2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
AP Language and Composition Syllabus and Course Outline
Approved by The College Board #1103621v1
Introduction (from CollegeBoard’s Course Description)
An AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming skilled readers of
prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety
of purposes. Both writing and reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s
purposes, audience expectations, and subjects, as well as the way genre conventions and the resources
of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.
Course Summary
The AP English Language and Composition course is designed to give students multiple opportunities to
work with rhetoric, examining the authors’ purposes in addition to audience and the subjects in texts.
Students write in a variety of modes for a variety of audiences, developing a sense of personal style and
an ability to analyze and articulate how the resources of language operate in a given text. In conjunction
with The College Board’s AP English Language and Composition Course Description, this course teaches
students to read primary and secondary sources carefully, to synthesize material from these texts in their
own compositions, and to cite sources using conventions recommended by the Modern Language
Association (MLA). As co-creators in a media-rich society, students also study the rhetoric of visual
media: photographs, films, advertisements, comic strips, and music videos.
Philosophy and Goals
Students experience the composing process through writing, reading, and oral and written exercises.
Students learn to recognize voice in published works and develop the power of their own voice in writing.
Students also learn to develop a sense of how to address an audience.
Students learn to understand style: diction, syntax, tone, etc. Students sharpen their conventional
mechanical and grammar skills when completing in-class writing and in each revised and fully finished
work so that they can produce a competently edited final draft. Students experience the testing process of
the Advanced Placement exam. Students experience a college-level course in high school so that the
expectations for college are clear. Through observing, reading, discussing, thinking, writing, and
reflecting, students also have the opportunity to further develop an understanding of humanity and skills
in studying appropriate literary selections.
Upon completing the AP English Language and Composition course, students should be able to:
 analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of
rhetorical strategies and techniques;
 apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing;
 create and sustain arguments based on readings, research and/or personal experience;
 write for a variety of purposes;
 produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central
idea and develop them with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources,
cogent explanations, and clear transitions;
 demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in
their own writings;
 demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources;
 move effectively through the stages of the writing process with careful attention to inquiry and
research, drafting, revising, editing, and review;
 write thoughtfully about their own process of composition;
 revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience;
 analyze image as text; and
 evaluate and incorporate referenced documents into researched papers.
© Houston ISD Curriculum
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
The Exam
 The exam takes three and half hours to complete and is divided into two sections: multiple-choice
and essays.
 The multiple-choice section consists of four to five short, nonfiction passages and roughly 50
questions covering analysis of those passages. Points are not lost for incorrect or unanswered
multiple-choice questions; credit is earned solely for correct answers. This section accounts for
45% of the complete score.
 The essay section consists of three prompts: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument. Each
prompt requires that the student defends a position (utilizing textual evidence in some cases).
This section accounts for 55% of the complete score.
On-Going Assignments
 Students keep AP Language Binders with notes, returned essays, AP terms, instructional
handouts, and returned AP practice multiple-choice quizzes and free-response essays. Graded
spot-checks of this binder will occur throughout the year. Class opening activities daily utilize AP
terms on note cards on a binder ring. Students receive a list of literary and rhetorical terms
previously used on AP exams or applied in the literature studied.
 Frequent practice with AP-style, multiple-choice questions and free-response prompts: Sources
include released AP exams, Applied Practice texts, and other multiple-choice/essay guides.
 Students compile a Synthesis Binder, checked every six weeks, within which they collect at least
five documents from three different genres each six weeks. The topics students may choose
from are based on global, economic, and cultural significance. The documents may be obtained
from daily newspapers, on-line essays, magazines, political cartoons, or editorials. Students also
maintain a chart which lists the articles, the attitude toward the subject (pro/con), the date of the
publication, the genre of each piece, and the source documentation presented in MLA style.
 Using the Synthesis Binder, the students write persuasive, analytical 10-minuted timed writing on
one topic, sometimes self-selected, sometimes teacher-selected. These essays are graded using
the AP rubric for the synthesis format of responses. Sometimes peer evaluations and grading
replace the instructor’s review of the work. At least one synthesis essay per semester is reviewed
by the teacher and students after the first draft, resulting in a revision and rewriting of the essay.
 Readings, primarily non-fiction, are assigned as they relate to various writing assignments.
 Within this course, students frequently interact with new vocabulary not related to the rhetorical
tools of writing. Assessments covering the use of diction appropriate to college-level audiences
will establish students’ abilities to create contextually accurate sentences demonstrating
understanding of vocabulary. Students compose sentences of various sentence structures as
reviewed through readings.
Plagiarism policy
Plagiarized papers or projects will receive a grade of “0” (zero) -- no exceptions. Cheating or collusion will
also result in a grade of “0” (zero) on that paper or project. Plagiarism or collusion on a second major
assignment will result in a zero in the course. This includes in-class or discussion questions assigned to
students. Everything submitted is read by the instructor, and if two students turn in verbatim answers, it is
recognizable. Both students will receive a “0” (zero) because the cheater and the cheated cannot be
determined.
Students need to be aware that the instructor will be utilizing plagiarism software and internet sources to
check student work for potential plagiarism.
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2014 – 2015
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
Course Grading Scale
Essays/Tests/Projects
50%
Quizzes / Classwork
30%
Homework/Participation
20%
Course Outline
1st Cycle- Within this unit, students review the elements of expository writing and grammar and discuss
summer reading assignments. Students are introduced to literary and rhetorical analysis techniques;
students focus on how a speaker communicates his/her purpose to an audience. Students further
examine various forms of media (graphs, charts, cartoons, photos, etc.) as an alternative form of text.

