Course Syllabus
Welcome to Ms. B's Class
& other information
Work: (704) 296-3800
Cell: (704) 557-6040
| First Semester | Second Semester | ||
| 1st | English I Honors | 1st | English I |
| 2nd | English III Honors--AP Companion | 2nd | AP Language |
| 3rd | PLANNING | 3rd | PLANNING |
| 4th | English I Honors | 4th | English I |
Welcome to AP Language and Composition!
Course Overview
The AP English Language and Composition course is designed to help students become analytical, rhetorical readers and writers. Students in this course are taught critically by focusing their attention on the choices that authors make in relation to social context(s), audience(s), and purpose(s). Most texts used throughout the year will be nonfiction and will come from a variety of formal and informal sources and genres (e.g., academic journals, advertisements, scientific arguments, letters, political cartoons, critical essays, charts and graphs, etc.). In conjunction with reading and analyzing texts of such variety, students will also be required to produce formal and informal writings of the same sort.; consequently, the course helps students become skilled, rhetorical writers who compose their own choices that pay strict attention to social context(s), target audience(s), rhetorical mode(s), and overall purpose(s).
AP English Language and Composition enables students to read complex texts with understanding, while also teaching them to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers. The ultimate goal of building the rhetorical skills the class fosters is to help mold students into individuals who will actively and intelligently engage with the world around them. The AP English Language and Composition course helps students move beyond reading for mere comprehension, and it moves them past composing programmatic responses; it encourages them to think critically and purposefully about the rhetorical choices that authors make, and it leads them to consider the choices they make when deciding to add their voice into any given discourse: civil or academic.
Students must take the AP Exam in May to receive AP credit on their transcript. A qualifying score of three (3) or better on the AP exam may earn a student college credit.
Students Outcomes and Goals
After completing the course, participating students will have developed:
- Close reading skills focusing on the rhetorical movements of authors. In doing such, students will be able to read critically while evaluating an author's style and means of producing certain effects on the desired audience.
- The ability to produce complex thesis statements while subsequently supporting the aforementioned with evidence and commentary in a clear and logical fashion.
- The ability to synthesize information from various sources---formal and non---in order to strengthen their own arguments. This coincides with developing their own ability to rely on their own life experiences as ample means of support for their arguments.
- The ability to realize that authors make rhetorical and stylistic choices to achieve their purpose(s); consequently, students will move to be more purposeful in their own communications in order to adequately and/or effectively engage their audience(s) in any contextual discourse whether the opportunities for such arise withing academic or civil environments.
Course Expectations
As this is a high school course operating at a college-level course, performance expectations are appropriately high, and the work is challenging. That is not to say that there will be more work throughout this course than a typical honors course; but rather, AP assignments will require responses that explore the uses and functions of language at a greater depth.
Materials, Required Texts & Resources:
Heinrichs, Jay--Thank You for Arguing (3rd ed.) ISBN: 978-0-8041-8993-4
EmpowerED Family Portal: Provides parents with links to online resources and apps that students can access.
- Canvas (Learning Platform at Central Academy): Unit modules, assignments, and materials are accessed through our learning platform. Individual assignments will indicate which method of submission on Canvas is expected, if students need a refresher or have questions, they can access the Canvas Student Guide for specific instructions. It is the student's responsibility to ensure assignments are submitted on time and to contact the instructor if there is a problem. The Canvas Learning Platform logs every student log-in on Canvas which provides teachers with a list of when students log in to Canvas using their user ID.
- Canvas is used to grade assignments as well, however, the grades in Canvas, while accurate to the assignment, are NOT the teacher's grade book. The teacher's grade book includes categories of assignments that may be weighted differently and may include grades of assignments that did not use the Canvas Learning Platform. Therefore, students and parents should always check their child's true average on the Parent Portal on PowerSchool.
Class Supplies
Course Binder with Labeled Dividers
- 3-ring binder
- 1 subject notebook or composition notebook
- highlighters
- blue/ black pens
Students must maintain a course binder for this class. Incomplete binders will adversely affect exam preparation and a student's grade. The binder should include the following sections:
- Rhetoric
- Argument
- Synthesis
- Multiple Choice
- Vocabulary
Daybook/ Composition Notebook
Students must maintain a composition notebook for daily bell ringers.
***** Daybooks and Course Binders will be checked periodically for a grade!!!
TIDY NOTEBOOK = A TIDY MIND!!!
