AP+Literature+Syllabus

Janet Wells AP® English Language & Composition Syllabus 2011-2012

Course Overview Course Title: Advanced Placement English Language and Composition

Meeting Times: This course meets for 36 weeks and meets 85 minutes on every other day in the A-B block schedule.

Course Description:

AP English Language and Composition is designed for students willing to accept an intellectual challenge and is intended to engage higher order analytic and synthetic thinking and writing skills. Students will experience, interpret, and evaluate primarily

American novels, dramas, poetry, and nonfiction readings of recognized importance and styles from different time periods covering multiple disciplines. In addition, the critical examination of the contextual relationship among graphics and visual images to text and as stand-alone messages will be mastered. Readings will be challenging, complex, and rich; collegial discussions amongst the students will deepen their understanding of the use, structure, and impact of language embodied in a work. Wide reading will provide students the opportunity to explore and appreciate trends in linguistic styles across time. In addition to reading primarily nonfiction materials, students will read poetry and fiction to determine the impact of a writer’s “linguistic and rhetorical choices.”

Students will write in informal and formal contexts to become competent in their personal writing and proficient in expository, analytical, and argumentative assignments.

Evaluation and use of primary and secondary sources in addition to learning multiple methods to cite sources will be learned in this course. Timed responses mirroring the demands of the AP exam will be a frequent form of evaluation.

Though the system has an open enrollment policy, students should understand this is a college class taught in a high school classroom and is designed to culminate in the AP Language and Composition Exam. Those who are enrolled in AP Language and Composition may expect a more intense workload; the breadth, pace, and depth of material covered exceeds the Standard English class. This course is the equivalent of an introductory college level composition class with college level requirements. It is intended to be both rigorous and challenging.

Course Purpose

Philosophy The class is an interactive learning community in which both student and instructor become deeply engaged in the reading, discussion, production, and analysis of prose from a variety of sources and time periods. Because this is an introductory college level course, students will read broadly from primarily nonfiction material. They will also exchange ideas and understandings with their peers; learn the critical skill of synthesizing information from their readings to produce a fresh perspective, and incorporate this skill in their writing. Both their writing and reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way “generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.” Risk taking and questioning are encouraged.

Students are reminded that a rich academic learning environment requires proper preparation for the daily class and the major assessments. Assignments are specifically designed to prepare them for class discussions, in-class and out-of-class essays, and tests and semester exams. To respect the learning of their peers, the students must come prepared.

The units of this class are sequenced to build the skills for success in the college environment, not just strictly for the AP exam. They reflect prior student input in terms of the readings selected and the academic rigor of the assessments.

Students are reminded that writing is a progressive skill, so writing will be a daily and essential component of this class. Students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to rewrite essays that receive a low grade after conferencing with the teacher to discuss how to improve the rewrite. Learning the skill of revision will also be encouraged through peer response activities to develop a dialogue about strengths and weaknesses in writing to evaluate how their writing meets the expectations of the AP reader and a college composition professor. This will also include analysis of sample essays from prior AP prompts and peer essays.

Goals Students will: • Actively participate in group discussions and critique prose styles selected from a range of disciplines and rhetorical contexts written during various time periods. • Apply the writing process to interpret experience, evaluate, and emulate examples of high quality writing leading to the development of “stylistic maturity.” • Write expository, analytical, and argumentative assignments and manipulate compositions to account for varying audiences, contexts, and goals. • Use language effectively and cogently in both the personal and academic realms. • Critically examine the contextual relationship among graphics and visual images to text and as stand-alone messages. • Assess and incorporate primary and secondary sources into research projects and cite all sources appropriately. • Learn the critical skill of synthesizing information from their readings to produce afresh perspective. • Actively demonstrate the ability to apply the AP rubrics to their own writing, to exemplars provided in class, and to the writing by fellow students in peer response activities. • Interpret ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies, and nuances in literature as well as analyze rhetorical modes of discourse and rhetorical devices. • Actively employ the use of rhetorical terminology in discussion of literature.

