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Syllabus
Course Overview
Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and
challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and
how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability
to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while
strengthening their own composing abilities. Course readings feature expository, analytical,
personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. Students
examine and work with essays, letters, speeches, images, and imaginative literature. Featured
authors include Annie Dillard, Jill Ker Conway, Eudora Welty, E. B. White, Michel de Montaigne,
Truman Capote, Susan Sontag, Mark Twain, Donald Murray, James Joyce, and William
Shakespeare. Students frequently confer about their writing in Writers Workshop, in class, and
in conferences with the teacher. Summer reading and writing are required. Students prepare for
the AP English Language and Composition Exam and may be granted advanced placement,
college credit, or both as a result of satisfactory performance.
More generally, the purpose of this course is as stated in the AP English Language and
Composition Workshop Manual 2014 - 2015; ideally, it [AP Lang] equips students to conduct
academically sound inquiry and argumentation and prepares citizens to participate in
intellectually responsible, democratic decision-making. (pg.14)
Central course textbooks include The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric;
One Hundred Great Essays; Edit Yourself; and Conversations in American Literature.
Secondary texts may include: The Elements of Style, Picturing Texts; The Art of Voice: Language
and Composition, and AP Workbooks, i.e. 5 Steps to a 5: AP English Language; Barrons, Cliffs,
The Princeton Review, etc.
Course reading and writing activities should help students gain textual power, making them
more alert to an authors purpose, the needs of an audience, the demands of the subject, and
the resources of language: syntax, word choice, and tone. By early May of the school year,
students will have nearly completed a course in close reading and purposeful writing. The
critical skills that students learn to appreciate through close and continued analysis of a wide
variety of nonfiction texts can serve them in their own writing as they grow increasingly aware
of these skills and their pertinent uses. During the course, a wide variety of texts (prose and
image based) and writing tasks provide the focus for an energetic study of language, rhetoric,
and argument.
As this is a college-level course, performance expectations are appropriately high, and the
workload is challenging. Students are expected to commit to a minimum of five hours of course
work per week outside of class. Often, this work involves long-term writing and reading
assignments, so effective time management is important. Because of the demanding
curriculum, students must bring to the course sufficient command of mechanical conventions
and an ability to read and discuss prose.
The course is constructed in accordance with the guidelines described in the AP English
Course Description.
Course Organization
The course is organized by unit themes. The first semester follows The Language of Composition:
Reading, Writing, Rhetoric closely, giving close study to the first four chapters, building a
foundation of skills to be used throughout the course, then applying these skills in a culminating
unit for the first semester in the fifth chapter of the book, a theme-based unit on Education. (See
syllabus for specific readings.)
Each unit requires students to acquire and use rich vocabulary, standard English grammar, and
to understand the importance of diction and syntax in an authors style. Students are expected
to develop the following through reading, discussion, and writing assignments:
On the philosophy of this course and the choices made regarding curriculum:
The main decision driving the content of this course was the selection of The Language of
Composition: Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric, Second Edition, by Renee H. Shea, Lawrence
Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses as the main text for the course.
The text was designed to be a complete preparatory course for the AP Exam, and as such was
designed with a variety of readings and assessments which build skills in a sequential manner
(Chapters 1 4) and then methodically apply these skills to a series of theme-based units.
Each chapter is designed with interwoven readings and assessments. For example, Chapter 1:
An Introduction to Rhetoric: Using the Available Means, opens with a discussion of Aristotles
rhetorical triangle, uses it to analyze Lou Gehrigs Farewell Speech, then immediately moves
to an Activity in which students find a movie review and use the Rhetorical Triangle to analyze
the review. This pattern of teach, practice, assess is used throughout the textbook.
Additionally, each chapter closes with a Culminating Activity which provides a variety of texts
(always including at least one visual text) and asks students to practice the skills taught in the
chapter in a synthesis exercise. Most often, these are synthesis essays, though for the first two
units, we will conduct a Socratic Seminar first in order to prepare students for the essay.
