Saturday, June 27, 2009

STUDYPATH* June 27, 2009

Incoming AP students are encouraged to submit the summer work assignment on time (scroll down through assignments on this blog to find assignment). The fall syllabus for this class will be posted in August. If you have questions or concerns, contact me at jcarmicl@lausd.net during this summer break.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

STUDYPATH* June 15-19, 2009 FINALS

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


FINALS WEEK
Vantage Writing Lab Wednesday June 17 Period Five Semester Reflection

Assignment Menu

Bring vocabulary textbook Monday for final mastery test
Portfolio preparation in class
Ellison screening completed
Return all textbooks; sign books in and leave on utility desk
Unit Thirteen-Fifteen and Cumulative Review Four scored in class

Saturday, June 06, 2009

STUDYPATH* June 8-12, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday-Friday Last Week of Instruction Assignment Menu

1. Unit Fifteen Vocabulary Workshop
2. Hazlitt Multiple Choice Test
3. Vocabulary Workshop Review Units Thirteen-Fifteen and Cumulative Review
4. Final Mastery Test Vocabulary Workshop
5. KQED Water Video
6. Semester Reflection Questions for Portfolio
7. Precis for Research Paper
8. Ellison Video
9. Water Case Ten
10.Final Examination Semester Reflection
11.Language of Composition and Bedford Reader books returned to textbook room

Thursday, May 28, 2009

STUDYPATH* June 1-5, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary test scheduled for Thursday; Unit Fifteen Vocabulary due on Friday
2. Hazlitt multiple choice test completed in class this week
3. Junior Defense of Thesis Field Trip to Metropolitan Water District: meet in cafeteria at 8:00 A.M.; board bus at 8:30 A.M.

Tuesday (Shortened Day)

1. Hazlitt multiple choice test questions refined
2. Ellison film screened Tuesday and Wednesday

Wednesday
1. Ellison film screened
2. Water Case Ten assigned

Thursday
1. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary test
2. Water Case Ten due on Monday

Friday
1. Unit Fifteen Vocabulary due today; test Monday
2. Weekend homework to be announced

Summer Assignment

Students enrolled in Mr. Carmicle's AP English Language and Composition class are expected to complete the following assignments by the first day of school. The late work policy for this class states:

"Summer assignments that are not submitted by due date will be scored as “0,” which may negatively affect a student’s overall course score and earned class grade point average. Assignments that are completed and submitted late will receive only a “credit,” and not earn a letter grade; in this case a student must complete the work to avoid receiving a “0” but will still earn no letter grade for work that was completed. It is in the student’s best interest to meet deadlines and submit work of the highest quality by due dates."

Procedure:
Access collegeboard.com, click students, click AP, click courses/exams, and download the course description for AP English Language.

Take the multiple choice test recording handwritten answers on lined paper or typed responses on copy paper. Check your answers with the key at the end of the sample multiple choice exam. For each question, record a detailed answer of at least a sentence or two about why the answer is correct.

Answer three of the seven free-response questions in essay form. Of the three choices, a synthesis question must be included.

Questions can be addressed by e-mailing me at jcarmicl@lausd.net or by using the school's website link for teacher communication.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

STUDYPATH* May 25-29, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. Memorial Day is a legal holiday.
2. Water Case Nine class debate and Junior Defense of Thesis presentations Tuesday-Friday.
3. Metropolitan Water District field trip scheduled for Monday, June 1; meet in cafeteria before boarding bus at 8:30 A.M.

Tuesday
1. Water Case Nine Junior Defense of Thesis presentations to class using JDT rubric
2. Water Case Nine pre-debate worksheets completed and reviewed
3. Field trip slips due no later than tomorrow
4. Water Case Nine test due today

Wednesday
1. Water Case Nine debate preparation
2. Water Case Nine updates provided to students

Thursday
1. Water Case Nine Junior Defense of Thesis presentations to class using JDT rubric
2. Trip slip and trip protocol checklist finalized

Friday
1. Water Case Nine debate preparation
2. Meet 7:45 A.M.-8:00 A.M. Monday in school cafeteria; appropriate attire requested

