Advanced Placement
Language and Composition
Course Syllabus
Mr. Borders ∙ Room 401 ∙ 330.823.7458
b_borders@marlingtonlocal.org ∙ www.marlingtonlocal.org/MrBorders.aspx
Overview:
The English 11 Advanced Placement course is designed to offer students a chance to earn college credit
while still in high school. Accordingly, a great deal of emphasis is placed on preparing for the Advanced
Placement test, which students who elect this course are required to take. To be successful on the test,
students must be able to analyze authors’ language and strategy at a very high level, which may include
reading mature materials. Therefore, considerable emphasis is placed on reading widely, writing timed
essays, and performing detailed analysis on texts from a variety of genres, but with a special
concentration on non-fiction. Students should be highly motivated and prepared for work at the college
level. Summer reading is required for this course. Students will be notified of the summer reading lists
and assignments in May. All students taking this course will be required to take the AP exam in May. The
cost of the exam is included in the course fee.
SHORT NOTE: Successful completion of this course prepares the student to take the College Board
Advanced Placement Language & Composition Exam administered each year in May. Appropriate
performance on this exam may lead to the attainment of credit and/or advanced standing in college.
Curricular Requirements:
1. The course will teach and require students to write in several forms (e.g., narrative, expository,
analytical, and argumentative essays) about a variety of subjects (e.g., public policies, popular
culture, personal experiences).
2. The course will require students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with
revision aided by teacher and peers.
3. The course will require students to write in informal contexts (e.g., imitation exercises, journal
keeping, collaborative writing, and in-class responses) designed to help them become increasingly
aware of themselves as writers and of the techniques employed by the writers they read.
4. The course will teach students to analyze how graphics and visual images both relate to written
texts and serve as alternative forms of text themselves.
5. The course will teach research skills, and in particular, the ability to evaluate, use, and cite primary
and secondary sources. The course will assign projects such as the researched argument paper,
which goes beyond the parameters1 of a traditional research paper by asking students to present an
argument of their own that includes the analysis and synthesis2 of ideas from an array of sources.
1
2
boundaries
unification or fusion
6. The course will teach students how to cite sources using a recognized editorial style
7. The course will require expository writing assignments that are based on readings representing a
wide variety of prose3 styles and genres4.
8. The course will require analytical writing assignments that are based on readings representing a
wide variety of prose styles and genres.
9. The course will require argumentative writing assignments that are based on readings representing
a wide variety of prose styles and genres.
10. The course will require nonfiction reading that are selected to give students opportunities to
identify and explain an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.
11. The course requires that the AP teacher will provide instruction and feedback on students’ writing
assignments that will help students to develop:
a. A wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively
b. A variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination5 and
coordination6
c. A logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence7, such as
repetition, transition, and emphasis
d. A balance of generalization of specific, illustrative detail
e. An effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice,
and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction8 and sentence structure
Course Materials:
Textbook:
Literature: The American experience. Prentice Hall.
*Other canonical and modern texts, essays, and the like may be read throughout the year or chosen for
the research project, if approved.
Other Materials:
You will need a 3-ring notebook (recommend dividing into the following sections):
1. Notes
2. Literary Terms
3. Compositions
4. Homework
5. Vocabulary
Bring your current reading materials, notebook, and pen or pencil to class each day.
3
language written or spoken in normal continuous form unlike poetry
kinds or types like stories, novels, memoirs, essays, plays, etc.
varied importance or emphasis put on different parts of language usually within sentences
6
equal importance or emphasis put on different parts of language usually within sentences
7
consistent harmony or sense of unity and fluidity
8
word choice
4
5
Grading:
Assignments and Homework:
All assignments must be turned in on or before the due date. If you know you will be absent, turn in
your work early or have someone else turn it in for you. Late work will not be accepted!
Make-Up Work:
All assignments will be listed on-line (Web site listed at top of syllabus). You must check the assignments
when you return to class after an absence and make any necessary arrangements to take quizzes, tests,
etc.