Conceptual Organization This course is designed to sequential approach to the nonfiction and fiction voices of American Literature, to reflect the progression of ideas that continue to define what it means to be an American in the modern world, allowing opportunities for comparison and contrast with writing that reflects similar themes. Texts have been selected to engage their knowledge of U.S. History as they study the rhetorical strategies employed by texts read in this class. Students will also gain exposure to literary criticism. Supplemental readings for literature will be provided providing an introduction to the variety of lenses, such as New Criticism, psychoanalytic, archetypal, and social-political approaches to analysis. Students will develop and apply critical use of the basic rhetorical concepts and modes of analysis, both through their individual reading and group discussions. Essays, poetry and fiction from American authors recommended by the AP College Board have been selected as supplemental materials.

Writing Writing in this course is designed to build student skills in terms of the expository, analytical and argumentative writing. To develop the student’s critical writing skills students will receive instruction and feedback on their writing of several drafts to promote the following goals: • A wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively [Word Choice] • A variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination [Sentence Fluency and Conventions] • Logical organization enhance by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis [Focus and Organization] • A balance of generalization and specific, illustrative detail [Ideas and Content] • An effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure. [Voice]

Course Format and Policies Make-up Work Policy: If a student misses a class, an absent sheet with missed work is posted on the board. Students should leave the coversheet on the make-up work to indicate an excused absence. If a student is unclear of the assignments, he/she should see me before school, after school, or during seminar to receive help, to gather any missed materials or assignments, and/or to make testing arrangements for missed quizzes or tests. Students should get class notes and information from classmates. For one-day absence, students should make-up any tests or quizzes within two seminar periods. If a student knows in advance that he/she will be absent, he should check with me to obtain assignments and work which will be given during a planned absence. If the absence is unplanned due to illness, then students have as many class days as missed to make up work. I highly advise that students meet with me to set up a schedule for turning in missing assignments.

Grades Weighted grades are calculated for students completing and taking the requisite exam of an AP Course. Students will be awarded points for every requirement of this class. The points will be converted to percentages.

Each semester exam is weighted as 20% of the student’s grade. The semester exam will be AP Language exams from previous years. The traditional scale will determine progress reports, quarter reports, and final grades:

Value A 90-100% B 80-89% C 70-79% D 60-69% F 59% and below Semester Grade First Quarter = 40% Second Quarter = 40% Semester Exam = 20%

Third Quarter = 40% Fourth Quarter = 40% Semester Exam = 20%

Students who receive a grade below a C in the First Semester should evaluate whether their enrollment in the AP class should continue. AP classes are MUCH more demanding than the regular English classes. Students must allocate the necessary time and resources; much effort is required to perform well in this class. Students can expect at a minimum 6 hours of homework per week as stressed in the AP guidelines for the course on AP Central.

Requirements for the grade: The Fall Semester is dedicated to developing fluency in key aspects of argumentative writing, introducing critical thinking strategies and the canons of rhetoric, reviewing key style concepts, and exploring major themes in expository and argumentative writing. The Spring Semester is dedicated to honing writing skills and preparation for the exam. Plagiarism Policy All drafts of papers must be submitted to Turnitin.com, this tool aids students’ understanding of MLA format, parenthetical notations, and citing of sources. Plagiarism is using another person’s thoughts and accomplishments without proper acknowledgment or documentation. It is an unconscionable offense and a serious breach of the honor code. In keeping with the policy, students will receive a zero for the plagiarized work. Strategies and Assignments 1.	Assertion Journals In the first eight weeks, students receive one quote per week from a writer whom we will be studying sometime during the course of the year. For each quote, students must provide a clear explanation of the writer’s assertion, then defend or challenge it, noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to the student’s point of view. 2.	Students receive instruction in the SOAPSTone strategy developed by Tommy Boley and included in the College Board workshop “Pre-AP®: Interdisciplinary Strategies for English and Social Studies” for use in analyzing prose and visual texts. 3.	Students are introduced to Image Charts, Process Logs and RSOS strategies for analyzing prose and visual texts in relation to three of the five canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, and style. 4.	OPTIC Analyzing Visual Arguments Students learn OPTIC, a new strategy for analyzing visual arguments, images, advertisements, paintings, and photographs that help students complete a close reading of visual text. Each student will provide three examples of visual text (advertisements, cartoons, etc.) and will write a short analysis of each using the OPTIC strategy. 5.	Dialectic Journal to be done on all major readings 6.	Toulmin’s Method 7.	Jollife’s Rhetorical Framework 8.	Socratic Seminars These will be performed bi-monthly after students have annotated the readings and created discussion questions. 9.	Pair Discussion 10.	Writer’s Notebook 11.	Multiple Choice attack skills Vocabulary Students will work to gain vocabulary and practice using new terms in context in order to develop a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately. Style Because style is a major component of writing skill, students review the use of appositive phrases, participial phrases, and absolute phrases to improve the quality and sophistication of their writing. Assignment: Initially, students complete Literary Device Entries (two entries per week) and Sentence and Paragraph-imitation exercises; later, they are expected to highlight their use of the various techniques and the impact of the techniques in their major compositions (three per quarter). In addition, students receive instruction in how to recognize and incorporate figures of rhetoric in a piece of writing, particularly schemes and tropes. . Exposition and Argumentation Students need many models of expository and argumentative writing to see the possibilities for their own writing. The following list of readings is organized by two quarters of study in the fall semester.

