Course+Syllabus

Course Syllabus AP Language and Composition Homestead High School 2012-2013

Mrs. Angelina Cicero
Office Location: Room 813 Telephone: Office Phone 262-238-5887 Cell Phone 262-242-5115 (for academic questions only) E-mail: __acicero@mtsd.k12.wi.us__

Course Description
An AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects, as well as the way genre conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.

Upon completing the AP English Language and Composition course, students should be able to:
==== While the AP English Language and Composition course assumes that students already understand and use standard English grammar, it also reflects the practice of reinforcing writing conventions at every level. Therefore, occasionally the exam may contain multiple-choice questions on usage to reflect the link between grammar and style. The intense concentration on language use in the course enhances students’ ability to use grammatical conventions appropriately and to develop stylistic maturity in their prose. Stylistic development is nurtured by emphasizing the following: ====
 * analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques;
 * apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing;
 * create and sustain arguments based on readings, research and/or personal experience;
 * write for a variety of purposes;
 * 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 their own writings;
 * demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources;
 * move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing and review;
 * write thoughtfully about their own process of composition; •revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience;
 * analyze image as text; and •evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers
 * a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively;
 * a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination;
 * logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions and emphasis;
 * a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail; and
 * an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence

**Grading**
Meaningful class participation is an expectation every day and may affect a student's grade. Some homework will be graded. Some homework will be used to provide formative feedback. Prepared essays will be graded using the Six-Trait Rubric provided in class. Impromptu essays will be graded using the nine point holistic rubric provided and used by the AP Board.

Course Policies
Behavioral standards, attendance, peer work/collaboration, class discussion and teacher/student interaction should all maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and should uphold the dignity of the leaning community and of the academic atmosphere.

Collaboration/Plagiarism Rules
Mrs. Cicero's specific policies regarding collaboration on graded academic exercises: Collaboration involves mutual contributions of which the teacher is aware. Students are encouraged to engage in meaningful collaboration. At no time should a student take credit for another student's work. At no time should a student give his/her work to another student and allow him/her to take credit. Both of these choices constitute academic dishonesty. = Academic Honesty Agreement = I make a commitment to adhere to the guidelines of academic honesty established by Homestead High School, which clearly specify that at no time will the exact words or the original ideas of another writer or speaker be presented as my original work. Rather than “kidnapping” from others, I will trust my own written voice and stay committed to my personal growth as a writer. I will preserve the teacher/student trust created only in the absence of doubt – a student’s self-doubt, which may tempt him or her to plagiarize, and a teacher’s doubt about the authorship of student work.


 * I understand that plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class. Any plagiarism, whether one sentence or an entire piece, will result in the following consequences: **
 * ** Zero points on the assignment **
 * ** Conference with assistant principal; school discipline **
 * ** Phone call to parents and guidance counselor **
 * ** 500 word essay on the ethics of plagiarism **

**Electronics Policy** Cell phones, Blackberries, iPods, iPads, and laptops, or any other electronic devises are to be used in the classroom only with expressed permission from Mrs. Cicero. Information exchanges on these devices during class should be related to the curriculum of the day and should adhere to the strictest standards of academic integrity. During quizzes, tests, and impromptus, all electronics are strictly prohibited. Students should never record any aspect of class without expressed permission from the teacher.

HHS Mission Statement
The mission of Homestead High School is to equip all students with transferable skills, promote academic independence, foster social responsibility, and inspire a passion for learning.

Course Syllabus
** AP Language and Composition Course Curriculum ** ** See BYOC for standards ** **__ Trimester A __**


