Syllabus AP Language Borel
Description: AP Language is a college level course designed to prepare students for success on the AP Language
and Composition Exam given in May and success in future college composition courses. Students will aim for a 3
or higher on the exam to earn possible college credit and/or exemption from a basic level English Composition
Course. Some books will need to be purchased by the student.
Students in this course will:
Analyze literature according to rhetoric- exigence, purpose, meaning and effect.
Analyze, defend/challenge/qualify, synthesize, and compose an argument.
Use rhetorical devices and correct grammar structures in writing.
Utilize self-reflection, as well as peer and teacher comments to improve writing.
Synthesize information from a variety of sources in order to form an interpretation and argument about an
issue.
Cite sources used in writing according to MLA
Initiate and sustain discussions related to non-fiction literature from various time periods
Respond reflectively to a range of non-fiction writing
Analyze, understand and apply the modes of discourse and their characteristics (such as formal, informal,
persuasive, narrative, expository, argumentative, analysis)
Understand rhetorical terms as they apply to close reading and writing of expository,
persuasive/argumentative, reflective essays that vary in complexity.
Become more aware of events that are happening around the world and develop opinions regarding these
events
Texts:
The Language of Composition (Tri 1 and 2) Bedford
Contemporary and Classic Arguments (Tri 2) Bedford
Supplemental Texts:
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Tri 2)
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Thank You For Arguing by Heinrichs (Tri 2)
Cracking the English Language and Composition Exam 2006-2007 Edition- Princeton Review
Other Resources:
Voice Lessons by Nancy Dean Image Grammar by Harry Noden Sentence Combining by William Strong
Website:
sborel.ecs.site.eboard.com
Email:
sborel@eagleschools.net
slborel@yahoo.com
As one of the course objectives is “awareness of world events”, it is recommended that you subscribe to or
regularly read one of the following- you will need to follow a columnist in one of these publications throughout the
trimester.
Time/Newsweek
Wall Street Journal
Harper’s
The Atlantic Monthly
The Washington Post (check for on-line subscriptions-may be free)
The New Yorker
The New York Times (free subscription on-line)
Grading:
10% Classwork/journals/imitation exercises
10% Vocabulary
20% Critical Thinking and Projects
30% ICE essays, reports
30% MC tests and quizzes
NOTE: The texts, essays and excerpts suggested in units below are indicative of what will be used, but may be replaced with
more relevant, timely and/or classic texts where appropriate.
Trimester 1:
Weeks 1-4 Essential Question: What is the role of schools in our society? How does education create and break down
barriers?
Assessments: Pre-assessment of writing and multiple-choice, In Class Essay (ICE): Lord Chesterfield (CB)
short multiple choice passages (LofC), ICE Speed Dating Prompts: Barry, Carson, Stewart (CB) w/ reverse outlines
Texts: excerpt The Shame of a Nation
Savage Inequalities various chapters by Kozol
“A Talk to Teachers” Baldwin (LC)
“Best in Class” Talbot (LC)
“What can you do for your country?” by JFK- rhetorical analysis
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” Prose (LC)
“Superman and Me” Alexie (LC)
“Education” Emerson (LC)
Skills: Close Reading “Bootcamp”: tone, syntax, diction and rhetoric according to author’s purpose, meaning and effect,
Voice Lessons, recognizing rhetorical patterns and main idea, DIDLS, annotation
Weeks 5-7 Essential Question: What is the impact of the gender roles that society creates and enforces?
Assessments: Battle of the sexes quiz, Columnist analysis assignment, In-Class Essay (ICE)
Compare different writers and their ideas about gender (informal assessment)
Book Report: How does your book answer the EQ?
Texts: “Women’s Brains” Gould (LC)
“Between the Sexes:A Great Divide” or “The Necessary Enemy” (100 Great Essays)
“Lost in the Kitchen” Barry (50 Essays)
“About Men” Ehrlich (LC)
“Professions for Women” Woolf (LC)
“Letters” Adams (LC)
Skills: SOAPStone, comparison of main idea, purpose and effect among authors, bias
Weeks 8-9 Essential Question: “How do our own culture and race affect our perspective of other cultures?”
Assessments: Synthesis Prompt : Veils, MC, Columnist Imitation
Texts: excerpt Translation Nation by Tobar
excerpt The Lemon Tree
Border Wars (documentary)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (excerpt)
Primary documents about Iran (various news articles, cartoons, excerpt Persepolis)
Control Room (Lions Gate Home Entertainment) documentary clip
This I Believe
Skills: Sentence combining, recognizing perspective and bias, stance
Weeks 10-12 When is satire an appropriate mode of writing and how do we recognize satire when we see it?
Assessments: MC Thoreau, Twain, Voltaire, Swift (LC/App. Prac.), Satire creation, Columnist 2
In Class Essay- Onion, Twain (College Board, Applied Practice)
Texts: Mean Girls and other satire in film (Ferris Bueller, Clueless, Good Will Hunting)
Political cartoons and other current satire
Time visual essay on unintended consequences
Candide Voltaire (Applied Practice)
“Battle of the Ants” Throeau (Applied Practice)
Huck Finn Twain (Applied Practice)
“Modest Proposal” Swift (Applied Practice)
Skills: Recognize and create satire, Horatian vs. Juevenalian, techniques of satire, analyzing visual texts
Trimester 2:
Week 1-5: What skills do we need to persuade an audience? What role does classical Greek Argument play in our
communication patterns today?