Classroom Policies
Late Work
All work must be submitted at the beginning of the class period on the day it is due. Missing homework will result in a zero grade for that assignment. Late work (e.g., essays, projects) will be accepted at the teacher's discretion (see honesty policy). Students have five calendar days to make up missed texts, timed writings, and quizzes. A number one (1) will in recorded in PowerSchool until the missed test, timed writing, or quiz is made up. After the five calendar days, the one will become a zero, and the assignment can longer be turned in. Absentees must take the initiative to acquire and complete missing work. Other extenuating circumstances will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Hand-Written Policy
Because the AP exam requires students to write all of their essays by hand, it is imperative that students practice expressing themselves through the hand-written word. In order to practice and improve writing fluency and cognitive fluidity, all work must be completed---with the exception of online assignments---in black or blue pen. Any and all work that violates such will be scored as a zero until corrected to meet the aforementioned criteria. Furthermore, if an assignment is hand-written, but is illegible, the assignment will be scored as a zero; however, in such cases, the teacher may offer an opportunity for the work to be made up.
Essay Writing
Essay Grading
All essays will be graded at an AP standard. The grading scale is from 1-6; since there is an expectation of improvement as students progress through the course, grade equivalents will change from the first to the second semester.
| Essay Score | Rough AP Exam Grade |
First Semester Class Grade Equivalent |
Second Semester Class Grade Equivalent |
| 6 | 5 | 95-100 | 95-100 |
| 5 | 4 | 88-94 | 83-94 |
| 4 | 3 | 80-87 | 71-82 |
| 2-3 | 2 | 70-79 | 61-70 |
| 0-1 | 1 | 60-69 | 50-60 |
Process Writing
Expository writing is the instrument that carries students' voices to their audiences. Workshops and student-teacher conferences have been programmed into the course; ultimately, with the aid of peers and mentors, students should come to see writing as a multiple-step process that requires research and multiple revisions. Students will be taught how to move through the planning, process in order to produce drafts that will be peer edited. Upon the peer-edit---in conjunction with teacher commentary---revisions will be expected, ultimately moving the student to engage in a final revision in order to submit a polished draft.
Timed Writing
Throughout the year students will complete numerous timed essays to develop skill in writing argumentative and analytical essays. These writings are integrated into the natural progression of the course. Timed writing is accelerated and, therefore, distinct from more deliberate expository writing processes. Students need to learn how to gather, organize, and express their ideas quickly in order to succeed on standardized tests, on college exams, and in the workplace.
Research
Throughout the course, students will learn to evaluate, select, and synthesize source material based on validity and purpose. The research component of this course is intended to help students incorporate ideas from credible authors to increase the validity of their own arguments. During initial research, students will be explicitly taught how to search for, find, and evaluate credible evidence.
Citation and Documentation Standards
All written work for the course will adhere to the citation and documentation standards set forth in The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Eighth Edition). In particular, major essays will include in-text citations and Works Cited pages that are properly formatted. With that, timed-writing exercises and other assignments should include seamlessly woven direct quotes and paraphrased references that competently credit authors and their works. Ultimately, students should recognize that citing sources is not merely an administrative function; rather, it is a necessary step toward producing essays that are rich, informative, and, above all, free from plagiarism.
Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism = Failure!!! No excuses, no exceptions. Plagiarism is stealing or "borrowing" someone else's work or ideas and presenting them as your own. Using a document or part of a document written by another student is plagiarism. Buying an essay from one of the services that sell such documents is plagiarism. Using a document published on the Web is plagiarism. Having someone else write an essay for you is plagiarism. If you plagiarize, you will fail the assignment, your parents and the administration will be contacted, and you will be subject to other disciplinary action as outlined in the CATA Student Handbook. Plagiarism is both stealing and cheating; both acts are unacceptable.
Units:
Unit 1: Introduction to Rhetoric -- In this unit, students will learn the significance of rhetorical analysis by defining rhetoric and the rhetorical situation according to Bitzer: exigence, audience, and constraints; the analysis of persona and tone; the rhetorical matrix: the elements of an effective text; how to discern the differences in approaches to certain targeted to specific audiences; the significance of audience in the development of a text; formal academic writing; how to transcend the 5-paragraph "theme."
