AP® English Language & Composition

Course Overview

Students in AP® English Language & Composition, an introductory college-level course,

learn to read deeply and analyze thoroughly the strategies writers use to achieve meaning.
By close reading of a challenging array of texts, students develop insight into how
language, rhetoric, and argument work and learn how to incorporate the techniques of
masterful writing into their own compositions while developing personal style and unique
voices. Focusing primarily on nonfiction, the course also meets the objectives of
American Literature by studying important imaginative literature in the context of
rhetorical and stylistic analysis. Students learn to evaluate an author’s purpose, the needs of
an audience, the demands of the subject, and the structure of language: syntax, word choice, and
tone Since our students live in a world in which “text” includes the visual and electronic,
selections studied in the course also include visual media such as music video,
advertisements, film, photographs, graphics, cartoons, and art. Featured authors include:
Annie Dillard, Anna Quindlen, Joan Didion, Jon Krakauer, J.D.Salinger, Shelby Steele,
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Emerson, Alice Walker, Tim O’Brien, Kate Chopin,
Deborah Tannen, John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Central
course textbooks are: The Bedford Reader. 8th edition; 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology;
Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Bold Contemporary Style; Harbrace College Handbook;
The Language of Literature: American Literature; The Well-Crafted Sentence: A Writer’s
Guide to Style; They Say, I Say; Hot Words for the SAT . For full publication data, see
Teacher Resources below.

Expectations in a college-level course are high, and the workload is challenging. Students are
expected to commit to a minimum of five hours of course work per week outside of class. Often,
this work involves long-term writing and reading assignments, so effective time management is
important. Because of the demanding curriculum, students must bring to the course sufficient
command of mechanical conventions and an ability to read and discuss prose. Summer reading
and writing are required and designed to prepare students for rhetorical analysis through
the use of a writer’s notebook based on Joan Didion’s essay “On Keeping a Notebook.”
Students prepare for AP® English Language and Composition Exam and may be granted
advanced placement, college credit, or both as a result of satisfactory performance.

The course overview and objectives for the course are taken from the AP® English
Course Description published by the College Board.
Course Objectives
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 sources, cogent explanations, and clear transitions;
• demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as
stylistic maturity in their own writings;
• demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary
sources;
• move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful
attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review;
• write thoughtfully about their own process of composition;
• revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience;
• analyze image as text; and
• evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers.

Assessment
All writing will be assessed using the McIntosh High School Rubric or an AP® 9-point
rubric. Writing assignments will generally count 100 points. In-class essays will count 50
with a revision turned in for an additional 50 points for a total of 100 points. Out-of-class
essays will count 100 points. Preparation for in-class and online discussion is critical to
the success of a student in the class. Students will complete data sheets for major works
and reading précis and analysis for articles and essays which will count for 50 points.
Additional grades may include quizzes, reading checks, vocabulary activities, class work,
homework, discussions, and presentations. Points on these assignments may range from
5 to 50 points depending on the length and importance of the assignment. Grading scales
will be progressive. At the beginning of the year, a 6 on an in-class essay will earn an 85
but as skills increase at the end of the year to same score will earn a 79. Writing and
additional assignments count for 65 percent of the course grade first semester and 80
percent of the course grade second semester. All juniors must complete a research paper
or project worth 20 percent of the course grade each semester. See more details about
research under course planner. Additionally, students in the course will complete a final
exam including a modified AP® English Language and Composition test including a multiple
choice section and two writing prompts first semester worth 15 percent of the final grade.
No exam exemptions apply to the final in this course. In the second semester students are
expected to take the AP® examination and will be exempt from a final.
Course Planner
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Fall Semester