Assessments: Pre-assess critical thinking using comparison of different “golden rules”
Graphic Organizer (informal): What do the great philosophers have in common, what shaped their philosophies and
how does if affect us today? (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
ICE- Analyze Caesar excerpt for argument (College Board)
Finish tone vocabulary /find “own vocab” introduced
REHUGO
Book Report---Apply essential questions from this trimester to your outside reading book?
Freakonomics Researched Argument- using Enthymeme and Fishbowl Discussions for Freakonomics
Texts: Thank You for Arguing Heinrichs
“The Golden Rule” from various religions
“Crito” Plato (Contemporary and Classic Arguments)
“Allegory of the Cave” Plato (Contemporary and Classic Arguments)
“Speech in the Symposium” Socrates
excerpt “The Matrix”
Freakonomics - Rhetorical Circles/Fishbowl Discussion and Freakonomics 20/20
Skills: Argument Bootcamp: argumentative appeals, rhetorical triangle, defend/challenge/qualify, Socratic questioning,
classical argument/enthymeme, syllogisms, inductive vs. deductive reasoning, fallacies
Weeks 6-8: EQ: To what extent does popular culture reflect our society’s values? Influence them?
Assessments: REHUGO
Columnist Analysis (compare three editorials/same author to recognize stylistic patterns)
ICE: Synthesis essay “Media” (College Board Sample) and ICE:Postman
Amusing Jigsaw
Texts: Amusing Ourselves to Death Chs. 1-6 Jigsaw
Informing Ourselves to Death Postman Speech
“Pop Culture after Sept 11” Wiltz (LC)
“Show and Tell” McCloud (LC)
“Dreaming America” Smith (LC)
“High School Confidential” Denby (LC)
“Watching TV Makes You Smarter” Johnson (LC)
Shut Up and Sing (doc.)
The Persuaders (Frontline), Merchants of Cool (Frontline)
Skills: Research---in text citations (how to cite a source), Toulmin Analysis application
Weeks 9-12: How does consumerism in our culture (the “American Dream”) affect our quality of life?
Assessments: Researched Argument-“Affluence: its perils and pearls”- Rogerian
REHUGO, ICE: Synthesis on Food
Texts: excerpts Fast Food Nation by Schlosser
Food, Inc. (doc).
30 Days “living minimum wage” (M. Spurlock Doc.)
“The Real Price of a Big Mac” by Braiker/ Schlosser article on Supersize Me
“Serving in America” Eherenreich (LC)
“Beat the Clock” Gardner (LC)
“The Traveling Bra Salesman Lesson” O’Keefe (LC)
Walmart: The High Cost of a Low Price (documentary)
“In Praise of a Snail’s Pace” by Goodman (LC)
(LC)
Skills: Rogerian Argument, ethos/pathos/logos and other appeals
Trimester 3
Weeks 1-2: How does the language we use reveal who we are?
Assessments: Post assessment for writing using College Board released free-response items.
Language Journal: dialectical journal of modes/techniques of rhetoric and style
Texts: “Politics and the English Language” Orwell (LC)
“Mother Tongue” Tan (LC)
“Living in Spanish” Agosin (LC)
“Studying Islam” McFaul (LC)
Spanglish excerpt
“Bilingualism in America” Hyakawa (LC)
Bowling for Columbine
excerpt Conscientious Objections
Skills: Citations and documentation (applied practice), gleaning information from bibliographies and footnotes, validity of
information (what is a reliable source?)
Weeks 3-5: Science, technology and nature: How are advances in science affecting the way we define our humanity? What
is our responsibility to nature?
Assessments: Create your own synthesis
ICE Silent Spring
Dialectical Journals or Reaction Paper
Texts: The World Without Us excerpt
Best American Science/Nature Writing
An Inconvenient Truth (doc)
“Silent Spring” LofC
Ishmael excerpt
Over the Hedge film clip
“Transsexual Frogs” LofC
“Nature” Lang of C
“The Clan of One-Breasted Women” LofC
“Against Nature” LofC
“Nobel Peace Prize Speech 2004” Maathai
Animal Vegetable Mineral
Skills: Examining visual texts, recognizing propaganda, can the medium or the speaker harm the message?
Weeks 6-9: Rhetorical Circles: How do I break the rules and still create quality prose? AND How do I ace the AP Language
exam?
Assessments: Rhetorical circles/role sheets
Discussion rubric
Dialectical Journals
Test prep
Texts: Choice from: On Writing Well/On Writing/Talk to the Hand/Eats, Shoots and Leaves
Reading Like a Writer, Year of Magical Thinking
5 Steps to a 5: English Language and Composition
Cracking the English Language and Composition Exam 2006-2007 Edition- Princeton Review
Skills:
Evaluate which stylistic techniques are meant to be followed and which are meant to be broken.
Multiple choice and annotation review, speed-dating with prompts, extended discussion of non-fiction book in small
groups.
Weeks 10-12: Book Club: How do I prepare for English beyond AP Language?- either AP Lit prep or college search and
essay prep.
Assessments: Two Column Notes: How to Read Literature Like a Professor + Novel
Texts: Class choice: Novel of Literary Merit
Excerpts How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Foster
Skills: Applying Literary Criticism to fiction, lenses
Rules and expectations:
Be Polite
Be punctual
Be prepared
Be participatory
No cell phones, Ipods only one ear and when doing independent work, no hats, no food, water is a-ok as are other appropriate
beverages with lids.