AP English Language & Composition Course Syllabus ’08-‘09
Syllabus – Fall Semester
First Quarter:
The Hero’s Quest: Obligations within a Society – Foundations for the American Mindset
Quarterly Reading:
• Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
• Octavia Butler, Kindred or Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
(Independent Reading Selection #1)
Introductory Essays:
• “The Student Introduction” – To give instruction in annotation and note-taking
• And then this essay for practice:
“The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” p11
Writing Types and AP Preparation
Style Analysis [September to mid-October] augment Huck
• Bryson, Bill, “How You Became You” p 93
• Hurston, Zora Neale, “How It Feels to be Colored Me” p206 (by the author of Their
Eyes Were Watching God
• Angelou, Maya, “Graduation” p16
Argument [mid October to mid-November]
• Gould, Stephen Jay, “Women’s Brains” p184
• Hearne, Vicki, “What’s Wrong with Animal Rights?” p192
• Swift, Jonathan, “A Modest Proposal” p408
• Buckley Jr., William F.,“Why Don’t We Complain?” p97
• Winn, Marie, “Television: The Plug-In Drug” p457
Second Quarter:
The Hero’s Quest: Conflict within a Society through the Search for Identity in America
Quarterly Reading:
• Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451
• Kesey, Ken, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Writing Types and AP Preparation
Synthesis [mid-November – January] shift to and overlap with Cuckoo
• Sagan, Carl, “Reflections on a Mote of Dust”
• Woolf, Virginia, “Death of a Moth”
• Dillard, Annie, “Transfiguration”
• Blake, William, “The Tyger”
• Scannell, Vernon, “Incendiary”
• Thoreau, Henry David, “Economy”
• Thoreau, Henry David, “Why I Went to the Woods”
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo, “Nature”
• Twain, Mark, “Reading the River
• Dillard, Annie, “Death of a Moth” p139
• Woolf, Virginia, “Death of a Moth” p467
• Other essays and poems to examine Transcendentalism
Readings on Current Events:
• Theme-related articles
• Articles reflecting claims/central ideas made by the authors studied in this unit
• Submissions from students with teacher’s approval
Viewing:
• Documentaries and related editorial cartoons on book burning
• Theme-related photos, video clips, and/or cartoons from current periodicals.
• Students contribute selections for viewing with teacher’s approval.
Assessments:
• Journal Writes: Students do daily journal writes on the readings. These check for
understanding of meaning, critical analysis, and strategies.
• Quiz: Vocabulary from readings
• Quiz: Grammar (from warm-up exercises, syntax discussions, and/or reading
annotations)
• Composition: Style Analysis of rhetorical strategies
• Composition: Description
• Composition: Narrative
• Composition: Argumentative/persuasive essay on the readings
• Composition: Synthesis essay
Syllabus – Spring Semester
Third Quarter:
The Hero’s Quest: Societal Expectations and Influences upon Man’s Pursuit of the
American Dream
Quarterly Reading
• Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby
Paraphrase, Literary Abstract, and Précis Writing
• Orwell, George, “Shooting An Elephant” p302
• White, E.B., “Once More to the Lake” p450
Existentialism
• “Sisyphus” and other readings to augment Gatsby
Research Paper:
The Documented Essay: The I-Search/Junior Portfolio
Task and Prompt. Students:
• Choose a topic about which students have sincere interest. It can be a career search or
an exploration of a topic of personal interest.
• Research the topic through different types of sources (primary and secondary sources
including at least two interviews, newspapers, magazines, online sources, visuals, etc.).
• Write a proposal which focuses the search of the paper and present it to both the class
and the teacher for suggestions, evaluation of goal, and sharing of possible sources.
• Prepare two narrative write-ups of the interviews
• Visit a site relevant to the topic and write a reflective piece based upon the visitation
• Take careful notes, making sure that to cite sources accurately using MLA format.
• Turn in write up of secondary sources with a Works Cited page.
