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AP English Language and Composition 11th and 12th Grades Instructor:  Cara Cassell, Ph.D. ccassell@csdecatur.net 404-370-4420, vm 206   The English department’s missionis to support and empower students with the skills, knowledge, and values necessary to meet the literacy challenges of the future. This rigorous, fast-paced course is designed to teach students the knowledge and skills of the first year of college English and to help students demonstrate those skills on the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam that is given in May.  The AP English Language and Composition Exam tests reading and writing abilities that students finishing their first year of college are expected to have, especially close reading skills and writing skills of analysis, argument, and synthesis.  During the semester, students find and refine their writing style; they are encouraged to develop their unique voices in their writing.  Students will… analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience write for a variety of purposes produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources, cogent explanations, and clear transitions demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary sources move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review write thoughtfully about their own process of composition revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience analyze image as text evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers Students who perform successfully on the AP Language and Composition exam will often be allowed to exempt at least one semester of freshman composition in college. To find out about the policies of specific colleges, visit http://apps.collegeboard.com/apcreditpolicy/index.jsp.Major Content Areas of a Syllabus

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