Scale/Weighting:
A
B+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
92-100%
89-91%
86-88%
83-85%
80-82%
77-79%
74-76%
71-73%
68-71%
65-67%
below 65%
5.000
4.350
4.000
3.725
3.425
3.000
2.725
1.425
1.000
0.875
0.000
80%
40%
Compositions
30%
Tests
20%
Quizzes
10%
Homework
20%
Two 9-Week Tests
(10% each)
SLO Exam (15%) &
9-Week Test (5%)
Academic Outline:
Ongoing Assessments
Independent Reading Assignments:
There will be an emphasis on the writing process, with discussions and practice in revision and use of
style as a priority. This emphasis will include class discussions, individual conferences, and peer revision.
Each assignment will include writing in the form of a literary analysis (detailed further in “Composition
and Language Skills”).
Vocabulary:
Students will be learning vocabulary as needed, based on the literature used in each particular unit.
There will be an emphasis on understanding not just the denotation of words in literary works, but the
connotation of those words as well. This study of diction will apply both to the reading of assigned
literature (where professional writers model their skills in usage) and to the students’ writing samples as
well. Further, vocabulary words will be assigned weekly, and quizzes (on Fridays) will cumulative. The
end result should be two-fold: first, a heightening of the students’ appreciation for effectively used
diction in literary works and secondly, an improvement in the students’ understanding of diction and
usage in their own writing samples.
Literary Terms:
In addition to vocabulary study, literary terms will be assigned each week; quizzes will be given biweekly
on Wednesdays. (The said quizzes will be on the opposite Wednesdays as the timed writings.) This
portion of study will not only develop students’ enjoyment of literature, but also their ability to think
critically, write successfully, discuss effectively, etc.
Composition and Language Skills:
We will use various texts as resources for modeling the various modes of writing. These resources will
also be used as models for the revision process as students write for a variety of purposes including
analysis, synthesis, argumentative, and informative essays. Composition assignments will include
biweekly timed writings given on Wednesdays, alternating Wednesdays with the aforementioned
literary terms quizzes, and at least one longer essay per semester—using APA style parenthetical
citations and a Bibliography page—germane to the students’ independent reading. Each paper will
receive instruction leading up to the paper, feedback, conferencing, peer feedback, and will be available
for revision. For revision credit, students MUST improve their papers beyond the mundane spelling,
grammar, etc. Specifically, students need to think about how to improve their arguments, organization,
and rhetoric. I will provide instruction on how to improve each paper and each revision.
Advanced Placement Exam:
We will be continuously preparing for the exam throughout the year, including several AP-style tests to
monitor progress. The AP Language and Composition-style exams will be used as a tool to improve the
test-taking skills of the students as well as a test of their knowledge germane to the literature/content.
Using item-analysis data, we will score the tests and then discuss (as a class or in small groups) the
rationale behind the correct answers of the items that students missed most frequently. Furthermore,
the biweekly timed writings will be in preparation for the AP exam and scored accordingly. On occasion,
to demonstrate that the students are familiar with the scoring process, students will score and critique
their own writings and give rationales for their scores.
First Semester
Unit Breakdown by Week: “What Is the American Dream?”
Introduction: “Course Introduction” (Week 1)
Overview: In this unit students will work with their previously read texts to learn to improve their skills
of analysis through various teaching strategies, including class discussions; think, pair, and share; and
small group discussions. Specifically, students will be gaining an understanding of the thought
complexity level this course requires. Further, we will concentrate on developing and writing theses.
This will involve a study of others’ theses for diction and syntax and their efficacy.
Unit I: The New World (Weeks 1-4)
Overview: This unit focuses primarily on the nonfiction prose—including sermons and diaries—and
some poetry in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Students examine the works of some of
the earliest settlers in various parts of the “new world.” They consider the significance of the
intersection of Native American, European, and African cultures. They explore whether conflicts were
inevitable and how language and religion served as barriers and as bridges. Students look for emerging
themes in American literature, such as the “new Eden” and the “American dream.” Finally, art works
from the period are examined for their treatment of similar themes.
Poetry
“An Hymn to the Evening,” Phillis Wheatley
“On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Phillis Wheatley
Nonfiction
Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford
“The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes
“The Trials of Phillis Wheatley,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Speeches
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards
Art
Mrs. James Smith & Grandson, Charles Willson Peale
Mrs. George Watson, John Singleton Copley
Young Moravian Girl, John Valentine Haidt
Portrait of a Woman, Joseph Wright
Projects/Assignments
 Write an argument in which you agree or disagree with Gates; use evidence from Wheatley’s
work to support your position. Share your initial thoughts on the classroom blog in order to get
feedback from your classmates and from me.
