AP Language And Composition Syllabus, 2014–2015
Instructor: Natalie Elliott
Room C101
Twitter: @nyosenglish
Conference Period & Tutorials:
- 4th period, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays.
- Tutorials Monday-Thursday mornings, 7:45-8:25. Afternoons by appointment.
Texts:
Men versus the Man by Robert Rives La Monte and H.L. Mencken
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Native Son by Richard Wright
*Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition edited by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz
*Suggested, though not required, for this course.
AP Language and CompositionCourse Description
Excerpted from the College Board
The AP English Language Composition course provides students with opportunities to write about a variety of subjects from a variety of disciplines and to demonstrate an awareness of audience and purpose. The overarching objective in most first-year writing courses is to enable students to write effectively and confidently in their college courses across curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Most composition courses emphasize the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and professional communication, as well as the personal and reflective writing that fosters the development of writing facility in any context.
As in the college course, the purpose of the AP English Language and Composition course is to enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers. An AP English Language and Composition course should help students move beyond such programmatic responses as the five-paragraph essay that provides an introduction with a thesis and three reasons, body paragraphs on each reason, and a conclusion that restates the thesis. Although such formulaic approaches may provide minimal organization, they often encourage unnecessary repetition and fail to engage the reader. Students should be encouraged to place their emphasis on content, purpose and audience and to allow this focus to guide the organization of their writing.
College writing programs recognize that skill in writing proceeds from students’ awareness of their own composing processes: the way they explore ideas and draft and revise their work. This experience of the process of composing is the essence of the first-year writing course, and the AP English Language and Composition course will emphasize this process, asking students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with revision aided by teacher and peers. Students write in both informal and formal contexts to gain authority and learn to take risks in writing. Imitation exercises, journal keeping, collaborative writing and in-class responses are all good ways of helping students become increasingly aware of themselves as writers and of the techniques employed by the writers as they read. As well as engaging in varied writing tasks, students become acquainted with a wide variety of prose styles from many disciplines and historical periods and gain understanding of the connections between writing and interpretive skill in reading. In addition, the informed use of research materials and the ability to synthesize varied sources (to evaluate, use, and cite sources) are integral parts of the AP Language and Composition course. Students move past assignments that allow for the uncritical citation of sources and, instead, take up projects that call on them to evaluate the legitimacy and purpose of sources used. One way to help students synthesize and evaluate their sources in this way is the researched argument paper.
Course Objectives
Upon completing the AP English Language and Composition course, then, students should be able to:
analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques;
apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing;
create and sustain arguments based on readings, research and/or personal experience;
write for a variety of purposes;
produce expository, analytical and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources, cogent explanations and clear transitions;
demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings;
demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources;
move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing and review;
write thoughtfully about their own process of composition;
revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience;
analyze image as text; and
evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers.
Course Requirements
It is required that a student enrolled in an AP course at NYOS take the associated AP exam for that course to ensure that the student is as prepared for college as possible. Towards the end of January, Bethany Watts will furnish information about test registration. Updated prices will be released and communicated as soon as they are made available (the prices last year were $89 per exam, or $63 if you met the requirements for free and reduced lunch). Please plan accordingly.
Assignment Expectations
The majority of outside work assignments will be process or “prepared” writings. This means that, unless noted otherwise, the expectation is that these drafts will be taken through the writing process, sometimes required for in-class revision exercises. Final copies must be typed, double-spaced, and formatted consistent with MLA guidelines. These essays will be submitted via Turnitin.com. Course ID information for Turnitin.com will be communicated at the beginning of the year.
Vocabulary Study
The terminology of rhetoric, as well as other elevated vocabulary, are essential aspects of succeeding in this course. We will maintain a rigorous vocabulary study throughout the year, beginning with a rhetoric refresher and continuing with a study largely of Latin and Greek roots, affixes, and words comprised of those morphemes. Students will be required to maintain a vocabulary journal to mark their own progress. In each quarter, students will be quizzed on words from this journal. Also, the journal will be submitted at the semester mark and end-of-course for a cumulative review grade.
Missed Work
If you are absent, check with your neighbor to see what you have missed, review the work, and then ask me any questions. It is the student’s responsibility to ask for any handouts or assignments that they need to complete their make-up work. According to NYOS guidelines, for each day you are absent you will have one day to complete any missed assignments. Tests, projects, or essays will be due on the day of your return.
Late Work
Per NYOS policy, late work cannot be accepted in an AP course. Deadlines can be negotiated on an as-needed basis, but conference with me beforehand is required. This would be the expectation in a college course, so it is the expectation of an AP course.
