Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
The Advanced Placement Language and Composition class is a full year section that will take a detailed look at the art of writing and rhetoric. Through both fictional and non-fictional works students will gain a deeper understanding of HOW a work is constructed in order to shape the author’s meaning and purpose through style, strategy, and technique. Students will be exposed to a challenging list of essays, speeches, fictional and non-fictional prose. In addition, sporadic AP questioning and peer review will help to develop confidence and sharpen skills for the Language and Composition Exam. Although students will be exposed to the American Literature curricula for the high school junior, this class will not follow the patterns and timelines of other non-AP courses.
As always, and in keeping with the College Board, AP Course Description, the goal of this class will be to help students “write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives” (2005 – 2006 Workshop Materials 49). Students will be expected to respond to various texts in writing concerning theme, as well as purpose and rhetorical mode. In addition, each student will prepare analytical essays in which they synthesize materials reviewed and course information gained from lecture and class discussion. Critical reading skills along with the processes of synthesis, research, writing, and revision will be emphasized.
Each student will be asked to sign a course contract in which the expectations and grading policies for the year will be set. Students must adhere to the demands on said policy in order to ensure diligence in their working manner and to advance the maturity of the students in a college environment.
Read and annotate expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical...