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AP Language and Composition

2016-2017 Course Overview and Syllabus


Ms Emma Carr
Room B201
Emma.carr@ciaschool.edu.kh
Overview: This Advanced Placement course in Language and Composition will follow the guidelines written by The College Board and require
expository, analytical, and argumentative writing assignments that are based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and
genres. The rigor of this course is matching that of an introductory college course and as such you can expect to have 5 hours of homework per
week which will largely consist of reading. As a college-level course, we will focus on analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating ideas presented
by different authors. Students will be responsible for in-class readings of nonfiction essays, excerpts, political cartoons, speeches and more as
well as independent reading of nonfiction texts outside of class. As stated in our School-wide Learner Outcomes, students will reflect on their
attitudes and learning, recognize and develop effective strategies, and set achievable personal and academic goals throughout the academic year.
In fostering this SLO a large portion of class time will be provided for reflection and feedback. In addition to continuous self-reflection, both
your instructor and peers will provide individual feedback to help foster the development of the successful use of rhetorical strategies in
students writing, While goals will vary from student to student the end goal for this class is the Advanced Placement exam at the end of the
school year.
Texts:
Barnet, S. and Bedau, H. (2010) Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings. 9th edn.
New York: Bedford/St. Martins.
Cohen, S. (2013) 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. 4th edn. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
Hacker, D. and Sommers, N. (2012) A Writers Reference with Resources for Multilingual Writers and ESL. 7th edn. United States: Bedford/St.
Martins.
Heinrichs, J. (2013) Thank You For Arguing, Revised and Updated Edition: What Aristotle, Lincoln, And Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About
the Art of Persuasion. Rev Upd Edition edn. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Course Objectives: Upon completing AP English Language and Composition students will be able to:
Analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an authors use of rhetorical strategies and techniques
Apply effective strategies and techniques in your own writing in both formal and informal contexts
Create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience
Write for a variety of purposes
Demonstrate a wide-ranging vocabulary
Produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with
appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources, cogent explanations, and clear transitions
Demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in your own writing
Demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources through correct use of MLA or APA
citations
Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising,
editing, and review
Write thoughtfully about your own process of composition
Revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience
Analyze image as text
Evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers

Syllabus

Yearlong Activities:
Reading:
Outside reading Students will be given a list of recommended non-fiction books from which to choose a minimum of one per quarter to read

outside of class time. In addition to reading the book they will be required to complete a nonfiction book report on each text for quarters one
through three. For the fourth quarter outside book report, students will complete a synthesis project that will require them to research a topic
from their book and compile a report based on their findings. This research report will require proper MLA formatting, including an accurate
works cited page in addition to correct use of in-text citations.
In class texts Students will read a wide variety of speeches, essays, and excerpts from nonfiction texts. Students will also examine several visual
texts, such as political cartoons, advertisements, and music videos. Students will focus on reading these pieces critically, identifying effective use
of grammar, style, tone, diction, imagery, syntax and how those elements come together to appropriately address their intended audience and
purpose.
Po
Students will work through the chapters and exercises in Rhetorical Grammar throughout the year. Students will focus on how grammar can be
used rhetorically to alter purpose and affect audience.
Vocabulary:
Students will take a literary term diagnostic test at the beginning of the year to determine what rhetorical vocabulary they need to study. This test
will consist of terms studied in the AP Literature course taught here at CIA. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with any terms
they do not recognize as we will be using these terms to discuss text throughout the year.
Timed Writes:
Students will participate in a timed write based on an AP exam prompt on a regular basis. Writes may be a rhetorical analysis, argument, creative
piece, expository piece, or synthesis of given material, but will align with the current focus of the class and build in concept; each genre will be
covered at least once throughout the course of study. Most timed writes will be peer reviewed, self-graded, and evaluated by instructor.
Multiple Choice Practice:
Students will take a baseline sample AP MC test at the start of the school for diagnostic purposes. In addition to direct instruction on multiple
choice test taking strategies, students will take multiple MC quizzes throughout the year and will be required to keep track of scores on a chart in
order to identify question types that they find challenging and develop a study strategy to address problem question types.

