ENGLISH 3AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
SYLLABUS AND ORIENTATION GOLDEN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL 2016-17
MRS. BOYKIN
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND OVERVIEW
English 3AP Language and Composition provides an opportunity for advanced and/or highly motivated high school juniors to pursue and receive credit for college-level coursework completed at the high school level. Accordingly, the rigors of the course are intended to be commensurate with lower division college work. The course is organized according to the requirements and guidelines of the current AP English Course Description; therefore, students will be instructed and encouraged to read critically, think analytically, and communicate clearly both in writing and in speech. Summer reading and writing are required and students are expected to take the AP English Language and Composition Exam in May of 2017.
Students will learn to read critically and closely works of literary merit by primarily (though not exclusively) American authors written during various time periods in various styles and genres, though a focus on non-fiction text will predominate (essays, letters, journal entries, speeches). Special attention will be made to the strategies and techniques authors use to evoke responses from an audience. Students will be expected to justify their interpretations and analyses by references to details and patterns found in the texts, to compare their own to those proposed by others (teacher, classmates, and literary scholars), and also be prepared to modify them as they learn more and think more. Students will also complete an on-going independent reading program.
Students will write in a variety of modes for a variety of audiences, with stress on the development of personal style, the achievement of a mature, academic voice, and the ability to analyze and articulate how language resources operate in a text. While not limited to, the primary writing instruction will be on analytical, expository, argumentative essays and AP test preparation. Students will have the opportunity to write informally in journal settings, on demand in timed writing situations, as well as the opportunity to practice the steps of the writing process in multi-draft essays. All writing originates from reading, and process papers will require completion of each step: inventing, pre-writing, drafting, guided peer responding, revising and editing.
All reading and writing activities should aid in making students more acutely aware of an author’s purpose, the requirements of the audience, the depth and range of the subject, and the resources of language: diction, syntax, tone, rhetorical devices and appeals in print and visual text. The critical skills that students develop through close reading of a wide variety of texts will serve them in their own writing as they recognize and appreciate how these resources can make them more effective communicators.
Finally, while this course attempts to give coverage to the study of American Literature and its historical chronology, the course is not rigidly structured employing this device. The American Literature study is the outer layer with the basic structure of the course built upon the teaching of the skills required for effective critical reading and analytical writing.
STUDENT EVALUATION
Grading for all assignments is on a point system. All points are totaled and averaged to establish semester grades. Point averages will be assigned letter grades at quarter and term. Each graded assignment is given a certain number of points based on its complexity and overall importance to course objectives. For example, a process essay that evolves over time and several drafts may be worth a minimum of 100 points, while a vocabulary exercise may be worth 25 points, and a short reading quiz, worth 10. AP practice essays earn both an estimated AP score of 1-9 based on the AP scoring rubric and a point score that will vary in weight depending on the time of the year. Point values will increase as the year progresses and student competence and confidence increase. The grading scale is as follows:
A 100 – 90% C 79 – 70%
B 89 – 80% D 69 – 60%
F 59% and below
ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY
Trust is essential to a positive learning environment and needs to be protected. Students cheating in any way or engaging in plagiarism of any kind will receive a zero on that particular assignment and a “U” (unsatisfactory) in citizenship at the end of the grading period. A second instance will result in another zero grade, a “U” at the semester, and referrals to discipline and counseling. It is stressed in this course that at the college level, behavior of this kind is not at all tolerated and will result in disciplinary action including expulsion, depending upon the institution.
COURSE SYLLABUS
Ongoing Lessons and Activities: Journal Writing, SAT Vocabulary, Grammar and Writing Mini-Lessons, Current Events, Independent Reading, Rhetorical and Literary Terminology, Tropes, and Schemes
First Quarter: Course Orientation, American Literature Overview, Review of Summer Reading, Introduction to Close Reading, Rhetorical Awareness and Sensitivity, and Modes of Discourse; Major Papers: Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Précis, Narration/Description Mode
Second Quarter: Rhetorical Analysis and Close Reading, Introduction to Argument, Modes of Discourse; Major Papers: Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Précis, Process Analysis Mode, Comparison/Contrast Mode, Definition Mode
Third Quarter: Developing Skills in Researched Writing, Understanding and Developing Argument, Modes of Discourse; Major Papers: Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Précis, Argument, Synthesized Argument, Cause/Effect Analysis Mode
Fourth Quarter: Synthesis Essay/Researched Argument, Focused Preparation for the AP English Language and Composition Exam, Looking Forward to Senior Year; Major Papers: Synthesis Essay/Researched Argument, Focused Preparation for AP Exam
CLASSROOM POLICIES
SUBMITTING WORK: All work must have your full name, date, period, and appropriate assignment label. Homework will be assigned regularly and is due when the student enters the classroom. In general, all papers completed outside of class must be typed, double-spaced, have one-inch margins, 12-font maximum, and numbered pages. Selected assignments will be submitted online when appropriate. Students will be made aware of the nature of the submission with each assignment. Papers written in class should be completed in blue or black ink; no pencil please.
