AP Language and Composition: Thematic Units and Overview

Ms. Rhude
Email: caroline.rhude@gmail.com
Website: www.crhude.com
Description
The course is designed to comply with the AP curricular requirements for each course. The approach to the course
is thematic, which is reflected in the syllabus.
Course Overview and Strategies
Students enrolled in the course will develop the ability to analyze complex texts through close reading of prose and
image-based works from different historical time periods as well as different rhetorical modes. The students will
have ample opportunity to support, challenge, or qualify the position of the writer. The students will utilize a variety
of techniques while analyzing texts, including SOAPSTone, Kenneth Burke's pentad, the rhetorical triangle, focused
annotation, and the use of rhetorical analysis graphic organizers that require the identification of specific rhetorical
strategies. Students will read sample essays and become familiar with the AP scoring rubric. The students will
begin to ask why a writer makes the choices he or she makes and how these choices function in a given piece,
including how these choices create meaning.
Critical reading skills will enable students to develop their abilities as writers of narrative, expository, analytical, and
argumentative pieces. In addition, students will have the opportunity to develop skills in writing personal and
reflective pieces. The course offers many opportunities to work collaboratively. The students will have
opportunities to compose a written piece as a group, and they will also evaluate their classmates' work. I will post
sentences or paragraphs from submitted essays that need corrections and improvements. Students will identify the
errors or weakness and edit the sentence and/or paragraph. The students will complete exercises that focus on how
sentences reflect style, connotation, language control, levels of diction, figurative language, tone, sentence
structure, sentence variety, and the structure of an argument.
All handouts and links can be found on my website: www.crhude.com
Instructional Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the students should be able to:
Analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying, and explaining an authors use of rhetorical
strategies and techniques
Apply effective strategies and techniques to their own writing
Create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience with correct
documentation of nonfiction writers
Demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in
developing their own voice.
Write in a variety of genres and contexts, both formal and informal, employing appropriate conventions
Produce expository and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it
with appropriate, specific evidence, cogent explanations, and clear transitions.
Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research,
drafting, revising, editing, and review
Evaluate print and electronic sources according to authenticity, coverage, currency, accuracy, and
objectivity for a variety of purposes
Organize thoughts logically and clearly for a variety of purposes
Develop a sense of tone, style, individual voice, or created persona
Refine word choice, sentence and paragraph structure to achieve concise, organized written communication
and reflect an understanding of the audience
Materials:
Required materials include: two college-ruled notebook for literary journal and vocabulary notebook, 3ring binder with loose leaf collegiate lined paper, blue or black pens, flash drive, Internet connection or
access, and personal dictionary
All assignments and current text brought to class each day (please obtain your own copy of each units
central text)
Theme: Introduction to Argument/August and September*

Essential
Question
Central Work

Shorter
Nonfiction

How do the ways in which we use language reveal who we are?

The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien
and
Summer Reading Text
"On Being a Cripple" Nancy Mairs
"The Gettysburg Address" Abraham Lincoln
"Politics and the English Language" George Orwell
"How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words" Paul Roberts
"Mother Tongue" Amy Tan

Short Story

Good Readers and Good Writers" Vladimir Nabokov [Essay]

Bedford
Reading
Assignments

But What Do You Mean? Deborah Tannen p. 390

The Ways We Lie Stephanie Ericsson p. 407
The World of Doublespeak William Lutz p. 417

Writing
Assignments
(WA)

Journal Writing: While the students are reading The Things They Carried, they will record
facts, feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will also select key passages that we
will analyze in class. Please see attachment.
Style Essay: The students will write a piece emulating O' Brien's style. We will discuss how
"structure mirrors content" functions in his chapter and in their essays (250 wc).
Style Essay and Speech: After we read and analyze "The Gettysburg Address," the students will
write their own "Address," emulating Lincoln's style. The students will choose the subject of
the piece and present.

Major WA:

Analytical Essay: Students will compose a rhetorical analysis from a prompt focusing on one of
the summer readings (500-750 wc).

