PENN DELCO SCHOOL DISTRICT
English Advanced Placement Language and Composition
Grade level: 11
Length of course: Full Year
Periods per week: 5
Clock hours per year: 144
Duration of session: 48 minutes
Units of credit: 1.0
Date written: March 21, 2014
Written by: Matthew Morris
Course Description
The Advanced Placement course in English Language and Composition engages students in
becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical
contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their
writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer's
purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way generic conventions and the
resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing. The choice of texts is based on
the representative authors list found therein. With the exception of a few writers, all
authors chosen for the course come from that particular list, a list that is predominantly
nonfiction. Additionally, AP English Language and Composition is designed to introduce
content and foster skills commensurate with a college-level English Composition course. The
experiences of the course will prepare students to sit for the AP English Language and
Composition Test in May, giving students the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and earn
college credit.
Learning Objectives – PA Core Standards for Language Arts
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.4.
1.5.
Reading Informational Text
Reading Literature
Writing for Different Purposes and Audiences
Types of Writing
Speaking and Listening
AP Language and Composition Curricular Requirements
Scoring Components
The course requires students to write in several forms (e.g., narrative, expository, analytical, and
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argumentative essays) about a variety of subjects (e.g., public policies, popular culture, personal
experiences).
The course requires students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts with the
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revision incorporating, as appropriate, feedback from teachers and peers.
The course requires students to write in informal contexts (e.g., imitation exercises, journal keeping,
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collaborative writing, and in-class responses) designed to help them become increasingly aware of
themselves as writers and/or aware of the techniques employed by the writers they read.
The course requires students to produce one or more expository writing assignments. Topics should be
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based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres and might include such topics
as public policies, popular culture, and personal experiences.
The course requires students to produce one or more analytical writing assignments. Topics should be
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based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres and might include such topics
as public policies, popular culture, and personal experiences.
The course requires students to produce one or more argumentative writing assignments. Topics
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should be based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres and might include
such topics as public policies, popular culture, and personal experiences.
The course requires nonfiction readings (e.g., essays, journalism, political writing, science writing,
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nature writing, autobiographies/biographies, diaries, history, criticism) that are selected to give
students opportunities to explain an author’s use of rhetorical strategies or techniques. If fiction and
poetry are also assigned, their main purpose should be to help students understand how various effects
are achieved by writers’ linguistic and rhetorical choices.
The course requires students to analyze how visual images relate to written texts and/or how visual
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images serve as alternative forms of texts.
The course requires students to demonstrate research skills and, in particular, the ability to evaluate,
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use, and cite primary and secondary sources.
The course requires students to produce one or more projects such as the researched argument paper,
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which goes beyond the parameters of a traditional research paper by asking students to present an
argument of their own that includes the synthesis of ideas from an array of sources.
Students will cite sources using a recognized editorial style (e.g., Modern Language Association
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(MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychological Association (APA), etc.).
The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before and
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after the students revise their work that help the students develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used
appropriately.
The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and
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after the students revise their work that help the students develop a variety of sentence structures.
The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before and
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after the students revise their work that help the students develop logical organization, enhanced by
specific techniques to increase coherence. Such techniques may include traditional rhetorical
structures, graphic organizers, and work on repetition, transitions, and emphasis.
The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and
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after they revise their work that help the students develop a balance of generalization and specific,
illustrative detail.
The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and
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after they revise their work that help the students establish an effective use of rhetoric including
controlling tone and a voice appropriate to the writer’s audience.
Page(s)
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4, 6, 7
6, 9
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Method of Instruction
1) Application of the principles of rhetoric to prose pieces from various periods, modes,
and disciplines
2) Guided and independent application of principles of rhetoric in student writing, including
writing for a purpose, anticipating audience expectations, and observing generic
conventions
3) Application and practice of the writing process, including self- and peer-review, leading
to fluency of writing in several different modes
4) Close examination of the types and characteristics of expository writing, followed by
student application of expository writing strategies in personal writing.
