LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Chatsworth Charter High School
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
10027 LURLINE AVENUE, CHATSWORTH, CALIFORNIA 91311
TELEPHONE: (818) 678-3400 FAX: (818) 709-6952
MR. LEHR JAL2387@LAUSD.NET
DR. JOHN DEASY
Superintendent of Schools
LINDA DEL CUETO
Superintendent ESC-N
DR. TIMOTHY GUY
Principal
Dear Students,
Greetings, and welcome to AP English Language and Composition. It is my hope that this class will
challenge your reading and writing skills as well as your imagination.
Overview
According to the College Board, “The purpose of the AP English Language course is to enable students to
read complex texts with understanding and to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate
effectively with mature readers.” It is intended to be the equivalent of a college-level composition course.
In this class students will write in both informal and formal contexts to develop effective arguments. Formal
writing will include essays similar to what students will encounter in the AP Language exam in May. Informal
writing will include imitation exercises, journal keeping, collaborative writing and in-class responses designed
to help students become increasingly aware of themselves as writers and of the techniques employed by the
writers they read. Through assigned readings students will become acquainted with a wide variety of prose
styles from many disciplines and historical periods and gain understanding of the connections between writing
and interpretive skill in reading.
What this really means is that you’ll be reading things that are outside of your comfort zone and thinking and
writing about them in ways you’re not used to. We’ll spend a good deal of time analyzing not just what writers
say, but how they say it and why they chose to say it in that way. We’ll examine the way a writer establishes his
or her voice and how effectively that voice communicates with an audience. You’ll be expected to implement in
your writing those things we learn from critically reading the writings of others.
Much of what we read will be non-fiction; after all, the AP Language exam is based entirely on non-fiction
texts. You can expect to read historic speeches, essays, opinion pieces from local and national news sources, as
well as a smattering of historically and culturally relevant fiction.
College Prep
Your junior year in high school is often the most difficult academically and the most important in preparing
for college. With that in mind, we’ll spend some time each week helping you prepare for the SAT. After AP
testing in May, we will work on college application essays.
Assignments and Grading
Your grade will be based on in-class and homework assignments, tests and quizzes. All assignments must be
complete at the moment they are due. Late work will not be accepted for any reason. If work was assigned on a
day you were absent, you will be given a day to complete it when you return. If you are absent on the day an
assignment is due, you must bring it with you to the first class period upon your return, otherwise it will be
considered late and will not be accepted.
Plagiarism and cheating
All work you submit should be original with any sources properly cited. (Copying a sentence or paragraph
from another source and changing a word here and there doesn’t make it yours.) Any student who copies all or a
portion of an assignment from another student or any other source will receive a zero for that assignment and a
U in work habits on the next report card. In the case of copying from another student, both students will be held
fully accountable for the cheating and receive zeroes. Also, no AP Language teacher will write a college
recommendation for a student caught cheating.
I look forward to the work ahead of us this year. Though it will be challenging and sometimes grueling,
proper planning and time management will help you succeed.
Mr. Lehr
jal2387@lausd.net
---------------------------------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------------------------Return this portion of the form the next class meeting
I have read the course outline for AP Language and am prepared to meet the heavy workload, to read all
assigned texts carefully and critically, and to do my own original work.
____________________________________
Student’s name printed
_______________________________________
Student’s signature
I have read the course outline for AP Language and understand that my student is responsible his or her success
in this class through diligence and dedicated effort.
____________________________________
Parent’s name printed
_______________________________________
Parent’s signature
____________________________________ ________________________________________
Parent’s phone number
Parent’s email
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