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AP English Language and Composition/ENG 121
Classroom Policies
While students are not required to take the AP exam: however, it is strongly encouraged because it is
the culminating activity of the course.
All students must take the practice exam when administered. It emulates the actual testing
experience. It will be held during TCAP week in the spring or on another date to be announced. This
exam will weigh heavily in the determination of your final grade. You will earn no credit on it if you
miss it due to anything other than illness (requiring a doctors note) or a family emergency
Homework is due at the beginning of the period. According to school policy, students who were
absent on the day the work was assigned must hand it in within two class days of their return for full
credit. If I assigned the work prior to the absence, it is due within 24 hours of the student's return. A
student whose absence was not excused or due to suspension must hand in the work on the day of
his/her return for any credit. Each major assignment will have two due dates: the first represents full
credit; the second represents a maximum grade of C. After the second date has passed, the work
receives a maximum grade of F. Because homework and process assignments (i.e. rough drafts, etc.)
pertain to the lesson of the day, students earn no credit if they do not submit those assignments on
the due date. Students who miss an in-class assignment or quiz have 48 hours to make it up upon
their return; otherwise, they will receive a zero on the assignment. The grade book closes at the end of
each six-week period; consequently, late work from the previous six weeks will no longer be accepted,
resulting in no credit for the assignment. Athletics, extracurricular activities (field trips), and planned
absences require submission of assignments prior to the scheduled absence for full credit. Therefore,
students must make a conference appointment prior to a planned absence. Students will not pass this
course if their work is consistently late, or if they submit the bulk of their work toward the end
of the semester. Computer issues are not valid excuses for late work. Furthermore, students
who have three or more missing assignments will be issued an office referral.
Successful students will attend class regularly and on time. Students with three or more unexcused
absences or tardies will be issued an office referral.
Consistent attendance is essential for success in this course. If a student is absent 10 or more times
during a semester (excused or not), we will have an administrative meeting to discuss the students
future in the course.
Successful students will demonstrate skills indicative of quality workers by bringing required
materials, completing homework assignments, participating in class discussions, and respecting the
opinions of others.
Successful students will demonstrate accountability by listening closely in class.
All final drafts of major written assignments are to be typed or word-processed and must adhere
to the essay format (MLA) unless otherwise specified.
Students are not allowed to bring food, drinks (except water) into the classroom.
Cell phones must be turned off during class time. Any cell phone use during class time may result in
disciplinary action.
I reserve 20% of a student's grade for attitude, behavior, achievement, attendance and
participation.
I use the standard grading scale: 90-100 A, 80-89 B, 70-79 C, 60-69 D, 59 and below F. Individual
papers are graded on a 0-9 AP scale, the scale used in AP Lit.
Students are allowed three passes per semester for personal reasons. Students may not leave the class
for more than 10 minutes.
The CHS and JCPS conduct code will be strictly enforced including the Zero Tolerance Policy
concerning cruelty, harassment, excessive teasing, discrimination, violence, and intimidation. Foul
language, derogatory remarks, and disrespect toward classmates, teachers and school staff will not be
tolerated.
Cheating and plagiarism on schoolwork will result in a zero on the assignment and could result
in suspension. Some assignments must be submitted through Turnitin.
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Lack of respect toward the property of others (including writing on or defacing desks), and disruptive
behavior (including talking out of turn) could result in removal from the classroom and a referral.
Writing Assignments
Major Writing Assignments: The following assignments are processed papers composed primarily
outside of class:
Analytical Essay: Students compose a rhetorical analysis from a prompt focusing on one of
the summer readings.
Personal Narrative: Students compose an effective essay focusing on the significance of a
single event in their lives.
Compare/Contrast Essay: Students compose an essay from a prompt derived from Julius
Caesar. Students will contrast the rhetorical strategies used by Antony and Brutus when
addressing the citizens of Rome.
Mid-term Election/Current Issue Project: Students compose six persuasive texts on behalf of
an assigned candidate or a specific ballot initiative (students will not choose the candidate or
position on the issue) three meant to be spoken; three meant to be read each to specific
audiences: supporters, fence-sitters, and opponents. Students must submit self-annotated copies of
each text highlighting the rhetorical strategies they incorporated. NOTE: During off years,
students focus on a public discourse topic of their choice.