Grading Scale
90–100A
80–89B
70–79C
Below 70F
Quarter Grade Breakdown
Classwork and participation 30%
Quizzes 20%
Tests, essays, and projects40%
Homework and multiple-choice practice10%
Supply List
3x5 index cards
Pens/pencils
Highlighters
College-ruled notebook paper
2 Spiral notebooks (1 for vocabulary andreading response, 1 for class notes and in-class writing)
1 Box of Kleenex
Advanced Placement Examination
The 2015 exam will take place on Wednesday, 13 May at 8 AM.
Course Outline
Quarter 1: The Personal is Political
Required Readings:
“Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars Over Usage” by David Foster Wallace
“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass
“Learning to Read” by Malcolm X
Chapter 7, “Structuring Arguments” from Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada
“The Position of Poverty” by John Kenneth Galbraith
“Brown v. Board of Education” Opinion by Chief Justice Earl Warren
Viewing: The Central Park Five directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon
Chapter 10, “Evaluations” from Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition
“On History” by Thomas Carlyle
“The Allegory of the Cave” excerpt from The Republic by Plato
“The Morals of the Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Clips from Gone with the Wind directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor, and Sam Wood
“Cabin Fever” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Affirmative Action: The Price of Preference” by Shelby Steele
“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Nonmoral Nature” by Stephen Jay Gould
Chapter 8, “Arguments of Fact” from Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition
Assessments:
Rhetorical analysis exercises (visual and prose texts)
Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
Graded class discussions
Descriptive and prescriptive multiple-choice question practice
Two (2) assertion briefs: quick-turnaround position papers on current events
One (1) synthesisessay on Fist Stick Knife Gun and two supplemental texts
One (1) précis of an academic article
One (1) rhetorical analysis jigsaw discussion of three texts, with synthesis questions
Three (3) vocabulary quizzes
One (1) timed writing: rhetorical analysis
Process essay: Argument of fact
Quarter 2: Just the Facts
Required Readings:
Chapter 12, “Proposals” from Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition
“Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
Viewing: The Statue of Liberty directed by Ken Burns
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Selections from “The Pentagon Papers” by Neil Sheehan, et al.
Selections from “The Watergate Story” by Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, et al.
Selections from “The NSA Story” by Glen Greenwald
Listening: Excerpts from “Retraction” episode of This American Life
“High Explosive for Everyone” by Martha Gellhorn
Excerpt from “Sentimental Journeys” by Joan Didion
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
“The Last Tower” by Ben Austen
“The People Who Pass” by Adam Gopnik
“Germs Are Us” by Michael Specter
“The Superorganism” by E.O. Wilson
“Humanities and Science” by Lewis Thomas
Chapter 11, “Causal Arguments” from Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition
Listening: “Trends with Benefits” episode of This American Life
Assessments:
Rhetorical analysis exercises (visual and prose texts)
Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
Descriptive and prescriptive multiple-choice question practice
Graded class discussions
Two (2) précis of reported articles
One (1) argument analysis jigsaw discussion of three texts, with synthesis questions
Process essay: Argument of proposal
One (1) timed writing: rhetorical analysis
One (1) timed writing: argument
Two (2) student-curated vocabulary quizzes
One (1) reverse-synthesis scavenger hunt exercise
Onedraft of research questions
Oneannotated bibliography
One thesis outline and works cited from researched causal argument
Process essay: Causal argument (research-based argument)
Semester exam (multiple choice, argument timed writing, annotation)
Quarter 3: Ways of Seeing
Required Readings:
Chapter 9, “Arguments of Definition” from Everything’s an Argument, 6th Edition
“Seeing” by Annie Dillard
Viewing: The Thin Blue Linedirectedby Errol Morris
Chapter 2 from Ways of Seeing by John Berger
“The Subjection of Women” by John Stuart Mill
Native Son by Richard Wright
“Everybody’s Protest Novel”by James Baldwin
“The White Negro” by Norman Mailer
Excerpt from “Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood” by James Baldwin
“Michael” by John Jeremiah Sullivan
“Denmark and the Jews” by Hannah Arendt
Viewing: “Rothko: Black on Maroon” from Simon Schama’s The Power of Art
“In Plato’s Cave” by Susan Sontag
“Bonnie and Clyde” by Pauline Kael
“Dylan” by Ellen Willis
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Excerpt from The Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
“Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin
“The Serpent” by E.O. Wilson
“Mr. Lytle: An Essay” by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Assessments:
Rhetorical analysis exercises (visual and prose texts)
Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
Descriptive and prescriptive multiple-choice question practice
Graded class discussions
Process essay: Argument of definition
One (1) argument analysis jigsaw discussion of three texts, with synthesis questions
One (1) timed writing: rhetorical analysis
Two (2) timed writings: argument
One (1) timed writing: synthesis
Two (2) student-curated vocabulary quizzes
Process essay: Argument of evaluation