LATE AND MAKE-UP WORK: Students should make every effort to submit all work on time, even if they are ill or not on campus the day an assignment is due. Students should meet with me outside of class period to find out about and make up missed work. The school policy of two days make-up time for every day of absence will be followed in this class. In order to encourage meeting deadlines, there will always be a “late charge,” sometimes up to ten percent per day for late work. Always speak to me about turning in late work before you attempt to do it. All late work (even if excused) will be recorded as “late” for grading purposes in order to help the teacher, student, and parent monitor the quantity and pattern of the late work.
ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is necessary and expected. Excessive absenteeism does have a definite negative impact on learning and grades. Students will be in their seats, ready to work, when the final bell rings. Students not in their seats will receive an unexcused tardy. Tardies will result in assignment of steps in the school’s tardy policy. A tardy in excess of thirty minutes will be considered a truancy.
CONDUCT: Students are expected to maintain conduct appropriate to a positive learning environment. Conduct that is in any way disruptive to the learning process will not be tolerated. Inappropriate behavior will be dealt with by applying the Restorative Justice Process Model, which could ultimately result in a student's removal from the course.
ROUTINE PROCEDURES
MATERIALS: In addition to your Chromebook within which you will be maintaining an online notebook, students will also be required to keep a physical notebook (three ring binder), which you will be expected to have daily. Within this binder, students should keep a small supply of lined binder paper. Students will be advised as to when to bring certain library and textbooks to class, and will be expected to have them on those days. Students are expected to bring a blue or a black pen to class daily. Students are also encouraged to maintain properly organized notebooks and to KEEP all course work. This is for the student’s protection.
TEACHER AVAILABILITY and PARENT/STUDENT CONTACT: Students are encouraged to come in for extra help, particularly with writing. Every effort will be made to accommodate students. I am available before and after school and at lunch by appointment. I also will be running a regular study hall Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during the 5th Period. Students may make an appointment to see me during that period as well. A phone message can be left for me at 385-8000. I will return your call. My e-mail address (which I check several times a day) is: [email protected]
GENERAL INFORMATION: Students are encouraged to take care of restroom, drinking, and snacking activities before coming to class.
Students will refrain from eating, drinking*, gum-chewing, unrelated talking, and inappropriate out-of-seat behavior. (*Water in bottles is accepted and encouraged!!)
Students will refrain from wearing sunglasses and applying cosmetics/hair spray/gel/scents in class.
Students will respect all property in the classroom.
Students will remain in their seats until dismissed.
In summary, RESPECT is the key word in describing the atmosphere prescribed for this classroom; respect for one’s self and for others. Tolerance for each other’s differences will be included in this concept of respect. Any jokes or put downs, no matter how seemingly harmless, or any serious threat or insult, based on a person’s race, religion, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, size, or ability, will not be allowed in this classroom.
Together, we have the opportunity to create an exceptionally successful learning experience. I stress the word “together” because each person brings in the door with him or her an attitude, an energy, ideas, talents, experiences, and perspectives that are unique and that will contribute to the creation of an environment that is, in itself, also unique. The environment may be stimulating, challenging, and fun; it might be intimidating and hostile; it might be lethargic and dull; it might be nurturing and caring. Each one of us bears some responsibility for the atmosphere that will occupy this space. As your teacher, I am committed to establishing and cultivating an environment that encourages the individual growth of each student. I believe that you learn from each other as much as from me, so I will create situations that make meaningful interaction possible. This will require your full commitment to be truly present, intellectually and emotionally. This will require that each of you commits to the responsibility for helping maintain a positive, sharing, supportive atmosphere. Often, I see highly intelligent and motivated students holding back in classrooms, hording their ideas out of a sense of false competition, afraid to take chances, afraid to be “wrong,” afraid to look foolish (in other words, afraid to really grow). I encourage you to take chances this year, to share your skills, talent, knowledge, and ideas with others, to risk being “wrong,” to risk looking “silly.” Dare to grow. Welcome to Room 108 and the 2015-16 school year.
