AP Language and AP Research Combination class Audit Syllabus

COURSE OVERVIEW
In order to complete the requirements for the Language and Composition aspects of the
course, students develop analytical skills as readers and writers working in the genre of
the essay. Each student forms his or her own sense of style and purpose as an essayist,
while simultaneously studying the work and style of major essayists who have
contributed significantly to the development of the essay as a literary genre. Work in
writing essays is based on an understanding of the origins of the modern essay form and
its evolution toward a way to understand what each of us seeks to accomplish as writers
of the essay. This course is conducted by workshop method (writing), lecture, and
discussion (literature). Requirements include developing an awareness of how other
writers express themselves as well as working on the development of students’ own
prose. In short, most classes will consist of essay content and style analysis, writing
workshops, discussions, and a few lectures. This is a writing-intensive, college-level
course. It is anticipated that students’ commitment to this type of class will be evident in
their work ethic. In this course students:

 read extensively and master a wide range of works of non-fiction.

 implement the QUEST framework to help students situate their research

appropriately into an ongoing conversation within a chosen field.

 understand and responsibly employ rhetorical strategies in any communication,

recognizing the rhetorical modes, structure, and strategies used by writers to
accomplish their purpose and reach their audience.

 become better informed citizens, capable of framing and effectively writing

cogent arguments that analyze, synthesize, and evaluate various
viewpoints on a wide variety of contemporary social, economic, and
political issues.

 improve meta-cognitive thinking skills so as to respond to reading through

thoughtful inquiry, articulate discussion, better test performance, and incisive
writing.

 improve their research skills, particularly their ability to evaluate primary

and secondary sources, properly attributing their sources in accordance
with MLA guidelines.

 analyze graphics and visual images, recognizing the significance of such "texts" in
contemporary society.
  write insightfully, intelligently, and critically in a variety of forms (e.g., journals,
formal multi-draft compositions, and in-class timed essays), with an emphasis on
expository, analytical and argumentative writing.

 develop a stronger and more confident voice in their oral and written
communication, a voice which reflects an enriched vocabulary and an excellent
command of diction and syntax.

In order to develop all necessary skills for the Capstone Research aspect to the class, we
include two specific research-focused days each week throughout the year. These days
are student-centered, and they require that students meet specific PREP deadlines
throughout the year. Students create Scrible.com accounts for the class, and through
this program they submit all annotations and highlighting of their research documents
to demonstrate thorough inquiry into both their subject matter and into the proper
methodology for reporting in their fields of choice.
Projects and Checkpoints:

Research Skills: The Prep, Poster Project and Elevator Pitch, Annotated
Bibliography, Miniature Project Presentation, Literature Review

Composition Skills: Literary Terms Presentations, Literary Terms Test,

Nonfiction Book Response, Follow a Columnist, Modes Essays, Journal
Responses

RESEARCH SKILLS AND TIMELINE

Big Idea 1: Question and Explore
The first part of the research element of this course hinges on building an understanding of the
Quest Framework. At the same time as students are learning to look critically at Purpose and
Audience in preparation for AP Language Question 2, they are also looking at what various
writers add to the conversation. Much as a writer has to find a hook, or an angle, to convince the
audience that an argument is valid or important, a researcher must find a Gap. For example,
students look at the work of Simone de Beauvoir and see that she has situated her argument in
“Woman as Other” against the historical dismissive attitudes that make false assumptions about
gender. Although the ground work for this skill must be lain early, it will appear throughout the
semester as students are expected to identify purpose in all pieces of writing and to identify what
is new to the debate (or area of study) in any written piece.
Big Idea 2: Understand and Analyze (assignment types: rubric activities, Identifying a Gap, Style
Guide Activity)
Students will use example papers from Bridgewater.edu, and identify the style guides followed
by different styles of paper. http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?rID=2831&format=full In
addition, the students will find the specific Gap that the research fills—how is this research
adding information to a larger field? Students apply these principles to their own research
questions to aid in the process of determining the gap they each wish to address.
Big Idea 3: Evaluate Multiple Perspectives (assignment types: Socratic Seminar, Concession to
the Opposition, Straw Man Fallacy, Qualification, Follow a Columnist Project)
Students will bridge the skills from AP Language to AP Research, analyzing the value of using
different lenses in social criticism (Critical Race Theory, Feminist, Marxist, Psychoanalytic) to
aid their analysis across issues, and the class will discuss how these perspectives apply to the
different methods used by research fields.
Big Idea 4: Synthesize Ideas (assignment types: Creation of a Synthesis Question, Application of
Synthesis Question concepts to the art of research)
Students will create their own synthesis documents in the style of the AP Language Exam
question 1, and they will test their classmates’ abilities to draw wider conclusions based on a
variety of data. These skills will be directly linked in the PREP to the importance of situating
research within a larger field in the Literature Review portion of the Research Paper.
Big Idea 5: Team, Transform, Transmit (assignment types: Poster Project, Elevator Pitch, Mini-
presentation, Socratic Seminar)
These skills appear throughout the course, as students work together through peer review,
discussion with their mentors, and regular discussions with the teacher about the progress of
their research.