 Examine the artworks listed. What does each image show about “young America”? Examine the
Copley painting in comparison to the Haidt. What can you learn about each of these women and
their lives in America? How are the women different? Carefully examine the iconography
present in each image. Compare the Peale, Copley, and Wright paintings. What can we learn
about the new nation from the way these painters worked?
 After reading excerpts from “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God,” write an argument that
explains why you think early settlers were persuaded by Edwards’s sermon. Note evidence from
the text to support your thesis.
 Examine Of Plymouth Plantation or “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” for usage (e.g.,
words or conventions) that differs from contemporary usage. Discuss with classmates online or
in class whether and/or how the meanings of words and/or sentence structure has changed
since that time. “Translate” instances of antiquated syntax into contemporary sentences;
determine whether and/or how the meaning of the sentence is affected by the translation.
Unit II: A New Nation (Weeks 5-10)
Overview: Building on the themes explored in unit one, students trace the movement toward revolution
and the colonists’ desire to establish a new government, noting the differences in opinions between
federalists and anti-federalists and how the arguments were made. Students compare the radical
purpose and tone of the Declaration of Independence to the measured and logical tone of the Preamble
to the Constitution. They will analyze the expression of conflict between colonists and the British
government, between colonists and Native Americans, and between colonists and slaves. They will
begin to recognize the emerging theme in American literature of “American exceptionalism.” Art works
from the period will be examined for their treatment of similar themes.
Nonfiction
Common Sense, Thomas Paine
Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson
Federalist No. 10, James Madison
Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Speeches
“Farewell Address,” George Washington
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth Of July? An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on 5 July 1852,”
Frederick Douglass
“Speech to the Virginia Convention,” Patrick Henry
Art
Siège de Yorktown, Auguste Couder
Washington Crossing The Delaware, Emanuel Leutze
James Monroe, Gilbert Stuart
Lapowinsa, Gustavus Hesselius
Paul Revere, John Copley
Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull
Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, Thomas Pritchard Rossiter
Projects/Assignments
 Examine the artworks listed. How did artists portray historical figures and events from the
founding of America? Why might an artist choose to depict such events or figures? Examine
each artwork for imagery detailing the founding of America and identify ways in which artists
use history for inspiration. In addition, compare the Leutze and Trumbull paintings. How does
the artist share each narrative with you? What visual clues lead you to discover what is
happening in each scene? Why might these paintings inspire viewers during the time period as
well as future viewers?
 Do the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution share similar tones? Why or why not?
Use at least three pieces of textual evidence to support your argument. Share your initial
thoughts on the classroom blog in order to get feedback from your classmates and from me.
 Write an essay in which you explain Madison’s use of the term faction in Federalist No. 10. Use
at least three pieces of textual evidence to support an original thesis statement. Post your first
draft on the classroom blog and receive feedback from classmates and me before publication.
 Examine “Speech to the Virginia Convention” for variety in sentence structure. (I will select
passages and highlight three sentences.) With my guidance, diagram the three highlighted
sentences. Rewrite each sentence in “contemporary” prose.
 Select one of the texts studied and write a research paper in which you trace the enduring
significance of the work through contemporary American history. Cite at least three secondary
sources to support an original thesis statement. The essay should reflect your reasoned
judgment about the quality and reliability of sources consulted (i.e., why you emphasize some
and not others), a balance of paraphrasing and quoting from sources, and proper citation of
sources.
Unit III: American Romanticism (Weeks 11-18)
Overview: Students explore this period as America’s first prolific one of literature by examining works
from Hawthorne, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Emerson, and Thoreau. Students will wrestle with how the
Romantics perceive individualism and how this focus on individualism relates to other themes in
American literature. Transcendentalism is explored as an aspect of American Romanticism and students
should compare the “Romantics” with the “Transcendentalists.” We will explore one novel, several
poems, and several essays, etc. to compare these groups.
