English 11: Advanced Placement
English Language and Composition
Course Syllabus – Ms. Mathews
Internet: http://mathewsenglish.wikispaces.com/
Email:
Room 308
AP EXAM – May 12, 2009, 8:00 AM
Course Description
Students will learn to identify, analyze and utilize the power of rhetoric to enable them to write effectively in their college courses and in their professional lives. In addition to readings from the American literature course, students will read and analyze essays, letters, speeches, and images with an emphasis on language, rhetoric and argument. Given the highly visual nature of contemporary media, students will examine elements of rhetoric in cartoons, photographs, advertisements and/or films.
Because of the varied curriculum of the Language and Composition course, students are allowed to write in a variety of forms – narrative, expository, exploratory, and argumentative – on a variety of subjects from personal experiences to public policies, from imaginative literature to pop culture.
This is a college-level course with college-level expectations. Students are expected to read most selections outside of class in order to be prepared for critical discussion. Often, reading selections and/or writing assignments may be long-term; therefore, students must carefully manage their time.
The course is also a survey of American literature. Students will explore works from the American literary canon to strengthen their critical reading skills.
Course Objectives
Students will be able to
n understand the purpose and significance of reading critically
n evaluate interpretive literature that illuminates certain aspects of the human condition
n think critically about the social, political, and scientific issues raised in the fiction and essays
n write clearly about those issues and those texts in argumentative, expository and compare/contrast expository essays
n evaluate self (and other’s) writing
n understand the literary traditions from which American literature has grown
n extend the command of language through rhetoric, grammar and vocabulary study
n learn techniques of literary research, documentation and presentation
Texts
Prentice Hall’s The American Experience
Everything’s an Argument, Fourth Edition, Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz
A Writer’s Reference, Fifth Edition, Diana Hacker
Supplemental Reading
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Great Gatsby
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Death of a Salesman
Catcher in the Rye
Materials
Blue or black ink pens, #2 pencils
3-ring binder with 5-tab divider
college rule paper
high lighters
AP ASSESSMENT PLAN
This course teaches the skills of careful reading, critical thinking, and clear writing. You will not often be asked to demonstrate what you remember from the readings. Rather you will be asked, frequently, to demonstrate how carefully you can read, how critically you can think, and how clearly you can write.
Students will be evaluated on homework, writing assignments, examinations, and in-class assignments which include but are not limited to the following: quizzes, tests, journal writings, Socratic seminars, and group activities.
Grades and numbered scores will be given on AP prompts throughout the year. This evaluation will vary according to expected growth in each writer. Scores in the beginning of the year will be more lenient than end-of-year scores with the expectation that students are working throughout the course to improve their writing skills.
Timed Writings
As the year progresses, the timed writing simulations will adapt to finally resemble the AP examination. For example, in the fall, students will respond to writing prompts and draft their essays as homework. However, by the beginning of the second semester, all prompts will be completed in class within designated time limits.
Grading Policy
Essays: Most (but not all) essays will be written as homework in the first nine weeks. Rough drafts will not be accepted on long-term assignments. All essays should be self-edited and revised before they are turned in. Essays assigned in the second semester will be written in class or the computer lab in a timed environment. Essays will be weighted as either a quiz or test grade, depending on level of difficulty and assigned time.
Class Work (10%): Reading check quizzes will be given to check for basic understanding. Daily work is based on the teacher’s observations and evaluations of group discussion, Socratic seminars and student presentations and participation.
Tests and Quizzes (40% each): All tests for major units in the American literature curriculum will include an essay. Most tests will have a multiple choice component. Sample AP practice tests will also be graded on a sliding scale during the second semester.
Homework 10%: All reading assignments will have homework questions. The homework will be checked at the beginning of class. No late homework will be accepted. It must be completed at home.
Teaching Strategies
Students should approach each reading with certain concepts in mind and be able to identify the following in each reading selection.
- What is the thesis argument?
- What is the author’s tone?
- What is the author’s purpose?
