COURSE OVERVIEW

Students in this college-level class read and analyze a wide variety of prose,
both fiction and non-fiction, in order to better understand how technique and
rhetoric serve the authors purpose. Through close reading and frequent
writing assignments, students learn to develop their own composing abilities
through seeing how other writers work with language. Course readings come
from a wide variety of authors and contexts and feature essays, letters,
speeches, images, historical documents, and novels. Featured authors
include Abraham Lincoln, Tim OBrien, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley,
Frederick Douglass, and assorted authors featured in the selected textbook
and the New York Times Op-Ed section. Because of our schools limited
weekly instructional time (only 3 hrs., 10 min.), students do a comprehensive
summer unit that introduces the students to the AP standards and serves as
a formative assessment. Students prepare for the AP Language and
Composition Exam through practice testing and may be granted advance
placement or college credit as a result of adequate performance.
TEXTS USED:
Aaron, Jane E. 40 Model Essays: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2005. Print.
Jollifee, David A. and Hephzibah Roskelly. Writing America: Language
and Composition in Context. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.
Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer, Fourth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2010. Print.
Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. The
Language of Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins: 2008. Print
Students will work in peer groups for revising and have private writing
conferences with the teacher as well. They will keep a weekly blog on
Wordpress where they can practice summarizing and responding to
argument. This format also allows for both student and teacher comments
and critique in an informal setting. They will learn to analyze the writing of
professionals, their peers, and themselves. Other recurring features of the
course include practice multiple choice testing, practice grading of student
essays from the AP exams, and regular vocabulary exercises.
This course is built on the guidelines given in the AP English Language and
Composition Course Description.
SUMMER UNIT (July and August)

Due to limited instructional time during the year, the course will start with a
detailed summer unit on the theme of the American Dream. (These students
have already had American Literature and are familiar with this topic.) The
writings will introduce the students to the forms of writing on the AP exam
and allow the instructor to have a formative assessment of the students
basic composition skills. They will write the following:

[SC 1]Before doing any readings, the students will write a personal
essay telling what the idea of the American Dream means to them.
[SC 1, 4]Next, they will compare/contrast the arguments in two pre-20th
Century texts on the topic of democracy and the nature of being
American:
o What is an American from Letters from an American Farmer by
J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur
o Of Individualism in Democratic Countries from Democracy in
America (1835) by Alexis de Tocqueville
[SC 1, 10] The students are given the following reading list for the
summer and told they will be asked to write an essay (synthesis) the
first week of school in which they will have to use the ideas from the
following texts to support the opinions they espoused in the first
personal summer essay on the American Dream:
o Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (play)
o CHOICE of novels: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel)
OR Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (novel)
o Black Boy by Richard Wright (autobiography)
o I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman (poem)
o Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes (poem)
o The Prison by Bernard Malamud (short story)
[SC 1, 8] Finally, the students are asked to analyze Edward Hickss
painting Peaceable Kingdom and explain how it speaks to the
American Dream.

[SC 2] These writings will receive non-recorded grades to establish a baseline

for each student. Each essay will receive detailed teacher feedback on
strengths of diction, syntax, and illustrative examples. They will then be used
throughout the year in 4th quarter as workshop pieces, where they will
revise and polish them. The pieces will be regraded after revision for a
recorded score.
FIRST QUARTER (Sept. and Oct.) : CLOSE READING AND RHETORICAL
AWARENESS
o Reading Visual Texts (Writing America Ch. 1)
o Canons of Rhetoric (Writing America Ch. 3)
o Assertion Journals
o Writing unit: Analyzing the Rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln

