AP Language and Composition

Student Syllabus 2019-2020

Dear Parents/Guardians:

I am excited that your student has elected to partake in a challenging and rigorous course – Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition. Like other AP courses, this class offers a college-level curriculum. More specifically, this class is equivalent to a freshman level writing course.

The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition course is designed to allow students the opportunity to read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, which will deepen their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Students will become skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Writing tasks are designed to give students the practice necessary to make them aware, flexible writers who can compose in a variety of modes for a variety of audiences, developing their own sense of personal style and an ability to analyze and articulate how the resources of language function in any given text.

I look forward to working with your student. Please feel free to contact me via email if you have any questions or concerns.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jennifer Sloop Rodriguez

Jennifer.rodriguez@ucps.k12.nc.us

 

Course Objectives:

Course objectives are based on those outlined by the AP® English Course Description.  At the end of the academic year, students will be able to

• Read astutely, think critically, and write clearly, developing their voice to communicate understanding, discovery, and persuasion;

• Analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying, and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques;
• Apply effective rhetorical strategies and techniques in their own writing;
• Write narration, description, and exposition, using effective rhetorical strategies to accomplish a desired purpose for an intended audience;
• Create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience;
• Produce compositions that introduce a narrative point, a thesis, or a claim and sufficiently develop them with appropriate evidence, cogent commentary, and clear transitions;
• Demonstrate understanding and master standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their writings, using a variety of sentence structures and effective diction;
• Evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers;
• Demonstrate understanding of the components of parenthetical citations and a bibliography;
• Analyze image(s) (cartoons, graphs, pictures, etc) as text;
• Critique constructively their own writing and that of their peers; and
• Reflect and write thoughtfully about their writing process.

 

Daily assignments:

Assignments and tests will be posted on the board and the online calendar.  It is the student’s responsibility to check the board and/or calendar and plan accordingly.  You will also be expected to complete all in-class work, participate in class discussions, and complete work with others in cooperative peer groups.  Most days you will begin class with a warm-up.  You will be expected to be working on the warm-up as soon as class begins.  

Tardy policy:

Promptness is a sign of respect while tardiness signals a lack of caring and loss of control. Promptness is expected.  Promptness is defined as being in your assigned seat when the bell begins to ring.  This applies not only to arriving to class, but also to assignments, papers, projects, use of space, equipment, etc.  If you are late to class and do not have a pass, you are expected to sign the tardy log.

Late work:

Homework is due at the beginning of the class period. Anything beyond the time it is collected is one day late will earn a half credit.  Anything submitted past the one day will not receive credit. For projects or essays, one letter grade is deducted for every day it is late.  Furthermore, an assignment turned in without a name will also receive a zero. If an essay/project is turned in at a later class period, it is considered one day late.

Plagiarism:

The English Department takes plagiarism seriously. Please refer to student handbook for plagiarism policies.  Whether you give your work to someone else to copy, or are copying from someone, both parties will be charged with plagiarism.  This applies to daily work and homework as well as to essays and tests.  Penalties for plagiarism in this course strictly follow WHS policy.

The AP Test:

The AP Language and Composition test examines your ability to read critically and to analyze non-fiction writing and to understand an author’s use of the nuances of language to create meaning.  It consists of about 55 multiple-choice questions covering purpose, main idea, rhetoric, and some grammar, and a writing portion that includes three essays, which ask you to both analyze pieces of literature and to produce an argument using a variety of sources.  The test takes a little over three hours.

      Grading:

Grades are weighted accordingly:

 

Daily Work/Homework/Participation (15%)

Projects/Seminars/Quizzes/Other Assessments (35%)

Writing/Tests (50%)

All graded assignments will be based out of points, and calculated with the appropriate percentage weight.  Some assignments will be assessed for understanding, improvement, and/or completion, therefore not receiving a weighted grade.  Some of your essays will be graded as daily work, based on completion and process before or in lieu of being graded on the AP essay scale.  Semester grades are calculated by adding each six weeks average and the semester exam and dividing by four.  As of now, students will take the English III NC Final as the final exam for the fall semester.  For the spring semester, each of the three six-week semesters will be averaged to determine students’ final grades.  The AP exam does not count toward your school grade; however, you cannot receive quality points on your GPA without taking the AP test.

Timed writings and formal critical papers will be scored using the College-Board approved holistic scale used for the AP test.  This will help accustom you to the scale by May.  The holistic scale evaluates your comprehension of a work, your ability to construct an effective argument / analysis, your ability to write to the appropriate audience, your use of voice, language, and rhetoric to create meaning, and your control of grammar conventions.

Materials for Class:

• Pens (blue or black ink only)
• 2-inch 3-ring binder with dividers
• Loose-leaf notebook paper (you will need a large supply of this)
• Post-it notes for annotating
• Highlighters for reading strategy exercises
• Index cards

Texts:

I would not recommend purchasing all of these books at the beginning of the semester, as things can always change.  Furthermore, students often switch AP Lang teachers during the spring semester, and the other class (Mr. Cole) will not necessarily read the same texts as our class.

• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Into the Wild by John Krakauer
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• Slaughterhouse-Five Tale by Kurt Vonnegut

*Many of these texts are taught at the college level or are recommended by the College Board.  Some may contain some mature language and/or themes.  I encourage parents to research these texts while deciding whether the course is the right fit for your student.