AP English Language and Composition Summer Requirements

Instructor: Ashley StapletonContact Email: ashley_stapleton@ecboe.org

Welcome to AP Language and Composition! As a part of this course, you are required to read and complete these assignments over the summer. These assignments are due on the first day of school. Any questions concerning these summer requirements should be emailed to Mrs. Stapleton.

Assignment #1: Current Events In order to begin creating a foundation of examples and ideas to support the global arguments you will be asked to make during the year, you will need to read reputable newspaper or magazine articles. Read six newspaper articles from The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Time, Newsweek, or others of similar quality. You may also access local and national newspapers for articles as well. You are required to complete a total of six articles. The dates of the articles must be spread out over the course of the summer. You may not derive all of your articles from within one week. Choose articles that relate to current, global, national, and local events equally. (Sports articles do not count.) You should not have the exact same articles as your peers.

*** Print out and bring to class each article along with the following citation and requirements:

- Author. Title of Article. Newspaper Name. Date: page number. Type (Print or Web).

- Main point of the article

- SOAPSTone

- Your response to the article

Below is an example of an article regarding the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf and an explanation of SOAPSTone.

Begley, Sharon. How Quickly We Forget. Newsweek. 7 May 2010: NP. Web.

Main Point: The author cites previous oil spills like the Exxon Valdez near Alaska in 1989, but notes that after a period of public outrage, the majority goes back to living normally without many changes. Previous public apathy is shown by the quick return to normalcy after pandemic warnings about rising oil prices, avian, and swine flu.

SUBJECT: Oil spills and their effects on the economy

OCCASION: The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

AUDIENCE: The American public

SPEAKER: Environmentalist author who seeks to bring awareness and accurate reporting of this crisis

TONE: Indignantly pessimistic: Oil spills have become far too common; American citizens have been desensitized to the risks of energy production.

My Response: I agree that oil spills and other natural disasters draw public attentions and sympathy for a period of time, but that public attention is quickly drawn to the next sensational story without much real action.

Who is theSpeaker? The voice that tells the story. Whether this voice belongs to a fictional character or to the writers themselves, students should determine how to insert and develop those attributes of the speaker that will influence the perceived meaning of the piece.What is theOccasion? The time and the place of the piece; the context that prompted the writing. Writing does not occur in a vacuum. All writers are influenced by thelarger occasion: an environment of ideas, attitudes, and emotions that swirl around a broad issue. Then there is theimmediate occasion: an event or situation that catches the writer's attention and triggers a response.Who is theAudience? The group of readers to whom this piece is directed.Students must determine who the audience is that they intend to address. It may be one person or a specific group. This choice of audience will affect how and why students write a particular text.What is thePurpose? The reason behind the text.Students need to consider the purpose of the text in order to develop the thesis or the argument and its logic. They should ask themselves, "What do I want my audience to think or do as a result of reading my text?"What is theSubject? Students should be able to state the subject in a few words or phrases. This step helps them to focus on the intended task throughout the writing process.What is theTone? The attitude of the author.The spoken word can convey the speaker's attitude and thus help to impart meaning through tone of voice. With the written word, it is tone that extends meaning beyond the literal, and students must learn to convey this tone in their diction (choice of words), syntax (sentence construction), and imagery (metaphors, similes, and other types of figurative language). The ability to manage tone is one of the best indicators of a sophisticated writer

Assignment # 2: Rhetorical Terms Glossary

For the 49 following terms, make flashcards that have the word on one side and the definition on the other side. You will need to purchase the 4 X 6 size of cards. (Please do not write on the blank note cards; make sure they are lined.) Leave room to add examples to your cards as the year progresses.

DictionMotifRhetorical QuestionMetonymyAnadiplosis

ImageryAllusionFigurative LanguageAnaphoraChiasmus

PathosEthosAllusion LogosOxymoron

AntistropheConceitColloquialismSynecdocheArchetype

ConnotationAnalogyPersonificationParadoxAnathema

AllegorySyntaxDenotationAntithesisAsyndeton

JuxtapositionThemePolysyndeton ParallelismAntecedent

SyllogismClauseGeneric ConventionsAphorismDidactic

EuphemismHomilyZeugmaLitotesAssonance

MalapropismHubrisInductive ReasoningDeductive Reasoning

Assignment # 3: Literature & Analysis- Text: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Objective: #1: Students should perform a close reading with annotations of the novel. An explanation of annotating a text appears at the bottom of this page.

Objective #2: Complete a Literary Data sheet. A downloadable format will be available on the schools website on my class page under AP Language. Please download and print your own copy, complete it, and turn it in by the first day of school.

The summer months are a valuable beginning to this AP course. Therefore, it is highly encouraged that students read the book in an unabridged edition. *Note that reading abridged editions or other supplements such as Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, etc. does not complete this assignment. As far as grading is concerned, when you return on the first day, I will check your completion of the Rhetorical Terms Glossary and the news articles. The news articles will be graded according to the requirements listed in the directions as well as your effort and response to it. You will be asked to discuss with the class one of your six articles. The Literary Data Sheet on the novel will be graded for content and completion as well. You will be tested on the novel within the second week of school. I am fully aware that the novel can be easily obtained online and that you could complete the Literary Data Sheet without actually reading the book; however, you will be given an AP essay prompt on the novel when you return that will be impossible to complete with accuracy unless you have actually read the text. Please do not attempt to write an AP essay on a book you havent read. It will not go well.

Novel Preview: The Great Gatsby is set in the Roaring Twenties which was also called The Jazz Age. The Jazz Age is a term used to designate the period of the 1920s in the U.S. At that time the apparent emotional abandon of jazz seemed best to express the spirit of determined unconventionality, gaiety, and dissipation of the American boom era that followed World War I. Such dances as the Black Bottom and Charleston went hand in hand with speakeasies, parties, the bobbed haircut, short skirts, and the new freedom of behavior of the flapper. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the first to use this term by titling one of his works Tales from the Jazz Age (1922). The people of this time period were called the lost generation. The lost generation is a term used to refer to the generation of men and women who came to maturity during World War I (1914-1918); specifically, it refers to their experiences in their rootlessness and disillusionment. Gertrude Stein is said to have coined the term in a conversation with Ernest Hemingway, whose early novels are considered to typify the attitudes and behavior of the lost generation. Note: As most of you know, there is a recent movie version of The Great Gatsby. Please know that movies never follow the same format as the text, so please dont think that watching the movie is the same as reading the novel.

How to Annotate:

*Circle phrases you find intriguing, meaningful, symbolic, etc.*Connect important ideas with brackets

*Note shifts in pronoun usage, point of view*Dont rely on your memory- annotate!

*Circle/Highlight words the author uses for their connotative meanings*Circle/highlight words to be defined

*Underline sentences that stand out, develop an argument, or propose questions