Has anyone here developed their own AP English Language course?

[EKS]

Has anyone here developed their own AP English Language course?  If so, how did it go? 

Was getting the syllabus approved an arduous process? 

What went well during the year?  What would you do differently? 

Basically, I'm looking for any advice or thoughts you may have. 

Thanks!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Are you specifically looking for English LANGUAGE? I did a home brewed AP  English LITERATURE syllabus.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I'm all ears (and missing that emoji). I am working on one now.

[Momto6inIN]

I didn't get a syllabus approved but he took the exam and scored a 4.

We came up with a reading list and worked through the IEW book called something like "Succeeding on the AP Language Exam" as well as a test prep book, can't remember if it was Barron's or Princeton Review.

The writing itself wasn't hard, he already knew how to write a decent essay, but churning out 3 good essays in a time limit was a real challenge for DS.

[Jilly]

I had a syllabus approved last fall. It took me a while to actually get it written but once submitted it was approved. I remember it wasn't approved immediately (unlike my Human Geography syllabus) but I think that had more to do with the time of year I submitted it than anything else.  

[EKS]

On 4/23/2018 at 8:59 AM, Sebastian (a lady) said:

Are you specifically looking for English LANGUAGE? I did a home brewed AP  English LITERATURE syllabus.

 

9 hours ago, Momto5inIN said:

I didn't get a syllabus approved but he took the exam and scored a 4.

We came up with a reading list and worked through the IEW book called something like "Succeeding on the AP Language Exam" as well as a test prep book, can't remember if it was Barron's or Princeton Review.

The writing itself wasn't hard, he already knew how to write a decent essay, but churning out 3 good essays in a time limit was a real challenge for DS.

 

5 hours ago, Jilly said:

I had a syllabus approved last fall. It took me a while to actually get it written but once submitted it was approved. I remember it wasn't approved immediately (unlike my Human Geography syllabus) but I think that had more to do with the time of year I submitted it than anything else.  

Could you all tell me how much (approximately) reading and writing you assigned over the course of the year?  

[Momto6inIN]

41 minutes ago, EKS said:

 

 

Could you all tell me how much (approximately) reading and writing you assigned over the course of the year?  

He spent about 2 hours/day 4-5 days/week. One hour of that was reading from the reading list. The other hour was working through the IEW book and the test prep book. I think he started off learning how to write each specific type of essay, which was about one essay every week or so, then slowly built up to where he could write 3 good ones in 2.25 hours for the exam.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

2 hours ago, EKS said:

 

 

Could you all tell me how much (approximately) reading and writing you assigned over the course of the year?  

 

Mine was already an avid reader and very proficient essay writer. So we actually spent very little time on written output. 

I did have him read several novels in genres or from authors who were new to him.  He also read both the Perrine books (short stories and poetry).  I made him tell me what he thought the themes and rhetorical approaches in the works read were.

When I was thinking through doing the English Language course, I collected a long list of essays and speeches I wanted him to read for the course.

FWIW, we found that after doing Latin with Lukeion (through AP) and the Muse Greek and Roman literature courses from Lukeion, that there were very few rhetorical devices left to teach him.

[Jilly]

3 hours ago, EKS said:

Could you all tell me how much (approximately) reading and writing you assigned over the course of the year?  

I aimed for no more than 2 hours a day. 

[raspberry leaf]

If you created your own syllabus, how did you determine which essays/books needed to be covered for the exam? The English AP exams have always boggled me just a bit since there are so many possibilities.  What resources do you use to teach the essay portion? I am not familiar with Lukeion.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

The Lukeion Project does online courses in Latin, Greek, history and literature.  We used them for Latin for several years and also for the ancient Greek and Roman literature courses taught by Dr.Sue Fisher (Muse Unloosed and Muse Reloosed).  

I had also taught a couple English coop classes my older kids were in.  One taught basics of literary analysis.  The other used Windows to the World for literary analysis and essay instruction.  So my AP English Lit kid had already had a couple years of writing essays and papers.  (He had also done a couple writing intensive courses with SPICE.)  

For the English Literature syllabus, I spent a lot of time looking at sample syllabuses (both those on the AP Course page and what I could find online from other AP teachers).  I also spent time reading the Course Overview, Teacher Guide and looking at sample exams.  

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition/course

Free Response Questions, sample answers (from actual exams), and scoring guides are available for past year's tests.  (CB does this for all AP tests.  Look for the page that is NOT an APstudent address.  There is more info on the pages focused towards teachers; however all the released info is public.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition/exam?course=ap-english-literature-and-composition

There are some sites that list all past AP English Lit essay prompts or that list works of literature in order of how often they have been mentioned in AP English Lit essay prompts.

I used the former with my kid by having him come up with a work to use and an essay thesis for a bunch of the previous essay prompts.  I used the later when picking some of the works I wanted him to be familiar with.  Many he had read in past years.  I picked a few works that I wanted to be sure he had read before heading to college (in particular Beloved by Toni Morrison).

Keep in mind that the AP English Literature open ended essay has the escape clause of using a work not listed that is of comparable literary value.  My son used The Odyssey, which he'd read the summer before AP Latin to answer a prompt that asked about a character who intentionally deceives others.  He immediately thought of Odysseus and went with that.

My point in mentioning classes other than AP English Literature is to point out that a student brings a lot to the test table other than just what they studied in the year of doing AP English.  

Also, many colleges seem to offer English credit for either the English Language OR the English Lit exam, but maybe not for both.  I struggled a bit with wrapping my head around the goals of the English Language course (I have an English degree, but it focused more on literature than rhetoric, and I found the terminology in the course outline and sample syllabuses vague).  For me, the Literature course was more accessible.  Looking back, I think I was overthinking the course requirements a bit.

AP English LANGUAGE Course page

AP English Language FRQ page

Course Audit page with Sample Syllabuses

For English Language, the FRQ will expect students to demonstrate essay writing ability as well as an ability to analyze other author's techniques.  So for example in the 2017 exam, there is a question that requires students to write an original essay about the value of libraries based on a set of source documents.  There is another question that requires them to analyze the rhetorical techniques in a historic speech.  The last question tasks the student to write a piece that takes a position on an argument presented in a brief passage.

So there isn't necessarily a core cannon of essays and speeches that a student will be quizzed on.  They will be expected to be able to recognize and discuss techniques and tone.  It's worth pointing out to the student that if they have a question asking for an argumentative essay, the best written essay isn't necessarily going to be the one that presents their actual opinion on the subject.  It might be easier to write a compelling essay that takes another position - especially when dealing with the time and space limitations inherent in the test.

When I was thinking through doing AP English Language, I had a three ring binder into which I put copies of speeches or essays I thought were compelling.  I also had a big Word document into which I kept a running list of texts I'd seen on syllabuses that I wanted to use.  

 

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

This is a thread from a few years back when I first dipped my toes into the big ocean of AP courses. 

How interesting.  I guess that is how the new board deals with threads from the old board??

Just skimming this old thread makes me smile.  Some nice faces from the past that I don't see here so often.   I can vividly remember sitting outside a private school pool, writing up my first syllabus while my kid was doing swim camp.  I never would have attempted a course audit without older boardies encouraging me from the sidelines.