Ms. M.

Flowers
Dorsey High School
3537 Farmdale Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90016
Dorsey_scholars@yahoo.com

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Course Syllabus

Course Objectives and Expectations:

In accordance with the AP Language Course Description, students will explore the ways that
rhetoric shapes our lives inside and outside of the classroom. In this course, students will
prepare for college, career, and real life experiences through a rigorous examination of rhetoric.
In order to achieve this goal, they will learn the necessary tools to write analytically, read
critically, and communicate effectively:

 Students will read and annotate complex texts, as well as develop and expand their
vocabulary.

 Students will form thesis statements and write well developed, organized and coherent
narrative, expository, analytical, descriptive and persuasive essays about various subjects.

 Students will choose a composition from each unit and will continue the writing process.
Students will pre-write, draft, revise, edit, and publish the essays and other writings for
submission in their portfolios.

 Students will write journals, imitations of authors, collaborative compositions, timed-writes,

meta-cognitive reflections, self-evaluations, peer evaluations, letters, and etc. Students will
keep this information in their Reader’s/Writer’s notebook

 Students will use logos, pathos, and ethos in their own writings, as well as support their
thesis statements with evidence from a diverse selection of readings. (Readings will differ in
style, genre, discipline, and organization, and etc.)

 Students will revise for ideas, organization (i.e. spatial, chronological, deductive, and etc.),
grammar, sentence variety, balance of interpretations and evidence, diction, tone, and
fulfillment of rhetorical purpose.

 While students will evaluate the rhetorical context of some fiction, they will primarily
examine nonfiction texts.

 Students will use parenthetical citations and works cited pages to cite primary and secondary
sources for each of their major essays using the MLA format.

 Students will create their own essential questions and engage in Socratic seminars about
texts from various disciplines.

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 Students will write a researched argument paper in which they synthesize various sources.
In addition, students will complete mini research activities throughout the year.

 Students will practice and use grammar, syntax, and vocabulary rhetorically to “construct
arguments drawn from their own observations, experiences, and readings.”

Please Note: I have included more texts than we will cover as a whole class. We will use the
texts that we do not cover for anticipatory sets, independent exercises, and culminating activities
(i.e. jigsaw, Socratic seminar, journals, small group discussions, think alouds, write arounds,
panel discussions, role plays, dialectical journals, assessments, imitation activities, modeling,
etc.) In addition, I may add other types of texts not included in this syllabus as they become
available (ie. newspaper articles, periodicals, scholarly journals, CNN clips, commercials, movie
clips, ads, speeches, etc.)

Unit 1: Defining and Understanding Rhetoric (4 Weeks)

Introducing Rhetorical Strategies: In the Written Text
Essential Questions:
? What is rhetoric? What are rhetorical strategies? How does the writer use rhetorical
strategies to shape the text? How do rhetorical strategies reinforce the purpose? What appeals
does the writer use to impact the audience? How does the audience mold the writer’s use of
diction, style, and tone?

 “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer J. Addler (introduction to how to annotate a text)

 “Three Ways to Persuade” by John Edmund
 “Writing Matters” by Julian Alvarez
 “Why I Write” by Joan Didion
 “Learning to Read and Write” The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick
Douglass
 “The Lonely, Good Company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez
 “Politics of The English Language” by George Orwell
 “Language of Discretion” by Amy Tan
 “The Writing Life” by Annie Dillard
 “Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks” by Carol Oates
 “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts”
 “On Keeping a Notebook” Joan Didion

Composition: Students will choose one of the aforementioned writer’s to imitate. They will
write a meta-cognitive essay that explores their personal writing processes and pay close
attention to their own rhetorical choices in terms of style, diction, tone, purpose, and audience.

Introducing Rhetorical Strategies: Beyond The Written Text

Essential Questions:
? How does the media use rhetorical strategies? What roles does sound, color, imagery, and
movement play in the effectiveness of those strategies? How are these rhetorical elements
constructed to affect meaning and interpretation? How does the audience influence rhetorical
choices? What advertising and persuasive techniques does the media use? How are these
rhetorical strategies similar and different from the ones observed in written discourse that we
have examined so far?

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 Excerpt from Finding Forrestor “Writing” (Movie)
 Collection of Ads from Current Magazines
 Television Commercials
Note: For this section of the introduction, students will learn the OPTIC strategy. Students will use
 Clips from various movies and television shows
this strategy to examine visual texts.

O Overview: What is the general subject of the visual?

P Parts: What parts of the visual seem important? Why do these parts seem significant?

T Title: What does the title reveal about the visual?

