AP COMPOSITION SYLLABUS 2010/11

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
(2010-11 Course Offering)

INSTRUCTOR
Mr. DeCleene (davedecleene@gmail.com)
Texts:
1) Introduction to Great Books (3 volumes)
2) The Bedford Reader (4th Edition)
3) Elements of Style

Supplement:

1) McGraw-Hill 5 Steps to a 5
2) CliffsAP English Language and Composition
3) Thomson AP Success
4) The Oxford Book of Essays

Course Objectives:
There will be the 3-plus hour standardized test in May which we must prepare for. We will write multiple papers and take many multiple-choice tests. We will read essays in many fields, attempting to understand not only the author's every point, but also to decipher the rhetorical strategies the author uses to get those points across. This will require concentrated focus on challenging texts, both classical and modern. Simultaneously, students will be writing throughout the year, developing their styles, learning from the writers we study, acquiring the ability to proofread their own writings.

A strong work ethic is essential to succeed in this course. Students will need to be reading every night, absorbing the main points. There is no easy way. I applaud you who are challenging themselves by taking this course, and I believe your efforts will pay dividends all throughout college.

Course Description:

The AP Language and Composition course will provide high school students with college level instruction in studying and writing various kinds of analytic or persuasive essays on literary and nonliterary topics in language, rhetoric and expository writing. Students will become skilled readers of prose written in various periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Both their reading and writing should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way writing conventions and language contribute to effectiveness in writing. This course will effectively prepare students for the AP Exam by enabling them to read, comprehend, and write about complex texts, while developing further communication skills on a college level.

Overview of the year:
36 weeks

1ST QUARTER
Great Books selections:
1)WHY WAR? Sigmund Freud 2)THE MELIAN DIALOGUE Thucydides 3)THE SOCIAL ME William James 4)CONCERNING THE DIVISION OF LABOR Adam Smith 5)HOW AN ARISTOCRACY MAY BE CREATED BY INDUSTRY Alexis de Tocqueville 6)OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT Claude Bernard
Bedford Reader: 1)Narration - 2)Description - 3)Example
Elements of Style & grammar review
essay selections from Oxford text
Vocabulary (100 words) - literary terms ( 50 terms)
Research Paper: 3 pages modeled on the Synthesis Essay citing a variety of sources

2ND QUARTER
Great Books selections:
7)AN ESSAY IN AESTHETICS Roger Fry 8)ON STUDYING José Ortega y Gasset 9)POLITICS Aristotle 10)OF COMMONWEALTH Thomas Hobbes 11)OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT John Locke 12)THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 13)EQUALITY Isaiah Berlin
Bedford Reader: 4)Comparison and Contrast - 5)Process Analysis - 6)Division or Analysis
Elements of Style & grammar review
essay selections from Oxford text
Vocabulary (100 words) - literary terms ( 50 terms)
Research Paper: 3 pages modeled on the Synthesis Essay citing a variety of sources

3RD QUARTER
Great Books selections:
14)WHY AMERICANS ARE OFTEN SO RESTLESS Alexis de Tocqueville 15)HABIT William James 16)ON HAPPINESS Aristotle 17)HABITS AND WILL John Dewey 18)HAPPINESS Mary Lavin 19)CRITO Plato
Bedford Reader: 7)Classification - 8)Analogy - 9)Cause and Effect
Elements of Style & grammar review
essay selections from Oxford text
Vocabulary (100 words) - literary terms ( 50 terms)
Research Paper: 3 pages modeled on the Synthesis Essay citing a variety of sources

4TH QUARTER
Great Books selections:
20)ON LIBERTY John Stuart Mill 21)CONSCIENCE Immanuel Kant 22)OF THE LIMITS OF GOVERNMENT John Locke 23)WHY GREAT REVOLUTIONS WILL BECOME RARE Alexis de Tocqueville 24)A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN Virginia Woolf 25)IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES Delmore Schwartz
Bedford Reader: 10)Definition - 11)Argument and Persuasion - 12)Proposals
Elements of Style & grammar review
essay selections from Oxford text
Vocabulary (100 words) - literary terms ( 50 terms)
Research Paper: 3 pages modeled on the Synthesis Essay citing a variety of sources

WRITING PROCEDURE
1) Each Great Books Essay begins with a Pre-reading essay. Students jot down ideas, discuss them out loud, and then write a one page draft, to be read aloud. Students then read the selection twice, with directed note-taking. This is followed by students coming up with questions of the text, and sharing them. Then we all take part in the Shared Inquiry Discussion, during which we discuss various interpretations of the text. Finally, students write a Post-Discussion essay. To wrap up the reading, students write a three page paper, with citations, on all aspects of the essay.
2) With the Bedford Reader, students learn the types of writing as listed per quarter, beginning with a draft, a peer review, a second draft, a teacher review, and a final draft, to be read by all students.
3) Students write a quarterly research paper similar to the Synthesis Essay on the AP exam, learning to use a variety of sources, and citing them according to MLA, Chicago, etc. The process over the 8 weeks begins with a thesis statement, an outline, a bibliography with note cards, a rough draft, and a final draft. Each step is critiqued by me.

OTHER SKILL-DEVELOPMENT
1) Literary terms are memorized and analyzed throughout the course
2) a college-level vocabulary list is memorized (spellings and definitions)
3) students write their own multiple-choice questions based upon the essays from The Oxford Book of Essays, as well as from contemporary journalists and essay writers
4) all aspects of grammar are studied
5) students keep diaries of all authors they read, writing reactions, categorizing styles
Semester
At the conclusion of each semester, students will take a complete AP exam

Grading
Grades are based upon a student's ability to comprehend complex writings, and to decipher the tools the writer uses to achieve his purpose. They will demonstrate their mastery by answering multiple-choice questions on the readings, writing analyses of the main points of the essays, determining the rhetorical devices used by the writers, and writings from the student's own voice and perspective.