First Quarter August 9, 2010- October 11, 2010

Theme: Life
Language and Rhetoric
Introduction to the Course
Summer Reading
“The Writer’s Notebook” by Joan Didion
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Book of choice
Rhetorical terms pre-test/slide presentations
Students will take a pre-test on important terms to be studied in the course.
Each student will then create a PowerPoint slide to illustrate one of the
terms. Guidelines for visual presentations will be covered prior to the
assignment, and the slide will be assessed for visual impact as well as
content. The class slide presentation will be available online and viewed
periodically for mini-lessons and review.
Moment of Voice presentations
Students draw from passages reflected upon in their writer’s notebooks to
present short (less than 5 minutes) excerpts from their reading that
captured their attention as good examples of a writer’s voice, rhetorical
strategy, meaningful content, three classical appeals. In the presentation
to the class, the student will share the excerpt, identify the writer/speaker,
audience, purpose, and subject and explain one or more aspects of the
passage in its context as rhetoric.
Socratic Café
In Socratic Café style discussions, the teacher serves as a guide, coach,
and questioner urging student participation in discussion. In the first nine
weeks, students will learn the techniques of contribution, clarification,
questioning, shared and collective inquiry, suspension of judgment,
reasoning, dialogue versus debate, textual support and evidence,
paraphrasing, summarizing, and civility. Students will be expected to
prepare for the discussions prior to class by completing either a data sheet
for major works or the “Reading / Analysis / Précis / Discussion
Preparation” process for essays and articles. Topics for first quarter
discussions may include: The Writer’s Notebook—Purpose, Problems,
and Potential; The Catcher in the Rye, Into the Wild, and Walden;
Madness; Man’s Desire to Return to Nature; The Scarlet Letter, Their
 Eyes Were Watching God, and The Awakening: The Heroine’s Journey;
Gender in America; and Race in America.
Skill Focuses:
Reading critically
Annotating texts
Strategies: TAPS, DUCATS, SOAPSTone, DIDLS, SQUIDS,
SMELL
Writing effectively
Persuasion
Classification
Comparison-Contrast
Deconstructing writing prompts
Language of rhetoric
The rhetorical triangle
The classical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos)
The Toulmin method
Aristotle’s rhetoric
Using sources
Avoiding plagiarism
Documenting sources using MLA (7th ed.) format
Summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting
Slicing quotations to 3-4 words
Integrating quotations
Grammar: Clauses, Active and Passive Voice, Strong Subjects and Verbs
Reading Selections
Textbooks
The Bedford Reader
Introduction pp. 1-6
Chapter 1 “Reading Critically: pp. 9-31
Chapter 2 “Writing Effectively” pp. 33-48
Chapter 3 “Using Sources” pp. 49-70
Chapter 13 “Argument and Persuasion” pp. 499-513
The Well-Crafted Sentence
Chapter 1 “The Sentence’s Working Parts” pp. 9-24
Chapter 2 “Well-Focused Sentences: The Subject-Verb Pair” pp. 25-45
Spunk & Bite
“Freshness/The Wallop of the New” pp. 10-46
“Texture/Writing into the Mood” pp. 44-71
The Elements of Style
“Elementary Principles of Usage” pp. 1-14
“Elementary Principles of Composition” pp. 15-33
They Say, I Say
“Entering Class Discussion: A Brief Appendix” pp. 133-135
“Part One: They Say” pp. 15-47
The Language of Composition
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Pronouns” pp. 420-26
 “Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Short Simple Sentences and
Fragments”pp. 252-256
Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies
“Complete Sentences? Optional” pp. 150-151
“Satan’s Vocabulary” pp. 172-189
Fiction:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Associated readings:
“Shaming and the Digital Scarlet Letter” by Daniel J. Solove
“Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards
“Whatever Happened to Shame” by Ellen Goodman
Tiger Woods’ apology speech
Activity:
Kohlberg’s Moral Development and the Heinz Dilemma
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Associated readings:
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston
“In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” by Alice Walker
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Associated readings:
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
“I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady
Nonfiction
Whiskey speech by Noah Sweat
“Are We Better Off?” by Henry Louis Gates
“Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee
“On Being Black and Middle Class” by Shelby Steele
“Race Matters” by Cornel West
“The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner
“What is an American?” by Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecouer
“Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
From The Declaration of the Rights of Women by Olympe de Gouges
“There is Not Unmarked Woman” by Deborah Tannen
“Aren’t I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
“Marrying Absurd” by Joan Didion
Poetry
“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes
Essays on Rhetoric
“Girl Moved to Tears by Of Mice and Men Cliffs notes” The Onion
“How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” by Paul Roberts
“How to Write an ‘F’ Paper” by Joseph C. Pattison
“Listening” by Eudora Welty
“Reading Student X” by Robert Barsanti
“Never Do That to a Book” by Anne Fadiman
“Reading Critically” from Thinking, Reading and Writing
 “How and Why to Annotate a Book” by Nick Otten
“Good Readers and Good Writers” by Vladimir Nabokov
“Preparing for the Synthesis Question: Six Steps Toward Success” by David Jolliffe
“Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa” by David Sedaris
“Introduction to Logic” by John C. Sherwood
“You Are What You Say” by Robin Lakoff
Vocabulary
Hot Words for the SAT
Lesson 1: Using Few Words or Being Quiet
Lesson 2: Speaking
Lesson 3: Feeling Superior
Lesson 4: Unoriginal, Dull, Played Out
Lesson 5: Lessening Pain, Tension, and/or Conflict
Lesson 6: Friendly and Agreeable
Lesson 7: Quarrelling, Fighting, and Bitter Feelings
Lesson 8: Generosity in Spending Money or Time, or Showing Concern for
Others
Lesson 9: Cheapness or Care with Spending Money
Multiple Choice Practice:
1. From Lanterns on the Levees by William Alexander Percy
2. From Mary, Queen of Scots by Lady Antonia Fraser
3. From “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” by William Wordsworth
4. From My Antonia by Willa Cather
5. From 1848 Speech at Seneca Falls by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
6. From “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” by David
Sedaris
7. From “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady
8. Student-created multiple choice practice based on book of choice from
summer reading
9. Student-created multiple choice practice
Writing Assignments
Writer’s Notebook
My journal is a storehouse, a treasury for everything in my daily life: the stories I hear,
the people I meet, the quotations I like, and even the subtle signs and symbols I encounter
that speak to me indirectly. Unless I capture these things in writing, I lose them. . . . By
writing in my own journal, I often make discoveries. I see connections and conclusions
that otherwise would not appear obvious to me. I become a craftsman, like a potter or a
carpenter who makes a vase or a wooden stoop out of parts. Writing is a source of
pleasure when it involves such invention and creation. I want to work on my writing, too,
hone it into clear, readable prose, and where better to practice my writing than in my
journal.—Joseph Reynolds I Think (and Write in a Journal), Therefore I Am, 1981
A writer’s notebook will demonstrate diligence and effort in recording the student’s life
as a reader and writer... It will include reflections on a variety of written material:
required reading, novels, short stories, essays, editorials and editorial cartoons, blogs
magazine articles, newspaper articles or reflections on media: advertising, music,
television, movies, the Internet, social network media. The student may include graphic
elements such as charts, cartoons, maps, and graphs as well. Entries will consider:
• What makes this piece good or bad?
• What was the purpose of the piece?
• What drew your attention to the piece?
• What was the big idea you learned from reading this piece?
• What techniques are used by the author, artist, or creator in the work?
• How can you incorporate the techniques used in the piece in your own work?
The student may consider a variety of elements that make up rhetoric: style, message,
audience, syntax, diction, vocabulary, tone, appeals (logos, pathos, and ethos), genre, and
humor. Entries will include outstanding examples you have encountered and reflect on
the effect the writer or speaker achieves in the passage. The notebook will show the
student’s enthusiasm and reflection for language and meaning through regular entries and
reflection on the content of the notebook prior to its submission. The notebook should
include a minimum of 27 entries per 9-week grading period. Some will be assigned by
the teacher; others will be the student’s choice. An entry is a note, quotation, passage,
idea with a full reflection in your own voice. Document the source of any excerpts,
passages, or ideas directly from another writer or creator using MLA 7th format. Writer’s
Notebooks will be graded using the Writer’s Notebook rubric.
Methods of Discourse (Comparison-Contrast) Essay #1
Students will write an out-of-class essay comparing and contrasting some aspect of the
writers’ strategies in two of the summer reading books. The writing process will include
discussions as discovery, small group read-around for rough draft comments, thesis
analysis in small and whole class discussion, teacher feedback and commentary in
writing conferences, revision, editing, and proofreading. Evaluation of the essay will be
based on the McIntosh High School rubric.
Methods of Discourse (One Topic, Seven Ways) Essay #2
After reading “Writing Successful Paragraphs” by A.M. and Charlene Tibbetts and “The
Function of a Paragraph” by Richard Weaver and completing a paragraph analysis of
prose selections, students will select one topic and write about in seven patterns of
development: narration, description, example, definition, comparison/contrast, division
and classification, and causal analysis.
Methods of Discourse (Classification) Essay #3
Students will consider the question—what are the types of Americans? After
brainstorming several ways to approach the question and considering three or more
classifications for the approaches, students will select one of the approaches on which to
write an essay. Peer reviews will be conducted for the plan of classifications, the first
rough draft, the thesis, the introduction and conclusions. Students will participate in
writing conferences for teacher feedback and commentary and work with partners for
peer editing and proofreading. Evaluation of the essay will be based on the McIntosh
High School rubric.
Imitation Essay #1
Students will write an in-class essay on a current topic imitating the style and technique
of Noah Sweat’s Whiskey Speech. The Students will choose another topic or audience
and write a variation on the speech, altering the language as needed but maintaining the
irony and structure. Topics may include but are not limited to school dress code, R-rated
movies in class, cell pones, social media, required courses, video games, steroids, under-
aged drinking, texting, homework. Students must specify the audience and subject and
list the changes made to achieve the effect they intended. Evaluation of the essay will be
based on the McIntosh High School rubric. Students will have the opportunity to revise
the in-class essay after feedback and commentary.
Imitation Essay #2
Students will read and discuss David Sedaris’ “Remembering My Childhood on the
Continent of Africa” and then create a Writer’s Notebook entry on something they have
envied in the life of a friend or relative. From the journal entry, they will develop an
essay imitating three distinct characteristics of Sedaris’ essay. Students must specific the
audience and subject and list the three distinct characteristics they have imitated and how
they have incorporated the elements into their essays and changes that they have made.
Persuasive Essay #1
Students will write a persuasive, argumentative essay on Q3 2006:
From talk radio to television shows, from popular magazines to Web blogs,
ordinary citizens, political figures, and entertainers express their opinions on a
wide range of topics. Are these opinions worthwhile? Does the expression of
such opinions foster democratic values?

