Ms. Leigh Meyer

· Course Description: Advanced Placement Language and Composition is a course for the highly motivated and serious student of English. The goal of this course is to fully engage students in becoming skilled critical readers of prose written in a variety of periods and rhetorical contexts. The combination of their writing and reading should make students knowledgeable of the interactions among a writer’s purpose, structure, audience, and ranges from personal experiences to public policies, from imaginative literature to popular culture. Additionally, students will be reading from a broad range and quality, along with the study of several genres of literature. Written work is specifically designed to enhance the necessary skills students will need for the New York State Regents Exam and the AP Exam. In accordance with the standards of the Regents exam, students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding, for literary response and expression, for critical analysis and evaluation, and for social interaction. Students will also continue to enhance their vocabulary skills to best prepare for the SAT, and to become articulate adults.

· Course Expectations: Students will be successful in English 11 AP if they attend class eager to learn, prepared with the proper materials (notebook, current text, pen/pencil, etc.) and consistently complete the previous night’s homework. Reading and writing assignments are extensive in the 11 AP class. It is important they do not allow themselves to fall behind. Also, they are required to be prepared to regularly participate in class activities and discussions.

· Course texts:

Barnet, Sylvan, William E. Cain and Marcia Stubbs, ed. The Little,

Brown Reader. 9^th ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational

Publishers Inc., 2003.

DiYanni, Robert, ed. Fifty Great Essays. 2^nd ed. New York: Longman

Publishers, 2005.

· Course readings:

The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Crucible Arthur Miller

Macbeth William Shakespeare

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

Black Boy Richard Wright

Joy Luck Club Amy Tan

Inherit the Wind Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee

The Awakening Kate Chopin

· Vocabulary, Grammar, and Usage: Grammar and usage areas will be addressed appropriately throughout the year. As partners in the instructional process, students are responsible for assessing their own progress in grammar.

· Grading Criteria: Grades will be based on essays, major writing assignments/projects (60%), quizzes, minor writing assignments (30%), as well as homework and participation (10%). Five points will be deducted for late assignments for each day past the due date, to a maximum of 25 points. Communication with the home will be made should late assignments become habitual. Also, students can expect both a midyear exam (New York State Regents) and a final exam. These exams account for 30% of the final average.

· Progress Reports: Student progress reports are sent home after the first five weeks of every quarter.

· The AP Exam (3hours and 15 minutes)

Part I- (1hr.) Multiple-choice questions based on a series of prose passages.

Part II- (2hrs. 15 min.) Writing segment consisting of three different essays: analyzing an author’s rhetoric and style, creating an argument essay based on an author’s key point(s), and synthesizing an argument based on multiple given passages.

· Final Exam: Kindly remember that the final exam grade is 20% of our final average for the course.

· I am readily available to assist my students and they should not hesitate to request help. I will arrange to meet either before or after school. I make it a priority to be available.

· Let me introduce myself…This is my fourth year at Pleasantville High School and the ninth year of my teaching career. I have taught English to grades nine through twelve as well as Journalism, Creative Writing, and Desktop Publishing. I bring experience, enthusiasm, a commitment to provide for the individual student, and a love of teaching and learning. I look forward to an exciting and successful school year!