Language & Composition

Welcome to AP Language and Composition!

Below, you will find some basic information about the course and your summer assignment.

About the Course

AP Language and Composition is a course about rhetoric. We will be taking a deep dive into the nuances of language use and engaging with a variety of nonfiction texts in the process. The course is centered around these key concepts:

- - - Rhetorical Situation: Individuals write within a particular situation and make strategic writing choices based on that situation.
    - Claims and Evidence: Writers make claims about subjects, rely on evidence that supports the reasoning that justifies the claim, and often acknowledge or respond to other, possibly opposing, arguments.
    - Reasoning and Organization: Writers guide understanding of a text’s lines of reasoning and claims through that text’s organization and integration of evidence.
    - Style: The rhetorical situation informs the strategic stylistic choices that writers make.

In short, you will work this year to become more savvy interpreters of nonfiction texts (essays, news articles, literary nonfiction, etc.), while refining your ability to produce nonfiction texts of your own.

The REQUIRED Summer Assignment

Over the summer, you are asked to read a work of nonfiction. In the first weeks of school, we will be discussing and writing about the book you read over the summer.

Read: Please read The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green. You are welcome to read a physical copy or read the e-book.
Respond (Annotate/Journal): As you read, please annotate (make notes in the book) or keep a journal of your reading that includes your observations, questions, reactions, connections to the text. You will be sharing this with your peers and your teacher, so make sure to bring your annotated book or journal.

From Booklist: "Green takes a pause from his popular YA fiction to delve into a range of quirky topics in his review of the Anthropocene (the current geologic era)...He’s researched backstories on each entry—including three essays only available to audiobook listeners—and devised a five-star rating for each randomly chosen topic."

“I also wanted to articulate some of the ways I’ve worked my way back toward hope over the last few years. I think hope is the correct response to consciousness.” (John Green in the NY Times)

John Green reads the first chapter of The Anthropocene Reviewed.

The SUGGESTED Summer Assignments

Keep up with the news: There is a lot going on in the world, and being well informed will help you be a strong AP Lang student. Maybe pick a news app check the headlines as part of your daily routine. I prefer the New York Times, but you can pick whatever works best for you.
Write: You can write by hand, type, journal, email, post, just make sure that you are regularly trying to put your thoughts into words. Any style or genre of writing is welcome!
Read another book (or several books!): In addition to what has been assigned, you can read fiction or nonfiction. While the course is nonfiction focused, reading a book builds stamina, and nonfiction writers use many of the same writing tools as fiction writers. Goodreads.com is a website with lots of lists to get you started.

--A Little About Me--

My name is Meg Griswold, and this will be my first year at ACS. I have taught English for 18 years in the United States and Brazil. In the US, I taught in New York City and then Nashville, Tennessee, in a variety of public, private and charter schools. This summer, my family and I are moving from São Paulo, Brazil, where we have lived for the last seven years as teachers at Graded, The American School of São Paulo. My husband is the new computer science teacher at ACS and we have three kids: Calvin (grade 8), Matilda (grade 6), and Everett (Grade 3).

When I'm not teaching, I can be found running, playing the mandolin, reading and writing. From blogging, to poetry, to novels, I love to write. I even own a typewriter, and you might catch me tapping away on that. As a reader, I love fantasy novels, historical fiction, non-fiction and poetry. I also enjoying receiving old fashioned magazines that I receive in the mail like The New Yorker and The Atlantic. I have also been voted the person most likely to start a sentence with "I read an article on the New York Times about..."

I have taught a variety of courses from middle school to high school, including AP and IB courses, but AP Lang and Comp stands out as a favorite, and I'm excited to be teaching it next year!

If you have questions or concerns before school starts, you can write to me at mgriswold@acsamman.edu.jo.

Have a Great Summer! See you in August!

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