1 / 30

Introduction to Advanced Placement English Language and Composition

Introduction to Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. Eleventh Grade. Ms. Pryor. B.A. in English from Biola University (La Mirada, CA) Teaching Credential from CSUF Master’s Degree in English Lit from UCI (finishing thesis) 11 years’ teaching experience at WHS

duaa
Download Presentation

Introduction to Advanced Placement English Language and Composition

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Introduction toAdvanced Placement English Languageand Composition Eleventh Grade

  2. Ms. Pryor • B.A. in English from Biola University (La Mirada, CA) • Teaching Credential from CSUF • Master’s Degree in English Lit from UCI (finishing thesis) • 11 years’ teaching experience at WHS • Discipline Committee, WASC Leadership Team, Planeteers Club Advisor, PBIS • ( Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies)

  3. Important Information • Email: pryor_r@auhsd.us • TeacherWeb: www.teacherweb.com/CA/WesternHighSchool/Pryor • Western High School / Zanglewww.westernhs.org

  4. What is the AP Program? The Advanced Placement program was begun by the College Board in 1955 to construct standard achievement exams that would allow highly motivated students the opportunity to be awarded advanced placement as freshmen in colleges and universities in the United States. The course allows students to write in a variety of forms and on a variety of subjects. When students read, they will become aware of how stylistic effects are achieved by writers’ rhetorical choices.

  5. What does the AP stand for? • AP stands for Advanced Placement. • This class is a preparation for college. • Students may earn college credit if they demonstrate mastery of the skills we are practicing, skills which will be demanded in college.

  6. Why should a student take an AP course? • Did you know that currently, college students have a 33% chance of graduating in America? • The College Board hired a researcher to track how AP students do in college. AP students, regardless of AP exam score and after only taking one class, increase that chance to 85%. That is a huge difference! They gain just from the experience.

  7. Objective #1 • To learn about rhetoric and making deliberate rhetorical choices: the artful and articulate means of argumentation or persuasion

  8. Objective #2 • To learn the difference between persuasion (compelling to an action) and argumentation (compelling to a common understanding)

  9. Objective #3 • To appreciate the complexity of every rhetorical transaction – keep audience, purpose, and your own persona in mind – and approach each exchange with maturity.

  10. What are our goals? • To improve lifelong skills; • To develop lifelong learners; • To hone critical thinkers, analytical readers, and articulate writers; • To create post-high school opportunities; • And, as an added bonus, to earn college credit for AP work completed on a high school campus. But, the focus is the skills, not the test.

  11. But the test costs a lot! • True—$87 is a lot of money, especially when students might not pass. • BUT… • Remember that if students do pass, they may receive college credits.

  12. $?$?$? Cost $?$?$? • Most college courses are between 3 and 5 units.

  13. Whoa! • Yep. That’s $1360/unit. [That was last spring – it’s actually $1420/unit this fall!] • That’s over $4000 for a 3-unit class! [It’s actually over $4200.] • OK. • Well, but that’s USC. Private schools are always expensive. State schools are cheaper. • True…

  14. Better, but… • Yep. That factors out this way: • 12 units = $935/unit • 15 units = $748/unit • 18 units = $623/unit • So a 3-unit class is worth somewhere between $1869-2805! • (And most UCLA classes are 5 units, except for 1-unit seminars.)

  15. So… • …$87 is starting to look pretty good, isn’t it? • Yeah, but there’s always community college. (Gotcha there, Ms. Pryor!) • True…

  16. Hey, that’s cheaper! • Yep. It’s cheaper. A 3-unit course at Cypress costs $78. • But why should your students repeat a course they’ve already taken, if they are capable of demonstrating mastery of the skills they’ve learned?

  17. And don’t forget... • A number of our students qualify for fee waivers through the free/reduced lunch program. These can reduce the cost of AP exam fees dramatically.

  18. How is the AP Language exam organized? • The exam has two parts and is scheduled to last 3 hours and 15 minutes.  • The first section is a set of multiple-choice questions (usually between 45-55) based on a series of prose passages (usually 4). A student will have 1 hour to complete this part of the test.  • The second section of the exam is a 2-hour-and-15-minute essay writing segment consisting of three different essays.  The questions will not appear in any special order, except that the synthesis question comes first now. • In 2007, the extra 15 minutes was added to the essay portion to make time for additional reading for the synthesis essay.

  19. How is the exam scored?     The multiple-choice section counts for 45% of the total score, and the essay section counts for 55%. The raw score of the multiple-choice section and the raw scoring of the essay section are converted into the AP grade of 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1.(The formula varies based on the number of MC questions.)

  20. What are the 3 essays? • One is a rhetorical analysis. • Generally, students are presented with a prose passage that can be drawn from various genres and time periods.  Although the specific tasks asked of the students may vary from year to year, they almost always involve analysis of language, primarily rhetorical strategies. • Rhetorical strategies are the strategies a writer uses to persuade her audience.

  21. The Rhetorical Analysis Essay The College Board wants to determine a student’s facility with reading, understanding, and analyzing challenging texts.  They also want to assess how well he manipulates language to communicate the written analysis of a specific topic to a mature audience.  The College Board is looking for connections between analysis and the passage. How does an author use language and what is the effect? (Rhetoric is always about the how.)

  22. The Argument Essay • Students must be able to deconstruct someone else’s argument andconstruct an effective argument of their own. • In argument construction, a student must make a claim and then provide evidence to support it. The student is required to address and counter the other side.

  23. The Synthesis Essay • Synthesis: the blending or combining of often diverse concepts into a coherent whole (Merriam Webster) • In a synthesis essay, the student synthesizes at least four sources (between 4-7 sources are provided). Some come from magazines and others from newspapers. Some are cartoons or graphs or visuals. • A synthesis essay is really a miniature informational research paper. The student must take the different ideas from the sources and put the ideas together into a new, cohesive essay that informs the reader about a central subject. • This essay will test a student’s organizational skills, her understanding of other material, and ability to balance more than one source in an essay – all skills that are necessary for writing a successful research paper.

  24. How are they scored? The grading is done with a rubric.  A rubric is just a fancy, professional word that means the scoring guide for the essay.  Graders are trained to reward a student for things he does well.  They are aware of the time constraints of 40 minutes per essay. These readers do look forward to reading an interesting, insightful, and well-constructed essay.  The top score on the rubric is a 9. This is an impressive essay.  Next is an 8, 7, and 6.  These are top scores.  A 5 means that you understand the prompt but the essay is limited or uneven.  The scores of 4, 3, 2, and 1 are inadequate responses.  For a student to score well, he or she must analyze, interpret, argue cogently, and demonstrate stylistic maturity.

  25. AP makes high school English harder.

  26. Check Ms. Pryor’s website after or during an excused absence! Go to http://www.teacherweb.com/ CA/WesternHighSchool/Pryor, and click on AP Language Assignments or Docs/Downloads No late work (department policy) – final draft of essays, one day late only, 25% grade penalty (PASS may be an option) Keep all work – it’s your receipt for the grade earned (teachers can make mistakes) Ms. Pryor on campus before school, after school, during lunch for computer use (except after school Friday – recycling!) Quirks: No name = no credit Pens, not pencils Important Things to Know:

  27. Questions????

More Related