AP Language & Composition Syllabus
AP Language & Composition Syllabus
AP Language & Composition Syllabus
2025-2026
brungardtm@sfusd.edu
Mr. Brungardt’s Office Hours
Before School - by appt.
Lunch - by appt.
After School - by appt.
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CELL PHONES, HEADPHONES, AND EARBUDS - SCHOOL POLICY
When you enter the classroom, you MUST put your cell phones and earbuds in your assigned pocket in the back of the room. I will take attendance based on these pockets.
You cannot use cell phones, headphones, earbuds, or Apple watches in this classroom.
If I see your cell phone, headphones, or earbuds, I will confiscate them and put them in your assigned pocket at the back of the room. If you refuse to give them up, then I will send you to the dean’s office.
Parents/Guardians will not be able to reach you on your phone during class time. They can call the school and leave a message for you at the main office.
TEXTBOOKS
Your Chromebook is your main textbook for this class. You MUST bring it every day, and you need to have the battery charged. You will use the Chromebook daily in this class. When we are not using it, you will be directed to push your screen down so that you can pay attention to what else is going on in the room. YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO USE YOUR PHONE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR YOUR CHROMEBOOK.
GRADING POLICY
Formative Assessments: 40% This includes daily work, homework, outlines, etc.
Summative Assessments: 60 % This includes tests, final papers, final projects, presentations.
ABSENCE POLICY
It is the responsibility of the student to follow up with their teacher regarding classwork, homework, or any other assignments missed during their absence.
GWHS BRING YOUR OWN TECHNOLOGY (BYOT) GUIDELINES
Students may not use devices to record, transmit, or post photographic images or video of a person or persons on campus during school hours or during school activities, unless otherwise allowed by a teacher.
LOST, DAMAGED, OR STOLEN DEVICES
Each user is responsible for their own device and should use it responsibly and appropriately. George Washington High School takes no responsibility for stolen, lost, or damaged devices, including lost or corrupted data on those devices. Students are expected to acknowledge and take the final responsibility for securing their personal devices.
ACADEMIC HONESTY- GWHS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT’S OFFICIAL POLICY
“All students are expected to complete their own academic assignments and examinations. Any type of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to cheating, plagiarism, submitting work done by another as your own, or using unauthorized technology (such as AI and other text-generating resources) is prohibited. A student violating the academic honesty policy is subject to disciplinary action which can include, but is not limited to, point deduction or zero points on the assignment; lowered grade; detention; Saturday school; teacher may decline to write a letter of recommendation or report dishonesty in a letter, or rescind a recommendation letter already submitted.”
MAKEUP WORK/LATE WORK/TEST RETAKES
Latework - If you are going to turn in something late (within two school days of the due date), then you need to fill out the latework form and give it to Mr. Brungardt. There will be a 30% automatic deduction on all latework. After two school days, the assignment will no longer be accepted.
Retakes - You have two school days in order to retake a test. There will be a 30% automatic deduction on all retakes. After two school days, you can no longer retake the test.
If you have an EXCUSED absence, then you need to talk to Mr. Brungardt as soon as possible to discuss the missed work and when it will be due.
GUIDELINES
Be respectful towards others and self.
Use put ups, not put downs.
Listen to others.
Do not use any racist or prejudiced language or graphics.
Follow directions.
HALL PASSES: If you leave the classroom, you need to have a pass in your hand. The passes are located on the back whiteboard. Please, quickly return to class so that other waiting students can use the passes.
CONSEQUENCES
Appropriate behavior
You earn the respect of others.
The teacher could contact your parents/guardians.
You earn an education.
Inappropriate behavior
You will talk with the teacher after class or during lunch.
Depending on the time missed, you may be required to spend time after class.
The teacher could contact your parents/guardians.
Depending on the offense, you may be referred to the dean’s office.
CURRICULUM
Note: Depending on the availability of some of the literature below, we may not get access to them. Where necessary, I will insert additional grade appropriate resources.