Friday, May 15, 2009

STUDYPATH* May 18-22, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. Water Case Nine class discussion; read remainder of handout
2. Debate groups meet to plan pro vs. con positions
3. Research paper second drafts due Friday; paper clip drafts on top of originals
SPECIAL NOTE: THIS DEADLINE IS A DATE CERTAIN ASSIGNMENT; LATE WORK POLICY DOES NOT APPLY
4. Vocabulary Workshop assignment due Friday; test Monday

Tuesday
1. Water Case Nine continues on Thursday
2. Debate groups planning continues on Thursday
3. Period Five AP English does not meet today

Wednesday
1. Metropolitan Water District field trip June 1
2. Period Five AP English does not meet today

Thursday
1. Water Case Nine continues
2. Debate groups planning continues

Friday
1. Water Case Nine continues
2. Debate groups planning continues
3. Vocabulary Workshop assignment due; test Monday

Saturday, May 09, 2009

STUDYPATH* May 11-15, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. Final preparation for AP English Language Examination
2. AP English breakfast in cafeteria 7:00 A.M. Wednesday
3. Literary terms completed in class
4. Tone assignment completed
5. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary test postponed
6. Thank you card for guest speaker Friday

Tuesday
1. Day before tips for the AP English Language Examination
2. Water Case Nine assigned; due on Thursday

Wednesday
1. AP English Language Examination 8:00 A.M. in small gym
2. AP English breakfast in cafeteria 7:00 A.M.
3. Water Case Nine due tomorrow

Thursday
1. Water Case Nine in class in preparation for MWD debate on June 1
2. Preparation for the Metropolitan Water District field trip begins today
3. Water Case Nine debate participants chosen
4. Rehearsals for Junior Defense of Thesis presenters; power points finalized

Friday
1. Water Case Nine debate preparation continues
2. Rehearsals for Junior Defense of Thesis presenters
3. Final drafts for research papers due next week

Sunday, May 03, 2009

STUDYPATH* May 4-8, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. LA Times cartoon response due today
2. Water Case Eight due
3. Tone assignment continued in class
4. Prose passage practice for the AP Exam
5. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary Workshop test Tuesday
6. Literary terms test
7. Essay begun in class Friday due

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. MWD presenters' power points due no later than May 7
2. Prose passage practice for the AP Exam
3. Literary terms all week in class
4. Tone assignment continued in class
5. Vocabulary Workshop Unit Fourteen test today

Wednesday
1. Water Case Nine assigned reading for guest speaker on Friday
2. Prose passage practice for the AP Exam
3. Literary terms all week in class

Thursday
1. Literary terms in class all week
2. Reading assignments Water Case Nine for guest speaker tomorrow

Friday
1. Metropolitan Water District guest speaker today
2. Weekend homework to be announced

Saturday, April 25, 2009

STUDYPATH* April 27-May 1, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday
1. Invisible Man essay due
2. Water Case Seven due Wednesday
3. Tone assignment continued in class
4. Prose passage practice for the AP Exam
5. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary Workshop due Friday
6. Literary terms test
7. Synthesis essay due today

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. MWD presenters' power points due no later than May 7
2. Prose passage practice for the AP Exam
3. Timed writing in class Friday
4. Tone assignment continued in class
5. Hazlitt multiple choice questions finalized for sample exam

Wednesday
1. Water Case Seven due today; Water Case Eight assigned
2. Prose passage practice for the AP Exam
3. Bedford Reader/Language of Composition literary terms (books due in class)
4. Research paper second drafts due for those who received corrected first draft

Thursday
1. Bedford Reader/Language of Composition literary terms (books due in class)
2. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary due tomorrow
3. Timed writing in class tomorrow

Friday
1. Timed writing in class
2. Unit Fourteen Vocabulary due today
3. Weekend homework to be announced

Thursday, April 16, 2009

STUDYPATH* April 20-24, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday

1. Meet in Vantage Writing Lab-Room 701 for AP essay prewriting and in-class writing assignment-DAY ONE
2. Welcome to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Tuesday
1. Meet in Vantage Writing Lab-Room 701 for AP in-class writing assignment-DAY TWO
2. Prose passage multiple choice practice for the AP Exam
3. Timed writing in class Friday
4. Literary terms from Bedford Reader and Language of Composition; books due in class

Wednesday
1. Prose passage multiple choice practice for the AP Exam
2. Literary terms; books due in class