 * __ Unit 1: Finding the Written Voice __**
 * Introduction to the course and the concept of rhetoric ** – Chapters 1-4 from //Everything’s an Argument// and Chapter 1 from //The Language of Composition//
 * 1) Students will study The Rhetorical Triangle
 * 2) Students will learn to recognize appeals to ethos, logos, pathos
 * 3) Students will use varying rhetorical modes: Narration, Description, Exemplification, Compare and Contrast, Classification and Division, Definition, Process Analysis, Cause and Effect, Argument
 * 4) Students will analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and modes
 * 5) Selected readings from chapters 1,2,4,5 from //The Bedford Reader// and other sources
 * 6) Selected readings from //The New York Times//
 * 7) Selected readings from //Everything’s an Argument//
 * Introduction to critical reading/close reading ** – Chapter 2 in //The Language of Composition//
 * 1) Students will analyze prose using SOAPstone
 * 2) Students will engage in sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word analysis and interpretation
 * 3) Students will analyze and interpret selected non-fiction readings, including pre-20th century and contemporary examples from //Elements of Literature: Literature of Britain// (e.g. Boswell, Carlyle, Churchill, Swift, Coleridge, Addison, and Virginia Woolf,) //The Bedford Reader//, “The History Place: Great Speeches Collection” (found at [],) “American Rhetoric” //(//[],) and other sources.
 * 4) Students will analyze and interpret selected readings from //The New York Times//
 * 5) Students will analyze and interpret by considering what the text //Says...(//What the text says / the world through the window created by the text) and what the text //Does...(//What the author does to communicate and create desired effects and communicate messages / analysis of the window itself, the lens through which we see that world and receive the messages)
 * 6) Students will read prose fiction, informational text, prose essays, speeches, and poetry
 * 7) Students will analysis of diction, imagery, syntax, tone, and structure in particular pieces
 * 8) Students will do close reading of primary and secondary sources
 * Effective application of strategies and modes and appeals in student writing: **
 * 1) Students will draft original writing: prepared and impromptu
 * 2) Students will engage in multiple invention and pre-writing strategies prior to creating first draft
 * 3) Students will work on organizational strategies, including paragraph development and moving beyond the five-paragraph essay structure
 * 4) Students will master rhetorical analysis terms from // The Bedford Reader // and apply new strategies in their own drafts
 * 5) Students will peer-edit and/or writer’s workshop and/or peer review: students contribute meaningful feedback to others to aid in the revision process and revise effectively in response to feedback they themselves receive
 * 6) Students will revise works to make them suitable for different audiences and purposes
 * 7) Students will do multiple revisions and re-writes of expository, argumentative and narrative papers based on peer feedback, teacher feedback, and self-analysis
 * 8) Students will d emonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings
 * 9) Students will develop versatility in use of rhetorical modes
 * 10) Students will learn to include dialogue effectively in narrative writing
 * 11) Students will learn to use sensory imagery to s how, not tell
 * 12) Students will incorporate a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively
 * 13) Students will u se of a variety of sentence structures
 * 14) Students will choose l ogical organizational patterns, enhanced by specific techniques, to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions and emphasis
 * 15) Students will use a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail
 * 16) Students will effectively use rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure


 * __ Unit 2 Argumentation and Persuasion __**
 * Students will read and discuss chapters 5,7,13,17 in //Everything’s an Argument//
 * Students will read and discuss chapters 7, 11, 13 in //The Bedford Reader//
 * Students will c reate and sustain arguments based on readings, research and/or personal experience
 * Students will w rite for a variety of purposes
 * Students will p roduce 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;
 * Students will d emonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings.
 * Students will revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience
 * Students will interpret visual arguments and analyze image as text
 * Students will analyze writing from a varying time periods (fiction, informational non-fiction, drama, letters, speeches, editorials, blogs, advertisements, historical documents and other media)
 * Students will study logical fallacies and analyze logic in prose writing, advertisements, political cartoons, and other visual arguments.


 * Unit 3 //Hamlet// by William Shakespeare **
 * Students will apply close reading strategies
 * Students will engage in rhetorical analysis of soliloquies
 * Students will write argumentation essays based on issues related to gender, power, parent/child relationships, family, loyalty, and/or other themes in the play

Using //Barron’s// //1,100 Words You Need to Know//
 * __ Vocabulary Study: Embedded Unit __**


 * __ Grammar Skills: Embedded Unit __**
 * #1 ** Review: Working quotes into sentences
 * Method 1: speaker tags (said, asked, explained) followed by a comma
 * Method 2: the quote is worked into the natural flow of the sentence with no speaker tag
 * Method 3: The writer communicates something general about the quote before a colon and follows with the quote as the specific.
 * Knowing when to paraphrase, summarize or quote
 * Correct MLA documentation
 * #2 ** Review: Compound, complex, and compound/complex sentences with an emphasis on correct placement of commas and proper use of semi-colons.

