Specific literary works are listed within their correlating units below.

Transcription

1 Syllabus: Course Description Advanced Placement Language and Composition immerses students in critical reading and analytical thinking through an expansive list of nonfiction prose selections, enhancing their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Course selections include expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative compositions from a variety of authors. Students will analyze and evaluate essays, letters, speeches, visuals, and novels. Students will reinforce their reading through synthesizing material from these texts in their own compositions. Course Objectives: Students will Read for experience. Learn to respond personally and reflectively to a range of literature, focusing primarily on American literature. Choose an independent reading selection each quarter from a list provided by the teacher. Learn to independently analyze, summarize, paraphrase, explicate, annotate and synthesize. Apply close reading skills to Applied Practice and retired College Board multiple choice tests. Analyze the author s style: diction syntax, and literary devices. Compose essays with body paragraphs that consist of concrete details supported with commentary information. Practice and write argumentative essays. Employ past and present grammatical elements during all stages of the writing process. Enhance vocabulary on a weekly basis with the supplemental source Hitting on all Cylinders: Relevant Vocabulary Study Deborah Louis. Complete an effective unit on the research process which includes citing sources using a Modern Language Association manual.

2 Texts: Required: Trimmer, Joseph F., and Maxine Hairston, eds. The Riverside Reader. 8 th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, Supplemental: Degen, Michael. Crafting Expository Argument: Practical Appreaches to the Writing Process for Students and Teachers. 4 th ed. Dallas: Telemachos Publishing, Didion, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, DiYanni, Robert, and Pat C. Hoy II, eds. Frames of Mind: A Rhetorical Reader with Occasions for Writing. Australia: Thomson Wadsworth, Lunsford, Andrea A., and John J. Ruszkiewicz, eds. Everything s an Argument. 3 rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin s, Rosa, Alfred, and Paul Eschholz, eds. Models for Writers: Short Essays for Composition. 8 th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin s, Strunk, Jr., William, and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 4 th ed. New York: Longman, Specific literary works are listed within their correlating units below. Composition Requirements: Students will compose essays according to an essay format guideline that includes the following components: Prewriting, writing, and revisions for all compositions Analysis with concrete details and commentary information presented in the form of chunks Focus on persuasive writing, comparison/contrast, and argumentation Apply grammatical lessons to compositions.

3 Focus on sentence formation and variation Summer Assignment: The purpose of the summer assignment is to expose the students to a variety of essay writers, topics, and styles. This assignment will prepare them for additional non fiction reading during the school year. Texts: (different text used different years) The Eloquent Essay by John Loughery Fifty Great Essays by Robert DiYanni The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate For each of the assigned essays students will determine the thesis of each and will write two paragraphs: one summarizing the main idea of the essay and one reacting to the author s purpose and style of writing. Unit 1: Introduction to Writing The purpose of this unit is to expose the students to the many models of expository and argumentative writing. They will be concerned with the structure of arguments and varying styles of argumentative essays. These writings proceed from the proposal stage through formative drafts to the final draft. A profile page (essay instructions) and a rubric (grading guide) will accompany each essay. Texts: Elbow, Peter. Writing With Power. 2 nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, Degen, Michael. Crafting Expository Argument: Practical Appreaches to the Writing Process for Students and Teachers. 4 th ed. Dallas: Telemachos Publishing, Lunsford, Andrea A., and John J. Ruszkiewicz, eds. Everything s an Argument. 3 rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin s, 2004.

