Thursday, August 24, 2006

Draft-Fall Syllabus AP English Language

Advanced Placement English Language-Grade 11
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED STUDIES
Mr. Carmicle 2006-2007 Web Log: hollywoodhighschool.net
323-461-3891 Ext. 419
Work Smarter, Not Harder

AP English Language and Composition offers students a **year of intense training in reading and writing that not only prepares them for the AP Language and Composition Examination, but also for successful University study and lifelong learning. This class focuses on the rhetorical analysis of fiction and non-fiction, and includes works of American literature. Students learn to identify an author’s purpose and strategies by examining the ways people think about and use language. Students read and analyze models of good writing and write compositions of various lengths and complexity, participating in peer response and rigorous revision. Students are introduced to analytical tools designed to develop levels of questioning at the factual, inferential, and analytical tiers of knowledge, providing them with skills to master the highest forms of analysis and synthesis, necessary for rigorous class discussions note-taking, and writing effective prose at first year college level. Students are expected to complete outside reading on time and complete notes on class discussions using the Cornell method. In this course, the rhetorical interpretation of text primarily focuses on various models which demand that claims, taken with the writer’s purpose, the intended audience, and speaker’s persona, lead to argument for persuasion using both a thesis and opposite thesis. Students in AP English Language read difficult nonfiction text with speed, annotating and outlining as they recognize shifts of perspective and tone. They quote with authority and precision, discern the writer’s purpose and comprehend the responses elicited from audiences and synthesize how authors manipulate readers to argue and prove theses in various modes of written discourse.*

Textbooks:

Cliffs AP Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Preparation Guide Swovelin 1993

Literature and Integrated Studies Scott Foresman, Publishers 1997

America Now, Sixth Edition Atwan 2005

Vocabulary Workshop Level “F”

The Bedford Reader

Students retain all assignments, cover sheets, revisions and other materials necessary to write a reflective letter at the end of the semester. All student work is periodically placed in students’ portfolios.

*Jewel Kamita, Capistrano Valley High School AP Packet 2005
**Marcy Bowman, Greater Los Angeles Advanced Placement Institute 2005



Literature Assignments August 30-December 22, 2006 (Semester A)

Colonial Period to 1790 PURITANS AND THE AMERICAN BEGINNINGS


From Of Plymouth Plantation (31) William Bradford (1590-1657)

“Offer of Help” (33) Canassatego (died 1750)

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (58) Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

New Republic 1790-1820 SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE AND A NEW NATION

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (162) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

“The American Crisis” (170) Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

“Speech in the Virginia Convention” (172) Patrick Henry (1736-1799)

“Declaration of Independence” (178) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

American Romanticism 1820-1865 THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS

“Much Madness is divinest Sense” (354) Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

"Because I could not stop for Death” (357) Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

From “Self-Reliance” (222) Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

From “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience” (226) Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

“I Hear America Singing” (361) Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

“What is the Grass” (362) Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

“There Was A Child Went Forth” (364) Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Continental Nation 1865-1900 THE CIVIL WAR

“The Gettysburg Address” (304) Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

“What the Black Man Wants” (328) Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

Novels:

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

The Great Gatsby (1925) F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)


SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 4 LABOR DAY
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 10 VETERANS DAY
THURSDAY-FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23-24
THANKSGIVING DAY HOLIDAYS


ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOSTER CRITICAL THINKING

DICTION, SYNTAX, TONE, IRONY;
BLOOM’S AFFECTIVE, LEVELS OF QUESTIONING,
RHETORICAL READING AND RESEARCH STRATEGIES,
DISCOURSE MODES, THESES FOR ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Fall 2006 Letter to Parents

August 30, 2006

Dear Parents:

Welcome to Fall Semester, 2006-2007. Parents are encouraged to take an active role in students' educational goals and assist them by making certain that all outside reading and homework assignments, note taking activities, test preparation requirements, and individual or group project work is completed on time and submitted in advance of the due date set by the instructor. Periodic grade reports will be issued to students who should apprise parents of how they are progressing in these courses. It is this periodic assessment that can identify the emotional and intellectual maturity of the student and signal in advance any instructional intervention strategies necessary to avert poor academic performance that may affect the students' overall grade point average. Students should expect rigorous studies as they undertake the challenges of the demanding Advanced Placement, Honors English or conventional tenth grade English curriculums. If students or parents wish to contact me, I can be reached on school voice mail, which I check frequently during the semester, at 323-461-3891, Extension 419. Homework and other necessary communication between the instructor and students is posted on my web log at hollywoodhighschool.net and is updated bi-weekly.

The Honors English Grade Ten School for Advanced Studies (SAS) curriculum offers students rigorous demands in the rhetorical approach to reading and writing, and instruction is paced more rapidly than normal tenth-grade coursework. Grade Ten Honors readies students for an eleventh-grade Advanced Placement high school class where they think, read, write, listen, and speak academically, successfully arguing a well-constructed thesis, skills necessary for entering post-secondary educational institutions. Students enrolled in Grade Ten Honors English read short stories, poetry, novels and plays and nonfiction selections and learn to *elicit the author's purpose, the author's persona, the author's claim and evidence, which enables them to offer a precise response to the author's argument. Successful student compositions are measured by rubrics, and it is strongly suggested, at the outset of this course, that learners familiarize themselves with this tool so they can produce thoughtful and precise works of prose in response to the series of writing prompts that will be assigned.

AP English Language and Composition (SAS) offers students **a year of intense training in reading and writing that prepares them for the AP Language and Composition Examination, successful University study and lifelong learning. This class focuses on the rhetorical analysis of fiction and non-fiction, incorporating various genres of American literature. Students learn to identify an author’s purpose and examine the ways people think about and use language. Students read and analyze models of good writing and write compositions of various lengths and complexity, participating in peer response and rigorous revision. Students are introduced to analytical tools designed to develop levels of questioning at the factual, inferential, and analytical tiers of knowledge, which ultimately provides them with mastery of the highest forms of analysis and synthesis necessary for participation in class discussions. They are able to read rhetorically pieces of American literature and write effective prose at first year college level. Students are expected to complete outside reading on time and, independently, produce class discussion notes using the Cornell method. In this course, the rhetorical interpretation of text leads to arguments for persuasion as students closely read difficult nonfiction texts with speed, annotating and outlining as they recognize shifts of perspective and tone. They quote with authority and precision, discern the writer’s purpose and comprehend responses elicited from audiences, and synthesize how authors manipulate readers to prove theses in various modes of written discourse.

*Greater Los Angeles Advanced Placement Institute, July 2005
Marcy Bowman AP Packet
**Chapman University, March 2005
Jewel Kamita AP Packet

Student Name________________________________(Print)
Parent Signature____________________________

Sincerely,


James B. Carmicle
Track A Teacher-School for Advanced Studies

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Syllabus and Letter to Parents

The syllabus and letter to parents for AP English Language and Composition will be available at the end of next week, August 21-25.

School starts August 30.