AP English Language and Composition
Student Name: _________________________________ Guardian Name: _________________________________
Guardian Email: ________________________________ Guardian Phone#:________________________________
AP English Language and Composition
Student/Parent Contract
Dear AP Language Parent and Students:
By enrolling in this course, students have agreed to try their absolute best to pass an AP exam which
will be administered in the beginning of May. The exam is extremely challenging and requires a year
of consistent hard work and dedication. AP classes, of course, look excellent on their transcript
when applying for colleges. Passing the exam at the end of the year could result in college credits!
More importantly, studies have shown that students who enroll in AP classes perform better when
in college. Here are student expectations:
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Students complete homework assignments. Homework is given almost every night. Students
have at least 1 hour of homework for this class a day. Some assignments, however, may require
additional time to complete.
Students will maintain at least a 70% average in AP English Language.
Students are expected to participate in independent studies. Reading homework must completed
as assigned.
Students will submit their Enrichment Reading Assignment for a grade. Failure to submit an
Enrichment Reading Assignment may result in students being removed from the AP Language
class.
Students must complete the research project. The research assignment is given during 3rd
quarter.
Students are expected to study/review even if an official assignment isn’t given for that evening.
Students agree to attend coach when they need additional help.
Students will adhere to the rules of the syllabus provided.
This class enables students to handle reading, writing, and course work at the college level. I am
very dedicated to my class, my students, and Randallstown High School. My door is open to parents
and students for questions/concerns. We need to create a partnership to do what is best for your
son/daughter in order to prepare them for their future. Thank you for your commitment!
PARENT SIGNATURE: ____________________________________ DATE: ______________
STUDENT SIGNATURE: ___________________________________ DATE: ______________
AP English Language and Composition
AP Language and Composition 2015-2016
Summer Assignments
The following pages include the summer reading assignment for AP Language and
Composition for the 2015 -2016 school year. These assignments are due the first day of class.
No late assignments will be accepted under any circumstances. You should work on these
assignments consistently throughout the summer; procrastination will not work in your favor.
STOP. You’ve already begun reading, but are you using good reading practices? Every time
you read from now on, whether you’re reading the next great American novel, or an article in Teen
People, you must train yourself to annotate the text. Read with a pen in one hand, the text in the
other, and a highlighter clenched between your teeth. When you annotate a text, you are not only
being an active reader, but you are also engaging with the text and focusing on the literary and
rhetorical devices in a profound way.
ANNOTATING simply means marking the page as you read with comments and/or notes.
The main reason you should annotate your books is to aid in understanding. When important
passages occur, mark them so that they can be easily located when it comes time to write an essay or
respond to the text. Marking key ideas will enable you to discuss the reading with more support,
evidence, and/or proof than if you rely on memory.
ANNOTATING MAY INCLUDE:
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Highlighting key words, phrases, or sentences
Writing questions or comments in the margins
Bracketing important ideas or passages
Connecting ideas with lines or arrows
Highlighting passages that are important to understanding the work
Circling or highlighting words that are unfamiliar
SPECIFIC ITEMS FOR ANNOTATION MIGHT INCLUDE:
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Literary elements (symbolism, theme, foreshadowing, etc.)
Figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, etc.)
Diction (effective or unusual word choice)
Syntax (order of words, phrases, or sentences; punctuation)
Vocabulary words (words that you are unfamiliar with—and therefore must look up—or
words that catch your attention)
AP English Language and Composition
As you begin your summer reading assignments, it is absolutely critical that you train your
reading and annotation skills. For that reason, it is suggested that you purchase each of the following
books. While it is green and free to take out books from the library, or sometimes even to download
them on an e-reader, doing so does not permit you to easily underline, highlight, mark up, question,
yell at, or cry on the text.
Part I: Ethan Frome
Read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Annotate the text, but don’t become obsessive. Every sentence
need not be annotated, but every page should be. Don’t go crazy. Take your time with this text.
Part II: Ethan Frome Essay After you finish reading Ethan Frome, it is time to flex your
analytical muscles a bit. Some say that the most important skill in AP Lang is the ability to write
effectively, coherently, and critically, but they miss a crucial step. Before one can write critically, one
must think critically. Now that you have read serious critical analysis of the Ethan Frome, it is time for
you to complete your own thorough analysis of the novel. Write a 4-6 page essay on one of the
topics below. Do not use secondary sources. You may only use your novel (your primary source).