4 Unit 2: Justice Readings: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln The Crisis, Number 1 by Thomas Paine Speech in the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry The Battle of the Ants by Henry David Thoreau Everything s an Argument, Chapter 1 in Everything s an Argument Reading and Writing Arguments, Chapter 8 in Everything s an Argument Arguments of Definition, Chapter 9 in Everything s an Argument Evaluations, Chapter 10 in Everything s an Argument Proposals, Chapter 12 in Everything s an Argument Figurative Language and Argument, Chapter 14 in Everything s an Argument Visuals: The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull (Mural in the Capitol Building Washington, D.C.) Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939 video clip Mr. Jefferson Smith takes the constitutional oath of office ) Unit related political cartoons from periodicals will be discussed. Assessments: Composition: Compare/Contrast Prompt: compare Paine s paper with Henry s speech as persuasive works. In your composition, consider claim, occasion, audience, evidence, assumptions, and conclusions. Composition: Compare/Contrast Prompt: Compare Jefferson s Declaration of Independence to King s Letter from a Birmingham Jail and Lincoln s

5 The Gettysburg Address Composition: Synthesis Prompt: What does the government owe to the individual? What does the individual owe to the government? In an essay that synthesizes and uses at least four of the readings from this unit for support, discuss the obligations of citizens within a society. Refer to the sources by authors last names or by titles. Unit 3: Man against Society Readings: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards The FBI is Reading Over Your Shoulder by Zara Gelsey A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift Viewing: The Crucible by Arthur Miller Good Night and Good Luck, video clip, American Rhetoric.com video clips from Senator Joseph McCarthy and the UnAmerican Activities Committee Assessments: Composition: Analysis Read the following passage (paragraph 6, The effect of the symbol transfigured. ) from The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 13 Another View of Hester, where the narrator describes Hester Prynne in her isolation from the Puritan community. In a wellorganized essay, analyze the language and rhetorical devices the narrator uses to convey his attitude toward Hester and toward woman in general. Composition: Comparison/Contrast

6 Prompt: Read the following passages from The Scarlet Letter, Passage 1 is from Chapter 2, The Market Place (paragraph 11, The young woman by herself ). Passage 2 is from Chapter 3, The Recognition (paragraph 1 and 2, From this intense his lips ). Then write a carefully reasoned and fully elaborated analysis of Hawthorne s attitude toward these two characters. Consider allusion, irony, imagery, syntax, organization of details, and other rhetorical devices. Composition: Argumentation letter to the editor Prompt: Using Jonathan Edward s sermon as a model, write a letter to the editor of the school newspaper, using fear strategies to deter your audience from something (failing a class, not studying for a major exam, etc.). Unit 4: Existentialism The purpose of this unit is to introduce the students to the philosophy of existentialism through several genres. Readings: Existentialism by Jean Paul Sartre from Existentialism translated by Bernard Frechtmen Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot Don t Let That Horse by Lawrence Ferlinghetti The End of the World by Archibald MacLeish The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot Old Possum s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot In Bed by Joan Didion On Going Home by Joan Didion God s Tooth by Joan Didion The Company Man by Ellen Goodman Definition Chapter 11 in Frames of Mind by Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy II

7 The Meaning of a Word by Gloria Naylor Visuals: Peasant Life by Marc Chagall Golconde by Rene Magritte Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber Assessments: Composition: Definition essay. Prompt: Extended definition essay with the Oxford English Dictionary Composition: Persuasive essay. Prompt: After reading Old Man and the Sea and using your own critical understanding of the tenants of existentialism, write a carefully argued essay that explains your support of Hemingway s work as it reflects the tenants of existentialism. Unit 5: Research The purpose of this unit is to continue the process for effective research set up in our district. Selecting an American author, students will read several pieces by that author and will then determine a universal theme and prove the existence of that theme through the literary works. Students will complete independent reading selections, read literary critiques on those reading choices, research the author s background, author an argumentative paper regarding the universal theme s appearance in the works, and follow the guidelines of the research paper set forth by the district which includes citing sources using the Modern Language Association editorial style. Text: Rules for Writers A Rookie s Guide to Research, Third Edition by Barbara Mills and Mary Stiles

8 Unit 6: AP Language and Composition Test Preparation The purpose of this unit is to concentrate on reading skills and effective composition in preparation for the College Board exam. Students will analyze argumentative essays, comparison/contrast essays, expository essays, and synthesis essays. Students will be expected to read closely and practice multiple choice tests, analyze author s style, analyze the structure of essays, and practice timed writings of essay prompts according to composition requirements.

9