Write an essay in which you take a position on the value of such public statements
of opinion, supporting your view with appropriate evidence.

After writing the in-class essay, students will look at student samples of the essay and
evaluate the essays using the AP® 9-point rubric. Evaluation of the essay will be based on
the AP® 9-point rubric. Students will have an opportunity to revise the in-class essay after
feedback and commentary.
Persuasive Essay #2
Using an AP® prompt, Q3 2008, students will collaborate in the process of writing a
persuasive essay from discovery, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. In-class
writing workshop and out-of-class online discussions using Google Documents and/or
Wave will assist students in the collaborative process. As part of the instruction, students
will evaluate previously written essays on the same prompt to determine strengths and
weaknesses. Evaluation of the essay will be based on the AP® 9-point rubric.
Persuasive Essay #3
Language as a key to identity Q3 (1995)
The paragraph below comes from a 1979 essay by expatriate African American writer
James Baldwin. Read the paragraph carefully and then write an essay that defends,
challenges, or qualifies Baldwin’s ideas about the importance of language as a “key to
identity” and to social acceptance. Use specific evidence from your observation,
experience, or reading to develop your position.
Synthesis Essay #1
Students will write an in-class synthesis essay on the topic “Lies.” Selections will
include:
A) Excerpt from “Advice to Youth” by Mark Twain (speech)
B) “When I was a kid” Cartoon by Mark Parisi (cartoon)
C) “To tell the truth but tell it slant” by Emily Dickinson (poem)
D) Excerpt from The Ethicist “Attack from Beyond” by Randy Cohen (column)
E) “How Many Times Have You Done This in the Past Year?” Josephson Institute
(survey)
F) “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson (essay)
G) “Back to School Cheating Tips” from The Onion (satire)
H) “Too Much Pressure” by Colleen Wenke (essay)
Evaluation of the essay will be based on the AP® 9-point rubric. Students will participate
in a read-around of the essays produced in-class using the rubric. Students will have an
opportunity to revise the in-class essay after feedback and commentary.
Synthesis Essay #2
Q1 (2007B) Museum artifacts. Evaluation of the essay will be based on the AP® 9-point
rubric. Students will participate in a read-around of the essays produced in-class using the
rubric. Students will have an opportunity to revise the in-class essay after feedback and
commentary.
Synthesis Essay #3
Gender Synthesis project: Students will create a synthesis prompt and slices from seven
sources on gender issues provided to them in order to analyze how the synthesis prompts
are constructed for the AP® English Language and Composition Exam. The prompts
created by the students will then be used in class for an in-class essay and will be
evaluated by the creator of the prompt using the AP® 9-point rubric. The writer will
evaluate the prompt created; the prompt creator will evaluate the essay.
Analysis Essay #1
Students will write an in-class analysis of the rhetorical strategies and style in a passage
from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Evaluation of the essay will be based
on the AP® 9-point rubric. Students will have an opportunity to revise the in-class essay
after feedback and commentary.
Analysis Essay #2
America Needs Its Nerds Q2 2008 (B)
Read the following passage from “America Needs Its Nerds” by Leonid Fridman. Then
write an essay in which you analyze how Fridman develops his argument. Evaluation of
the essay will be based on the AP® 9-point rubric. Students will have an opportunity to
revise the in-class essay after feedback and commentary.