Timeline for Key Assessments and Checkpoints

Student-led work time: Each Tuesday and Thursday throughout the year until the project
deadline, students will have at least 60 minutes of work time to devote to their research. Mini
lessons and Prep consultations with the instructor make up the rest of that class time. Because
students receive all of their deadlines in advance through a google calendar, they know that their
work time both in and out of class are dedicated to achieving mastery of the assignments listed
under “Deadlines.”
Research Assignments:
The Prep: This ongoing requirement for all members of the class is essentially a sketchbook
and journal that records the Quest of each researcher. Although many of the entries early on are
specific responses to teacher-created prompts, every student’s Prep becomes tailored to that
student’s own research goals. Part of the teacher’s role on research workdays is to roam from
student to student, having one-on-one conversations with each student researcher and
examining that student’s Prep so far. There is no one due date for this, though its quality and
depth help determine how all other assignments are graded. Additionally, one-on-one
conversations about the Prep allow for the instructor to notice pitfalls in ethical research,
feasibility, method, and quality of sources that allow for guidance that prevents unethical
procedures and makes clear what areas the class needs whole-group reinforcement of ideas.
Initial Declaration of subject area of interest: The teacher visits the AP Seminar
classroom in May of the previous year, explains the general scope (shown below), and collects a
statement from each AP Research class candidate about his or her initial area of interest.
In the classroom and independently (while possibly consulting any expert advisors), students
learn and employ research and inquiry methods to develop, manage, and conduct an in-depth
investigation of an area of personal interest, culminating in an academic paper of 4,000-5,000
words that includes the following elements:
• Introduction
• Method, Process, or Approach
• Results, Product, or Findings
• Discussion, Analysis, and/or Evaluation
• Conclusion and Future Directions
• Bibliography

Creating a Research Question with an Aligned Method—key activities that support

students in their initial choice of research questions and methods. The end result is that
students must submit a preliminary Research Question and chosen Alignment with an
explanation of why that alignment is best. Students complete the three Prep activities
below, and they then submit to me a draft of their research question and a description of
the methodology most aligned with their goals.
Prep 1: Take the survey on pages 6-7 of the student handbook. Take note of what the
results tell you, and reflect on whether the research you wish to conduct matches the
values you hold according to the survey. Use the language of the survey (Conceptual
Theorist, Analytical Scientist, Particular Humanist, and Conceptual Humanist) in a
reflection about yourself as a researcher.
Prep2: As per the instructions on the Student Handbook Page 12, students complete a
type of researcher activity. Students write their first entry into their PREP, identifying
what type of researcher they most see themselves as being and their early ideas about
how to apply that research philosophy to their areas of interest. Also, we use this day to
begin exploring EBSCO so that students can get a good basic idea of what information they
have readily available on their topics.

http://wacenter.evergreen.edu/docs/natlproject/dimensionsdisciplinaryunderstanding.
pdf
Prep 3: Students go to the pdf above, and they choose the discipline that most closely
matches their topic of choice. Students then complete a PREP entry in which they reflect
on what aspects of the Forms, Knowledge, Methods, and Application Process they will
need to concentrate on as they conduct research in this field. At this point, they are also
expected to reflect on the significance or contribution of their scholarly work in a larger
context.

