AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION

SYLLABUS 2014-2015

Texts:Holt Literature and Language, 5th Course

Word Within the Word – Vocabulary

Selected novels from the District Approved Core and Supplemental Reading Lists

FALL SEMESTER

  1. Vocabulary
  • WWW Lessons 31-35 – word stems, words and activities with Greek and Latin roots
  • Rhetorical terms as applicable to essay analysis
  1. Grammar and Conventions
  • Review stylistic uses of punctuation including commas, apostrophes, semicolons, colons
  • Provide instruction on these grammatical concepts: subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, comma splices, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, rambling sentences, subordination and coordination as stylistic choices
  • Advanced rhetorical strategies used for stylistic purposes
  1. Writing
  • Essay prompt analysis and MLA format
  • Argumentation – focus on logos, pathos, ethos, tone, mood, concrete detail, ambiguity, stylistic devices, textual references, point of view, style, organization, and repetition,
  • Rhetorical Analysis essay – determine author’s purpose and how authors achieve their purpose through examination (not mere identification) of various rhetorical strategies
  • Synthesis Essay – incorporation of sources to support and prove your stance
  • All writing will require use of parenthetical notations, and when using multiple sources, an MLA-formatted works cited
  1. Literature – Readings focused on Conformity v. Individuality (part of the American paradigm of thought)
  • All major and minor works aim to develop students’ abilities to read for author’s purpose and examine the stylistic choices authors make (rhetorical analysis).
  • Reading focus will vary according to text; the semester’s overarching reading focus will center on the issue of civil disobedience.
  • Concepts – author’s purpose, rhetorical strategies, rhetorical mode
  • Non-fiction pieces interspersed in various units including

Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention”

excerpt from Thomas Paine’s The Crisis

various editorials from modern editorialists (2nd quarter project)

excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”

Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Gloria Naylor’s “A Word’s Meaning Can Often Depend on Who Says It”

Mark Twain’s “The Lowest Animal”

  • Drama:The Crucible*
  • Novels:Black Boy*, The Things They Carried*, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*, The Scarlet Letter,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Great Gatsby
  1. Listening and Speaking Standards
  • Group Presentations

SPRING SEMESTER

  1. Vocabulary
  • WWW Lessons 36-40 – word stems, words and activities with Greek and Latin roots
  • Rhetorical terms as applicable to essay analysis
  1. Grammar and Conventions
  • Review stylistic uses of punctuation including semicolons, colons, hyphens, dashes, quotation marks, and italics
  • Provide instruction in sentence combining; avoiding sentence fragments and rambling sentences, misplaced and dangling modifiers, wordiness and unparallel construction, shifts in construction
  • Continue practice developing style and voice through purposeful choices of diction and syntax and through imitation exercises
  1. Writing
  • Research Paper – Social Issue or Banned Book (3rd quarter project)
  • Rhetorical analysis – in-class writings
  • Argumentation – in-class and out of class writings
  • Synthesis Essay – in-class writings
  1. Literature – Readings focused on the American Dream or the American Nightmare?
  • Non-fiction interspersed throughout various units including but not limited to

“Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” – John Steinbeck

“The Box Man” – Barbara LazearAscher

“Homeless” – Anna Quindlen

“Life is Precious, Or It’s Not” – Barbara Kingsolver”

“Reflections on the Execution” – Leonard Pitts

  • Novels: The Grapes of Wrath, selected books from list of American authors, In Cold Blood
  1. Listening and Speaking
  • Group essay analysis, prompt creation, and multiple choice development from The Oxford Book of Essays (2nd quarter project)
  • Presenting creation and analysis of rhetorical terms using media – power point, videos, etc.

*denotes summer reading