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Bellbrook High School

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE SYLLABUS

 

Course Overview

AP English Language is taught in the senior year to students who have successfully completed AP English Literature.

AP English Literature is taught in the junior year to students who have successfully completed Honors English 9 (genre study) and Honors English 10 (American Literature- also taught chronologically and including comparative world literature; text is part of the same series). The research paper is a strong focus of composition in the 10th grade course.

Because I teach both the AP Literature and AP Language courses, I am able to incorporate elements of both disciplines into each year’s work. Most students take the test in their senior year when they have a better idea of the requirements of the schools they might attend, as well as what their individual strengths are. Many take both tests. The courses are based on the AP English Course Description and the state scope and sequence.

AP English Language is a study of rhetorical elements, patterns and principles through examination of a wide variety of essays from multiple time periods and cultures and writing assignments in each rhetorical mode. Attention is also given to visual elements and their use in daily rhetorical situations; this is a continuation of the study of art from  AP English Literature with emphasis on photography, advertising and cartoons. There is an additional focus on reading and annotation skills with an eye to improving students’ facility with the different types of reading necessary to be successful on AP and college entrance exams. Students also continue to study literature and review literary elements as we approach AP testing in May.

 

STUDENTS TAKE AN AP SAMPLE TEST EACH WEEK, ALTERNATING BETWEEN MULTIPLE CHOICE AND WRITING SAMPLES. WE STUDY SCORED SAMPLE ESSAYS AND DO FREQUENT PEER EDITING EXERCISES.

 

 

Summer reading is required of all students in our school; AP students read selected works (Some of the texts are the Norton Critical editions so that students are able to discuss critical works about the pieces) and write one essay of literary analysis and one of opinion. They must also include a revision of one paper following provided revision guidelines (sample included) which focus on rethinking of the essay rather than editing for grammar, punctuation etc. (Texts and assignments included)

AP Notes are handouts I have created to study elements of language which apply to the material being taught. These handouts include terminology, theory, guidelines for writing, criticism, history – anything that will enhance preparation for the test or understanding of the unit. (sample included)

 

 

 

 

 

Composition skills are reinforced/reviewed as we approach each paper with guidelines for writing and opportunities for peer editing and revision. Selected papers are reviewed in class with use of scored AP samples where appropriate. Students also keep a journal for responses to the essays they read; they have a first impression entry and then a follow up entry after they read a piece or a series of pieces. I keep a folder of New York Times articles for quick in-class journal work as well and students also have connections to multiple magazines through Moodle for journal assignments.  (see notes for journals) Students regularly participate in student to student peer editing, paper conference days with me and class evaluation of sample papers. Students are encouraged to rewrite any paper for a higher grade. A rough draft evaluator is used for selected papers.  (sample included)

Grammar issues are addressed as they come up in papers with special attention to agreement, sentence structure and variety, parallelism, and punctuation. A link to grammar exercises online is provided on Moodle to further the textbook exercises.

Vocabulary is addressed with SAT words and prefix/suffix/root words on the board weekly. We also address vocabulary from the works as we read and talk about the impact of diction on the pieces. A link to further work on both is provided on Moodle.

 

Grades

For in class essays, the following rubric is used:

An 8-9 essay responds to the prompt clearly, directly, and fully. This paper approaches the text analytically, supports a coherent thesis with evidence from the text, and explains how the evidence illustrates and reinforces its thesis. The essay employs subtlety in its

use of the text and the writer’s style is fluent and flexible. It is also free of mechanical and grammatical errors.

A 6-7 essay responds to the assignment clearly and directly but with less development than an 8-9 paper. It demonstrates a good understanding of the text and supports its thesis with appropriate textual evidence. While its approach is analytical, the analysis is less

precise than in the 8-9 essay, and its use of the text is competent but not subtle. The writing in this paper is forceful and clear with few if any grammatical and mechanical errors.

