AP English Language & Composition
Oct. 23, 2013
 Welcome!
 Discuss your experiment!
 Video
 Malcolm X
 HW: read “Best in Class” page 113 in L of C. In lieu of notes/précis, please answer our big
question (To what extent do schools serve the purpose of a true education?) using the
compare/contrast mode.
Oct. 22, 2013
 Welcome!
 Education experiment today – go to the library.
Oct. 21, 2013
 Welcome!
 Education experiment today – go to the library.
Oct. 17, 2013
 Welcome!
 Discuss Emerson and Gatto
 HW: Read “Learning to Read” for MONDAY. In lieu of notes/précis, please answer our
big question (To what extent do schools serve the purpose of a true education?) using the
process analysis mode.
Oct. 15, 2013
 Finish Prose – her purpose?
 Let’s evaluate “Sonny’s Blues and “Finishing School” according to Prose.
 HW: read Emerson for Wednesday. In lieu of notes/précis, please answer our big
question (To what extent do schools serve the purpose of a true education?) using the
descriptive mode.
Oct. 14, 2013
 Welcome!
 DGP quiz – extra credit for diagramming the sentence – It’s in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
 “Sonny’s Blues”
o How would you have handled Sonny’s addiction differently than the narrator?
o Do you think that Sonny can be held responsible for his addiction, considering his environment?
o What can you do to help those with addiction?
 Intro. to argument - how is everything an argument? To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a
true education?
 HW: finish Prose, read Emerson for Wednesday. In lieu of notes/précis, please answer
our big question (To what extent do schools serve the purpose of a true education?) using
the narrative mode.
Oct. 11, 2013
 Welcome!
 Diagramming our DGP sentence
 HW: Read “Sonny’s Blues” and “Finishing School” FOR MONDAY – read aesthetically!
Oct. 10, 2013
 Welcome!
o A few notes – college essays, my web site, recent tests, where we are going
 DGP – we will finish tomorrow with a quiz on Monday. Extra credit for anyone who can diagram the
sentence
 Loose and periodic sentences
 Socratic seminar:
o What is the relationship of the individual to the community?
o What rhetorical strategies from the writers we have demonstrated this to you most clearly?
o Why is this an important question?
o [A student generated question.]
o How shall we live?
 Read “Sonny’s Blues” and “Finishing School” FOR MONDAY (I will give you copies
tomorrow – you can find it on line if you can’t wait.)
Oct. 8, 2013
 ALICE TRAINING (2ND PERIOD)
 DGP
 Notebooks: write down Gladwell’s purpose. Compare with a partner.
o How does Gladwell’s narrative work to persuade.
o What’s the take-away thought about this essay?
 Develop Socratic seminar questions for Thursday.
 HW: review your notes for the essays you read in this chapter. Be prepared to answer
questions about rhetoric and content for these texts. All contributions to the seminar
must be text centered.
Oct. 7, 2013
 ICE: analysis
Oct. 4, 2013
 Intro. to rhetoric test
October 3, 2013
 Welcome!
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o “A stereotype but unconscious despair is concealed under what are called the
amusements of mankind”
Review reading strategies:
o Rhetorical précis
o Annotation
o Graphic organizer
o Levels of questioning
Discussion of our last readings – You will have a graded seminar next block to discuss:
what is the relationship of the individual to the community.
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College essay peer edit:
o Identify the focus of the paper for your partner.
o Take one paragraph. Write every word that begins that sentence.
 Try varying this so that you begin with a phrase or a clause
o People rarely take time to reflect.  Rarely do people take time to
reflect.
o I went to work on Saturday morning  On Saturday morning, I went
to work.
o Students can make a difference when they try.  When they try,
students can make a difference.
o For a different paragraph, underline one word in each sentence that you think is the key
word in the sentence. It doesn’t have to be the subject.
o Now place some of those words first or last.
 The recent problems with fraud have discouraged voter turnout.
 Fraud in recent elections has discouraged voter turnout.
 Voter turnout in recent elections has diminished due to fraud.
o Revising for diction.
HW: Read the Malcolm Gladwell essay for Tuesday:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?printabl
e=true
SOME SAMPLE COLUMNIST ANALYSES FROM YEARS PAST:
 A paper that focuses on arrangement and appeals.
o Link to original Krugman column
 A paper with nicely detailed analysis
o Link to original Kristof column
 A gracefully written paper
o Link to the Schultz column
 A paper with a strong voice
o Link to Blow column
 A paper that uses the jargon of analysis without using the jargon of analysis
o Link to Daum column
October 1, 2013
 Welcome!
 Collection and discussion of columnist analyses.
 Cloze – “Where I lived”
 HW:
o read “Commencement Speech” – Quindlen -- and bring a draft of your college
essay
o test on Friday – bring questions if you have them!
September 30, 2013
 Welcome!