o Vocabulary
o Practice Multiple Choice (Friday quizzes)
[SC 1, 2, 3, 7, 13, 16] Assertion Journals
In the first quarter, students follow national opinion columnists and write
journals weekly on a Wordpress blog. For each column, students must
provide a clear explanation of the writers assertion, then defend or
challenge it, noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any
possible objections to the students point of view. These are called SRCs,
which stands for Summary-Response-Citation. Students write a formal
rhetorical prcis (analyzing the rhetorical devices, tone, and audience), then
a personal response, which is only 300 to 400 words, just enough to practice
a key concept in argumentation: acknowledging alternative points of view.
They will create an MLA citation for the column they read. Finally, students
will identify and practice using language that develops tone and style. Both
students and teacher use the comment section on the blogs for critique.
Critique can be of the accuracy of the prcis, adequate support in the
response, or of grammar and syntax.
(SC 3, 5, 7, 8) Learning the basics of rhetoric:
Using the activities in the Writing America textbook (Ch. 1 and 2), students
will learn about the Rhetorical Triangle, the basic types of appeals. This will
also introduce them to the concepts of tone and diction as it relates to the
authors purpose, with a focus on Jennifer Prices essay The Plastic Pink
Flamingo: A Natural History. The student writes brief, informal analyses of
diction and how it proves the tone. In another series of class activities,
students learn about logos, pathos, and ethos through analyzing print
advertisements from previous decades and then the Mac vs. PC series of ads
by Apple. Students must identify how these appeals are used in the ads then
create their own series of ads using different appeals. Students also analyze
the tone of the print ads, focusing on how the advertisers communicate
through non-verbal images.
[SC 1, 2, 4, 5, 7] WRITING UNIT: Analyzing the Rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln
This unit is taken from the AP curriculum module on pre-20th Century
literature and will focus specifically on appeals and Lincolns signature
techniques of antithesis and parallelism. Students will identify the focus on
logos, pathos, and ethos in Lincolns writings. Students will also analyze the
difference between personal (morality, common sense, fairness) and public
(religion, justice, humanity) appeals. Prior to the lessons, students will read
The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions (1838), The First Inaugural
Address (1861) and The Gettysburg Address (1864)
As an introduction, students will learn the 4-A approach (arrangement,
appeals, assumptions, and audience) and the SPAM technique of analyzing

a speech (situation, purpose, audience, method). Students will use their

knowledge of enthymeme, a rhetorical syllogism, to analyze the logic of a
piece and analyze the use of juxtaposition, shifts in tone, and rhetorical
questions.
Lesson 1 focuses on The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions
(1838). Students will see Lincolns use of parallelism, antithesis, and
anecdotal information. Of interest is also how Lincoln sets up contrasts.
Students will compare this speech with Kings I Have a Dream, which
evokes similar cadence.
Correlating Blog Topic: Compare the situation Lincoln describes
in this speech to the government shutdown situation in Congress.
Lesson 2 revolves around The First Inaugural Address (1861).
Students will answer a series of short-answer questions, some before
reading to set the tone. (Curriculum Module questions pp. 39-42)
Students will analyze the tone and switch from first to second person.
They will also examine his use of a qualifier as a technique. They will
explore how his use of antithesis and parallelism is effective.
Lesson 3 features the The Gettysburg Address (1864). Again,
students will analyze the use of parallelism and antithesis, as well as
the list of three arrangement.
[SC 1, 2, 4, 5, 7] PRACTICE ESSAYRHETORICAL ANALYSIS: Students
will write a comparison of The Gettysburg Address to a modern
funeral oration, such as George W. Bushs memorial speech for the
Columbia astronauts. Or they can choose to do an analysis of the
arrangement of the speech. This essay will be timed and hand written.
Students will do peer revision in groups with a teacher made rubric,
then assess the essay using the AP rubric in order familiarize
themselves with it.
[SC 1, 4, 5, 7]MAJOR ESSAYRHETORICAL ANALYSIS Prompt: Compare
and/or contrast Lincolns rhetoric on issues of equity and aggression
through the three speeches. Your response may also take into account
his changes in public office and /or the changes in American society.
(This essay will serve as a summative assessment for the quarter.)
Routine Skill Building: Each Friday, students will take a practice multiple
choice quiz, then review the questions missed with the teacher as a group.
Students also will follow a news columnist to keep abreast of current events.
Each Friday, the student will post a rhetorical prcis of one column on his/her
blog and critique another students prcis as well.

