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SYLLABUS AP English: Language and Composition Course Objectives This semester long course is a ten to twelve-person seminar class designed to help students master the art of critical reading and writing. It has been organized in accordance with the most recent AP English guidelines and requirements. Students who successfully complete this course will enter future academic and professional environments with the confidence that they can think analytically and communicate effectively in both writing and speech. Grading System Essays, Rewrites, and Publication 45% Essays constitute the bulk of the homework of this class. Students write six 500 to 800-word essays and one 1500-word research/synthesis essay, all of which are edited by the teacher and, in some cases, by other students. Students then turn in improved second drafts. All drafts and rewrites are kept in a portfolio. Each student then chooses the two best essays for an additional rewrite, submitting the essay for publication in the school’s academic journal. Tests and Quizzes 23% Students take four in-class essay tests and six in-class rhetoric quizzes. Each test and quiz is then reviewed thoroughly by the class and students are given a chance to improve their scores. Visual and Performance Projects 18% Students develop two visual essays that accompany two of their written essays. One essay and visual is then delivered before an audience of parents and peers in the form of a performance exhibition during which the student discusses the rhetorical strategies involved in constructing the essay and comparing their essay to other essays on the same or similar topics. Daily Participation 14% Students engage in daily in-class writing assignments, in which they analyze the ideas purported by, as well as the rhetorical techniques and strategies used by, the professional writers in the construction of their essays. Discussion then follows the writing assignments during which different points of view are analyzed and synthesized. A student-portfolio is kept of all student-writing. Course Planner Unit 1 The course opens with an introduction to critical thinking and on the uses of narration as a rhetorical strategy. Unit 1 focuses on the theme of differences between cultures and on the use of selected rhetorical devices: amplification, anadiplosis, anaphora, asyndeton, alliteration allusion, analogy, antimetabole, anacoluthon, antanagoge, and antiphrasis. Although the names of the various devices are not central to our study, student awareness of those devices and of their effect on the reader is. Students learn how to identify the devices; they also create their own examples. Students complete this unit by taking an identification quiz on the devices. Students read a number of essays that focus on cultural differences, the vast majority of which come from The Eloquent Essay and The McGraw-Hill Reader. For this first unit, they read Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and George Orwell’s “A Hanging” as well as James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village.” Discussion of these essays begins with writing prompts that ask students to investigate the use of narration in the development of a larger idea. Discussions that follow writing assignments allow students to challenge each other’s analyses and assumptions. Assignments are submitted to student portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. Major paper #1: After considering the use of narration in the exploration of cultural difference, students write their own 600-word essay that uses narration to explore the idea of differences between people. Students can focus on race, gender, ethnicity, class or any other factor that makes one group of people distinct from another. They should use a real life event, or series of events to ground their discussion of the subject. They will need to retell the event, analyzing it and their feelings about it. In the process the students need to consider two or more of the rhetorical devices that we have focused on in class this unit. In 5 to 10-minute sessions, the teacher reviews each student’s work, focusing on the grammar and diction as well as the overall organization of the argument. Students then rewrite their essays. Unit 2 Unit 2 of the course focuses on the theme of family with a special emphasis on the idea of gender. Description and Illustration are the two rhetorical strategies that students practice and explore. Rhetorical devices examined during Unit 2 are antithesis, apophasis, aporia, aposiopesis, apostrophe, appositive, catachresis, chiasmus, and climax. Again, the exploration of these devices increases student awareness of language and its objective use. Students practice identifying devices and explaining their effect on the reader, finishing their exploration with a quiz. Students read such essays as Margaret Atwood’s “The Female Body,” E.B. White’s “Once more to the Lake,” Amitai Etzoimi’s “Parenting as an Industry,” Francis Fukuyama’s “Immigrants and Family Values,” and Paul Theroux’s “Being a Man.” Discussion of these essays begins with an investigation of each writer’s argument and the strategies used by the author to accomplish his or her goals. Students are asked to investigate the authors’ use of description and illustration in the construction of larger ideas and on the development of a more coherent and positive relationship with the reader. Discussions that follow writing assignments allow students to challenge each other’s analyses and assumptions. Assignments are then once again submitted to student portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. Major Paper #2: After students have explored the way writers use description and illustration to achieve different effects, they will write their own 700 to 800-word essay analyzing the impact that family dynamics and/or the construction of gender have on people living in the 21st century. Students can either use description to transport readers to the place of the idea or to shape the reader’s impression of the idea emotionally. They can use illustration to appeal to the reader’s intellectual curiosity, relying on the force of evidence to sway and convince. Again, essays will be submitted to the teacher and to peers for review and critique; in the critique sessions, students pay particular attention to the