Columnist Project: Students gather six columns from a columnist of their choice. For each
column, they submit a prcis summarizing the column as well as a single paragraph reaction to it.
Finally, they compose an argumentative essay by developing an argument inspired through
conversations with the columnist.
Synthesis Essay: Students synthesize materials from a number of sources (including visual),
develop an argument and compose an argumentative essay.
Open Topic/Genre Essay: Using the five canons of rhetoric invention, arrangement, style,
memory, delivery students compose a meaningful essay on the topic of their choice. Students
must submit a self-annotated copy of the essay highlighting the rhetorical strategies they
incorporated. They will share their papers by presenting them to the class.
Research Paper: Students experience the research process from discovering a topic and
developing a research question to submitting the final product. Students will understand all levels
of the process including discerning relevant sources, gathering information from diverse sources,
synthesizing that information, and properly formatting the paper, incorporating MLA citation
techniques. This paper may be expository or argumentative.
Note:
Each essay composed outside of class must include a self evaluation addressing the following
questions:
1. Did you stick with your original topic or did you change it along the way? Why?
2. What problems did you encounter during the process of creating the essay?
3. List two of the most important changes you made. Why did you make them?
4. What part of your essay are you most proud of? Why?
Rough drafts of essays composed outside of class are subject to in-class peer review.
As major assessments, the mid-term and open topic essays require students to annotate their own
texts highlighting the intentional strategies they incorporated
Students are encouraged to conference with me or my TAs prior to submitting final drafts
In-class Timed Essays Responding to AP or AP-like Prompts: During the course of the year,
students are regularly required to respond to a prompt under time constraints. During the first semester,
students will share their responses in their groups prior to revising and resubmitting the paper for
assessment. If dissatisfied with the grade earned on a paper, a student may revise and resubmit it for
reassessment only after attending an individual writing conference. During the second semester,
students have fewer opportunities for reassessment. However, even though the grade earned on the
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paper is final, students are highly encouraged to take advantage of writing conferences.
Assessments: The papers composed in and out of class are the primary assessments. They reveal
students understanding of the concepts taught; therefore, many of them are summative assessments.
These papers are assessed on the 0-9 AP scale, with a score of 5 equivalent to 75 points and 9 to 100
points. Additional assessments include vocabulary quizzes, multiple-choice tests and exercises, and the
major exam for the course: a complete AP English Language test during TCAP week duplicating the
testing conditions of the actual exam. Students are required to take this practice exam.
INSTRUCTIONAL READINGS:
Please read, and annotate
The Norton ReaderReading With a Writers Eye and Strategies for Writing: pp. xx-lv.
Cracking the AP English Language and Composition ExamPart 1 Welcome to the Exam pp. 1-9
Thank You for Arguing in its entirety
SUMMER READING SELECTIONS:
Eighner, Lars: On Dumpster Diving The Norton Reader pp. 20-29
Mairs, Nancy: On Being a Cripple The Norton Reader pp. 59-68
McMurtry, John: Kill Em! Crush Em! Eat Em Raw The Norton Reader pp. 354-359
Rauch, Jonathan: In Defense of Prejudice The Norton Reader pp. 680-688
Roach, Mary: How To Know If Youre Dead The Norton Reader pp. 282-295
Woolf, Virginia: In Search of a Room of Ones Own The Norton Reader pp. 1074-1084
Note: Due to the fact that we will also analyze texts focusing on public discourse issues, this syllabus is
tentative. Current event issues as well as school-related activities affecting attendance can easily sidetrack
us. Therefore, flexibility becomes paramount. Units one through five are approximately six to seven weeks
long. Furthermore, consistent writing to prompts and multiple-choice exercises supplement the major
writing projects. Each unit in AP English Language and Composition builds on the previous unit, so
learning goals are cumulative and will be addressed consistently throughout the course.
Unit 1
Understanding Rhetoric
Learning Goals:
Students will understand:
the significance of rhetorical analysis by: defining rhetoric and the rhetorical situation according to
Bitzer: exigence audience and constraints;
the analysis of persona and tone;
the rhetorical matrix: the elements of an effective text
close reading and annotation
how to discern the differences in approaches in certain texts targeted to specific audiences
the significance of audience in the development of a text;
formal academic writing;
how to transcend the 5-paragraph theme
Readings:
Baldwin: Notes of a Native Son: HO
Bitzer: The Rhetorical Situation: HO
Clinton: Lewinsky Speeches: HO
Eighner, Lars: On Dumpster Diving NR pp. 20-29
Heinrichs, Jay Thank You for Arguing
Hughes: Salvation: NR pp. 1139-1141.