Vocabulary: Using the unfamiliar words from the multiple choice quizzes,
students will define the words they didnt know and then compose a creative
short story using the words in context.
SECOND QUARTER (Nov. to mid Jan.): RHETORICAL ANALYSIS,
PERSONAL RESPONSE and VOICE
o Writing America Ch. 4 on rhetorical analysis, diction, and syntax
o The Language of Composition Ch. 2 on close reading
o Analysis of an Act
o Assertion Journal and Critiques
o Studies of Voice (fiction and non-fiction)
o Studies of the AP Rubric and Standards (Friday grading sessions
of old AP essays using AP rubric)
o Vocabulary
[SC 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 13, 16] Assertion Journals and Critiques
In the first quarter, students followed national opinion columnists weekly,
then analyzed this writing through a rhetorical prcis on a Wordpress blog.
They then wrote personal responses to the columns using concrete examples
(text-to-self, text-to-world, text-text) to support their claims. In the second
quarter, the component of peer critique is added. Students are assigned to
critique both the prcis and the response and post it on the students blog.
The teacher follows through up with an additional critique of the original
assertion journal and the peers observations. Critique can be of the
accuracy of the prcis, adequate support in the response, or of grammar and
syntax. This allows students to keep abreast of current events, both in public
policy and popular culture.
[SC 3, 4, 5, 8, 9] Analysis of an Act
In order to learn about the components of analysis, Students will view a
series of photos of actions done in the name of religion that are viewed to be
out of bounds by society. They first informally discuss what they can
deduce from the non-text images. Then, they pick one to research. They will
then analyze the act as if the doer were an author and the world were the
audience. They present the analysis to the class and must include the Big
Question and the Four Related Questions from Writing America, Ch. 2.
Students submit a works consulted bibliography in MLA style. Students
receive teacher feedback from a graded rubric.
(SC 3, 13) Study of Syntax
After receiving direct instruction on the importance of using a variety of
techniques in order to create tone and advance purpose, students are
assigned one element from the lengthy Writing America Ch. 4 section on

diction and syntax. They are tasked to create instructional activities and
games for their classmates to teach these many new techniques and
concepts. Each activity has to have a student-made assessment to test
whether the activity was effective. Students spend two class days enjoying
their classmates presentations and fill out a feedback form at the end of the
activities.
[SC 3, 7, 14] Close Reading and Analysis of Rhetoric and Style
Students will begin analyzing rhetoric and style through class activities in
Writing America Ch. 4. (featuring Students will read The Things They Carried
by Tim OBrien and annotate the text for particular examples of outstanding
style and technique. They will learn to keep a double-entry journal from The
Language of Composition. They use the journal to take notes on meaningful
passages and what rhetorical techniques they see the author employ. Once a
week for five weeks, they will have a Socratic seminar to discuss parts of the
reading. Teacher will give oral and written feedback to all students at the
conclusion of each weekly seminar that focuses specifically on the use of
specific, illustrative detail.
[SC 3] Routine Skill Building: Each Friday, students will read sample student
responses to past AP exams and assess them with the AP rubric then discuss
how close they were to the actual results. Class will analyze student essays
and discuss why they were or were not successful.
[SC 12] Vocabulary: Using the words from PowerPlus for the New SAT Book 3,
students will review definitions and take online quizzes for grades.
[SC 1, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16] Major EssayRHETORICAL ANALYSIS
(compare/contrast, analysis): Students will write an essay in which they use
self-reflection to compare a sample rhetorical analysis from Writing America,
Ch. 4 to their own rhetorical analysis of Lincoln from first quarter,
highlighting their own strengths and weaknesses. Students receive informal
teacher feedback through margin comments to their document in progress
and after it is complete. Comments will pertain to illustrative support, syntax,
logical organization and tone.
[SC 1, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13,14, 15,16] MID-TERM EXAM
Students will take the 2007 AP Language and Composition Multiple Choice
Exam and Free Response question that is based on rhetorical analysis. They
will have only two hours and must write essays by hand. Students will
receive detailed teacher feedback-- both written and verbal--on the free
response essay afterward, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in tone,
diction, syntax, structure, and vocabulary use. Attention will be given
particularly to strength of text examples and illustrative support. Feedback