Essay Writing The fall semester is geared to introducing the structure of arguments and varying styles of argumentative essays. Students complete three major arguments, each one consisting of 750 to 1,000 words: an argument of proposal, an argument of definition, and an argument of evaluation. These essays proceed through formative drafts with feedback from teacher and peers to a final draft. The teacher will return each draft to the student with suggestions for revision. In addition, an essay responding to Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of the Prince,” comparing Machiavelli’s recommendations for gaining what one wants to those espoused by Henry David Thoreau in “Civil Disobedience” (expository-comparison/contrast). The spring semester continues to acquaint students with various argumentative structures: causal argument, argument of proposal, and visual arguments. Timed Writings During the fall semester, students complete five timed essay questions, one of which appears on the semester exam. Three of these will be completed during Seminar. Of all the techniques I have tried, I have found that integrating the timed writings into the natural progression of the course helps build students’ confidence and expertise. During the spring semester, students complete eight timed essays to develop skill in writing rhetorical analysis essays.

Readings: First Quarter: An Introduction to the Canons of Rhetoric (eight weeks) “Good Readers and Good Writers” Vladimir Nabokov (Handout) “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” (100 Great Essays p.548) “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards (Handout) “The Qualities of the Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli (50 Essays p. 221) Excerpt from A Definition of Justice by Aristotle (Handout) “Declaration of Independence” Thomas Jefferson (100 Great Essays p.163) “Everything’s an Argument,” Chapter 1 in Everything’s an Argument “Reading and Writing Arguments,” Chapter 2 in Everything’s an Argument “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. “Structuring Arguments,” Chapter 8 in Everything’s an Argument “Figurative Language and Argument,” Chapter 14 in Everything’s an Argument Washington Square Henry James (novel) Other essays as they pertain to our study

Second Quarter: A Study of Justice (nine weeks) “Second Inaugural Address” by Abraham Lincoln (2002 AP English Language and Composition Exam) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass “Reply to A. C. C. Thompson’s Letter” “I Am Here to Shed Light on American Slavery” “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” by Elizabeth Cady “The Battle of the Ants” by Henry David Thoreau “The Position of Poverty” by John Kenneth Galbraith Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez by Richard Rodriguez “Arguments of Definition,” Chapter 9 in Everything’s an Argument “Evaluations,” Chapter 10 in Everything’s an Argument. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison (Novel) Scarlet Letter Hawthorne (Novel)

Third Quarter: A History of the Essay as an Art Form (nine weeks) Excerpt from Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion “Once More to the Lake” by E. B. White “The Courage of Turtles” by Edward Hoagland “In Bed” by Joan Didion “The Knife” by Richard Selzer Ten selected pre-twentieth-century essays Work on Multiple Question Strategies Readings of current events in preparation of the synthesis paper “Causal Arguments,” Chapter 11 in Everything’s an Argument. Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck (a novel)

Fourth Quarter: A Final Look at Argumentation (eight weeks) “The Four Idols” by Francis Bacon “Nature Fights Back” by Rachel Carson “Nonmoral Nature” by Stephen Jay Gould Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard “Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society” by Mary Wollstonecraft “Shakespeare’s Sister” by Virginia Woolf “Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory” by bell hooks “Visual Arguments,” Chapter 15 in Everything’s an Argument “Fallacies of Argument,” Chapter 19 in Everything’s an Argument The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald (A novel)

