First Quarter: Rhetoric: Reading Critically, Writing Effectively

Week 1

Collection of the summer assignments

Presentations on the book/movie compare and contrast essay and project

Week 2

How is AP structured? Why take AP?

Structure of the course

Glossary of Literary/ Rhetorical Terms

Terms for the multiple choice tests

Intro to Essay and Writing Journals (Dillard’s “The Death of a Moth”)

Assign outside reading Walden

Practice Essay #1 (2006 #3)

Week 3

Read and annotate pages 1-30 in The Bedford Reader (Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2)

Discussion

Review Practice Essay #1

Practice Essay #2 (2006 (B) #1)

TEST ( Literary/ Rhetorical Terms)

Week 4

Read and annotate pages 31-47 in The Bedford Reader

Discussion

Review Practice Essay #2

“My Writing Process” This essay is a personal essay designed to force students to examine their own writing process and analyze the stages through which they proceed to get to a finished product.

Weeks 5- 9 (refer to appendix 1 for a detailed week by week reading list)

Students will read a variety of essays from both texts (Bedford and Patterns) focusing on the following rhetorical methods, strategies and devices: Narration, description, example, compare and contrast, and process analysis. Authors include: Annie Dillard, Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, George Orwell, E. B White, Brent Staples, Bruce Catton, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Fatema Mernissi and Malcolm X.

Students will use the following annotation devices: SOAPSTONE (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker and Tone), SOLLIDDD (Syntax, Organization, Literary Devices, Level of Discourse, Imagery, Diction, Detail and Dialogue), DIDLS (Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax) and Aristolean Triangles.

Visual analysis will be addressed using The Bedford Reader, The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. OPTIC (Overview, Parts, Title, Interrelationships and Conclusion) will be used to analyze visual text.

Students will complete a Reading Response Journal on one essay, and will write one practice essay, from each “Methods” Section.

Week 10

Review and Test of methods and strategies so far.

Peer and teacher evaluation/ revision of 2 practice essays.

Presentations and discussion of Walden

Second Quarter: Rhetoric: Reading Critically, Writing Effectively continued

Weeks 1- 7 (refer to appendix1 for a detailed week by week reading list)

Assign outside reading The Scarlet Letter.

Students will read a variety of essays from both texts (Bedford and Patterns) focusing on the following rhetorical methods, strategies and devices: Classification and Division, cause and effect, definition, argument and persuasion and mixing methods. Authors include: Emily Prager, Naomi Klein, Paul Fusell, Gloria Naylor, Thomas Jefferon, Sandra Cisneros, Virginia Woolf and Jonathan Swift.

Students will continue to use the following annotation devices: SOAPSTONE, SOLLIDDD, DIDLS and Aristolean Triangles.

Visual analysis will continue to be addressed using The Bedford Reader, The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. OPTIC (Overview, Parts, Title, Interrelationships and Conclusion) will be used to analyze visual text.

Students will complete a Reading Response Journal on one essay, and will write one practice essay, from each “Methods” Section.

In weeks 6 and 7 students will write rhetorical analyses of 2 of the previously read essays.

Weeks 8- 9

Group presentations of rhetorical analyses of The Scarlet Letter

TEST

Week 10

Practice essays (rhetorical)

Multiple Choice practice

Mid Term Exam

Third Quarter: The Synthesis Essay, Further Analysis of Visuals and The Research Paper

Assign outside readings: Lincoln’s Greatest Speech; classic essays and letters (Plato, Machiavelli, Hazlitt etc) ; Shakespearean speeches

Weeks 1- 2

Introduction to the Synthesis prompt and essay

Read Casebook on Media Violence: P, 669-696

Class discussion

Reading Journal on 2 essays

How to use source material (MLA style) and exercises on incorporating source material into text

Graphic organizer for a synthesis essay using Media Violence Casebook

Week 3

Analyzing Visuals (build on work from first 2 quarters)

How to analyze visual material  (The Bedford Reader)

Practice selections from Bedford

Students are given a packet of information on analyzing visuals and are required to collect from their own sources several visuals from magazines or newspapers that they can analyze for the class.

Short Analysis essay and class presentation

Weeks 4- 5

Practice synthesis essays from previous exams and workshop (St. Johnsbury) created.

These essays are practice essays that require students to form a thesis statement and defend it using material from (at least)three sources. Students are required to incorporate source material according to MLA style.