One (1) précis of a personal essay
One (1) personal essay
Quarter 4: The Medium is the Message
Required Readings:
“The Medium is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan
“Teaching Culture” by Simon During
“Generation Why?” by Zadie Smith
“Chapels” by Pico Iyer
“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
“The Sahara of the Bozarts” by H.L. Mencken
Excerpt from In Defense of Women by H.L. Mencken
“Good Souls” by Dorothy Parker
“Advice to Youth” by Mark Twain
“The United States of Lyncherdom” by Mark Twain
“Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s” by Tom Wolfe
Viewing: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed by Stanley Kubrick
Viewing: Bob Roberts directedby Tim Robbins
Independent Reading Selection
Assessments:
Rhetorical analysis exercises (visual and prose texts)
Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
Graded class discussions
Descriptive and prescriptive multiple-choice question practice
One (1) argument analysis jigsaw discussion of three texts, with synthesis questions
Two (2) timed writings: argument
One (1) timed writing: synthesis
Two (2) précis of satirical essays
Annotations on independent reading selection
Process essay: Wild card (on independent reading selection)
Semester exam
Independent Reading List:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Light in Augustby William Faulkner
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
The Glass Menagerieby Tennessee Williams
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Song of Solomonby Toni Morrison
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Course Scope & Sequence
1st Quarter / 2nd Quarter / 3rd Quarter / 4th QuarterTheme / The Personal is Political / Just the Facts / Ways of Seeing / The Medium is the Message
Essential
Questions / How do America’s origins impact its culture even in present day?
How does a literary work respond to the culture of its time? / What is the American Dream, and to what extent is it achievable for all Americans?
What moral responsibilities does rhetoric have in American culture? / How has the American Dream changed over time?
Are independence and dependence separable or inseparable? / How do Americans represent and explore identity in an increasingly complex society?
What is effective communication in our information-saturated age?
Focus / Political rhetoric, activist literature, debates in public policy. / Reportage technique, current events, research. / Questions of race and gender, larger implications of the personal experience. / Interpreting media and culture, the power of creative expression, the impact of satire.
Reading / Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Prose selections from AP materials / The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansbery
Prose selections from AP materials / Excerpt from The Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Native Son by Richard Wright
Prose selections from AP materials / “The Medium is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan
“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
“The Sahara of the Bozart” by H.L. Mencken
Excerpts from In Defense of Women by H.L. Mencken
Prose selections from AP materials
Writing / Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Argument of Fact Essay
Timed Practice Essays / Argument of Proposal Essay
Reporting Project
Causal Research Synthesis Essay
Timed Practice Essays / Argument of Definition Essay
Argument of Evaluation Essay
Personal Essay
Timed Practice Essays / Open Topic/Wild Card Essay
Timed Practice Essays
Outside Reading / Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Selected Readings / The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Selected Readings /
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Native Son by Richard Wright
Selected Readings / Selected Readings
Independent Reading Selection
Viewing & Listening / Clips from Gone with the Wind directed byVictor Fleming, George Cukor, and Sam Wood / The Statue of Libertydirected by Ken Burns
Excerpts from “Retraction,” This American Life / The Thin Blue Line directed by Errol Morris
“Rothko’s Black on Maroon” from Simon Schama’sThe Power of Art / Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1964
Letter of Introduction
Greetings Parents/Guardians:
I hope that I get the chance to meet you in person, but in the event that I don’t, I would like to introduce myself to you. This is actually my second year at NYOS—last year, I worked as an instructional aide with several of our teachers in the English department. I am very excited about taking on the role of the AP English teacher at NYOS with a team of instructors I have already collaborated with extensively, and a group of students I have gotten to know so well.
Please note that the best way to reach is me is via email. I check email frequently throughout the day, so rest assured your queries will be addressed in a timely manner.
The AP English Language and Composition course will be challenging—this is a year in which students begin their transition into college-level work, and I will be incorporating more rigorous assignments and readings into the curriculum. Please know that this is done with the intent to prepare and support your students, not to intimidate them. Readings may occasionally contain mature subject matter, and discussions about hard realities of our culture may arise. Please take some time to review the syllabus with your student, so that you are aware of the rigor, content, and expectations. I would appreciate it if you would sign this letter and have your student return it to me no later than Monday, July 28, 2014.