Course Syllabus 2016-2017: Patrick Henry High School
Instructors
C. Anderson K. Martin Hartline
Course Overview
The course overview and objectives are taken from the AP English Course Description published by The College Board. This course is designed to assist students to think critically and analytically. Through the reading of complex texts, students will be exploring the ways that writers use language and rhetoric to achieve their desired purpose. Students will use those same linguistic and/or rhetorical tools to enhance and empower expository, analytical, and argumentative writing.
The primary focus of the AP Language course is the study of rhetoric, including both complex analysis and construction. Therefore, all exercises, readings, and writing assignments culminate in activities that allow for rhetorical analysis and aid in constructing arguments.
Recommended Materials
• Pens/pencils
• Loose leaf paper
• Notebook to organize class work, homework, notes, and handouts
• USB flash drive
Objectives/Goals
In this course, all students will make measureable progress, and:
• Grow in confidence as critical thinkers, readers, and writers who trust their voices to communicate understanding, discovery, and persuasion
• Read widely to enhance skills in comprehension, analysis, and synthesis
• Increase vocabulary
• Identify modes of writing and the rhetorical strategies making these writings effective
• Explain the positive and negative uses and effects of language
• Recognize diverse American experiences through the exploration of a variety of texts and media
• Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting and revision, and editing and review
• Research and synthesize sources
• Evaluate and incorporate reference documents into research papers with sources cited according to a recognized editorial style (MLA format)
• Create effective written arguments
Required Readings
Since AP Language and Composition studies written argument, it is best to read nonfiction selections to build the necessary skills required for rhetorical analysis. Thus, students will read a variety of essays, articles, and journalistic accounts to develop these skills. In addition to a variety of nonfiction selections, students will read three major works of fiction with the goal of analyzing the ways that authors use fiction devices (such as characterization, setting, plot, etc.) to achieve a rhetorical purpose.
Fiction selections include:
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Song of Solomon by Tony Morrison
• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nonfiction selections include:
· Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
· Columbine, Dave Cullen
· A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
· Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
· Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Peggy Orenstein
Textbooks for the class include:
• Holt McDougal, Literature
• The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric
· This textbook provides many of the essays students will be reading, including but not limited to King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Talese’s “The Silent Season of a Hero,” Thoreau’s “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”, “On Civil Disobedience,” Walden, and Woolf’s “Professions for Women.”
A Note about Writing
Students can expect to be doing a great deal of writing in AP Language and Composition. Formal writings (such as narrative and persuasive essays) as well as informal writings (in-class essays, personal responses, etc.) will be common assignments.
Students will write with the goal of developing a balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail. To achieve this goal, students will work through the stages of the writing process and submit/receive feedback on various drafts of formal essays.
Students will also write with the goal of varying sentence structure and developing a sophisticated writing style. Students can expect weekly grammar exercises designed to build these skills. Furthermore, formal writing will be evaluated with a rubric that assesses—among other points—the student’s style and sentence structure/variety.
A formal research paper will be assigned at the end of the first semester. Students will be able to evaluate, use, and cite primary and secondary sources. Students will be required to evaluate and use a variety of sources including books, articles, and websites for their research paper.
Attendance
While there is no actual penalty for unexcused absences from the class, students are greatly encouraged to attend class as much as possible. Students with excessive absences will fall behind.
Grading
Grades will be based on a points system in which the number of points earned is divided by the numbers of points possible for informal and formal assessments. Assignments will be based on both in-class and out-of-class readings; therefore, it is imperative that you complete all reading assignments when assigned and bring your books to class.
Plan for most of your reading to be done outside of class. Reading will be assessed with close reading assignments, annotations, journals, class discussions, written assignments, AP-style multiple choice quizzes, and novel tests.
On-going Assessments
The following list includes a description of various types of assignments that will be completed
throughout each unit for the duration of the course.
o Vocabulary: Rhetorical vocabulary will be introduced, as well as vocabulary essential to the understanding of individual reading assignments. Various exercises including identifying meaning in context and using words in original sentences will be utilized to develop student vocabulary. Periodic quizzes will also be used to assess this development.