Writing complete sentences and combining sentences
 * Definition of independent clause (subject, verb, complete thought)
 * Three methods for combining independent clauses
 * Comma and conjunction (//fanboys: for and nor but or yet so)//
 * Semi-colon (for closely related independent clauses whose relationship is clear)
 * Semi-colon; conjunctive adverb, comma (//chant of the lambs//: consequently, however, also, nevertheless, thus, otherwise, furthermore, therefore, hence, else, likewise, additionally, moreover, besides, still)
 * Editing for run-ons, comma-splices, and fragments
 * No comma with a compound verb

Writing complex sentences


 * Definition of a dependent clause (incomplete thought; common words that create dependent clauses include when, if, although, since, because)
 * Dependent, Independent or D,I rule (When a dependent clause precedes an independent clause, a comma follows to signal the beginning of the independent clause)
 * Independent Dependent or ID rule (No comma is needed when the dependent clause follows the independent clause)

Writing compound/complex sentences (at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clauses) paragraphs and not only/but also) use “you”
 * Students can apply rules for compound and complex sentences in combination
 * Examples: I;ID D,I, and I DI; however, I D
 * #3 ** Apostrophes
 * #4 ** Writing effective and sophisticated transitions within paragraphs and between
 * #5 ** Varying sentence beginnings (single word modifiers, phrases, etc.)
 * #6 ** Parallel structure (including verb phrases, all kinds of lists, either/neither nor,
 * #7 ** Subject/pronoun agreement, vague pronouns, possessive pronouns, and when to
 * #8 ** Periodic sentences
 * #9 ** Dash


 * __ Potential Writing Assignments and Other Assessments __**
 * Imitation Exercises – formal and informal ( ** ex.“Salvador Late or Early” imitation, sentence imitations, etc.)
 * Personal Narrative ** —Response to Aphorisms, Journey of Change, Personal Epiphany, or other first-person prompts.
 * Argument Question Essays ** – minimum of three (can be homework or in class, prepared or impromptu; at least one is done as an authentic 40 minute impromptu in class and graded as a summative assessment)
 * Rhetorical Analysis ** – minimum of three (can be homework or in class, prepared or impromptu; at least one is done as an authentic 40 minute impromptu in class and graded as a summative assessment)
 * Prepared Essays ** – Connected with the reading of //Hamlet//, students write a paper with a thesis rooted in argumentation or rhetorical analysis or both. Connected with the reading of //Hamlet//, students may write collaborative papers. Papers will require extensive revision with drafts submitted multiple times.
 * Lens paper ** (An original work of fiction or non-fiction re-written though another point of view. Ex. Nadine Gordimer "Once Upon a Time" or Look at a work through the lens of a feminist, communist, psychiatrist, or sociologist.)
 * Reader Response Journal **
 * Writer’s Notebook **
 * Text Annotation ** (RAP and other annotation exercises)
 * Practice AP Language objective and essay tests **
 * Vocabulary and terms assessments **
 * Mid-term exam: AP Argumentative Essay and one passage from an AP objective test **
 * Final exam: Rhetorical Analysis Essay and one passage from an AP objective test **

**__ Trimester B __**

**__Unit 1 Satire__**
 * 1) Students will read satire and learn to identify how hyperbole, humor, irony, understatement, and control of tone can create a thought provoking cultural critique.
 * 2) Students will create satirical prose and/or visual, audio/visual satire, or poetry.
 * 3) Potential works: "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain essays and stories, __The Simpsons__, __The Onion__, Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, __The Canterbury Tales__, Dave Chappelle (__Chappelle Show)__ or other comedians, __The Daily Show__ or __The Colbert Report__, __Saturday Night Live__. Other potential writers: Dave Barry, David Sedaris

**Potential Assessments**
 * 1) Write a modest proposal using satirical strategies
 * 2) Write analytical responses to political cartoons or other visual satire
 * 3) Write a satirical modern pilgrim imitation (Chaucer imitation)

