1St Quarter: Course Orientation, Introduction to Close Reading and Rhetorical Awareness

English Language and Composition 2011-12 Judith Ellsesser Course Syllabus

1st Quarter: Course Orientation, Introduction to Close Reading and Rhetorical Awareness

This course opens up with an immediate follow-up on the summer assignment, which consists of reading 6 consecutive columns of a national columnist, writing a précis for each one as well as a one-page reflection in response to the column. The columns must also be highlighted and annotated. All of this work must be turned in the first day of class.

Students who have completed the work will form groups of 3 or 4 and share their writings. They will compare and contrast their authors’ views. Then each student will choose a current issue such as teacher merit pay, graduated drivers’ licenses, or drafting pro athletes directly from high school, and respond to it as their columnist would, imitating as much as possible the columnist’s style. (This will serve as their first argument paper—Major Paper #1—and undergo revision later in the year as they develop their argumentative skills.) Following discussions over their drafts with me, they will submit a final paper.

Students who do not have this work completed on the first day will do it in class, and then form their own peer editing groups and work on their own time to complete the above-mentioned work.

Focus on rhetorical purpose and language continues as students begin the first thematic unit of the year: Becoming Readers and Writers. With the understanding that AP English casts them in new roles as readers and writers, we are going to revisit how we became readers and writers. Students will read various texts dealing with the process of becoming readers and writers, discuss these texts in class, respond in writing to the texts, take notes in a writer’s notebook, then produce a piece of writing chronicling their own journeys as reader and writers. This essay may take the form of narrative or process analysis. In addition, after writing conferences and revisions, students will turn in a final product that includes a visual metaphor for their journeys as readers and writers.

Mini-lessons: on vocabulary, sentence structure, rhetorical strategies, rhetorical devices, and resources of language.

“Learning to Read and Write” “Learning to Read” “Me Talk Pretty “Mother Tongue” “The Joy of Reading and Writing” Text One Day” English Language and Composition 2011-12 Judith Ellsesser Course Syllabus

Frederick Douglass Malcolm X David Sedaris Amy Tan Sherman Alexie Author Journal: Compare his Journal: Find at Informal essay: Major Paper #2 In para. 5, Alexie writes about experience to yours, OR apply least two places in Compare his In an essay, describe or himself in the third person, in Writing his observations about slavery the text where the experiences learning classify the different sorts of effect dramatizing what happens to contemporary times writer asks but does a foreign language “Englishes” you encounter in when one writes the story of one’s not answer a to your experiences your life. life. Using 3rd person, write about question. What so far in AP. a particularly important moment answer comes to Peer edit. or aspect of your life. Afterward, your mind? Why? Peer edit. write a short reflection on the Teacher conference. distancing effect of referring to yourself as “he” or “she.” How does the author describe The author uses the How does Sedaris What is Tan’s strategy in In para. 7, Alexie repeats a certain the world opening up for him pronoun “I” achieve comic including a direct quotation verb 14 times. What is the verb, as he learns to read and write? extensively, effect in this text? from her mother (par. 6) and what effect does this Close Reading beginning many rather than paraphrasing what repetition have? What might sentences with “I”, she said? Alexie be trying to say about the a practice many process of his coming to literacy, teachers guard in terms of both the effort required against. What is the and the height of the obstacles effect in this text? encountered? English Language and Composition 2011-12 Judith Ellsesser Course Syllabus

“Learning to Read “Learning to Read” “Me Talk Pretty “Mother Tongue” “The Joy of Reading and Writing” Text and Write” One Day” Frederick Douglass Malcolm X David Sedaris Amy Tan Sherman Alexie Author Compare use of What kind of person Who is the audience Do you use different In para.7, Alexie deliberately uses a number of passive structures at does the writer seem for this text? How Englishes yourself? short, simple sentences. What effect is he trying to Rhetorical beginning of text to to be? Who is the do you know? How Consider how your achieve? This 8-paragraph essay is divided into Awareness more active ones at audience? What does Sedaris appeal use of English two distinct sections. Why? How would you end. Identify main central idea does the to the audience? changes depending describe the arrangement of material? How does it ideas in passage; text develop? How on circumstances suit Alexie’s overall purpose? identify main focus; is the text organized and audience. connect to YOUR and developed? Create a table Discuss Alexie’s use of parallel structure and experience illustrating these repetition in the last two paragraphs. Pay particular ideas. attention to the final sentence in each.

What figure of speech is the following: “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food”? What is its effect?

Who is the audience for this essay? Cite passages to support your response. Active/passive voice Implicit/explicit hyperbole Anecdote Figurative language AP Tools

Mini-Lessons:

Rhetorical Strategies Rhetorical Devices Resources of Language  Compare/Contrast  Antithesis  Diction  Narration  Parallelism  Syntax  Process Analysis  Parenthesis  Tone  Repetition o Alliteration o Anaphora o Epistrophe o