12th+AP+English+Language

AP English: Language and Composition Chinquapin Preparatory School

“The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others.”– Leo C. Rosten “Life beats down and crushes the soul, but art reminds you that you have one.”  -Stella Adler


 * OVERARCHING THEME **: What is the human condition?

This class is a study of language in all forms. We will begin with a discussion of the elements that authors use to rhetorically manipulate an audience (tone, syntax, diction, imagery, symbolism, etc). Then we will work to analyze what an author’s purpose is and how to discern what audience they are targeting, and we will use these close language studies to improve our own language through emulation and adaptation. In all cases, the end goal is for a student to intelligently analyze and use rhetoric and rhetorical techniques to be able to comprehend and comment on any text they come in contact with.
 * COURSE OVERVIEW **

Students must come into the class expecting an intensive writing experience. They will be required to complete in-class timed essays, out of class revised and polished works, reflective writing, journaling, peer- and self-edits, research projects, and a hodgepodge of other written and spoken activities designed to increase their lexicon of rhetorical techniques.

Summer Reading: //A History of the World in Six Glasses// and //Beloved//
 * TEXTS **

//Writing the Australian Crawl, //excerpts, (Stafford), The University of Michigan Press, 1978. //The Writing Life, //excerpts, (Dillard), Harper and Row, 1989. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Teaching a Stone to Talk, //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">excerpts, (Dillard), Harper and Row, 1982. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Writing America, // //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Perrine's Sound and Sense, //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">selected poetry (Arp, Johnson), Thomson Wadsworth, 2005 //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">100 Great Essays, //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">selected essays (Diyanni), Penguin Academics, 2013. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Hot Words for the SAT, //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Carnevale), Barron's Educational Series, 2010. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cracking the AP English Language and Composition Exam, //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Hartzell), Random House, 2013 //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The Norton Anthology of Poetry // <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//They Say, I Say,// excerpts, (Graff, Berkenstein), W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A Clockwork Orange //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Burgess) //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">WW Norton and Company, 1962. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> (Franklin), Dover Publications, 1996. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Civil Disobedience//, excerpts, (Thoreau),Dover Publications, 1993. //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Candide //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Voltaire), Dover Publications, 1991. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//In Cold Blood// (Capote), Vintage International, 1965. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Heart of Darkness// (Conrad), Dover Publications, 1990.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">First Couple of Weeks (or so) **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">How to write in the style of the author (Sandra Cisneros' “My Name” from //The House on Mango Street//) for the purpose of understanding style, syntax, figurative language, etc.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Re-visit Voltaire’s statement; re-write argument
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“The Pixar Theory” – how to play detective and make connections
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Review of main arguments in summer readings; presentations?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independent Reading List
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Begin reading //A Clockwork Orange// (books 1 and 2)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">First Quarter **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Summer Reading
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Writing in author’s style
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Writing America, chapters 1-2
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Teaching Rhetorical Analysis (What is Rhetoric? What is rhetorical analysis? Divisions of rhetoric, key terms in RA: Exigence, Audience, Purpose, Appeals, Figures of Speech, Imagery, Syntax, Diction, and their functions)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Selected Essays – the rhetorical argument/photos/quotations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Scoring Guidelines/Student Samples
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Substantial writing assignments: Diagnostic (argument), Analysis I (main idea construction), Analysis II (Main idea, appeals, and organization/structure/form
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Timed writing prompts
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independent Reading
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Text: //A Clockwork Orange//


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Second Quarter **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Chapters 3 and 4 of Writing America
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Selected Poems
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Selected Essays/photos/quotations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">More substantial writing assignments: Argument I, Analysis III—Timed writing and then revised (Main idea, appeals, organization/structure/form, and one other surface feature element—diction, syntax, imagery/allusion, figurative language), Argument II
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Timed writing prompts: two Synthesis Essays
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independent Reading
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Research Paper (p. 11of Handbook, Syllabus 4)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Text: //The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin//


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Third Quarter **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Chapters 5 and 6 of Writing America
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Selected Essays/photos/quotations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Key Terms, Rhetorical Modes, Rhetorical Fallacies
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Paper: Candide
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Test examples/Student Samples
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Timed Writing Prompts
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Substantial writing assignments: Argument III—Timed writing and then revised; Analysis IV (full-fledged—student choice of what to focus on, as on the exam); Synthesis I (two texts synthesized)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independent Reading
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Text: //Candide, In Cold Blood//


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Fourth Quarter **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Chapter 7 of Writing America
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Multiple Choice practice exams (two)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Selected Essays/photos/quotations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Paper: In Cold Blood
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Narrative Essay Assignment
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Test examples/Student Samples
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Timed Writing Prompts
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Substantial writing assignments: Argument IV, Synthesis II—Timed writing and then revised—at least three sources synthesized
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independent Reading
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Final touches; review for the exam
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Text: //In Cold Blood// and //Heart of Darkness//


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Assessments **

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Homework – 15% <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Participation – 15% <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Quizzes – 20% <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Projects (including all writing prompts, papers, and major/minor projects, including presentations, etc) – 50%


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Other Nuts and Bolts **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Why the 5-paragraph essay doesn’t work (usually)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">You need to have an opinion – and your opinion needs to be grounded, not baseless
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Exigence: what’s in your crawl? What are your needs, gaps?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This is AP, but it doesn’t always have to look like an “AP class”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What do you need to change? How will you change? (Without change there is no growth) How can I help you to change? Help me to help you.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Keep in mind: however well you do on the AP Exam, as long as you work hard in this class and are an active listener/reader/writer, you will do well in all of your college classes (well, I don’t know about Stats). Also keep in mind that your grade in this class may not reflect the grade you get on the AP score, for better or worse.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Don’t be shy. I don’t bark, despite what you may have heard to the contrary. Odds are, you will need my help somewhere along the way. I am available whenever – see me about a good time to meet and I will make time to meet you. It looks like I will be in the library on most Mondays for evening study hall. I live in Residence L, and you can knock on our door up until 8 p.m.; after that, boys, please text me and I can meet with you in the library or in the US dorms; girls, text or chat or send an email to me and I’ll try to read them as frequently as is humanly possible)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Do not be intimidated in this class. I know that sounds easier said than done, but you were chosen for a reason. If I had any doubts about you being in this class, I would have left you off of the list. Likewise, please participate as much as possible, even if it means just asking questions. That is how you get true value from an education.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Resources: **

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|www.collegeboard.com]