These synthesis essays run the gamut from straight analysis of technique and effectiveness to
essays in which students are required to take a stand on an issue and use the documents in the
Culminating Activity for support.
Moreover, once the basic skills have been covered (Introduction to Rhetoric, Close Reading,
Analyzing Arguments, and Synthesizing Sources), the theme-based units which follow conclude
with a Culminating Conversation which offers a variety of readings on the theme, i.e. Education.
Students read, study and synthesize, then enter the conversation on their own with one of the
suggested writing topics. This requires students to respond to a prompt using a minimum of three
sources from the readings for support.
Thus, the pattern of teach, practice, and assess is woven throughout the textbook with increasing
demands on the students, raising their abilities to a level where they can apply these skills on
their own naturally and intuitively.
Third Quarter provides the challenge of looking at a longer piece; Jon Krakauers Into the Wild.
This provides students a platform upon which to practice their skills of rhetorical analysis.
Students are led into the subject with a series of pieces by Thoreau, Emerson, and more
contemporary writers which introduce them to the basic Transcendental concepts which guided
McCandless (according to Krakauers argument). Students dissect how Krakauer constructs his
argument that Christopher McCandless was a thoughtful young man attempting to live an
authentic life, discovering for themselves the various media Krakauer uses to build his argument.
Students are introduced to the contemporary Alaskan view of McCandless and see how
Krakauers style contributes to his argument through a PowerPoint presentation of photo slides
and maps of The Devils Thumb, then compare and contrast this approach to the one Werner
Herzog takes in the movie Grizzly Man. Using all these media, students write a paper taking a
stand on whether they agree with Krakauers argument.
Shea, Renee H., Scanlon, Lawrence, and Aufses, Robin Dissin The Language of
Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Chapters 1- 5 (see chapter units below).
Assessments:
ACTIVITY Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation
SOAPS
ACTIVITY GEORGE WILL, from King Coal: Reigning in China
RICHARD NIXON, from The Checkers Speech
ACTIVITY DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, Order of the Day
ACTIVITY WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, Protecting the Future of Nature (advertisement)
ACTIVITY TAMAR DEMBY, Alarmist or Alarming Rhetoric? (student essay)
ACTIVITY FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, Stop for Pedestrians (advertisement)
CULMINATING ACTIVITY:
THE TIMES, Man Takes First Steps on the Moon
WILLIAM SAFIRE, In Event of Moon Disaster
AYN RAND, The July 16, 1969, Launch: A Symbol of Man's Greatness
HERB LOCK, Transported (cartoon)
The assessments in this unit establish the year-long practice of teach, practice, assess in a
spiraling cycle of complexity. The first assessment is an application of the Rhetorical Triangle to
a movie review the students bring in. The final assessment (Culminating Activity) asks students
to analyze the rhetorical methods used in a newspaper article, a speech, an essay, and an editorial
cartoon. Students participate in a Socratic Seminar in which they share their analyses of these
pieces, and then finally write an essay in which they agree or disagree with Ayn Rands piece.
Students then look at a comparable AP essay with student samples, use the AP Rubric for to
score the essays, compare their scores to the scores AP Readers assigned the essays, and finally
score their own essays.
Unit concludes with a self-reflection piece students write about the essay and in which they plan
next steps to help them improve their writing and understanding.
Assesssments:
ACTIVITY RALPH ELLISON, from On Bird, Bird- Watching and Jazz
ACTIVITY VIRGINIA WOOLF, The Death of the Moth
ACTIVITY CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, On Laziness
ACTIVITY GIRL SCOUTS, What Did You Do Today? (advertisement)
CULMINATING ACTIVITY
JOHN F. KENNEDY, Inaugural Address, January 20,1961
ELEANOR CLIFT, Inside Kennedy's Inauguration, 50 Years On
UNITED STATES ARMY SIGNAL CORPS, Inauguration of John F. Kennedy (photo)
The use of the teach, practice, and assess model continues. The unit begins with an analysis of
syntax and diction and how these work (along with the building of ethos, logos, and pathos) to
build tone in Queen Elizabeths Speech to the Troops at Tilbury. After presenting a careful
analysis, the book has students do a similar task with Churchills Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
speech.