Mrs. Susan Boykin
SYLLABUS AND ORIENTATION GOLDEN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL 2016-17
MRS. BOYKIN
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND OVERVIEW
English 3AP Language and Composition provides an opportunity for advanced and/or highly motivated high school juniors to pursue and receive credit for college-level coursework completed at the high school level. Accordingly, the rigors of the course are intended to be commensurate with lower division college work. The course is organized according to the requirements and guidelines of the current AP English Course Description; therefore, students will be instructed and encouraged to read critically, think analytically, and communicate clearly both in writing and in speech. Summer reading and writing are required and students are expected to take the AP English Language and Composition Exam in May of 2017.
Students will learn to read critically and closely works of literary merit by primarily (though not exclusively) American authors written during various time periods in various styles and genres, though a focus on non-fiction text will predominate (essays, letters, journal entries, speeches). Special attention will be made to the strategies and techniques authors use to evoke responses from an audience. Students will be expected to justify their interpretations and analyses by references to details and patterns found in the texts, to compare their own to those proposed by others (teacher, classmates, and literary scholars), and also be prepared to modify them as they learn more and think more. Students will also complete an on-going independent reading program.
Students will write in a variety of modes for a variety of audiences, with stress on the development of personal style, the achievement of a mature, academic voice, and the ability to analyze and articulate how language resources operate in a text. While not limited to, the primary writing instruction will be on analytical, expository, argumentative essays and AP test preparation. Students will have the opportunity to write informally in journal settings, on demand in timed writing situations, as well as the opportunity to practice the steps of the writing process in multi-draft essays. All writing originates from reading, and process papers will require completion of each step: inventing, pre-writing, drafting, guided peer responding, revising and editing.
All reading and writing activities should aid in making students more acutely aware of an author’s purpose, the requirements of the audience, the depth and range of the subject, and the resources of language: diction, syntax, tone, rhetorical devices and appeals in print and visual text. The critical skills that students develop through close reading of a wide variety of texts will serve them in their own writing as they recognize and appreciate how these resources can make them more effective communicators.
Finally, while this course attempts to give coverage to the study of American Literature and its historical chronology, the course is not rigidly structured employing this device. The American Literature study is the outer layer with the basic structure of the course built upon the teaching of the skills required for effective critical reading and analytical writing.
STUDENT EVALUATION
Grading for all assignments is on a point system. All points are totaled and averaged to establish semester grades. Point averages will be assigned letter grades at quarter and term. Each graded assignment is given a certain number of points based on its complexity and overall importance to course objectives. For example, a process essay that evolves over time and several drafts may be worth a minimum of 100 points, while a vocabulary exercise may be worth 25 points, and a short reading quiz, worth 10. AP practice essays earn both an estimated AP score of 1-9 based on the AP scoring rubric and a point score that will vary in weight depending on the time of the year. Point values will increase as the year progresses and student competence and confidence increase. The grading scale is as follows:
A 100 – 90% C 79 – 70%
B 89 – 80% D 69 – 60%
F 59% and below
ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY
Trust is essential to a positive learning environment and needs to be protected. Students cheating in any way or engaging in plagiarism of any kind will receive a zero on that particular assignment and a “U” (unsatisfactory) in citizenship at the end of the grading period. A second instance will result in another zero grade, a “U” at the semester, and referrals to discipline and counseling. It is stressed in this course that at the college level, behavior of this kind is not at all tolerated and will result in disciplinary action including expulsion, depending upon the institution.
COURSE SYLLABUS
Ongoing Lessons and Activities: Journal Writing, SAT Vocabulary, Grammar and Writing Mini-Lessons, Current Events, Independent Reading, Rhetorical and Literary Terminology, Tropes, and Schemes
First Quarter: Course Orientation, American Literature Overview, Review of Summer Reading, Introduction to Close Reading, Rhetorical Awareness and Sensitivity, and Modes of Discourse; Major Papers: Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Précis, Narration/Description Mode
Second Quarter: Rhetorical Analysis and Close Reading, Introduction to Argument, Modes of Discourse; Major Papers: Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Précis, Process Analysis Mode, Comparison/Contrast Mode, Definition Mode
Third Quarter: Developing Skills in Researched Writing, Understanding and Developing Argument, Modes of Discourse; Major Papers: Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Précis, Argument, Synthesized Argument, Cause/Effect Analysis Mode
Fourth Quarter: Synthesis Essay/Researched Argument, Focused Preparation for the AP English Language and Composition Exam, Looking Forward to Senior Year; Major Papers: Synthesis Essay/Researched Argument, Focused Preparation for AP Exam
CLASSROOM POLICIES
SUBMITTING WORK: All work must have your full name, date, period, and appropriate assignment label. Homework will be assigned regularly and is due when the student enters the classroom. In general, all papers completed outside of class must be typed, double-spaced, have one-inch margins, 12-font maximum, and numbered pages. Selected assignments will be submitted online when appropriate. Students will be made aware of the nature of the submission with each assignment. Papers written in class should be completed in blue or black ink; no pencil please.
