Instructors: Kristen Carlson/Nina Fournier e-mail: carlsonk@region10ct.org
fourniern@region10ct.org
Course Goal: Advanced Placement Language and Composition/American Literature will provide you with an understanding of the art of composition: determining a writer’s purpose, audience, and tone and analyzing the rhetorical strategies s/he employs to satisfy all three. Through intensive reading, writing, speaking, and listening, students will understand the power of the written and spoken word.
Student Performance Outcome: The Lewis Mills student comprehends written, visual, and auditory texts and communicates with clarity in a variety of modes.
Components of the Course:
Critical Reading and Writing: For every assignment, you will be asked to read, write, and think critically: take literature apart, recognize its various elements, label them appropriately, and explain how the writer’s creative choices contribute to the whole. In a series of analytical assessments, you will formulate a critical proposition, structure your argument, support your opinion with specifics from the text, develop your position, and argue your points clearly and smoothly. Tests will include multiple choice questions as well as essays.
Writing Portfolio: The writing portfolio will provide students an opportunity to put into practice their understanding of the art of composition. The portfolio will include essays employing various rhetorical patterns: narration, description, classification, division, process, comparison, contrast, cause, effect, definition, and persuasion. Students will study professional and student models prior to composing their own pieces. Students will be required to prepare three copies; the first will be submitted on-line, the second and third will be printed copies, submitted in class. When students complete the portfolio, they will be required to submit a revised and re-annotated copy of one of the essays.
Research Skills: The newest addition to the AP exam is a document-based essay requiring students to formulate a critical proposition, employ supporting evidence from three provided sources, synthesize the material, and extend their argument. Students will be using research skills throughout the course: finding relevant sources in a variety of formats, discriminating between sources, selecting appropriate material, synthesizing and extending the information, and correctly documenting sources using both the
MLA and Chicago Style formats.
Conventions of Language: A study of grammar and mechanics will be a part of the course. Why grammar you ask? Aside from the editing section of the SAT, if you are to recognize the elements of language, you need to know what they are, what they are called, and what they do. The mechanics of
English are the road signs of communication. They tell us what to expect, when to slow down, when to pick up the pace, and when to stop. While minor infractions impede progress, major and frequent violations create a communication roadblock.
Conferences: All students will be expected to schedule at least one writing conference with me.
Please be prepared for spirited discussion, lively debate, and high level challenge. I applaud you for
your commitment to your education, and I look forward to working with you!

Reading:
Revolutionary Writers: Speech in the Virginia Convention
The Declaration of Independence
Washington Irving:
The Spectre Bridegroom”
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
“Rip Van Winkle”
“The Devil and Tom Walker” (hand-out)
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher”
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
“The Black Cat
“The Imp of the Perverse” hand-out
“The Cask of Amontillado”
“Hop-Frog and the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs”
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath
Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Selected Pieces from media sources (yours and mine)
Writing Portfolio: narration, description, classification, division, process, comparison, contrast, cause, effect, definition, and persuasion.
Conventions of Language: parts of speech, parts of the sentence, types of sentences, phrases, clauses, punctuation, agreement, pronouns, coordination, subordination, combining sentences