Aristotelian triad (purpose, speaker, audience)

Author’s use of tone, syntax, details, diction, imagery, organization, figurative language, point of
view, etc. contributes to the purpose.
o Introduce SOAPSTone, DIDLS, or FIDDS

Diagnostic assessments

Small discussion groups (literature circles) over summer reading

Introduce vocabulary study

Introduce Synthesis Binder
o Include multiple types of media (charts, cartoons, graphs, etc.)

Begin outside reading (novels, memoir, etc.)

Opportunities for revision and rewriting will be given
*In a focused discussion involving rhetorical purpose and supporting strategies, teachers may select
works from the following list (or works of similar literary merit):
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Novels (fiction)
The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Memoirs
and non-fiction
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
Essays
Drama
“Learning to Read and Write” Frederick Douglass
“Learning to Read” Malcolm X
“The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” Sherman Alexie
“The Death of The Moth” Annie Dillard
“Death of a Moth” Virginia Woolf
“Silent Spring” Rachel Carson
Beowulf
selections from Anne Bradstreet
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
Short Stories
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Connor
Alternative Works
Graphic novel: Persepolis
Poetry
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2014 – 2015
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
2nd Cycle- Within this unit, students continue their study of rhetorical analysis of fiction and nonfiction
texts, examining how the techniques discussed in Cycle One contribute to the appeals to audience
(logos, pathos, ethos). Students write rhetorical analysis essay(s) based on literature studied in class or
a released essay prompt from College Board.

Introduce AP grading guidelines (essays and multiple choice)

AP essay calibration

AP multiple-choice practice

Examination of how author’s techniques (tone, diction, syntax, figurative language, etc.)
contribute to the appeals

Introduce in-class synthesis essay based on synthesis binder
o Include multiple types of media

Socratic seminars based largely on outside reading

Continue Synthesis Binder

Continue vocabulary study
*In a focused discussion involving rhetorical strategies (specifically focusing on appeals to audience),
teachers may select works from the list below (or works of similar literary merit):
The Nonexistent Knight and the Cloven Viscount, Italo Calvino
Novels (fiction)
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Memoirs
and non-fiction
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester
Essays
“Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Queen Elizabeth addressing the troops (AP prompt)
“On Making an Agreeable Marriage” Jane Austen
“Once More to the Lake” E.B. White
“The Gettysburg Address” Abraham Lincoln
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Selections from Emily Dickinson
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee
Poetry
Drama
Short Stories
Alternative Works
“Indian Camp” Ernest Hemingway
Documentaries: Blackfish
Media: Ted Talks (topic: sociopaths/psychopaths)
Graphic Novel: Batman: The Killing Joke
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2014 – 2015
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
3rd Cycle– Students continue rhetorical analysis and the synthesis essay writing process. Students are
introduced to general argumentation techniques. Students continue AP multiple-choice and timed-writing
practice, while discussing the development of voice in writing.

Introduce the general elements of argument writing

Introduce how personality/voice is developed using satire, irony, and humor

Introduce fallacies

Students demonstrate understanding of satire through informal writing

Analysis and application of voice in writing

Timed writings (rhetorical analysis, synthesis, general argument)

AP multiple-choice practice

Continued analysis of fiction and nonfiction writings

Continue Synthesis Binder

Discussion, writing assignment, test, project, etc. covering outside reading

Continue vocabulary study

Opportunities for revision and rewriting will be given
*In a focused discussion involving the development of voice through satire and/or humor, teachers may
select works from the list below (or works of similar literary merit):
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
Novels (fiction)
A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Haines
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Memoirs
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
and non-fiction
Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez
The Devil’s Highway, Luis Alberto Urrea
Essays
Poetry
Drama
“A Modest Proposal” Jonathan Swift
“The War Prayer” Mark Twain
excerpts from The Onion
“Me Talk Pretty One Day” David Sedaris
“Ain’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua
Selections from Benjamin Franklin
“Democratic National Convention Keynote Address” Ann
Richards, 1988
Excerpts from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself
Ah, Are you Digging on my Grave? Thomas Hardy
Excerpts from “Twelfth Night”
Excerpts from Spoon River Anthology (Edward Arlington
Robinson)
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard
The Importance of Being Earnest, George Bernard Shaw
© Houston ISD Curriculum
2014 – 2015
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
Short stories
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
“The Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar Allen Poe
Alternative Works
Documentary: Sicko
Media: Steven Colbert’s Roast of Bush
Graphic Novel: Pride of Baghdad
4th Cycle– Students examine how writers utilize organization to convey an argument. Students also
analyze the use of persuasive techniques in fiction and nonfiction texts and then apply those techniques
to their own writing. Students integrate information from a variety of sources to convey their position.