Applying Ethical Considerations in Research—In order to ensure that students have

taken into account the importance of protecting their research subjects, they will complete an
activity in class, first reading 102-108 in Leedy and Ormond’s Practical Research. Students then
complete the checklist activity on 107-108 and share in table groups the next day, before writing
the prep entry below.
Prep 4: Determine any possible pitfalls in ethical research practices that could be relevant to
your proposed topic. Refer to our lesson on Planning an Ethical Research study, and say
specifically whether your study is likely to need IRB review.

Poster Project and Elevator Pitch:

Students create trifold posters (or a fitting substitution), and they decorate the posters
as aides to a specific pitch to me that their research question and methodology are
legitimate and important. The required elements of this three-minute presentation are
the following: primary research question, expected methodology, progress on securing
an expert adviser and how that person can help you, early understanding of the existing
research, any possible ethical concerns (any necessary use of the Internal Review Board
IRB), and where you see a gap. Prep entries so far and how you have used them.

Rubric:

90-100: The student has considered all of the major aspects of the research he or she
will be conducting, and I am confident that the paper is off to a strong start. The poster
is an effective aide in capturing the idea of this research topic.

80-90: One of the areas of research is not sufficiently considered, so the student needs
to refine his or her plan so that the pitch is clearer. The poster is adequate for the
purposes of the presentation.

74-79: As above, but two categories are unclear or incomplete, or the poster is
insufficient for the purpose of explaining the proposed research.

73 and below: more than two areas of the project are hazy, which means the project is
significantly behind schedule. The poster fails to support a claim that this research is
legitimate.

Research Notes Checks:

Students submit for review either physical or electronic copies of research articles with
appropriate annotations. Though the scope of some projects is larger than that of others,
students submit roughly ten sources on each of the two note-check days.

Inquiry Proposal Form:

Students complete a Google form on which they detail all of the major aspects of their
projects. This form is modeled directly on the example from the Course and Exam
Description, page 55.
Annotated Bibliography:
As a last step before students are ready to begin writing their literature reviews, each
must write one paragraph per source in their research notes, detailing specifically how
that article relates to his or her research. This step helps them weed out which sources
will not actually be relevant enough to include in the formal paper, and it ensures that
they think about the larger overall connections before submitting the literature review.
Literature Review:
Shortly before the end of the first semester, students look over sample papers (a mix of
those available to them online, as well as some in class made available through the
Instructor training course), and they create their own literature review sections. This
looks significantly longer or shorter depending upon the research methodology, and
students will have justified their formats already through the note checks and
bibliography.
Deadlines
Initial declaration of area of interest: May 21st, turned in to the AP Seminar Teacher
Research Question with an Aligned Method: Week 2
Poster Project and Elevator Speech: Week 6
Research Notes Check 1: Week 8
Inquiry Proposal Form: Week 10
Research Notes Check 2: Week 12
Annotated Bibliography: Week 14
Literature Review: Week 16
Work in Progress Practice Presentation: Week 18
Second Semester
Biweekly Work in Progress Interviews: Weeks 19-26
Practice Presentations: Week 28
Final Presentation before the panel: Weeks 30-32

READING

The chief organizational principle for readings is rhetorical mode, with a movement
from narration to exposition to argumentation. With all readings the emphasis of our
study is the author’s stylistic techniques and/or rhetorical strategies. Students sharpen
their skills in discerning purpose, main idea(s), tone, and pattern of development, as
well as develop their ability to analyze how word choice, selection of detail, and syntactic
choices help writers achieve their purposes. We strive to develop a mature, critical,
“mind at work” approach to reading, in which students wrestle with a text rather than
merely absorbing it. Most readings come from The Language of Composition. Others
come from other collections of essays or from contemporary media. Readings include
(but are not limited to)
Narration:
George Orwell: “Shooting an Elephant”
Richard Rodriquez: “Workers”
Santha Rama Rau: “By Any Other Name”
Michael Griffith: “Home Truths”
Russell Baker: “A Memory of Rope”
E.B. White: “Once More to the Lake”
Art Spiegelman: “Mein Kampf” (visual text)

