Mrs. Luccock
Cascia Hall, 2009-2010
Welcome to Advanced Placement Language and Composition! This will be
one of the most challenging English courses you have studied so far in your
high school career. It will require four areas of skill (or the willingness
to acquire skill in these areas):
close and extensive reading outside of class, analytical writing about
literary themes and rhetorical devices used by authors, argumentative
writing about contemporary social issues while synthesizing primary and
secondary sources with parenthetic documentation, and essay writing within
30-40 minute time constraints. Conscientious work efforts will produce
strong results of both a personal nature and in terms of college credit
hours—3 hours credit for a score of 3, 4, or 5 on the National A.P. Language
and Composition Test in May. You will carry out a weekly vocabulary study,
write weekly timed essays, plan extensive independent essays, use texts as
models for your own creative work, write a research paper using library and
Internet sources, write rhetorical analyses and synthesis essays, sustain an
outside reading program, and develop a writing portfolio for the year.
This portfolio can go with you as you leave for A.P. Literature or college!
Your success is important to me, and I do love all the texts we will be
working with, so I am excited about our year together!
I do believe there are two important principles for the classroom. You
need to feel each of these: a). a sense of accomplishment and b). a sense
of belonging. As I will work hard to help us achieve these goals, I hope
you will work with me. A class is unified when we all work together!
Texts and Materials:
Charters, Ann, ed. The Story and Its Writer, An Introduction to Short
Fiction
Shea, Scanlon, Aufses. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing,
Rhetoric.
- a folder or 3 ring binder for materials provided in class (Test
Prep. Booklet)
- a journal, for quotable quotes, lecture notes, etc.)
- notebook paper and blue or black pen only for class notes and in-
class writing
- paperback texts as noted on the class calendar (They should be the
required edition of the text. That is the text I will use for checking your
quotes in papers.)
Objectives:
This course includes both the reading an analysis of varieties of
prose, emphasizing non-fiction, the essay, and the study of process writing—
writing from the discovery stage to the final edited and revised
composition. You will study examples of prose from various fields and
periods that serve as models of effective styles for writing. Through
practice, you will learn to recognize and work with the following:
- varieties of sentence structure, using subordination and
coordination especially
- logical and functional relationships of sentences with paragraphs
and paragraphs within essays
- reader-response theory
- modes of discourse (narration, description, exposition,
argument/persuasion)
- aims of discourse (information, persuasion, expression)
- levels of reading (factual, inferential, evaluative)
- relationships among author, audience, and subject
- wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively
- balance of generalization and specific details
- effective use of rhetoric, including tone, voice, diction, and
sentence structure
- logical organization enhanced by coherence through emphasis,
repetition, and transition
- analysis and interpretation of good writing, identifying and
explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques
- creation of sustained arguments based on readings and research from
primary and secondary sources with cogent explanations and clear
transitions, also incorporating quotations smoothly into your text
- movement through the stages of the writing process with careful
attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
- writing effectively about your own process of composition
- revising a work to make it suitable for different audiences
This course will allow students to write in several forms—narrative,
exploration, exposition, argumentation, analysis, and synthesis—on many
different subjects from personal experiences to public policies, from
classical literature to popular culture. But the overarching purpose is to
enable students to write effectively and confidently in their college
courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives.
Therefore, this course will emphasize the expository, analytical, and
argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and professional
communication, as well as the personal and reflective writing that fosters
the development of writing facility in any context.
In addition, the informed use of research materials and the ability to
synthesize varied sources are integral parts of the AP English Language and
Composition course. Researched argument papers help students to formulate
varied, informed arguments. Unlike the traditional research papers, in
which works are often summarized, the researched argument paper asks
students to consider each source as a text that was itself written for a
particular audience and purpose. When students bring the experience and
opinions of others into their essays in this way, they enter into
conversations with other writers and thinkers, using citations of these
other voices.
Ultimately, this course should help students discover the rich
resources of language and claim them as their own.
Evaluation (first quarter)
Essays and Timed Writes………………………………60%
Vocabulary and Outside Reading………………………20%
Discussion and AE’s……………………………………20%
(AE’s are Aesthetic Experiences…yet to be explained)
Study Hints:
1. Keep current with assignments.
2. Read each assignment twice before class. Read first for facts, then
for inferences. Annotate with your own notes in the margin!
3. Take notes daily in class—of teacher and student comments. Also
keep handouts in your notebook as Test Prep. for the May exam. I will
collect these from time to time to check for completion. **
4. Begin papers early so you can confer with the teacher before the
deadline.
5. Seek me out during free periods, especially on Fridays when class is
not in session. Use this extra time to read your outside work, compose
papers, and do paper revisions. Your free time on Fridays should still be
considered English time. Use it wisely!
6. You will be asked to revise major essays and/or timed writes. The
revisions and corrections will be due at the end of each quarter. I call
this “cooking a paper,” after Peter Elbow! In this process, you are
allowing the best ingredients to come together and are adding the seasoning
of new ideas. This is more than just taking a paper through Spell Check.
