AP English Language & Composition/
Dual Credit English
Instructor: Jennifer Pennington
Fall 2008/Spring 2009
College Board Course Description:
An AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming
skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical
contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both
their writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a
writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way generic
conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.
Note: An Advanced Placement course provides students with the opportunity to attain
college credit at the high school level; therefore, the workload is heavier and the
expectations are higher.
Assessment:
As a result and reward for satisfactory performance, students are strongly encouraged to
take the AP Language exam in May 2009. The exam is provided without charge.
Eleventh grade students will take the SOL test. Students will also receive college credit
from Wytheville Community College by successfully completing the course.
Required Materials:
Three-ring binder
Loose-leaf paper
Pencil or pen (blue or black ink)
Textbooks:
Cohen, Samuel, ed. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2004.
Lunsford, Andrea A., John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters, eds. Everything’s An
Argument. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2008.
Note: Students will use additional material in the form of handouts from various literature
anthologies as well as supplements from Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices,
Timeless Themes and The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers. Grammar-related
material will be provided as needed. Extra credit opportunities are not available. The
lowest grade will not be dropped.
Classroom Etiquette:
Students should show respect for their teacher and classmates. Comments or actions that
make anyone feel uncomfortable or disrespected will not be tolerated. Everyone is
entitled to an opinion, but should only share it in a respectful manner. Use common sense
and common courtesy.
Responsibilities:
By choosing this course, students agree to:
Come to class on time.
Come to class prepared.
Turn in work when it is due or before an expected absence.
Keep the cellphone, food, and drink (other than water if necessary) out of class.
Abide by rules and expectations set by the school.
Failure to comply will result in:
1. Verbal warning
2. Student/Teacher conference
3. Call to parents
4. Office visit
Late Work Policy:
Students will have one day for each excused absence to make up work without penalty.
Students turning in work the day after the due date, without an excused absence, will
receive only half credit on the assignment. For each day late, the points available will
drop by ten points (2nd day late—only 40% credit, etc.). After an assignment is five days
late, no credit is available. Everyone is expected to turn in work on time. Do not expect a
snow day to create an extension for an assignment. If work is due on a day we are absent
from class because of snow or a school-related event, that work is due on the day we
return.
Plagiarism Policy:
In accordance with preparation for the AP Language exam, students will complete most
of their writing in class through timed essays and in-class writing assignments. Students
must be aware that plagiarism is using another person’s thoughts and accomplishments
without proper acknowledgement or documentation. It is an unconscionable offense and a
serious breach of the honor code. Students who plagiarize will receive a grade of zero for
the assignment. No exceptions. Be advised that college students breaking the honor code
are often completely dismissed from school. Any cheating will result in a zero, a call to
the parents, a referral to guidance, and possibly worse.
Grading Scale:
We will use the ten-point grading scale from Wytheville Community College: 100-90=A,
89-80=B, etc. To adhere to common practice in AP courses, a 9-point rubric will be used
for grading essays (9 is the highest score). Students will be given a copy of the rubric.
Major assignments’ percentages per nine weeks are as follows:
Essays: 35%
Tests: 25%
Quizzes: 20%
Daily Activities: 20%
Assignments:
Our course will center on a theme each nine weeks. Each nine weeks we will read essays,
stories, and poems relating to a certain theme as we prepare for the AP Language exam.
Assignments will include one peer workshop, an oral presentation, various daily activities
on grammar and rhetorical devices, essays based on readings, a research paper using
MLA style, and quizzes and tests based on readings, rhetorical devices, and terms.
Information and clarification will be given on these assignments in a timely manner. Due
dates for assignments as well as quizzes and tests TBA. Students will take a mid-term
exam, but may be eligible for exemption from the final exam. Students may access
information about our class through the Faculty/Staff page at http://www.scsb.org/mshs.
First Nine Weeks:
Note: Readings may be added or omitted based on time and need. The order is tentative.