Exposition:
Ray and Tom Magliozzi: “Inside the Engine”
Chang-Rae Lee: “Coming Home Again”
Atul Gawande: “The Cancer Cluster Myth”
Jonathan Kozol: “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”
Sarah Vowell: “Cowboys v. Mounties”
Sherry Turkle: “How Computers Change the Way We Think”
Lynda Barry: “Common Scents” (visual text)
Natalie Angier: “Why Men Don’t Last”
Samuel Johnson: “The Solitude of the Country”
Joseph Addison: “In Westminster Abbey”
Scott Russell Sanders: “Under the Influence”

Argumentation:
Christina Nehring: “Books Make You a Boring Person”
Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal”
E. Eisenberg: “Dialogue Boxes You Should Have Read More Carefully” (visual)
Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
 George Orwell: “Politics and the English Language”
Abraham Lincoln: “The Gettysburg Address”
Anna Quindlen: “Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha”
Charles M. Young: “Losing: An American Tradition”
Benjamin Franklin: “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker”
Joan Acocella: “Under the Spell”
Michael Kinsley: “The Intellectual Free Lunch”
William Wilberforce: “Abolition Speech”
Simone de Beauvior: “Woman as Other”

For each reading, students complete brief composition assignments that emphasize
critical thinking. A typical question (for “The Cancer Cluster Myth”): “What is the Texas
Sharpshooter fallacy? Explain why it is or is not an effective analogy for the problem
Gawande describes.” Students also participate in wide-ranging class discussions on
each reading. In these discussions students debate the content of the essays (Should
women be eligible for the military draft?) as well as analyze the essayist’s methods (Why
does Quindlen reference Afghanistan in her essay?). Some essays also serve as models
for multi-draft compositions – Vowell’s “Cowboys’ v. Mounties,” for example, exhibits
for students the features of a strong comparison/contrast essay.

As they discuss literature students learn and practice using appropriate terminology for
describing tone, language, and syntax. They also learn common logical errors – the
post-hoc fallacy, circular reasoning, the either-or fallacy, the strawman, to name a few –
and strive to detect them in the writing of others and avoid using them in their own
writing.

In small groups students select an essay to teach to the entire class. Popular selections
include “Shop Like a Man” (Paco Underhill), “On Dumpster Diving” (Lars Eighner) and
“Make That a Double” (David Sedaris). The groups are responsible for:

- closely reading the essay and preparing a page of preparatory notes on the
author’s strategies
- composing journal topics and discussion questions for the essay
- preparing a creative, electroinic audio-visual presentation that connects
thematically to the essay
- leading a class discussion of the essay

In addition to readings from textbooks, students select a well-regarded contemporary

newspaper columnist to study, such as George Will, Paul Krugman, Clarence Page, or
Peggy Noonan (among others). Students critically read and annotate five columns by
the columnist. They also find an alternate view of the topic of one of the columns and
then write an analysis of the rhetorical effectiveness of that column. They are also
expected to attempt to employ some aspect of their columnist’s style in a later essay of
their own.

COMPOSITIONS
Multi-draft compositions include (but are not limited to) a personal narrative, a
comparison / contrast essay, and a research-based argument essay. For each of these
assignments, students go through an extensive writing process, including guidance in
selection of topics, intensive study of models (both professional and student-written),
group and paired review of sharing drafts, and individual conferences with the
instructor as needed. Throughout the process we emphasize effective word choice,
logical organization, and establishment of tone and voice. In addition, as we go through
the composition process students receive instruction in techniques for improving style,
including precise word choice, incorporation of original figurative language, variation of
sentence structures, and limitation of passive voice. The essays are evaluated with the
use of a modified English 1101 rubric. Students receive extensive written feedback on
these compositions.

