2019 Summer Assignment
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AP Language & Composition
Block 2; Room #423
Chelsea Usher
Ms. Usher’s Email: [email protected] || [email protected]
Course Website: http://msusher.weebly.com
Office Hours: Wednesday 2:45 -3:30; by appointment
Course Description: Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. Course readings feature expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. Students examine and work with essays, letters, speeches, images, and imaginative literature.
Required Texts/Readings: The main text for this course is listed below, but it is by no means the exhaustive text for this course. We will also reference many online resources, visual rhetoric, and grammar texts.
Central course textbooks include 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology; Writing America: Language and Composition in Context, and Language and Composition
Internet Bookmarks:
College Board AP http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/Controller.jpf
Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/index.html
American Rhetoric http://americanrhetoric.com/newtop100speeches.htm
The American Scholar http://www.theamericanscholar.org
The Slate http://www.slate.com
The Onion http://www.theonion.com
TED Talks http://www.ted.com/talks
Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/search.php
YouTube.EDU http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
Course Organization:
This course is organized in accordance with the guidelines described in the AP Language and Composition Course Description.
Assignments and Grading Policy:
Course Unit Outline: Each unit in AP Language & Composition, except the first, will last for about one marking period (10 weeks) and include a series of readings, writing assignments, and discussions as outlined below.
Enduring Understandings:
Evidence: Students will demonstrate continual improvement in their in-class analytical writing assignments:
CURRICULUM
Unit 1: September - November
Language & Identity
Focus on rhetorical purpose and language continues as students read essays in line with the unit’s overarching idea of language and identity. Emphasis on close reading and annotation continues with prose selections drawn from personal essays by Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris, and several essays from 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, including Soujourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman,” Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Spaces,” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” among others. In their close reading, students are expected to recognize the author’s choices when using generalization and specific, illustrative detail, and later to be aware of such choices in their own writings. Students develop the habit of accounting for their close reading in a variety of ways—by producing descriptive outlines, “says/does” analyses, close reading response forms, annotated photocopies of assigned texts, and double-entry notebooks.
Unit 2: November – January
Humankind’s Impact Upon Its Own Landscape
During the second quarter, students encounter clusters of essays that are, again, generally related by subject but are markedly different in purpose and strategies. Students write a major paper synthesizing the rhetorical differences seen in such clusters. Collectively, the class deepens and varies its exploration of the term rhetoric, considering frameworks Toulmin Reasoning, Aristotle’s Modes of Discourse, The Oration Model, and Discourse Markers, and others. and applying them to word and image-based texts, including speeches, letters, and advertisements. Initially, students approach argument from a variety of angles as they deepen their appreciation of context, audience, and purpose. In this regard, they consider provocative images that appear to promote a particular viewpoint. They grapple with a single question: “Does every text pose an argument?” They gather and consider a variety of accessible and diverse “texts”: those listed below, a nutrition label for a snack cake, a stop sign, and ads for various luxuries (from cars to cologne). After considering whether there is a distinction between persuasion and argument, students focus on argument— specifically, appeals or lines of argument based on values, character, or emotion, and those based on facts and reason. In this way, they begin to develop a more integrated and organic understanding of words, images, rhetoric, argument, and persuasion.
Unit 3: February – April
The Joy of Intellectual Pursuits
As we get closer to the exam, the focus on rhetorical purpose and language continues as students read essays in line with the unit’s overarching idea of intellectual desires. Importance will be placed on close reading and annotation continues with prose selections drawn from personal essays by Joan Didion and Sherman Alexie, and several essays from 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, including “Regarding the Pain of Others,” “Learning to Read and Write,” and “Graduation,” among others. As they continue their close reading, students are still expected to recognize the author’s choices when using generalization and specific, illustrative detail, and later to be aware of such choices in their own writings. They are also now expected to bring their personal and world understandings to their writing. Students continue the habit of accounting for their close reading in a variety of ways—by producing descriptive outlines, “says/does” analyses, close reading response forms, annotated photocopies of assigned texts, incorporation of newspaper / magazine articles, and double-entry notebooks.
