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Due Dates Readings and Assignments
| ocean2.docx |
Expect Reading Quizzes/Homework Quizzes on The Great Gatsby
Readings
Gatsby Readings
Finish (through)
Chapter Two by Monday, April 1
Chapter Three Tuesday, Apirl 2
Chapter Four, Wednesday, April 3
Chapter Five, Thursday, April 4
Chapter Six, Friday, April 5
Finish the novel during Spring Break
(Three chapters -- through 9, and about 70 pages)
Anticipate End-Of-The-Novel reading quizzes,
tests and an essay when we return.)
Due Tuesday/Wednesday, March 5/6
HO Self Evaluation on Participation
Due BCA Thursday/Friday, March 7/8
Choose One Essay from Below :
Judith Oritz Cofer, "Silent Dancing"
Edward Hoagland, "On Stuttering"
Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue"
Alice Walker, "Beauty: When the other Dancer is..."
Due Reading with Responses to questions below Monday, March 11
Joan Didion (from the Anthology--in the book) "On Keeping a Notebook"
Written Response for "On Keeping a Notebook"
Look up everything the first time you read this essay. Once you know all the words, phrases and names you will encounter, read the essay again.
When you are done, answer these questions in short essay form (one well developed paragraph each, minimum):
Due Reading with Responses to questions below Tuesday/Wednesday, March 12/13
Joan Didion, "Seacoast of Despair" HO
Questions for Joan Didion’s “The Seacoast of Despair”
This essay of Joan Didion’s and your response could be a pretty good illustration of how you could write a whole essay of analysis upon a relatively short, but sophisticated, piece. On the AP exam, you will be required to write analyses that may even be longer than the subject piece.
You do not need to write an essay this time, but if you answer my questions thoroughly, you will find that you have two or three pages of material you could pull together into a well-developed paragraph. Answer the questions below thoroughly.
Due Reading with Response to question below Thursday/Friday, March 14/15
Joan Didion, "Guaymas, Sonora"
What is the mood (emotion and atmosphere) this short "place sketch," and how does Didion develop it? Notice how the place in this essay, Guaymas, is as much an emotion as it is a location.
Due Reading with Response to question below Monday, March 18
Joan Didion, “Los Angeles Notebook”
In 1994, the first two paragraphs of this Joan Didion essay were used as the subject of analysis on an AP Language exam. Your written response is to write the analysis that was asked of students then, but you can, and should consider the whole of her essay. (In the prompt, I especially like the note from the College Board suggesting students refer to the content/text when orienting the reader, as opposed to using the line number as a transition. I say, “Value Add!”)
1994 AP English Language and Composition Exam
Question 3
Note: Line numbers on this copy may differ from those used in student samples. When in doubt, reference the content rather than the line number.
The following paragraphs open Joan Didion's essay "Los Angeles Notebook." Read them carefully. Then write an essay in which you characterize Didion's view of the Santa Ana winds and analyze how Didion conveys this view. Your analysis might consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.
Due Reading with Response to question below Tuesday/Wednesday, March 19/20
Joan Didion, “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream”
There is much to see in this essay/true crime story. Please note as much as you can. You written response for me, though, can be limited to this prompt: What syntactical strategies does Didion use to create mood and pace in this story?
Consider the following questions to help you make the required observations about her use of sentence structure, and mood and pace:
Due Reading with Response to question below Thursday/Friday, March 22/23
Joan Didion, “Slouching Toward Bethlehem”
What is Didion’s thesis and how does she support it with imagery and diction?
Finish (through)
Chapter Two by Monday, April 1
Chapter Three Tuesday, Apirl 2
Chapter Four, Wednesday, April 3
Chapter Five, Thursday, April 4
Chapter Six, Friday, April 5
Finish the novel during Spring Break
(Three chapters -- through 9, and about 70 pages)
Anticipate End-Of-The-Novel reading quizzes,
tests and an essay when we return.)
Due Tuesday/Wednesday, March 5/6
HO Self Evaluation on Participation
Due BCA Thursday/Friday, March 7/8
Choose One Essay from Below :
Judith Oritz Cofer, "Silent Dancing"
Edward Hoagland, "On Stuttering"
Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue"
Alice Walker, "Beauty: When the other Dancer is..."