- Who is the audience or what is the occasion?
- What evidence is shown?
- What appeals are present? Logos, Pathos, Ethos
- How does the author’s style?
First Quarter: Introduction to Rhetorical Strategies and Modes of Writing – Expository, Analytical and Argumentative
Week One:
Students will examine the Purposes of Argument, Occasions for Argument, Kinds of Arguments, Audiences for Arguments and Appealing to Audiences in Chapter One of Everything’s an Argument.
Major Essay #1 - Analytical: Students will draft, peer-edit and revise an analytical paper in which they locate and analyze a variety of bumper stickers. Responses should identify the type of argument, the stasis question(s) of the argument and what appeals it makes to the readers and how.
Students will annotate prose selections from the American Experience including William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Thomas Paine’s “The Crisis, Number 1” and Patrick Henry’s Speech in the Virginia Convention. Classroom discussions will examine the uses of rhetoric and argumentation, with an emphasis on purpose, audience and appeal to logic, emotion and character.
Classroom Reading: Chapters Two – Four in Everything’s an Argument, Pathos, Ethos and Logos
Weeks Two and Three:
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Everything’s an Argument, Chapter 17: Fallacies of Argument.
Major Essay #2 - Analytical: Students will identify and analyze fallacies of logic in Deputy Governor Danforth’s defense of the witch trails in Miller’s The Crucible. Following peer evaluation, students will revise and submit final draft.
Week Four:
Students complete a timed writing from the 1999 AP Released Exam, Question 3, which asks the writer to “write a carefully reasoned essay that explores the validity of Teiresias’s observation from Antigone that “The only/Crime is pride.”
Fallacies of Argument Assignment: Students will discuss fallacies within political slogans. See p. 512, Everything’s an Argument.
Weeks Five and Six:
Classroom discussion and assignments will focus on Style. Students will review types of sentences, conciseness and use of subordination and coordination from Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference. Students will also complete exercises in diction and effective use of vocabulary. Students will complete writing exercises where they identify their own use of sentence variety and effective vocabulary. Lessons will include discussions on formal, informal, colloquial, idiomatic, slang and vulgar uses of language.
Students will learn to recognize figures of rhetoric in a piece of writing. In Part 3 of Everything’s an Argument, students will analyze the images on p. 371 to describe the type of person depicted in each photograph. Class activity: Identify types of figurative language used in the advertising slogans on p. 391, Everything’s an Argument.
Major Essay #3 - Argumentative: Students will read an excerpt from The Narrative of Frederick Douglass and write a response to the following prompt: What can this text teach the modern reader about the institution of slavery and the attitudes surrounding it as they existed in the ante-bellum United States? Student responses need to consider the following:
How does this text support or contradict any previous opinions you may have had aboutAmerican slavery?
Did anything in this text surprise you?
Is this a valid and reliable primary source?
How do you think nineteenth century readers would have reacted to this text?
According to Douglass, why is slavery bad for the slave-owner as well as the slave?
How does this text support or contradict the primary and secondary source materials you have read?
In the conclusion students should make some accurate generalizations about slavery in the ante-bellum period and raise questions that the book does not. In addition, in a classroom discussion, students will assess what they got out of the assignment.
Before submitting final 750 – 1,000 word essay, students will meet with me to discuss effective use of generalization and specific, illustrative detail. I will evaluate the first draft based on the following SEE formula.
S – Select an example from the text, i.e., novel, essay, speech.
E – Explain what the example means.
E – Elaborate to demonstrate the connection between the quotation and your thesis statement.
For example:
THESIS: The main conflict in Huckleberry Finn deals with the opposing morals of society and the individual, and Huck Finn is torn by obligations to both.
S – Huck tears up the letter to Miss Watson. You can find the quotation and use it directly in your essay (along with quotation marks!!).
E – Huck wavers back and forth throughout the novel, criticizing his actions while still going through with them. Finally, Huck decides to follow his own heart, even if he will be sent to hell.