Students then learn specific annotating skills and are shown an effective method of using graphic
organizers through the teach, practice, assess model of the readings given. Particularly effective
is the careful deconstruction of Didions piece.
Like the unit before, this concludes with a Culminating Activity where students are asked to
analyze the three pieces given. These analyses are gone over in class discussion, and students are
taken through a process to write an essay which compares and contrasts the styles of the three
documents in how each creates tone and uses this tone to then convey the legacy of John F.
Kennedy.
Students then look at a comparable AP essay with student samples, use the AP Rubric for to
score the essays, compare their scores to the scores AP Readers assigned the essays, and finally
score their own essays.
Unit concludes with a self-reflection piece students write about the essay and in which they plan
next steps to help them improve their writing and understanding.
Readings:
TOM TOLES, Crazed Rhetoric (cartoon)
AMY DOMINI, Why Investing in Fast Food May Be a Good Thing
ROGER EBERT, Star Wars
ANNA QUINDLEN, from The C Word in the Hallways
JENNIFER OLADIPO, Why Can't Environmentalism Be Colorblind?
FABIOLA SANTIAGO, In College, These American Citizens Are Not Created Equal
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR AND Roy ROMER, Not by Math Alone
MALCOLM GLADWELL, from Outliers
THOMAS JEFFERSON, The Declaration of Independence
POLYP, Rat Race (cartoon)
ALFRED STIEGLITZ, The Steerage (photo)
Assessments:
ACTIVITY Finding Common Ground
Essay in Progress: Selecting a Topic
ACTIVITY Identifying Arguable Statements
ACTIVITY Analyzing a Review
ACTIVITY NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD, Felons and the Right to Vote
Essay in Progress: Staking a Claim
ACTIVITY Developing Thesis Statements
Essay in Progress: Developing a Thesis
ACTIVITY Identifying Logical Fallacies
ACTIVITY DANA THOMAS, Terror's Purse Strings
Essay in Progress: Using Evidence
Essay in Progress: Shaping an Argument
ACTIVITY ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, The Declaration of Sentiments
ACTIVITY Identifying Assumptions
ACTIVITY Using Argument Templates
ACTIVITY U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, The Heroes of2001 (stamp)
Essay in Progress: Using Visual Evidence
CULMINATING ACTIVITY
TOM TOLES, Heavy Medal (cartoon)
MICHAEL BINYON, Comment: Absurd Decision on Obama Makes a Mockery of the Nobel
Peace Prize
Essay in Progress: First Draft
This unit focuses on argument, and starts off by defining what we mean by argument. The unit
begins with the analyses of a Toles editorial cartoon and the argument he makes, then moves
to various readings. This unit covers types of claims, presenting evidence, types of evidence,
logical fallacies, how to shape arguments (classical oration, induction and deduction, the
Toulmin Model), and includes a detailed section on analyzing visual texts as arguments.
The Culminating Activity for this unit requires students to use the appropriate analytical tools
from the chapter to analyze the two texts, comparing and contrasting the arguments to discuss
their effectiveness. These are given as group presentations and scored with the use of a rubric
designed to assess students use of evidence in the analysis and the thoroughness of the
analysis itself.
Interwoven with the lessons in this unit are a series of assignments which prepare students to
write their first original argument essay: Developing a thesis, using evidence, shaping an
argument, and using visual evidence. Students then put this all together and follow the full
writing process to create an essay which is then scored using the AP rubric.
To conclude students look at a comparable AP essay with student samples, use the AP Rubric
for to score the essays, compare their scores to the scores AP Readers assigned the essays, and
finally score their own essays.
Unit concludes with a self-reflection piece students write about the essay and in which they plan
next steps to help them improve their writing and understanding.
Readings:
This essay is corrected by the teacher and given two scores: one for the
thoroughness with which the students follow the full writing process (a
process which has been emphasized from the first writings in this course), and
a grade based on the AP rubric. Students meet in conference with the
instructor to discuss their essays and how they might improve them. These
conversations are structured by the methods suggested by Peter Elbow in his
Responding to Student Writing essay.