effect of specific rhetorical strategies. Students rewrite their essays and submit them to their portfolios. Unit 3 In Unit 3 students examine the theme of film and media and two rhetorical strategies, comparison/contrast and analogy. A number of rhetorical devices are applied: epithet, epistrophe, epanalepsis, enumeratio, enthymeme, distinctio, dirimens copulatio, conduplicatio, eponym, hyperbole, metabasis, and metanoia. Again, the exploration of these devices increases student awareness of language and its objective use. A quiz and follow-up review strengthens the students’ awareness of the devices and of the use of language in general. Students read a number of essays: George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language,” Stephen King’s “My Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and Esther Dyson, “Cyberspace: If you Don’t Love It, Leave It.” They also read Marshall McLuhan’s landmark book on the electronic age, The Medium is the Massage. Again, discussion of these essays begins with an investigation of each writer’s argument and the strategies used by the author to accomplish his or her goals. In particular, students are asked to investigate the authors’ use of comparision/contrast, analogy, and other strategies in the development of larger ideas. Discussions follow writing assignments, with particular attention given to the role of the audience in the development of ideas and communication. Assignments are then once again submitted to students’ portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. During this unit students begin investigating the significance of visual imagery. Students explore the effects of the visual image on the consciousness of the viewer, with McLuhan’s book being an exemplary tool for such an investigation. Another exploration consists of a student analysis of the construction of identity in two classic and contemporary images from gangster movies (see McGraw Hill, 482). The First Visual Project also serves as a pre-writing exercise for the students’ larger research/synthesis essay. Students are asked to present a visual illustration of the argument that they will present in their papers, which compares the idea of technology and the global village discussed in McLuhan to the idea of technology and the global village presented in Dyson’s essay. They need to focus on such questions as 1) How does each writer view the individual? 2) How does each writer view the technology? 3) How does each writer view American society? 4) What does each writer think about the difference between medium and content? And 5)What impact did the intervening thirty years have on the differences between the two writers? Unit 4 In Unit 4 students examine the theme of science and technology and the rhetorical strategy of definition and classification. A number of rhetorical devices are studied and applied: parallelism, paradox, metonymy, oxymoron, understatement, personification, simile, metaphor, irony, and sarcasm. Again, the exploration of these devices increases student awareness of language and its objective use. Students also continue to explore the effects of the visual image on the consciousness of the viewer. Students write their first in-class essay; they analyze an article that employs narrative, illustration, and comparison contrast. Students are asked to explain these strategies and their effect on the reader. In this unit students continue to discuss Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage; they also read several essays: Jeremy Rifkin’s “The Age of Simulation,” Lewis Mumford’s “The Monastery and the Clock,” and Charles Darwin’s “Natural Selection.” Again, discussion of these essays begins with an investigation of each writer’s argument. Students are asked to investigate the authors’ use of definition and classification as well as other strategies. Discussions that follow writing assignments allow students to challenge each other’s analyses, but also to deepen their understanding of strategies and how each strategy has specific strengths and weaknesses. Assignments are then once again submitted to students’ portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. Major Research/Synthesis Essay #3: In a 1,500-word essay, students need to compare and contrast the differing views of technology and the global village as proposed by Marshall McLuhan in The Medium is the Massage and Esther Dyson in “Cyberspace: If you Don’t Love It, Leave It.” The students’ goal with the essay, however, is to answer the question: of these two views of technology and the global village, which is closer to the truth as you see it? Besides these two sources, students need to find at least three other sources that they can synthesize into their discussion. Students need to integrate quotations from their sources effectively into their ideas, using MLA style. Unit 5 Unit 5 begins the students’ investigation of themes related to social justice. Students explore how writers have used process analysis and causal analysis in the development of their arguments. The use of logic and syllogisms is explored as students develop an awareness of how writers use premises in the development of their arguments. In addition, students also begin a thorough analysis of the uses of inductive and deductive reasoning and of the importance of audience in the formulation of an essay and its means of expression. Students write their second in-class essay; the focus of the essay is on the use of causal analysis. Students read a variety of essays: Ann S. Causey’s “Is Hunting Ethical,” Bharati Mukherjee’s “American Dreamer,” Bruce Catton’s “Grant and Lee: A Study of Contrasts,” and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “The World House.” Again, discussion of these essays begins with an investigation of each writer’s argument and the strategies use. Discussions that follow writing assignments allow students to challenge each other’s assumptions. Assignments are then once again submitted to students’ portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. Major Paper #4: For this 500 to 600-word essay students pick any contemporary, polarized social issue and explore its ethical implications. As Ann Causey does in her essay “Is Hunting Ethical,” students should go beyond the boundaries of how the issue is normally framed. For example, the abortion issue is usually framed by advocates from the