Introduce formal structure of an argument (focusing on counterargument, claim, warrant,
backing, assumptions)

Review fallacies

Apply elements of argumentation to writing assignments

Timed writings (rhetorical analysis, synthesis, general argument)

Discussion, writing assignment, test, etc. covering outside reading

Continued analysis of fiction and nonfiction writing


Continued synthesis binder
Continue vocabulary study
*In a focused discussion involving elements of argument and persuasion, teachers may select works
from the list below (or works of similar literary merit):
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Novels (fiction)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (audio version)
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
Memoirs and non-fiction
Excerpts from A People’s History, Howard Zinn
We Wish to Inform You…, Philip Gourevitch
Fist, Stick, Knife, and Gun, Geoffrey Canada
Essays
“On Dumpster Diving” Lars Eighner
“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” Henry David Thoreau
Kennedy’s speech to the steel mill executives (released AP
exam)
“Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Spaces” Brent Staples
“There is no Unmarked Woman” Deborah Tannen
“TV: The Plug-In Drug” Marie Winn
Poetry
“Rape of the Lock” Alexander Pope
“Jabberwocky” Lewis Carroll
“Woodchucks” Maxine Kumin
“Golden Retrievals” Mark Doty
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
Macbeth, Shakespeare
12 Angry Men, Sidney Lumet
Drama
Short story
“The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin
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2014 – 2015
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
“The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gillman
Alternative Works
Documentary: Lost Boys of Sudan
Graphic Novel: Deogratias; American Born Chinese
5th Cycle– Students utilize all elements of rhetorical analysis, argumentation, organization, and
development of voice in order to analyze texts chronologically. Students complete a full-length AP mock
exam and review results with the instructor prior to revision, thus improving the quality of writing.

Individual conferences with students to identify areas that need improvement

Timed writings (rhetorical analysis, synthesis, general argument)

AP multiple-choice practice

Discussion, writing assignment, test, project, etc. covering outside reading

Continued analysis of fiction and nonfiction writings

Final Synthesis Binder

Continue vocabulary study
*In a focused discussion involving the contribution of rhetorical techniques to author’s purpose for his/her
intended audience, teachers may select works from the list below (or works of similar literary merit):
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
Novels (fiction)
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Bless me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
Memoirs and non-fiction
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
West With the Night, Beryl Markham
Selections from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya
Angelou
Ghosts of Manila, Mark Kram
Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger
Essays
“How it Feels to be Colored Me” Zora Neale Hurston
“Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin” Natalie Angier
“Mother Tongue” Amy Tan
“Notes of a Native Speaker” Eric Liu
Barbie Doll Marge Piercy
Selections from Robert Frost
Selections from Carl Sandburg
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Shakespeare
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe
Our Town, Thornton Wilder
Poetry
Drama
Short story
Alternative Works
“Araby” James Joyce
“A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” Katherine Anne Porter
Media: Ellen’s Bic Commerical
Graphic Novel: “Watchmen” DC Comics
© Houston ISD Curriculum
2014 – 2015
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2014-2015 HISD SYLLABUS
AP English Language and Composition
6th Cycle– Students work on final preparations for the AP exam. Students finalize projects pertaining to
outside reading from previous cycle. Students review elements of poetry and drama in preparation for
the AP Literature and Composition course the following year.

Review elements of poetry utilizing TPCASTT

Review elements of drama through the study of a play

Timed writings (rhetorical analysis, synthesis, general argument)

AP multiple-choice practice

Discussion, writing assignment, test, project, etc. covering final outside reading

SAT review and preparation

Continue vocabulary study
*In a focused discussion involving literary techniques in poetry and drama, teachers may select works
from the list below (or works of similar literary merit):
Poetry
“Valediction Forbidding Mourning” John Donne
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” T.S. Elliot
“My Last Duchess” Robert Browning
Selections from Lucille Clifton
“The Writer” Richard Wilbur
Selections from Pablo Neruda
“The History Teacher” Billy Collins
Everyman, 15th Century
Drama
Oedipus The King, Sophocles
Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
Alternative Works
Graphic Novel: Fables, Vertigo Comics
© Houston ISD Curriculum
2014 – 2015
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