Second Quarter October 12, 2010- December 16, 2010

Theme: Liberty
Moment of Voice: presentations continue
Socratic Café:
Socratic Café discussions continue with less direction from the teacher. Topics
may include: Witch Hunts—Old and New; Civil Disobedience, Protest, and the
Rule of Law; Ethnic Cleansing or Genocide; or A World without War
Skills Focus:
Propaganda
Logical Fallacies
Satire
Research
 Synthesis
Cause and Effect
How to Understand the Rhetoric of Popular Music
Using Adverb Clauses of Cause and Effect-because, since, as long as, due to the
fact that
Usage—commonly confused and misused words
Grammar—Compound Sentences, Parallel Structure
Reading Selections:
Textbooks:
The Bedford Reader
Chapter 11 “Cause and Effect: Asking Why” pp. 412-419
The Well-Crafted Sentence
“Well-Balanced Sentences” pp. 46-60
“Well-Developed Sentences” pp. 61-74
Spunk & Bite
“Word/Language—Aerobatic and Incandescent” pp. 72-93
The Elements of Style
“An Approach to Style” pp. 66-85
“Words and Expressions Commonly Misused” pp. 39-65
They Say, I Say
“I Say” pp. 51-98
The Language of Composition
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Concise Diction” pp. 592-95
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Parallel Structures” pp. 339-345
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Coordination in the Compound
Sentence” pp. 698-705
Fiction:
Excerpt from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
“Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
“Armistice” by Bernard Malamud
Drama:
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Film:
The Crucible dir. Nicholas Hytner
Hollywood on Trial dir. Walter Bernstein
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge dir. Robert Enrico
Excerpts from American Masters Pete Seeger: The Power of Song dir. Jim Brown
Excerpt from Across the Universe dir. Julie Taymor
Excerpt from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington dir. Frank Capra
Excerpt for Civil War dir. Ken Burns
Non-fiction:
The Declaration of Independence
The Bill of Rights
“The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln
“Fourteen Points” by Woodrow Wilson
“A Luta Continua” by Will Kearney
 “Chapter 7: The Media: Democracy’s Guardian Angel” from America: The Book
by Jon Stewart, Ben Kalin, and David Javerbaum
“Why Don’t We Complain” by William F. Buckley
“Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
Associated reading:
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Robert E. Lee
“On Civil Disobedience” by Mohandas K. Gandhi
Letter to Sarah Ballou by Sullivan Ballou
“No News from Auschwitz” by A.M. Rosenthal
From Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
“Berlin-East Prussia: Summer-Autumn, 1941” from Fateful Choices: Ten
Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 by Ian Kershaw
“The Holocaust” by Bruno Bettelheim
“Why Soldiers Don’t Talk” by John Steinbeck
“Letter from Paradise, 21º 19´ N., 157º 52´W” by Joan Didion
Point/Counterpoint: The Japanese-American Internment (literature textbook)
Excerpt from “American History: A Survey” by Richard N. Current et al., Eds.
Kent State Shooting Divided Campus and Country, audio essay, Talk of the
Nation, NPR, Rebecca Williams, host. 4 May 2010
Poetry:
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell
“The Naming of Parts” by Henry Reed
“In Response to Executive Order 9066: ALL AMERICANS OF JAPANESE
DESCENT MUST REPORT TO RELOCATION CENTERS”
“Ode for the American Dead in Asia” by Thomas McGrath
“At the Vietnam Memorial” by George Bilgere
“Beautiful Wreckage” by W.D. Ehrhart
“Lincoln” by Delmore Schwartz
“Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” by Vachel Lindsey
“O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman
Music
“Roll, Alabama, Roll” CSA song
“Battle Cry of Freedom” written by George F. Root, Union song
“Ohio” written by Neil Young, performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” written and performed by Billy Joel
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” written and performed by Bob Dylan
“It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” written and
performed by REM
“Washington Bullets” written and performed by The Clash
Essays on Rhetoric:
“The Making of the Gettysburg Address PowerPoint” by Peter Norvig
“Shot With Its Own Bullets” by Peter Norvig
“Revolution in Style” from Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills
“Popular Music and Rhetoric” by Brian K. Pagels
“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell
“A Brief Lexicon of Jargon” by Richard K. Redfern
Visuals:
Shoes. photograph from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum
“Never Again. Over Again” Latuff 2009
“Don’t Let Them Carve Those Faces on Our Mountains” Dr. Seuss
“Mighty Trapper But He Misses the Big Ones” Dr. Seuss
“We Can Do It” poster
“Up Yours, Bush” poster
“Put ‘em up, Mr. Moto” Texaco advertisement, 1942
“Waiting for the Signal from Home,” 1942
“Stay on the Job Until Every Murdering Jap is Wiped Out” poster
“Go Ahead, Please Take a Day Off” Texaco advertisement
“War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things” poster
Mary Vecchio cries over the body... Kent State, photo by John Filo
The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation by Peter Norvig
Vocabulary:
Lesson 10 Problems Puzzlements, and Disasters
Lesson 11 Harmful
Lesson 12 Criticizing, Disapproving, or Scolding
Lesson 13 Lacking Interest or Emotion
Lesson 14 Lacking Energy of Movement
Lesson 15 Humility and Obedience
Lesson 16 Enthusiasm and Passion
Lesson 17 Being Stubborn
Lesson 18 Sound
Multiple Choice Practice:
From The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr.
“A Hanging” by George Orwell
From Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race by Ashley Montagu
From You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
From “Tale of a Tub” by Jonathan Swift
From “On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill
From The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Student-created multiple choice practice
Writing Assignments
Writer’s Notebook
The notebook should include a minimum of 27 entries per 9-week grading period. Some
will be assigned by the teacher; others will be the student’s choice.
Imitation “Essay” #3: Students will select a new media (Twitter, PowerPoint, Facebook,
GoogleGroup, IM, Texting, etc.) to parody a classic American speech or essay in the
style that Peter Norvig does his PowerPoint of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”
After completing the project and presenting it to the class, the students will write
reflections on the limitations, challenges, and power of new media on discourse.
Methods of Discourse (Cause and Effect) Essay #4: In an out-of-class essay, Students
will consider fateful decisions in history and explain the causes and effects of the
decision. The model for the essay will be a paragraph from an American history textbook
about President Lyndon Johnson’s decision to escalate the war in Vietnam and a chapter
from Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed The World, 1941-41 by Ian Kershaw.
Events students may consider but they are not limited to: Supreme Court decision on
Bush v. Gore, Congress passing No Child Left Behind, Brown v. Board of Education, the