A 5 essay addresses the assigned topic intelligently but does not answer it fully and specifically. It is characterized by a good but general grasp of the text using the text to frame an apt response to the prompt. It may employ textual evidence sparingly or offer

evidence without attaching it to the thesis. The essay is clear and organized but may be somewhat mechanical. The paper may also be marred by grammatical and mechanical errors.

A 3-4 essay fails in some important way to fulfill the demands of the prompt. It may not address part of the assignment, fail to provide minimal textual support for its thesis, or base its analysis on a misreading of some part of the text. This essay may present one or

more incisive insights among others of less value. The writing may be similarly uneven in development with lapses in organization, clarity, grammar, and mechanics.

A 1-2 essay commonly combines two or more serious failures. It may not address the actual assignment; it may indicate a serious misreading of the text; it may not offer textual evidence or may use it in a way that suggests a failure to understand the text; it

may be unclear, badly written, or unacceptably brief. The style of this paper is usually marked by egregious errors. Occasionally a paper in this range is smoothly written but devoid of content.

Grade conversion

9 = A+.

8 = A

7 = B+

6 = B

5 = B-

4 = C

 

3 = C-

2 = D

1 = F

For other papers and regular quizzes or tests, the standard letter/number grading format is used.

Grading scale

 A+       97.5-100    C        72.5-77.4

  A        92.5-97.4                     C-       69.5-72.4

  A-       89.5-92.4                     D+       67.5-69.4

  B+       87.5-89.4     D        62.5-67.4

  B        82.5-87.4                      D-       59.5-62.4

  B-       79.5-82.4                      F        Below 59.4

  C+       77.5-79.4

  For multiple choice AP samples, the following grading rubric is used:

64%        A+

60-64          A

56-60       A-

52-56       B+

48-52       B

44-48       B-

40-44       C+

36-40       C

32-36       C-

28-32       D

28        F

 

Essential Questions

For every essay we read, there are seven essential questions we consider:

1.      What is being said? This emphasizes close reading to be sure students get the facts of the pieces and are familiar enough with them to really be able to analyze them.

2.      What does it mean? This is the interpretation piece of the process, with emphasis on discovering multiple layers of meaning.

3.      How is it being said? This is the true analysis phase which considers diction, syntax, structure, rhetorical mode etc.

4.      Why is it being said and what impact does the “how” have on the “why”? Now we look at purpose and how the technique impacts the meaning.

5.      How does it reflect the time period?

6.      What is the value of the piece? How effective is it?

7.      How does the piece connect to others we have read?

 

Semester One                August- December

Unit One                        Understanding Rhetoric

 

Material

Notes adapted from Chapters 1 and 2  Everyday Use Roskelly,Jolliffe

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~honeyl/Rhetoric/

 

AP Notes

Rhetorical Triangle

AP Language basics

 

Assignments ( in class essays with focus on rhetorical strategies)

2002 Question 1

2004 Form B Question 1

 

 

Unit Two                       Analyzing Elements of the Essay

 

Material

(Chapters 3-11 of Part Two of Models for Writers)

In addition to textbook information and exercises, add the following:

  • Diction and Tone      AP Notes handout on types of diction and lists of tone words
  • Figurative Language   Poetry notes from AP Literature

 

Assignments

There are writing assignments for each unit of this section of the text and students will complete five of them, some in class and some out of class.

In addition, students will complete the following:

1. Completely analyze the elements of one of the following essays from The Best American Essays 2006:

·        The Culture of Celebrity

·        Confessions of a Left-Handed Man

·        Why Write?

Literature Review: Drama   Oedipus, Antigone, Tartuffe, The Glass Menagerie

2. Essay Assignment:  AP Tragedy Essay

 

“Characters with a sense of self and an identity framed by social connections and unmitigated truths dwell in good narratives. As readers we wander within these connecting perimeters, following the plot and sensing commentary about life in general…

as we peer into the playwright’s mirror, we see among the populated reflections shadows of ourselves.”

 

Considering all the tragedies we have read/watched in the past two years, comment on the quote above. Utilize quotes from at least two of the sources provided, properly cite with MLA format. Where possible, try to make connections among the plays and to life today.