I Interrelationships: Using “the title as the theory and the parts of the visual as clues,” how do the
components affect other parts of the text? What rhetorical strategies can you identify in the
visual?

C Conclusion: What can you infer about the visual text, based on your observation? How did the
artist construct meaning?

Composition: Students will write an analysis of the artist’s use of rhetorical strategies and
evaluate the effectiveness of such strategies.

Unit 2: Argument and Persuasion (6 Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? What is the thesis statement? What types of evidence does the writer use to support his/her
claim? What types of appeals does the writer use? Why does the writer use those appeals?
How effective are those appeals? What type of diction does the writer use? What evidence
from the text suggests the writer’s use of such diction? Who is the audience? How does the
audience shape the tone of the text? What is writer’s style? What do you notice about the
syntax? Why does the writer choose that style?
? How do “visual ads use design as a rhetorical element”? In addition to the ads you see in
magazines, newspapers, and commercials, what implicit ads do you see in television shows
and movies? How are the rhetorical elements used? How are the types of appeal used? How
are logical fallacies used?

 “Corporate America Flag” image from Adbusters Media Foundation

 “Too Much Pressure” by Colleen Wenke
 “Why Don’t We Complain” by William F. Buckley
 “Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian” by Laura Fraser
 “A Vegetarian Philosophy” by Peter Singer
 Excerpts from Fast Food Nation (Book)
 Excerpts form Fast Food Nation (Movie)
 “Close Encounters with US Immigration” by Adnan R. Khan
 “Everything Isn’t Racial Profiling” by Linda Chavez
 “The FBI Is Reading Over Your Shoulder” by Zara Gelsey
 “How the USA Patriot Act Defends Democracy” by Viet D. Dinh
 “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln

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  “The Penalty of Death” by H.L. Menchken
 “The Death Penalty Is a Step Back” by Coretta Scott King
 “Face Facts: Patriot Act Aids Security, Not Abuse” by Rosenzweig
 “Needed: Affirmative Action for the Poor” by Laura D’ Andrea Tyson
 “Unplugged: The Myth of Computers in the Classroom” by David Gelernter
 “The Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson
 “I Worked Hard for That Furrowed Brow” by Ellen Goodman

Argument and Persuasion Composition 1: Students will choose one of the persuasive texts
and write a well-developed essay in which they analyze the writer’s use of rhetorical strategies to
persuade the audience.

Argument and Persuasion Composition 2: Students will choose two of the texts from this
section and one text that they find on their own. “Then, in an essay that synthesizes these three
sources for support, take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the writer’s claim?
(Students will choose the claim from one or more of the chosen texts.)

Unit 3: Analysis (2 Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? How does the author separate the subject into parts? What does the author suggest about
those parts? Has the author considered all of the elements of the subject? How effective are
the author’s rhetorical choices in his/her analysis? How did the author use his/her analysis to
convey the purpose? How does the author organize his/her analysis? Is this organization
effective or ineffective? What rhetorical elements seem most important to Division or
Analysis?

Analysis Composition 1: Students will imitate one of the authors from this unit.

Analysis Composition 2: Students will choose one of the texts from this unit and write an essay
in which they analyze the author’s use
 “Our Barbies, Ourselves” by Emily Prager
of analysis and support their analysis
 “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady
with specific details from various
 “Not All Men Are Sly Foxes” by Armin A. Brott
texts
 “The Capricious Camera” by Laila Ayad
 “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

Unit 4: Poetry (2 Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? What are the effects of the writer’s rhetorical and linguistic choices? How do these rhetorical
strategies work?

Students will examine and evaluate poems by Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, John
Milton, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, E.E.
Cummings, Pablo Neruda, John Donne, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Walt

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Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Countee Millay, Gwendolyn
Brooks, Adrienne Rich, June Jordan, Margaret Atwood, Janice Mirikitani, Pat Mora, Ntozoke
Shangi, Julia Alvarez, Jimmy Santiaga Baca, and Judith Ortiz Cofer.

Poetry Composition 1: Students will imitate one of the poets mentioned above. Then, students
will reflect on the poet’s choices to gain insight on the writer’s strategies.

Poetry Composition 2: Using two of the poems from the aforementioned authors, students will
write an essay analyzing the rhetorical strategies each writer uses to achieve his/her purpose and
explaining which author uses the rhetorical strategies more effectively.

Unit 5: Narration (6 Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? What is narration? What are the elements of narrative writing? How does
the author use the elements of narrative writing to convey the text’s purpose? How do
different writers use the narrative elements as rhetorical devices to construct meaning?
? What is the function of the novel? What are its rhetorical features? How
does the author use those rhetorical features? How does the novel serve as a historical,
social, political, scientific, and/or economic critic of the world in which we live?
? What is the context of the image? How does the image tell a story? How
does the artist use rhetorical strategies to tell the story? Which appeals does the author use to
engage and/or persuade the audience? How does the author use those appeals?