__ **Unit 2 The Novel as Argument** __
 * 1) Possible novel choices: //A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Dispossessed, Great Expectations,// or //Things Fall Apart//
 * 2) Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze the author's use of literary devices, tone, and style (i.e. SOAPSTONE) in order to convey an argument
 * 3) Students will build understanding of how various effects are achieved through the author’s use of linguistic and rhetorical choices
 * 4) Students will recognize inter-textual connections between a novel and other documents from the same time period and from other eras

**__Unit 3 Research and Synthesis__**
 * 1) Students will read Chapter 3 from //The Language of Composition//
 * 2) Students will draft original writing that synthesizes sources, both prepared and impromptu
 * 3) Students engage in multiple invention and pre-writing strategies prior to creating first draft
 * 4) Students will work on organizational strategies, with an emphasis on paragraph development and moving beyond the five-paragraph essay structure
 * 5) Students will peer-edit and/or writer’s workshop and/or peer review: students contribute meaningful feedback to others to aid in the revision process and edit effectively in response to feedback they receive
 * 6) Students will revise original works to make them suitable for different audiences and purposes
 * 7) Students will do multiple revisions and re-writes of papers based on peer, teacher, and self-analysis and editing


 * 1) Students will demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources
 * 2) Students will move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing and review
 * 3) Students will write thoughtfully about their own process of composition
 * 4) Students will cite sources using MLA documentation
 * 5) Students will read primary and secondary sources and synthesize material from these texts in their own compositions
 * 6) Students will evaluate and incorporate reference documents into original writing
 * 7) Students will formulate varied, informed arguments to defend an original thesis based on analysis and synthesis of ideas from an array of sources


 * Potential Assessments **
 * 1) Reader's response journal
 * 2) Annotated Bibliography: an annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
 * 3) Research essay with formal MLA citations and bibliography
 * 4) Synthesis Project (make something new after internalizing multiple sources) Examples: Letter to a company or newspaper editorial or creation of a persuasive document, presentation, or public service announcement
 * 5) Collaborative essay writing
 * 6) Practice AP Language objective and essay tests
 * 7) Document based impromptus with MLA documentation
 * 8) Vocabulary assessments

__ **Unit 4 College Essay** __
 * 1) Students will create essays indicative of their unique written voice
 * 2) Students will demonstrate an ability to control subject matter, style, tone, and organization to fit the purpose of individual questions
 * 3) Students will, in their essays:
 * 4) Incorporate a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively
 * 5) Use variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination
 * 6) Choose logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions and emphasis
 * 7) Use a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail
 * 8) Effectively use rhetorical strategies, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure


 * Potential Assessments **
 * 1) Write essays for specific colleges of student's choosing
 * 2) Write essays for the common application


 * __ Grammar: Embedded Unit __**
 * #1 ** Review: Working quotes into sentences
 * Method 1: speaker tags (said, asked, explained) followed by a comma
 * Method 2: the quote is worked into the natural flow of the sentence with no speaker tag
 * Method 3: The writer communicates something general about the quote before a colon and follows with the quote as the specific.
 * Knowing when to paraphrase, summarize or quote; MLA documentation for a single source; rule for long quotes)
 * #2 ** Appositives
 * #3 ** Colons
 * #4 ** Apostrophe (singular and plural possessives)
 * #5 ** Who/whom
 * #6 ** Lie/lay
 * #7 ** Commonly confused words
 * #8 ** Subject/verb agreement

Using //Barron’s// //1,100 Words You Need to Know//
 * __ Vocabulary Study: Embedded Unit __**

Continued practice of objective tests
 * __ Other Potential Writing Assignments/Assessments __**
 * Satire – ** imitation essay, original satirical podcast, newscast, political cartoon, or advertisement
 * Synthesis prompt practice ** – minimum of three (can be homework or in class, prepared or impromptu; at least one is done as an authentic impromptu in class and graded as a formative assessment)
 * Synthesis Creation Assignment **
 * Researched Argument Paper **
 * Impromptus: Argument and Rhetorical Analysis **
 * Essay and objective test ** on a novel
 * College Essays ** – minimum of two
 * Final exam: AP Language Synthesis Essay **

