Capital High School
Course Syllabus
AP English Language and Composition
Instructor: Kelly Stoner
Room: 125
Email:
kstoner@helena.k12.mt.us
Phone: 324-2536
Web site:
www.mrsstoner.info
Course Description:
The AP (Advanced Placement) English Language and Composition course is designed to help students become skilled readers of prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts and to become skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects, as well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing. The goals of an AP English Language and Composition course are diverse because the college composition course is one of the most varied in the curriculum. Students who take this course will prepare for, but are not required to take, the AP Language and Composition Exam in the spring. Depending on how a student scores on the exam, it is accepted for up to six credits at most colleges and universities.
This is a challenging course that is different than English classes students have taken before, even honors courses. This course explores American literature but also deals with nonfiction to a great extent. Therefore, novels and short stories are not read as frequently as in other English classes. Rather, there is an emphasis on essays that have been written for a wide variety of purposes, and rhetorical techniques are studied and applied to much of the material that is read.
If a student has received As in previous English classes, this does not mean that he/she will automatically receive an A in this AP course. As stated above, this is a challenging course, much more so than English classes students have taken in the past, so it will take hard work and much effort to receive an A in this class. The grade that any student receives is the grade he/she has earned, not what the teacher has given him/her.
Upon completing the AP English Language and Composition course, students should be able to:
- analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.
- apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing.
- create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience.
- write for a variety of purposes.
- produce expository, analytical and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary courses, cogent explanations, and clear transitions.
- demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writing.
- demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources.
- evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers.
Unit Descriptions:
The course is organized by both a chronological study of American literary periods and major nonfiction rhetoric by American authors and a systematic progression of writing in patterns of exposition in response to the works of a wide variety of complex and quality authors.
Texts: Elements of Literature -- Holt, Rinehart, Winston
Patterns of Exposition Eighteenth Edition -- Robert A. Schwegler
5 Steps to a 5: AP English Language – Rankin and Murphy
Literature
Elements of Literature: nonfiction, short stories, poems, and other types of writing from the following American literature genres: Colonial Period, Revolutionary Period, Romantic Period, Renaissance, Realism, Modern Nonfiction
Patterns of Exposition: numerous chapters
Novels from those approved for the English 3 curriculum for the Helena School District
Writing
A wide variety of types of writing, both process pieces and in-class timed assignments, focusing largely on analysis, argumentation, and synthesis – some related to assigned reading and some solely for AP instruction and preparation for the AP English Language and Composition exam; research paper
Grammar
Lessons designed to help students have success on the ACT and SAT tests – lessons will be taken
from Grammar and Composition (Prentice-Hall) and Grammar Workbook for the SAT, ACT…and More; some lessons will draw from errors in student writing, which will be discussed and corrected
Vocabulary
Terms from assigned reading and from SAT test preparation materials
AP Instruction
Assignments and exercises that will be incorporated into the literature, writing, grammar, and vocabulary sections above; instruction in rhetoric, including notes on rhetoric and application on reading and writing assignments and exercises; practice for the AP English Language and Composition exam; 5 Steps to a 5: AP Language used for AP preparation
Grade Breakdown:
Essays 35%
Tests and quizzes 30%
Daily work 35%
Assignments in each category are assigned a point value based on effort required and difficulty. Points are then added up per category and weighted accordingly. Therefore, a grade
cannot be figured correctly by just dividing the total points earned for the grading period by the total points possible for the grading period.
Grading Scale:
| 91 – 100 =A |
78 – 79.99 = C+ |
| 90 – 91.99 = A- |
72 – 77.99 = C |
| 88 – 89.99 = B+ |
70 – 71.99 = C- |
| 82 – 87.99 = B |
68 – 69.99 = D+ |
| 80 – 81.99 = B- |
62 – 67.99 = D |
|
60 – 61.99 = D- |
| 59.99 AND BELOW = F |
|
Class Rules and Expectations:
Each student has or will be given a copy of the Classroom Policies and Procedures for this class. Classroom Policies and Procedures may also be viewed at Mrs. Stoner’s web site.
Weekly plans, as well as assignment downloads for many assignments for this class, can be found at Mrs. Stoner’s web site (www.mrsstoner.info).
Please see Classroom Policies and Procedures for questions regarding classroom procedures.