a
point system (points earned divided by points possible). Nothing is explicitly weighted as a certain percentage of your
grade; however, the weight will be implied by the point value assigned.
Classroom Principles:
Readiness. Respect. Responsibility.
Plagiarism/Honor Code:
Plagiarism is using, stealing, borrowing, or passing-off the ideas or words of another as one’s own. An honor code is in
effect throughout the course of this year. Anyone caught cheating or plagiarizing will be penalized according to school
policy.
Calvin and Hobbes – Bill Watterson [September 6, 1986]