Narrative Composition 1: Students will write a narrative essay in which they imitate the
narrative style of one of the writers in the above list.
 “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie
 “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou
 “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan
 “The Chase” by Annie Dillard
 “Family Values” by Richard Rodriguez
 “Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer
 “Stranger in the Village” by James Baldwin
 “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit” by Leslie Marmon Silko
 “American Dreamer” by Bharati Mukherjee
 “Saving the Life That Is Your Own: The Importance of Models in the Artist’s Life” by
Alice Walker
 “Salvation” by Langston Hughes
 “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday
 “The Good Farmer” by Barbara Kingslover
 “Scarlett Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrative Composition 2: Students will write an essay in which they analyze how the author
uses language to convey a certain theme or purpose. (Use one of the authors from the above list.)
Students will support their analysis with specific references to the text.

Unit 6: Example/Illustration (3 Weeks)

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Essential Questions
? What examples does the author use? What is the purpose of the examples? Does the author
effectively use examples? How could the example have been used more effectively? What
appears to be the rhetorical elements of an example/illustration essay?

Example/Illustration Composition 1: Students will imitate one of the above listed

example/illustration essays.

Example/Illustration Composition 2: Write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical

strategies that the author has used in his/her example essay to convey the purpose of the text.

Unit 7: Classification (2 Weeks)

 “Cellular Phones of the Future” cartoon by Barry Blitt (Visual Image)

 “On Compassion” by Barbara Lazear Ascher
“Arm Wrestling
 “Homeless” Anna with My Father” by Brad Manning
Quindlen
“Shooting
 “Black Men Dad” Sarah Space”
and Public VowellBrent Staples
 “A “Silent Dancing”
Measure Judith Ortiz
of Restraint” Cofer
by Chet Raymo
“Ultima”
 “Signs” by by Rudolfo
Scott Anaya
Russell (Excerpt from Bless Me Ultima)
Sanders
 “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up In Cyberspace” by Brent Staples
 “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other”
by Deborah Tannen
 “Acts of Resistance” by Elaine Scarry
 “The Multicultural Mistake” by K. Anthony Appiah
 “Cyberspace: If You Don’t Love It, Leave It” by Esther Dyson
 “Delusions of Grandeur” by Henry Louis Gates
 “The Gangster as Tragic Hero” by Robert Warshaw
 “What’s American about American Poetry” by Billy Collins
 “The Culture of Disbelief” by Stephen L. Carter
Essential Questions:
? How has the writer classified information? Why did he/she classify information in this
manner? How effective are the groupings in fulfilling their rhetorical purpose? What are
some other ways the author could have classified the information?

Classification Composition 1: Students will imitate one of the authors in the above list.

Classification Composition 2: Students will choose one of the aforementioned classification

essays and will qualify, defend, or challenge the writer’s rhetorical choices.

Unit 8: Description (1 Week)

Essential Questions:
? What
 “What
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describe?
Know“What
Aboutis the dominant
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impression
System,ofchart
the subject”
for the Motion
Are thePicutre
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rhetorical
(Visualstrategies
Image) does the writer use to describe the subject?
What
 “Butis the
Whatpurpose
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the description?
by Deborah How
Tannen
effective are the writer’s rhetorical choices?
How
 “Theeffectively
Crisis ofdoes
National
the writer
Identity”
describe
by Samuel
the subject?
P. Huntington
How does writer’s perspective
 “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson
 “The World of Doublespeak” by William Lutz
 “The Arab World” by Edward T. Hall 6
 “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer, and Poor,Poorer” by Robert Reich
 influence the audiences perception of the description? How does the writer’s diction
contribute to the effectiveness of the rhetorical strategies?

Description Composition 1: Students will imitate the descriptive style of one of the authors
above or one of the authors from their personal research.

Description Composition 2: Students will choose a visual image that we have covered in class
and write a detailed description of the image. Following the description, students must explain
their rhetorical choices.

Unit 9: Process Analysis ( 1 Week)

 “Need Is A Very Subjective Word” advertisement for the Hummer H2 (Visual Text)
 “ The Meaning of A Word” by Gloria Naylor
 “Being A Chink” by Christine Leong
 “Needs” by Thomas Sowell
 “Pride” Dagoberto Gilb
 “Cookies or Heroin” by Marie Winn
 “2 Live Crew, Decoded” by Henry Louis Gates
 “Outdoors” by Toni Morrison (Excerpt from The Bluest Eye)
 “Defining Poverty” by Michael Harrington

Essential Questions:
? What is the process? What is the purpose of the process analysis? Has the writer included
all the necessary steps and provided developed explanations? Are the steps effectively
organized? How clearly does the writer show the connection between the steps and the
purpose? What evidence does the writer provide to support his/her rhetorical choices?