Yalta Conference, using the atomic bomb, or Lincoln’s decision to block Southern ports.
Methods of Discourse (The List) Essay #5: Using Woodrow Wilson’s “14 Points” and
Will Kearney’s “A Luta Continua” as models, students will write an essay outlining
points. The students must clearly define the audience, subject, and purpose of the task
and define the method of discourse they will be using.
Persuasive Essay #4
Newspapers Q3, 1990
Recently the issue of how much freedom we should (or must) allow student newspapers
was argued all the way to the Supreme Court. Read the following items carefully and
then write an essay presenting a logical argument for or against the Supreme Court
decision.
Persuasive Essay # 5
Dissent Q3, 2008 Form B
Read the following excerpt from The Decline of Radicalism (1969) by Daniel J. Boorstin
and consider the implications of the distinction Boorstin makes between dissent and
disagreement. Then, using appropriate evidence, write a carefully reasoned essay in
which you defend, challenge, or qualify Boorstin’s distinction.
Persuasive Essay #6
Wooden-headedness Q2, 1994
Some people would claim that what Tuchman calls wooden-headedness plays a
remarkably large role in all organizations, and indeed, in all human affairs.
Write a carefully reasoned persuasive essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the idea
about the prevalence of wooden-headedness in human actions and decisions. Use
evidence from your reading and/or observation to develop your position.
Synthesis Essay #4
Introduction: The term “witch hunt” has become synonymous with the Salem Witch
Trials and the McCarthy hearings. As evidenced by history, these witch hunts were
driven not only by fear and superstition, but by a sense of morality, a desire for justice,
and even superiority and power. Is the term witch hunt viewed in the same context
today? When, if ever, is a witch hunt morally correct? Who appoints the hunters? Does
the desire for the good of the people or a sense of justice outweigh the risks of a witch
hunt? Who determines the difference?
Synthesis Project: Students will create a synthesis prompt and slices from seven sources
on documents associated with HUAC provided to them in order to analyze how the
synthesis prompts are constructed for the AP® English Language and Composition Exam.
The prompts created by the students will then be used in class for an in-class essay and
will be evaluated by the creator of the prompt using the AP® 9-point rubric. The writer
will evaluate the prompt created; the prompt creator will evaluate the essay.
Analysis #3
George Bernard Shaw Saint Joan Q2 2006 (Form B)
In the following passage from George Bernard Shaw’s play Saint Joan, which is based on
the life of Joan of Arc (1412?-1431), Joan, a young French woman, is on trail in a church
court for allegedly spreading heresy (beliefs at variance with established religious
doctrine). Dressed in armor, Joan led the French troops against the English. She was
eventually captured, turned over to the English, and then tried by French clerics who
supported the English. The most serious crime she was charged with was her claim that
she had received direct inspiration from God.
Carefully read the Inquisitor’s speech to the church court whose members were to
decide Joan’s fate. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the rhetorical strategies
the Inquisitor uses to argue his case against Joan.
Research Project
Students will assemble a casebook of at least four articles and one visual which
demonstrate the range of positions that are possible on a debatable issue. Ideas for the
casebook will develop out of the Socratic Café discussions on The Bill of Rights. This
exercise (1) helps students to learn methods for gathering and selecting information; (2)
helps students become knowledgeable about a controversial or debatable issue by
exploring and analyzing more than one side of an arguable issue; (3) provides an
opportunity for students to practice critical thinking skills such as questioning, analyzing,
and synthesizing; (4) helps students learn to identify and evaluate a writer’s use of
argumentation by identifying claims, examining reasoning, and analyzing evidence; and
(5) asks students to produce editorial writing that questions, analyzes, and evaluates. The
following steps are all necessary components of this assignment:
1. The student will select at least four articles and one visual that explore and help
demonstrate the range of positions that people take on this issue. He or she will
aim to select articles that are especially credible, that argue their position
effectively or persuasively. The student may also wish to explore pieces that he or
she feels are especially not-credible to provide an instructive contrast. Students
may also wish to include articles which they feel are especially informative,
though not persuasive one way or the other as background in an appendix.
2. The student will write an Overall Introduction to the casebook (1-2 pages) which
(1) presents the topic, and the controversy surrounding the topic, to readers in an
engaging way; (2) explains the range of positions discovered; and (3) introduces
the five to seven articles and visual the casebook will feature by placing them into
the context of the range of positions described.
3. The student will write a Headnote (1-2 paragraphs) to each of the articles
highlighted in the casebook. The Headnote appears before each article on a
separate sheet of paper. Its purpose is to introduce the source by, first, stating the
title and the author, as well as a short sentence or two to indicate the author’s
credentials; second, stating where you found the article—in print (where?) on the
Internet (where? describe the site). The writer’s aim in presenting information
about the author and the publication is to help establish the source’s credibility or
lack of credibility. By this kind of careful examination, the writer may be able to
determine whether the article is likely to be biased, and how. Any biases should
be taken into consideration when considering the writer’s statements. Thirdly, the
Headnote should contain a brief summary of the article and a reminder of how it
fits into the overall context of the casebook as a whole. Finally, present at least
one pertinent question arising from a consideration of this article.
 4. The student will write an Endnote (1-2 paragraphs) to each of the articles and
visual. At the end of each article, he or she discuss whether the article is based on
fact, opinion, or some combination of both and explain whether the opinions are
presented persuasively or not and why.
5. The student will write an Overall Conclusion to the casebook which outlines the
major questions it reasonable to ask before making a decision on the issue. Then
present an evaluation of the stronger position.
6. From the casebook, the student will create a synthesis prompt with excerpts from
the articles and visual to be used for a 40-50 minute writing assignment with 15
minutes for reading and annotating the sources. The prompt should be prepared
according to the template with documentation and excerpts.
The research project will be assessed using the Casebook Assignment Rubric.

