Courses 2023-2024
Welcome to AP English Language! This year-long advanced, interdisciplinary course revolves around an in-depth exploration of American culture and language regarding what your 11th-grade Magnet teachers are calling “The Story of America.” Our ultimate goal this year is to awaken an awareness of the complex cultural, historical, social, and political events that have guided the history of the United States and those who have told its story, from the early origins of our democracy to the current political movements spurred by social media. We hope to show you the United States in a broader, global context, examining the ways in which our country has been altered, and how it has transformed other countries through the transcontinental flow of peoples, ideologies, and institutional power across its borders.
Our journey in AP English Language is divided into thematic units, and each unit is designed to make you skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts, and adept writers who compose for a variety of purposes. A majority of the course is devoted to the study of argument and persuasion. Our goal throughout the year will be to understand how messages are conveyed and how arguments are structured. Because most media is at some level rhetorical, it is important to recognize how our view of the world is being shaped by what we read, view, or hear. It is also important that as writers we understand how best to communicate our own point of view in a way that others will find reasonable, even if they do not agree. This course will take us through nonfiction and fictional works alike, but rest assured that no matter what the text, you will be challenged to examine language in a new and exciting way!
Speech / Honors American Literature and Composition
[1] Adapted from the AP Seminar Course Description published by the College Board (2020) and the amazing Mr. Cecil