Fred Montas, Jr.

Department of English

Manlius Pebble Hill School

Humanities 2

fmontas@mph.net

 

 

AP English Language and Composition

2008-2009

 

Syllabus

 

Course Overview

Welcome to AP Lang!  This course develops the reading and writing skills you will need for a variety of college courses. Thematically, the course focuses on the personal and the political, but the readings range across a variety of topics from the arts, current events, history, science, politics, and popular culture.  In addition, students will read, listen to, and view a variety of texts, including academic papers, personal essays, letters, speeches, memoirs, poems, editorials, magazine advertisements, television commercials, billboards, comic strips, and movie trailers.  In turn, students will write pieces and responses in a variety of modes, including document-based argumentation, rhetorical analysis, creative nonfiction, and imitative writing.

Essentially, this is a course in the ancient field known as rhetoric.  The practice of rhetoric is as old as humanity; as long as people have communicated, there has been rhetoric.  We can understand rhetoric to mean, as one writer put it, “the entire range of resources that human beings share for producing effects on one another:  effects ethical (including everything about character), practical (including political), emotional (including aesthetic), and intellectual (including every academic field).”  In order to become skilled rhetors (people who use rhetoric) and rhetoricians (people who analyze rhetoric), we need to become aware of both the “range of resources” and its various effects.  Fundamentally, this means we need to become able to say and write what we intend to say and write, while also paying attention to how people say and write things, and being able to explain why they might say it one way instead of another. 

In some respects, the abilities to communicate effectively and to judge effective communication are the most important skills a person can have as an informed and engaged member of a community.  Beyond building your reading and writing skills, the assignments for this course are selected and designed to enhance your understanding of the world and your place in it.  I want this course to help develop the skills and strategies to think reflectively and critically about yourself, to become an informed citizen, and to think about what it means to be engaged in the affairs of your community. 

 

Several essential questions will guide our reading, thinking, and writing throughout the year.  Our goal is not to provide definitive answers to these questions, but rather to explore their ramifications fully from a variety of texts and perspectives. 

 

First Quarter:  What is rhetoric?  What is politics? 

Second Quarter:  How can we know if something is true?  How does narrative shape our perception of reality?  What makes a narrative convincing to us? 

Third Quarter:  Is the self, or identity, a stable construct? 

Fourth Quarter:  How can we best live together? 

 

This college-level course follows the College Board’s guidelines for Advanced Placement English Language and Composition.  Therefore, all students in this class

 

write several formal essays each marking period that will vary in subject, audience, and purpose,

 

write two centerpiece essays (each developed in stages that involve revision), one modeled on James Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” and the other a researched essay that presents an original argument and uses several sources, including more than one primary source,

 

ask the instructor at least one significant question about their writing before turning in an essay,

 

demonstrate in successive formal work, as well as less formal in-class writing, that they have integrated the writing skills discussed in class and the instructor’s responses to their writing,

 

revise most of their work, based on the comments of both their instructor and their peer editors,

 

confer with the instructor during the first and third quarters to discuss at length their writing, 

 

develop and demonstrate a vocabulary that will empower them to write effectively in a variety of contexts.

 

 

Expectations

 

This class requires a substantial amount of reading and writing, sometimes in quantity, at other times in intensity.  Every Day 2 you will have a writing assignment due, and on some Day 2’s, you will also complete an in-class essay as part of your preparation for the A.P. exam. Just as all responsible citizens fulfill certain obligations, I expect students in this class to commit to the following:

 

Coming to class on time. 

 

Bringing all relevant readings and materials to class.  Since this course depends on close reading and using the text to support one’s analyses, students are expected to bring all relevant readings to class.  In addition, students are expected to bring their notebooks and writing instruments to class. 

 

Contributing to a respectful classroom environment.  Listening and responding appropriately are essential to understanding and appreciating the arts of effective communication.  To be clear:  if you want others to take you seriously, take them seriously and treat them respectfully. 

 

Preparing two questions and two comments about each reading for each class.  These questions should be e-mailed to me (fmontas@mph.net) the night before a reading assignment is due.  A course such as this depends on active student interaction with the reading material.  Since this class depends on close reading, students must be comfortable using the texts to support their comments in class.  Toward this end, all students are expected to prepare two questions and two comments about each reading for each class.  Students should be prepared to be called on and, when they do not have an answer, to shift appropriately to one of their prepared questions or comments.  These comments and questions should focus on rhetorical matters. 

 

Turning in assignments at the beginning of class.  Recognizing that computers function imperfectly, I nevertheless expect that a student’s assignment will be ready at the beginning of the class that it is due.  When you are in college, you probably will not be able to go down the hall to print out your essay, or have your mother bring it later in the day.  As this is a college class, collegiate expectations apply. 

 

Revising and rewriting.  Students are expected to revise and rewrite most of their essays based on the responses they receive from the instructor and their peers.  Students must complete rewrites within one week of having received the essay from the instructor. 

 

Keeping all returned work.  Students are expected to keep all returned materials in one location, which is especially important for the two major writing conferences that will be conducted during the year.  We cannot discuss your writing if you do not have your writing with you.  It is recommended that you acquire a folder dedicated to the essays for this course. 

 

Taking the AP exam on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.

 

 

 

Grading

 

Formal essays:  50%

In-class writing (including responses in your notebook and simulated AP essays):  25%

In-class performance (including listening, preparation, participation, and bringing appropriate materials):  15%

Multiple-choice questions and practice exams:  10%

 

Academic Honesty

 

Your success in this class depends on your ability to do your own work.  When you present work as yours that was actually prepared by someone else, you cheat yourself and the original author.  Plagiarism is a violation of the major school rule against dishonesty of any kind (see Parent/Student Handbook 2008-2009, p. 68).  Any student work suspected of plagiarism will be presented to the Dean of Students for referral to the Student-Faculty Judicial Committee. 

 

The College Board’s guidelines for Advanced Placement English Language and Composition require students to learn about the proper use of sources.  Throughout the year, we will study issues related to citation, paraphrasing, and attribution. 

 

Readings

 

Cohen, Samuel.  50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. 2^nd ed.  Boston:  Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

Duany, Andres, et al.  Suburban Nation:  The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.  New York:  North Point Press, 2000.

Fox, Steven.  Advanced Composition Skills: 20 Lessons for AP Success.  Saddle Brook, New Jersey:  People’s Education, 2008.

May, Ernest R.  9/11 Commission Report with Related Documents.  Boston:  Bedford/St. Martins’s, 2007.

Orwell, George.  Homage to Catalonia.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin, 1955.

Shklar, Judith.  American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Swovelin, Barbara V.  CliffsAP English Language and Composition. 3^rd ed.  Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2006.

Weschler, Lawrence.  Boggs:  A Comedy of Values.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Watkins, Floyd C., et al. Practical English Handbook.  11^th ed.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin. 2001.

 

 

Let’s have a great year!