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What does it mean to be moral in the novel?
What role does the cat serve in the novel?
Is there an anticlimax in the novel? Explain.
Of what is the pickle dish symbolic?
Discuss the distribution of power within the household and attribute a cause for this
distribution.
These questions are intentionally open-ended. I am looking for your best analysis of the text. Draw
conclusions. Think outside of the box. Make connections to what you already know and to your gut
feelings.
Be sure that when you use quotations from the novel, you cite them properly using MLA
format. Here’s the basic rule (from OWL at Purdue):
In-Text Citations: Author-Page Style
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last
name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the
text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may
appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the
page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For
example:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"
(Wordsworth 263).
AP English Language and Composition
Part III: The Scarlet Letter
Read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
As you read the novel, you will be keeping dialectical notes. These are a way for you to interact
with the text on a personal and consistent level throughout your reading. This can make it difficult
to do your reading on the go (sorry, but this is not a beach reading assignment!).
As you read, train yourself to annotate the text! You will not get a thorough understanding of
this novel (or quite frankly, any novel) based on a quick read through.
As you read, you will be keeping dialectical notes. The dialectical journal is a type of doubleentry, note-taking students use while reading literature. In the two columns, students write notes that
dialogue with one another, thereby developing critical reading and reflective questioning.
As you read, keep a dialectical journal for your reading. This journal will consist of a minimum of
30 quotations for the novel and must be typed.
Select at least one quotation for every few pages. As you respond to the quotations, focus on the
ways in which the author uses language to create an effect. What is it about the language that stands
out and makes the passage distinctive? How does the passage reflect the author’s style and reveal
larger themes of the work? (See journal example below.) Use rhetorical terms, tone words, narrative
elements, etc. to help with your explanation.
In order to receive the maximum points possible, journal entries must:
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Be at least 2/3 page long for each entry
Address a variety of rhetorical strategies (not just half metaphors, half similes, for example)
Provide clear evidence of how the rhetorical techniques and strategies develop the
overriding ideas of the works
Include insightful analyses of quotes used and adhere to MLA format.
Split your entries equally among detail, imagery, diction, syntax, tone (minimum 6 entries
each)
AP English Language and Composition
Journal examples:
“Everything about our session pleased
me: the smallness of the room; the
noise of the janitor’s broom hitting
the edge of the long hallway outside
the door; the green of the sun, lighting
the wall; and the old woman’s face
blurred white with a beard. Most of
the time we took turns, I began with
my elementary text. Sentences of
astonishing simplicity seemed to me
lifeless and drab: “The boy ran from
the rain…She wanted to sing…The
kite rose in the blue.’ Then the old
nun would read from her favorite
books, usually biographies of early
American presidents. Playfully she ran
through complex, calling the words
alive with her voice, making it seem
that the author somehow was
speaking directly to me. I smiled just
to listen to her. I sat there and sensed
for the very first time some possibility
of fellowship between a reader and a
writer, a communication, never
intimate like that I heard spoken words
at home convey, but nonetheless
personal.”
64
Rodriguez, here, relies primarily on syntax
and imagery to accurately convey this
important moment. He takes the time to list
in series the positive things about the
session. This listing of various details with
active diction helps the reader to conjure a
real life image of the author’s perception.
He even takes the time to convey the exact
sentence of simplicity he read. The active
diction of the sentences evoking various
images seems “drab” to him. While the
“blurred white” faced woman evokes a “
fellowship between the reader and writer”.
The exchange between his words and the
woman is a parallel to the transformation
he feels with different literature. The
sentence structure gets more complex as
the author struggles internally to come to
the realization of the “personal” fellowship
he experiences. To mark the clarity in his
thoughts toward the end of the passage
makes a distinction between the “intimate”
and “personal”. The italics here emphasize
the clarity and confidence of the inner
thoughts of the character at this point.
AP English Language and Composition
“Throughout college and graduate
school, I thought of myself as an
orthodox Catholic. I was a liberal
Catholic. In all things save the liturgy I
was a liberal. From the start I despised
the liturgical reformation. In college
chapels I would listen to folk singing
and see plain altars draped with bright
appliqué banners: JOY! GOD IS
LOVE. One Sunday I would watch
dancers in leotards perform some kind
of ballet in front of the altar; one
Sunday there would be a rock mass;
one Sunday the priest encouraged us
to spend several minutes before the
Offertory introducing ourselves, while
a small bad jazzy combo punched out
a cocktail mix. I longed for the Latin
mass. Incense. Music of Bach.