Lehrer, Jonah: The Truth About Grit: HO
Lopate: Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character: HO
Mairs, Nancy: On Being a Cripple NR pp. 58-68
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Unit 4
The 3 Rs: Reading, Research and Rhetoric
Learning Goals
Students will understand:
grammar: functionality of sentence structures and syntax;
satire authorial appeals through humor;
context clues as a means to interpret archaic prose;
reader response;
more about constraints surrounding audience;
multiple-choice strategies;
research and citation strategies;
how to discover credible sources;
how to conduct conversations with diverse sources, how to transcend read and regurgitate
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Suggested Readings:
Barry: Art is in more than the Eye of the Beholder: HO
Postman: Future Schlock: HO
Swift: A Modest Proposal: The Norton Reader pp. 857-863
Twain: Jim on Lizbeth from Huckleberry Finn, Chapter XXIII
Supplementary Handouts:
Research Paper Steps and Organization
Vocabulary Lists
In-class activities:
Library: gathering information and ideas from diverse sources
Group discussions of topics and theses; determining viability of research topic
Group peer reviews of preliminary drafts of research paper
Writers workshops: selected exercises and discussions from Rhetorical Grammar
Multiple-choice practice: retake the test with your group, justifying your answers
Group multiple-choice sessions: discovering and correcting your own mistakes
Writing Projects:
AP Prompts
Research Paper: preliminary drafts of researched argumentative or expository paper
synthesizing diverse sources
Unit 5
Making Connections Readers and Writers; Writers and Readers
Learning Goals
Students will understand:
the concept of semiotics and effective communication;
the power of punctuation
how to achieve success on the English and Reading sections of the ACT
the concept of memory using shared experience as a tool;
reasoning;
meanings behind images, the power of the photograph and photographer
rhetorical strategies applying to grammar and syntaxparallel structures;
multiple-choice stems and the creation of multiple-choice questions
test expectations
more about archaic prose
Suggested Readings:
The Norton Reader: Selections from An Album of Styles pp. 592-609
Dillard: Sight into Insight: NR pp. 1190-1201
Ephron: The Boston Photographs: NR pp. 727-733
Franklin: From Realism to Virtual Reality: Images of Americas Wars: NR pp. 810-826
Langer: Language and Thought: HO
Murray: The Stranger in the Photograph Is Me: HO
Plato: The Allegory of the Cave: HO
Sanders: Signs: HO
Sontag: In Platos Cave: HO
The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams Appalachia (film)
Various: Current Issues Packet Images
Supplementary Handouts:
Multiple-choice strategies
Multiple-choice: Common Stems
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In-class activities:
Final peer editing sessions prior to research paper final draft submission
Group discussions analyzing comparing language usage in readings/deconstructing prompts from
past exams
Vocabulary
Writers workshops: selected exercises and discussions from Rhetorical Grammar
AP test preparation: complete sample test
Group multiple-choice sessions: discovering your own mistakes
ACT English/Reading test preparation including practice English and Reading exams
Group student choice essay teaching presentations including the creation of multiple-choice
questions: Students choose an essay from The Norton Reader and teach it to the class and create a
short multiple-choice exam.
Writing Projects:
Research Paper Final Draft
Photography Synthesis Essay
Obesity Synthesis Essay (spring break)
Complete Practice Exam
AP Prompts: archaic prose
Student-choice essay analysis/presentation
Unit 6 (Post exam)
Rhetoric and Narrative
Learning Goals: Students will understand:
rhetorical strategies in film;
effectiveness of narrative styles;
how to discover universal truth in film the power of themes;
the expectations of AP English Literature and Composition.
Suggested Reading:
A variety of films ranging from documentary to satire specific titles TBA
In-class activities:
How to read a film / film as literature
Assessment and debriefing of films
Bridge to AP English Literature and Composition.
2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 by Rolf M. Gunnar
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