GHS AP English Language and Composition Syllabus

AP English Language & Composition

Syllabus 2014-2015

James W. Cook

Gloucester High School

Gloucester, MA

Course Overview

AP English Language and Composition at Gloucester (MA) High School is an introductory college-level course in which you will study rhetorical analysis, argument, and synthesis through composition activities (prewriting, writing, self-assessment, peer-assessment, and revising) and close reading of demanding texts with an emphasis on nonfiction.

Through active, analytical reading you will identify and explain rhetorical strategies and techniques used by authors in a variety of language-based and visual texts (memoirs, essays, speeches, plays, novels, letters, comics, photographs, documentaries, etc.). You will also employ those strategies and techniques in your own expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions for a wide variety of purposes and audiences. Furthermore, you will extend these rhetorical strategies and techniques into researched argument papers in which you will evaluate and synthesize several reference texts to develop and support a sophisticated central position with appropriate citation of primary and secondary sources.

To achieve these goals you will progress through a series of units in which you will learn rhetorical strategies and techniques and apply your understanding of these techniques to a diverse range of texts from graphic memoir to documentary film, from twenty-first century advertisements to eighteenth century satire, from English drama of the renaissance to essays about your own city, Gloucester Massachusetts. The reading and analysis of texts will lead to the production of your own writing, including timed one-draft writing of the sort required on the AP exam and processed writing, requiring pre-writing activities, drafts, self-assessment, peer-assessment, written and oral feedback from the teacher, and extensive rewriting.

The objectives and approaches presented in this course overview were written in close consultation with the latest AP English Language and Composition Course Description, other AP Central materials, and AP English Language and Composition: Workshop Handbook.

Unit 1: Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis of Memoir (All Souls), Researched Argument (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), and Hybrids (The Faraway Nearby)

                                                                        summer seminars and term one

Essential Questions

What is rhetorical analysis? How can a reader analyze a text in order to determine the implicit and explicit arguments it makes? How can a reader analyze a text to understand how the writer’s choices (choice of language, organization, details, etc.) contribute to an argument?

One rhetorical strategy is to employ several different stories to illustrate a point. How do authors use stories to construct an argument? How can research contribute to this strategy?

Summer Assessments and Activities

Completing pre-seminar rhetorical analysis and argument responses for each of the three summer reading books, completing rhetorical analysis activities during the seminars (or at home) for each of the three summer reading books.

Some other activities*

Studying rhetorical analysis vocabulary and concepts (including SOAPSToneS); analyzing style, syntax, and diction in passages of prose; creating a visual to communicate the analysis.

Some other assessments

Creating a rhetorical analysis web, taking a rhetorical analysis vocabulary quiz.**

Unit 2: Memoir & Personal Essay Analysis and Writing

                                                                        term one

Essential Question

Why do people tell personal stories? Why do we read stories about other people? How do writers convey personal stories to explore ambivalence and ambiguity? How do writers convey personal stories to make arguments?

Some activities*

Annotating a graphic memoir (Fun Home) and personal essays (“On Seeing England for the First Time”), writing six-word memoirs, practicing elements of analytical writing, giving peer’s feedback on writing.

Assessments

Writing a rhetorical analysis (Q2) of a personal essay, writing a personal essay of your own, taking a memoir & personal essay vocabulary quiz.**

Unit 3: Satire as argument

                                                          term one

Essential Question

How (and why) do writers use humorous and satirical language to make an argument?

Some activities*

Annotating satirical writing (“A Modest Proposal,” “The Devil’s Dictionary”), annotating using SOAPSToneS, participating in graded discussions.

Assessments

Writing a rhetorical analysis essay (Q2) about a satirical essay, writing a satirical dictionary, taking a humorous & satirical writing vocabulary quiz.**

Unit 4: Shakespeare’s drama as literature and argument

                                                                        term two          

Essential Questions

What does Hamlet suggest about the ways people respond to trauma, tragedy, injustice, and loss? How does Shakespeare use literary and rhetorical strategies to explore the ways people respond to trauma, tragedy, injustice, and loss? How do the choices actors and directors make affect the meaning and message of drama? What’s so great about Shakespeare anyway?

Some Activities*

Analyzing soliloquies; analyzing performances; tracking images, motifs, and patterns; writing a soliloquy; participating in a quotation linking activity; reading/performing passages/scenes.

Assessments

Writing a rhetorical/literary analysis of a passage (Q2), creating a Hamlet film proposal and screenplay excerpt, taking a Shakespearean drama vocabulary quiz.**

Unit 5: Allegorical novel(s) as literature and argument

                                                                        term two/term three

Essential Questions

[What does Lord of the Flies suggest about the relationship between ignorance, understanding, human nature, and human civilization?]

