An interesting thing about the word syllabus is that it comes from a misreading of Latin. That doesn’t change its meaning now, but it does let us think more critically about what a syllabus actually does, not just what we expect it to do.
This syllabus is an overview of our course. It includes the grading policy, homework policy, etc., but it is also an example itself of how instruction works — flipped so that you can access it at your own pace, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions and receive feedback.
Note: You can download a copy of this post for printing or digital annotation by using the PDF and printer options at the bottom of the page. Look for these on all instructional materials:
Course Description: AP English Language & Comp.
The official course description:
This Advanced Placement course focuses on developing maturity and complexity in reading, thinking, and writing, with special emphasis on collaborative learning, reflection, and metacognition. Students read, analyze, and emulate primarily nonfiction prose; the writing and reading processes are taught, however, through all modes of discourse. Scaffolded onto this is continual, portfolio-driven self-analysis. Each student will be required to take the AP examination in May. In June, the students will write the NYS Regents Examination, which they must pass in order to graduate.
That is the high school’s overview. As an AP course, there is also the College Board to consider:
You don’t need to read the entire document, but some of the specifics might help to clear up confusion. That excerpt, from page 11 of the PDF, matches up with what you’d do in any English course. But Language and Composition is meant to be paired with Literature and Composition. On page 12:
We will still study literature, starting with your summer reading memoirs, but this is the College Board course in rhetoric, argument, and civic discourse. See the section on “Required Reading” for more.
You should also peruse the following two pages to see how the district’s Strategic Coherence Plan corresponds exactly to our course:
You can expect more rigorous metacognitive work as a precursor to what you’ll need next year, whether you will be a senior or in your first year of college1. We will continue to hone empathy as the most crucial skill for collaboration and the skill most sought by colleges and careers.
I am your best resource through all of this. To help, I’ve developed a nontraditional space — one in which I will act as a “guide on the side,” not a “sage on the stage.” Here is a discussion of how all stakeholders can take advantage of that resource:
To see an example of what this space produces, and to read testimonials from former students and other stakeholders, visit the following Google Site:
The Makerspace
This classroom is a makerspace. For a quick look at what that means, watch this clip:
That scene from Apollo 13 shows the traditional makerspace experience: A group of like-minded and similarly trained folks confront a real-world problem, gather all the tools and resources they need, and then collaborate on a solution.
This reenactment of a historical scene has NASA engineers pour out a box of mechanical components. Using their expertise, they reimagine how the components can be used. As in most makerspaces, the components are physical — gears, electronics, plastic, and so on. The components can even be as small as DNA:
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/diy-biotech-vegan-cheese/
Trying to hack DNA to create cow-less milk requires the same general kind of makerspace thinking that it takes to save a bunch of stranded astronauts. Both examples fit the usual acronym attached to a makerspace: STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.
English doesn’t often get a seat at the table, because its components are more abstract. Literature and writing don’t always evoke the same modular, experimental sensibility, and even an AP course in rhetoric and argument has “English” attached to it. We can change that, however, by answering two questions:
- What important, real-world problems are we solving in an English classroom?
- What components and tools do we need to solve those problems?
Well, the problems you face as a student are the problems all of us face, which are the problems that the Humanities exist to solve: What does it mean to be a human being? What does it mean to coexist in a society? What are my beliefs? How do I want to live my life?
There is also a framing study of education and learning, which is part of the metacognitive framework of English: What does it mean to be educated? What is the purpose of school? How does each of us learn best, and what are the most important skills and traits for our futures?
Like any makerspace, we will experiment to try to solve those problems and answer these questions. We’ll think outside the box. Sometimes we’ll dismantle the box and build a better one. Our tools and components are a set of universal skills and traits, the other human beings working beside us, and the literature and nonfiction that best teaches us how to be human.
Grading Policy
This course uses grade abatement, which is a profile-based system using a set of universal skills and traits. Here is a printable handout:
Copies of this and other assessment tools are available throughout the classroom. That includes this walkthrough of how each evidence-gathering and analytical process works:
Every three weeks, you will collaborate with your teachers to determine which profile fits the work you’ve done during those three weeks. This is a consistent, fair, and objective process. It rewards growth and collaboration much more than performative skill.
Here is a calendar that indicates (among other things) the exact date of each profile:
Make a copy of the calendar for your own use.
We are looking to self-report on Fridays, if possible, to avoid giving you work over the weekend — and to give me the weekend to do an initial run-through of your self-assessments. Note that these are 15-day evidentiary panels, three per quarter, which is enough to give us a triptych metaphor. Because of scheduled vacation days, the first semester fluctuates more; by Q3, each panel has exactly 15 scheduled class meetings2
These twelve profile scores have also been set up in advance in Infinite Campus.
Pareto Projects
That provisional calendar also shows you the shape of our year together, including the opportunity to do a one-of-a-kind project:
Right now, the plan is to start the first projects in October. We will go over the process then. For now, you are free to read about our version of a Genius Hour project. Your first one will be personal in nature, like last year’s projects; the second, which will start in February, will be community-based.
