AP English Language & Composition Syllabus
Emily Blumenauer ()
Twitter: @mrsbloom324
Course Overview
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is a junior level, one credit English course offered in the Baltimore County Public Schools system. The course aligns with the expectations outlined in the College Board Course Description, including the new synthesis essay, in which students must use a number of sources in responding to a question. It is a rigorous course teaching students how to analyze rhetorical technique and meaning in complex writing, respond to visual media (photographs, films, advertisements, editorial cartoons, charts, graphs, etc.) and write well-organized timed essays linking technique and meaning into logical, reasoned, and well-supported responses. All activities are focused on having students build college-level skills and ultimately find success on the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition test administered in May.
Because of the county curriculum requirements, the course focuses on a chronological approach to American literature, but students in this course also study complex texts from other cultures from the 17th through the 21st centuries as the occasion warrants. A heavy emphasis is placed on works of non-fiction for rhetorical analysis. Students continue to read poetry, short stories, novels and plays to help provide a foundation for AP English Literature and Composition, which nearly all current AP 11 students take in Grade 12 in our school. Use of poems, novels, short stories and plays also helps students to identify rhetorical devices in dialogue, allowing them to see beyond the plot structure and characterization of basic literary analysis. Having this extra skill enables them to analyze pieces in more depth, allowing for enhanced understanding of author’s overall purpose.
Course Goals
The class emphasizes writing strategies that enable students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate a variety of non-fiction texts in interesting ways.
The purpose of English 11 AP Language is:
§ To read widely and reflect on reading through extensive discussion, writing and revision,
§ To write, especially in persuasive, analytical, and expository forms, on a variety of subjects, such as personal experience, current events, imaginative literature, and popular culture,
§ To develop clarity, complexity, self-awareness, flexibility, effectiveness, and confidence in student writing,
§ To develop awareness of the composing process, especially the exploration of ideas, the consideration of writing strategies, and an understanding of the value of revision,
§ To study the English Language itself, especially differences between oral and written discourse, formal and informal language usage, and historical variations in speech and writing,
§ To use close reading of parts of a text to analyze and understand the meaning of the whole text,
§ To develop a comprehensive overview of the major movements of American Literature from Puritan times through the 21st century through a chronological approach and,
§ To prepare for the AP English Language and Composition Exam given in May.
Grade 11 AP Key Standards of Learning: Students will
§ present, analyze and evaluate persuasive oral presentations with a focus on rhetorical techniques,
§ read and analyze major American literary and cultural types, genres, characters, and traditions as well as printed informational texts,
§ understand the variety and range of written communication forms and strategies while developing their own persuasive and expository writing skills,
§ access, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and organize information from a variety of sources into a documented paper dealing with a question, problem or issue
§ do extensive work with the AP Selected Response passages and questions, discuss strategies for decoding and encoding AP prompts with emphasis added for the new Synthesis Essay.
The Course:
The Baltimore County AP 11 curriculum is broken down into chronological units: Colonial America, The New Nation, American Individualism, A Divided America, A Changing America and Modern America, with the controlling year-long question: How are the tensions of the time reflected in American Literature?”.
Each unit includes Concept/Content Emphases, Composing Emphases, Interpreting Emphases, Language Emphases, Critical Approaches, Interdisciplinary Connections and a Suggested Reading list. There are various ways to approach each of the units, and teachers are allowed freedom to choose and arrange and add to them as necessary.
Within each quarter, students also take various practice AP exams (in parts and in whole as the year progresses) in order to hone their skills for the AP exam in May.
Course Strategies
Language Journals
Students begin class with a warm-up that consists of language-based questions, taken from the Voice Lessons pertaining to a key element from a given text. By providing several sentences that evaluate the author’s rhetorical choices, students will develop a better understanding of how the use of language distinguishes professional writing. The ultimate goal is for students to be cognizant of their own style. Also, students will respond to ethical dilemmas culled from Randy Cohen’s The Ethicist, and offer critiques for arguments found in teacher- and student-selected editorials.
Vocabulary Development
Throughout the year students expand their vocabulary using the Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop New Edition, level H with words that have a high frequency on the standardized tests, especially the SAT. Working through word lists that are useful in oral and written communication, students develop a more sophisticated vocabulary.
Levels of Generality
Using this highly structured paragraph format at a basis for their writing at the beginning of the year, students learn to move comfortably through their paragraphs delineating their claims/ assertions about a text (dependent on the prompt style) then provide specific direct textual evidence/examples to support their initial statements. Rounding out the paragraph, students move to craft original analysis that offers a new perspective on the text.
Précis Writing / Opinion Editorial Focus
In order to become more informed, global citizens, students locate, read, and annotate numerous opinion editorials throughout the year as well as those provided by the teacher. Using the précis paragraph construction, students learn to discern key elements of an author’s opinion while writing concisely to explicate it.
System of Annotation: SOAPSTone
This acronym provides the framework for which students annotate a text for prose analysis. By using this system of engaging the text, students learn to extract pertinent information while reading.
Range Finders
After most major writings, as a way to revise and improve their own essays, students read three representative samples from their peers. Ranging from the top (high) of the students essays submitted to the middle (medium) and finally the bottom (low), essays are copied/typed and anonymously presented for class evaluation. This tool gives students a better understanding of what is expected of them to achieve a top score in the class and on the exam while also giving them an idea of where they stand as writers and where they need to focus to improve their skills. Through this process students revise particular parts of essays or entire essays to meet course expectations.