Unit 4: April – June
The Face of Beauty
The final cluster of essays and other texts studied are all associated with the concept of beauty. Students read numerous essays and other texts that occasion them to think about what beauty involves and what it means—and looks like—to “be” beautiful. These essays will create a framework for the entire unit. Students go on to consider numerous image-based texts drawn from television, selected websites, and periodicals such as Vogue, Men’s Health, and Vanity Fair that influence a culture’s perception of what it means to be beautiful. Pop culture icons such as Barbie, Ken, and G.I. Joe dolls are examined through personal narratives as well as Marge Piercy’s 1969 poem “Barbie Doll” and essays by Alistair Highet, M. G. Lord, Anna Quindlen, Christine Rosen, and Jane Smiley.
Expectations & Resources:
What Students Need for Class: Students should have the following items with them daily. Having all of these items daily will be part of their participation grade in the class weekly.
Note to All Students: Students who wish to advance to the honors program next year must maintain a B+ average (85%) for the year in order to qualify for honors advancement.
Classroom Behavior Expectations: In order to be successful in the classroom it is imperative that students follow the expected standards of conduct:
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is defined as taking someone’s ideas and writings and presenting them as your own. Students caught plagiarizing will be given a ZERO for the assignment without the opportunity to make it up, and parents and administration will be notified.
PLAGIARISM INCLUDES:
Please refer to the Pathways Academy of Technology & Design’s Parent-Student Handbook for all school-wide and district-wide policies.
Block 2; Room #423
Chelsea Usher
Ms. Usher’s Email: [email protected] || [email protected]
Course Website: http://msusher.weebly.com
Office Hours: Wednesday 2:45 -3:30; by appointment
Course Description: Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. Course readings feature expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. Students examine and work with essays, letters, speeches, images, and imaginative literature.
Required Texts/Readings: The main text for this course is listed below, but it is by no means the exhaustive text for this course. We will also reference many online resources, visual rhetoric, and grammar texts.
Central course textbooks include 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology; Writing America: Language and Composition in Context, and Language and Composition
Internet Bookmarks:
College Board AP http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/Controller.jpf
Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/index.html
American Rhetoric http://americanrhetoric.com/newtop100speeches.htm
The American Scholar http://www.theamericanscholar.org
The Slate http://www.slate.com
The Onion http://www.theonion.com
TED Talks http://www.ted.com/talks
Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/search.php
YouTube.EDU http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
Course Organization:
This course is organized in accordance with the guidelines described in the AP Language and Composition Course Description.
Assignments and Grading Policy:
- 20% - Reading – Assignments that are focused on reading, understanding, and interpreting a variety of texts.
- 20% - Writing – Assignments that are focused on the application of core knowledge for writing across the curriculum.
- 20% - Speaking & Listening – Assignments that demonstrate effective communication in writing, speaking, and visual presentations
- 20% - Language – Assignments that are focused on the growth and development of grammar, vocabulary, and language usage.
- 15% - Social – Assignments that contribute to a healthy classroom environment by respecting people, property, ideas, and diversity. Homework completion falls under this category.
- 5% Civic - Engagement in school wide programs, cultural activities, Weebly pages, theme project portfolio work, and the neighborhood/community.
Course Unit Outline: Each unit in AP Language & Composition, except the first, will last for about one marking period (10 weeks) and include a series of readings, writing assignments, and discussions as outlined below.
Enduring Understandings:
- Know and understand conventions of writing process and form including narrative, exposition, analysis, and argument
- Know and understand the various forms of genre including fiction and non-fiction.
- Read works that represent a variety of prose styles and genre.
- Read nonfiction works (e.g. essays, journalism, political writing, science writing, nature writing, autobiographies/biographies, diaries, history, criticism) that are selected to provide students the opportunity to identify and explain an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques
- Read American fiction works (e.g. novels, short stories, poetry) that are selected to provide students the opportunity to identify and explain the writer’s linguistic and rhetorical choices.
- Write in several forms (e.g. narrative, explanatory, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays) about a variety of subjects based on readings, public policies, popular culture, or personal experience.
- Write using Standard English for formal and informal assignments designed to heighten an awareness of the writing techniques employed by writers and the techniques used in personal compositions.