will also be given on students rhetorical structure, logical organization, and

transitions.
THIRD QUARTER (mid-Jan to mid-March): ARGUMENT and POSITION
PAPER (Synthesis)
o Writing America Ch. 5 on argument
o Study of Logical Fallacies
o Assertion Journals (reading essays from The Language of
Composition)
o Studies of Structures (standard, Rogerian, Toulmin model,
Motivated Sequence, Six-Part Oration)
o Reasoning
o Types of Evidence
o Studies of the AP Rubric and Standards (Friday grading sessions
of old AP essays using AP rubric)
o Vocabulary in context
o Visual Texts
o Combining sources (Synthesis) Writing America Chapter 6
[SC 1, 2, 6, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16] January WRITING WORKSHOPBUILDING
ARGUMENTS: Students select a controversial topic from Procon.org. They
research the topic, then write a persuasive essay (with MLA citations)
following a basic argumentative structure. Students get mini-lessons, such as
starting with a hook or using different types of evidence or illustrative
details, and they continue to make additional drafts of the essay featuring
the new techniques. Teacher provides lecture and activities on different types
of claims and reasoning (inductive, deductive, sign, etc.), as well as logical
fallacies to avoid. Students are encouraged to look at professional models
then experiment with the techniques in their own writing. Each step goes
through peer revision. The second draft goes through teacher revision with
the student one-on-one. Students submit a final essay in the basic structure,
which is graded on the Common Core rubric for an argumentative essay.
Next, the students receive direct instruction about different structures (ex:
Rogerian, Motivated Sequence, Six-Part Oration, etc.) and adapt their
arguments to fit the new structures. (timed writing practice for first drafts)
Students use model essays from Writing America to learn and practice
identifying some of the structures. Students receive teacher feedback on
diction, syntax, and structure before writing the final drafts.
[SC 1, 2, 4, 5, 6] February Major EssayPOSITION PAPER (Literature):
Students will read Brave New World and 1984, then argue which author had
a more accurate vision of the future we are now living in. Students will
choose which structures and examples from text to use without peer or
teacher input. This is a summative assessment. Student will receive teacher

feedback with a rubric on structure, diction, and syntax, as well as on the

effectiveness of the chosen evidence.
[SC 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 , 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16] March WRITING UNIT-- POSITION
PAPER (Synthesis) Pt. 1 Rhetoric of Liberty Unit in Pre-20th-Century Texts:
Students will learn pre-20th-century prose by exploring the theme of liberty in
historical documents, with a focus on American history. These lessons will
help students develop skills in rhetorical analysis, the ability to recognize
relationships among sources, and argumentation about issues related to
rights and liberty.
Lesson 1 will have them reading the English Declaration of Rights
(1689) and the Declaration of Independence (1776). They will compare
the premises and propositions of both documents to analyze rhetorical
strategies and how the earlier document may have informed the latter.
They will also analyze the documents for purpose, audience, and tone.
(Curriculum Module questions p. 16-17)
Lesson 2 will have the students expanding the definition of liberty.
American history can be read as an attempt to fulfill the promised
made in the Declaration. Over the years, citizens who were not white
men who owned property fought for the expansion of suffrage and
political liberties. Students will read two key rhetorical artifacts in the
19th-century debate about expanding the definition of liberty, Elizabeth
Cady Stantons The Declaration Sentiments (1848) and Frederick
Douglasss The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (1852). Students
will first identify the differences between the American Declaration and
Stantons. They will analyze the rhetorical significance of the difference
and how they change the purpose of the document. Students will
specifically compare the support of claims. In both Stantons and
Douglasss documents, students will analyze the use of pronouns and
how that helps to define the audience. Students will focus on the uses
of religious language and allusion in Douglasss speech as well as how
he establishes his credibility. (Curriculum Module questions p. 18-19)
Lesson 3 will take the idea of liberty global. Students will study the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and President Jimmy
Carters Inaugural Address (1977). Prior to this unit, students will
have read many news articles and current opinion pieces about human
rights internationally and at home. First, students will compare the
Universal Declaration with the English and American declarations for
content and style. Students will explore whether they believe some
other rights should be included or excluded. Students will also explore