Spring Semester

First Quarter January 4, 2011-March 16, 2011

Theme: The Pursuit of Happiness—The American Dream; Science, Technology and
Society
Theme: Liberty
Moment of Voice: presentations continue, focusing in this grading period on Poetry Out
Loud. Students will memorize and recite poems and write an analysis of the poem
selected.
Socratic Café: Discussions will continue and may include the topics The American
Dream, The American Myth; Unintended Consequences of Technology; Business
Ethics—an Oxymoron; Poverty and Hunger in Our Times; The Next Hundred Years
Skills Focus:
How to read the rhetoric of a poem
How to read a painting (cartoon, visual)
Description
Example
Grammar: Modification
Style and Clarity
Thesis Statements
Reading Selections
Textbooks:
The Bedford Reader
“Joyce Carol Oates on Writing” pp. 170-171
“Anna Quindlen on Writing”
“Barbara Lazear Ascher on Writing”
“Bill Bryson on Writing”
Chapter 5 “Description: Writing with Your Senses” pp. 128-135
Chapter 6 “Example: Pointing to Instances” pp. 176-182
The Well-Crafted Sentence
“Modifiers Following the Noun: Adjective Clauses and Adjective
Phrases” pp. 75-88
 “Modifiers Built from Verbal Phrases” pp. 89-104
Spunk & Bite
“Force/Stimulation by Any Means” pp. 106-147
“Form/Life Between the Marks” pp. 148-187
They Say, I Say
“Tying It All Together” pp. 99-134
The Language of Composition
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Modifiers” pp. 790-95
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted
Sentences” pp. 893-900
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies
“Is That A Dangler in Your Memo or Are You Just Glad to See Me?” pp.
25-28
Fiction:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
“EPICAC” by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Non-fiction:
“On Compassion” by Barbara Lazear Ascher
“Homeless” by Anna Quindlen
“Live Free and Starve” by Chitra Divakaruni
“The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by Peter Singer
“The Equity of Inequality” by George F. Will
“Design Flaws” by Bill Bryson
“TV Addiction” by Marie Winn
“Pornviolence” by Tom Wolfe “My Wood” by E.M. Forster
“Economic Growth Requires Environmental Consequences” by Lester C. Thurow
“ Our Values Hurt the Environment” by Joseph W. Krutch
Poetry:
“Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942” by Joyce Carol Oates
“In California: Morning, Evening, Late January” by Denise Levertov
“The Great Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
“Saturday’s Child” by Countee Cullen
Visuals:
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper
“Cellular Phones of the Future” cartoon by Barry Blitt
Film:
The Grapes of Wrath dir. John Ford
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald dir. Jack Clayton
Modern Times dir. Charles Chaplin
An Inconvenient Truth dir. Davis Guggenheim
Soylent Green dir. Richard Fleischer
“Panhandling: Can You Spare a Buck?” Channel 8 Richmond News, Nate Eaton,
2010
 Frontline: Growing Up Online and The Digital Nation
Music
“God Bless America” by Irving Berlin
“This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie
Essays on Rhetoric:
“How to Write with Style” by Kurt Vonnegut
“How to Write Clearly” by Edward T. Thompson
“The Thesis” by Sheridan Baker
Vocabulary:
Lesson 19 Praise and Respect
Lesson 20 More Than Enough
Lesson 21 Food and Hunger
Lesson 22 Being Careful
Lesson 23 Short-lived in Time or Place
Lesson 24 The Old or the New
Lesson 25 Being Sneaky or Hardly Noticeable
Lesson 26 People You Will Meet on the SAT
Lesson 27 Things of Little Importance or Value
Multiple-Choice Practice:
From the Preface to Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw
From On Native Grounds by Alfred Kazin
From Rabbit, Run by John Updike
From The Monastery and the Clock by Lewis Mumford
From The Night Country by Loren Eiseley
From The Life and Times of Geoffrey Chaucer by John Gardner
From “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
Student-created Multiple Choice Practice from Author’s Style Project
Student-created Multiple Choice Practice from Author’s Style Project
Writing Assignments
Writer’s Notebook
The notebook should include a minimum of 27 entries per 9-week grading period. Some
will be assigned by the teacher; others will be the student’s choice.
Methods of Discourse (Explanation) Essay #7: Q 1 (1984) In a well-organized essay,
explain the nature and relative importance of two or three means by which you keep track
of time and discuss what these means reveal about what kind of person you are. (You are
not limited to familiar time-keeping devices; you may consider recurring events, ‘inner
clocks,” or other means.
Methods of Discourse (Description) Essay #8: Mall Watching. Locate yourself in a
public place—a bleacher at a ball game, a bench at a park, a pew at a church, a wall at
The Avenue—and observe for at least an hour, recording your observations. Focus on
the sensory imagery and use all your senses—gustatory, olfactory, tactile, visual, and
aural—to observe the scene before you. Write a descriptive essay based on your
observations titled: Name of Place, Date, Time, e.g. “Turner Field, Atlanta, Georgia, 1
June 2010, 7:00-8:00 p.m.” Your thesis may be direct or implied, but remember that
good descriptive writing puts the reader in your place but also makes a claim that is
supported by the description.
Research Project #2 Students will research a common theme in American literature and
develop a persuasive essay prompt based on the argument prompt on the AP English
Language and Composition exam. The topics are drawn from those used or implied on
the exam since the 1980s. Topics: Accepting Death; Change; Alienation; Violence,
Family Relationships; Hopefulness; Self-Deception/Absurdity; Freedom and
Independence; Knowledge and Wisdom; Language as Key to Identity; Money and Class
in America; Nature; Passion versus Responsibility; Ego, Pride and Self-Knowledge; or
The Limitations of Society. (Source: Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington,
Kentucky.)
Methods of Discourse (Analysis) # 6 and Imitation Essay # 4: Students will study
Edward Hopper’s painting Nighthawks and read Joyce Carol Oates’ poem “Edward
Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942.” After discussing the handout “How to Read Artwork,”
students will select an American painting and write an analysis of the painting. After
writing and sharing the analysis, the students will write a creative response—poem or
short story—based on the painting.
Analysis #4
After analyzing and comparing “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie and “God
Bless America” by Irving Berlin in class, students will select two popular songs by
different artists or from different time periods on the same subject and write a
comparison/contrast of the styles of the songs. The analysis will be written in-class as a
timed essay and then revised based on peer and teacher feedback.
Analysis #5
Students will select one contemporary author, columnist, or essayist and read a minimum
of three short pieces by the author and write an out-of-class analysis of the writer’s style.
The final product will be a handout that includes: a photo of the writer, a bibliography of
the writer’s seminal works, and three quotations selected as illustrative of the writer’s
style, and the analysis of the style written by the student. Copies of the handouts will be
distributed to each student and evaluated by the teacher.
Persuasive #7
Attitudes Toward Wealth Q3 (1996) In his book Money and Class in America, Lewis
Lapham make the following observations about attitudes toward wealth in the United
States. Drawing on your own knowledge and experience, write a carefully reasoned
essay defending, challenging, or qualifying Lapham’s view of “the American faith in
money.”
Persuasive #8
Buy Nothing Day Q3 (2010) Form B The first Buy Nothing Day—a day on which people
are urged to purchase no goods—was organized in Canada in 1992 as a way to increase
awareness of excessive consumerism. A Buy Nothing Day has been held yearly since
then in many nations. An online article “Buy Nothing Day: 2006 Press Release” urged
world-wide acceptance of taking a “24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual
Buy Nothing Day” in order to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of
overconsumption” (“Buy Nothing Day,” courtesy of Adbusters, www.adbusters.org).
Consider the implication of a day on which no goods are purchased. Then write an essay
in which you develop a position on the establishment of an annual Buy Nothing Day.
Support your argument with appropriate evidence.
Synthesis Question # 5: Panhandling
Articles are forthcoming but will include a city ordinance against panhandling, a how-to
article on panhandling, a blog essay about a panhandler on a commuter train in Toronto,
photos of panhandlers’ signs, a news report on a journalist disguised as a panhandler and
the experience, a guide from an organization that supports the homeless about how to
offer help outside of cash for beggars, an editorial calling for stricter laws against
panhandling, and a research report on the economic consequences of panhandling.
Students will be placed in the role of a city attorney making recommendations for the city
council on a new policy concerning panhandling.
Synthesis Question # 6: The Penny Q1 (2008)