Poetry
“A Bird came down the Walk,” Emily Dickinson
“Annabel Lee,” Edgar Allan Poe
“Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman
“This is my letter to the World,” Emily Dickinson
Essays
“Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau
“Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Society and Solitude,” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nonfiction
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau
Speeches
“Address to William Henry Harrison,” Shawnee Chief Tecumseh
Art
Looking Down Yosemite Valley, Albert Biertstadt
Kindred Spirits, Asher Durand
Niagara, Frederic Church
The Lackawanna Valley, George Inness
Romantic Landscape with Ruined Tower, Thomas Cole
Projects/Assignments
 After reading literary examples of American Romanticism, examine the paintings featured. Why
do you believe these are Romantic paintings? What visual aspects do the artists employ to
interact with the viewer? How do they use the formal principles of art and design? View Thomas
Cole’s work “Romantic Landscape with Ruined Tower.” What has Cole done to create a
“Romantic landscape”? Continue viewing the other works of art as comparisons. After viewing


all of these paintings, what do you think are the characteristics of a romantic work of art?
Brainstorm a list of the visual aspects of romantic painting.
Write your own narrative essay in the style of Walden. Post your first draft on the classroom
blog and receive feedback from classmates and me before publication.
Agree or disagree with this Emerson quotation: “What is popularly called Transcendentalism
among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 1842.” Use at least three pieces of textual
evidence to support your opinion. Your teacher may give you the opportunity to share your
initial thoughts on the classroom blog in order to get feedback from your classmates and from
me.
Second Semester
Research Paper:
Students will create a thesis and write a researched synthesis essay that is based on a minimum of three
literary texts and three non-literary texts (i.e., journal articles, etc.). Students will be required to select a
current cultural or social issue, conduct independent research, and articulate a coherent, persuasive
position on that issue. The essay will be 8-10 pages long, including both parenthetical citations and a
Bibliography page in APA format. Students will be required to submit a rough draft two weeks prior to
the submission of the final paper. One week before the final paper is due, students MUST conference
with the teacher to discuss possible improvements and successes. Finally, students will submit their final
copy along with their rough draft. Each step of this essay will have a deadline and will receive
feedback—for example, students will submit a thesis, get feedback from me, and revise and repeat.
Unit Breakdown by Week: “What Is the American Dream?”
Unit IV: A Troubled Young Nation (Weeks 1-6)
Overview: The range and depth of potential topics covered in this hefty unit build on the previous unit
in which individualism figures as a prominent theme in American Romanticism and Transcendentalism.
This unit explores the expanding idea of the American individual and the related idea of the pursuit of
liberty in various forms. We will sample heavily from the informational texts, as many are critical
especially to understanding the era of the Civil War and the struggle to fulfill America’s promise.
Short Stories
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Essays
“‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Women’s Discourse,” Karen Ford
“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Nonfiction
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Dee Brown
Letter to Albert G. Hodges, Abraham Lincoln
Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn, Evan S. Connell
Speeches
“A House Divided,” Abraham Lincoln
“The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln
Art
A Visit from the Old Mistress, Winslow Homer
Projects/Assignments
 What do you think might be going on in the Homer painting? Who are these women? Notice
each person’s dress and body position. What do these details suggest about their relationships?
Note that the painting is sectioned. But where is the division: between the white woman and
the black family, or at the painting’s center, to the left of the central figure? How does noticing
this division add to our understanding of the relationships in the painting? What do you think
each character might be thinking or feeling? Why do you think Homer created such a complex
composition to depict what at first appears to be a simple interaction?
 Write an argument in which you agree or disagree with the following statement, offering at
least three pieces of evidence from the texts to support your position: Women in nineteenthcentury America could not really be free. Share your initial thoughts on the classroom blog in
order to get feedback from your classmates and from me.
 Read “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Women’s Discourse,” and “Why I
Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Then, write an informative/explanatory essay in which you
explore how the positioning of the women protagonist in the story exposes the author’s views
of women in society.
Unit V: Emerging Modernism (Weeks 7-12)
Objectives: It traces the emergence of American modernism, including some literature from World War
I, and tracks the literature of “disillusionment” that followed the war. Students explore Robert Frost’s
vision of nature as modernist rather than transcendental in its perspective. They identify the alienation
of the modern man and the tensions that are embedded in the modernist works of F. Scott Fitzgerald
and Ernest Hemingway. The works of Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston
illustrate the breadth of the Harlem Renaissance literary movement. Informational and critical texts
enrich the students’ analysis of the texts.
