Welcome to AP English Language and Composition! This is the inaugural year of the course with me as its instructor, so I’m really looking forward to learning with you this year and leading you to success on the AP Language Exam.
Don’t fret; I do have prior AP experience. I taught the AP English Literature and Composition course here at Cazenovia High School for about seven years, so I’m very familiar with the make-up of the AP English test and with the demands of the AP coursework. I can promise you a stimulating and enriching year. I’m so excited to get started!
First off, a word about Google Classroom. I currently rely on it heavily with the English 12 classes, and I love the way it works. So join our AP English Literature and Composition page on Google Classroom ASAP. (Go to “Classroom” and, once you see our class, click on “Join.”) You’ll need access to this for some of your summer work.
And, speaking of summer work, (drumroll, please)...here it is! Procure a copy, as soon as possible, of Jay Heinrichs’ excellent book Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion (3rd edition). I’ve asked the local libraries to try to get some copies in stock, and our local persuasion maven, Mr. Wightman, is also in the process of procuring some copies. It’s also available on Amazon.com for $11.55 (last time I checked) with some used copies for as low as around $8.00 (just make sure that you buy the 3rd edition).
Read the first 13 chapters over the summer, and expect to be held accountable for showing what you’ve learned from them when you return in the fall. (Buying a copy of your own will allow you to highlight interesting tidbits from each chapter.)
That’s Part I of your assignment. Part II is this: I’m asking that, at least three times this summer, you submit an entry to the New York Times Summer Reading Contest. See the link below for details:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/learning/the-ninth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest.html
Read the page completely for information on what your pieces should look like.
In addition to submitting your commentaries to the contest, you need to share them with me. So create them on a Googledoc and share the docs with me. These will be your first three grades for Quarter One.
Note that the contest ends on August 24th, so you need to upload your entries by then (earlier in the summer would be optimal). Note, too, that previous winners’ essays are posted on the page above if you’re looking for some guidance about what--or how--to write.
This document will also be posted on Google Classroom in case you misplace this one and so that you can more easily access the NY Times link above.
When you arrive for class in the fall, you’ll need to have a folder in which to keep handouts and a three-subject notebook for note-taking. You’ll need a couple of favorite writing implements, pen or pencil (just make sure that you’re not writing in a color that’s too light for me to see--my eyes are forty-seven years old). And some highlighters and a red pen or two are required, too.
That’s it! I hope that your summer is a fun, restful, and productive one. Can’t wait to meet you all in the fall.
Mrs. Everard
Don’t fret; I do have prior AP experience. I taught the AP English Literature and Composition course here at Cazenovia High School for about seven years, so I’m very familiar with the make-up of the AP English test and with the demands of the AP coursework. I can promise you a stimulating and enriching year. I’m so excited to get started!
First off, a word about Google Classroom. I currently rely on it heavily with the English 12 classes, and I love the way it works. So join our AP English Literature and Composition page on Google Classroom ASAP. (Go to “Classroom” and, once you see our class, click on “Join.”) You’ll need access to this for some of your summer work.
And, speaking of summer work, (drumroll, please)...here it is! Procure a copy, as soon as possible, of Jay Heinrichs’ excellent book Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion (3rd edition). I’ve asked the local libraries to try to get some copies in stock, and our local persuasion maven, Mr. Wightman, is also in the process of procuring some copies. It’s also available on Amazon.com for $11.55 (last time I checked) with some used copies for as low as around $8.00 (just make sure that you buy the 3rd edition).
Read the first 13 chapters over the summer, and expect to be held accountable for showing what you’ve learned from them when you return in the fall. (Buying a copy of your own will allow you to highlight interesting tidbits from each chapter.)
That’s Part I of your assignment. Part II is this: I’m asking that, at least three times this summer, you submit an entry to the New York Times Summer Reading Contest. See the link below for details:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/learning/the-ninth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest.html
Read the page completely for information on what your pieces should look like.
In addition to submitting your commentaries to the contest, you need to share them with me. So create them on a Googledoc and share the docs with me. These will be your first three grades for Quarter One.
Note that the contest ends on August 24th, so you need to upload your entries by then (earlier in the summer would be optimal). Note, too, that previous winners’ essays are posted on the page above if you’re looking for some guidance about what--or how--to write.
This document will also be posted on Google Classroom in case you misplace this one and so that you can more easily access the NY Times link above.
When you arrive for class in the fall, you’ll need to have a folder in which to keep handouts and a three-subject notebook for note-taking. You’ll need a couple of favorite writing implements, pen or pencil (just make sure that you’re not writing in a color that’s too light for me to see--my eyes are forty-seven years old). And some highlighters and a red pen or two are required, too.
That’s it! I hope that your summer is a fun, restful, and productive one. Can’t wait to meet you all in the fall.
Mrs. Everard