Welcome to Advanced Placement Language and Composition: Your decision to enroll in our most demanding level is an indication of your commitment to your own education. You want more reading, harder reading, rigorous assessments, stringent grading, preparation for the PSAT, SAT, and Advanced
Placement Exam, lively and sophisticated discussions, and an education that will prepare you for the most prestigious colleges in the country. Below are my expectations for the course. Inherent in each is what you can expect of me. I do not expect anything of my students I do not expect of myself.
Preparation for class: You are expected to come to class prepared: materials in hand, assigned work completed, and ready to participate in class discussion. For all assessments, it is essential you have with you your copy of the current text. You will be required to use it during assessments, and books are in short supply. There will be no extra copies available.
Due dates: Assignment sheets will be given to each student at the beginning of each unit and will be posted on my Wiki page, https://studentweb.region10ct.org/groups/kcarlson/ . I will also post due dates on the side chalkboard in my room.
Academic Responsibilities: Academic responsibilities include assigned reading, independent reading, note-taking, preparing outlines, critical writing, composing portfolio pieces, researching, and preparing for projects and/or activities. No late work will be accepted. If a student is on a field trip on a day an assignment is due, please hand in the assignment before you leave. If a student is absent on the day a written assignment is due, it is due the day s/he returns to school even if the class does not meet on that day. In the event the absence occurs before a week-end or vacation, the assignment should be emailed to me the day following the absence. In the event you e-mail me an assignment, you will receive a response indicating that I received the piece; if I cannot open it, I will notify you at that time. If I cannot open it, you will not receive extra time. If, due to an absence, you e-mail me a paper that was to be originally submitted in paper form, please print a copy for me and give it to me when you return.
E-mailing: I will ask for you to e-mail me some of your assignments. When I do, please use the following subject line: AP – Your last name – Name of assignment. For ex.: AP – Smith – The Scarlet
Letter Paper. Please note my e-mail address on the top of the first page of this packet. Type my e-mail address carefully so your paper arrives when it’s due. I will always respond to you so you can be assured
I have received it. When you e-mail me, your e-mails should be of a professional nature, i.e., Dear Ms.
Carlson, … Here is my paper/I have a question about, etc. … Sincerely, … You are upperclassmen, after all, and your e-mails should reflect that.
Grading: Grading is done on a point system: more complex, challenging, or time-consuming assignments are worth more points. Written assessments will be scored using a rubric which combines
AP scoring guidelines and LSM student performance outcomes. For grading, the rubrics’ levels of performance have been converted into point ranges and equivalents.
Testing: Because national tests are timed, it is important for students to learn to work under timed situations. Students must learn to think quickly, get to the heart of the question, and formulate a clear, focused and accurate response. Therefore, students will be held to a one-period time frame for all assessments. Please do not stay into the next class or ask to come after school. Unfortunately, students who do not complete assessments will be penalized for incomplete responses, as they would be on the
AP exam. I am not trying to create a stressful testing environment: rather, I hope to prepare you for one that already exists.

Make-Up Work: I do not like make-up work. If you miss class, your homework buddy can tell you what you missed. If you miss an assessment, I write your name on it, date it, and put it in your period’s folder by my desk. Please make up work in a timely fashion. I usually place zeroes in the Portal until make-up work is completed. So, do not be alarmed if you see one. You will be held to the school make-up policy.
Students who fail to make up work per school policy will be issued zeroes for the missed work.
Extra credit: As this is a college-level class, please do not ask for extra credit. There are plenty of assignments throughout each quarter.
Parent Portal and Returning Work: I do my best to return assignments to you in a timely fashion. I tend to post grades in the Portal on or about the day I return assignments to you in class. Please do not ask for individual grades. I have many students and I grade many assignments. Please check online to be sure everything is accurate. Please see me with any questions.
Classroom Behavior: I expect students to exhibit behavior not only in keeping with LSM policy but also appropriate to the college classroom. Your rights in this class extend to the point you violate someone else’s right to an education. My definition of inappropriate behavior is anything which interrupts the educational process: talking when I or another member of the class is talking, texting, putting one’s head down on the desk, interrupting class for lateness to class or passes from class, lining up at the door before the bell rings, inappropriate language or distracting noises, and anything you thought was funny when you were an underclassmen. You will asked to keep your desks clear of material unconnected with classroom business: no purses, backpacks, etc. Cell phones have no place in my classroom. Students
who attempt to use cell phones during class will have them confiscated. You have been warned. I am in charge of your mind: your parents are in charge of your manners. If you have an emergency and need to speak on the phone, you may do so in the main office.
Academic Ethics: Students are expected to demonstrate ethical academic behavior. This includes completing all the reading unaided by suspect web-sites such as Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, and Wikipedia; avoiding, either deliberately or accidentally, plagiarizing other writers or works; correctly citing all sources; refraining from using failed e-mails and computer glitches as extension-getting devices; and maintaining security regarding test information. Students who fail to demonstrate academic ethics will be encouraged to leave the course. Any student who uses another’s work without properly crediting him or her will receive a zero on the assignment, his or her parent will be contacted, and the administration will be notified.
Questions and Concerns: As this is a college class, I expect you to advocate for yourself. This is one of the best skills I can teach you. If you have a question or concern, please speak to me directly. I should hear from you before I hear from your parent(s). If I have a question or concern, I will contact you first.
I am collecting your contact info on the first day of class. Please e-mail me any changes to your contact info throughout the year.
Help: I make myself as available as possible. Feel free to see me before, during, or after school, but please do wait until the last moment to ask for help, such as the night before an assessment is due. I check my e-mail throughout the day and often at night, but do not rely on me to check it late at night.
I look forward to working with you!
Distributed: 9/3/13