Welcome, AP Language and Composition students! :) Please utilize the resources below to help enable your success in my class. (Anything found below in purple is a direct link to that particular resource.) The course's syllabus can be located here.
*Everyday in class we begin with a warm-up where students are required to respond to a quote, image, or short video in their notebooks. These responses must be at least 5 sentences in length and are graded at random throughout the Quarter. In addition, we practice SSR (silent sustained reading) daily in class. In order to do so, students are required to read a text of their choice for 15 minutes without interruption (NO cellphones or headphones should be visible!). Then, they must respond to a prompt provided in class in their notebooks. These are graded daily and are worth 20 points for a total of 100 points at the end of the week.*
Rhetoric
Week One:
*Everyday in class we begin with a warm-up where students are required to respond to a quote, image, or short video in their notebooks. These responses must be at least 5 sentences in length and are graded at random throughout the Quarter. In addition, we practice SSR (silent sustained reading) daily in class. In order to do so, students are required to read a text of their choice for 15 minutes without interruption (NO cellphones or headphones should be visible!). Then, they must respond to a prompt provided in class in their notebooks. These are graded daily and are worth 20 points for a total of 100 points at the end of the week.*
Rhetoric
Week One:
- Vocabulary Words for this week: heterogeneous, solipsism, pulchritude, pejorative, emollient, denigrate, linchpin, serendipity, corpulent, obfuscate (You can also access these words at www.quizlet.com if you search 'MsScott1')
- The Allegory of the Cave by Plato
- The Allegory of the Cave Text Dependent Questions
- First rhetorical analysis essay prompt: “In a well-developed essay, explain how the speaker uses rhetorical strategies to develop his argument in Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave.” (40 minutes)
- Rhetorical Analysis Pre-Assessment Feedback
- Vocabulary Words for this week: adumbrate, congruity, anachronism, vitriolic, bilk, arboreal, archetype, debunk, protean, mendacious, serendipity, pejorative (You can also access these words at www.quizlet.com if you search 'MsScott1')
- AP Language and Composition Essay Rubric
- '9' Rhetorical Analysis: The Allegory of the Cave
- The Rhetorical Triangle PowerPoint
- The Rhetorical Triangle Class Notes
- Author: Who is the author of the text? This person/group's name alone is an insufficient answer to this question. What do we know about the author? What is their job? Where are they from? What is their age/gender/race?
- Audience: What group of people is expected to read/view this text? How well does the content/tone/language appeal to this group of people?
- Purpose: What is this text trying to do? This is best answered by an infinitive verb (e.g. to persuade, to inform, to teach, etc).
- Context: When was this text published? What publication does it come from and what do we know about that publication? What country does this text or publication come from? What's important about the time period or publication in relation to the content or message of the text?
- Thesis/message: What is the text about? What argument or point is the text making? What impression does it leave on the reader/viewer?
- Author: Who is the author of the text? This person/group's name alone is an insufficient answer to this question. What do we know about the author? What is their job? Where are they from? What is their age/gender/race?
- The Rhetorical Analysis Graphic Organizer
- "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins
- "Introduction to Poetry" Analysis Practice: In your assigned paragraph, choose one or two devices that seem effective in achieving the author’s purpose. Make notes below to show how the author’s choice of device(s) is influenced by some aspect of the rhetorical triangle.
- Language Unit Essential Question: How does the language we use reveal who we are?
- Language Unit Anticipation Guide
- Homework Assignment: “Compose a five-hundred-word composition on college football.” (This needs to be persuasive!)
- "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" by Paul Roberts
- "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" - Reading in the Context of a Personal Economy Questions AND editing/ revising instructions for student's college football essays based on the text
- "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" Pop Quiz
- A representative from King's College came in to speak to us about the topic of 'research', which will be beneficial when it comes time to begin our Junior Research Paper
- Vocabulary Words for this week: duress, idiosyncratic, legerdemain, inchoate, semaphore, expurgate, cavort, tangential, turpitude, prurient (You can also access these words at www.quizlet.com if you search 'MsScott1')
- Treachery of Images Painting
- Treachery of Images Handout
- "For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15" Poem
- In your assigned paragraph, choose one or two devices that seem effective in achieving the author’s purpose. Make notes below to show how the author’s choice of device(s) is influenced by some aspect of the rhetorical triangle.
- In your assigned paragraph, choose one or two devices that seem effective in achieving the author’s purpose. Make notes below to show how the author’s choice of device(s) is influenced by some aspect of the rhetorical triangle.
- Audience Class Notes
- 1. What is the particular group of readers the author is hoping to reach?
2. What information can the author assume his/ her readers know?
3. What information needs to be explained?
4. In what ways do authors need to adjust the style of their writing- the language, tone, sentence structure and complexity, and examples- to meet the needs of the audience?
- 1. What is the particular group of readers the author is hoping to reach?
- "Always Living in Spanish" by Marjorie Agosin
- 1.How would you describe Marjorie Agosin’s opening strategy in the first two paragraphs? How effective are the two paragraphs in capturing the reader’s attention?
2.This essay was published in Poets & Writers, a magazine for writers. Discuss why and how Agosin appeals to this audience.
- 1.How would you describe Marjorie Agosin’s opening strategy in the first two paragraphs? How effective are the two paragraphs in capturing the reader’s attention?
- Vocabulary Words for this week: penurious, mawkish, litigant, accretion, arcane, intransigent, diaphanous, sanctimonious, contusion, paradigm (You can also access these words at www.quizlet.com if you search 'MsScott1')