5) Student-led discussion of major literary works
6) Examination and practice on previous Advanced Placement Exam multiple choice and
free response topics
7) Research and development on a topic related to the rhetorical strategies utilized in a
major work of literature, culminating in a term paper using correct Modern Language
Association format
Course Overview
The course overview and objectives for the course are taken from the AP® English
Course Description published by the College Board. The choice of texts is based on the
representative authors list found therein. With the exception of a few writers, all authors
chosen for the course come from that particular list, a list that is predominantly
nonfiction. In addition, since the stated purpose of the course is to “emphasize the
expository, analytical, and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and
professional communication,” it is most appropriate that the reading selections provide
models for such writing. [SC7]
Teaching Strategies
Although students in an AP English Language and Composition course may be strong
readers and writers, they need a bank of strategies to draw from as they encounter
challenging text. The most effective strategies are those that teach students how to infer
and analyze. The SOAPSTone text-analysis method is used as the primary method of
instruction.
Subject-Occasion-Audience-Purpose-Speaker-Tone (SOAPSTone)
Speaker: the individual or collective voice of the text
Occasion: the event or catalyst causing the writing of the text to occur
Audience: the group of readers to whom the piece is directed
Purpose: the reason behind the text
Subject: the general topic and/or main idea
Tone: the attitude of the author
Discussion
The course offers many opportunities for students to collaboratively practice the skills
they need, derived from the belief that learning can only occur if students have
opportunities to check their understanding and clarify their thinking. As a result, class
discussions are a major component of the class. Students are instructed to formulate their
responses using SOAPStone as their primary means of argument and persuasion.
Assertion Journals
Throughout the year, students receive two-three quotes per month from a writer whom we
will be studying sometime during the course of the year. For each quote, students must
provide a clear explanation of the writer’s assertion, then defend or challenge it, noting
the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to the student’s
point of view. These “short writes” are only 300 to 400 words, just enough to practice a
key concept in argumentation: acknowledging alternative points of view. As the students
become comfortable with these informal pieces of writing and as we review components
of clarity and style, students must include one example of each of the following
syntactical techniques in their assertion journals: coordination, subordination, varied
sentence beginning, periodic sentence, and parallelism. [SC3]
Style, Writing, and Visual Elements
Because style is a major component of writing skill, students review the use of appositive
phrases, participial phrases, and absolute phrases to improve the quality and
sophistication of their writing. Initially, students complete sentence- and paragraphimitation exercises; later, they are expected to highlight their use of these phrases in their
major compositions. [SC3] In addition, students receive instruction in how to recognize
and incorporate figures of rhetoric in a piece of writing, particularly schemes and tropes.
After receiving feedback, students have the opportunity to further develop these writing
exercises into essay-length pieces and receive further teacher feedback on the finished
product. [SC14] Our study of schemes in context includes parallelism, isocolon,
antithesis, zeugma, anastrophe, parenthesis, ellipsis, asyndeton, polysyndeton,
alliteration, anaphora, epistrophe, anadiplosis, antimetabole, chiasmus, erotema,
hypophora, and epiplexis; our study of tropes includes metaphor, simile, synecdoche,
metonymy, antonomasia (periphrasis), personification, anthimeria, litotes, irony,
oxymoron, and paradox. Students need many models of expository and argumentative
writing to see the possibilities for their own writing. [SC15] In this regard, students will
also be instructed in using SOAPStone for writing as well. Ultimately, students will
understand and learn how to tailor their arguments to fit the occasion, audience, tone, etc.
In addition to the traditional written applications of style, students will use SOAPSTone
to critically analyze graphics and visual elements as alternative forms of text, taking into
consideration such factors as composition, alignment, mood, content, and rhetorical
effect.
Independent Reading
Research consistently suggests that time spent reading, along with depth and breadth of reading,
is a leading indicator of achievement. Reading completed outside of class is, therefore, an integral
part of this course. Students will independently read self-selected works of significant literary
merit throughout the school year, averaging one book completed every five weeks.
Exam Preparation
Students will be given practice AP multiple-choice and essay exams starting in October to better
prepare them for the rigors of the exam, while also enhancing their understanding of the
commitment and expectations required to be successful on the final in May. All practice exams
will be graded according to the AP rubric.
Note on Resources:
Due to the extensive and dynamic nature of the content recommended by the College Board, it is
difficult to formulate a comprehensive, static listing of course content. Course selections will be
reviewed yearly and altered accordingly. This allows for constant responsiveness to the needs of
the students and for continual integration of contemporary course materials necessary for the
reinforcement of analytical skills. The major source of prose selections is as follows:
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition:
Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013.
See Appendix A for a list of representative authors. There is no recommended or required
reading list for the AP English Language and Composition course. These authors are
provided simply to suggest the range and quality of reading expected in the course.
Teachers may select authors from the names provided or may choose others of comparable
quality and complexity.