Intro to Course Dynamics:
Francine Prose, “What Words Can Tell”
Malcolm X, “A Homemade Education”
Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook”
Eudora Welty, “Listening”
THEME: “It’s All Politics!”: Social (In)justice
Odd Man Out:
Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
Whitt Pond, “The Goat”
Selection from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
Ring Lardner, “Haircut”
Tobias Wolff, “Hunters in the Snow”
Selection from Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Cynthia Ozick, “The Shawl”
Selection from Miller’s The Crucible
Argumentative Essay on scapegoat as character (peer workshop)
Invisible Men:
Everything’s An Argument: Examining Appeals
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”
Selection from To Kill a Mockingbird
Bedford study of Langston Hughes: Highlight on Harlem Renaissance
“Mother to Son,” “Negro,” “Song for a Dark Girl”
Audre Lorde, “Biography”
Billie Holiday song, “Strange Fruit”
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”
Brent Staples, “Black Men and Public Space”
James Baldwin, “Notes of a Native Son”
James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”
Leslie Marmon Silko, “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective”
Lauren J. Strain, “The Hollywood Indian”
Louise Erdrich, “The Red Convertible”
Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”
Selection from The Grapes of Wrath
Migrant Mother photo
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Nickel and Dimed”
Crystal Sabatke, “Welfare is Still Necessary for Women and Children in the U.S.”
Albert Bliss, “Homeless Man Interviews Himself”
Lars Eighner, “On Dumpster Diving”
Synthesis essay on race and social class
Argumentative Essay Prompt: First, define the role of scapegoat. What does he/she/it do?
Second, defend the unpopular view: why is the scapegoat necessary in society? This
essay will be written in class, but may be revised after a peer workshop.
Synthesis Essay: Consider the ways race and social class affect public perception and
public acceptance citing a number of essays from our finished readings (TBA). Writing a
synthesis essay is part of the AP exam. This essay is timed and will be written in class.
Second Nine Weeks:
THEME: “Oh, the Humanity!”: What We Want, What We Can’t Have
That Old Time Religion:
Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Langston Hughes, “Salvation”
Andre Dubus, “A Father’s Story”
Everything’s An Argument: What Role Should Religion Play in Public Life?
Persuasive Essay on religion’s place in politics
Oral Presentation
“It’s Funny ‘Cause It’s True”:
Everything’s An Argument: Humor and Satire in Argument
Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”
Stephen King, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”
Ronald Wallace, “In a Rut”
Anne Sexton, “Cinderella”
Tom Perrotta, “The Cosmic Significance of Britney Spears”
Robert Benchley, “My Face”
Bedford study of Flannery O’Connor
O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
O’Connor, “Good Country People”
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess”
Jessica Mitford, “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain”
Argumentative Essay on humor’s effect
Losing the American Dream:
Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”
Robert Frost, “Home Burial”
Selection from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard Cory”
Simon & Garfunkel song, “Richard Cory”
John Lennon & Paul McCartney song, “Eleanor Rigby”
John Cheever, “The Swimmer”
Burt Lancaster film on story, The Swimmer (rated PG)
Daddy Issues:
Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays”
Raymond Carver, “My Dad’s Wallet”
Yusef Komunyakaa, “My Father’s Love Letters”
Scott Russell Sanders, “The Inheritance of Tools”
Debra Ann Davis, “A Pen by the Phone”
Andre Dubus, “Killings”
Character Sketch Essay Prompt
War: “What is it good for?”:
Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”
Tim O’Brien, “On the Rainy River”
Wislawa Szymborska, “End & Beginning”
Vietnam Veterans Memorial photo
Nick Ut photo (Hiroshima)
Eddie Adams photo (Vietnam)
Captain Lee Kelley, “When This Thing is Over . . .”
Curtis Smith, “At the Carnival”
Norman Stock, “What I Said”
Lance Morrow, “The Case for Rage and Retribution”
Selection from Capote’s In Cold Blood
Joyce Carol Oates, “Heat”
La Donna Beaty, “What Makes a Serial Killer?”
Don DeLillo, “Videotape”
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Persuasive Essay Prompt: Is the emotional appeal of religion an acceptable tactic for
candidates to use in the presidential race? This essay will be written outside of class.
Oral Presentation: Students will condense and excerpt their persuasive essay to give a
brief oral presentation in class.
Argumentative Essay Prompt: Discuss how humor works as a tool in making a point. Are
people more accepting of a point made with a humorous slant? Does humor undercut
certain arguments? How does humor unite society? This is a timed essay written in class.
Character Sketch Essay Prompt: Isolate one quality about a person you know and discuss
how it characterizes them as a whole. This non-fiction essay will be written outside of
class.
