August 2013
Dear AP Parents and Students,
Advanced Placement Language and Composition is a year-long college level
course open to able and ambitious students who are willing to accept responsibility for
their own learning. AP English requires high standards, heavy workloads, and serious,
mature students.
The advantages of AP English are basically twofold. One is the possibility of
advanced placement upon entering college, and the second is that many colleges give
college credit based on acceptable scores on the AP examination. By gaining advanced
placement and credit, students can save both time and money.
The culmination of AP English is the national AP Examination, which is given on
Friday, May 9, 2014. AP English has rigorous standards. Students are expected to
actively participate by meeting course objectives, making daily contributions to the class,
and meeting deadlines. Excessive absences may result in elimination from the course.
Students who do not meet the course’s criteria will be subject to review and possible
elimination from the program.
Please acknowledge your understanding and agreement with the nature of the AP
course by signing below. Feel free to contact me at any time during the school year if
you have questions or concerns. You can call me at (803) 810- 8200 or email me at
josie.jamison@clover.k12.sc.us. I look forward to working with you!
Sincerely,
Josie Jamison
1
J. Jamison
Advanced Placement Language and Composition, Fall 2013-Spring 2014
Course Description: The course is organized around rhetorical modes: narration,
description, exposition, and argumentation. Students study vocabulary and analyze
reading selections in terms of the following: audience, purpose, style, syntax, structure,
tone, thesis or claim, evidence, appeals, assumptions or warrants. Students learn to
identify and effectively use rhetorical strategies, rhetorical devices, and various stylistic
elements. They identify and practice elements of argumentation and effective logic.
Additionally, students study visual media (photographs, films, ads, paintings, sculpture,
comic strips, editorial cartoons, etc.), keep journals, write timed in-class essays based on
past AP prompts, compose formal compositions that show their understanding of various
rhetorical modes, and use research skills.
In each unit, students develop the following:
 a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively
 a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and
coordination
 logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such
as repetition, transitions, and emphasis
 a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail; and
 an effective use of rhetoric including controlling tone, establishing and
maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and
sentence structure.
Required Textbook: Patterns for College Writing. 11th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and
Stephen R. Mandell. New York: Bedford, 2010.
Supplementary Readings--In addition to selections found in our core textbook,
supplementary readings include essays, articles, letters, editorials, and speeches from
various time periods and noted authors such as Fredrick Douglass, Benjamin Franklin,
Lord Chesterfield, Lady Mary Montagu, Winston Churchill, Henry Louis Gates, Susan
Sontag, Jamaica Kincaid, George Orwell, Charles Lamb, N. Scott Momaday, E.B. White,
Virginia Wolfe, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jonathan Swift, Charles
Darwin, and Annie Dillard.
Current Events/ Response Journals--Periodically, students are required to read news
articles and complete outlines or précis in which they identify and explain the
significance of rhetorical devices and/or strategies used in selected articles. At times,
students are asked to select a controversial article, determine the writer’s position and
then defend or challenge that position. Students examine graphics and visual texts from
news sources. These journal entries may serve as prewriting or rough drafts for future
writing assignments.
2
Essays--In addition to composing major writing assignments by rhetorical modes,
students will write numerous essays from AP prompts. These essays will be ANALYSIS,
SYNTHESIS, or ARGUMENTATION essays. Unless otherwise indicated, outside essays
must be a minimum of 500 words in length. These essays must also be formatted
according to MLA guidelines and must include the word count (for both rough and
final drafts).
Assessment--A variety of methods for evaluating student work include daily quizzes,
vocabulary quizzes, journal assignments, formal essays, and informal essays,
homework/classwork grades, and objective and essay tests on grammar and literature.
 Major grades count 60% and minor grades count 40%.
 Exams
The midterm exam will include multiple choice items and at least one
essay. The final exam will be the practice AP exam given prior to the
date of the actual exam. Each exam is 20% percent of the semester
average.
The national AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM is scheduled for Fri., May 9,
2014.
