AP English Language and Composition

Amount of time required outside of class per week – probably 1-2 hours on average. 30 minutes of Membean (vocabulary program), about an hour of independent reading, maybe some time completing work that wasn’t complete in class.

Typical assignments (all grades are summatives only):

• • Group Projects (documentary analysis, satire video)

  • Research Essay

  • Timed Writes (AP Prep)

  • Membean (vocabulary program)

  • Individual Projects (Columnist analysis, logical fallacies, rhetorical situation)

  • Independent Reading (self-evaluation)

Course Overview: 

From the College Board: “An AP English Language and Composition course cultivates the reading and writing skills that students need for college success and for intellectually responsible civic engagement. The course guides students in becoming curious, critical, and responsive readers of diverse texts and becoming flexible, reflective writers of texts addressed to diverse audiences for diverse purposes. The reading and writing students do in the course should deepen and expand their understanding of how written language functions rhetorically: to communicate writers’ intentions and elicit readers’ responses in particular situations” 

From a broader perspective, we will be analyzing non-fiction speeches, letters, essays, historical documents, and other forms for writing to ask and respond to the following essential question:

What is my role in societal discourse?

This course has two overarching goals:

1. To prepare students to become discerning citizens and informed voters, able to evaluate sources, engage in discourse, listen attentively, and argue authentically, and

2. To prepare students to perform to their best potential on the AP Exam in May. 

Specific Academic Goals:

1. Read independently across a variety of genres

2. Consume media and information critically by effectively and consistently discerning fact from opinion an analyzing a source’s credibility

3. Discuss civilly a range of topics in an effort to understand, not win

4. Improve vocabulary to enhance writing and facilitate reading

5. Write effectively to convey analysis and argument, supporting both with sound reasoning and evidence when appropriate

6. Employ grammar effectively and rhetorically

7. Prepare for the future via communication skills, critical thinking, and habits of mind and work

8. Practice self-reflection, self-evaluation, and metacognition. Students know and are able to articulate what they want and need to know, what they’ve learned, and how well they’ve learned it.

Course Content:   

AP English Language and Composition (AP English 3) is a mainly nonfiction course that “focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing, the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts, and the decisions writers make as they compose and revise. Students evaluate, synthesis, and cite research to support their arguments. Additionally, they read and analyze rhetorical elements and their effects in nonfiction texts—including images as forms of texts—from a range of disciplines and historical periods” (CED 7).

“The AP English Language and Composition course requires nonfiction readings (e.g., essays, journalism, political writing, science writing, nature writing, autobiographies/biographies, diaries, history, criticism) that give students opportunities to identify and explain an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques” (CED 85).

Examples of writers students may read: Jose Antonio Vargas, Cassie Chambers, J.D. Vance, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, Bryan Stevenson, Mark Twain, Kristin Hannah, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Barbara Kingsolver, Abdi Nor Iftin, Yaa Gyasi, Jeannette Walls, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tara Westover, various current and former political leaders, newspaper columnists, and other relevant purveyors of rhetoric.

Examples of types of discourse students may encounter: essays, speeches, memoirs, comics, art, podcasts, documentaries, novels, op-eds, social media posts, debates, advertisements.  

Please note this information from the College Board regarding course content: “Issues that might, from particular social, historical, or cultural viewpoints, be considered controversial, including references to ethnicities, nationalities, religions, races, dialects, gender, or class, may be addressed in texts that are appropriate for the AP English Language and Composition course. Fair representation of issues and peoples may occasionally include controversial material. Since AP students have chosen a program that directly involves them in college-level work, participation in this course depends on a level of maturity consistent with the age of high school students who have engaged in thoughtful analyses of a variety of texts. The best response to controversial language or ideas in a text might well be a question about the larger meaning, purpose, or overall effect of the language or idea in context. AP students should have the maturity, skill, and will to seek the larger meaning of a text or issue through thoughtful research” (CED 86). 

How can I be successful in AP Language & Composition? 

Students who have performed well in the past in this course have committed themselves to the process of high-level thinking, reading, analyzing, writing, and revising. They consistently seek and respond to feedback, collaborate appropriately with others, and turn in timely, high-quality work.

Grading Policy: 

AP English 3 is one of several advanced courses that is granted a waiver to the NISD Secondary Grading Guidelines in order to more authentically reflect college learning. By providing feedback that is more authentic to students through teacher/peer conferencing related to formative assessments, students will experience deeper conversations about learning, gain feedback from other students and teachers and scaffold their learning towards achieving mastery on summative assessments. 

The 2023-24 NISD Grading Guidelines provide direction to teachers/parents and students that formatives are required to receive 40 percent of the weighted grade while the summative receives a 60 percent weighted grade. In this course, the following adjustments have been made:

• Instead of providing a weight of 40 percent to the formative, the formative counts as a zero weight.  The summative category receives 100 percent of the weighted grade.

• Formative grades may be entered into the Home Access Center as the grade the student would have received during each of the nine-week grading periods.  However, the formative grade does not count for or against the student.  Rather, students receive multiple opportunities to learn using their formative grade as they progress towards achieving the summative grade.  Thus, the teacher/student interaction and the student taking responsibility to learn from the misunderstanding is critical to this process.

• Retakes: long-term projects are set up with formative checkpoints throughout the course of the project.  Students are encouraged to take advantage of teacher and peer feedback throughout the process prior to the deadline for the assignment.  Assignments that last longer than 5 school days will not be eligible for retakes. 

AP English and OnRamps English Comparison Chart 

Guidance for Pathway After Completing AP English Language