Evidence: Students will demonstrate continual improvement in their in-class analytical writing assignments:
- Students will use appropriate writing process strategies to produce final drafts of their analytical essay and personal compositions.
- Students will provide helpful criticism of each other’s analytical essays in peer conferences.
- Students will use teacher conferences and the teacher’s written comments to improve their writing.
- Students will write using the conventions of writing: clearly stated and developed thesis/purpose/ideas, arrangement, proper paragraph structure, supporting details, effective introduction and conclusion, effective use of quotes, references to source materials, evidence of style and purposeful use of language.
- Students will display evidence of self-evaluation in the improvement of their writing.
- Students will demonstrate their knowledge on formative assessments including quizzes, tests, interviews, and panel discussions.
CURRICULUM
Unit 1: September - November
Language & Identity
Focus on rhetorical purpose and language continues as students read essays in line with the unit’s overarching idea of language and identity. Emphasis on close reading and annotation continues with prose selections drawn from personal essays by Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris, and several essays from 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, including Soujourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman,” Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Spaces,” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” among others. In their close reading, students are expected to recognize the author’s choices when using generalization and specific, illustrative detail, and later to be aware of such choices in their own writings. Students develop the habit of accounting for their close reading in a variety of ways—by producing descriptive outlines, “says/does” analyses, close reading response forms, annotated photocopies of assigned texts, and double-entry notebooks.
- Gender and Sexuality
- “I Want a Wife” (Brady)
- “Ain’t I a Woman?” (Truth)
- “Auguries of Innocence” (Udall) ART/PHOTOGRAPHY
- Language
- “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (Anzaldua)
- “Mother Tongue” (Tan)
- “Words Don’t Mean What They Mean” (Pinker)
- Race and Ethnicity
- “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (King)
- “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” (Staples)
- “Ain’t Jokin’ 1987-1988” Carrie Mae Weems Photography Exhibit
- Coping with Disabilities
- “A Plague of Tics” (Sedaris)
- “On Being a Cripple” (Mairs)
- “Living Under Circe’s Spell” (Soyster)
- Outside Reading:
- Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
Unit 2: November – January
Humankind’s Impact Upon Its Own Landscape
During the second quarter, students encounter clusters of essays that are, again, generally related by subject but are markedly different in purpose and strategies. Students write a major paper synthesizing the rhetorical differences seen in such clusters. Collectively, the class deepens and varies its exploration of the term rhetoric, considering frameworks Toulmin Reasoning, Aristotle’s Modes of Discourse, The Oration Model, and Discourse Markers, and others. and applying them to word and image-based texts, including speeches, letters, and advertisements. Initially, students approach argument from a variety of angles as they deepen their appreciation of context, audience, and purpose. In this regard, they consider provocative images that appear to promote a particular viewpoint. They grapple with a single question: “Does every text pose an argument?” They gather and consider a variety of accessible and diverse “texts”: those listed below, a nutrition label for a snack cake, a stop sign, and ads for various luxuries (from cars to cologne). After considering whether there is a distinction between persuasion and argument, students focus on argument— specifically, appeals or lines of argument based on values, character, or emotion, and those based on facts and reason. In this way, they begin to develop a more integrated and organic understanding of words, images, rhetoric, argument, and persuasion.