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Readings: Applebaum, “If the Japanese Can’t Build a Safe Reactor, Who Can?”; Bitzer, "The Rhetorical Situation;" Bush, “9-11 Speech”; Eighner, Lars, "On Dumpster Diving;" Eisenhower, “Order of the Day”; Mairs, "On Being a Cripple;" McMurty, "Kill 'Em! Crush 'Em! Eat 'Em Raw;" Morrison, “Letter to Obama”; Rauch, "In Defense of Prejudice;" Roach, "How to Know If You're Dead;" Water, “Slow Food Nation”; Will, “King Coal: Reigning in China”; Woolf, "In Search of a Room of One's Own." Assorted essays and excerpts. |
Unit 2: Analyzing Argument - It's All Argument –In this unit, the students understand, analyze, and create both argumentative and persuasive pieces. Students will learn the rhetorical transaction; Aristotelian appeals; models of effective argument: Classical, Rogerian and Toulmin; syllogisms, enthymemes and their relationship to specific audiences—an assumption based on the target audience; logical fallacies, the authorial voice: “effective” vs. “ineffective” writing—the rant.
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader;" Cady-Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments”; Cohen, “The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research”; Jefferson et. al, “Declaration of Independence”; Hayawaka, “Bilingualism in America”; Henry, “Speech to the Virginia Convention”; Kennedy, “Inaugural Address”; Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address"; Regan, “The case of the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research”; Wilson, “Letter to a Minister” and “Future of Life”; Assorted essays and excerpts. |
Unit 3: Rhetorical Analysis -- In this unit, the student will learn: the writing process; the concept of conversation, “conversing” with an author; how to analyze visual sources, seeing beyond the apparent; the analysis of persona and tone; rhetorical strategies applying to grammar and syntax.
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader, "Album of Styles" pp.592-609; Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”; Mailer, “The Death of Benny Paret”; Rosenwald Smith, “The Wife-Beater”; Smith, “1616 Letter to Queen Anne of Great Britain”; Wiesel, “We Choose Honor”; Assorted essays and excerpts. |
Unit 4: Expanding Definition of Argument – In this unit, students will create and sustain arguments based on reading, research, and personal experience; write for a variety of purposes; produce argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources, cogent explanations, and clear transitions.
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader, “Prose Op-Eds” pp. ; Dillard, “So This Was Adolescence”; King, “I Have a Dream”; Suskind, Chapter 1, A Hope in the Unseen; Wollstonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”; Assorted essays and excerpts |
Unit 5: Othello and the Power of Language – In this unit, students will closely analyze Iago’s rhetoric in specific monologues and dialogues with other characters; study what Iago says and how he says it, as well as what he refrains from saying (the silence that spurs his listeners on to imagining the worst or to realizing the worst or to realizing the worst about themselves); identifying and applying rhetorical terms; discover the dangerous power of language.
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Readings: Shakespeare, Othello |
Unit 6: The Art of Persuasion and the Craft of Argument: Rhetorical Analysis and Annotation – To become informed and contributing citizens in a democracy, students must develop analytical skills to recognize and understand the tools of argument and persuasion, as well as persuasive skills, including the ability to analyze and integrate evidence appropriate to their audience. This unit will teach students the elements of rhetorical analysis.
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader; Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar: Brutus’s and Antony’s Funeral Speeches; Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”; King, Coretta, “The Death Penalty is a Step Back”; Suzuki, “Speech at the UN Earth Summit”; Assorted essays and excerpts |
Unit 7: Rhetoric: Advancing and Point of View through Figurative Language – In this unit, students will analyze how authors use figurative language and rhetorical techniques to advance their point of view and purpose.
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader; Alexie, “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel”; Cady Stanton, “An Address Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from The Souls of Black Folks; Lorde, “From the House of Yemanja”; Washington, “Atlanta Compromise Speech”; Assorted essays and excerpts |
Unit 8: Researching to Deepen Understanding – In this unit, students will develop their explorative proficiency: researching to deepen understanding. It lays out a process through which students learn to explore topics with their learning community, posing and refining questions and listening to experiences, and discovering areas they wish to investigate. It develops their ability to determine what they don’t know or understand, and where and how to find that information. The unit also develops and supports student ability to archive and organize information in order to see and analyze connections in ways that aid comprehension, deepen their understanding and prepare them to express their evolving perspective.
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader; Assorted essays and excerpts |
Unit 9: Synthesis: Research Multiple Perspectives– In this unit, students will understand the AP synthesis prompt by defining synthesis; breaking down the prompt; conversing with sources; analyzing images; analyzing political cartoons, embedding source material; timed practice; synthesis prompt project; thinking like an AP reader
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Readings: Selections from The Norton Reader; Assorted essays and excerpts |
Unit 10-11 (Post-Exam): The Podcast: Research & Production; Writing the College Personal Statement
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