Second Quarter March 17, 2011-May 27, 2011

Theme: The Pursuit of Happiness—Pastimes, Praise and Remembrance, Moving On
Moment of Voice: presentations continue
Socratic Café: Discussions will continue with topics to include The American Way of
Death; All Work and No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy; The Price of Admission, The
Price of Privilege; Fans and Fanatics: Sports and the Games We Play
Skills Focus:
Narration
Process Analysis
Grammar: Appositives
Review
Reading Selections
Textbooks:
The Bedford Reader
Chapter 4 “Narration: Telling a Story” pp. 74-83
Chapter 8 “Process Analysis: Explaining Step by Step” pp. 268-275
“How to Poison the Earth” by Linnea Saukko pp. 276-280
“How to Dump a Friend” by Lucinda Rosenfeld pp. 281-284
“Thorny Truths About Flowers” by Niala Maharaj and Donovan Hohn pp.
285-289
The Well-Crafted Sentence
“Noun Phrases Working as Modifers: Appositives and Absolutes” pp.
105-120
“Special Effects: Expectations and Exceptions” pp. 120-136
Spunk & Bite
“Clarity/’A House of Great Spickness and Spanness’” pp. 188-223
“Contemporaneity /A Leg Up on The Competition” pp. 224-254
The Language of Composition
“Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: The Appositive” pp. 167-174
Fiction:
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
“Shoeless Joe Comes to Iowa” by W.P. Kinsella
Non-fiction:
Reading Group Selection
“Gifts” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 “Pearls Before Breakfast” by Gene Weingarten
“Our Barbies, Ourselves” by Emily Prager
“Can an Engine Pump the Values in Your Heart” by Jean Kilbourne
“Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” by Jessica Mitford
“Videotape” by Don DeLillo
“Cystic Fibrosis” by Frank DeFord
“Secondhand Prose” by Anne Fadiman
“The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf
“John Doe No. 24 Takes His Secret to the Grave” The New York Times 5
December 1993
Excerpt from God Knows His Name: The True Story of John Doe No. 24 by
David Bakke
Drama:
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Poetry:
“Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden
“To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
“Kaddish” by Allen Ginsberg
“Holy Sonnet 10” by John Donne
“Do Not Go Gentle” by Dylan Thomas
Film:
The Natural dir. Barry Levinson
Field of Dreams dir. Phil Alden Robinson
The Pride of the Yankees dir. Sam Wood
Music:
“John Doe #24” by Mary Chapin Carpenter
“Shannon” by Henry Gross
“Candle in the Wind” by Elton John as performed for Princess Diana’s funeral
“Tears In Heaven” by Eric Clapton
“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen as performed by Jeff Buckley
Essays on Rhetoric:
“The Rhetoric of Funeral Oratory and Eulogy” by Michael L. Kent
“The Rhetoric of Eulogy: Topoi of Grief and Consolation” by Michael L. Kent
“Take This Fish and Look at It” by Samuel H. Scudder
Multiple Choice Practice:
From The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams
“Take This Fish and Look at It” by Samuel H. Scudder
“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen
“The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf
“Shoeless Joe Comes to Iowa” by W.P. Kinsella
“Our Barbies, Ourselves” by Emily Praeger
“Theater: Hoffman, ‘Death of a Salesman’” Review by Frank
From On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler Ross
Student-Created Multiple Choice Practice
Vocabulary:
Lesson 28 Being Wise and Sharp-Minded
Lesson 29 Words That Sound and/or Look Alike, But Have Different Meanings
Lesson 30 More Tricky Twins and Triplets
Lesson 31 Hottest of the Hot Words A to G
Lesson 32 Hottest of the Hot Words H to P
Lesson 33 Hottest of the Hot Words Q to Z
Lesson 34 Millennium Hot Words
Lesson 35 More Millennium Hot Words
Writing Assignments
Writer’s Notebook
The notebook should include a minimum of 27 entries per 9-week grading period. Some
will be assigned by the teacher; others will be the student’s choice.
Methods of Discourse (Narration) Essay #8: How did it get here? Students will select
an object important in the hobby or pastime in which they are engaged, for example
knitting needles, a soccer ball, or guitar strings. They will then trace from their
ownership back to creation, the journey that the product took to get into their possession.
Students will consider the most effective narrative organization to present their items
origin—beginning to end, end to beginning or a combination.
Methods of Discourse (Process Analysis) Essay #9 with Presentation: Students will
focus and narrow a skill from one of their pastimes to teach to members of the class
through a process analysis essay and oral presentation/demonstration to the class. For
instance, a student who likes to cook may write a process of analysis script for a cooking
show demonstrating how to make snickerdoodles, videotape an episode of her cooking
show, and present the finish product along with the recipe and samples to the class. This
assignment will be completed in the final weeks of the course after the AP® English
Language and Composition exam in May.
Imitation #5: The Eulogy
<http://www.eulogyspeech.net/famous-eulogies/>
Analysis Essay #6
Two views of death
Analysis Essay #7
Pink Flamingo Q1 (1999)
Analysis Essay #8
The Coca-Cola Letters Q3 (1998)
Persuasive Essay # 9
Randy Cohen “The Ethicist” Fundraising incentives Q3 (2007) The practice of offering
incentives for charitable acts is widespread, from school projects to fund drives for
organizations such as public television stations, to federal income tax deductions for
contributions to charities. In a well-written essay, develop a position on the ethics of
offering incentives for charitable acts, support your position with evidence from your
reading, observation, and/or experience.
Persuasive Essay #10
Schopenhauer Q3 (2006) Form B
Read the following passage by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).
Then write a carefully reasoned essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies one of
Schopenhauer’s claims. Support your argument with appropriate evidence.
Synthesis # 7 Boxing
A) “My Fights with Jack Dempsey” by Gene Tunney
B) “The Loser” by Gay Talese
C) “Who Killed Benny Paret” by Norman Cousins
D) “Blues for Benny ‘Kid’ Paret” by Dave Smith
E) “Benny Kid Paret” song by Gil Turner
F) “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou
G) “The Cruelest Sport” by Joyce Carol Oates
H) “Death Under the Spotlight” by Joseph V. Svinth
I) H.R. 1832: Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act
J) Visual: Both Members of this Club, painting by George Bellows
Synthesis #8 College Admissions
A) “Tense Times at Bronxville High” by Susan Dominus
B) “HOW THE "Z-LIST" MAKES THE A-LIST: Harvard's Payback for Big
Donors” from The Price of Admission by Daniel Golden
C) “I've Got 99 Problems... Admissions Is Not One” by Bryan Nance
D) “Parenting: Young, Gifted and Not Getting Into Harvard” by Michael Winerip
E) “Getting In: The Social Logic of Ivy League Admissions” by Malcolm Gladwell
F) “I'm worried about a monster under my bed and I'm worried about college.” by
Barbara Smaller, The New Yorker, 27 October 2008.
G) 2010 Ivy League Admissions Statistics
H) “Ivy League vs. state school: Will an expensive school really pay off in the long
run with a better job?” by Walter Updegrave, 23 September 2005
Teacher Resources
Casagrande, June. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and
Spite. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
Hargrove, Julia. The Primary Source: Historical Documents: Early American Speeches. Vol. 6.
Logan, IA: The Perfection Form Co., 1988. Print.
---. The Primary Source: Historical Documents: Modern American Speeches. Vol. 7. Logan, IA:
The Perfection Form Co., 1988. Print.
Heinrichs, Jay. Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach
Us About the Art of Persuasion. New York: Three Rivers P, 2007. Print.
Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. 2nd ed. Berkeley: U of CP, 1991. Print.
Lindemann, Erika. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press,
1993. Print.
Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer: A Pocket Reference. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2006. Print.
McCuen, Jo Ray and Anthony Winkler. Readings for Writers. 7th ed. Fort Worth: HBJ College P,
1992. Print.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: The Modern Language
Association, 2009. Print.
Murray, Donald. A Writing Teacher Teaches Writing Revised. Boston, Mass.: Heinlen, 2003.
Print.
Rankin, Estelle and Barbara L. Murphy. 5 Steps to a 5: AP English Language 2010-2011.
New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. Print.
Roskelly, Hephizibah and David A. Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading
and Writing. 2nd ed. AP Ed. New York: Pearson, Longman, 2009. Print.
Schuster, Edward. Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers Through Innovative Grammar
Instruction. Heinemann, 2003
Vosen, Melissa. A. “Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Teach Students About Plagiarism” 97:
6 (July 2008) English Journal: 43-46. Print.
Textbooks
American Studies. New York: Nextext, 2001. Print.
Applebee, Arthur N. et al. Language of Literature: American Literature. McDougall-
Littell. 2002.
Bacon, Nora. The Well-Crafted Sentence: A Writer’s Guide to Style. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2009. Print.
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in
Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.
Kennedy, X.J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron, eds. The Bedford Reader. 8th
Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
Language Network. New York: McDougall-Littell, 2001. Print.
Plotnik, Arthur. Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style. New
York: Random House Reference, 2007. Print.
Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlon and Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of
Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Print.
Strunk, Jr., William, and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 3rd ed. New York:
McMillan, 1979. Print.
Will of the People, The: Readings in American Democracy. Chicago: The Great Books
Foundation, 2001.
Winans, Charles F. and Richard Vogel. Multiple Choice Questions in Preparation for the
AP English Language and Composition Examination. New York: D & S
Marketing, 2005. Print.
Tradebooks
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1993. Print.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Jacksonville, IL: Permabound, 1999. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Jacksonville, IL: Permabound, 1988. Print.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper, 1998. Print.
Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. New York: Ballantine, 1990. Print.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1996. Print.
Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. Bantam, 1981.
Print.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Viking P, 1964. Print.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York, Bantam, 1978. Print.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, London: Penguin, 1993. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Boston: Beacon P, 2004. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. New York: Dell, 1991. Print.
Course Websites
Mrs. K’s Socratic Cafe. Shery Kearney. McIntosh High School.
McIntosh Advanced Placement English Language and Composition . Google Groups.
Grammar and Usage Resources
Guide to Grammar and Style. Jack Lynch. Rutgers University.
Well-organized grammar and style manual
M-W Online Merriam-Webster
Online dictionary
Re:Writing. Bedford-St. Martin’s
Writing and grammar exercises online
Research and Topical Resources
Top Links for Reading Critically, Writing Well. Bedford-St. Martin’s
Online resources on topics and issues
The Research Room. Bedford-St. Martins.
Using and documenting sources
Research and Documentation Online. Diana Hacker. Bedford-St. Martin’s
Using and documenting sources
Visual Literacy Resources
Seeing and Writing 3. Bedford-St. Martin’s.
Visual literacy exercises online
Writing and Composition Resources
PaperRater.
Free online plagiarism detector, spelling and grammar check, readability statistics, and
style and usage analysis.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant by Chuck Guilford.
Online writing helper
Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL). Purdue University.
Reliable advice about writing and documenting
Rhetorical Terms Resources
American Rhetoric. by Michael Edenmuller.
The Forest of Rhetoric: silva rhetoricae. Brigham Young University.
A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples. University of Kentucky.
Appendices

