AP® English Language and Composition-English 11 Honors Course Syllabus
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AP® English Language and Composition-English 11 Honors Course Syllabus This course “…engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes… [S]tudents write in both informal and formal contexts to gain authority and learn to take risks in writing.” ~AP® English Language and Composition Course Description, AP Central Course Objectives: This AP® English Language and Composition course is designed to prepare students for college- level writing through an intensive study of language and its uses. By examining modes of rhetoric and components of style, students will engage in an intensive language study that emphasizes writing skills, sharpens critical and evaluative awareness, and develops a sense of mastery in both reading and composition. Students in this course deepen their understanding of the importance of merging content with purpose, tone, and audience (the rhetorical scenario) by reading varied works of non-fiction prose and by applying that understanding in frequent writings, both timed and formal. This course stresses the importance of autonomous and self- directed revision of a writer’s own awareness of purpose, tone, and audience that is critical in the composition of effective prose. Above all, students will discard the formulaic (read: five- paragraph) mode of composition and embrace risk in their search for style. Expectations and Rigor Students engage in all types of prose—argumentative, analytical, informative, expository, reflective, and personal—both as readers and as writers. Readings include essays, letters, biographies, editorials, narratives, and even some short fiction; all readings model good prose and represent a wide range of voices. Students examine structure, syntax, diction, rhetorical devices, purpose, and tone in every reading, and reading-response activities include discussion (both guided and small-group), blog-responses, emulations (i.e., write an essay like Raymond Carver or Gretel Ehrlich), timed writings, and formal papers. Student work should be timely, of course, but also of high quality. Emphasis is also placed on the students’ ability to synthesize multiple works by examining rhetoric and style and creating connections in well-written compositions. Students must follow MLA guidelines for citation and documentation when synthesizing multiple works. Finally, students will engage in activities designed to deepen appreciation for gathering, interpreting, and presenting information with style, confidence, and a sense of professionalism. This includes visual (image-based) information. Students will learn how to discern credible, legitimate sources, especially when using the Internet. The major outcome will be a research paper of 5-7 pages in length with at least three primary sources and three secondary sources—all cited properly according to MLA guidelines. 1 English Honors-Syllabus with CCS.doc Course Texts and Reading Resources As per the English Department’s Eleventh Grade requirements, students will read at least six novels and fifteen short stories (selections listed later in the syllabus) over the course of the school year, and those are read independently with outcomes completed outside of the regular structure of the class. Class time, therefore, is devoted to scholarly discussion and examination of effective prose and rhetoric, and the core selection of readings is listed below (note that some short fiction is included with these works of nonfiction prose, as they serve as strong examples of how authors use language to create meaning): Ø Many of the essays and stories below appear the course’s main text, A Writer’s Reader, Ninth Edition (Donald Hall and D.L. Emblen, Eds.). Ø Sven Birkerts, “Objections Noted: Word Processing” Ø Gretel Ehrlich, “About Men” Ø Ralph Ellison, “On Becoming a Writer” Ø Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants” Ø Maxine Hong Kingston, “Silence” Ø Phillip Lopate, “On Shaving a Beard” Ø John McPhee, “The Search for Marvin Gardens” Ø Nancy Mairs, “The Unmaking of a Scientist” Ø George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” and “A Hanging” Ø Camille Paglia, “Cats” (good supplement: T.S. Eliot’s “The Naming of Cats”) Ø Edgar Allan Poe, “Instinct Versus Reason: A Black Cat” (companion piece to Paglia’s essay) and “The Fall of the House of Usher” Ø Ishmael Reed, “America: The Multinational Society” Ø Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” Ø Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” and “Life Without Principle” Ø Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (supplement with poem “Hamatreya”) Ø Mark Twain, “Baker’s Bluejay Yarn” and “Was the World Made for Man?” Ø Gore Vidal, “Drugs” Ø Edith Wharton, “Roman Fever” Ø O. Henry, “A Municipal Report” Ø Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Ø David Hume, “Of Personal Identity” Ø Immanuel Kant, “First Principles of Morals” Ø