Due Reading with Responses to questions below Monday, March 11
Joan Didion (from the Anthology--in the book) "On Keeping a Notebook"
Written Response for "On Keeping a Notebook"
Look up everything the first time you read this essay. Once you know all the words, phrases and names you will encounter, read the essay again.
When you are done, answer these questions in short essay form (one well developed paragraph each, minimum):
- Why is Didion writing this essay, for her, and for you?
- Didion seems to work at the nexus where concrete and abstract meet, where fact and emotion meet, where the atmosphere and mood meet, the emotional reality and the emotionally imagined, the literal and symbolic. (As you read other essays, you will find this to be consistent ground for her.) What would Didion say is the difference between a diary and a notebook?
- Note several cases where Didion coveys mood. How does she do it?
- Some English teachers start the year with this essay. What would have been the pros and cons of making this the first reading assignment of the year?
Due Reading with Responses to questions below Tuesday/Wednesday, March 12/13
Joan Didion, "Seacoast of Despair" HO
Questions for Joan Didion’s “The Seacoast of Despair”
This essay of Joan Didion’s and your response could be a pretty good illustration of how you could write a whole essay of analysis upon a relatively short, but sophisticated, piece. On the AP exam, you will be required to write analyses that may even be longer than the subject piece.
You do not need to write an essay this time, but if you answer my questions thoroughly, you will find that you have two or three pages of material you could pull together into a well-developed paragraph. Answer the questions below thoroughly.
- What is absurd about Vernon Court, and why does Didion suggest, or point out, this “breached discretion”? (pages 209--210)
- Analyze/discuss the word choice “metastasis”? (page 210)
- Why are the words “happy” and “happiness” in quotation marks? (page 210) How is this idea developed in the essay?
- What is the point of the comparison between William Randolph Hearst and the men who built the Newport Beach mansions? (pages 210—211) What is Didion’s commentary on “the pleasure principle” or lack thereof?
- What idea is introduced formally, and supported with the images of the “gilt vitrines” and “marble staircases”? Again, connect these observations to an overall thesis or theme of the essay. (page 211)
- What is “trompe l’oeil” and to what other words, images and themes does it connect? Why do you imagine Didion chose this particular term? (page 212)
- What is the point of the “Brook Farm” reference? (page 213)
- How is a theme regarding men and women developed in several ways through this essay? For instance, find the suggestive imagery in the first paragraph and examine how this is like other devices used to develop a male/female theme. (I am deliberately using vague terms so you will have to find and connect images and devices to a theme or thesis of this essay.)
- What was the “transcendental point” of the Newport houses intended to be by the men who built them? (209--?)
- According to Joan Didion, how and why are the mansions of Newport a failure?
Due Reading with Response to question below Thursday/Friday, March 14/15
Joan Didion, "Guaymas, Sonora"
What is the mood (emotion and atmosphere) this short "place sketch," and how does Didion develop it? Notice how the place in this essay, Guaymas, is as much an emotion as it is a location.
Due Reading with Response to question below Monday, March 18
Joan Didion, “Los Angeles Notebook”
In 1994, the first two paragraphs of this Joan Didion essay were used as the subject of analysis on an AP Language exam. Your written response is to write the analysis that was asked of students then, but you can, and should consider the whole of her essay. (In the prompt, I especially like the note from the College Board suggesting students refer to the content/text when orienting the reader, as opposed to using the line number as a transition. I say, “Value Add!”)
1994 AP English Language and Composition Exam
Question 3
Note: Line numbers on this copy may differ from those used in student samples. When in doubt, reference the content rather than the line number.
The following paragraphs open Joan Didion's essay "Los Angeles Notebook." Read them carefully. Then write an essay in which you characterize Didion's view of the Santa Ana winds and analyze how Didion conveys this view. Your analysis might consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.
Due Reading with Response to question below Tuesday/Wednesday, March 19/20
Joan Didion, “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream”
There is much to see in this essay/true crime story. Please note as much as you can. You written response for me, though, can be limited to this prompt: What syntactical strategies does Didion use to create mood and pace in this story?