Suggested Unit Outline
Fall Semester – First Quarter
1) Introduction to the Writing Process.
a. Summer Reading Evaluation
- Activity: Allusions to Mythology
- Exam: Common terms and concepts from world mythology
b. Introductory Unit
c. Summer Reading
d. Steps of Writing Process
e. Introduction to the AP Rubric
- Essay: What makes a work a “classic”? [SC1, SC4]
f. Peer Review Essentials.
- Activity: Peer Review of “Classic” Paper [SC2]
2) Basic Rhetorical Principles
a. Concepts: Purpose, Audience, Subject, Self; Critical vocabulary; Rhetorical
Triangle; SOAPSTone
- Reading: Gettysburg Address
- Reading: Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address
b. Concept: Appeals to Logos, Pathos, Ethos
- Reading: George Will, from King Coal [SC7]
- Reading: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day [SC7]
c. Logos, Pathos, and Ethos in Visual Texts
- Activity: Analyzing Best Super Bowl Commercials [SC8]
- Project: Creating a Commercial Using the Persuasive Appeals [SC1]
2) Close Reading
a. Analyzing Style
- Activity: Looking at Rhetoric and Style
- Reading: Winston Churchill: Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat [SC7]
b. Interacting with Text
i. Questioning Text
- Reading: Ralph Ellison, On Bird, Bird-Watching and Jazz.
ii. Annotating Text
- Reading: Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth [SC7]
c. Writing a Close Analysis: Developing a Thesis
- Activity: Sample Close Analysis Essay
- Reading: John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address [SC7]
- Essay: Analyzing Kennedy’s Inaugural [SC5]
- Activity: Close Reading Visual Text – Girl Scouts Advertisement [SC8]
3) Argumentation
a. Defining an Argument
- Activity: Selecting Argument Essay Topic [SC1]
b. Types of Claims
- Reading: New York Times, Felons and the Right to Vote [SC7]
- Activity: Making Claims in Argument Essay [SC6]
c. Developing Claims into a Thesis
- Activity: Writing Thesis Sentence for Argument Essay [SC1, SC 6]
d. Presenting Evidence
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Activity: Logic and Syllogism [SC1]
Activity: Identifying Logical Fallacies
Reading: Dana Thomas, Terror’s Purse Strings [SC7]
Activity: Evidence for the Argument Essay
e. Visual Texts as Arguments
Activity: U.S. Postal Service, The Heroes of 2001 [SC8]
f. Organizing an Argument
Activity: First Draft of Argument Essay [SC6]
Activity: Teacher-Led Writing Workshop—Focus: Use of Detail [SC2, SC15]
Activity: Final Draft of Argument Essay
4) Synthesizing Sources
a. Using Sources to Inform an Argument, Using Sources to Appeal to an
Audience
b. Conversation: Mandatory Community Service
c. Writing a Synthesis Essay
- Activity: Formulating Your Position [SC3]
- Activity: Supporting a Thesis [SC3]
- Activity: Integrating Sources and Quotations
- Essay: Synthesis—The Dumbest Generation [SC10]
Fall Semester – Second Quarter—Thematic Units
5) Education
a. Types of Evidence: First and Second Hand
- Central Reading: Francine Prose, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read
[SC7]
b. American Literary Movements: Transcendentalism
- Reading: Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Education [SC7]
c. Analyzing First-Hand Evidence
- Reading: Sherman Alexie, Superman and Me [SC7]
- Reading: David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day [SC7]
- Fiction Reading: Sandra Cisneros, Eleven [SC7]
- Visual Text: Roz Chast, What I Learned
d. Conversation: American High School
- Research-based Essay: What is the Biggest Challenge Facing American High
Schools? [SC9, SC10, SC11]
e. Grammar as Style: Appositives and Sentence Structure
6) Community
a. Identifying and Integrating Second-Hand Evidence
- Central Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail [SC7]
- Reading: Robert D. Putnam, Health and Happiness [SC7]
b. Using Second-Hand Evidence as Support
- Reading: Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change [SC7]
- Argumentative Essay: Will the Revolution be Tweeted? [SC6]
c. Conversation: The Individual’s Responsibility to the Community
- Synthesis Essay: What does it mean to, “live the good life, well?” [SC10]
7) The Economy
a. Analyzing Social Criticism
- Central Essay: Barb Ehrenreich, Serving in Florida [SC7]
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Activity: Personal Memoir—Working [SC1]
b. Elements of Satire
Central Essay: Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal [SC7]
Visual Text: Jeff Parker, The Great GAPsby Society [SC8]
Visual Text: Tom Tomorrow, This Modern World [SC8]
Video Text: Skits from Saturday Night Live [SC8]
Video Texts: Introduction from The Colbert Report [SC8]
c. Political Cartoons as Satire
Visual Text: Selected Topical Political Cartoons [SC8]