[What does Grendel suggest about the ways people shape their lives (and understand their lives) in response to circumstances beyond their control?]

How do authors use symbolic characters, objects, and imagery to explore themes and develop arguments?

Some Activities*

Tracking characters and motifs through novels; analyzing literature using psychological, biographical, and anthropological lenses; exploring ideas by writing fiction (The O’Maley Experiment); participating in oral arguments about issues derived from literature

Assessments

Writing an analytical letter (Q2) in the voice of an author, writing an argument letter (Q3) to an author, taking rhetorical/literary analysis and applied vocabulary test(s)

Unit 6: Midyear Exam Preparation

                                                          term two

Essential Questions

How can we use our understanding of rhetorical analysis to prepare for the midyear exam?

Some Activities*

Studying vocabulary, practicing AP Exam multiple choice question

Assessments

Taking the midyear exam (consisting of rhetorical analysis vocabulary, AP Exam multiple choice questions, and a rhetorical analysis (Q2) essay

Unit 7: Advertising as argument

                                                                        term three

Essential Questions

How do advertisements (and, more broadly, marketing campaigns) employ rhetorical strategies? How do advertisements turn people into consumers and identities into commodities? Do you identify with certain products and brands? Is consumption a social good (promoting economic growth) or a social vice (promoting environmental harm and economic disparity)? What is cool? How do advertisers use cool?

Some Activities*

Analyzing and annotating essays, articles, comics, art, advertisements, documentaries, etc.; creating “maps” of readings, positions, strategies, etc.; practicing narrative openings; practicing “synthesis” writing strategies, incorporating evidence from multiple sources; giving feedback to peers about writing.

Assessments

Writing a synthesis essay (Q1) on consumerism and commodification.

Unit 8: Dystopian novel as argument

                                                                        term three

Essential Questions

How (and why) do some authors use the elements of dystopian fiction to comment on social issues? What does Feed suggest about the ways technology affects human identity and relationships?

Some Activities*

Reading and annotating fiction (Feed) and non-fiction (from You Are Not a Gadget and Present Shock) about the effects of technology on human identity and relationships.

Assessments

Writing an argument essay (Q3) on technology.

Unit 9: Writing researched arguments on social issues

                                                          term three

Essential Questions

What are the most important social issues facing us today? How can writers combine research strategies and writing skills to develop effective arguments in response to social issues?

Some Activities*

Learning research strategies including searching through electronic data bases, evaluating the quality and reliability of sources, taking double-entry notes, citing sources; learning argument writing strategies, including writing and revising a thesis/position, weaving quotations and other evidence into supporting paragraphs, organizing longer writing assignments, writing persuasive conclusions, etc.

Assessments

Writing an annotated bibliography and researched argument with works cited page.

Unit 10: Analyzing researched arguments on social issues

                                                          term four

Essential Questions

How do authors use rhetorical strategies to develop book-length arguments on important social issues, such as economic justice, food justice, the effects of technology, etc.?

Assessments

Writing a passage analysis journal (practice for Q2) on a non-fiction book-length argument of your choice.

Unit 11: AP Exam final preparation

                                                          term four

Essential Questions

How can we use our understanding of rhetorical analysis, argument writing, and synthesis writing to make final preparations for the AP Exam?

Activities & Assessments

Completing AP Exam multiple choice packets; practicing Q1, Q2, and Q3 essays; studying test taking and essay writing strategies.

Unit 12: Gloucester Project

                                                                        term four

Essential Questions

What are key aspects of Gloucester art and culture in the past and present? How is Gloucester art and culture significant to us and others? (How has it been significant in the past?) What are some of the recurring tensions in Gloucester art and culture? How is Gloucester art and culture connected to people and places beyond Gloucester?

Some Activities

Studying an overview of key aspects of Gloucester art and culture, conducting research on a particular aspect, making maps, writing poems, analyzing art, learning about “real world rhetoric”

Assessments

Creating an annotated bibliography, a research-based argument, a personal essay, and real world rhetoric (a documentary, or a website, or a curriculum, or a letter writing campaign, or some other form of real world rhetoric)

*Most units will also include entry/exit ticket assignments, graded discussions/arguments, processed writing (pre-writing, draft, self/peer-assessment, revision), grammar tutorials/quizzes, and AP Exam multiple choice questions.

**Sometimes vocabulary from different units will be combined into one quiz or test. 

Note about the SAT: AP reading comprehension practice will help you with SAT reading comprehension, AP argument writing (Q3) practice will help you with the SAT argument essay in the writing section, essay editing and grammar practice will help you with the SAT writing section.