Modes Project:
Semester one, students will complete a project on the seven modes of writing. Part of this project will be a group grade where each group
becomes experts in one of the modes and teaches/guides students in that area. The second portion of the project will be an individual grade given
to students when they complete their modes project and turn in their seven modes papers.
Following a Columnist Project:
This project takes place at the start of the second semester. It involves research and an in-depth analysis of one well-known columnist. Students
will locate columns written by the pundit of their choice and identify and evaluate their stylistic choices.
Monday Matters:
Due each Monday will be a response to research you have completed on a current event or topic. More information will be given the first week
of school.
*Use of cell phones is STRICTLY PROHIBITED in class.
Late Work:
No late work will be accepted. You have the AP English Lang & Comp Pacing Guide, with this guide you know when assignments are due. All
assignments will be given on Google classroom and the dates will be made clear. This means from both your pacing guide and Google classroom
you know in advance when you will need to submit work. In order for your instructor to grade quickly and efficiently, while simultaneously
preparing individualized feedback for each student, work must be completed on time.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is unacceptable; it will result in a zero for the assignment and be disciplined according to school district policy. Attendance: Colony
High School has a strict policy regarding attendance. After ten absences, a student may be withdrawn from school. Being tardy and/or absent
will adversely affect a students grade. This is a face-to-face class, not an online class. While assignments can be made up, lectures, peer reviews,
and most other class activities cannot be replicated. If a student is late to my class, he/she will be marked tardy in accordance with school policy.
Being prepared for class is part of being on time. If you need to return to your locker for an item, you will be asked to get a tardy slip form the
front office. Please be on time, prepared to participate and learn. Assessment:

Unit 1 - Introduction to Rhetoric


Enduring Understandings:
1. Those who understand and can use rhetoric to appeal to an audience of one or many find themselves in a position of strength as they have
tools to resolve conflict, persuade others to support their positions, and move people to action.
2. Writers, including student writers, purposefully use different formats and rhetorical structures to influence different audiences for different
purposes.
3. The pattern of development (organizational structure) of a text can influence its purpose.
4. Skilled readers use close reading to develop a full understanding of a text.

Essential Questions:
1. What does an authors style reveal about his purpose?
2. How does an author create meaning in a nonfiction or informational text?
3. How do the creators of informational texts use logic, evidence, and rhetorical devices to persuade?
Pacing
:

Goals:

Resources:

Lesson
s 1-4

Students will be able to:

Rhetorical Vocabulary
Textbook

Rhetorical Triangle and Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

Website

The Analytical Process and Reader and Writer (Establishing a purpose for
reading/writing, close reading, questioning, annotating, synthesizing through writing)

Students will know:


The definition of
rhetoric.
The definition and
use of the Rhetorical
Triangle.
The definition and
use of Ethos, pathos,

Activities:

Rhetorical Style: Diction and Syntax


Atlas

Visual Rhetoric
Introduction to Patterns of Development in Writing

logos and how to identify


and use each.
The definition and
use of syntax, diction,
tone, style and other
tropes and schemes (see
p. 58-59 in the Language
of Composition text).
The historical
perspective of Puritanism
and Rationalism.
How historical
writing utilizes rhetoric.

Approximate Time Frame: Semester 1, Week 1-3 This unit introduces students to
rhetoric and its purpose. Students will learn the basics of rhetoric and how it applies to
reading and writing. Students will consider writing and other communication in terms
of audience and purpose by utilizing an analytical process. This process will help
students learn to establish their own purpose for reading by learning to ask questions of
a text, interact with a text through conversations, annotations, dialectical journals,
author says/author does, inquiry, etc. Students will then begin to engage with texts that
model various patterns of writing and learn to apply key elements of rhetoric in their
own writing. Finally, students will engage in the writing process, with a special
emphasis on revision. This emphasis will continue throughout the course.

Purpose: Introduce students to rhetoric and engage students in writing to help them
analyze the choices they make as a writer and learn to self-reflect on the degree to
which the purpose and audience influences a writers rhetorical choices.

1. Engage in a close reading of an assigned text.


2. Complete an author says/author does analysis contrasting form and content.
2. Write a sermon in the style of Jonathan Edwards or other author utilizing rhetorical
devices.
3. Compare and contrast a puritan sermon with a modern sermon or speech.
5. Read to identify figures of speech and rhetorical devices and discuss the authors use
of those devices.
6. Rewrite a piece of literature from Puritanism/Rationalism for a different audience or
purpose to determine how audience and purpose influence style and word choice.
7. Compare and contrast political writing from the American Revolution and compare it

to current political discourse.

Unit Assessment: Write a speech, sermon, editorial on a particular topic. The writing
must include purposeful inclusion of at least 3 rhetorical devices from selected class
readings which may include allusion, parallel structure, repetition, imagery, ethos,
logos, pathos, etc. Students will present the final product to the class and engage in
personal reflection on their own writing.