Theme: Nature/October*
Essential
Question
Central Works

How does our relationship with nature inform who we are?

Shorter
Nonfiction

from Silent Spring Rachel Carson

"Nature" Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Against Nature" Joyce Carol Oates
"An Entrance to the Woods" Wendell Berry
"Counting Carbons" Richard Conniff
"GeoSigns: The Big Thaw" Daniel Glick
"Small Wonder" Barbara Kingsolver

Short Story

"A White Heron" Sarah Orne Jewett

Poetry

"The Tables Turned" William Wordsworth

"The Summer Day" Mary Oliver
Grizzly Man [Documentary] or
Deliverance
"Cloud the Issue or Clear the Air" Royal Dutch Shell [Advertisement]
Kindred Spirits Asher B. Durand [Painting]
TBA

Film
Visual
Bedford
Reading
Writing
Assignments

Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard [Nonfiction]

and
Into Thin Air Jon Kraukauer [Summer reading] or Walden Henry David Thoreau

Journal Writing: While completing the summer reading, students recorded facts, feelings, and
questions in a literature journal. They also selected key passages to analyze that we will also

analyze in class. Please see attachment.

Poem: Using a quote from the summer reading as an epigraph, students composed a form poem.
Major WA

Narrative Essay: Using a quote from the summer reading as an epigraph, students composed a
narrative (300wc).
Synthesis Essay: The students will read, analyze and integrate sources and then write an essay
that synthesizes at least three sources in order to defend, challenge or qualify the claim that we
can discover essential truths about ourselves only through a relationship with nature. Students
have the option to create an original thesis (500-750).

Theme: Education/ November and Dec*

Essential
Question
Central Work

What is a true education?

Shorter
Nonfiction

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read" Francine Prose
"Education" Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Best in Class" Margaret Talbot
"Superman and Me" Sherman Alexie
"School" Kyoto Mori
"A Talk to Teachers" James Baldwin

Short Story

"Eleven" Sandra Cisneros

Poetry

"The History Teacher" Billy Collins

"Homeroom" Mary Crosley

Film

Stand and Deliver

Visual

The Spirit of Education Norman Rockwell [Painting]

American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang [Graphic Novel]

Bedford
Reading
Writing
Assignments

TBA

Major WA

Mid-term Election/ Current Issue Project:

Students will compose six persuasive texts on behalf of an assigned candidate or a specific
ballot initiative (students will not choose the candidate or position on the issue) three meant to
be spoken; three meant to be read each to specific audiences; supporters, fence-sitters, and
opponents. Students must submit self-annotated copies of each text highlighting the rhetorical
strategies they incorporated.

The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass and TBA

Journal Writing: While the students are reading The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass they
will record facts, feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will also select key
passages that we will analyze in class. Please see attachment.

Theme: Gender/ January*

Essential
Question
Central Works
Shorter
Nonfiction

Short Story

What is the impact of the gender roles that society creates and enforces?
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston[Fiction]
"Women's Brains" Stephen Jay Gould
"Professions for Women" Virginia Woolf
"Being a Man" Paul Theroux
"No Name Woman" Maxine Hong Kingston
"I.D." Joyce Carol Oates
" Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" Tim O'Brien

Poetry

"Barbie Doll" Marge Piercy

"If" Rudyard Kipling

Film
Visual

TBA
Persepolis Marjane Satrapi [Graphic Novel]
The Clothed Maja and The Naked Maja Francisco Goya

Bedford
Reading

I Want a Wife Judy Brady

Girl Jamaica Kincaid
Barbie
Out of the Kitchen Dave Barry
Journal Writing: While the students are reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, they will
record facts, feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will also select key passages
that we will analyze in class. Please see attachment.

Writing
Assignments

Major WA

Synthesis Essay: The students will read, analyze and integrate sources from this unit and then
write an essay that synthesizes at least three sources in order to defend, challenge or qualify the
claim that it would better for men and women to live their lives separately (750-800 wc).
Persuasive Essay: After we have viewed and analyzed Arranged, we will identify the purpose
and meaning of the film. Students will write an essay that supports, challenges, or qualifies the
position that an arranged marriage is the best way to go (500-750wc).

