AP Language and Composition Syllabus
2013-2014
Course Overview:
AP English Language and Composition is designed to be the equivalent of a college- level course. Therefore, the
assignments and assessments are consistent with those you would encounter in an undergraduate English course. we
will engage in the critical skills that will prepare you both for the AP Language and Composition examination as well as
for success in the college classroom.
Course Description:
In this course, you will be engaged in the close reading and critical analysis of a variety of non-fiction texts. We will
examine the way in which authors use rhetoric to examine and respond to a variety of social and cultural issues. The
course includes extensive and intensive studies of a selection of representative works from various genres, periods, and
cultures. This course requires that you closely examine and respond to texts in writing. Additionally, you will be
introduced to several genres of writing and will have the opportunity to revise and revisit four major essays over the
course of the year. You will be required to polish each of these essays and maintain a writing portfolio, which will serve
as your point of reference for conferences with me throughout the year.
Course Goals
 To prepare students to critically read and analyze rhetoric in a variety of non-fiction texts
 To allow students to become close readers who make meaning based on the details present in a text
 To engage students in writing as a process and allow many opportunities for revision of previously created
drafts
 To prepare students for the college writing classroom
 To provide opportunities for students to write, both formally and informally, in and about a variety of genres
Required Texts and Materials
DiYanni, Robert. Fifty Great Essays. Longman, 2012.
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown Publishing, 1991.
Lunsford, Andrea, John J. Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters
Bedford/St. Martins, 2010.
Everything’s an Argument with Readings: 5th Edition.
Required Materials
1 three-ring binder and dividers
1 package of college-ruled paper
1 two-pocket folder
1 package of blue or black pens
1 package of Post-it notes
1 composition notebook
Assessment and Grading:
Grading Categories
Percent of Total Grade
Weekly Writing Assignments
Major Writing Assignments
Close Reading Assignments
AP Timed Writing and Practice Exams
Participation and Discussion
Final Exam
20%
20%
20%
20%
5%
15%
Late Work Policy
In the event that you do not complete a homework assignment, you must sign in for afterschool tutoring on the board at
the front of the classroom. You will be required to stay after school to complete the work, as noted in your introduction
to AP meetings last year. Late work will be accepted for 50% credit up to 5 school days after the work is due.
Journals/Freewrites
Twice a week, you will be presented with quotations from essayists that are meant to prompt thinking and help you
react to ideas about writing and their world. These journal entries will be assessed for completion and counted under
the weekly writing assignment category.
Saying/Doing/Purpose Journal
This critical reading journal will accompany all of your readings this semester. Throughout the course of the year, you
will use this journal to explore the following:
 Author’s Claims (including how these claims evolve over the course of the text)
 Use of Evidence and Detail
 Appeals: Logos, Ethos, and/or Pathos
 Rhetorical Strategies
 Organizational Patterns
 Elements of Style
You will use these journals to drive class work and discussions as well as to craft essays and to inform your discussions
in one-on-one conferences with me three times throughout the year.
Major Writing Assignments
For each major writing assignment, you will be required to engage fully in the writing process. You must submit a draft
to your audience for feedback, and they will provide you with specific and accurate feedback per the Writer’s Circle
protocol to drive your revision. This process will be repeated for each writing assignment. Your grade will be
determined on the progress you make through this drafting process. In this class, you will not be graded against your
peers but against yourself. Therefore, the writing process is a way for me to assess your progress in the course.
In-class Timed Writings
In order to prepare you for the AP Language and Composition exam, we will perform in-class timed writings
throughout the course of the year. While several timed writings are included in this syllabus, there will be shorter
timed writings on a bi-weekly basis. This practice ensures that you are ready for the timed writing required by the AP
exam.
Feedback
Growing as a writer requires the careful consideration and incorporation into your piece. Feedback in this
course will take the following forms:
Whole- class mini-lessons that address areas for growth
Individual feedback from the instructor, both in written and verbal form during one-on-one confereces
Feedback from your triad (a group of two other people who consider your piece and provide feedback
on an ongoing basis)
Writer’s Circle evaluation of your piece (to be done with every major writing assignment)
Self-assessment based on goals and standards
Feedback will be specific and targeted toward our current focus. Earning an A, B, or C in this course will require that
you actively incorporate feedback to improve your draft, both for weekly writing assignments and for major
compositions.