Teacher Resources Course Texts Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Compact Handbook. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2004. Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A portable Anthology. . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Copeland, Matt. Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2005. Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1974. Diyanni, Robert. One Hundred Great Essays. New York: Penguin Academics, 2008. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Edited by William L. Andrews and William S. McFeely. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Vintage: Random, 1980. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Collier, 1992. Jacobus, Lee A., ed. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. James, Henry. Washington Square .London: Wordsworth, 2001. Lunsford, Andrea A., John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. Everything’s an Argument: With Readings. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. Kennedy,X.J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron. The Bedford Reader., 10th Edition.. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Kirsner, Laurie and Stephen R. Mandell. Patterns for College Writing. . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Compostion. . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. Course Supplements Barnet, Sylvan and Hugo Bedau. Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. Dornan, Edward A., and Charles W. Dawe, eds. The Longwood Reader. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. McQuade, Donald, and Christine McQuade. Seeing and Writing. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. References Adler, Mortimer J. The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto. New York: Macmillan, 1982. Barnet, College Board. AP English Course Description. New York: The College Board, 2005. College Board. The AP Vertical Teams Guide for English. New York: The College Board, 2005. College Board. The Official SAT Study Guide: For the New SAT. New York: The College Board, 2004. College Board. ScoreWrite: A Guide to Preparing for the New SAT Essay. New York: The College Board, 2004. Corbett, Edward P. J., and Robert J. Connors. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Covino, William A., and David A. Jolliffe. Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995. Kagan, Spencer. “The Structural Approach to Cooperative Learning.” Educational Leadership 47 (December 1989–January 1990): 12–15. Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2002. Miller, George. The Prentice Hall Reader., 8th Edition. Upper Middle Side, NJ: Perarson Prentice Hall, 2007. Teaching Strategies Even though students in an AP English Language and Composition course may be strong readers and writers, they still need a bank of strategies to draw from as they encounter challenging text. The most effective strategies are those that teach students how to infer and analyze. Explanation of the strategies: Assertion Journals In the first eight weeks, students receive one quote per week from a writer whom we will be studying sometime during the course of the year. For each quote, students must provide a clear explanation of the writer’s assertion, then defend or challenge it, noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to the student’s point of view. These “short writes” are only 300 to 400 words, just enough to practice a key concept in argumentation: acknowledging alternative points of view. As the students become comfortable with these informal pieces of writing and as we review components of clarity and style, students must include one example of each of the following syntactical techniques in their assertion journals: coordination, subordination, varied sentence beginning, periodic sentence, and parallelism. As students develop a sense of their own style through sentence structure, they also learn organizational strategies SOAPSTone Students receive instruction in the SOAPSTone strategy developed by Tommy Boley and included in the College Board workshop “Pre-AP®: Interdisciplinary Strategies for English and Social Studies” for use in analyzing prose and visual texts. In addition, students are introduced to strategies for analyzing prose and visual texts in relation to three of the five canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, and style. These strategies are included in the College Board workshop “Pre-AP: Strategies in English—Rhetoric” developed by David Jolliffe. Students practice these strategies throughout the year. Subject-Occasion-Audience-Purpose-Speaker- Tone (SOAPSTone) This is a text analysis strategy as well as a method for initially teaching students how to craft a more thoughtful thesis. The SOAPSTone strategy was developed by Tommy Boley and is taught in the College Board workshop “Pre-AP: Interdisciplinary Strategies for English and Social Studies”: • Speaker: the individual or collective voice of the text • Occasion: the event or catalyst causing the writing of the text to occur • Audience: the group of readers to whom the piece is directed • Purpose: the reason behind the text • Subject: the general topic and/or main idea • Tone: the attitude of the author Discussion The course offers many opportunities for students to collaboratively practice the skills they need, derived from my belief that learning can only occur if students have opportunities to check their understanding and clarify their thinking. Additionally, in the fall semester, students conduct a Socratic seminar over Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez They actually develop their own questions based on the Socratic seminar models provided by the National Center for the Paideia Program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and Socratic Circles by Matt