Student Portfolios
Students are responsible for keeping all writings in a portfolio. Also, students will have the opportunity to use individual folders on the school’s server to keep polished pieces of writing. At the end of the year, students will have the chance to present for review three polished pieces of writing.
The Curriculum:
Teachers utilize a variety of non-fiction texts from the following:
Main text
Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. New York: Bedford, 2004.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th Ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
Roskelly, Hephzibah and David A. Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading
And Writing. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.
Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2008.
Tanka, Judith, et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6th Ed. New York:
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2003.
Supplemental Text
Corbett, Edward P.J. and Robert J. Connors. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student.
4th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. “They Say/I Say”: The Moves that Matter in
Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.
Lunsford, Andrea A., John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. Everything’s An
Argument, with Readings. 3rd Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.
Shea, Renee H. and Lawrence Scanlon. Teaching Nonfiction in AP English: A
Guide to Accompany 50 Essays. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.
National Publications
Washington Post
New York Times
Newsweek
Various materials from The Center for Learning (Novel based, American Speeches, etc.) as well as novel materials, prompts and Selected Response activities from Applied Practice.
I have taken several Advanced Placement CollegeBoard workshops for both Literature and Language and maintain a fairly extensive file of materials from those workshops. I employ various techniques in my classroom to get students directly insinuated into a passage or reading. These include SOAPStone and the 5-S Strategy. I also employ various SAT strategies into our work on a weekly basis, focusing on vocabulary development and selected response techniques.
As far as writing in the classroom is concerned, a great deal of time, especially at the beginning of the year, is spent working with students on strengthening writing skills. We will use various AP prompts (or ones developed by the county) to work on writing opening paragraphs and thesis statements. Weaning them from the “3-control” thesis statement is usually difficult for them, but in the long run, well worth the effort. We write opening paragraphs and/or thesis statements on transparency sheets and share them as a class (anonymously, of course), looking for strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. This is of enormous value to students, as they can see what others chose to focus on and how they can begin to evolve their writing to a higher level. We do frequent peer review and students always have opportunity for revision. As time permits in the classroom, we hold writing workshops so that I can assist when they need it in the writing process. One of the nicer things I implemented this year was having each student develop their own synthesis packet, assigning it to another student to read, annotate and write, and then having the author of the packet score and mark the essay. The essay writers get the opportunity to evaluate the synthesis packet they worked on, reviewing each element. It made a huge difference in the student’s writing once they experienced the synthesis question on such a personal level. Weekly essay writing, peer review and revision is a regular and necessary part of my course. Students do several small research papers throughout the year, requiring MLA citation. Additionally, their final research paper of the year, an historical narrative about a chosen time period, also requires students to use MLA citation, along with an annotated bibliography instead of a standard Works Cited page. Students in our school incorporate MLA citation in every research project every year from 9th through 12th grades, Standard, Honors, GT and AP courses alike. They are taught how to properly research in 9th grade, and are “re-trained” every year in the classroom as well as by the media specialist in the school library. Students continue to use and hone their research and application skills throughout the course.
Primary Source Documents
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the course, the teacher will offer a chronological sequence of important primary source documents from various publications and internet sources.
Core novels
As a way to satisfy the Baltimore County Curriculum that emphasizes American Literature, novels are chosen to meet the BCPS Curriculum; however, the focus is less on the plot sequence and literary loveliness of a particular text. Instead, texts are studied for the author’s rhetorical and linguistic choices.
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
Autobiography , Benjamin Franklin
Walden , Henry David Thoreau
Life in the Iron-Mills , Rebecca Harding Davis
Kindred , Octavia Butler
Ethan Frome , Edith Wharton
Grading:
Your work in both classes will be graded using the BCPS grading scale. The formula for determining the quarter grade is as follows:
Classwork (Including participation and major research papers): 50%,
Assessments (Tests, Quizzes, Papers): 30%,
Participation: 20%
Advanced Placement classes are designed to prepare students for collegiate level courses; therefore, there will be NO opportunities for extra credit. Students should put all of their energy into the required work.
Please note: NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED (unless, the student has an excused absence). In the event that the student has an excused absence, they will have that number of days to make up their assignment (for example, if the student is absent for one day they have one day to make up the work). If the student is absent the day a major paper is due, they will need to email me the paper or give it to a classmate to turn in. Remember, this is a college level course; if a paper is late in college the professor will not grade it. Absence is not an excuse for paper lateness.
Classwork:
Class will be a combination of lecture, group work, discussion of readings, and answering student questions. Within the time frame of each unit we will also work on structured essay writing, style analysis essays, and document-based questions (DBQs). Attendance and participation in class discussions are essential.
Homework:
Calendars will be provided approximately every two weeks. Daily reading assignments and required written work will be included. Periodically, student essays, reports or small projects will be required to be completed outside of class, but the bulk of your homework will be reading and studying.
Tests/Quizzes:
Quiz and test dates will be noted. Students are responsible for keeping up with reading assignments and being aware of, and ready for, quizzes and tests. Occasionally, unannounced quizzes will be given to monitor student progress. Tests will be a combination of objective and essay questions.
Due Dates for Written Work: Assignments are due in class on the due date. Work turned in after class will not be accepted for credit. Students returning from excused absences are responsible for getting and completing missed assignments.
Student Materials/ Classroom Binder
Your binder will serve as a place where you can organize all your materials for class. You will need a three-ring binder with pockets, loose-leaf paper, and tabbed dividers. Below are descriptions of everything that will be contained in your English notebook.