· Grammar: exercises and quizzes
· Graphic Organizers: Students will complete graphic organizers to help them identify and understand the function of rhetorical devices.
o Close reading: including questions and annotations designed to help students identify the author’s purpose, audience, thesis, tone, appeals, evidence, assumptions, organization, and style.
o Journal Responses and Reading Logs: Guided reading logs will be completed for each novel. One-two paragraph journals in response to visuals or argument prompts will also be
completed as Do Nows (bell work) and/or homework.
o Timed Writings: Rhetorical analysis, argument, and synthesis prompts modeling the AP exam will be given periodically.
o AP Multiple Choice Questions: in response to a passage as both practice exercises and quizzes.
o Tests: tests will be given for each novel/play.
All assessments are subject to change based on the needs and the pacing of the class.
Late Work Policy
Students should expect very little leniency or flexibility in due dates of assignments, barring extraordinary circumstances. Therefore, students can expect a deduction of at least 10 points on the final grade for any major work (projects, final essays, etc.) turned in late without preceding discussion/arrangements with the instructor. Homework/daily work will be checked for completion and will be due at the beginning of the class. Students will not be able to pass this course if work is consistently late or if the bulk of the work is submitted toward the end of the semester. In the event that a student has an excused absence, he or she will have five days to make up any late assignments after returning to school. Assignments can be found on the class website, or a student can contact his or her teacher.
Teacher/Student Communication
The best way to communicate with your teacher outside of class is through email. Please allow up to 24 hours for responses. If you do not have access to email, please notify your teacher that you will require an alternative means of outside communication. In addition, check your class’s website regularly. New materials, assignments, study aids, etc. will be uploaded weekly. You can expect to view up-to-date grades on Parent Portal and up-to-date websites on Tuesdays.
Technology
• Technology Requirements
You must have access to various forms of technology, including a word processor, Internet (to view the class site and access any paper submission software such as TurnItIn), and email (to communicate with your teacher outside of class). If you do not have a personal computer, keep in mind that the school’s library is a resource for you with numerous computers set aside for student use. Also remember that the public library allows for visitors to use computers and access the Internet.
• Saving Work
Please make sure you are taking the necessary steps to prevent lost work. You should back up your files frequently and make sure that you have copies of major papers/projects in more than one place. For example, you may save your papers on a flash drive and also on the school server or on an online storage device such as Dropbox or Google Drive. Keep in mind that problems with technology do not extend deadlines. Your teacher will not print off your materials for you or allow you to go to the library during class to print off assignments/materials. It is your responsibility to come to class each day with all the necessary materials and assignments.
Statement for Students with Disabilities
Any student with a documented disability will receive the accommodations in his/her IEP or 504 plan. If those accommodations are not sufficient for academic progress, the teacher, student, or parent may contact the case manager to arrange for a meeting to discuss additional options.
Statement on Academic Integrity
Patrick Henry seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Students representing the work of another as their own will receive a grade of “F” on that assignment. Students will sign a pledge on every major assessment indicating that they have neither given nor received unauthorized help.
Course Calendar
All readings are subject to change at the discretion of the teacher. Any changes/updates will be announced in class and updated on the course website. Most themed/topical readings will come from the textbooks (LC: The Language of Composition; EL:
• Holt McDougal, Literature and are noted as such.
First Nine WeeksAP Essay focus: Open-prompt argumentation/persuasion / · Introduction to Rhetoric and Close Reading (Ch. 1-3, LC)
· A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
· The Crucible, Arthur Miller
· Essays - Argumentative
o “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King
Second Nine Weeks
AP Essay focus: Rhetorical Analysis / · Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
· The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
· Essays – Rhetorical Analysis
o “The Silent Season of a Hero,” Talese
Third Nine Weeks
AP Essay focus: Synthesis / · Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
· Walden excerpts, Thoreau
· “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau
· Selections from Walden
· Columbine, Dave Cullen
· Essays
o Various selections from LC
o Research Paper
o Synthesis
Fourth Nine Weeks
AP Exam focus: Multiple Choice and skills review / · Essays
o Various selections from LC
o Review and Mock Exam