Novels
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Poetry
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot
Essays
“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” James Baldwin
“The Great Gatsby and the Twenties,” Ronald Berman
Speeches
“Hope Despair and Memory,” Elie Wiesel
“State of the Union Address,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“The Spirit of Liberty” speech at “I Am an American Day,” Learned Hand
Art
From the Back Window, 291, Alfred Stieglitz
Goat, Arthur Dove
My Egypt, Charles Demuth
Mount Katahdin, Maine, Marsden Hartley
Projects/Assignments
 What do we mean when we talk about modernists creating “art for art’s sake”? For instance,
compare the Hartley, Dove, and Demuth paintings. To what extent do you think these painters
were interested in painting a mountain (Hartley), a goat (Dove), and silos (Demuth) versus
experimenting with the possibilities of paint, space, and line? What role do you think fine art
photography (see the Stieglitz image) might have played in the transition of painting away from
a primary focus on depiction?
 Discuss what you think Learned Hand meant when he said of Americans, “For this reason we
have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to
break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land.” Cite examples
from works read in this unit and describe how the characters exhibit this quality.
 After reading “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and The Great Gatsby, decide whether you
agree or disagree with the following statement: Prufrock and Gatsby have similar characters.
Use at least three pieces of textual evidence to support your position. Share your initial thoughts
on the classroom blog in order to get feedback from your classmates and from me.
Unit VI: Challenges and Successes of the Twentieth Century (Weeks 13-18)
Objectives: Students will recognize the principles of effective literary characterization and be able to
understand and apply the vocabulary of characterization. This vocabulary includes direct and indirect
presentation, round and flat characters, and dynamic and static characters, as well as the idea, especially
important in discussing short stories, of the epiphany.
Essays
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“On Being an American,” H.L. Mencken
Speeches
“Brandenburg Gate Address,” Ronald Reagan
Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961), John F. Kennedy
Architecture
Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois (1951)
Seagram Building, New York City, New York (1957)
Art
Concord, Barnett Newman
Pillar of Sundays, David Smith
Untitled, Franz Kline
Number 28, 1950, Jackson Pollock
Red Fragmented Figure, Louise Bourgeois
Are Years What? (For Marianne Moore), Mark di Suvero
Untitled, Mark Rothko
Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 70, Robert Motherwell
Excavation, Willem de Kooning
Film
A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan (dir.)
A Streetcar Named Desire, Glenn Jordan (dir.)
Projects/Assignments
 Compare a scene from the 1951 film of A Streetcar Named Desire with the same scene in the
1995 film or a stage performance. Do you think the film or stage production is faithful to the
author’s intent? Why or why not? Cite at least three pieces of evidence to support an original
thesis statement. Share your initial thoughts on the classroom blog in order to get feedback
from your classmates and from me.
 View the two works of architecture, one residential and one commercial. The same architect,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, designed these buildings. How do they compare? Do you see similar
elements in both of them? What is different? How is each building site-specific (i.e., reacting
specifically to the place where it resides)? Compare this duo to the di Suvero and Bourgeois
sculptures. How might you compare them—or can we even compare them? Does the
comparison suggest that artists and architects sometimes work on similar ideas?
 The paintings listed are all signal examples of abstract expressionist art. What do you see in
each image? Consider these paintings in comparison to Romantic painting, discussed in Unit
Three, and the early modernist works in Unit Five. Why do you believe the abstract
expressionists took such a grand leap away from figurative art (i.e., creating a representational
image)? What words come to mind when you see these images? Many of these works are largescale paintings. Can you appreciate the monumental scale of these works without being in front
of them? Do you need to view this image in person to be affected—by the colors, textures, and
shapes used? What happens to an image when it is reproduced?
Parent/Student Summary
Important Dates


Wednesdays are important; students will either be completing timed writings or literary terms
quizzes.
Fridays will have vocabulary quizzes. Each quiz will build on the previous.
Important Information

Assigned readings are important—as are assigned homework and studying. Being that this is a
college-level class, late work will not be accepted. I expect your best effort on everything you
do, and I understand that some material is very difficult. Therefore, if your best effort isn’t up to
your (and my) standards, a different retake over the material will be allowed (and expected).
Parent/Guardian Signature: _______________________________________ Date: ______________
Student Signature: ______________________________________________ Date: ______________