Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
(suggested)
Brief Description of the Course
Suggested reading includes How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. I recommend these books as well: The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I.A. Richards, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Other suggested readings:
Baranick, Jenny. Kiss My Asterisk.
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth The New Well-Tempered Sentence
Hale, Constance. Sin and Syntax.
Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar.
Landon, Brooks. Building Great Sentences.
Lanham, Richard A. Style: An Anti-textbook.
Le Guin, Ursula K. Steering the Craft.
Longknife, Ann, Ph.D. and K. D. Sullivan. The Art of Styling Sentences.
O’Conner, Patricia T. Woe is I.
Safire, William. How Not to Write.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.
Walsh, Bill. The Elephants of Style.
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well.
The Great Conversation, The Great Books, and The Great Ideas are enumerated by Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins.
How to Read a Book: We will discuss the four levels of reading enumerated by Adler and Van Doren: elementary, inspectional, analytic, and syntopical.
Using How To Read A Book as a guide, we will discuss how to approach different kinds of reading matter. After an introduction to The Great Conversation, we will attempt some mastery reading of
Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics.
Newton, Sir Isaac. The Principia. (See the bottom of page 319 – read the first three sections and “Book III.”
Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species.
Einstein, Albert. Relativity the Special and the General Theory.
Students will be practice periodic, multiple-choice tests. Also, students will write free response essays based on a prompt in class.
Unit Information or Time Frame
Unit One - How to Read a Book and Write a Sentence
Week One – Dimensions of Reading (pages 3 – 58; these and the following page numbers in parentheses refer to How to Read a Book). Begin reading Nicomachean Ethics – again, the order in which we read the books may be rearranged based on availability of the texts – one chapter per week.
Formative Assessment: Propositional Content
Summative Assessment: Practice multiple-choice exam.
Week Two – Analytic reading (pages 59 – 190)
FA: Sentence Texture and Density
SA: Q1 Synthesis Prompt - essay questions must be completed in class; no late papers will be accepted; no make-up essays without a school acknowledged excused absence.
Week Three – Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter (191 – 308).
FA: Word Order (Syntax)
SA: Q2 Argument Prompt
Week Four – Goals of Reading (309 – 347).
FA: Word Choice – Diction and the Ladder of Abstraction
SA: Q 3 and Book Talk due on the last class of each month (Chosen from either of AP Non-Fiction Reading List or the list of Great Authors or approved by instructor.) Each student will be responsible for keeping a list of the speaker, the title of their book, and a brief statement of its content.
Week Five – Exercises and Tests at the Four Levels of Reading.
FA: Tough, Sweet, and Stuffy (Style)
SA: Multiple-choice test.
Week Six – General Discussion of the Great Ideas and the Great Conversation.
SA: Steps in Prose
FA: Q 1
Week Seven –Free Modifiers and Bound Modifiers.
SA: Adjectival steps
FA: Q 2
Week Eight –Directions of Modification
SA: Left, right, and mid branching sentences.
FA: Q 3
Week Nine – Coordinate and Subordinative Methods of Modification
FA: Writing long sentences
SA: Book Talk
Unit Two – Sentences, Structure, and Figurative Language
Sir Isaac Newton and The Principia. Selected readings. Summative assessments following the pattern established in Quarter one: two full exams over a period of nine weeks plus two book talks. Formative assessments will follow the following pattern: multi-level sentences, coordinate cumulative sentences, subordinate and mixed cumulative, prompts of comparison, prompts of speculation and explanation, rhythm in prose, suspenseful or periodic sentences, creating suspense continued.
Unit Three –Charles Darwin – Origin of Species
Week One –Visual Analysis.
FA: the mechanics of delay
SA: multiple-choice test.
Week Two – Narration and Description.
FA: Patterns for Suspense
SA: sample synthesis question
Week Three – Narrative Procedure.
FA: Balanced Form
SA: sample argument question
Week Four – Comparison and Contrast.
SA: Duple rhythms
FA: sample question three and Book Talks
Week Five – Division and Classification.
SA: Triple Rhythms
FA: Multiple-choice test.
Week Six – Definition.
SA: Balanced and Serial Constructions
FA: Q 1
Week Seven – Cause and Effect.
SA: Sentences and Paragraphing
FA: Q2
Week Eight – Persuasion and Argument.
SA: Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays
FA: Q 3 and book talks
Week Nine – Review of the Pedagogy of Sentences and Essay Structures
Unit Four - Reasoning and Persuasion
Albert Einstein - Relativity
Daily review of the weekly lessons from Quarters One, Two, and Three.
Continuation of Practice Exams
Monthly Book Talks
I am available for tutoring and advice. Contact me at [email protected] or directly at [email protected] if you need guidance or suggestions on literacy.
AP Language and Composition Summer Preparation
1) Read the syllabus.
2) If available, read How to Read a Book. *
3) Read and analyze one of the four main texts (available from the school library: Aristotle’s Ethics, Newton’s Principia, Darwin’s Origin of Species, or Einstein’s Relativity).