Major Emphases:
The following major emphases will drive our class this year:
First, more outside reading is essential. Students will be asked to
read at least one outside book per quarter (approx. 300-400 pages). This
not only enhances our writing models, but it connects us to a world of ideas
and issues we cannot possibly touch on entirely in class in the limited time
we have together. Sometimes, you will choose from 3 or 4 titles so we can
divide into Lit. Circles for discussion/writing. Other times, the choice
will be up to you! Every year students tell me their writing improves when
they are reading outside of class. There must be a correlation!
The first quarter, ***everyone should read either Savage
Inequalities*** by Jonathan Kozol or Hunger of Memory*** by Richard
Rodriguez. ( These are short non-fiction texts, so I invite you to include
another work of your choice this quarter, to reach your 300-400 page length.)
Second, students will take more responsibility for class discussion
than in past years. This means they should be raising questions for
themselves constantly as they read, through marginal notes of annotation.
It has long been recognized in the sciences that the formulation of
questions contributes enormously to critical thinking and problem solving.
Einstein said it well when he wrote,
The mere formulation of a problem is often far more essential than
its solution,
which is often merely a matter of mathematical or experimental
skill. To
raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from
a new angle
requires creative imagination and marks real advances ….(qtd.
in “Building
Success Manual 2002,” The College Board 1).
We will have Socratic Circles of discussion that are student-driven at the
end of each major novel and non-fiction unit. Also, we will
incorporate “News Days” that include presentation and discussion of current
events. Again, this is helpful preparation for the AP Language Exam as at
least two of the three essays that students must write focus on contemporary
social and/or cultural issues.
Third, this course should also encompass art, music, ideas, whenever
possible, to touch on the humanities and cultures that inform and shape our
lives—past and present. Students will submit two Aesthetic Experiences each
quarter. These AE’s will be the student’s evaluation of a cultural event or
event of global awareness, such as a classical concert, an art exhibit, a
special university lecture, live theater, a special film, etc. Each AE will
be one page typed and will include details from the event, what you learned,
and how you think you might use your new knowledge of art and/or culture.
Attach a program or ticket stub. Once the Cascia PAC opens, you will have
amble opportunities for AE’s here, but you should always have one AE from
outside the Cascia campus.
Fourth, we will work on synthesis essays this year, reading at least
three secondary sources along with a primary source and pulling all these
together around a particular thesis. The smooth incorporation of quotations
from each text with cogent explanation and documentation is an important
skill for college and career writing. We will write at least one of these
essays per quarter. This is the new essay genre required for one question
on the AP Language Exam.
Fifth, I am eager for students to connect what we read and study to
the “real world.” To that end and because I believe in the mission of every
human being to help bind up the brokenness of the world, I am asking
students to be part of a class volunteer effort in the community first
semester. You can vote on a leadership team to help find the need, connect
with the appropriate people, and organize the class in at least one work day
per semester. I will be happy to assist you as will Brother Jack; I too
want to be a part of our extension to a hurting world in Tulsa. This, after
all, is part of our Cascia mission of Truth, Unity, and Love (Veritas,
Unitas, Caritas). As Francis Bok wrote in his memoir of growing up in
slavery in Sudan,
…how easy it [is] for different people to live with each other: All
you have
to do is reach out and take their hand (Escape from Slavery 198).
Did not Gerda Klein, the Holocaust survivor who spoke to us two years ago,
say that we should all kindle a fire within us to make a better world? Our
hearts are here and ready; we just need to allow God to enlarge them to
share our joy with those beyond the Cascia walls and Cascia family.
I hope that students will learn to think and act according to
compassion, respect, integrity, harmony, fairness, and stability as they
deal with issues and with people this year. These concepts, though given
lip service in our culture, are not dominant and do not seem to come
naturally to people. We must sanction conversations about their meaning and
application as well as our core values of Truth, Unity, and Love if we truly
want to make a better world. I look forward to knowing each of you better
this year and to making our journey together!
Mrs. Luccock
Textbooks and Materials for AP Language and Composition
Charters, Ann, ed. The Story and Its Writer, An Introduction to Short
Fiction
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
Shea, Scanlon, Aufses. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing,
Rhetoric.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
- a folder or 3 ring binder (for this class only) provided in class,
sections for quotes to
remember, lecture notes, etc.
- a journal for responding to readings and keeping a dialectical journal
- notebook paper and blue or black pen (you may use pencil only for
annotating in
your books)
- paperback texts as noted on the class calendar (They should be the
required
edition of each text. That is the text I will use to check your
quotes in papers.)
Paperback Books To Be Studied This Year:
Walden, Thoreau
Frankenstein, M. Shelley
Heart of Darkness, Conrad
“ ‘Master Harold’ and the boys,” Fugard
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass
Hamlet, Shakespeare
Les Misérables, Hugo
Mrs. Dalloway, V. Woolf
Wit, Margaret Edson
J. B., Archibald MacLeish