Advanced Placement English
Information for Sophomores
Which course is for me?
Which Do I Choose?
English 11 Honors
AP Language & Composition
GPA: 0.5 bump
GPA: 1.0 bump
Credit: HS credit only (no
opportunity for college credit)
Credit: opportunity for college
credit or courses exemption
Focus:
• American Literature
• Argumentative writing
• Some prep for SOL
• Read and write frequently
• Some independent learning
Focus:
• Nonfiction
• Argumentative & analysis writing
• Develop writing & critical
thinking skills
• Read and write frequently
• Independent learning
Rigor:
• Honors Common Assessment
• English 11 Writing SOL
• English 11 Reading SOL
Rigor:
• College-level syllabus
• AP exam-style assessments
• English 11 Writing SOL
• English 11 Reading SOL
Cost: none
Cost: $86 per AP exam
Other Considerations
English 11 Honors
• demonstrate strong performance
for “A” grade
• balance extra-curricular with
Honors course load
• absences somewhat impact
content retention
AP Language & Composition
• demonstrate superior
performance for “A” grade
• balance extra-curricular with AP
course load
• absences impact content
retention
What about my long term plan?
Long Term Planning: AP Track
AP Literature & Composition
AP Language & Composition
Skills:
• careful reading and critical
analysis of imaginative literature
• close reading of selected texts
• explore how writers use language
to provide both meaning &
pleasure for their readers
• consider a work's structure, style,
and themes
Skills:
• examine writer's purposes and
subjects
• consider audience expectations
• explore how generic conventions
and the resources of language
contribute to effectiveness in
writing
• analyze the integration of multiple
texts
• examine current events and
historical impacts
Focus:
• Fiction
• Analytical writing
Focus:
• Nonfiction
• Rhetoric
Equivalent: College Introductory
Literature Course
Equivalent: College Introductory
Composition Course
Long Term Planning: AP Track
AP Literature & Composition
AP Language & Composition
Read 1 novel each month outside of class
Read 2 novels and 1 novella
Many short stories and poems read in
class and outside of class
Many nonfiction articles (magazine articles
from Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Shape,
Men’s Health, New Yorker, etc.) with
emphasis on nonfiction analysis
Extensive practice in test-taking and
writing
Analyze and interpret samples of good
writing, identifying and explaining an
author’s use of rhetorical strategies and
techniques
At least 5 major essays per semester
At least 8 major essays per semester
Many quizzes and projects
Many quizzes and projects
College-level expectations (literature
selection, independent work, analysis and
work product)
College-level expectations (article
selection, independent work, analysis and
work product)
Nightly homework in addition to the novels
Textbook readings nightly
Develop a wide-ranging vocabulary to
appropriately and effectively write prose
Develop a wide-ranging vocabulary to
appropriately and effectively write prose
Long Term Planning: AP Track
AP Literature & Composition
AP Language & Composition
Reading Sample:
Reading Sample:
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Othello (William Shakespare)
Atonement (Ian McEwan)
Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller)
The Stranger (Albert Camus)
Siddhartha (Herman Hesse)
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
(Tom Stoppard)
Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison)
Billy Budd (Herman Melville)
Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
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“No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” (Ann
Hodgman)
“Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat”
(Winston Churchill)
“Learning to Read” (Malcolm X)
“Barbie Doll” (Marge Piercy)
“Being A Man” (Paul Theroux)
“High School Confidential: Notes on
Teen Movies” (David Denby)
“The Death of the Moth” (Virginia Woolf)
“Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain”
(Jessica Mitford)
Into the Wild (John Krakauer)
Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)