(suggested)
Brief Description of the Course
Suggested reading includes How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. I recommend these books as well: The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I.A. Richards, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Other suggested readings:
Baranick, Jenny. Kiss My Asterisk.
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth The New Well-Tempered Sentence
Hale, Constance. Sin and Syntax.
Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar.
Landon, Brooks. Building Great Sentences.
Lanham, Richard A. Style: An Anti-textbook.
Le Guin, Ursula K. Steering the Craft.
Longknife, Ann, Ph.D. and K. D. Sullivan. The Art of Styling Sentences.
O’Conner, Patricia T. Woe is I.
Safire, William. How Not to Write.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.
Walsh, Bill. The Elephants of Style.
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well.
The Great Conversation, The Great Books, and The Great Ideas are enumerated by Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins.
How to Read a Book: We will discuss the four levels of reading enumerated by Adler and Van Doren: elementary, inspectional, analytic, and syntopical.
Using How To Read A Book as a guide, we will discuss how to approach different kinds of reading matter. After an introduction to The Great Conversation, we will attempt some mastery reading of
Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics.
Newton, Sir Isaac. The Principia. (See the bottom of page 319 – read the first three sections and “Book III.”
Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species.
Einstein, Albert. Relativity the Special and the General Theory.
Students will be practice periodic, multiple-choice tests. Also, students will write free response essays based on a prompt in class.
Unit Information or Time Frame
Unit One - How to Read a Book and Write a Sentence
Week One – Dimensions of Reading (pages 3 – 58; these and the following page numbers in parentheses refer to How to Read a Book). Begin reading Nicomachean Ethics – again, the order in which we read the books may be rearranged based on availability of the texts – one chapter per week.
Formative Assessment: Propositional Content
Summative Assessment: Practice multiple-choice exam.
Week Two – Analytic reading (pages 59 – 190)
FA: Sentence Texture and Density
SA: Q1 Synthesis Prompt - essay questions must be completed in class; no late papers will be accepted; no make-up essays without a school acknowledged excused absence.
Week Three – Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter (191 – 308).
FA: Word Order (Syntax)
SA: Q2 Argument Prompt
Week Four – Goals of Reading (309 – 347).
FA: Word Choice – Diction and the Ladder of Abstraction
SA: Q 3 and Book Talk due on the last class of each month (Chosen from either of AP Non-Fiction Reading List or the list of Great Authors or approved by instructor.) Each student will be responsible for keeping a list of the speaker, the title of their book, and a brief statement of its content.
Week Five – Exercises and Tests at the Four Levels of Reading.
FA: Tough, Sweet, and Stuffy (Style)
SA: Multiple-choice test.
Week Six – General Discussion of the Great Ideas and the Great Conversation.
SA: Steps in Prose
FA: Q 1
Week Seven –Free Modifiers and Bound Modifiers.
SA: Adjectival steps
FA: Q 2
Week Eight –Directions of Modification
SA: Left, right, and mid branching sentences.
FA: Q 3
Week Nine – Coordinate and Subordinative Methods of Modification
FA: Writing long sentences
SA: Book Talk
Unit Two – Sentences, Structure, and Figurative Language
Sir Isaac Newton and The Principia. Selected readings. Summative assessments following the pattern established in Quarter one: two full exams over a period of nine weeks plus two book talks. Formative assessments will follow the following pattern: multi-level sentences, coordinate cumulative sentences, subordinate and mixed cumulative, prompts of comparison, prompts of speculation and explanation, rhythm in prose, suspenseful or periodic sentences, creating suspense continued.
Unit Three –Charles Darwin – Origin of Species
Week One –Visual Analysis.
FA: the mechanics of delay
SA: multiple-choice test.
Week Two – Narration and Description.
FA: Patterns for Suspense
SA: sample synthesis question
Week Three – Narrative Procedure.
FA: Balanced Form
SA: sample argument question
Week Four – Comparison and Contrast.
SA: Duple rhythms
FA: sample question three and Book Talks
Week Five – Division and Classification.
SA: Triple Rhythms
FA: Multiple-choice test.
Week Six – Definition.
SA: Balanced and Serial Constructions
FA: Q 1
Week Seven – Cause and Effect.
SA: Sentences and Paragraphing
FA: Q2
Week Eight – Persuasion and Argument.
SA: Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays
FA: Q 3 and book talks
Week Nine – Review of the Pedagogy of Sentences and Essay Structures
Unit Four - Reasoning and Persuasion
Albert Einstein - Relativity
Daily review of the weekly lessons from Quarters One, Two, and Three.
Continuation of Practice Exams
Monthly Book Talks
I am available for tutoring and advice. Contact me at [email protected] or directly at [email protected] if you need guidance or suggestions on literacy.
AP Language and Composition Summer Preparation
1) Read the syllabus.
2) If available, read How to Read a Book. *
3) Read and analyze one of the four main texts (available from the school library: Aristotle’s Ethics, Newton’s Principia, Darwin’s Origin of Species, or Einstein’s Relativity).