Late Work and Absences—AP/DC students are expected to complete all assignments
on time; therefore, LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. UNLESS I SPECIFY
OTHERWISE, ALL ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS PERIOD. In
the event of absences, long-range assignments (papers, projects, etc.) must be
handed in either on the date due or prior to the due date.
It is always best to turn in your assignments to me personally; however, if you email
an assignment because you are or will be absent, I should receive the email by 1st
Block on the due date to receive credit. I will reply to your email to let you know
that I received the assignment; if I do not reply to the email, I did not receive it.
Make-up Work -–I follow the school policy for make-up work. It is your responsibility
to get your make-up work. I keep class assignments in the notebook near the door.
Retests—AP/DC students are expected to prepare thoroughly for all assessments;
consequently, you MAY NOT RETEST.
Parent Communication--I will communicate with parents in the following ways: email, phone calls, conferences, grade reports, interim report cards, and quarter report
cards.
Class Procedures
1. At the beginning of each class, there will be a warm-up on the board for you to
work on while I take attendance. Include your responses in your notebook
2. Only instructional materials are allowed on your desk. Backpacks, pocketbooks,
etc. should be placed on the floor.
3. Use only pencil or blue or black ink for work that you are to turn in to me.
3
4. You may work only on English while in class. If you finish an assignment early,
you must read an approved novel or current events articles, write in your journal,
improve past essays, or study your vocabulary. There is no free time in this
class.
5. Students are expected to use the restroom prior to arriving to class. However,
those who must go during class may not go during assessments or during the first
and last 15 minutes of class.
6. Always be prepared for quizzes on reading assignments. These quizzes may be
announced or unannounced.
7. Homework must be neat and complete in order to receive full credit.
8. A student who does not bring his/her completed writing assignments to class on
the day that we have peer-editing sessions, will receive a zero for class
participation and/or lose points from the final essay grade.
9. On the days that formal essays are due, each student should turn in a paper copy
of his/her prewriting, a visibly altered rough draft, and a revised draft (with
changes highlighted). Papers should be stapled in the following order, top to
bottom: final draft (MLA format with word count), prewriting, rough draft,
self-reflection, peer or self-evaluation sheet, and rubric. Always save an
electronic copy of your essay for revision purposes. I do not print papers for
students, so please do not ask. If you have had or are having computer
problems, be sure to resolve your printing issues before class.
Even if you have emailed a paper, you are still expected to bring a paper
copy to class.
Required Materials
 A loose-leaf notebook or folder
 Blue or black ink pen
 Independent novels



A Post-it note pad
Textbooks
Class novels
Class Rules
1. Follow directions.
2. Be in your assigned seat when the tardy bell rings.
3. Once you have entered the classroom, you may not leave unless the teacher gives
you permission to do so. Students are expected to take care of personal matters
(i.e., going to the restroom, getting water, going to lockers, etc.) before class.
4. Bring required materials to class each day.
5. Remain in your assigned seat unless the teacher gives you permission to move.
6. Eating in class is not permitted. Bottled drinks are allowed, but they must remain
in your book bag or pocketbook when you are not drinking.
7. Cell phones may not be used during class; they should not be visible or audible in
the classroom.
Consequences for Infractions of Rules
 Verbal and/or written warning
 Detention, phone call home, and/or email home
 Teacher/student and parent/teacher conference
 Office referral
4
Rewards for Exemplary Behavior
 Praise and recognition
 Enhanced learning environment
COURSE OUTLINE
FIRST SEMESTER
Introduction
 The Writing Process (invention, arrangement, drafting/ revising, and
editing/proofreading)
 Grammar: subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, usage,
commas, semi-colons, parallelism, and faulty/awkward sentence structure
 Close reading strategies
 Citing sources and avoiding plagiarism
 “Writing with Style”- (Write for College)
Rhetorical Mode: Narration
1. Henry Louis Gates Jr. –“What’s in a Name?”
2. Sandra Cisneros-“Only Daughter”
3. Bonnie Smith-Yackel-“My Mother Never Worked”/AP Style writing prompt:
4. George Orwell-“Shooting An Elephant”
5. Martin Gansberg-“Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”
6. Visual Text
Writing Assignment #1—Narrative Essay
Rhetorical Mode: Description
1.