Final Exam
Your final exam grade will be a portion of the AP Language and Composition exam. This will give you the opportunity
to assess your progress at the end of semester one. You will be required to reflect on your progress both on the multiple
choice and writing portions of the exam.
Pre-Course Assignment
Attend Summer Workshop, June 18-20
Read Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
Complete a Saying/Doing Journal that evidences comprehension and addresses use of and purpose for rhetorical
strategies
Participate in weekly Edmodo discussions in response to posted close-reading question
Course Planner
Unit One: Education: Beginnings to the Current Status of Education in America (10 weeks)
Texts
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools by Jonathan Kozol
Excerpts from Democracy and Education by John Dewey
Excerpts from Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Excerpts from Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” by Francine Prose
“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie
“ I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose
“Stop the Madness” by Diane Ravitch
Selected visual texts
Student-selected newspaper articles
Tasks
Grammar and Vocabulary/Lit Terms Exercises: Daily grammar and vocabulary exercises will help
students build sentence composing skills and AP-level vocabulary.
Bi-weekly Timed Writing Practice: Students will receive practice with writing prompts. Feedback
will be based on the AP rubric.
Saying/Doing/Purpose Journal: Focus: For each reading, students will identify appeals and
rhetorical strategies in the essays provided. Students will craft a double-sided journal that
positions comprehension of the passage on the left-hand side of the paper and an
explanation/analysis of the type and purpose of rhetorical strategy on the right-hand side of the
paper.
Students will compose a rhetorical précis for each piece of work that analyzes the purpose and
effectiveness of a rhetorical strategy used in the text. Students will, using the Writer’s Circle
protocol, revise this rhetorical précis.
Analysis of Visual Images: Students will analyze visual images, including advertisements, for use of
appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos). Students will write responses to these visual images, noting how
the appeals work to persuade or convince the reader. Students will analyze the rhetorical
strategies that help to build ethos, logos, and pathos.
Rhetorical Analysis of selected piece
Major
Composition
Unit Two: Gender and Identity: Synthesizing Notions of Gender and Power (6 weeks)
Texts
“I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady
“About Men” by Gretel Ehrlich
“The Men We Carry in Our Minds” by Scott Russell Sanders
“A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?” by Susan Sontag
“On Being a Man” by Paul Theroux
“Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
“A Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Mary Wollstonecraft
Selected visual images that examine gender and identity in popular culture
Tasks
Grammar and Vocabulary/Lit Terms Exercises: Daily grammar and vocabulary exercises will help
students build sentence composing skills and AP-level vocabulary.
Bi-weekly Timed Writing Practice: Students will receive practice with writing prompts. Feedback
will be based on the AP rubric.
Saying/Doing/Purpose Journal: Focus: For each reading, students will identify appeals and
rhetorical strategies in the essays provided. Students will craft a double-sided journal that
positions comprehension of the passage on the left-hand side of the paper and an
explanation/analysis of the type and purpose of rhetorical strategy on the right-hand side of the
paper.
Mini comparison/contrast essays: Students will develop mini-essays in which they
compare/contrast the arguments of two essayists, providing evidence to support their claims
about the pieces.
Discussions: Class discussion will follow several formats (Silent Discussions, Open Conversations,
Socratic Seminar, etc.) but will be focused on analyzing and developing the pieces of an argument.
Major
Composition
Synthesis Essay: Students will develop an essay that synthesizes the treatment of gender by three or
more essayists we have covered throughout the unit. Students will be required to develop a thesis,
which will be supported by evidence from each text. Students will be required to use
summarization and quotations in addition to acknowledging counterclaims/opposing evidence.
This essay will be developed through feedback from triads and the instructor and will be assessed
based on growth during the drafting and revision process.
Unit Three: Defining Communities and Conflict (6 weeks)
Texts
The Devil’s Highway by Luis Urrea
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr.
“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” by Henry David Thoreau
“Aria” by Richard Rodriguez
“Home at Last” by Dinaw Mengestu
“Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination” by Leslie Marmon Silko
“Casa: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood” by Judith Oriz Cofer
“How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston
“Beauty: When the Other Dance is the Self” by Alice Walker
“The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday
Tasks
Grammar and Vocabulary/Lit Terms Exercises: Daily grammar and vocabulary exercises will help
students build sentence composing skills and AP-level vocabulary.
