Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is essentially a course in critical reading and effective writing. Students will grow increasingly adept at reading and discussing literary texts written in a variety of periods and styles, with particular attention to nonfiction. Students will also become increasingly skillful in writing three types of papers: an essay of close textual analysis, which will determine a given selection’s purpose, audience, and use of rhetorical devices; an open-ended argument, which will support, challenge, or qualify a given assertion; and a documented essay, which will synthesize and identify outside sources used to strengthen one’s own case.
* * *
Richard Lederer begins his book The Miracle of Language with this claim: “It is only through the gift of language that the child acquires reason, the complexity of thought that sets him or her apart from the other creatures who share this planet. The birth of language is the dawn of humanity; in our beginning was the word.” This gift of language–in its many forms–is the heart and soul of this course.
*****
*****
Welcome to your POST-AP-TEST Edgate page. It contains most of what you need to know for the rest of the school year.
*****
*****
#1 THE PLAY. Bring with you to class everyday Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. We will enact and discuss the play in class and compare it to some contemporary films. Activities (announced in class) will have the value of two quizzes.
*****
*****
#2 "My Turn": AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE. Read all assigned autobiographical narratives from The Bedford Reader. Follow this schedule:
Due Tuesday, 5/20: Maya Angelou's "Champion of the World" (88), Amy Tan's "Fish Cheeks" (94), and Annie Dillard's "The Chase" (94)
Due Tuesday, 5/27: Brad Manning's "Arm Wrestling with My Father" (144), Sarah Vowell's "Shooting Dad" (152), and Sandra Cisneros' "Only Daughter" (596)
Due Monday, 6/2: Brent Staples' "Black Men and Public Space" (205), William F. Buckley's "Why Don't We Complain" (538), and George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" (645)
*****
These short essays will serve as models for the paper you will write, a paper that will serve the same two-fold purpose: to narrate and describe in detail a personal experience and to provide through it an observation or message for a wider audience. In other words, it's "your turn" to write your story. This final--really final--paper of at least two pages will have the value of a test and is due on Thursday, 6/5, the final day of class!
*****
*****
#3 ENTERING THE CONVERSATION one more time, by posting reactions and replies to Susan Jacoby's article "How Dumb Can We Get?" first published in The Washington Post. Again, go to learn.unioncatholic.org. Click Humanities and choose AP Language. Enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD, click on the course again, and follow the directions for ASSIGNMENT 2. Note that you must post twice: once to respond to the article, perhaps by identifying one of its main points and then supporting, challenging, or qualifying it, and then by replying to one of your classmates' blogs. Each entry should be thoughtful, relevant, and grammatical, and at least five sentences. The activity will have the value of a quiz. Both postings are due by Thursday, 5/29.
*****
*****
And that's it! Thanks for a happy and productive year--and have a great summer!
*****
NOTE: Check out these attachments. They're successful college-level essays on Catch-22 written and now published by your peers. Note the thesis of each, the relevant topic sentences, the supporting details. Note, too, how successfully these writers incorporate quoted evidence from the text.