• Integrate each of the pieces (interviews, site visitation, secondary research, and
reflection) into a coherent, well-written essay of no more than 25 pages.
• Use the sources to support the search and question the topic; avoid mere paraphrase or
summary.
• Attribute both direct and indirect citations, using the MLA format. (Give credit where
credit is due.)
• Create a Works Cited page using MLA format.
• Provide photo documentation of the search or include some type of visual enhancement
in the final product.
Activities:
During this ongoing project, students continue to be involved in peer editing groups and
receive teacher editing on each section of the paper. Students read and evaluate models
paying particular attention to verb choice, use of imagery, tone, diction, purpose, syntax,
and other rhetorical strategies while they also take part in daily writing tasks to develop
and demonstrate these skills through their own writing.
Research Project
• Chapter 22 “Interview Report,” The College Writer
• Slater, Dashka, “Happiest Day of Your Life”
• Barry, Dave, “Mission to Mars! Hey a Piece of Cake”
• Quindlen, Anna, “None of the Above. None”
• Carmen, John, “Purple-Hue Knew?”
• Kingston, Maxine Hong, Woman Warrior (excerpt)
Viewing:
• Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman
• Cover artwork of the novel The Great Gatsby
• Theme-related photos and/or cartoons will be discussed as they become available
Assessments:
• Journal Writes: Students do daily journal writes on the readings. These check for
understanding of meaning, critical analysis, and strategies.
• Quiz: Vocabulary from readings
• Quiz: Grammar (from warm-up exercises, syntax discussions, and/or reading
annotations)
• Composition: Comparison and Contrast
Composition: Analysis of rhetorical strategies
Fourth Quarter:
Hero’s Quest in Contemporary Times
Independent Reading:
• Coelho, Paulo, The Alchemist
• Hosseini, Khaled, Kite Runner
March and April Use essays to focus on honing skills from year.
• Barry, Dave, “Lost in the Kitchen” p82
• Sedaris, David, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” p378
• Thoreau, Henry David, “Where I Lived and What I Lived for” p424
• Carter, Stephen L., “Insufficiency of Honesty” p104
• Ericsson, Stephanie, “The Ways We Lie” p174
• Mairs, Nancy, “On Being a Cripple” p267
• Walker, Alice, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” p441
• Sanders, Scott Russell, “Inheritance of Tools” p369
• Singer, Peter, “Animal Liberation” p384
AP Test Preparation Reading:
• Lincoln, Abraham, “Second Inaugural Address”
• Welty, Eudora, “One Writer’s Beginnings” (excerpt)
• Mock Press release from The Onion
• Hazlitt, William, “On the Want of Money” (excerpt)
• Singer, Peter, “The Singer Solution to Poverty” (excerpt)
• Kundera, Milan, “Testaments Betrayed” (excerpt)
• Gabler, Neal, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality (excerpt)
• Thomas, Lewis, “The Medusa and the Snail” (excerpt)
• Campbell, Angus, “Has Television Reshaped Politics?” (excerpt)
• Hart, Roderick P., and Mary Triece. “US Presidency and Television” (excerpt)
• Menand, Louis, “Masters of the Matrix: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Culture of the Image”
(excerpt)
• Ranney, Austin, Channels of Power: The Impact of Television on American Politics
(excerpt)
• Koppel, Ted, Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public (excerpt)
• Anthony, Susan B, “Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?” (excerpt)
• Hunt, Ward, instructions to the jury in the case of United States v. Susan B Anthony
(excerpt)
• United States Supreme Court, Minor v. Happersett (excerpt)
• Fourier, Charles, Theory of Universal Unity (excerpt)
• More, Thomas, Utopia (excerpt)
• Howard, Ebenezer, Garden Cities of Tomorrow (excerpt)
• American Civil Liberties Union: Us Patriot Act
• “US scours phone records; Bush says privacy “fiercely protected’” “Adds he OK’d
program more than 30 times,” CNN
• “Phone Taps Credibility are Questioned,” The Guardian, The Washington Post
• Wolf, Patricia, “Amish Teen Fined for Wiretapping”
• Harris, Tom, “How Wiretapping Works”
Readings on Current Events:
Throughout the quarter, students collect articles on current events, research pro’s and
con’s of issues arising from the events, and, for each, write a one-page essay arguing one
side of the issue, highlighting strategies of the argument essay.