the U.S. role in defending these rights and compare it with other
countries philosophies. (Curriculum Module questions pp. 20-22)
RESEARCHED POSITION PAPER-- #3 p. 22 from College Board
Curriculum Module. Students will write and outline and three
drafts. Outline will be evaluated by teacher for structure and
appropriate support with illustrative detail. First draft will receive
peer revision, and the second draft will receive teacher feedback
on rhetoric, diction, syntax, and structure, as well as problems
with MLA style or documentation:
PROMPT-- In his 1977 Inauguration Address, President
Jimmy Carter stated, Our commitment to human rights
must be absolute and To be true to ourselves, we must
be true to others. We will not behave in foreign places so
as to violate our rules and standards here at home. Those
who criticized Carter argued that an absolute commitment
to the rights described in the Universal Declaration
weakened American power and compromised U.S.
sovereignty. Write an essay in which you defend,
challenge, or qualify the statement that a concern for the
human rights identified in the U.N. Declaration should form
the basis for U.S. foreign policy.
[SC 8] Knowledge Building (Activities and Projects) Students will create
advertisements using different logical fallacies in order to learn the different
kinds. They will be presented to classmates, who will be tasked to identify
the techniques used.
[SC 3] Routine Skill Building: Each Friday, students will read sample student
responses to past AP exams and assess them with the AP rubric then discuss
how close they were to the actual results.
Students will work in groups to brainstorm strategies and revise
the Morgan Horse essay from a previous AP exam
[SC 12]Vocabulary: Using the words from PowerPlus for the New SAT Book 3,
students will write creative stories to help them cement the use in context.
FOURTH QUARTER (Late March to mid May)
Note: There is very little time after third quarter before the AP Exam
because of our schools extensive observance of Jewish holidays. Most time
in the fourth quarter will be used for practice testing or will fall after the test
date.

[SC 1, 2, 9, 11, 13] SYNTHESIS WRITING UNIT PT. 2Researched Position

Paper REVISION AND CITATIONS (annotated bibliography) Students will
compete the major synthesis essay. First draft will be peer reviewed, and
second draft with documentation will be teacher reviewed. Student writing
will receive feedback on tone and syntactical variety. Student will create a
third and final draft. Students must create an annotated bibliography and
use MLA format with in-text citations. Students will receive instruction on
how to do so.
(SC 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) WRITING WORKSHOPRevise summer unit essays
With a new awareness of rhetoric, syntax, tone, structure, and diction,
Students will work in peer groups to analyze each others writing and revise
their summer unit essays to demonstrate their new skills. These will be
graded on the class rubric.
PRACTICE TESTING
Students will take previous AP exams as practice to prepare for the real
exam.
STUDENT EVALUATION
Students are evaluated on a mix of major papers, class activities, projects,
and outside vocabulary work. All grades are significant. Students have one
main rubric for essays: a 100 point class rubric that has a key at the bottom
that corresponds to the correlating 1-9 score he/she would have received if it
had been a prompt on the AP exam. Students get to know the official AP
rubric during ungraded practice sessions of actual student essays from
released AP exams. The class is set up on a point system, with approximately
200-250 points per quarter available.
On average, the grade breakdown for each quarter is as follows:
o Major papers
35 percent
o In-class activities/blogs 40 percent
o Vocabulary
15 percent
o Multiple choice
10 percent
The Mid-Term Exam counts 15 percent of the entire semster
The focus of this course is on reading, writing, listening and speaking, with
the center of this being the class activities. The teacher regularly observes
and assesses student knowledge and ability by collecting their products,
such as written pieces, on-demand writing, quizzes, Socratic seminars,
response journals and projects. The higher weight of class activities makes
clear to the students that these parts of the course are just as important as
the formal writing. Students must be committed to daily preparation in order
to keep a high grade. The students are continually assessed by the teacher
and their peers. The class is in a continual cycle of assessment and revision.

Unsatisfactory writing is never allowed to slide. When writing that doesnt

meet the objectives is submitted, students must meet with the teacher to
discuss the problem and then rework and resubmit.
All major papers are submitted to Turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.