<p>I am trying to create an AP English Language and Composition syllabus for next year. What books did you guys read for AP Lang, and what were your assignments like?</p>
<p>We read:
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Great Gatsby
- The Count of Monte Cristo (My personal favorite with Catch-22 coming as a close second)
- Of Mice and Men</p>
<p>Definitely focus on rhetorical techniques and what I would suggest is going over these 2-3 days a week during the first semester and if you read To Kill a Mockingbird you can find the rhetoric that Scout and Atticus use. Also, a definite must is to actually grab different American speeches by some of the leading speakers and politicians in American history. What I would suggest is Thomas Paine’s common sense, William Jennings Bryan’ Cross of Gold speech, F.D.R.'s Pearl Harbor speech, just about anything from Winston Churchill and M.L.K. Jr., and even for recent ones you can do Obama’s 2008 “Change we can believe in” campaign focus. Also, a good idea might be watching debates from Youtube and analyzing the rhetoric of skilled debaters and the logical fallacies of each sides arguments. You can also use the debates as a point to discuss issues outside of English. Then, it may be a good idea to have quick 5 minute debates/speeches where the students can craft arguments with rhetoric and free of logical fallacies (they would soon learn how hard it is to escape those pesky logical fallacies).</p>
<p>Also, focus on the essays heavily, because they are worth slightly more than the multiple choice and to me it makes sense to focus on essay writing because if you can improve your general essay writing ability by one point then usually that means you will improve all your essays by one point (going from a six writer to a seven writer). This is three essay points that can be gained and that is a lot of points usually enough to swing you between one score or another. If I was making a syllabus I would focus on General essay writing in the first quarter (they WILL need this because their general mechanics may be very poor coming into this class), focus on the synthesis the next quarter, the argument the next quarter, and the rhetorical analysis the semester after (this timeline is just a suggestion on pacing you can do the types of essays in any order, but try to put the rhetorical analysis with your lessons on rhetoric for obvious reasons).</p>
<p>Another thing to help with the essays would be vocab. My teacher used vocabulary workshop and it is very good. My only caution is that all you can really do is tell them to work through the workbook and take a quiz. Most will cheat on the homework as you probably already know as a teacher, but if you make the test where they get the words and have to write the definition it is a lot harder on kids who don’t study than if you gave them matching (trust me, I have gotten A’s on matching quizzes where I have never seen the words before, but once I get a write out the definition quiz it’s all downhill).</p>
<p>My advice on pacing would be giving a practice multiple choice once a month (about 8-9 by the time you start reviewing for the exam) and a practice essay every week or two weeks (about 32-36 or 16-18). Just looking at the numbers I think one essay every two weeks would be sufficient giving about 5-6 practice essay of each type.</p>
<p>For the end of the year review you definitely want to start about first or second week of April. You want to give at least one full length exam which will take a week (1 day each for the multiple choice and three essays). It would also be helpful to go through sample essays and the scoring guidelines that can be found on the Collegeboard website. Then, it would also be very nice of you to offer a Saturday morning practice full-length test, but that may be over the top. An absolute must though is to us Collegeboard RELEASED exams. There is at least one posted on the Collegeboard website and it can also be find on this site in the thread on the AP test prep page that is titled “Past AP exams from the 1990s”, nothing prepares a student more for the multiple choice than true Collegeboard released exams.</p>
<p>Also, a good assignment in order to replicate a true college course is to assign them a paper over Christmas break. Just a simple 5 page (can be however long you desire and feel is appropriate) MLA formatted essay that must be written on a controversial issue. Student should take a stand on the issue (thesis statement practice) and persuade audience (rhetoric practice). </p>
<p>The most important thing to remember is that you MUST stick to the syllabus for an AP class. It’s not like an honors class where you can stop and help students who fall behind because there is no true threat over not finishing an honors curriculum. If a student does fall behind, then ask them to come in after school or some other alternative for tutoring, and if it becomes a point where the student just does not have the ability to perform well in the class no matter how hard they try then get them to drop at the semester, it will only be a frustrating experience for them and they will end up failing the exam which is bad for them and also brings down your pass rate.</p>
<p>My advice on books is:
Catcher in the Rye (over the summer)
To Kill a Mockingbird (great book for controversy and justic/innocence themes)
Count of Monte Cristo (personal favorite)
Catch-22 (My favorite character driven book; caution though is to stick with plot drivers; We are in high school)
Great Gatsby (good because it is commonly used on AP exams in the FRQ section)
Of Mice and Men or The Metamorphosis (good to use at end when time is short)</p>
<p>@jimmyboy23: Thanks for the tips! Just to clarify, though, I am a home-schooled student, so I will be imposing this syllabus on myself. (I probably should have mentioned that before, but your advice still proved helpful. Thank you!)</p>
<p>For Lang, my class read only nonfiction.</p>
<p>Everything’s An Argument
Utilitarianism
Utopia
Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass
A Vindication on the Rights of Woman
Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History, 1775-1865
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
A Modest Proposal
Self-Reliance
Civil Disobedience
Common Sense</p>
<p>I would highly recommend Everything’s An Argument; very instructive as far as analysis.</p>
<p>Yep just basically apply those strategies to yourself and ignore the teacher/classroom specific advice</p>
<p>Also, a good socialist book is Anthem by Ayn Rand. The style she chose for the book is very distinct and its good to get a good mix of books in. </p>
<p>Since you’re a student I would advise doing the vocab maybe over the summer just do it about 15 minutes a day four days a week and then maybe learn the 50-75 rhetorical devices/logical fallacies. You can do it during the year but its something that if you do it at a relaxed pace over the summer then you will be very far ahead come spring when prepping for the exam time comes around.</p>
<p>Since you are your own student and can to an extent delegate your time how you wish. I would encourage you to spend at least some time every week finding a debate on Youtube and watching and trying to find as many rhetorical techniques as possible. You could also do this with law shows such as Law and Order, SVU, and Boston Legal. Helps to break the monotony of reading through political and social speeches that can be very dry sometimes.</p>