Consider the following questions to help you make the required observations about her use of sentence structure, and mood and pace:
- Count out number of words in each sentence in at least 3 paragraphs. How does Didion use short and long sentences and for what purposes?
- Look up asyndeton and polysyndeton. What are they, when does she use each, and to what effect does she use these syntactical devices?
- Notice how she layers phrase upon phrase, or clause upon clause, to develop her longer sentences. Is there any plan or purpose to any of these layered sentences? What is the effect of these well layered sentences?
- Notice the effect of passages where she uses parallel construction (word repetitions, or repeated patterns of parts of speech, for example from the essay: There was Debbie, the Miller's fourteen, testifying in a steady voice about how she and her mother...There was Sandy Slagle, in the courtroom every day, declaring....There was Wenche Berg, the pretty... (page 24). And an example from me: In the heat of the day, in the cool of the night, in the warmth of our friendship…).
Due Reading with Response to question below Thursday/Friday, March 22/23
Joan Didion, “Slouching Toward Bethlehem”
What is Didion’s thesis and how does she support it with imagery and diction?
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Azar Nafisis, "from Reading Lolita in Tehran" David Brooks, "People Like Us" Stephen L. Carter, "The Insufficiency of Honesty" Joseph Epstein, "The Perpetual Adolescent" Michiko Kakutani, "The Word Police" Martha Nussbaum, "Can Patriotism Be Compassionate?" Peter Singer, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty"* Lauren Slater, "The Trouble with Self-Esteem"* Essays on Race and Justice
Langston Hughes, "Salvation" Barack Obama, "Origins" George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" Brent Staples, "Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders..." John Edgar Wideman, "The Night I Was Nobody" Richard Rodriguez, "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual..." Essays on Gender and Justice
Bernard Cooper, "A Clack of Tiny Sparks..." Amy Cunningham, "Why Women Smile" James Fallows, "Throwing Like a Girl" Katha Pollitt, "Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls" Leslie Marmon Silko, "In the Combat Zone" Sojourner Truth, "And Ain't I a Woman?" Ideas
Stephen King, "Everything You Need to Know...Writing..." Charles McGrath, "The Pleasures of the Text" William Safire, "Changing Warming"
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OLD STUFF / ARCHIVE:
| annotation_guide.docx |
| rhetorical_terms_list.pdf |
| fallacies.docx |
Read before class Dec 4 / 5 Tuesday / Wednesday
Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream"
Malcolm X, "Homeboy"
Read before class Dec 6 / 7 Thursday / Friday
Martin Luther King, "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
In Class Assignment
Dec 10 Monday, Finish before Tuesday / Wednesday class
HO "Proclamation--Proclamation to the Great White Father and All His People" (And related letter.)
| archive_»_the_horrible_waste_of_war_»_ernie_pyle.pdf |
| archive_»_the_death_of_captain_waskow_»_ernie_pyle.pdf |
Read before class Dec 3 Monday
HO Ernie Pyle, Readings from WW2 correspondence
The main part of the documents is below (the part requiring the most annotations), but you will be missing parts a classmate could photo and send to you. Contact a classmate.
Read before class Nov 29 / 30, Thursday / Friday
HO Dwight D. Eisenhower, D-Day Speech (All three Eisenhower documents.)
The three documents are "Order of the Day" Eisenhower's D Day Speech, "Order of the Day, Draft," his hand edited draft of the same speech, and the document showing below, "In Case of Failure," The D Day Speech Eisenhower never had to give. These can all be found online.
If you missed it in class, you should also listen to the mp3 file of the radio editorial clip on the "In Case of Failure" document.
HO Dwight D. Eisenhower, D-Day Speech (All three Eisenhower documents.)
The three documents are "Order of the Day" Eisenhower's D Day Speech, "Order of the Day, Draft," his hand edited draft of the same speech, and the document showing below, "In Case of Failure," The D Day Speech Eisenhower never had to give. These can all be found online.