Process Analysis Composition 1: Students will imitate the rhetorical style of one of the
aforementioned writers.

Process Analysis Composition 2: Students will choose a topic and write about a process. They
will strategically use some of the rhetorical strategies they have learned. After completing the
process analysis essay student will write a meta-cognitive journal explaining their rhetorical
choices.

 “How You Became You” by Bill Bryson Unit 10: Definition (2 Weeks)
 “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco
th
 “The Patriot Act of the 18 Century” by Ishmael Reed Essential Questions:
 “Natural Selection” by Charles Darwin ? What is the purpose of the
extended definition? How is this subject unique or similar to other subjects? How
effectively has the writer explored the subject? What types of examples does the writer use
to support his/her description? Does the writer appear trustworthy in his/her definition of the
subject? What other rhetorical strategies does the writer use in his/her description?

Definition Composition 1: Students will imitate one of the writers in the above list.

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Definition Composition 2: Students will write an essay in which they define an institution,
trend, phenomenon, or abstraction as specifically and concretely as possible.

Unit 11: Comparison and Contrast (3 Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? What does the writer compare? Why does the author make the comparison? Do the subjects
share enough features to establish a basis for comparison? How does the writer organize the
essay? Do you think the writer effectively organized the essay? Is the analysis of the
similarities and differences balanced?

 “Neat People vs. Sloppy People” by Suzanne Britt

 “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” by Dave Barry
 “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” by David Sedaris
 “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrast” by Thomas L. Friedman
 “Garbage In….,” Cartoon by Mike Thompson (Visual Image)
 “A Web of Brands” by Naomi Klein
 “Live Free and Starve” by Chitra Divakaruni
 “Drugs” by Gore Vidal
 “Safe-Sex Lies” by Meghan Daum
 “Videotape” Don Delillo
 “I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe” by Robert
Coles
 “Why Men Don’t Last: Self Destruction as a Way of Life” by Natalie
Angier
 “Loose Ends” by Rita Dove
 “Of Altruism, Heroism and Nature’s Gifts in the Face of Terror” by Natalie Angier
 “Supersaturation, or, The Media Torrent and Disposable Feeling” by Todd Gitlin
 “The Plug In Drug” by Marie Winn
 “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” by Fatema Mernissi
 “Compensation for Energy Intake from Fast Food among Overweight and Lean
Adolescents” by Cara B. Ebbeling et al.
 “Sure Changes for Colleges in the Future” Arthur E Levine
 Love, Internet Style” by David Brooks

Comparison and Contrast Analysis 1: “In an essay replete with examples from multiple texts”
compare and contrast two subjects in any of the above texts.

Comparison and Contrast Analysis 2: In an essay, compare and contrast two visual tests and
one written texts from the list that I will provide at a later time.

Unit 12: Cause and Effect (2 Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? What is the thesis statement? What causal relationship does the writer
explore? What are the causes and what are the effects? What is the purpose of the causal

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 relationship? How does the structure clarify the causes and effects? What rhetorical
strategies does the writer use in his/her causal analysis?

Cause and Effect Composition 1: Students will “explain the causes or effects of a situation that
concerns them” in an essay. Students must use one or more of the types of appeals to support
their claims.

Cause and Effect Composition 2: Students will analyze the rhetorical strategies that one or
more of writer’s use in his/her cause and effect essay.

Unit 13: Preparing Students for Rhetoric and The World (5+ Weeks)

Essential Questions:
? How are rhetorical strategies used in the world around us? How can you
use these strategies in your life? Where do you see them? How can we use the following
texts to prepare for the rhetoric inherent in the world in which we live?

