AP English: Language & Composition
Mr. Petersen
petersenm@nclack.k12.or.us
Course Description and Objectives:
The goal of the AP English Language and Composition course is to give you
the opportunity to write effectively and confidently in your college courses
across the curriculum, and in your professional and personal lives. With this
goal in mind you will be expected to write in a variety of modes, read and
analyze a multitude of texts and respond using language and concepts that
appeal to an assortment of audiences. A focus on greater understanding of
purpose and style will help foster a desire to strengthen your writing abilities.
Course Outline:
The following will occur on a continual basis throughout the school year:
Timed Writes: Synthesis, Rhetorical Analysis and Personal Argument. These
will be spread throughout the school year leading up to the AP Test in May.
These will vary in content and form as to emulate the AP Test prompts.
Daily Rhetoric: As the name implies this activity will occur each day in
differing forms to improve the student skill set with respect to rhetorical
analysis across all mediums.
Rhetorical Vocabulary and Language: Students will explore all the
appropriate verbiage for use throughout the three different types of writing
modes for the AP Test. These will occur on a daily basis.
Assertion Journals: Students will read and respond to a variety of texts
attempting to both discuss the assertion of the text as well as introduce new
perspectives.
Yearlong Literary Argument: As an individual you will be working on a
yearlong, researched and well written argument. There will be one text that
will function as a required first text for that topic. Upon completing the agreed
upon anchor text, you will select from a list of titles which will be read, and
discussed, to synthesize information and craft your argument. Visual
arguments are also required, reinforcing the belief that the visual world is
another type of text to read critically. Over the course of the project, you must
read a minimum of six books and analyze two visual arguments.
Unit #1: Intro to Rhetoric and The Essay
Readings:
● “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato
● “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
● “The Qualities of the Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli
● “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. (Pathos)
● “Bad As They Wanna Be” by Thad Williamson (Ethos)
● “Looking Out for No. 2” by Ian Ayers (Logos)
● Textbook Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 in Everything’s an Argument
Major Assessment:
● An Argument of Proposal Essay.
Unit #2: Cannery Row
Readings:
● Read, analyze, and participate in Socratic Seminars for Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck.
Major Assessment:
● Comprehensive Unit Test.
Unit #3: American Essayists
Readings:
● “Second Inaugural Address” by Abraham Lincoln
● “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
● “The Crisis, Number 1” by Thomas Paine
● The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson
● Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
● Textbook Chapters 9 and 10 in Everything’s an Argument
Major Assessment:
● Writer’s Notebook: You will begin a composition book recording 12
entries on a variety of topics over the course of this unit. This will lead
to the creation of a personal reflective essay.
● Students will write a reflective essay based on an experience from
their writer’s notebooks.
For this reflective essay students will examine “Once More to the Lake” by
E.B. White and “On the Pleasure of Hating” by William Hazlitt.
Unit #4: Beloved
Reading:
● Read, analyze, and participate in Socratic Seminars for Beloved by
Toni Morrison.
Major Assessment:
● Comprehensive Unit Test.
Semester Exam:
Mock AP English Language and Composition Multiple Choice Exam
As a final for first semester students will participate in a mock AP exam.
This will be selected from previously released exams.
Unit #5: Diversity in The Essay
Readings:
● “The Crack-Up” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
● “Such, Such Were the Joys” by George Orwell
● “The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf
● “An Apology for Idlers” by Robert Louis Stevenson
● “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Mary Wollstonecraft
● “Naps” by Barbara Holland
● “A Bachelor’s Complaint” by Charles Lamb
● “Walking” by Henry David Thoreau
● “On Being and American” by H.L. Mencken
● “Into the Electronic Millennium” by Sven Birkerts
● “The Ring of Time” by E.B. White
● “The Wound in the Face” by Angela Carter
● “The Fight” by William Hazlitt
● “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan
● Everything’s an Argument: Chapter 6
Major Assessments:
● Students will craft an Argument of Definition essay on one of the
documents read during the unit.
● Research-Based Argument: Upon completion of the readings each
student will select an essayist and create a multimedia presentation in
which they will lead a discussion of that particular writer’s work. The
culmination of the study is the research-based causal argument
essay based on their selected essayist.
Unit #6: The Great Gatsby
Reading:
● Read, analyze, and participate in Socratic Seminars for The Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Major Assessment:
● Comprehensive Unit Test.
Unit #7: Contemporary Writings
Readings:
● “Shakespeare’s Sister” by Virginia Woolf
● “The Nowhere Man” by Pico Iyer
● “Nonmoral Nature” by Stephen Jay Gould
● “University Days” by James Thurber
● Chapters 15 and 19 in Everything’s an Argument
Major Assessment:
● Yearlong Literary Argument. This is the culmination of the yearlong
novel study project. See website.
AP English Language and Composition Test:
Voluntary participation in the AP English Language and Composition Exam.
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Student Evaluation
● Students will be evaluated by an accumulation of assessments using
the 4-point proficiency scale. Each assessment will be scored using the
4-Point rubric that will indicate the following proficiency language:
●
●
●
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4 = (Advanced)
3 = (Proficient)
2 = (Approaching)
1 = (Beginning)
See rubric for more complete details.
● Throughout each grading period a number of daily tasks will occur, but
the following is the weighted depiction that will constitute a student’s
grade.
● Compositions: 45%
● Exams: 45%
● Minor Assessments: 10%
Grade Percentage Delineation:
A = 90% - 100%
B = 80% - 89%
C = 70% - 79%
D = 60% - 69%
F = 0% - 59%
Student Expectations & Classroom Policies
Consequences of being tardy/absent:
● Three tardies will result in one after-school detention.
● An excused absence will result the equivalent number of days to earn full
credit.
● An unexcused absence will result in loss of credit.
Assessments and Late Work Policy:
● Minor Assessments will not be accepted after the due date.
● All late work from an excused absence will be accepted until the
completion of the unit in which it was assigned.
● Late work due to an excused absence will be assessed no penalty provided
that the assessment is turned in within a timely fashion (equal to the number
of days absent).
Not allowed in class:
● DVD, CD, or MP3 players (headphones included).
● No use of cell phones, pagers, or PDA’s. The school policy will be upheld.
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A list and description of all supplemental literature to be used during the year
and/or semester is available to you on our school and district website. Please
contact the teacher if you would like a paper copy of the novel descriptions.
Notice: Students and parents have the right to request a substitute for any
piece of literature they find objectionable. Please sign below and return this
form to me if you have any questions about the use of a book.
Book title:______________________________________________________
Parent’s name:__________________________________________________
Phone:_________________________________________________________
Student’s name:__________________________________________________
Your email address: (please print clearly)_____________________________________