__Everything’s an Argument__

Trimester One: Unit One: Finding the Written Choice Chapter 1 Purposes of Argument Chapter 2 Arguments Based on Emotion: Pathos Chapter 3 Arguments Based on Character: Ethos Chapter 4 Arguments Based on Facts and Reason: Logos

Trimester One: Unit Two: Argumentation and Persuasion Chapter 5 Rhetorical Analysis Chapter 7 Structuring Arguments Chapter 13 Style of Arguments Chapter 17 Fallacies of Argument

__Bedford Reader__

Trimester One: Unit One: Finding the Written Voice Chapter 1 Critical Reading Chapter 2 The Writing Process Chapter 4 Narration Chapter 5 Description

Trimester One: Unit Two: Argumentation and Persuasion Chapter 7 Comparison Contrast Chapter 11 Cause and Effect Chapter 13 Argument and Persuasion

__Language and Composition__

Trimester One: Unit One: Finding the Written Voice Chapter 1 An Introduction to Rhetoric Chapter 2 Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Analysis

Trimester Two: Unit Two: Synthesis Chapter 3 Synthesizing Sources: Entering the Conversation (Trimester 2)

__Elements of Literature, Sixth Course: Literature of Britain with World Classics__

Chaucer, Geoffrey, “Prologue” __The Canterbury Tales__ “The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue” __The Canterbury Tales__ Marlowe, Christopher, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” Raleigh, Sir Walter, “The Nymph’s Rely to the Shepherd” Marvell, Andrew, “To His Coy Mistress” Donne, John, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” “Meditation 17” Swift, Jonathan, “A Voyage to Lilliput,” __Gulliver’s Travels__ “A Modest Proposal” Boyle T.Coraghessan, “Top of the Food Chain” Pepys, Samuel, excerpt from __The Diary of Samuel Pepys__ Defoe, Daniel, excerpt from __A Journal of the Plague Year__ Johnson, Samuel, excerpt from __A Dictionary of the English L__anguage “Letter to Lord Chesterfield” Boswell, James, excerpt from __The Life of Samuel Johnson__ Keats, John, “Keats’s Last Letter” Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, “Ulysses” Browning, Robert, “My Last Duchess” Kipling, Rudyard, “The Mark of the Beast” Eliot, T. S., “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Woolf, Virginia, “Shakespeare’s Sister” from __A Room of One’s Own__ Orwell, George, “Shooting an Elephant”

Additional essay choices: McKuen, Ian, “9/11”, “9/15 2001” Donne, John, “The Flea” Truth, Sojourner, “Ain’t I a Woman” Smith, Gary, “Why Don’t More Athletes Take a Stand,” Sports Illustrated,” 12 July 2012.

Bibliography

Brontë, Charlotte. //Jane Eyre//. New York: Random House, 1997. Print.

Cohen, Samuel S. //50 Essays: A Portable Anthology//. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St.

Martins, 2011. Print.

Dickens, Charles. //Great Expectations//. New York: W.W. Norton and, 1999. Print.

Dickens, Charles. //A Tale of Two Cities//. New York: Penguin, 1994. Print.

DiYanni, Robert. //One Hundred Great Essays//. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman,

2011. Print.

//Elements of Literature Sixth Course Literature of Britain//. Austin: Holt, Rinehart,

Winston, 2000. Print.

Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy Mintzlaff. Kennedy, Jane E. Aaron, and X. J. Kennedy.

// The Bedford Reader //. 11th ed. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 2012. Print.

Kesey, Ken. //One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a Novel.// New York: Viking, 2002. Print.

LeGuin, Ursula. //The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia//. New York: Harper & Row,

1994. Print.

Lunsford, Andrea A., John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. //Everything's an//

// Argument: With Readings //. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. Print.

//New York Times//. <[]>. Shakespeare, William. //The Tragedy of Hamlet, with Connections//. Austin: Holt, Rinehart

and Winston, 2001. Print.

Shea, Renée Hausmann, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. //The Language of//

// Composition: Reading, Writing and Rhetoric //. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's,

2008. Print.