Visual Rhetoric Activity: Create a Political Cartoon [SC1]
d. Grammar as Style: Short, Simple Sentences and Fragments
Activity: Developing Multiple Choice Questions
Spring Semester—Third Quarter—Thematic Units
8) Gender
a. Analysis: Dividing into Component Parts
- Central Essay: Stephen Jay Gould, Women’s Brains [SC7]
- Central Essay: Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women [SC7]
- Reading: Judy Brady, I Want a Wife [SC7]
- Poetry: Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll
- Personal Essay: Personal Analysis and Identity [SC1, SC5]
b. Using Evidence to Support Assertions
- Conversation: Defining Masculinity
- Argumentative Essay: Coeducational Schools [SC8]
- Activity: Teacher-Led Writing Workshop—Focus: Diction and Syntax [SC12,
SC13, SC2]
9) Language
a. Diction as Rhetoric
- Central Essay: George Orwell, Politics and the English Language [SC7]
- Reading: Gloria Anzaldua, How to Tame a Wild Tongue [SC7]
- Visual Text: Propaganda of World War II [SC8]
- Conversation: American Politics and the English Language
- Visual Text Activity: Create Propaganda Poster [SC8]
b. Language as Culture
- Reading: Firoozeh Dumas, The “F Word” [SC7]
- Reading: Steven Pinker, Words Don’t Mean What They Mean [SC7]
- Analytical Essay: Diction as Rhetorical Strategy [SC5]
- Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Concise Diction [SC12]
10) Popular Culture
a. Criticism and Analysis
- Central Essay: James McBride, Hip Hop Culture [SC7]
- Central Essay: Mark Twain, Corn-Pone Opinions [SC7]
- Activity: Satire Review
b. The Critical Gaze
- Reading: David Denby, High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies
[SC7]
- Reading: Steven Johnson, Watching TV Makes You Smarter [SC7]
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Reading: Chuck Klosterman, My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels
Rather Undead [SC7]
Analytical Essay: Exporting American Culture [SC5]
Grammar as Style: Controlling Tone and Voice [SC16]
Spring Semester—Fourth Quarter—Thematic Unit and Research
11) Politics
a. Comparing Differing Rhetorical Strategies and Points of View
- Central Reading: Jamaica Kincaid, On Seeing England for the First Time
[SC7]
- Paired Reading: Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
[SC7]
- Compare and Contrast Essay [SC4]
b. Politics of Patriotism
- Reading: Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address [SC7]
- Paired Reading: Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot [SC7]
c. Conversation: Colonialism
- Synthesis Essay: The Nature of Colonialism [SC10]
12) Literary Analysis
a. Rhetoric in literary context of a novel
- Reading: Literary Fiction Novel of Choice
- Activity: Developing Topics for Research
b. Research using primary and secondary sources
- Activity: Schools of Literary Criticism
c. Citation of sources- MLA formatting and style
d. Effective formation and defense of a thesis
- Literary Research Paper [SC10, SC11]
13) College Search and Preparation
a. College Search Process
- Activity: Finding College Essay Prompts
b. College Essay Writing
- Activity: Discovering Exceptionality
- Personal College Essay [SC1]
Textbook/Resources
Textbooks:
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition:
Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013.
Rankin, Estelle M. and Barbara L. Murphy. 5 Steps to a 5: AP English Language and
Composition. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Reference Resources:
Corbett, Edward P. J., and Robert J. Connors. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. 4th ed.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New
York, Modern Language Association, 2009.
Supplemental Resources:
Novels, plays, magazine articles, web articles, newspapers, essay collections, poetry collections,
short story collections, political and other cartoons, artistic reproductions, compact discs, video
and audio recordings, television broadcasts, and other germane resources at the discretion of the
instructor
Expected Levels of Achievement
Students will be able to:
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Analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an
author's use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.
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Apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing. Create and sustain
arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience.
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Demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as
stylistic maturity in their own writings.
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Write for a variety of purposes.
