AP English Language and Composition:
Course Overview
I. Reading
A. Multicultural
B. “Across the Curriculum”
Patterns for College Writing, Kirszner, L and S. R. Mandell
The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E. B. White
AP Test Workbook
Multicultural and Nonfiction books (classroom and outside reading)
II. Writing
A. In-class writing exercises
B. Rhetorical Mode Essays
C. Patterns journal
D. AP Test practice
Rhetorical Modes
Autobiography
Narration
Description
Exemplification
Classification
Definition
Process
Cause and Effect
Comparison/Contrast
Argumentation
The Writing Process
Prewriting (Invention and Arrangement)
Drafting
Revision and Proofreading
Presentation
Syntax and Diction = Style
III. Language
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
Rhetorical Terms
Tone words
AP Test Terms
• Style
IV. AP Exam
• AP Test: Three hours, 15 minutes
Reading comprehension (multiple choice): One hour
Composition: Two hours and fifteen minutes,
three essay questions (two analysis/argument essays of 40 minutes each; one synthesis essay of 55 minutes)
• Scoring/Rubric
• Strategies/Tips/Techniques for taking the test
Patterns Narration and Autobiography
Reading: Week 1
“Introduction” (skim and take notes) 1-12
“Narration” (skim and take notes) 71-81
“Finishing School,” Maya Angelou 89-95
“Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell 117-125
Choose one
“Only Daughter,” Sandra Cisneros 84-88
“My Mother Never Worked,” Donna Smith-Yackel 96-100
“Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police,”
Martin Gansberg 101-105
“Scrubbing in Maine,” Barbara Ehrenreich 106-116
Reading: Week 2
“The Writing Process” (skim and take notes) 13-70
“Once More to the Lake,” E. B. White 175-182
Choose one
“Words Left Unspoken,” Leah Hager Cohen 153-157
“Two Ways to Belong in America,” Bharti Mukherjee 397-401
“Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan 462-469
“ In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” Alice Walker 686-696
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essays: Narration (third person) and Autobiography (first person).
a. Week one: “What I’ve Learned” essay.
b. Week two: the best story of your life essay
3. Notebook assembly
a. Weekly notebook items
b. Rhetorical modes work
c. Language: grammar and literary terms
d. AP Test Practice
e. Handouts
4. Strunk and White, grammar project and plan, literary terms
5. AP Test practice: “Anatomy of an AP Exam”
6. Essay Worksheet for “Finishing School”
7. Groups/Teams named after literary terms
Patterns Process Week 3
Reading:
“What is Process” (skim and take notes) 245-257
“My First Conk,” Malcolm X 260-264
“On Fire,” Larry Brown 280-284
“The Embalming of Mr. Jones,” Jessica Mitford 285-291
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essay #3: Process (second person address)
3. AP Test practice
4. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay #3
5. In-class writing exercises
Patterns Description Week 4
Reading:
“What is Description” (skim and take notes) 135-152
“Reading the River,” Mark Twain (handout)
Choose one
“Weasels,” Annie Dillard 164-168
“Ground Zero,” Suzanne Berne 158-163
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essay #4: Description
3. Vocabulary: literary and rhetorical terms
4. AP Test practice
5. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay # 4
6 Essay worksheet: on “Reading the River”
7. Strunk and White: Unit 1
8. In-class writing exercises: photography, modern art, advertising
Patterns Exemplification Week 5
Reading:
“What is Exemplification”(skim and take notes) 191-206
“The Peter Principle,” Laurence J. Peter and
Raymond Hull 207-213
“English Is a Crazy Language,” Richard Lederer (handout)
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essay #5: Exemplification
3. Vocabulary: literary and rhetorical terms
4. AP Test practice
5. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay # 5
6. Essay worksheet: Group work
7. Strunk and White: Unit 2
8. In-class writing exercises: poetry and short story analysis
Patterns Classification and Division Week 6
Reading:
“What is Classification and Division” (skim and take notes) 431-443
“Sexism in English: A 1990s Update,” Alleen Pace Nilsen (handout)
“The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson 470-479
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essay #6: Classification and Division
3. Vocabulary: Latin terms
4. AP Test practice
5. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay #6
5. In-class writing exercises: poetry and short story analysis
6. Essay Worksheet for one Patterns essay
Patterns Definition Week 7
Reading:
“What is Definition” (skim and take notes) 491
“I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady 505-508
“The Company Man,” Ellen Goodman 517-520
Choose one
“Tortillas”Jose Antonio Burciaga 513-516
“The Wife-Beater,” Gayle Rosenwald Smith 521-522
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essay #7: Definition
3. Vocabulary: Foreign Phrases
4. AP Test practice
5. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay #6
5. In-class writing exercises: nonfiction responses
6. Doublespeak/Advertising Language/Euphemism
7. Essay Worksheet for one Patterns essay
Patterns Cause and Effect Week 8
Reading:
“What is Cause and Effect” (skim and take notes) 303-318
“Who Killed Benny Paret”Norman Cousins 321-324
“Television: The Plug-In Drug” Marie Winn 325-334
Choose one
“Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Katha Pollitt 335-339
“The ‘Black Table’ Is Still There,” Lawrence Otis Graham 340-344
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all). 2. Essay #8: Cause and Effect
3. AP Test practice
4. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay #7
5. In-class writing exercises
6. Essay Worksheet for one Patterns essay
Patterns Comparison/Contrast Week 9
Reading:
“What is Comparison and Contrast” (skim and take notes) 363-383
“Grant and Lee: A Study of Contrasts,” Bruce Catton 386-390
“Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” Deborah Tannen 407-413
Choose one
“Dearly Disconnected,” Ian Frazier 391-396
“How the Lawyers Stole Winter,” 402-406
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all). 2. Essay #9: Comnparison/Contrast
3. AP Test practice: Comnparison/Contrast
4. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay # 8
5. In-class writing exercises
6. Essay Worksheet for one Patterns essay
Patterns Argumentation Week 10 and 11
Reading:
“What is Argumentation” (skim and take notes) 529-554
“The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson 557-562
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. 570-584
*Choose one of the issues in Patterns and read two of the essays under the issue you have chosen for two additional response assignments.
Assignments:
1. Weekly Notebook
a. Classroom/Patterns notes
b. Daily writing
c. Response Journal: No summary, for all Patterns essays, focus on “what is said and how it is said,”one page or more.
d. Question Journal: Answer one question of your choice under Comprehension, Purpose and Audience, Style and Structure, and Vocabulary Projects for one essay per week(4 items in all).
2. Essay #10: Argumentation
Essay #11: Synthesis (based on issue essays in argumentation section)
3. AP Test practice: Argumentation
4. Peer editing/ Prewriting for Essay # 9 and Essay #10
5. In-class writing exercises
6. Logical fallacies
The weeks before the AP Exam will be a unit based on Exam Preparation and Practice. The weeks after the AP Exam will be a unit based on the reading and writing assignments for advanced nonfiction and multicultural books.