Unit One: The Power of Perspective
Speeches:
George Bush’s 9/11 Address to the Nation
Malala Yousafzai’s Speech to the United Nations on Education
Letters and Op-Eds:
Grouch Marx’s “Letter to the Warner Brothers”
Essays and Book Excerpts:
“Home at Last,” by Dinaw Mengestu
“Health and Happiness,” by Robert Putnam
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Biography/Autobiography
“My First Lifeline,” by Maya Angelou from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Exerpts from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley & Malcolm X
Science and Technology - Current Events
Visuals - Photo Essays about Communities
Unit Two: The Power of Evidence
Speeches:
“The Speech of Miss Polly Baker,” by Benjamin Franklin
“Ain’t I A woman?” by Sojourner Truth
Letters and Op-Eds:
Letters of John and Abigail Adams
Current Op-Eds.
Essay and Book/Play Excerpts:
“Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Fact and Fiction,” by Margo Burns
“Guys vs. Men,” by David Barry
“Vindication of the Rights of Women,” by Mary Wollstonecraft
“Declaration of Sentiments,” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
Biography/Autobiography
“Joseph McCarthy” - U.S. History.com
Science and Technology
Articles by Martin Salazar, reporting on the Wenatchee Witch Hunts of 1955
“What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?” by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks
History of Massachusetts.org
Visuals:
Photographs from the Salem Witch Trials archive
Unit Three: The Power of Controversy
Speeches:
Fireside Chat # 4 “On Economic Progress,” October 22, 1933, by President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
Letters and Op-Eds:
“Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Cries for Help from Depression Youth,” by Robert Cohen
Essays, Poems, and Book Excerpts:
“The Case for Working With Your Hands,” by Matthew B. Crawford
“Stuff is Not Salvation,” by Anna Quindlen
“Blue-Collar Brilliance,” by Mike Rose
“To Be of Use,” poem by Marge Piercy
Biography/Autobiography
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, by Jose Antonio Vargas
Science and Technology:
Current Events
Visuals:
“Chancellor Sequeir at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660,” by Charles LeBrun
“The Chancellor Sequier on Horseback,” by Kehinde Wiley
“Forbes Price Index of Luxury Goods Keeps Pace With Inflation,” by Scott DeCarlo
Unit Four: The Power of Nature
Speeches:
“Mind-Blowing, Magnified Portraits of Insects,” by Levon Bliss (TED Talk)
Letters and Op-Eds:
“Why Even a Little Nature Is Good for Your Brain,” by Alex Hutchinson
Essays and Book Excerpts:
From Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Illusions by Ralph Waldo Emerson
From The End of Nature by Bill McKibben
“The Serpents of Paradise,” from Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Biography/Autobiography
From Walden “Where I Lived and What I Lived for,” by Henry David Thoreau
Science and Technology
Excerpts from I Contain Multitudes, by Ed Yong
Visuals:
From Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, by Peter Menzel
Unit Five: The Power of Influence
Speeches:
First Inaugural Speech - John F. Kennedy
First Inaugural Speech - Ronald Reagan
“Is the World Getting Better or Worse? A Look at the Numbers,” by Steven Pinker (TED Talk)
Letters and Op-Eds:
Business ethics op-eds from The New York Times
“Evil Thrives When Good People Remain Silent,” by Prince Chinedu Obi
Essays and Book/Play Excerpts:
From The Empire Fights Back, by Chinua Achebe
“The Insane Root that Takes the Reason Prisoner: Macbeth, Boston and the Two
Paradoxes of Evil,” by Rod Rosenbaum
“Is Greed Ever Good? The Psychology of Selfishness,” by Stephen A. Diamond
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare
Science and Technology:
“How Evil is Tech?” By David Brooks
Visuals:
Critiquing current news related photos
Unit Six: The Power of Education
Speeches:
“A Talk to Teachers,” by James Baldwin
Letters and Op-Eds:
“Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” by Leon Botstein
Essays and Book Excerpts:
From Education by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“School,” by Kyoko Mori