E – Although the reader understands that Huck is actually making the correct decision in helping Jim, the fact that he decides to help when all he has ever been taught by society tells him that he is wrong shows victory in the struggle of the individual against conformity.
Students will attend individual writing conferences to discuss the organization of the essay with an emphasis on effective transitions and coherence.
Weeks Seven and Eight:
Students will complete practice multiple-choice exams. They will work in pairs, groups and independently, allowing students to initially discuss the nature of the reading selections and types of skills required of the test taker.
Classroom Reading: Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener. Students will research socio-cultural themes within the novella from the following list:
MLA Research Paper #1
Cultural and Literary Topics
1. The Triumph of Capitalism (or the History of Wall Street). Who was John Jacob Aster? Focus on the mid-1800s.
2. The Romantic Movement and the American Transcendentalists. What are some of the general characteristics and major literary works?
3. Karl Marx on "wage slavery.”
4. Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience. Summarize the two works and give the reasons behind to two works.
5. Melville's biography and writing career.
6. Background on the Civil War and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Following MLA guidelines, students will use in-text citations and complete a list of works cited. The final 5 – 7 page paper will be formatted using MLA. Students will use A Writer’s Reference as a resource.
Students will also view Jonathan Parker’s 2001 film, Bartleby. Students will make comparisons to Melville’s original version and comment on the director’s modern adaptations.
Week Nine, End of First Quarter:
Students will make presentations of their research on Bartleby, the Scrivener.
Second Quarter: American Literary Forms
Weeks One and Two:
Selected poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
Everything’s an Argument, Chapters 5 and 6: Thinking Rhetorically and Structuring Arguments.
After discussing the Guide to Writing a Rhetorical Analysis, p. 129, students will draft and revise a rhetorical analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”
Students will learn the Toulmin Argument structure and study a Toulmin analysis, Alan M. Dershowitz, Testing Speech Codes, p. 166.
Week Three:
Selected essays from Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Weeks Four through Seven:
Students will complete an annotated reading of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They are responsible for knowing setting, characterization, conflict, climaxes and resolutions. Students will also analyze Twain’s commentary on society by examining the following topics: organized religion, superstition, the role of women, the Southern Gentleman, vigilante justice, disguise and deception, and hypocrisy and the institution of slavery.
In addition to reading check quizzes and an objective culminating test, students will write responses in a variety of genres.
Writing Prompt: Compare / Contrast
Students will compare life in the towns to life on the raft in Huck Finn.
Writing Prompt: Analysis
Students will analyze the symbol of the river in Huck Finn.
Writing Prompt: Expository
Students will explain the purpose behind the final third of the novel, Jim’s imprisonment and Tom’s “romantic adventure.” Students will offer reasons behind Twain’s purpose and evaluate its effectiveness to the novel as a whole.
Visual Texts: Students will also examine runaway slave advertisements and original illustrations from Huck Finn and explore the context of Twain’s philosophy and satire.
Week Eight:
Students will analyze the following literary forms from The Age of Realism (1850 – 1914)
Diary: Mary Chesnut, from Mary Chesnut’s War
Speech: Chief Joseph, “I Will Fight No More Forever”
Speech: Chief Seattle, “1854 Oration”
Letter: Stonewall Jackson, “An Account of the Battle of Bull Run”
Week Nine:
As the first semester comes to a close, students will complete in-class timed AP multiple-choice exams. These tests will be graded on a scale, based on the number of correct responses and total number of questions.
Third Quarter: The American Dream
Weeks One through Five:
Students will complete an annotated reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. They are responsible for knowing symbolism, point of view, setting, characterization, conflict, climaxes and resolutions. Students will also analyze Fitzgerald’s commentary on society by examining the following topics: the self-made man, wealth and status, the post WWI spiritual wasteland, and the Jazz Age.
MLA Research Paper #2:
Students will also complete a 5 – 7 page research paper on The Lawless Decade, developed in conjunction with the AP US History course.
Research Topics
All students must research the Overview of the 1920s