McIntosh High School Rubric*

100 Distinctive
• The exceptional written product— fresh, sophisticated, marked with stylistic finesse.
90-99 Superior
• Original thought beyond class readings and discussions.
• Thoughtfully chosen and specific concrete details and references throughout the paper.
• Cogent, convincing, and clear content.
• Commentary and interpretation is free of plot summary and expressed with clarity and finesse.
• Voice: Sings
• Skillfully addresses the “what,” the “how,” and the “why” in the prompt.
• Well organized with careful development; logically ordered with seamless transitions.
• Effective introduction; excellent thesis; memorable conclusion.
• Fluent sentence variety; sound sentence structure; precise, fresh diction.
• Follows MLA manuscript form precisely and uses in-text documentation and Works Cited format
correctly.
• Virtually no errors in conventions such as spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanics.
80-89 Skillful
• Ideas limited to class discussion.
• Effectively chosen and specific concrete details and references through most of the paper.
• Clear and convincing content.
• Commentary and analysis is thoughtful and convincing but less mature, insightful.
• Effectively addresses the “what” and the “how,” but may miss the “why.”
• Sound organization with full development, appropriate use of transitions.
• Sound introduction and thesis; effective conclusion.
• Well-written, with some sentence variety; good sentence structure, high level and varied diction.
• Follows MLA manuscript form and uses in-text documentation and Works Cited format with
minimal errors.
• May have some, but not serious, errors in conventions—spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanics.
71-79 Competent (The paper meets minimum requirements.)
• Ideas and Content: Addresses the “what” but misses the “how” or “why.”; Gives obvious,
superficial, and general ideas and support in most of the paper.
• Organization: Formulaic essay structure, thesis, topic sentences. paragraph unity, and transitions
• Voice: Glimpses of voice but fades away in parts of essay
• Word Choice: Some immature, repetitive syntax and/or vocabulary; problems with diction.
• Sentence Fluency: Sentences are mostly correct, but they need variety to add interest and rhythm.
• Conventions: Frequent distracting errors in spelling, usage, and mechanics.
• Presentation: MLA manuscript form, in-text documentation, and Works Cited format may have
errors.
61-70 Ineffective
• Demonstrates understanding of topic
• Lacks clear and convincing content.
• Misguided observations and conclusions.
• Rambling generalizations which do not address question or topic
• Poorly constructed thesis.
• Lack of control over organization and development.
• Immature syntax and/or vocabulary.
• Distracting errors in conventions—spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanics.
• MLA manuscript form and/or in-text documentation and Works Cited format has serious errors.
Below
61 Unacceptable
• No examples or inappropriate ones; little textual support.
 • Too brief or underdeveloped OR incoherently long.
• Empty observations and conclusions.
• Weak or non-existent thesis; only passing reference to the topic.
• Syntax meltdown.
• Weak control and distracting errors in conventions.
• MLA manuscript form and/or in-text documentation and Works Cited format has fatal errors.
0
• No paper or plagiarized essay; a response that is no more than a reference to the task.

*School rubric may be replaced by district rubric Summer 2010.

Non-fiction Reading List for Book Circles and Reading Guides

Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Me Talk Pretty One Day

Hidden Side of Everything by David Sedaris
by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt
Fast Food Nation
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make by Eric Schlosser.
a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount
Everest Disaster
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Jon Krakauer.
by Dave Eggers
This Boy’s Life
In Cold Blood by Tobias Wolff
by Truman Capote
The Color of Water
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in by James McBride
America
by Barbara Ehrenreich and Frances Fox Piven A Walk Across America
by Peter Jenkins
What is What
By Dave Eggers The Water Is Wide
by Pat Conroy
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson All Over But the Shoutin’
by Rick Bragg
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feymman!"
Adventures of a Curious Character Hiroshima
by Richard P. Feynman by John Hersey

The Year of Magical Thinking John Adams

by Joan Didion by David McCullough

An American Childhood The Great Bridge

by Annie Dillard by David McCullough

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid Man’s Search for Meaning
of the Wrong Things by Viktor E. Frankl
by Barry Glassner
The Jungle
The Price of Privilege by Upton Sinclair
By Madeline Levine