Grading rubric for synthesis essays

Peer/ teacher evaluation

Students work in groups to create their own synthesis prompts.

Class presentations of prompts and discussion of prompts and sources.

Weeks 6- 10 :

The Research Paper assignment

Students are required to write a 5-7 page research paper on a topic that has been approved. (The emphasis in the research paper will be on language) Students will formulate a thesis and gather information from at least five outside sources (only one internet source) to support it. They will correctly document material according to MLA style.

B: Using and Documenting Sources (49- 72) P: Using Research In Your Writing (753- 84)

Steps in writing a research paper: Choosing topics for the research paper and limiting them to language study.How to gather source material. Incorporating source material  Writing strategies–Jane Schafer’s “Chunking”method. Using different kinds of graphic organizers

Additionally during the third quarter we will address the following:

Studying the structure of the AP test

Revisiting literary terms

Grammar review

Critical Reading and the Multiple Choice Exam

Types of Questions

Sample Exam questions

Answering multiple choice questions from the AP exam

Fourth Quarter

Weeks 1-4

Test prep for exam on May 14 through the use of prior AP exams.

Review of  literary and rhetorical terms, multiple choice terms, Acronyms (SOLLIDDD, SOAPSTONE, DIDLS, Aristolean triangles, OPTIC)

Review of essay structures, thesis statements, graphic organizers

Weeks 6-9

Poetry and literary periods in American Literature from the Puritans through present.

Research paper on major author or text.

Final Exam

 

 

AP English Language and Composition (Appendix 1)

Weekly Readings and Assignments

 

Essays: Types, methods, rhetorical strategies and devices

Reading: All readings are required.

Assessment/ Classwork (unless otherwise noted): Synthesized notes on Introductions and Visuals(B). Reading Response Journals and draft essay on one essay and method from each section. Reading Response Journal on a major feature article from The Atlantic once a month.

B= The Bedford Reader P= Patterns for College Writing

(First Quarter, Week 5)Narration Intro: B, 75- 87          P, 83- 89Essays: B: “Champion of the World,” “Fish Cheeks” (88- 98) P: “Shooting an Elephant” (125- 33) [Already assigned: In Cold Blood]

(Week 6)Description Intro: B, 135- 43          P, 143- 153Essays: B: “Silent Dancing” (162- 172) P: “Ground Zero” (162- 66), “Once More to the Lake” (186- 92)

(Week 7)Example Intro: B, 187- 94          P, 203- 10Essays: B: “Black Men and Public Space” (205-11), “Signs” (219- 26) P: “Star Spangled Stupidity” (246- 51)

(Week 8 Compare and Contrast Intro: B, 229- 35          P, 387- 95Essays: B: “Batting Clean Up” (245- 49), “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” (265- 71) P: “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts” (409- 13)

(Week 9)Process Analysis Intro: B, 285- 91          P, 267- 73Essays: B: “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” (305-15) P: “My First Conk” (285- 89)

(Second Quarter, Week 1)Classification and Division Intro: B, 335- 43, 375- 80          P, 451- 58Essays: B: “Our Barbies, Ourselves” (353- 8), “What Do You Mean?” (390- 99) P: “College Pressures” (466- 74) Assign: The Scarlet Letter

(Week 2)Cause and Effect Intro: B, 429- 36          P, 327- 38Essays: B: “A Web of Brands” (440- 47), “Live Free and Starve” (448- 53) P: “Words in War” (377- 81)

(Week 3)Definition Intro: B, 477- 83          P, 509- 16Essays: B: “The Meanings of a Word” (486- 91) P: “Stigmatic Uniforms” (544- 81)

(Weeks 4 and 5)Argument and Persuasion Intro: B, 515- 28          P, 555- 76Essays: B: Security vs. Liberty Casebook (570- 92) P: “The Declaration of Independence” (584- 89), “Declaration of Sentiments” (590-95)

(Weeks 6 and 7)Mixing Methods Intro: B, 593- 95          P, 703- 07Essays: B: “Only Daughter” (596- 602), “I Have a Dream” (625- 30), “Aria” (655- 68) P: “Dumpster Diving” (712- 27), “Death of the Moth” (728- 32), “A Modest Proposal” (733- 42) Assessment: Rhetorical analyses of 2 essays      using SOAPSTONE, SOLLIDDD and/or other analytical/ annotative tools. 2 draft essays.

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