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Produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a
complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary
and/or secondary source material, cogent explanations, and clear transitions.
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Demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary
source material.
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Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to
inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
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Write thoughtfully about their own process of composition.
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Revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience.
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Analyze images as text.
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Evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers.
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Revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience;
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Analyze image as text; and evaluate and incorporate reference documents
into researched papers.
Procedures for Evaluation
Student Evaluation
Students’ grades are based on an accumulated-point system. Each graded assignment or
activity is assigned a certain number of points based on its complexity and overall
importance to the objectives of the course. Typically each assessment within each quarter
equates to about one-eighth of the total average for that marking period.
Additional Assessments
Informal:
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Participation in class discussion and debate
Student-Teacher conference on pieces throughout the year
Formal:
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Frequent guided and independent written application of principles studied in class
evaluated using the AP Language and Composition scoring rubric
Various in-and out-of-class projects expanding and applying rhetorical concepts
Timed, performance based writing tasks
Formal research paper graded for content and correct use of MLA format
Objective reading comprehension and analysis
Oral presentation
Appendix A: Representative Authors
Autobiographers and Diarists
Maya Angelou, James Boswell, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Charles Dana, Thomas De Quincey,
Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Franklin, Lillian Hellman, Helen Keller, Maxine Hong
Kingston, T. E. Lawrence, John Henry Newman, Samuel Pepys, Richard Rodriguez, Richard
Wright, Malcolm X, Anzia Yezierska
Biographers and History Writers
Walter Jackson Bate, James Boswell, Thomas Carlyle, Winston Churchill, Vine Deloria, Jr.,
Leon Edel, Richard Ellmann, Shelby Foote, John Hope Franklin, Antonia Fraser, Edward
Gibbon, Richard Holmes, Gerda Lerner, Thomas Macaulay, Samuel Eliot Morison, Francis
Parkman, Arnold Rampersad, Simon Schama, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Ronald Takaki, George
Trevelyan, Barbara Tuchman
Critics
Paula Gunn Alien, Gloria Anzaldua, Michael Arlen, Matthew Arnold, Kenneth Clark,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arlene Croce, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,
William Hazlitt, bell hooks, Samuel Johnson, Pauline Kael, Joyce Carol Gates, Walter
Pater, John Ruskin, George Santayana, George Bernard Shaw, Susan Sontag, Cornel West,
Oscar Wilde, Edmund Wilson
Essayists and Fiction Writers
Joseph Addison, James Agee, Margaret Atwood, Francis Bacon, James Baldwin, G. K.
Chesterton, Joan Didion, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Paul Fussell, Mavis Gallant, Nadine
Gordimer, Edward Hoagland, Zora Neale Hurston, Jamaica Kincaid, Charles Lamb, Norman
Mailer, Nancy Mairs, Mary McCarthy, N. Scott Momaday, Michel de Montaigne, V. S. Naipaul,
English Language and Composition
Tillie Olsen, George Orwell, Cynthia Ozick, Ishmael Reed, Adrienne Rich, Mordecai Richler,
Sharman Apt Russell, Scott Russell Sanders, Richard Selzer, Richard Steele, Shelby Steele,
Henry David Thoreau, John Updike, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, E. B. White, Terry Tempest
Williams, Virginia Woolf
Journalists
Roger Angell, Maureen Dowd, Elizabeth Drew, Nora Ephron, M. E K. Fisher, Frances Fitzgerald,
Janet Planner (Genet), Ellen Goodman, David Halberstam, Andy Logan, John McPhee, H. L.
Mencken, Jan Morris, David Remnick, Red Smith, Lincoln Steffens, Paul Theroux, Calvin Trillin,
Tom Wolfe
Political Writers
Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, William F. Buckley, Jean de Crevecoeur, W. E. B.
DuBois, Margaret Fuller, John Kenneth Galbraith, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Thomas
Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, George Kennan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis H. Lapham, John
Locke, Niccolo Machiavelli, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, Thomas More, Thomas Paine,
Olive Schreiner, Jonathan Swift, Alexis de Tocqueville, Gore Vidal, George Will, Garry Wills,
Mary Wollstonecraft
Science and Nature Writers
Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Jacob Bronowski, Rachel Carson, Charles Darwin, Annie
Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, Evelyn Fox Keller, Barry Lopez,
Peter Matthiessen, Margaret Mead, John Muir, David Quammen, Carl Sagan, Lewis Thomas,
Jonathan Weiner