Theme: Personal and Societal Conflict/ February*

Essential
Question
Central Work

How do the choices we make as we address conflict define us?

Shorter
Nonfiction

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

and
Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley and Malcolm X [Summer Reading] or Omnivores
Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Michael Pollan [Summer Reading]
"Shooting Dad" Sarah Vowell
"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" Henry David Thoreau
"A Modest Proposal" Jonathan Swift
"On Morality" Joan Dideon
"Why Don't We Complain" William F. Buckley, Jr.
"Regarding the Pain of Others" Susan Sontag

Short Story

"On the Rainy River" Tim O'Brien

Poetry

"Here, Bullet" Brain Turner

"Facing It" Yusef Komunyakaa
American Heart
Sophie's Choice
Guernica Pablo Picasso
Maus Art Spiegelman [Graphic Novel]
A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge Josh Neufeld [Graphic Novel]
TBA

Film
Visual

Bedford
Reading
Writing
Assignments

Major WA:

Journal Writing: While the students are reading The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn they will
record facts, feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will also select key passages
that we will analyze in class. Please see attachment.
Satirical Essay: After reading and analyzing "A Modest Proposal," students will write a
satirical piece on a topic they've chosen.

Theme: Work/ March and April*

Essential
Question

How do our choices about where we work and what we do there influence our lives?

Central Works

A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway [Memoir] and The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
and
Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser [Summer Reading] or Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich
[Summer Reading)

Shorter
Nonfiction

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" Henry David Thoreau
"The Barrio" Richard Ramirez
"Being Perfect" Anna Quindlen
"Walking the Path between Worlds" Lori Arviso Alford
"The Traveling Bra Salesman's Lesson" Claudia O'Keefe
"Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen"

Short Story

"New York Day Woman" Edwidge Danticat

Poetry

"Painting the Christmas Trees" Joe Weil

"An Abandoned Factory, Detroit' Philip Levine
"Ballad of Birmingham" Dudley Randall

Film
Visual

TBA
Iwo Jima [Sculpture]
Arab in America Toufic El Rassi [Graphic Novel]
"I'm not a lumberjack" [Molson CANADIAN advertisement]

Bedford
Reading
Writing
Assignments

TBA
Journal Writing: While the students are reading A Moveable Feast, they will record facts,
feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will also select key passages that we will
analyze in class. Please see attachment.
Syllogisms: After we read and analyze "Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen" and
"Letter from Birmingham Jail," the students will write syllogisms. We will evaluate the
effectiveness of these during class discussion.
Ballad: After we read and analyze "Ballad of Birmingham," students will write original
ballads.

Major WA:

Narrative Essay: After reading and annotating A Moveable Feast, students will write their own
personal essays using the process of completing a task as the controlling motif. Each essay will
include a philosophical conversation with an associate. Following consultations with peers,
they will select two visuals to illustrate the essay (300-500 wc).
Definition Essay: After reading and annotating "The Barrio" by Richard Ramirez and
analyzing the Molson advertisement, students will write a definition essay about where they
currently live. They will use a metaphorical image to frame the essay. They will also
incorporate words and phrases that are unique to their neighborhood or town (300-500 wc).

Theme: Social Justice/ May and June*

Essential
Question
Central Work

What is our responsibility to others?

Shorter
Nonfiction
Short Story
Poetry

Students will choose a social justice issue and collect and annotate six essays from various
sources including anthologies and the media.
"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" Amy Hempel
"Song" Brigit Pegeen Kelly
"This is for Zarif" Diana Der-Hovanessian

Film

TBA

Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder [Nonfiction]

Visual

Students will access the TED site to find two examples that correspond to their choice of
issues.