 Review of rhetoric via “The Man With Pink Hair” – INTRODUCTION TO RHETORIC TEST ON
FRIDAY. FIRST ANALYSIS ICE ON MONDAY.
 Review of cloze with “Where I Lived”
 HW:
o Next column analysis is due on TUESDAY.
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“In Search of the Good Family” and “The New Community” on Tuesday.
Bring the next draft of your college essay for block.
September 27, 2013
 Welcome!
 DGP quiz
 Review of columnist assignment – return of your “practice” papers
 HW: next column analysis is due on TUESDAY. Also “In Search of the Good Family” and
“The New Community” on Tuesday.
September 26, 2013
 Welcome!
 Plagiarism paper
 DGP
 Wrap up “Letter from Birmingham Jail”/What is the relationship of the individual to the community?
o Which excerpt should I give sophomores?
 Review of Chapter 5.
 Reading strategies alternatives
o Rhetorical précis
o Levels of questioning
o Dialectical journal
 Cloze with Walden
 HW: DGP quiz tomorrow. “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (page 276, L of C)
o Bring your column that you plan to analyze tomorrow!
September 24, 2013
 Welcome!
 Continue our small group exploration of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
 HW: Read in Everyday Use Ch. 5 (and notes) for Thursday. Friday – “Where I Lived and
What I Lived For” (page 276)
September 23, 2013
 Welcome! Delay of Friday’s paper – move to Monday. Remind me to talk about OSU and
essay contest.
 DGP – do you need notes?
 Any questions about persona?
 Focus: how do we know what to look for? How do these fit together? What language do we use to
describe how he writes to achieve his purpose?
 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” In groups, identify:
o Logic
o Images that contrast
o Arrangement
o Allusions
o Tone
o Syntax
 HW: Read in Everyday Use Ch. 5 (and notes) for Thursday. Heads up – we will be
reading all of chapter 6 in L of C. Don’t hesitate to get started!
September 20, 2013
 Collect first columnist paper!
 Persona through Bill Clinton’s speeches!
 HW: Letter from Birmingham Jail (PAGE 260 in LOC) due on MONDAY.
September 19, 2013
 Welcome!
 Do you have any questions about your reading so far?
 Practice with the prompt: the three steps you need for every rhetorical analysis
 HW: Letter from Birmingham Jail (PAGE 260 in LOC) due on MONDAY. 1st columnist
analysis is due tomorrow.
September 18, 2013
 Welcome!
 “The Trouble with Intentions” - make your sentences literal
 Sanders Prompt – try to finish today
 HW: your first column analysis is due on Friday.
September 17, 2013
 Welcome!
 College essay draft review – reading for voice
 Group work – attacking the Sanders’ prompt from one perspective
o Focus: how do we know what to look for? How do these fit together? What language do we use
to describe how he writes to achieve his purpose?
 HW:
o Your first column is due on Friday. (samples above!)
o For Wednesday: Chapter 1 of The Language of Composition (most of which is
review) and notes on Arrangement, pages 13 -26 and notes
September 16, 2013
 Welcome!
 College essay draft review – some anonymous peer help.
 Review the Sanders prompt.
 HW: For Wednesday: Chapter 1 of The Language of Composition (most of which is
review) and notes on Arrangement, pages 13 -26
September 13, 2013
 Introduction to rhetoric. My favorite day of the year.
 Distribute columnist project.
 HW:
o Read (and notes) :Chapter 3 of Everyday Use 57-63
o Second draft of college essay due on Monday.
o Annotate Sanders’s prompt.
September 12, 2013
 A podcast that continues our discussion from yesterday.
 Review of college essay guidelines
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HW: Chapter one of Everyday Use due tomorrow. Second draft of your college essay is
due (now) on MONDAY
September 11, 2013
 Welcome
 Distribute textbooks
 Finish Socratic seminar with our summer reads.
 Hand back college essay drafts.
 HW: Read Chapter one of Everyday Use for FRIDAY. Take notes in your writer’s
notebook. A second draft of your college essay is due on FRIDAY also.
September 10, 2013
 Meet with guidance today
September 9, 2013
 Socratic seminar
September 6, 2013
 Welcome!
 Finish Levels of questions
 Begin seminar with summer reading texts
 HW: read several columnists – opinion writers in major news outlets. Find a few you
find interesting.
September 5, 2013
 Welcome!
 Levels of questions
 Annotations assessment using Levels of Questions
 HW: prepare for your Socratic seminar tomorrow – it is a graded event!
September 4, 2013
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Welcome to AP English Language!
Take a seat – no seating chart.
Introduction to the course policies
I will collect your summer writing assignment: the college essay. Before I do, answer the following on the back of
your essay:
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What questions do you still have about your writing?
If you could write this essay over again, what would you do differently?
What aspect of your writing do you think really sparkles?
We’ll meet our classmates to see what we have in common with them.
HW: Bring your annotations of the two summer reads tomorrow.