 

Unit Three                     From Reading to Writing

Material

Chapter 2 of Models for Writers (notes on close reading and reading as a writer)

Chapter 3 Frames of Mind (process of analysis)

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200608/francine-prose

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html

http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/sts-ct-art-close-reading-p1.cfm

http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/sts-ct-art-close-reading-p2.cfm

 

AP Notes

Acronyms  (DUCATS, DIDLS, SOAPSTONE etc.)

Close Reading

Close Reading example (Lady of Shalott)

 

Assignments

  1. Complete two close reading assignments of selected language and literature samples (http://www.cgu.edu/print/918.asp   model paper)

2. Take Home Essay   

 

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”

 

In a well developed 1-2 page typed essay, examine the accuracy of this aphorism in modern society. Concentrate on examples from your observations, reading and experiences to develop your ideas.

 

 

Unit Four             Types of Essays                           

 

Material

Part Four Models for Writers, chapters 4-12 Frames of Mind

  • Illustration
  • Narration
  • Description
  • Process Analysis
  • Definition
  • Division and Classification
  • Comparison/Contrast
  • Cause/Effect

 

We study the elements of each type of essay and examine multiple examples.

 

Literature Review: Short Story and Novel (students choose a book with an Eastern culture element and write a response paper and we read Life of Pi together)

 

Assignments

 

1. Complete one of the writing assignments from Models For Writers for each type of essay.

 

2. Independent Exploration

            We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
Maya Angelou

Men hate each other because they fear each other,
and they fear each other because
they don't know each other,
and they don't know each other because
they are often separated from each other.
Martin Luther King

Another person's words are the window of his or her world.

Choose anything from Eastern culture and do some exploring. You may read fiction or non-fiction. The objective is just to take some time to explore a little into an area you may not have looked at before and to spend some time in cultures we tend to overlook in traditional coursework.

Write a 2-3 page reaction to whatever you work on. Make sure you address issues of structure, style, diction, figurative language, argument techniques etc.

Ideas:

Memoirs of a Geisha                          Analects of Confucius

Reading Lolita in Tehran                 The Bookseller of Kabul

The Kite Runner                                The Sewing Circle of Herat

The Tao of Pooh                                Pillow Book

Tale of Genji                                      The Rubaiyat of Omar Kayam

Lady Murasaki’s Diary                      Old Testament

Terrorist                                             The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Eastern myths and legends

 

3. Piece of Pi  

Choose two sentences/phrases/ideas from the first part of Life of Pi and do a close reading exercise using the form provided. Then write a short reflection of your thoughts about them. Some of your thoughts may be in question form but I am looking for more opinions/agreement/disagreement/qualification etc.

 

4. Exercise on Poe’s The Tell- Tale Heart from Frames of Mind.

 

AP SAMPLE ESSAYS FOR THIS UNIT FOCUS ON SHORT STORY OR NOVEL EXCERPTS WITH ATTENTION TO CHARACTERIZATION AND WRITER’S STYLE AS WELL AS SAMPLES FROM LANGUAGE TESTS IN DIFFERENT MODES.

 

Semester Two                            January – May

 

Unit Five                                 Focus on Argument

 

Material

Chapter 12 Frames of Mind and Chapter 20 of Models for Writers

Online copies of The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, The Economist    

http://www.economist.com/index.html

http://www.newyorker.com/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek/

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.theatlantic.com/

http://www.drudgereport.com/

http://www.satireonline.com/articles/list

http://www.thecolbertreport.com/

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bldailyshow.htm(Daily Show clips)

Writing the Synthesis Essay  Brassil, Coker, Glover

AP From A-Z- Argument and Synthesis edition Athena Publishing

Mastering Synthesis  Applied Practice

Mastering Nonfiction with Documentation Applied Practice

AP Notes

Visual Literacy handouts

·        http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/caption.html

Poetry term review

Film Terms

Literature review: Poetry

Poetry

 

              1    I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle.

              2    Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in

              3    it after all, a place for the genuine.

