ADVANCED PLACEMENT LANGUAGE AND

COMPOSITION

Course #10160

Full Year

1 Credit

Honors

Grade 11

In this course, students will study American fiction and nonfiction texts from several historical periods organized to raise questions such as: to what extent do American texts represent American values or what does it take to overcome adversity?  In exploring these questions, students will develop an understanding of how language works by practicing three specific skills.  Students will analyze argument, allowing them to examine how authors establish a claim for a particular audience and purpose. Students will engage in rhetorical analysis, allowing them to discover how authors use the conventions of language to convey meaning. Finally students will learn to synthesize a variety of texts by recognizing intertextual connections which are important in developing critical literacy.  Frequent writing assignments of varied lengths and for a variety of purposes provide students the opportunity to further their thinking and engage in the discourse of the unit topic.  While one of the goals of this course is to prepare students to take the AP Language and Composition exam in the spring, the overall aim of the course is threefold: to prepare students for success in the college classroom by fostering intellectual growth, to instill habits conducive to lifelong learning and to engage confidently and thoughtfully in public discourse as responsible citizens.  The level of rigor in this course is commensurate to that of an introductory college course. This course requires a summer project.

Note: Though Advanced Placement courses do not have prerequisites, this is a very demanding course, and it is therefore recommended that students who enroll have taken English 10 Honors.