Unit 5: Education
Readings:
CENTRAL ESSAY:
FRANCINE PROSE, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read
CLASSIC ESSAY
RALPH WALDO EMERSON, from
Education OTHER VOICES:
JAMES BALDWIN, A Talk to Teachers
KYOKO MORI, School
SHERMAN ALEXIE, Superman and Me
DAVID SEDARIS, Me Talk Pretty One Day
MARGARET TALBOT, Best in Class
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant
Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
SANDRA CISNEROS, Eleven
NORMAN ROCKWELL, The Spirit of Education (painting)
Roz CHAST, What I Learned: A Sentimental Education from Nursery School through
Twelfth Grade (cartoon)
CONVERSATION: THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL
1. HORACE MANN, from Report of the Massachusetts Board of
Education
2. TODD GITLIN, The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut
3. LEON BOTSTEIN, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood
4. EDWARD KOREN, Two Scoreboards (cartoon)
5. DIANE RAVITCH, Stop the Madness
6. ERIC A. HANUSHEK ET AL., from U.S. Math Performance in Global
Perspective (tables)
7. DAVID BARBOZA, from Shanghai Schools' Approach Pushes Students
Unit 6: Community
Readings:
CENTRAL ESSAY:
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., Letter from Birmingham Jail
CLASSIC ESSAY
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
OTHER VOICES
RICHARD RODRIGUEZ, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood
ELLEN GOODMAN, The Family That Stretches (Together)
LORI ARVISO ALVORD, Walking the Path between Worlds
ROBERT D. PUTNAM, Health and Happiness
DINAW MENGESTU, Home at Last
SCOTT BROWN, Facebook Friendonomics
MALCOLM GLADWELL, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
POETRY
AURORA LEVINS MORALES, Child of the Americas
PAIRED VISUAL TEXTS
NORMAN ROCKWELL, Freedom from Want (painting)
Roz CHAST, The Last Thanksgiving (cartoon)
NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY, The Black Experience Is Everywhere (advertisement)
These essays are again scored for 1) the thoroughness with which the students follow the full
writing process (a process which has been emphasized from the first writings in this course),
and 2) using the AP rubric. Students meet in conference with the instructor to discuss their
essays and how they might improve them. These conversations are structured by the methods
suggested by Peter Elbow in his Responding to Student Writing essay.
Unit 8: Krakauer, Emerson, and Herzog on The Authentic Life
Readings and Visual Texts:
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, from Walden (1854) (review)
RALPH WALDO EMERSON, from Self-Reliance (1841) 590
BENJAMIN ANASTAS, The Foul Reign of Emerson's "Self-Reliance" (2011) 602
JON KRAKAUER, Into the Wild
WERNER HERZOG, Grizzly Man (film)
PETER WHITE, The Devils Thumb, (visual text: PPT Presentation of photos)
PETER WHITE, Bear Charge: Porcupine River (video)
Assessments:
This unit begins with a short review of the excerpt from Thoreaus Walden. Students analyze
Thoreaus claims and support, then move to the excerpt from Emersons Self-Reliance and
Anastas attack, again analyzing each authors craft and use of rhetoric to achieve his aim.
Students write a position paper on the subject, then read Krakauers Into the Wild. Each chapter
is analyzed for its argument and methods used to support warrants and claims. After completing
Chapter 14: The Stikine Ice Cap, students view The Devils Thumb PPT and analyze
Krakauers self-effacing style and how this effects his overall argument on the authenticity of
Christopher McCandless journey.
Upon completion of the novel, students view Herzogs Grizzly Man to determine what Herzogs
central argument is and how he achieves it.
The unit culminates with as essay which takes a position as to whether Christopher McCandless
lived an authentic life, and compares and contrasts Krakauers methods with Herzogs in
establishing in his argument. The essay must include material from all sources.