Bedford
Reading
Writing
Assignments

TBA

Major WA

Researched Argument Paper: Students, in pairs or in groups of three, will submit a research
argument paper on a social justice topic using the MLA citation format. The students must
develop a thesis, gather research materials, evaluate research materials, and submit process
work. Students must use four varied sources. Students must submit a self-annotated copy of the
essay highlighting the rhetorical strategies they incorporated. (max 800 wc)

Journal Writing: While the students are reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, they will record
facts, feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will also select key passages that we
will analyze in class. Please see attachment.

Public Service Announcement: After completing the researched argument paper, students will
create a public service announcement in which they motivate the audience to adopt their views.
Students present these to the class as their final (3 mins).

*Please note that all titles are subject to teacher discretion and may change.
In class Timed Essays Responding to AP or AP-like Prompts:
During the course of the year, students are regularly required to respond to a prompt under time constraints. During
the first semester, students will share their responses in their groups prior to revising and resubmitting the paper for
assessment. If dissatisfied with the grade earned on a paper, a student may revise and resubmit (up to two papers) for
reassessment only after attending an individual writing conference. During the second semester, students will have
fewer opportunities for reassessment.
Assessments
During the first semester, the students will complete six to eight timed writing pieces taken from Part 2 sections of
previous AP Language and Composition and Literature and Composition Exams. Some of these will be evaluated
by me and some by peers. During the second semester the students will complete fourteen (or more as needed)
writing pieces taken from Part 2 sections of previous exams. The writing tasks will correspond to works we are
reading in class at the time. All essays are graded on the 9 point AP rubric unless specified (please see attachment).
Students will periodically take multiple choice quizzes in which they answer questions found in Part 1 sections of
previous AP exams. In addition, students will work independently and collaboratively to compose their own
questions. The multiple choice practice exams will be scored on a curve.
The students will be required to submit a vocabulary notebook every four weeks. In the notebooks students will
record words they cannot define that they find in newspapers, magazines, scholarly texts, textbooks, etc. The
students will define each word, include the example in context, and write an original sentence. In addition, students
will maintain a list of tropes and schemes, using the same format. Vocabulary entries will be evaluated based on
thoroughness (+, , -).
While we read, students will record facts, feelings, and questions in a literature journal. They will be asked to
identify rhetorical strategies. They will use these journals as study guides and as sources for their own writing. All
literature journals must include use of proper MLA citation. Please see attachment.
Classroom Policies
While students are not required to take the AP exam: however, it is strongly encouraged because it is the
culminating activity of the course.
All students must take the practice exam when administered. It emulates the actual testing experience.
Homework is due at the beginning of the period, before the bell rings for class to start. Tardy students
must have a tardy excused note or the assignment is late.
o Because homework and process assignments (i.e. rough drafts, etc) pertain to the lesson of the
day, students earn no credit if they do not submit those assignments on the due date.
o Students who miss an in-class timed write/ assignment or quiz have two school days to make
up upon their return; otherwise, they will receive a zero on the assignment.

The grade book closes at the end of each grading period; consequently, late work from the
previous five week grading period will no longer be accepted, resulting in no credit for the
assignment.
Students who were absent on the day the work was assignment must hand it in within two school days of
their return for full credit. If the assignment was assigned prior to the absence, it is due the day the
student returns to school. A student whose absence was not excused or due to suspension must hand in
the work on the day of his/her return for any credit.
Athletics, school performances or other planned absences require submission of assignments prior to the
scheduled absence for full credit. Therefore, students must make a conference appointment prior to a
planned absence. Students will not pass this course if their work is consistently late. Computer issues
are not valid excuses for late work.
Cheating or plagiarism on schoolwork will result in a zero on the assignment and could result in
further consequences.
Cell phones must be turned off during class time. Any cell phone use during class time may result in
disciplinary action.
ALL final drafts of major written assignments are to be typed and must adhere to the proper MLA
format unless otherwise specified.
The students academic grade will be determined as follows:
A = 90.0 %- 100%
B = 80.0% - 89.99%
C = 70.0 % - 79.99%
D = 60.00% - 69.99%
F = 0/ INCOMPLETE 59.99%

Please sign and return this portion to Ms. Rhude

I have read and understand the contents of the student parent packet for AP English Language and Composition.