- Technology, Media, and Pop Culture
- “Television: The Plug in Drug” (Winn)
- “The Word Police” (Kakutani)
- Propaganda & Advertisements (ART)
- Keep Your School “All-American” (Superman/Anti-Racism)
- “Anti-Smoking” (TRUTH)
- “We Can Do It” (Rosie)
- “Pyramid of the Capitalist System (1911)”
- Class and Money
- “Gospel of Wealth” (Carnegie)
- “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013” (McClelland)
- Science, Nature, the Environment, and Agriculture
- “What’s Eating America” (Pollan)
- “Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp” (Williams)
- Race and Stereotypes
- “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” (Hurston)
- “The Fourth of July” (Lorde)
- “Notes of a Native Son” (Baldwin)
- Outside Reading:
- Night (Wiesel)
Unit 3: February – April
The Joy of Intellectual Pursuits
As we get closer to the exam, the focus on rhetorical purpose and language continues as students read essays in line with the unit’s overarching idea of intellectual desires. Importance will be placed on close reading and annotation continues with prose selections drawn from personal essays by Joan Didion and Sherman Alexie, and several essays from 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, including “Regarding the Pain of Others,” “Learning to Read and Write,” and “Graduation,” among others. As they continue their close reading, students are still expected to recognize the author’s choices when using generalization and specific, illustrative detail, and later to be aware of such choices in their own writings. They are also now expected to bring their personal and world understandings to their writing. Students continue the habit of accounting for their close reading in a variety of ways—by producing descriptive outlines, “says/does” analyses, close reading response forms, annotated photocopies of assigned texts, incorporation of newspaper / magazine articles, and double-entry notebooks.
- Morality
- “On Morality” (Didion)
- “Regarding the Pain of Others” (Sontag)
- Education
- “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” (Alexie)
- “Learning to Read and Write” (Douglass)
- “Politics and the English Language” (Orwell)
- “Graduation” (Angelou)
- · Politics, history, and government
- “A Modest Proposal” (Swift)
- “The Declaration of Independence” (Jefferson)
- “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” (Stanton)
- Diversity of Perspective
- “The Way to Rainy Mountain” (Momaday)
- “On Seeing England for the First Time” (Kincaid)
- “Shooting an Elephant” (Orwell)
Unit 4: April – June
The Face of Beauty
The final cluster of essays and other texts studied are all associated with the concept of beauty. Students read numerous essays and other texts that occasion them to think about what beauty involves and what it means—and looks like—to “be” beautiful. These essays will create a framework for the entire unit. Students go on to consider numerous image-based texts drawn from television, selected websites, and periodicals such as Vogue, Men’s Health, and Vanity Fair that influence a culture’s perception of what it means to be beautiful. Pop culture icons such as Barbie, Ken, and G.I. Joe dolls are examined through personal narratives as well as Marge Piercy’s 1969 poem “Barbie Doll” and essays by Alistair Highet, M. G. Lord, Anna Quindlen, Christine Rosen, and Jane Smiley.
- Diane Ackerman’s “The Face of Beauty” (in Subjects/Strategies)
- “About Men” (Ehrlich)
- “The Wound in the Face” (Carter)
- “A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?” (Sontag)
- The Troubled Life of Boys” (Hall; NY Times)
Expectations & Resources:
What Students Need for Class: Students should have the following items with them daily. Having all of these items daily will be part of their participation grade in the class weekly.
- 3 Ring Binder
- 5 Tab Dividers
- College-Lined Paper
- 3-hole Punched Pencil Pouch
- Pen/Pencil
- Laptop
- AIR Book (independent reading book)
Note to All Students: Students who wish to advance to the honors program next year must maintain a B+ average (85%) for the year in order to qualify for honors advancement.
Classroom Behavior Expectations: In order to be successful in the classroom it is imperative that students follow the expected standards of conduct:
- A Pathways Student:
- Ø Turns in their work on time
- Ø Asks questions about the work before it is due
- Ø Asks what was missed during block break or before they return to class when they miss class
- Ø Emails their teachers or checks the online platform before returning to class when they miss class
- Ø Turns in their work on time
- Ø Students with excused absences will not be penalized for late or missing assignments as long as they meet the responsibilities listed above and complete the missed work within 2 missed classes.
- Ø Students with unexcused absences, who skip class, or who are chronically distracted while in class due to technological distractions will not be given make up work in the last 2 weeks of a marking period.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is defined as taking someone’s ideas and writings and presenting them as your own. Students caught plagiarizing will be given a ZERO for the assignment without the opportunity to make it up, and parents and administration will be notified.
PLAGIARISM INCLUDES:
- Ø Copying all or part of someone’s work and submitting it as your own
- Ø Using a source (paraphrase or quote) without proper citations
- Ø Collaborating on an independent assignment
Please refer to the Pathways Academy of Technology & Design’s Parent-Student Handbook for all school-wide and district-wide policies.