AP® English Language & Composition
Overview
Course Description
AP English Language & Composition prepares students for reading and writing at the college level. The first semester guides students through the writing process of a 200-level college course. Students then practice these techniques in a 5-7 page research paper. The second semester uses this deeper understanding of high-level writing to prepare students for the specific challenges AP English Language & Composition exam, culminating in a full practice AP exam. Assignments use a repeating 3-part cycle to support student success: instruction and information, application and practice, and feedback and fine-tuning. This cycle shows students how the instruction applies directly to their personal writing styles, strengths, and challenges.
Prerequisites
This is a rigorous, college-level course. To succeed, students should already have strong reading and writing skills. We recommend that students complete at least one advanced high school English course before enrolling. Please visit the College Board page about AP English Language & Composition for more information about the material and skills students will study in the course and will need to master for the AP exam in this subject.
Students Will Learn
- How reading and writing contribute to an informed biblical worldview
- How to use advanced vocabulary, grammar, and structures
- How to communicate effectively to diverse academic audiences
- How to accurately infer an author’s purpose and test the assumed values of written messages
- How to understand, research, and respond to college-level written assignments using argument, rhetorical analysis, and synthesis
- How to succeed on the AP English Language & Composition exam and other standardized exams requiring academic essays
Sample Live Class
Live Class Sections
AP English Language & Composition is a yearlong course. Registration opens in late February.
What to Expect Weekly
We estimate that the course workload will take 10+ hours per week. During a typical week in this course, students will complete the following:
- 90 minutes of live class instruction
- 5–10 minutes of video or audio lecture
- 1–2 short writing assignments, which may include half-page or one-page essays, paragraph rewrites, timed essay writing, essay analysis quizzes, or discussion forum posts
- 30–40 pages of textbook reading
- 10 pages of nonfiction selections for reading comprehension and analysis
- 1 vocabulary quiz
Course Materials
The Elements of Style, 4th edition
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Go Figure!: An Introduction to Figures of Speech in the Bible
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Description
This book offers a well-researched and expertly expressed introduction to figures of speech by examining examples from both popular culture and the Bible.
Reason For Teaching
A well-informed understanding of figurative speech results in readers who recognize what points to pay special attention to while analyzing literature. It also equips writers to begin using figurative language to strengthen the clarity, depth, and appeal of their own work. Readers will additionally learn the technical terms needed to express rhetorical analysis with clarity and intellectual power.
How to Read a Book
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Description
This book serves as a clear and accessible manual to higher levels of active, analytical, critical reading. The author, Mortimer Adler, dedicated his life to making meaningful literature accessible to the regular reader. In this book, he leads readers thoughtfully into the highest level of reading—syntopical reading—the level demanded by skilled writers of synthesis essays
Reason For Teaching
Good writers are good readers; great writers are demanding readers, and this book teaches demanding reading skills.
Roget’s Thesaurus of Words for Students: Helpful, Descriptive, Precise, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Related Terms Every High School and College Student Should Know How to Use
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Description
This book breathes applicable relevance into vocabulary study. All advanced writers recognize the value of the illusive, but most well-fitted word. Writers starting on academic consideration of diction will learn to increase their power by replacing common, lack-luster words such as “push-over” with more precise, formal language such as “pliable.” This switch helps student writers to be taken more seriously by demanding and critical academic readers. Advanced writers ready for more subtle consideration of diction can go deeper by reflecting on the connotated inflection each word carries into its literal meaning; for example, a successful student is better described as “amenable” than “complaisant” since “complaisant” may imply a sense of apathy.
Reason For Teaching
This thesaurus is designed to meet student writers where they are in this life-long quest for greater eloquence, making it easier to find academic words by their common meaning, easier to compare related words in order to decide which is best, and easier to understand how to properly use each word (every word ends with an example of its use). Roget’s Thesaurus of Words for Students pushes past mere memorization into ever-expanding eloquence.
Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers: 5th Edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
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Description
This book introduces students to the steps of writing college papers, especially research papers, and provides instruction in finding and citing sources—necessary skills to avoid plagiarism and submit high-quality, well supported writing in the proper format. Written by Kate Turabian, who is credited for setting the highest standards in formatting, this format is still used by preeminent American universities. Kate Turabian revised Chicago Style to better accommodate the needs of student writers, and her book demystifies the process of research writing. Contributors to the Fourth Edition revisions added sections which specifically address the needs of online researchers.
Reason For Teaching
Students of Turabian’s work will be well-prepared to succeed in the rigors of college writing formatting and citations—presenting polished papers.
The Critical Reader: AP® English Language and Composition Edition
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Description
This book is the best of its kind. After decades of private tutoring in Boston and New York, Erica L. Meltzer was inspired to write her first test prep book in 2007, when her search for SAT practice material proved disappointing. Since then, she has authored several prep books for a variety of standardized tests. After years of her own searching, Mrs. Barbosa (the course creator of AP Eng. Lang.) deemed this text to be the most comprehensive and—more importantly—most accurate on the market.
Reason For Teaching
While other books offer much helpful advice and instruction, this text offers detailed instruction in an organizational manner that equips students to identify and understand the patterns of AP language question style, and additionally includes an extensive list of resources. Meltzer’s text leads to increased confidence on exam day.
The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to be an Educated Human Being
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Description
This book ushers readers into the rich legacy of the western liberal arts education. Historian Richard Gamble strategically selected each excerpt to draw students into conversation on the innate value of genuine education—a conversation with history’s most influential minds as well as more modern thinkers in the classical tradition of western thought.
Reason For Teaching
From Greek philosophers (such as Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle) to modern writers (such as Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, and Eric Voegelin), readings engage students in the Great Tradition of western educational philosophy. The readings also serve as inspirational examples of how to powerfully communicate worthy ideas, allowing student writers to learn from the masters, and grow in eloquence and understanding through their interactions with timeless writings and ideas.
The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing
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Description
This book provides students clear guidelines on how to control the elements of writing and achieve a formal, academic tone.
Reason For Teaching
Thomas S. Kane guides student writers, step-by-step through the rigorous journey to college-level analytical academic writing, with the depth only such a seasoned and knowledgeable guide could offer. The next best thing to one-on-one mentorship, Kane’s guide models and explains the goal of his book: the elevated use of language.
Master Teacher
Kristen Slone earned her undergraduate degree in secondary English education at Ball State University and her graduate degree in curriculum and instruction at Indiana Wesleyan University. She taught all levels of public high school English/Language Arts for tw... View full bio »
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