If you missed it in class, you should also listen to the mp3 file of the radio editorial clip on the "In Case of Failure" document.
| 20130608_wesat_03.mp3 |
Thursday, Feb 1
P 643, Stanley Fish, "When Principles Get in the Way"
Text (Non-fiction, long essay) Handed out in class
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
P 643, Stanley Fish, "When Principles Get in the Way"
Text (Non-fiction, long essay) Handed out in class
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
| argument_scoring_guide.docx |
Richard Wright in Paris
Old Stuff
Read before class Nov 6/7 Tues/Weds
Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence"
Read before class Nov 8/9 Thurs/Fri
Frederick Douglass, "Learning to Read and Write"
Sojourner Truth, "And Ain't I A Woman?"
Read before class Nov 13/14 Tues/ Weds
HO Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July"
Read before class Nov 15/16 Thurs/Fri
HO Henry David Thoreau, "Plea for Captain John Brown"
Read before class Nov 26 Monday
Abraham Lincoln, "The Gettysburg Address"
Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address"
Below is a link to Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address." Read and annotate. You do not need to write the prompt associated with it.
Read before class Nov 6/7 Tues/Weds
Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence"
Read before class Nov 8/9 Thurs/Fri
Frederick Douglass, "Learning to Read and Write"
Sojourner Truth, "And Ain't I A Woman?"
Read before class Nov 13/14 Tues/ Weds
HO Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July"
Read before class Nov 15/16 Thurs/Fri
HO Henry David Thoreau, "Plea for Captain John Brown"
Read before class Nov 26 Monday
Abraham Lincoln, "The Gettysburg Address"
Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address"
Below is a link to Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address." Read and annotate. You do not need to write the prompt associated with it.
| ap_letter_to_parents_2018_19.docx |
| ap_langcomp_syllabus_2018_2019.docx |
| ap_2018_2019_first_assignment.docx |
| aplanguage_expectations_2018_19.docx |
Read before class Dec 13 / 14 Thursday / Friday
HO John Kerry, "Statement. Vietnam Veterans Against the War to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations--How Do You Ask Someone to be the Last Person to Die in Vietnam?"
Read before the day of the final
HO James Fallows, "What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?"
Day of the final
HO Arnold Schwartzenegger, 2004 Convention Speech
HO Barack Obama, 2004 Convention Speech
Due Monday February 11, Before/Beginning of Class, Annotated.
Scott Russel Sanders, "The Men We Carry in Our Minds"
Scott Russel Sanders "Scott Russel Sanders on Writing Essays"
Due BCA Tuesday/Wednesday, February 12/13
E. B. White "Once More to the Lake"
E.B. White, "On the Essayist"
Due BCA Thursday/Friday, February 14/15
Richard Rodriguez, "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood"
Richard Rodriguez, "on a Writer's Identity"
Due BCA Monday, February 25
Nancy Mairs, "On Being a Cripple
Nancy Mairs, "On Finding a Voice"
Prepare for In-class essay on Scott Russel Sanders
style and technique--In-class essay
on Tuesday/Wednesday, February 26/27
Due BCA Thursday/Friday, February 28 /March 1
James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son"
James Baldwin, "On Black English"
| annotation_guide_two_final__1_.docx |
More Notes on Annotations:
If you are not using a current guide, at least do the following.
When reading--
If you are not using a current guide, at least do the following.
When reading--
- note good writing, interesting writing, evidence of an author's decision making.
- make notes of what you could do to be a better writer,
- note the author's use of devices you have learned, and can name (or techniques that seem like devices, but you can't name them--ask in class).
- note control of diction, meaningful word choices.
- note control of imagery.
- note tone (usually most notable in word choices and imagery)
- note control of ethos.
- note control of pathos.
- note the connection between logos and ethos and/or pathos.
- note essay structure.
- note interesting or useful syntax (sentence structure) and related devices.
- how the author supports the thesis of the article/essay through all the techniques noted above. Identify the thesis.
- and, of course, understand the content.
- (Grade) A students will also read the introductory pieces in the anthology, and will look up at least a brief biography of the author.
Readings for AP Language and Comp.
Due on... (updated 3/5/19 )
New Handout/Annotation Questions linked below
Due on... (updated 3/5/19 )
New Handout/Annotation Questions linked below