Unit 2 - Developing Knowledge and Comprehension


Enduring Understandings:
Skilled readers/writers set a purpose for reading/writing and choose strategies to help meet their purpose.
Skilled readers/writers ask questions of a text and read/write to answer those questions.
Skilled readers/writers recognize the importance of details, and seek to find and evaluate patterns in details.
Skilled readers/writers understand the needs of the intended audience(s)
Essential Questions:
1. What similarities and differences exist between short passages that distinguish them as unique in both style and purpose?
2.
Pacing Goals:
Resources:
Activities:
:
Lesson Students will be able to:
Identify and track rhetorical devices through close reading techniques
Textbook
s 1-4
Questioning Schemes
Students will know:
Analysis of Audience and Purpose of a Text
Website
Multiple
Approximate Time Frame: Semester 1, weeks 4-8
literary and rhetorical
Atlas
devices (see glossary
The goal of this unit is to help students develop strong independent reading and thinking
in The Language of
skills. Students will learn to notice, identify, and track thesis statements, rhetorical
Composition).
devices, imagery, motifs, etc. that writers use to create meaning. In short, this unit will
Multiple
focus on helping students be better readers in order to develop stronger writing skills.
questioning strategies
Students will begin to think about reading/writing abilities by asking questions as they
and questioning
work toward the analytical skills needed to create a solid piece of writing. Students will
schemes.
continue to use close reading techniques to help develop and track student thinking
Multiple
developed through questioning schemes with the end goal of developing an
strategies for close
understanding of how the process of close reading leads to an overall foundation for
reading/note taking.
textual analysis. In addition, students will continue to develop and apply their
Patterns of
vocabulary of rhetorical and literary devices.
arrangement

(narration, description,
process analysis, etc.).
Every text has
an intended audience
and purpose.
How to use the
writing process to
move closer to the
writers intended
audience and purpose.

Purpose: To complete a close reading and analysis of multiple texts, compare and
contrast main premises from texts, and write an essay using the writing process.
Students will be presented with two pieces of writing (one can be a piece of visual
media) that share either audience or purpose on the topic of the purpose of education.
The pieces of writing can be self-selected or predetermined by the teacher. Students will
analyze the paired texts, examining the purpose of education. Students will then write a
compare/contrast analysis of the texts, answering the question, What is the true
purpose of education? Students will engage in peer response and use feedback for
revision.

Unit 3 - Analysis of the Elements of Rhetoric // Concept - Rhetoric


Enduring Understandings:
Skilled readers and writers use metacognition to determine the most appropriate note-taking techniques for a close a reading.
A writer purposefully chooses details and rhetorical devices for a specific function which is based on purpose and audience.
Style and purpose are interrelated and interdependent.
Authors develop their own form and writing style specific to their audience and purpose.
Writing has a common vocabulary to describe stylistic choices.
Essential Questions:
What various styles do authors employ to achieve different purposes in writing?
Pacing Goals:
Resources:
Activities:
:
Lesson Students will be able to:
Application of Vocabulary
Textbook
s 1-4
Meta-cognitive Choices as Thinking Tools

Stylistic Differences
Website
Putting it Together: Written Analysis
Students will know:
The
Atlas
Approximate Time Frame: 1st Semester, Weeks 9-18 In this unit, students will apply
importance of
knowledge of rhetoric, rhetorical devices and literary terms to analyze a text. Students
metacognition and
will examine how form and function are interrelated to be able to describe and analyze

the role it plays in


analyzing and
evaluating.
How to
describe literary
devices using a
common vocabulary.
How to trace
rhetorical devices
back to the
intentions of the
author.
How to
select rhetorical
devices for their
own writing based
on their purpose for
writing.
How to
articulate the interrelationship between
style and purpose in
specific terms.
How to
articulate what
makes a piece of
writing cohesive and
unique.

stylistic differences. Students will describe how an author creates meaning through
rhetorical choices. They can readily apply learned vocabulary in order to examine the
function of a device in a text. Students will continue to focus their questioning and
close reading techniques broadening the scope of their questions. Finally, students will
engage in several pieces of writing, both formal and informal, as well as timed writes
and process pieces. Revision strategies for timed writes and process writing in
particular will be utilized.
1. Write a parody of an authors style.
2. Engage in written reflection about ones own writing to point out literary devices
used and determine the effectiveness of that use.
3. Compare and contrast two authors styles.
4. Write a cause/effect essay that examines the use and result of an authors specific
rhetorical device.
5. Complete a stylistic analysis of a piece of writing.
6. Examine what happens when stylistic choices are ineffective.
7. Write about the same topic from a variety of formats and purposes.
Purpose: To prepare for the AP Exam; to write for varying purposes using varying
formats.
Write three persuasive pieces in three different formats on a shared topic with the same
purpose. Some examples of formats include a persuasive essay, a letter to the editor, a
personal narrative, a political cartoon, a poem, etc. Annotate each piece to point out the
specific rhetorical devices used appropriate to format and write a reflection about how
each piece achieves its purpose based on the format other stylistic choices used.