LATE AND MAKE-UP WORK: Students should make every effort to submit all work on time, even if they are ill or not on campus the day an assignment is due. Students should meet with me outside of class period to find out about and make up missed work. The school policy of two days make-up time for every day of absence will be followed in this class. In order to encourage meeting deadlines, there will always be a “late charge,” sometimes up to ten percent per day for late work. Always speak to me about turning in late work before you attempt to do it. All late work (even if excused) will be recorded as “late” for grading purposes in order to help the teacher, student, and parent monitor the quantity and pattern of the late work.
ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is necessary and expected. Excessive absenteeism does have a definite negative impact on learning and grades. Students will be in their seats, ready to work, when the final bell rings. Students not in their seats will receive an unexcused tardy. Tardies will result in assignment of steps in the school’s tardy policy. A tardy in excess of thirty minutes will be considered a truancy.
CONDUCT: Students are expected to maintain conduct appropriate to a positive learning environment. Conduct that is in any way disruptive to the learning process will not be tolerated. Inappropriate behavior will be dealt with by applying the Restorative Justice Process Model, which could ultimately result in a student's removal from the course.
ROUTINE PROCEDURES
MATERIALS: In addition to your Chromebook within which you will be maintaining an online notebook, students will also be required to keep a physical notebook (three ring binder), which you will be expected to have daily. Within this binder, students should keep a small supply of lined binder paper. Students will be advised as to when to bring certain library and textbooks to class, and will be expected to have them on those days. Students are expected to bring a blue or a black pen to class daily. Students are also encouraged to maintain properly organized notebooks and to KEEP all course work. This is for the student’s protection.
TEACHER AVAILABILITY and PARENT/STUDENT CONTACT: Students are encouraged to come in for extra help, particularly with writing. Every effort will be made to accommodate students. I am available before and after school and at lunch by appointment. I also will be running a regular study hall Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during the 5th Period. Students may make an appointment to see me during that period as well. A phone message can be left for me at 385-8000. I will return your call. My e-mail address (which I check several times a day) is: [email protected]
GENERAL INFORMATION: Students are encouraged to take care of restroom, drinking, and snacking activities before coming to class.
Students will refrain from eating, drinking*, gum-chewing, unrelated talking, and inappropriate out-of-seat behavior. (*Water in bottles is accepted and encouraged!!)
Students will refrain from wearing sunglasses and applying cosmetics/hair spray/gel/scents in class.
Students will respect all property in the classroom.
Students will remain in their seats until dismissed.
In summary, RESPECT is the key word in describing the atmosphere prescribed for this classroom; respect for one’s self and for others. Tolerance for each other’s differences will be included in this concept of respect. Any jokes or put downs, no matter how seemingly harmless, or any serious threat or insult, based on a person’s race, religion, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, size, or ability, will not be allowed in this classroom.
Together, we have the opportunity to create an exceptionally successful learning experience. I stress the word “together” because each person brings in the door with him or her an attitude, an energy, ideas, talents, experiences, and perspectives that are unique and that will contribute to the creation of an environment that is, in itself, also unique. The environment may be stimulating, challenging, and fun; it might be intimidating and hostile; it might be lethargic and dull; it might be nurturing and caring. Each one of us bears some responsibility for the atmosphere that will occupy this space. As your teacher, I am committed to establishing and cultivating an environment that encourages the individual growth of each student. I believe that you learn from each other as much as from me, so I will create situations that make meaningful interaction possible. This will require your full commitment to be truly present, intellectually and emotionally. This will require that each of you commits to the responsibility for helping maintain a positive, sharing, supportive atmosphere. Often, I see highly intelligent and motivated students holding back in classrooms, hording their ideas out of a sense of false competition, afraid to take chances, afraid to be “wrong,” afraid to look foolish (in other words, afraid to really grow). I encourage you to take chances this year, to share your skills, talent, knowledge, and ideas with others, to risk being “wrong,” to risk looking “silly.” Dare to grow. Welcome to Room 108 and the 2015-16 school year.
Mrs. Susan Boykin