For the research based argument essay students learn techniques for critically analyzing
potential sources and integrating information gathered from research into an essay
based on their own thinking. In addition, they learn to use the conventions of MLA
citation.

Students complete several (10-12) in class timed essays. These essays require
students to analyze the rhetorical strategies in a text, formulate and support an
argument, or synthesize information from various sources into an argument. Student
receive intensive instruction on approaches to these essays, including guided practice in
pre-writing, analysis of model essays, and feedback on completed compositions. These
essays are evaluated using the College Board 9-point holistic scale.

Students also keep informal journals. The journals are kept in a bound notebook and
brought to every class meeting. The journal should include a balance of reading
response entries and creative entries. After students read and carefully contemplate an
assigned class reading, they reflect on it in their journals. For example, students might
comment on the effectiveness of a particular technique the author chose to employ or
elaborate on their thoughts about an intellectual issue raised in the essay. The creative
journal entries can be about topics of the student’s own choosing. This should be a place
for experimentation and exploration. For example, students might write descriptively
about their favorite possession that cost under $10, or write about an experience they
had with a dress code. The creative side of the journal should not be composed of mere
“what I did today” diary entries. The purpose of the journal is less to record experiences
than it is to develop fluency and voice.
OTHER NOTES
Core Textbook
The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric by Renee H. Shee, Lawrence
Scanlon, and Robin Dissun Aufses
Additional Text: Practical Research: Planning and Design by Paul D. Leedy and Jeanne Ellis
Ormrod

Supplies
- Three-ring notebook with tab dividers - Black and White Composition Book
- White loose-leaf paper - Pens (blue or black)
- Pencils - Highlighters
- Dictionary and thesaurus for at-home use

Grading Policy
Students have a syllabus for each three to four-week period of the semester. It is expected that
students will complete the readings, assignments, and essays at their pace while adhering
strictly to the listed due dates. Grading attempts to match college standards whenever possible.
Because of the more rigorous standard, ten points are awarded to each student’s final course
grade at the end of the term. Grades are based on the following:

45% = Major Grades (Tests, Special Projects/Presentations, Compositions, Multiple

Choice Tests, Annotated Bibliography, Elevator Pitch, and Literature Review)
35% = Daily Assignments (Classwork, Homework, Journals, Short projects, Prep
Assignments, Research Skills quizzes, Work-in-Progress presentations)
20% = Final Exam
Grading Scale:
A= 90-100 D= 70-73
B= 80- 89 F= below 70
C= 74-79

Plagiarism Policy

Cheating by students is inexcusable conduct at Peachtree Ridge High School. Cheating includes
plagiarism, which is the use of another’s words or interpretations without giving credit. Proper
documentation style, using the guidelines of the Modern Language Association’s Style Guide
(MLA), will be covered thoroughly in class; therefore, students will know how to avoid this grave
offense. After instruction, instances of plagiarism will be considered cheating and will be met
with a zero on the assignment and an administrative referral. Also, ALL ASSIGNMENTS should
be a reflection of the student’s work, his/her own research, writing style, and capabilities. If a
student has any question or concern about an issue of plagiarism, he/she should see the teacher
PRIOR to the assignment’s due date.

Additional Capstone Considerations:

AP Capstone Policy on Plagiarism and Falsification or Fabrication of Information Participating
teachers shall inform students of the consequences of plagiarism and instruct students to
ethically use and acknowledge the ideas and work of others throughout their course work. The
student’s individual voice should be clearly evident, and the ideas of others must be
acknowledged, attributed, and/or cited. A student who fails to acknowledge the source or author
of any and all information or evidence taken from the work of someone else through citation,
attribution or reference in the body of the work, or through a bibliographic entry, will receive a
score of 0 on that particular component of the AP Research Performance Task. A student who
incorporates falsified or fabricated information (e.g., evidence, data, sources, and/or authors)
will receive a score of 0 on that particular component of the AP Research Performance Task.