Thursday
1. Prose passage multiple choice practice for the AP Exam
2. Invisible Man motif essay due tomorrow

Friday
1. Timed writing in class essay
2. Invisible Man motif essay due today
3. Weekend homework to be announced

Sunday, April 12, 2009

STUDYPATH* April 13-17, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. Invisible Man essay due date reminder
2. Prose passage multiple choice practice
3. Sample full Advanced Placement Examination due today (three essays and one multiple choice test)
4. Vocabulary Workshop Unit Thirteen due Friday; test Monday
5. Research paper first drafts will be returned to students as suggestions and corrections are made; new drafts must be paper clipped on top of original draft

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. Water Cases assignments to be announced
2. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition books due in class Wednesday and Thursday for literary terms assignments
3. Prose passage multiple choice practice

Wednesday

1. Prose passage multiple choice practice
2. Vocabulary Workshop Unit Thirteen due Friday
3. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition literary terms assignments

Thursday

1. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition literary terms assignments
2. Research paper drafts are being returned to students after corrections and suggestions are made
3. Prose passage multiple choice practice

Friday

1. In-class writing assignment
2. Weekend homework to be announced

Saturday, March 28, 2009

STUDYPATH* March 30-April 3, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday
1. Invisible Man essay due date to be set
2. "A Modest Proposal" class discussion continues; Language of Composition book due in class
3. "A Modest Proposal" essay due tomorrow; #2 Suggestions for Writing, page 921
4. Unit One-Twelve Vocabulary Workshop test tomorrow; answers turned in Friday will be marked BTA
5. Research paper first draft due April 3

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. Water Cases Six and Seven in class this week
2. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition books due in class Wednesday only
3. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
4. Unit One-Twelve Vocabulary Workshop test today

Wednesday
1. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
2. Water Cases Six and Seven in class this week
3. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition assignments

Thursday
1. Water Cases Six and Seven in class this week
2. Research paper first draft due tomorrow
3. Full version AP Exam due April 13; exam to be distributed tomorrow

Friday
1. Full version AP Exam distributed; due April 13
2. Research paper first draft due today
3. Spring Break April 6-10, 2009

Saturday, March 21, 2009

STUDYPATH* March 23-27, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday
1. Unit Nine-Twelve Vocabulary Workshop review answers due Friday; test Tuesday
2. Bedford Reader answers due Tuesday
3. Water Case Five and Six in class all week

Tuesday (Shortened Day)

1. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
2. Bedford Reader "No Name Woman" answers due today
3. Water Case Six

Wednesday
1. Water Case Six continued
2. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
3. Timed writing in class Friday
4. Bedford Reader assignment
5. Research paper first draft due April 3

Thursday
1. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
2. Water Case Seven assigned
3. Unit Nine-Twelve Vocabulary Workshop answers due tomorrow

Friday
1. Timed writing in class
2. Weekend homework to be announced

Saturday, March 14, 2009

STUDYPATH* March 16-20, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday

1. Unit Twelve Vocabulary Workshop due today; test tomorrow
2. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six in class this week
3. Invisible Man Chapters 21-25 and Epilogue class discussion continues; essay due date in April to be announced

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. Unit Twelve Vocabulary test today
2. Water Cases Four, Five and Six in class this week
3. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition assignments due today

Wednesday
1. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six in class this week
2. Unit Nine-Twelve Vocabulary Workshop answers due Monday

Thursday

1. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
2. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six in class this week
3. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition assignment due Tuesday

Friday
1. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six in class this week
2. Unit Nine-Twelve Vocabulary Workshop answers due Monday
3. Weekend homework to be announced

Saturday, March 07, 2009

STUDYPATH* March 9-13, 2009

In-class essays and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday
1. Invisible Man Chapters 21-25 and Epilogue talking points due Friday for class discussion
2. Unit Eleven Vocabulary test tomorrow
3. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six all week in class

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six in class
2. Unit Eleven Vocabulary test

Wednesday
1. Water Cases Four, Five and Six in class
2. Multiple-choice practice preparation for the AP Exam
3. Homework assigned from Bedford Reader and Language of Composition

Thursday
1. Water Cases Four, Five, and Six in class
2. Letter to the Editor assigned; due Monday
3. Unit Twelve Vocabulary Workshop due Monday