              4        Hands that can grasp, eyes

              5        that can dilate, hair that can rise

              6            if it must, these things are important not because a

 

              7 high sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are

              8    useful; when they become so derivative as to become unintelligible,

              9    the same thing may be said for all of us, that we

            10        do not admire what

            11        we cannot understand: the bat,

            12            holding on upside down or in quest of something to

 

            13  eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under

            14    a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that feels a flea, the base­

            15    ball fan, the statistician --

            16        nor is it valid

            17            to discriminate against "business documents and

 

            18 school-books": all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction

            19    however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry,

            20    nor till the poets among us can be

            21        "literalists of

            22        the imagination" -- above

            23            insolence and triviality and can present

 

            24   for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them, shall we have

            25    it. In the meantime, if you demand on one hand,

            26    the raw material of poetry in

            27        all its rawness and

            28        that which is on the other hand

            29            genuine, then you are interested in poetry.

Notes

1] Later Moore cut the poem to only three lines:

I, too, dislike it.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in
it, after all, a place for the genuine.

Assignments

  1. In both versions of the poem, Moore's speaker says, "I, too, dislike it. . . ." Why would a lifelong poet say this? What does the speaker like? Write an essay in which you agree or disagree with or qualify Moore’s ideas about poetry.
  2. Three synthesis essay samples
  3. Documented Argument  5-8 pages
  4. Two visual literacy essays based utilizing materials from online sources listed
  5. Film Paper: Choose one of the selected films (varies from year to year) and write              a paper in which you determine what the film’s core argument is and show how that argument is expressed through evidence from the film (through both narrative and cinematic style).
  1. Film or video analysis on material such as John Stossel’s  series for the classroom or The Shadow of Hate – A History of Intolerance in America from Teaching for Tolerance or documentary films such as Supersize Me or Bowling for Columbine

 

Unit Six                                          AP Test Preparation

 

At this point of the class, the students divide into groups according to which test they plan to take. They work three days a week on specific test review material and sample tests. Students not taking the test read another book of their choice

(besides the Achebe) and write a paper it. On the other two days of the week we read/discuss and write about Achebe. This schedule happens in April. After the AP tests, we do more films for class discussion (we have very sporadic attendance for most of May due to all the AP tests and other class activities so we are essentially finished after the test weeks)

 

Material

Sample AP tests from prep books such as Barron’s, Peterson’s, Kaplan, Princeton review etc. and samples from AP Central

Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe

 

AP Notes

British and American Literature review

Notes on Achebe

Hints for success on the AP test

Style Analysis review

 

Assignments

1.Take Home Essay

The end justifies the means

 

Machiavelli is often credited with the quote, “The end justifies the means.” (He did not actually make that statement but in The Prince he did say, “One must consider the results.”)  Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica “…states explicitly that an end which is good does not justify the use of evil means to attain that end.” (Wikipedia)

Most people interpret the statement to mean:

1. Morally wrong actions are sometimes necessary to achieve morally right outcomes.

2. Actions can only be considered morally right or wrong by virtue of the morality of the outcome.

Considering current events, history, and things you have read or experienced, take a stand supporting, challenging or qualifying the statement in relation to a specific event or current issue. (examples: torture as a means of getting information about terrorism, stem cell research, profiling, wiretapping, genetic engineering,  use of nuclear weapons)

 

2. The Last Formal Untimed AP Paper of Your Career

 

Choose one or invent one based around the ideas here (clear that with me first) and write a 3-5page paper.