Unit 4 - Interpretation and Evaluation // Concept - Rhetoric


Enduring Understandings:
There are multiple interpretations of any piece of writing, but they are all subject to the same standard of argumentation, reasoning,
and rhetorical analysis.
The effectiveness of a piece of writing depends on the balance of the authors intent and the readers interpretation of the writing.
There is a different purpose and audience for persuasion and argument.
All texts are subject to bias and assumption, and it is the readers responsibility to read critically in order to identify and consider the
bias and assumption.
Essential Questions:
1. How does a writer use rhetorical devices to persuade?
2. Why is it important to recognize that there are often two sides to every issue? Why is it important to be able to take a stand (defend,
challenge, or qualify) on a given issue?
3. How do persuasive messages both explicit and implicit, shape our ideas, values, beliefs, and, or behaviors?
Pacing Goals:
Resources:
Activities:
:
Lesson Students will be able to:
Critical Interpretation and Evaluation
Textbook
s 1-4
Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Authors Rhetorical Devices

Persuasion vs. Argument Bias Assumptions


Website
Elements of Argument Claim/Thesis Data Warrant/Backing
Students will know:
Reservation/Response Ethos, Pathos, Logos
A quality
Atlas
interpretation of writing
Suggested Time Frame: 2nd Semester, 1st nine weeks. This unit focuses
includes sound reasoning
on critical interpretation and evaluation, teaching students to read between
and an ample use of
the lines. Students will move beyond considering how meaning is created
evidence from the text.
to why meaning is created. They will evaluate the effectiveness of an
To consider their
authors use of rhetorical devices. Study will focus on bias, assumptions
and elements of argument and persuasion with the goal of evaluating the
own background, biases and
accuracy of claims in a text. Students will write a researched argument
assumptions when
paper in which students create and sustain an argument based on

interpreting a piece of
writing.
That persuasion is
not held to the same
standard of argument.
Bias reveals itself
through the use of certain
rhetorical devices.

secondary research.
Purpose: To engage in the research process.
Write a researched argument paper in which students are asked to evaluate
the validity of sources. Topic choice is the teachers discretion.

Unit 5 - Synthesis and Reflective Practice


Enduring Understandings:
Writers carefully consider audience and purpose when making stylistic, rhetorical and organizational choices.
Readers carefully consider the diverse context of a piece of writing in terms of the historical period in which it was produced, and the
cultural significance of the writing.
Critical thinkers pull from diverse, dissimilar and even contradictory sources to create meaning.
Critical thinkers use reflective practice in their reading and writing which influences ones perspective on life.
Essential Questions:
1. How can one synthesize various pieces (often in history or science) to come to an informed position on an issue (defend, challenge,
or qualify)?
2. How does the sharing, elaborating, and clarifying of ideas in an effective discussion contribute to the understanding of complex
ideas?
3.
Pacing: Goals:
Resources:
Activities:
Lesson Students will be able to:
Application of Rhetorical Choices in Student Writing
Textbook
s 1-4
Contextual Analysis

The Reflective Reader/Writer


Website
Synthesis
Students will know:
Strategies for finding Atlas
Approximate Time Frame: 2nd semester, 2nd nine weeks. In this unit,
thematic connections
students will focus on applying all theyve learned about rhetoric in a
between texts.
meaningful and skilled manner. Students will write for a variety of
Why they are
audiences and purposes, using a variety of styles and rhetorical choices.
making specific rhetorical
This unit will also focus on evaluating the historical, cultural,
choices.
philosophical, ethical, social, religious and critical influences on piece
Where to go to find
writing. Students will examine texts from three main perspectives: text to
self, text to text, and text to world. Students will practice for the AP exam
contextual background
by developing and organizing dissimilar pieces of writing from diverse
information about a text.
sources into synthesized written compositions. Finally, students will

Personal reflection is
important for growth as a
thinker, reader, and writer.

engage in reflection regarding how theyve grown as a reader and writer.


1. Write a manifesto of personal style and intention: why I write and
how I write.
2. Write a reflection on the years course explaining personal growth as a
reader, writer, and thinker.
3. Write a synthesis paper in which students draw connections between
multiple diverse and dissimilar pieces.
4. Research the cultural influence of a piece of writing or an author, and
present the influences of and on your subject.
5. Write a completed piece of writing for publication based on student
choice. The purpose, audience, form and style will be selected by the
student.
Purpose: To help students become reflective writers.
Create a portfolio of selected self-written pieces and class readings. The
written pieces should include a variety of styles, purposes and contexts.
The readings are selected based on their importance to the students
development as a writer. Include written reflections on each entry.

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