Viewing:
Issue-related photos, video clips and/or cartoons
AP Exam Preparation:
Four-week preparation for the exam with
• Concentration on sample multiple choice question tests
• Writing practice based on released free-response prompts for the analysis, argument,
and synthesis essays
Assessments:
• Journal Writes: Students do daily journal writes on the readings. These check for
understanding of meaning, critical analysis, and strategies.
• Quiz: Vocabulary from readings
• Quiz: Grammar (from warm-up exercises, syntax discussions, and/or reading
annotations)
• Composition: Rhetorical Analysis – based on released free-response question
• Composition: Rhetorical Analysis – based on another released free-response question.
• Composition: Argument – based on released free-response question
• Composition: Argument – based on another released free-response question
• Composition: Synthesis – based on sample AP free-response question
• Composition: Synthesis – based on sample questions provided at AP workshop
Final Exam:
Students have two hours to take their final exam. Students write two essays:
1. Rhetorical analysis 2. Argument
These essays are graded on the AP rubric, or nine-point scale. Students are also asked to
complete a project which incorporates analysis of images as visual text to be presented
prior to the final exam.
In addition to the above, the course includes three important strands:
1. Vocabulary Study: Done weekly, throughout the school year, this strand includes
word acquisition appropriate for the SAT and other standardized testing, and the
technical vocabulary of literary and rhetorical analysis for the AP Language test.
2. Independent Reading: Students read from six chronological eras in American
literature. The titles are selected for their historical and literary significance. In addition
to the six required selections, students have a free choice selection each semester, where
they may read a book of their choice, written by an American author.
3. Junior Portfolio: Threaded through the second semester, assignments pertaining to the
junior portfolio assignment give the students the opportunity to research colleges and
careers, through both secondary and primary source research. Students will also write
college application essays and create résumés as well as write a personal quest paper.
In keeping with the College Board’s recommendations, students in this class:
1. Engage in informal and formal writing with an emphasis on in-class, timed writing.
2. Keep a journal as a method of processing reading and generating ideas for writing.
3. Write collaboratively using the writing process.
4. Read pieces from many subject areas and time periods.
5. Develop a more mature prose style; one marked by:
a. Clarity and precision
b. Academically-mature vocabulary
c. Varied sentence structures
d. Organization and coherence based on repetition, transitions, and emphasis
e. Balance between generalizations and specifics
f. Control of tone and voice
6. Read not only broadly but also deeply.
7. Read non-fiction as the heart of the course, but also read key pieces of American
literature in a range of genres.
8. Master terms and strategies to call on when analyzing or responding to texts.
9. Practice recognizing and using large-scale organizing strategies such as
comparison/contrast as well as sentence-level techniques such as figurative language.
10. Practice recognizing and using rhetorical modes of development (essay types) such as
narration, description, definition, comparison/contrast, cause-effect, argument, and
persuasion.
11. Practice multiple-choice questions about the rhetoric of passages.
12. Practice essay prompts calling for:
a. Textual analysis of a passage
b. A position that supports, qualifies, or disputes an author’s point in a passage
c. Evaluation of an argument
d. Writing arguments that in clued concessions and effective evidence
e. Presenting multiple sides or positions of an issue and suggesting a compromise
f. Synthesis of multiple sources of research and data in support of a position
Side Notes:
• Timeliness: Students should make every effort to submit all work on time, even if they
are ill or not on campus the day an assignment is due.
• Individual Help: The best time for students to get individual help is after school. In
support of their academic achievement and success, students should be willing to
rearrange their work, sports, and extra-curricular activities. I am usually available every
day after school until 5:00. I am also often available during period A.