Ceremonies of candles and acolytes.”
112
Here we have a few ideas that seem
contradictory, but upon careful inspection
reveal the true nature of the author’s
thoughts. The seeming contradictions are
indicative of the fine lines that the authors
draws to differentiate his belief as an
individual. First contradiction image and
idea is that of an orthodox and liberal. The
dual personality of the author is visible here
as he thinks of himself as an orthodox but is
a liberal. Although this sounds like a
impossible paradox. The author draws the
distinction describing that his attraction
comes from affinity for orthodox liturgy.
He gains no peace from the various
reformed liturgies he experiences.
Everything about these liturgies he describes
as unceremonious and plain and unpleasing.
The altars are “plain”, the banners are
“bright”. Everything he feels is too loud.
Utilizing loud capital letters to convey
their messages carries out this image and
idea. The capital letters do not evoke peace
despite the message. The church has “some
type of dancers”, “rock mass”, “bad jazzy
combo”. All of these creating
unharmonious images. His frustration
reaches a high and towards the end he refers
to the peace he longs for. The syntax and
diction here becomes very simple. He is
simply punctuating ideas and memories,
things he craves. He defines the music and
ceremonies, rather than describing it as
“some type” of music. He craves “Bach,
Incense.” Therefore, using diction, syntax,
and imagery elements, he creates the
picture of his internal restless chaos.
AP English Language and Composition
Focus Points for Dialectical Notes:
Tone Vocabulary: Like the tone of a speaker’s voice, the tone of a work of prose expresses the
writer’s feelings. To determine the tone of a passage, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the subject of the passage? Who is its intended audience?
2. What are the most important words in the passage? What connotations do these words have?
(Diction and syntax set the tone.)
3. What feelings are generated by the images of the passage?
4. Are there any hints that the speaker or narrator does not really mean everything he or she says? If
any jokes are made, are they lighthearted or bitter?
5. If the narrator were speaking aloud, what would the tone of his or her voice be?
Language Words-Used to describe the force or quality of the entire piece
Like word choice, the language of a passage has control over tone. Consider language to be the
entire body of words used in a text, not simply isolated bits of diction, imagery, or detail. For
example, an invitation to a graduation might use formal language, whereas a biology text would use
scientific and clinical language.
Different from tone, these words describe the force or quality of the diction, images, and details AS
A WHOLE. These words qualify how the work is written. So when discussing an author’s choice of
words (diction), do not say, “The author uses diction to make a point.” Do say, “In his use of
pedantic diction, Chesterfield reveals the value he places upon education.”
Part IV
After you have finished reading the novel, you will be writing an analysis essay. For this novel, you
will choose your essay topic. You are limited to 4-6 pages, so your topic needs to be appropriate for
a paper of that length. Sometimes the smallest of things in a novel can create the most meaning. Do
not be afraid of the minute; they can be the most fun! (I once wrote a 35 page paper on two words
in Hamlet.) You may feel insane in doing so, but you will be forcing yourself to think critically and to
delve head first into the text. Start by going through your dialectical notes and choosing one, or a
few notes that are similar, that particularly interest you or provide insight into the rhetorical style of
the novel. The paper should relate to your focus points for reading: detail, imagery, diction, syntax,
tone.
Example thesis: Through his use of the unnatural in Macbeth, Shakespeare creates a cryptic
tone that reveals not only Macbeth, but all of Scotland as multidimensional.
*Note: When writing use short, yet specific examples - focus on explaining why or how your
example supports your ideas.
AP English Language and Composition
I understand that you are new to style analysis and will assess your work based on the skills you
should possess having mastered an upper-level tenth grade English class. Do the best you can. We
will be having extended discussions in the first weeks of class to address the summer reading novels
and will use both essays as a way to focus our discussions.
DUE DATES:
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Signed Student/Parent Contract due by the first day of class.
All assignments should be typed, printed, and stapled prior to the start of class.
Questions? Email English department chair Tara Kutch at tkutch@bcps.org.