Class: ________________________

Period: ______________________

Students Name (Print):

_________________________________________________________

Student Signature:

_________________________________________________________

Students Email (Use all caps):

_________________________________________________________

Parent/ Guardians Name (Print):

___________________________________________________

Parent/ Guardians Signature:

___________________________________________________

Parent/ Guardians Email (Use all caps): _____________________________________________________

Preferred Phone Number: _______________________________________ (work/ cell/ home)

Additional Comments: Please note if your child has a IEP, 504 Plan, or any additional notes youd like to convey.

ESSAY RUBRIC
ALL FINAL DRAFT ESSAYS MUST HAVE A HAND-WRITTEN ROUGH DRAFT ATTACHED BEHIND
THE TYPED FINAL DRAFT.
9-8 : These well-focused and persuasive essays address the prompt directly and in a convincing manner. An essay
scored a 9 demonstrates exceptional insight and language facility. An essay scored an 8 or a 9 combines adherence
to the topic with excellent organization, content, insight, facile use of language, mastery of mechanics, and an
understanding of the essential components of an effective essay. Literary devices and/or techniques are not merely
listed, but the effect of those devices and/or techniques is addressed in context of the passage, poem, or novel as a
whole. Descriptors that come to mind while reading this essay include: mastery, sophisticated, complex, specific,
consistent, and well-supported.
7-6 : These highly competent essays comprehend the task set forth by the prompt and respond to it directly, although
some of the analysis may be implicit rather than explicit. The 7 essay is in many ways a thinner version of the 9-8
paper in terms of discussion and supporting details, but it is still impressive, cogent, and generally convincing. It
may also be less well-handled in terms of organization, insight, or vocabulary. Descriptors that come to mind while
reading these essays include: demonstrates a clear understanding but is less precise and less well-supported than a 98 paper. These essays demonstrate an adherence to the task, but deviate from course on occasion. The mechanics
are sound, but may contain a few errors which may distract but do not obscure meaning. Although there may be a
few minor misreadings, the inferences are for the most part accurate with no significant sustained misreadings. An
essay that scores a 6 is an upper-half paper, but it may be deficient in one of the essentials mentioned above. It may
be less mature in thought or less well-handled in terms of organization, syntax or mechanics. The analysis is
somewhat more simplistic than found in a 7 essay, and lacks sustained, mature analysis.
5: These essays may be overly simplistic in analysis, or rely almost exclusively on paraphrase rather than specific,
textual examples. These essays may provide a plausible reading, but the analysis is implicit rather than
explicit. These essays might provide a list of literary devices present in the literature, but make no effort to discuss
the effect that these devices have on the poem, passage, or novel as a whole. Descriptors that come to mind when
reading include: superficial, vague, and mechanical. The language is simplistic and the insight is limited or lacking
in development.
4-3: These lower-half essays compound the problems found in the 5 essay. They often demonstrate significant
sustained misreadings, and provide little or no analysis. They maintain the general idea of the writing assignment,
show some sense of organization, but are weak in content, maturity of thought, language facility, and/or
mechanics. They may distort the topic or fail to deal adequately with one or more important aspects of the
topic. Essays that are particularly poorly written may be scored a 3. Descriptors that come to mind while reading
include: incomplete, oversimplified, meager, irrelevant, and insufficient.
2-1: These essays make an attempt to deal with the topic but demonstrate serious weakness in content and coherence
and/or syntax and mechanics. Often, they are unacceptably short. They are poorly written on several counts,
including numerous distracting errors in mechanics, and/or little clarity, coherence, or supporting evidence. Wholly
vacuous, inept, and mechanically unsound essays should be scored a 1.
0 : A zero is given to a response with no more than a passing reference to the task.
Grading
9*
8
8/7
7
6
6/5
5
Scale
Numeric
105/ 33 100/30 95/28 90/27 85/24 80/23 75/ 22
Scale
(Final
draft/ in
class timed
write)
* Essays with a score of 9 earn additional points as it is exceptional work.

70/21

65/19

60/18

50/15

45/10

Rhude