Friday
1. Invisible Man class discussion; essay due date set
2. Research paper update: questions and procedures
3. Weekend homework to be announced

Saturday, February 28, 2009

STUDYPATH* March 2-6, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL. ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR


Monday
1. Unit Eleven Vocabulary Workshop test rescheduled to Tuesday, March 10th
2. AP EXAM PREPARATION WEEK-Essay #1
3. Letter to the editor due today
4. Comparative Essay (Gould) due today (pages 349 Language of Composition and 615 in Bedford Reader: read both essays, write one and one-half pages about his style of writing, the specific audience for each essay and his purpose for each essay; this assignment may encompass a compare and contrast response)

Tuesday (Shortened Day)

1. AP EXAM PREPARATION WEEK-Multiple-choice practice
2. Invisible Man Chapters 21-25 and Epilogue talking points due Monday, March 9th for class discussion

Wednesday
1. AP EXAM PREPARATION WEEK-Essay #2

Thursday
1. AP EXAM PREPARATION WEEK-Multiple-choice practice

Friday
1. Weekend homework to be announced
2. AP EXAM PREPARATION WEEK-Essay #3
3. Invisible Man Chapters 21-25 and Epilogue talking points due Monday for class discussion

Sunday, February 22, 2009

STUDYPATH* February 23-27, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL. ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday
1. Unit Ten Vocabulary test rescheduled to tomorrow
2. Unit Eleven Vocabulary answers due Friday; test Monday
3. Letter to the editor due today
4. Textbook Days: Bedford Reader and Language of Composition Wednesday-Thursday

Tuesday (Shortened Day)

1. Unit Ten Vocabulary test today
2. AP Preparation Week scheduled for next week
3. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
4. Invisible Man Chapters 21-25 and Epilogue talking points due Friday

Wednesday

1. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition assignments
2. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam

Thursday

1. Bedford Reader and Language of Composition assignments
2. Letter to the editor scheduled; due Monday

Friday

1. Weekend homework to be announced
2. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam
3. Invisible Man Chapters 21-25 and Epilogue talking points due today for class discussion

Sunday, February 15, 2009

STUDYPATH* February 16-20, 2009

In-class assignments and class updates trump published blogs.

*POTENTIAL, ACHIEVEMENT, THOUGHT, HONOR

Monday

1. Presidents' Day Holiday
2. Unit Ten Vocabulary Workshop due Friday; test Monday

Tuesday (Shortened Day)
1. Letter to the Editor due today
2. Bedford Reader questions due today
3. Invisible Man Chapters Sixteen-Twenty talking points due Friday for class discussion
4. In-class essay Friday
5. Textbook Days: Bedford Reader and The Language of Composition Wednesday only

Wednesday

1. Assignments from Bedford Reader and The Language of Composition
2. In-class essay Friday
3. Multiple-choice practice for the AP Exam

Thursday

1. Letter to the Editor assigned
2. Class discussion: "Too Much Pressure" with School for Advanced Studies counselors

Friday

1. Invisible Man Chapters Sixteen-Twenty talking points due for class discussion on Monday
2. Weekend homework to be announced
3. Unit Ten Vocabulary Workshop answers due today; test Monday
4. In-class essay today

Sunday, February 08, 2009

AP Semester B Syllabus (Under Construction)

Semester B Syllabus (Under Construction)
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Syllabus 2008-2009

Instructional Dates/Material To Be Covered/Semester "B"

Year Long Rigor Tools
Bloom's Taxonomy and Bloom's Affective Taxonomy

Consultative Language and Language Registers: Frozen, Formal, Consultative, Casual, Intimate

Levels of Questioning: Level One-Factual; Level Two-Interpretative; Level Three-Evaluative
The Rhetorical Square-Audience, Purpose, Persona, Argument and SOAPS: Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, and Speaker

Cornell Note-Taking, Outlining, and Journaling

Sentence Mimicking and Pivoting TextGrammar of Irony and Grammar of Paradox

Classical, Rogerian, and Toulmin Argumentation Models

Rhetorical Modes of Discourse

Student-Teacher Conferencing: Rubrics, Revisions, and Rewrites
GLAAPSI, July 2005 Marcy Bowman AP Packet



The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Examination is administered by the College Board during the latter part of this semester.