Bi-weekly Timed Writing Practice: Students will receive practice with writing prompts. Feedback
will be based on the AP rubric.
Saying/Doing/Purpose Journal: Focus: For each reading, students will identify appeals and
rhetorical strategies in the essays provided. Students will craft a double-sided journal that
positions comprehension of the passage on the left-hand side of the paper and an
explanation/analysis of the type and purpose of rhetorical strategy on the right-hand side of the
paper.
Students will analyze and develop argument writing prompts based on their thinking about the
unit. Students will use their understanding of the texts and issues to craft mini-essays based on the
argument prompts.
Major
Composition
Argument: Students will develop an argument about the way in which community impacts the
individuals, drawing upon appeals and rhetorical strategies. This essay will be developed through
feedback from triads and the instructor and will be assessed based on growth during the drafting
and revision process.
Portfolio: Creation and Presentation (2 weeks)
Portfolio Creation and Conference
Portfolio Requirements
Conference Requirements
2 -3 pieces of pre-writing
2 -3 pieces of writing from your other
courses that represent your growth as
a writer
5-6 Syaing/Doing/Purpose journals
that represent your growth over the
course of the semester
You must complete one practice
conference with your triad. This
conference should prepare you for the
one-on-one conference you will have
with the instructor.
2-3 Drafts
1-2 Final Products
For each set, you must complete a
self-assessment that details how these
pieces are representative of your
growth.
A mini-essay in which you detail
areas of growth and areas for further
improvement.
Schedule a 20-minute conference
(during the time of final exams or
before or after school) with the
instructor. This conference will
require that you complete the
following:
- explain the artifacts you have
chosen
- explain how these artifacts are
representative of your growth
- discuss your progress and areas
for growth
A parent conference form which
details your discussion of this
portfolio with a parent or guardian.
Unit Five: The “How” of Argument: Modern Civilization and Impact on Identity (4 weeks)
Texts
“Into the Electronic Millennium” by Sven Birkerts
“Road Warrior” by Dave Barry
“The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman
“The Fallacy of Success” by G.K. Chesterton
“Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King
“Stone Soup” by Barbara Kingsolver
“Naps” by Barbara Holland
Tasks
Grammar and Vocabulary/Lit Terms Exercises: Daily grammar and vocabulary exercises will help
students build sentence composing skills and AP-level vocabulary.
Saying/Doing/Purpose Journal: Focus: For each reading, students will identify appeals and
rhetorical strategies in the essays provided. Students will craft a double-sided journal that
positions comprehension of the passage on the left-hand side of the paper and an
explanation/analysis of the type and purpose of rhetorical strategy on the right-hand side of the
paper.
Exercises in Organization: Students will examine the organization of the essays to determine the
purpose and effectiveness of organizational patterns. This will be the basis of close readings and
class discussions.
Major
Composition
This essay will be developed through feedback from triads and the instructor and will be assessed
based on growth during the drafting and revision process.
Unit Six: Crafting the Research Paper: A Study of the Impact of Modern Civilization on the Individual (7 weeks)
Texts
Everything’s an Argument, chapters 16-20
Tasks
Grammar and Vocabulary/Lit Terms Exercises: Daily grammar and vocabulary exercises will help
students build sentence composing skills and AP-level vocabulary.
Evaluation of sources: Students will evaluate sources, both those selected for in-class exercises and
self-selected texts for their research paper. In small groups, students will review and evaluate
primary and secondary sources.
Students will document their research and use in-text APA citations.
Synthesis of sources: Students will complete research and synthesize sources to compose an
original argument based on their reading of and thinking about several sources, including at least
one visual image.
Major
Composition
Students will compose a synthesis essay in which they develop an argument that explores the way
in which a current issue impacts the identity of a group of people (Americans, teenagers, African
American teens living in Chicago, etc.). These issues may include but are not limited to:
technology, education, immigration, race/racism, incarceration, socioeconomic status, religious
beliefs, etc. Students will craft an argument and synthesize their research to support their
argument, acknowledging and addressing counterclaims. This essay will be developed through
feedback from triads and the instructor and will be assessed based on growth during the drafting
and revision process.