These essays are again scored for 1) the thoroughness with which the students follow the full
writing process (a process which has been emphasized from the first writings in this course),
and 2) using the AP rubric. Students meet in conference with the instructor to discuss their
essays and how they might improve them. These conversations are structured by the methods
suggested by Peter Elbow in his Responding to Student Writing essay.
Fourth Quarter:
(April 4June23)
Unit 9: Popular Culture
Readings and Visual Texts:
CENTRAL ESSAY
JAMES McBRIDE, Hip Hop Planet
CLASSIC ESSAY
MARK TWAIN, Corn-Pone Opinions
SCOTT MCCLOUD, from Show and Tell (graphic essay)
DAVID DENBY, High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies
ROBIN GIVHAN, An Image a Little Too Carefully Coordinated
.
STEVEN JOHNSON, Watching TV Makes You Smarter
DANIEL HARRIS, Celebrity Bodies
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN, My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Peels Rather Undead
POETRY
HANS OSTROM, Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven
VISUAL TEXT
ANDY WARHOL, Myths (painting)
VISUAL TEXT
MARK TANSEY, The Innocent Eye Test (painting)
Assessments:
CONVERSATION
EXPORTING AMERICAN POP CULTURE
1. THOMAS FRIEDMAN, The Revolution Is U.S.
2. HEATHER HAVRILESKY, Besieged by "Priends"
3. DEIRDRE STRAUGHAN, Cultural Hegemony: Who's Dominating Whom?
4. KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH, from The Case for Contamination
5. JOSEF JOFFE, The Perils of Soft Power
6. JOSEPH S. NYE JR., The U.S. Can Reclaim "Smart Power"
7. HASSAN AM MAR, Slovakian Soccer Fan at 2010 World Cup in South Africa
(photo)
ANALYSIS OF STUDENT WRITING RHETORICAL ANALYSIS: ANALYZING
SATIRE
The unit is again centered around a central essay and a classic essay. These essays work together
to raise questions about what Community is, what its goals are, and the best to achieve these
goals. Both Discussion Questions and Questions on Rhetoric and Style accompany these
selections. Additionally, there are AP-Style Multiple Choice Questions which accompany a total
of four readings per theme-based unit.
Students are assigned the essays and questions as homework, and class time is devoted to taking
and deconstructing the Multiple Choice Questions, discussing the Discussion Questions, and
going over the Questions on Rhetoric and Style as a class. This allows students to work together
with the teacher to reach a deeper understanding of not only the texts, but the methods used to
construct the texts, for example, how syntax and diction build a tone that helps the author
achieve a persuasive message.
These essays are followed by a series of more contemporary essays. Two of these essays also
have AP-Style Multiple-Choice questions, and all have Exploring the Text questions which
analyze message, rhetorical style, syntax and diction, and ask students to consider how the texts
touch on issues in their own lives.
The unit includes a Conversation, a concept introduced in the Synthesis chapter: a series of
texts which discuss an issue from different perspectives. The selection of texts for Conversation
always includes a visual text as well. The Conversation portion asks students to analyze each of
the texts and then use this analysis to construct a synthesis essay which uses at least three of
the sources in the conversation.
A possible follow up to this unit is to conclude with a careful look at the two main essays:
McBrides Hip Hop Planet, and Twains Corn-Pone Opinions. Students perform an
interrupted reading of each text: four or five shorter passages of no more than twenty lines are
selected from each text and each passage is copied to a page or PowerPoint slide. Students take
turns reading each passage, and all respond to each passage in writing: in any way they wish.
Students may free-associate, critique, note technique, write down phrases or sentences, draw
connections, etc. Discussion is reserved until all have had time to respond in writing. These
responses can be used to mine for essays about the passages.
Several writing prompts bring this unit to a close as students choose one to write an AP Essay.
These are again scored for 1) the thoroughness with which the students follow the full writing
process (a process which has been emphasized from the first writings in this course), and 2)
using the AP rubric. Students meet in conference with the instructor to discuss their essays and
how they might improve them. These conversations are structured by the methods suggested by
Peter Elbow in his Responding to Student Writing essay.