E. B. White, “Once More to the Lake” Ø Amy Tan, “In the Canon, For All the Wrong Reasons” and “Two Kinds” Ø Margaret Atwood, “Alien Territory” Ø Toni Morrison, “Nobel Lecture” Ø Virginia Woolf, “If Shakespeare Had Had a Sister” Ø Gerald Early, “Life With Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant” Ø Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” 2 English Honors-Syllabus with CCS.doc Web-based Resources: Ø Schoology Ø www.VirtualSalt.com (great reference for rhetorical devices) Common Core Standards Alignment Each relevant task below is tagged with Common Core Standards. Refer to Appendix of this document for explanation of each standard tag. Overview of Relevant Tasks and Applications to Extend Mastery: Ø BLOGS: opportunities for more thoughtful responses to readings, though informal enough to allow for sincerity and free-expression. W.11-12.4, W.11-12.6, W.11-12.10 Ø Media Projects: Students engage in creative processes to enhance meaning and understanding in relevant projects using media software. W.11-12.7, W.11-12.8, SL.11-12.2, SL.11-12.4, SL.11-12.5, SL.11-12.6 Ø Letters to the Editor: A culminating project; just before the AP® Exam, students hone their abilities to create arguments in a legitimate, real-world context (with real outcome- based incentive). Students read editorials and respond with the hopes of having letters published. W.11-12.1, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.5, W.11-12.6, W.11-12.10 Ø Personal Application Essays: Students emulate writers and apply concepts to personal areas of their lives; all essays are subject to reflective revision. W.11-12.3, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.5, W.11-12.6, L.11-12.1-L.11-12.6 Ø Scholarly Analysis Papers: Formal papers based on readings that analyze form and content in relation to purpose and audience; students rewrite every paper after peers and instructor provide suggestions for revision. W.11-12.1, W.11-12.2, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.5, W.11-12.6, W.11-12.7, W.11-12.8, W.11-12.9, W.11-12.10, RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3, L.11-12.1---L.11-12.6 Ø Rhetorical Devices: Students become familiar with various rhetorical devices by applying them in their own writing. VirtualSalt.com is a good resource where students can discover terms for and illustrated examples of rhetorical devices. L.11-12.1---L.11-12.6 Ø AP®-style Prompts: timed AP-style writing Ø Practice AP® MC and Essay Questions: Year-long exposure to and discussion of sample exam questions. Ø Vocabulary: exposure to new words in context (from the readings); quizzes and applications—such as usage in writing—reinforce new words. L.11-12.3---L.11-12.6 3 English Honors-Syllabus with CCS.doc Curricular Outline: Four major units, one per marking period. (This is merely a guide.) Unit One Ø Concepts for Mastery: Rhetorical Modes, Strategies, and Devices—the rhetorical scenario (purpose, tone, audience); the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos); rhetorical terms; expository, argumentative, narrative, and analytical modes; image-based media as alternative text Ø Selected Readings from above that illustrate varied rhetorical modes, such as “Objections Noted: Word Processing” and “In the Canon, For All the Wrong Reasons” Ø Writings: Blog responses, in-class timed writings (AP® style), and Papers #1 and #2 Ø AP® Practice: practice MC’s, sets 1 and 2; practice free-response question #1 Ø Vocabulary: Quiz and application Ø Image-based Media: Thanks to the one-to-one program, Upper Merion Area High School students have access to the largest image-dependent resource on the planet: the Internet. My students access the Internet in my classroom regularly, and we spend a good deal of time analyzing images for a variety of evaluative purposes—including, but not limited to: o Usage in multi-media projects o Reliability of representation (the Photo Shop phenomenon) o Empirical value of the image o Rhetorical purpose of the image (is it another type of “text”?) § Persuade § Market § Inform § Clarify § Enhance Ø The Transcendentalist Project: o Research American Transcendentalism using JSTOR, ProjectMuse, and other scholarly resources. Print out findings as needed. Students should be able to: (a) define it, (b) qualify its founding (that is, address why its founders perceived its need), and (c) catalogue notable Transcendentalists. o Students will read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous essay, “Self-Reliance” and apply understanding of transcendentalism to Emerson’s essay. They will describe how the essay describes or illustrates transcendental thought. o Students will find evidence in Thoreau’s work (“Civil Disobedience” or “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”) of transcendental thought. o Address this question in your presentation: Does transcendentalism have any relevant modern applications? § Synthesize all of this into a well-designed, media-rich presentation.