 

  1. Now that you have finished Things Fall Apart, analyze why and how things fell apart. What do you interpret to be the major themes of the novel?
  2. Achebe commented: “Here, then, is an adequate revolution for me to espouse--to help my society regain its belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement. And it is essentially a question of education, in the best sense of that word. Here, I think, my aims and the deepest aspirations of my society meet. For no thinking African can escape the pain of the wound in our soul . . . The writer cannot expect to be excused from the task of re-education and regeneration that must be done. In fact he should march right in front . . . I for one would not wish to be excused. I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past--with all its imperfections--was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them. Perhaps what I write is applied art as distinct from pure. But who cares? Art is important but so is education of the kind I have in mind. And I don’t see that the two need be mutually exclusive.” ("The Novelist as Teacher," 1965) How does Things Fall Apart fit this comment?
  3. In 1964, Achebe was confronted with the idea that African writers should deal with the here-and- now rather than the past. His answer: “It is inconceivable to me that a serious writer could stand aside from this debate, or be indifferent to this argument which calls his full humanity into question. For me, at any rate, there is a clear duty to make a statement. This is my answer to those who say that a writer should be writing about contemporary issues--about politics in 1964, about city life, about the last coup d’etat. Of course, these are legitimate themes for the writer but as far as I am concerned the fundamental theme must first be disposed of. This theme--put quite simply--is that African peoples did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans; that their societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity. It is this dignity that many African peoples all but lost in the colonial period, and it is this dignity that they must now regain. The worst thing that can happen to any people is the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The writer’s duty is to help them regain it by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost. There is a saying in Ibo that a man who can’t tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body. The writer can tell the people where the rain began to beat them. After all, the novelist’s duty is not to beat this morning’s headline in topicality; it is to explore in depth the human condition. In Africa he cannot perform this task unless he has a proper sense of history. ("The Role of the Writer in a New Nation")   Comment on how Things Fall Apart fits into these ideas.
  4. Achebe takes the title for his novel from a line in a classic Western modernist poem "The Second Coming" (wr. 1919; pub. 1921), by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939; Irish). Paul Brians explains the background of Yeats’ poem: "Yeats was attracted to the spiritual and occult world and fashioned for himself an elaborate mythology to explain human experience. 'The Second Coming,' written after the catastrophe of World War I and with communism and fascism rising, is a compelling glimpse of an inhuman world about to be born. Yeats believed that history in part moved in two thousand-year cycles. The Christian era, which followed that of the ancient world, was about to give way to an ominous period represented by the rough, pitiless beast in the poem." Read "The Second Coming" (purple book pg.740) and consider why Achebe might choose to take the title of his novel from Yeats’ poem. Consider how Achebe’s literary allusion to Yeats’ poem might deepen or extend—by comparison and/or contrast—the meaning(s) of Achebe’s title and his novel.
  5. Achebe has integrated traditional Igbo/African elements in his novel—e.g., proverbs, parables, and stories from Igbo oral tradition and culture--and, as noted earlier, created a kind of "African English."  What effect(s) does this cross-cultural combination of Western literary forms and Igbo/African creative expression produce? How do these pieces impact theme?
  6. Achebe rejects the Western notion of art for its own sake in essays he has published (e.g. in the collections  Morning Yet on Creation Day and Hopes and Impediments). Instead Achebe embraces the conception of art at the heart of African oral traditions and values: "Art is, and always was, at the service of man," Achebe has written.  "Our ancestors created their myths and told their stories with a human purpose;" hence, "any good story, any good novel, should have a message, should have a purpose."  How, then, would you interpret the human purpose(s) and message(s) of Things Fall Apart?
  7. Reread the article Achebe wrote about Heart of Darkness and comment on his ideas/your thoughts. You might also look at any of the other articles on the same ideas.

 

 

Student Texts

Models for Writers   Alfred Rosa, Paul Escholz

                        Bedford St. Martin’s

Frames of Mind     Robert DiYanni, Pat C. Hoy III

            Thomson-Wadsworth

The Bedford Researcher   Mike Palmquist

Bedford St. Martin’s

Best American Essays 2006   Lauren Slater, editor

 

 

Supplemental Texts

Classics in World Literature  Classic Edition

Scott Foresman

Plato’s Heirs- Classic Essays   James D. Lester, editor

            NTC Publishing Group

The United States in Literature  Classic edition

Scott Foresman

 

 

Last Modified on September 5, 2007
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