In this semester, students continue to hone their responses to nonfiction pieces by accomplishing precise, thorough, insightful, and thoughtful responses through original drafts and various stages of rewrites. The second semester also includes weekly selections from the Bedford Reader, highlighted below, that address the meaning, writing strategy and language authors use to accomplish their purposes for writing; students may use these questioning tools (including levels of questioning) to analyze what they have read and determine, as the Bedford Reader states, how “good writers write.”

There is a fair amount of concentration in this semester on response to visual literacy. Of the seventeen visual works included in the Bedford Reader, students experience a sampling of these offerings to learn how to make meaning of images, advertising, and photographs, learning to use the sensory details of tactile images evoked by figurative language that appeals to one or more of the five senses. See examples and justifications in the matrix provided below.

Specific methods of achieving purposes in writing are used throughout the course scope and sequence as well since students are asked to read and write in various modes of discourse. A sampling of the Semester B sequence follows:

Literature Assignments and Methods for Achieving Your Purpose in Writing*

Week One
Narration: To tell a story about your subject, possibly to enlighten readers or to try to explain something to them
Visual Literacy: “How Joe’s Body Brought Him Fame Instead of Shame” (advertisement)
(analysis of a narrative cartoon to ascertain chronology and message used to lure customers)
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (122)
First appeared in The New Yorker in 1948
Theme: Manners and Morals

Week Two
Description: To help readers understand your subject through the evidence of their senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste
“Silent Dancing" by Judith Ortiz Cofer
First appeared in The Georgia Review
Theme: Cultural Diversity

Week Three
Example: To explain your subject with instances that show readers its nature or character
Visual Literacy: “Cellular Phones of the Future” (cartoon)
(interpreting drawings with text to determine artist’s opinion)
Anna Quindlen from her collection Living Out Loud in Mother Jones Magazine
Theme: Homelessness

Week Four
Comparison and Contrast: Setting Things Side by Side
To explain or evaluate your subject by helping readers see the similarities between it and another subject
“Everyday Use” published in 1973 and appeared in Harper’s magazine
Alice Walker
Theme: Community

Week Five
Process Analysis: Explaining Step by Step
To inform readers how to do something or how something works—how a sequence of actions leads to a particular result
"Orientation" Daniel Orozco first published in Seattle Review in 1994 and appeared in the Best American Short Stories 1995
Visual Literacy: “Workers Making Dolls” (photograph) Photographer Wally McNamee
(single image used to portray several steps in the doll-making process) 324
Theme: Humor and Satire

Week Six
Division or Analysis: Slicing Into Parts (335)
To explain a conclusion about your subject by showing readers the subject’s parts of elements “Girl”
From the collection At the Bottom of the River Jamaica Kincaid
Theme: Other Peoples, Other Cultures

Week Seven
Classification: Sorting Into Kinds
To help readers see order in your subject by understanding the kinds or groups it can be sorted into
Visual Literacy: “What Everyone Should Know About the Movie Rating System” (chart)
Motion Picture Association of America mpaa.org
(graphic organizer sorting films into groups of appropriateness)
“The Crisis of National Identity” by Samuel P. Huntington
Opening pages from Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s Identity
Theme: Community

Week Eight
Cause and Effect: Asking Why
To tell readers the reasons for or consequences of one's subject, explaining why or what if “Safe-Sex Lies” by Meghan Daum
Essay published in The New York Times Magazine January 1996
Theme: Sexuality

Week Nine
Definition: Tracing a Boundary
To show readers the meaning of your subject—its boundaries and its distinctions from other subjects
“The Meanings of a Word” by Gloria Naylor
Essay published in The New York Times
Theme: Communication

Week Ten
Argument and Persuasion: Stating Opinions and Proposals
To have readers consider your opinion about a subject or a proposal for it
Visual Literacy: “Corporate America Flag” (media image) Adbusters Media Foundation
(image adaptation of a familiar symbol to achieve effect)
“Too Much Pressure” by Colleen Wenke published in Fresh Ink: Essays from Boston's College's First-Year Writing Seminar
Theme: Manners and Morals

Ongoing
Useful Terms Abstract/Concrete to Warrant
*The Bedford Reader Ninth Edition 2006

Juniors are encouraged to contact College Counselor Ms. Campbell regarding college entrance examination procedures, college financial assistance forms, and college application and admission information.