Third Nine Weeks:
Everything’s An Argument: Conventions of Argument
Preparing for the Research Paper
MLA review
Research Paper
THEME: “Happy Little Trees”: The Nature of Things
The Value of “Staying Put”:
Scott Russell Sanders, “Homeplace”
Pico Iyer, “Why We Travel”
Linda Hogan, “Dwellings”
Hal Borland, “October”
James Wright, “Autumn Begins in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio”
E.B. White, “Once More to the Lake”
Ray Bradbury, “All Summer in a Day”
“Preserving It Forever”:
Virginia Woolf, “The Death of the Moth”
Annie Dillard, from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Thoreau, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”
N. Scott Momaday, “The Way to Rainy Mountain”
Farley Mowat, “Observing Wolves”
Donald Hall, “Names of Horses”
James Wright, “A Blessing”
John Updike, “Dog’s Death”
Ronald Wallace, “Dogs”
William Stafford, “Traveling Through the Dark”
James Dickey, “Deer among Cattle”
Wendell Berry, “The Vacation”
Personal Experience Essay
Research Paper: Untimed, this essay will be written both in and outside of class, with
time in the computer lab. Choose a current event that reflects one of the themes we have
studied (or will study after the research paper, if it especially interests you). Use a variety
of sources (newspapers, magazines, online sources, interviews, visuals, etc.). Use the
sources to support your position on the topic—analyze rather than summarize or
paraphrase a source. Cite sources within your paper (in-text citations) and create a Works
Cited page for every source used. Use MLA style format. Plagiarism will result in a
grade of zero for the paper. Paper should be 6-8 pages in length and use at least 6 sources.
Personal Experience Essay Prompt: Examine how the death of someone, be it family,
friend, pet, even a stranger has had an impact on your life. How did it change you, bring
things into sharper focus, cause you to be more mindful or grateful, etc.? How can death
teach us how to live? Essay written outside of class.
Fourth Nine Weeks:
THEME: “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am”: Gender Roles & Body Image
“An Ordinary Woman Breathing”:
Everything’s An Argument: Who’s the Fairest of Them All?
Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll”
A look at Cindy Jackson, Living Barbie Doll
Sharon Olds, “The Death of Marilyn Monroe”
Gloria Steinem, “The Politics of Muscle”
Leslie Haywood, “One of the Girls”
John Updike, “A&P”
Selection from Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face
Margaret Atwood, “The Female Body”
Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
Shakespeare, “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”
Same ol’ song and dance:
Everything’s An Argument: How Does the Media Stereotype You?
Malcolm Cowley, “The View from 80”
Jaime O’Neill, “The Rime of the Ancient Geezer”
Nancy Mairs, “On Being a Cripple”
Harold Krents, “Darkness at Noon”
Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”
Dave Barry, “Lost in the Kitchen”
Dave Barry, from Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out
Deborah Tannen, “How Male & Female Students Use Language Differently”
Judy Brady, “I Want a Wife”
Joan Didion, “Marrying Absurd”
Spoof: Good Housekeeping Monthly’s 1955 “Good Housewife’s Guide”
Anna Quindlen, “The Name is Mine”
Rita Dove, “Daystar”
Linda Pastan, “Marks”
Bryan Curtis, “Cheerleaders: What To Do About Them?”
Jill Neimark, “Why We Need Miss America”
James B. Twitchell, “Miss Clairol’s ‘Does She. . .or Doesn’t She’. . .”
Stephen Jay Gould, “Women’s Brains”
Sojourner Truth, “Aren’t I a Woman?”
Anastasia Toufexis, “Love: The Right Chemistry”
Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”
John Cheever, “The Five Forty-Eight”
Raymond Carver, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”
Comparison/Contrast Essay
Final practices and preparations for the AP Language exam
“Free at Last”: After the AP Exam
Gary A. Baunbeck, “Rami Temporalis”
John R. Platt, “All Hands”
Rod Serling, “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street”
Poems, poems, poems
American Graffiti (rated PG)
Comparison/Contrast Essay Prompt: How does gender both restrict and empower a
person? Examine the perceived strengths and weaknesses of both genders, with emphasis
on your experience of gender. Dispel the myths or validate the stereotypes: the choice is
yours. Timed essay in class.
AP Exam: beginning of May 2009
Juniors will take SOL test