Suzanne Berne-“Ground Zero”
2.
Mark Twain-“Reading the River”
3.
N. Scott Momaday-“The Way to Rainy Mountain”
4.
Isabel Allende-“The Amazon Queen”
5.
Leah Hage Cohen-“Words Left Unspoken”
6.
E.B. White-“Once More to the Lake”
7.
Visual Text
Writing Assignment #2—Descriptive Essay
Rhetorical Mode: Exposition
 Exemplification
1.
Richard Lederer-“English Is a Crazy Language”
2.
David Birnbaum-“The Catbird Seat”
3.
Brent Staples-“Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power
to Alter Public Space”
4.
Jonathan Kozol-“The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”
5.
Visual Text
5
Writing Assignment #3—Exemplification Essay

Comparison/Contrast
1.
Bruce Catton-“Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”
2.
Deborah Tannen-“Sex, Lies, and Conversations”
3.
Visual Text
Assignment #4—Comparison-Contrast Essay
Rhetorical Mode: Argumentation
Visual Text: “Thanks to Modern Science” political ad from American
Civil Liberties Union
1.
Thomas Jefferson- The Declaration of Independence
2.
Martin Luther King Jr.-“Letter from Birmingham Jail”
3.
Karen De Coster and Brad Edmonds-“The Case for Wal-Mart”
4.
Liza Featherstone-Down and Out in Discount America
5.
Oliver Stone, Memo to John Grisham: What’s Next---“A Movie Made
Me Do It?”
Writing Assignment #5: (Research Paper) MLA documented research argument
MAJOR WORKS (SELECTED FROM THE FOLLOWING)
Antigone-Sophocles
Invisible Man-Ralph Ellison
Night-Elie Wiesel
Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings-Maya
Angelou
Student-selected nonfiction texts
SECOND SEMESTER
Cause/Effect
1.
Visual Text, Louis Requena, “Major League Baseball Brawl.”
2.
Norman Cousins-“Who Killed Benny Paret?”
3.
Lawrence Otis Graham-“The Black Table is Still There”
4.
Ronin Lakoff-“The Power of Words in Wartime”
5.
Janice Miritani, Suicide Note (Poetry)
Writing Assignment #6-Cause and Effect Essay
Definition
1.
2.
3.
Judy Brady-“I Want a Wife”
Gayle Rosenwald Smith-“The Wife Beater”
Visual Text
6
Writing Assignment #7- Definition Essay
Classification and Division
1.
Scott Russell Sanders-“The Men We Carry In Our Minds”
2.
Stephanie Ericsson-“The Ways We Lie”
Process
1.
2.
3.
Malcolm X-My First Conk
Joshua Liven, David Borgenicht, and Jennifer Worick-“How to Escape
from a Bad Date”
Jessica Mitford-“The Embalming of Mr. Jones”
Writing Assignment #8-Select a topic from the Classification/Division or the Process
mode
Combining the Patterns
1.
Jonathan Swift-“A Modest Proposal”
2.
Richard Rodriquez-“Strange Tools”
3.
Virginia Wolf-“The Death of a Moth”
Writing Assignment #9- Emphasis on irony and satire.
MAJOR WORKS
Growing Up-Russell Baker
“The Metamorphosis”- Frank Kafka
Student-selected nonfiction texts
**This is a tentative schedule. Changes may be made at the teacher’s discretion.**
7
I have read and understand Ms. Jamison’s class expectations and course outline for
AP Language and Composition.
Date: _____________________
Student name, first and last name (Printed)__________________________________
Student signature: ________________________________________________________
Parent(s)/ Guardian(s) signature: ___________________________________________
Email address of parent/guardian: __________________________________________
8