The Advanced Placement Examinations, California High School Exit Examinations, and California Achievement Test Examinations are scheduled this semester.

Students who feel essay rewrite scores should be higher must write a request, using the specific language of the generic or tailored rubric, to justify why the essay should be re-read and re-scored.

Weeks Eleven-Sixteen

Research

In the spring semester students complete a fifteen-page research paper for the topic “Water Conservation tied to a U.S. Natural Disaster.” Students are required to use a works cited list and embedded citations using Modern Language Association protocol as a guide line for their finished product. This paper is coordinated with the social studies AP instructor. A “Junior Defense of Thesis” is prepared as students are required to orally defend their theses to the teacher, to their triad members, and finally to the entire class of students. Students are chosen to also defend their theses to the board members of the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles. An abstract of the “Junior Defense of Thesis” follows:

JUNIOR DEFENSE OF THESIS 2009

Students will develop a Personal Action Plan that will link the environment (water conservation) and citizenship (call for action) themes from 9th or 10th grade with a culminating research-based and oral defense project paper.

Sample Standards:
Writing 1.6 Research and Technology: develop presentations by using clear research questions and creative and critical research strategies (e.g., field studies, oral histories, interviews, experiments, electronic sources)

Writing 1.4 Organization and Focus: enhance meanings by employing rhetorical devices, including the extended use of parallelism, repetition, and analogy; the incorporation of visual aids (e.g., graphs, tables, pictures); and the issuance of a call for action

Multimedia presentation or print media presentation; judges use 10-point checklist and rubric to score students’ oral defense; teacher scores research papers, which require summaries, paraphrases, and direct quotations, attributive tags, and MLA formats for in-text citations and works cited list

Three projected outcomes:

These are proposed outcomes of the Junior Defense of Thesis and the objectives noted are not indicative that approval has been granted.

Thirty-second CBS Television Network broadcast quality storyboarded public service announcement (possibly produced by students on video)

Thirty-second KNX CBS owned and operation Radio public service announcement ad copy with agreement to run spot free of charge from educational institution (spot possibly produced by students on audio)

Eighth to quarter-page display print ad public service announcement to run in USA Today (purchase of ad space may be made with grant funds) (possibly produced camera-ready by students using multimedia resources)


Textbooks

Textbooks used in this course include The Bedford Reader, Cliffs AP Preparation Guide, Vocabulary Workshop Level “F”, and Glencoe Writer’s Choice. Various nonfiction pieces are used from composition rhetorics and readers, as are newspaper editorials, opinion-editorial pieces written by individual columnists, and storyboards, photographs, and newspaper editorial cartoons.

Kennedy, X.J., Dorothy Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron, The
Bedford Reader. Boston: Bedford Books of St.
Martin’s Press, 1997.

Cliffs AP English Language and Composition (2nd Edition) Swovelin ©2001

Vocabulary Workshop Level “F” Shostak (Sadlier-Oxford Publishing) 2005

Anthology: Writer’s Choice Grammar and Composition; Glencoe ©2005

Anthology: Literature and Integrated Studies; Scott-Foresman Publishing ©1997


Useful Web Sites

Online Writing Labs http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Composition formatting

Oxford English Dictionary http://www.oed.com/
Vocabulary for the AP student

Strunk and White http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/
Rules of style for written prose

Teacher Web Log http://www.hollywoodhighschool.net
Weekly blog postings of assignments due

Apex Learning http://www.apexvs.com/
AP diagnostic tests; literary terms; study strategies

Go My Access/Vantage Learning http://www.gomyaccess.com
Intellimetric prompts and rubric-scored writing

Exercise Central http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral
Online quizzes for each reading selection

College Board Online http://www.collegeboard.org/ap


Grading System
Marks on individual assignments are based on the following scale:
A 92.5 % or better
B 82.5 % or better
C 72.5 % or better
D 62.5 % or better

Midterm and final examinations are administered; other quizzes are given throughout the course and include tests on meaning, language, and writing strategies from texts, tests on vocabulary, the connotative and denotative meanings of words, and tests on literary terms necessary for success on the multiple-choice and essays portions of the AP Language Exam.