AP+American+Studies+Syllabus.Pdf
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Mr. Warner Stevensville High School Rm. E112 Phone: (406) 777-5481 ext. 112 Email: [email protected] American Studies Course Description: American Studies is a college-level course combining the Advanced Placement English Language curriculum with the Advanced Placement United States History curriculum. Students will survey American history from the colonial era to the present, with special emphasis on historical and rhetorical analysis. Students will gain the skills necessary to write effectively as scholars, professionals, and private individuals. The course will train students to think and read both critically and analytically, as well as communicate clearly in writing and speech. At the end of the year, students will take the CollegeBoard’s Advanced Placement United States History and English Language Exams. * Each test costs approximately $90, and the district will pay for half the cost of each exam. Most colleges will award between 6 and 9 credits for a passing score on each exam, which would cost over $1500 at a state school and upwards of $10,000 at some private institutions. Total fee waivers for students with financial need are available through the counseling office. *ote: Students who opt not to take the Advanced Placement Exams will forfeit the AP designation and weighted grade on their transcript and will have to take a cumulative final exam of comparable difficulty and scope at the end of the year. Texts: American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: Glencoe, 2009. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Bantam Books, 1985. Kennedy, David M., Thomas A Bailey, and Lizabeth Cohen. The American Pageant. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible . New York: Penguin Books, 1981. O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels . New York: Ballantine Books, 1974. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Permabound, 1988. Grading System: Grades will be based upon the following required assignments. In addition to these assignments, students will also take a cumulative semester exam, worth ten percent of their SEMESTER grades. Semester grades will be assigned based upon the 90, 80, 70, 60 scale. Please note that since this is an Honors course, student GPA will be calculated on a 5.0 scale rather than a 4.0 Syllabus is tentative and is subject to change scale (i.e. a “C” in this class is entered into cumulative GPA as a 3.0, rather than a 2.0 as it would be in a non-Honors course). Essays (35%): Almost all essays begin as timed in-class assignments that are first graded as rough drafts. Rough drafts are revised and peer-edited both in and out of class before being submitted as typed final drafts. Students must submit all drafts with final copies. Final papers must be typed in proper MLA style. Anticipate at least one formal writing assignment every two weeks, including, but not limited to essays (compare/contrast, analysis, definition, description, persuasive, narrative), editorials, letters, and reviews. Tests (25%): Tests will be multiple choice and essay in the AP Exam format. They will be given every 2-4 chapters. Tests will also be given on memorization of the US Presidents, their dates in office, and political parties, as well as on the states and capitals of the US. Quizzes (15%): Quizzes are used to see if reading assignments have been done and understood. They will also be used to assess vocabulary knowledge and grammatical concepts. They are unscheduled and will be given at the instructor’s discretion. Participation (25%): This includes classroom participation and written assignments. These assignments can include preliminary steps to creating a larger whole, such as plans, research, drafts, Journals, vocab/grammar exercises, and textual annotations. *ote: Participation means attending class prepared with writing tools, a notebook organized per the guidelines in this syllabus, the textbook, and any documents provided by the instructor for that day’s topics. Also, participation includes answering, and, most importantly, asking questions on a daily basis. It is impossible to receive an “A” and difficult to receive a “B” in American Studies without raising your hand daily both to ask and to answer questions. Quarter Book/Film Assignments: Every quarter, each student must watch a film and read a book from the lists provided by the instructor and then write a historical review for each. The film review is due the week before midquarter, and the book review is due the week before the end of each quarter. Further information regarding historical reviews will be provided in future handouts. Academic Honesty: Plagiarism of any sort will not be tolerated. This includes deliberate copying, use of information/language without citation, and the borrowing of ideas without giving credit. The MLA Style Manual considers the use of three or more consecutive words from another source without proper citation to be plagiarism, so, when in doubt, cite your sources. Confirmed plagiarism will result in an automatic zero on the assignment, with the possibility of failure for the academic marking period and/or removal from the course at the instructor’s prerogative. Exam Overview: Syllabus is tentative and is subject to change All exams will be formatted exactly as the CollegeBoard’s AP US History Exam or AP English Language Exam, with 60-80 multiple choice questions, and 3 essays. Exams will take both periods to complete. Essay Overview: Both exam essays and out of class essays will follow generally the same format. The AP US History Exam has two types of essays, the DBQ, and the Standard Essay. The AP English Language Exam has three types of essays, the Synthesis Essay, the Free Response Essay, and the Analysis Essay. The DBQ provides students with between 8 and 14 historical documents and a question regarding those documents. The student must then formulate a response using the documents as evidence. The Standard Essay requires students to analyze themes in US History across several groups or time periods. Students are required to write two Standard Essays on the AP US History Exam. The Synthesis Essay, much like the DBQ, will provide students with a variety of source materials and ask them to answer a question using those sources as evidence. The Free Response Essay will ask students to take a position on an issue and defend their thesis with relevant evidence from personal experience and prior knowledge. The Analysis Essay will provide students with one or more pieces of non-fiction prose and ask them to analyze the author(s)’ use of style and rhetoric to support the purpose or purposes of each document. More detailed information and scoring rubrics for each question will be provided in future handouts. Remember, all out of class essays must be typed in standard MLA format. Essay Commentary: In the six years that I have been teaching Advanced Placement courses, I have noticed that writing extensive commentary on student papers rarely leads to any significant improvement in student writing. In effect, it becomes an exercise in penmanship for the instructor. Therefore, I have stopped writing commentary, and instead simply score each essay based upon the 9 point rubrics developed by the CollegeBoard. This is not to say that I do not believe in the necessity of feedback in improving writing; feedback is vital. This is why I make myself available before school from 7:45 am to 8:30 am, during lunch from 12:10 pm to 12:45 pm, and after school from 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm to conference with students about each individual essay. After each essay is handed back, every student is encouraged to read back through the essay, reexamine the prompt, come up with any questions, and then make an appointment to conference with me about that essay. During the conference, I will provide line by line commentary to the student, answering Syllabus is tentative and is subject to change any questions and providing verbal feedback that the student will record on his or her paper. As this is a college-level course, it is up to each student to take the initiative to make an appointment. Assignment Procedures: Assignments will be collected at the beginning of the period on the day they are due. They will be passed to the front of the room, stacked, and then paperclipped together before being placed in the wooden in-box on the corner of my desk. All assignments must have an MLA style header written on the upper left corner of the page, noting the student’s full name, the instructor’s name, the course title, and the due date of the assignment. Any assignments in the inbox that are not paperclipped with the rest of the class’s papers will be assumed to have been turned in late without reason and will be docked points unless an explanation is clearly written on the top of the assignment. In the event of printer malfunctions or other difficulties, assignments may be emailed to me at [email protected] and will not be counted late if received prior to the end of the period on the day that they are due. Course Supplies: The following items will be necessary to complete this course. If you have difficulty obtaining any of these supplies, please see the instructor. *Pens (blue or black ink) and Pencils—BRING BOTH EVERY DAY! *A three ring binder devoted solely to this course—I recommend at least 3” rings *Seven notebook dividers labeled as noted in the NOTEBOOK ORGANIZATION section of this syllabus *Loose-leaf, college-ruled paper—several reams *Two book covers (our textbooks cost over $100 each, so treat them well) *A highlighter otebook Organization: As every exam in this course is cumulative, the ability to organize and access information is essential to success.