Right to Life movement and advocates from the Right to Choice movement staunchly asserting their respective positions. In the student’s essay he or she needs to look beyond these rigid policy considerations and clear-cut moral positions and focus instead on the issue’s ethical dilemmas and implications. Again, essays will be submitted to the teacher and to peers for review and critique; students will rewrite their essays and submit them to their portfolios. Unit 6 In Unit 6 the theme is culture and civilization and students begin to examine more closely the argumentative essay and how it is constructed and how different methods of construction achieve different results. Students examine numerous logical fallacies, working not only with their identification but also with being able to explain how and why they weaken arguments. Some of the fallacies explored in this unit are ad hominem attacks, appeals to sentiment or pity, slippery slopes, causal fallacies, begging the question, straw man arguments, etc. Students write an in-class essay analyzing a speech, which employs numerous rhetorical strategies as well as fallacies; particular attention is paid to the audience and how particular strategies affect specific audiences. Students read a number of essays, which include Edward T. Hall’s “The Arab World,” Oliver Goldsmith’s “National Prejudices,” Ishmael Reed’s “America: the Multicultural Society,” Ronald Takaki’s “Strangers from a Distant Shore,” and Carl Sagan’s “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection.” Again, discussion of these essays focuses on each writer’s argument and the strategies used. Discussions that follow writing assignments focus on the role of the audience in the shaping of a persuasive argument. Assignments are then once again submitted to students’ portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. Major Paper #5: What does it mean to be from a particular country? What does it mean to be an American? How does a person’s view of their national identity affect his or her relationship with the rest of the world? Both Goldsmith and Reed deal with these questions even though they wrote and lived in two different countries with vastly different populations. They also lived and wrote in time periods separated by 200 years. In a 750 to a 1000-word argumentative essay answer the question: how does our view of an American identity affect the way we behave toward the rest of the world? Again, essays will be submitted to the teacher and to peers for review and critique; students will rewrite their essays and submit them to their portfolios. Unit 7 Unit 7 is designed to increase the student’s awareness of many different social issues. Students also look at how writers employ humor, irony, and satire to advance their perspectives. Students learn how to recognize and use many different literary devices, from metonymy and personification to metaphor and hyperbole. Students are quizzed on these devices. The final in-class essay asks the students to synthesize various articles into a coherent argument. Students have to use quotations effectively, citing their sources and organizing their argument deductively or inductively. Students read essays from a variety of writers: L. Menchen’s “The Penalty of Death,” Molly Ivins’ “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, But Get Rid of Guns,” Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” Dave Berry’s “Red, White, and Beer,” and Terry Tempest Williams’s “The Clan of One-Breasted Women.” Again, students are asked to investigate how the authors develop of their central arguments. Discussions that follow are designed to deepen the students’ awareness of the need for empathy and evidence in the development of a persuasive essay. Assignments are then once again submitted to students’ portfolios, which are returned at the end of each unit with teacher comments and suggestions. Major Paper #6: I have frequently heard students lament that studying a particular piece of literature takes the excitement, and hence the joy, out of it. This lamentation is akin to the proposition that scientific knowledge takes the mystery out of life. In a 750-word essay argue for or against the implication of either one or both of these notions. Remember, the student’s goal is to be persuasive. Students need to make sure that at some point in the essay they make a definitive statement that answers the prompt. They should make sure that they provide evidence to support their thesis. They should make sure that they use a causal analysis that deals with the cause and effect nature of the prompt. They should make sure that they use inductive or deductive reasoning in their discussion. Unit 8 The final unit of this course requires students to construct their final visual project and the final performance exhibition. They can choose any subject. With the help of the teacher they then find four essays that have a variety of perspectives on the subject and in which the writers employ different strategies to argue their point-of-view. Students also write their own argumentative and persuasive essay on the subject. Students read and analyze the four essays related to the theme of their exhibition. Students annotate the different essays, discussing the rhetorical strategies that make the essays effective or not. They also read and discuss John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. Students also explore the images in Milton Glaser and Mirko Ili_’s The Design of Dissent, analyzing how visual artists use irony and contrast to provoke clear ideas and feelings. Major Paper #7: Students write their final essay on the subject of their choice. They are asked to employ as many of the rhetorical strategies and devices as they see fit to make their essays as persuasive as possible. For this essay several peer-editing sessions are employed, during which students are asked to encourage other students to use a variety of rhetorical strategies and devices. Visual Project #2: Students construct a visual portrayal of their essay’s thesis, using the techniques explored in The Design of Dissent. Final Exhibition: Student present a 30-minute exhibition in which they argue the pros and cons of the different rhetorical strategies that they analyzed in the four essays that they read on their subject as well as the strategies that they used in the construction of their own essay.