“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” by David Sedaris
“Best in Class,” by Margaret Talbot
From “Shanghai Schools’ Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests,” by David Barboza
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read,” by Francine Prose
Science and Technology:
“Does Technology in the Classroom Help or Harm Students?” by Seth J. Gillihan
Visuals:
“The Spirit of Education,” painting by Norman Rockwell
“What I learned,” cartoon by Roz Chast
Unit Seven: The Power of the Written Word
Speeches:
“How I used Dungeons and Dragons to Teach Ethics,” by Christopher Robichaux (TED Talk)
“How Language Shapes the Way We Think,” by Lera Boroditsky (TED Talk)
Letters and Op-Eds:
“What Students Know that Experts Don’t: School Is All About Signaling, Not Skill-Building,” by Bryan
Caplan
Essays, Poems, and Book Excerpts:
“An Innocent at Rinkside,” by William Faulkner
“Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and the Billionaire Challenge,” by the Christian Faith Monitor Editorial Board
“Slang in America,” by Walt Whitman
“For Mohammad Zeid of Gaza, Age 15” and “Why I could Not Accept Your Invitation,” by Naomi Shihab
Nye (poems)
Biography/Autobiography:
“Learning to Read,” from The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
“Learning to Read and Write,” from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Doublass
Science and Technology:
“Use It or Lose It: Why Language Changes Over Time,” by Nikhil Swaminathan
Visuals:
Cartoon from World Economic Forum, by Zapiro
Unit Eight: The Power of Beauty
Speeches:
“The New American Dream,” by Courtney E. Martin (TED Talk)
“Gatsby’s American Dream: Reading “The Great Gatsby Critically, Chapter 1,” by John Green
(YouTube)
Letters and Op-Eds:
Letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Willa Cather and Cather’s answer
“My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” by Chuck Klosterman
Essays and Book Excerpts:
“An Image a Little Too Carefully Coordinated,” by Robin Givhan
“High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies,” by David Denby
“Hogarth” from English Humorists of the 18th Century, by William Makepeace Thackery
“The Great Gatsby; “To -,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (poem)
Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing, by Hephzibah Roskelly and David A. Jolliffe
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Biography/Autobiography
“A Miserable Merry Christmas” from Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, by Lincoln Steffens
Science and Technology:
“Learning Through Visuals: Visual Imagery in the Classroom,” by Haig Kouyoumdjian
Visuals:
“Finding the Story Inside the Painting,” by Tracy Chevalier (TED Talk)
Cartoon: From Show and Tell, by Scott McCloud
Hogarth’s paintings “Marriage a la Mode: The Marriage Contract” and "Marriage a la Mode: The
Toilette”
Unit Nine: The Power of Winning
Speeches:
Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech
Letters and Op-Eds:
“Paying Students to Play Would Ruin College Sports,” by Cody J. McDavis
Essays, Poems, and Book excerpts:
“Barbaro,” by Jane Smiley
“The Silent Seasons of a Hero,” by Gay Talese
“The Four Horsemen,” by Grantland Rice
“Ex-Baseball Player,” by John Updike (poem)
Biography/Autobiography:
From How I learned to Ride the Bicycle, by Frances Willard
Science and Technology:
“Can Science Solve Football’s Concussion Crisis?” by Ryan Blasen
“What Happens to the Brain During a Concussion?” by Richard Smayda
Visuals:
“The 12th Player in Every Football Game,” cartoon, 1897 New York World
“Yes!” 1999 Sports Illustrated
Additional Resources/Readings:
“No News from Auschwitz,” by A.M. Rosenthal
“Danger of a Single Story” - TEDtalk
“On Child Labor,” by Florence Kelley
Margaret Thatcher’s “Eulogy for Ronald Reagan”
Barack Obama’s “Eulogy for Clementa Pinckney” & Rosa Park’s Statue Speech
Cesar Chavez’s Speeches
“Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan
“Article of the Week,” by Kelly Gallagher
“A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift
Etc. (Additional poems, short stories, excerpts from novels, novels, articles, op-eds)