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  “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros
 “The Roots of War” by Barbara Ehrenreich
 “A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse” by Stephen Jay Gould
 “Mickey’s Evolution During Fifty Years”; Evolution of Mickey Mouse Chart”; and “Humans
Feel Affection for Animals with Juvenile Features” (Drawing-Visual Text)
 “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell
 “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez
 “Clashing Civilizations?” by Edward Said
 “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards (Sermon)
 “The Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter)
 “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” by Martin Luther King Jr. (Speech)
 “Now and Then, America” by Pat Mora (Poem)
 “The Leader of the People” by John Steinbeck
 “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner (Short Story)
 “I, Too, America” by Langston Hughes (Poem)
 “America” Claude McKay (Poem)
 “Poetry” by Marianne Moore
 “Ars Poetica” by Archibald Macleish
 “Of Modern Poetry” Wallace Stevens
 The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Drama)
 The Crucible (Movie)
 From “On James Baldwin” by Toni Morrison
 “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” by Judith Ortiz Cofer
 Excerpt from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
 Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner
 “On Cruelty and Clemency: Whether It Is Better to be Loved or Feared” By Niccolo
Machiavelli
 Excerpt from Othello by William Shakespeare
 “Straw Into Gold: The Metamorphosis of Everyday” by Sandra Cisneros
 “Ain’t I A Woman” by Sojourner Truth
 Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois
 “Black Beauty and Black Power: Internalized Racism” by Bell Hooks
 “Teaching Resistance: The Racial Politics of Mass Media” by Bell Hooks

Reminder: We will use the texts that we do not cover during class time for further
interdisciplinary study and project based learning. In addition we will infuse them in other units
for independent practice, collaborative work, differentiated instruction.

Research Paper
Students will write a researched argument essay in which they synthesize at least three sources
from the class texts and four or more texts from their independent research. Students should use
at least three visual texts (i.e. charts, graphs, photographs, paintings, and etc.)

After the A.P. Exam, students will write and present a speech based on their researched argument
essay. They must apply the rhetorical strategies that we have discussed in class.

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Assessments
 Students will take practice multiple choice tests using previous exams, teacher created
questions, and student created questions.
 Students will complete timed-writes biweekly. Following the timed writes, students will
participate in writing workshops. During the writing workshops, students will revise, peer
revise, and evaluate writings; also, they will rewrite essays based on the score guidelines for
grades.
 I will also use informal assessments to monitor student achievement (i.e discussions,
presentations, journals, and etc.)
 I expect all students to take the A.P. Exam. Students who do not take the exam that is
administered annually must still take the exam with me. I will calculate the students’ scores
on the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Exam.

Journal of Rhetorical Strategies

Each time students learn a new strategy or concept:
 Students will write the word in their journal
 Write a definition of the strategy or concept
 Write the example for the text with the page number
 Write 1-2 paragraphs about how the writer uses that strategy.

SOAPSTone
The acronym respectively represents the following concepts: speaker, occasion, audience,
purpose, subject, and tone. This strategy will introduce students to textual analysis and provide a
foundation for developing strong essays. (Sample Syllabus 2)

StepBack
Students will also use the StepBack method introduced in the LAUSD PD Module. Students will
take a moment to complete the following questions in their Reader’s/Writer’s Notebooks:
 What did you do to choose your sentences and phrases?
 What did you do to explain your sentences?
 How did choosing and explaining these sentences change or deepen your understanding of
the argument?

Attendance and Materials

Class attendance complements successful academic performance. Class attendance means that
you are in the classroom when the tardy bell rings and bring all necessary materials. The
necessary materials include: texts, 1-inch binder, filler paper, single subject notebook, dark
blue/black pens, pencils, and a composition book. Class attendance also means that you are
responsible for missed assignments and must take initiative to ensure the completion of all
missed work in a timely manner.

Grading Procedures
Students will progressively work on their writings and projects to include in their class
portfolios. I will write comments and return assignments so that students may rewrite and
resubmit their writings. I will use the portfolio grade to determine the students’ final grades in
the class. In addition, students will take a number of vocabulary and content based exams in the
course which I will use to monitor the students’ academic growth. I will consider the students’
performances on such exams when I issue their final grades. Therefore, students should
consistently apply themselves to every assignment.

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* Homework: I will not accept late assignments. In addition, students must complete all
prewrites and preliminary drafts and submit them with the final draft. I will not accept
any published drafts not accompanied by the preliminary assignments.

Final Note
I am pursuing National Board Certification. A part of the process requires that I videotape many of the
class discussions, and I would like your permission to include your son/daughter in the videotaping. The
National Board Certification committee and a few other teachers pursuing their National Board
Certification will view the tapes. The video allows the committee to evaluate my teaching. The program
will not only hone my educational methodology, but will enhance my ability to extend my students’
growth. Please assist me by signing and returning the attached letter permitting your child to be included
in the video documentation.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at (323) 298-8400 or email me at dorsey_scholars@yahoo.com.

Sincerely,

Ms. Flowers
English Instructor

I ________________________________________________ have read and agree to terms of the

syllabus.
(print name)

__________________________________________________
________________________
Student’s Signature Date

__________________________________________________
________________________
Caregiver’s Signature Date

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