Copeland. Syntax Analysis Chart A syntax analysis chart is an excellent strategy for style analysis as well as an effective revision technique for a student’s own writing. [One of the key strategies mentioned in The AP Vertical Teams® Guide for English, published by the College Board, the syntax analysis chart involves creating a five-column table with the following headings: Sentence Number, First Four Words, Special Features, Verbs, and Number of Words per Sentence. This reflective tool not only helps students examine how style contributes to meaning and purpose but also helps students identify various writing problems (repetitiveness, possible run-ons or fragments, weak verbs, and lack of syntactical variety). In addition, students are made aware of their own developing voices and diction. Overview-Parts-Title-Interrelationships-Conclusion (OPTIC) The OPTIC strategy is highlighted in Walter Pauk’s book How to Study in College and provides students with key concepts to think about when approaching any kind of visual text. A sample OPTIC lesson would include the following steps: 1. Provide students with a single visual text that presents a position or point of view on an issue. One example is James Rosenquist’s 1996 painting “Professional Courtesy” (Seeing and Writing, 588), which portrays handguns as instruments of violence. 2. Pair students and lead them through the OPTIC strategy, step by step. • O is for overview—write down a few notes on what the visual appears to be about. • P is for parts—zero in on the parts of the visual. Write down any elements or details that seem important. • T is for title—highlight the words of the title of the visual (if one is available). • I is for interrelationships—use the title as the theory and the parts of the visual as clues to detect and specify the interrelationships in the graphic. • C is for conclusion—draw a conclusion about the visual as a whole. What does the visual mean? Summarize the message of the visual in one or two sentences. 3. Debrief the effectiveness of the strategy in analyzing visuals. 4. Compare and contrast the visual with a piece of expository text dealing with the same subject but perhaps a different position. In Seeing and Writing, Gerard Jones’s essay on “Killing Monsters” presents the author’s viewpoint on why children are helped, not harmed, by viewing images of imagined violence. Both these texts could be used to discuss different positions on the effects of violence on children and young people. Students need to practice new strategies in a safe environment, one that allows them to explore and clarify their ideas with their peers. In this course, students are always paired or grouped in threes to practice the components of the strategies. Spencer Kagan’s Think–Pair–Share grouping technique works well when students are learning a new strategy. Timed Writing: Students will write on either a passage or a quote they have not seen before. Or they may write on a passage taken from a larger work they have studied. They will write for one hour. Writer’s Notebook Students begin the of the second quarter by reading an excerpt from Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) where she talks about the difference between a journal and a notebook. Each student receives a composition book to record 12 notebook entries on a variety of topics over a period of two weeks. Discussion centers on how writers will use a notebook as a way to catch the bits and pieces of life and experience for their writing projects. As the students are working on their notebooks, we are studying the personal reflective essay as a writing form. Students examine the characteristics of personal reflective writing with the following pieces of prose: “Once More to the Lake” by E. B. White “The Courage of Turtles” by Edward Hoagland “In Bed” by Joan Didion “The Knife” by Richard Selzer The assignment is given: Each student must select an experience from his or her life that has brought some personal insight. Students are encouraged to examine their writer’s notebooks for ideas. A Study in Style and Influence In preparation for the research-based causal argument, students will review research skills, including identification and evaluation of primary and secondary sources; organization and integration of source material; and documentation and organization of a researched argument. The major project of the second semester is a research-based causal argument examining the contextual influences (historical, cultural, environmental, etc.) on a selected pre-twentieth-century essayist and the impact and effects of those influences on his or her style, purpose, and intent in at least one representative essay. The causal argument is different from a traditional research paper because the student must consider and present alternative causes and effects in direct opposition to his or her position. Students are required to synthesize at least five sources into their project. This five-week study begins with an overview of the essay as genre, noting its early beginnings as a Renaissance invention. As the weeks progress, students study the characteristics of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries and approximately 25 representative essays. Each student selects a pre-twentieth-century essayist from an established list and is responsible for making a PowerPoint presentation on the day assigned to discussion of that particular writer’s work. This study provides a fascinating look at the growth of language and ideas. The culmination of the study is the research-based causal argument. Exposition and Argumentation Students continue to work with models of expository and argumentative writing to see the possibilities for their own writing. Other Strategies Will be introduced into the course as needed to help students succeed in the course the rigor of course.