Homework and Classwork Policy
The homework policy is built into the grading policy, specifically into the thresholds that separate upper- and lower-tier profiles from each other. Read them carefully. The penalty for failing to complete homework is significant.
Google Classroom is the central hub for required assignments. It tracks completion, including time and date stamps for submitted and edited work. We will also familiarize you with Turnitin.com, Google Forms, and other mechanisms for sharing and evaluating work.
Classwork and homework are part of what’s called interstitial learning, which is best understood through practice. It allows you to work when you work best, with one exception: You must use class time effectively. This is outlined here:
This is the usual give-and-take of a classroom: The two most basic requirements of this course, in-class focus and feedback, are also the two keys that unlock the best performance and strongest growth — as well as the highest scores. What observable habits and behavioral patterns do you create over time?
When you are uncertain about what to do in class or at home, ask for help. You can also read this annotated step-by-step guide, which is available in class, online, and as one of our classroom posters:
Required Exams and Finals
Your AP exam is on Wednesday, May 16. It will be one of the last exams you take, if you have more than one, and toward the end of the school year, regardless. We will spend a good amount of time honing your ability to do well on this test, both in terms of the skills and knowledge it requires and your ability to grind through the Sisyphean difficulties of school.
While you are reading about this course and classroom, read this:
Ignore (obviously) the teacher-specific stuff. This is the test you’ll take, and we’re lucky that it’s a good test — one that requires the same universal skills and traits you need in every walk of life. Even the vestigial elements have some merit.
Be sure to read the testimonials for this course, if you have any doubt that you will be given all the tools you need to be successful:
The AP exam is important, and you’ll be as ready as your effort allows you to be. But you’ll benefit in many other ways, of course.
Juniors also take the New York State Regents in English in June. We will not practice the tasks on the English Regents until after the AP exam in May, because the Regents based their Common Core exam also exactly on the AP exam for Language and Composition. You can read more about the structure of the exam here:
The similarities:
- The single essay is identical to the synthesis essay on the AP exam
- There are reading passages and questions like your AP exam
- There is a short analysis prompt exactly like the rhetorical analysis prompt on the AP exam
Because of the Regents Exam, juniors do not sit for a final exam in English during exam week.
Senior Talks
Any senior taking Language and Composition will (obviously) not take the Regents Exam again. You will, however, complete and present a senior talk as part of your final exam. This will be distributed and reviewed later in the school year.
Required Materials
Bring your district-issued Chromebook or another Internet-ready device every day. Bring paper and a pen or pencil. Keep our current novel, nonfiction, writing prompt, etc., organized and with you at all times.
Otherwise, we’ll determine together what you need to be most successful. The onus is on you to start that process, and not just because we are an English makerspace. At this point in your academic career, you need to individualize a system that helps you accomplish your goals.
We are also going to try to be as paperless as possible this year. We need to be able to edit some documents in real time and to collaborate in a more 21st-century way. You need access to the hyperlinks and connections that make up the bulk of all contemporary writing and reading.
You will still have the ability to print any materials you want printed. Think of it as responsive printing: If you need a copy of something, then you’ll get it. It’s up to you to determine that need, though, and usually to take care of it. We have a printer connected to the desktops in Room 210 for this purpose.
We will obviously print essays and other texts that we annotate together. Not everything can be done on a computer, and that’s not the point; the point is to minimize our paper use and strengthen your digital skills.
Writing Requirements
One of your goals this year is to create writing that expresses who you are before you apply for college and/or a career. You will organize yourself through Google Drive, publish through Medium and other online platforms, and document your growth in different ways.
That’s a powerful digital footprint — the kind of thing an admissions board or prospective employer will see when they search for you online. The world wants you to have a digital presence. This course will help you build it.
The writing itself will be driven by a universal rubric and collaborative writing process. The steps are carefully constructed to help you develop your own style while learning how to answer any prompt you are given.
Part of grade abatement is an approach to writing that gives feedback without scores or points on the writing itself. This is to encourage risk-taking, revision, and metacognition.
Reading Requirements
You need to develop a reading habit. Your success, now and in the future, increases the more you read discerningly and actively. Read a little of everything, and read whenever you can. Emulate Malcolm X, who wrote, “I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”
One way to encourage this habit is through posts like this. All instruction will be flipped online, with class time reserved for face-to-face discussion and small-group collaboration. The more we balance and preface that in-class work with the written word, the stronger both parts of your learning will be.
The beauty of the devices we all have is that they give us access to limitless text — they put us, at all times, close to compelling essays, powerful short stories, beautiful poetry, even the best books. If you learn to read for yourself, not just because you are in school, you will have a lifelong habit.
And if reading for yourself seems clichéd, reject that seeming cliché. Embrace the truth of it, which is that reading makes you a better person. This works for literature as well as the essays you will strive to emulate. It’s the simplest shortcut:
http://lifehacker.com/four-reasons-why-you-should-read-literature-1644487950
Summer reading will be our first look at how literature, including nonfiction, affects us. While we will follow the College Board’s requirements and move away from literature as the driving force of instruction after that, we will still refer to the importance of empathy and life experience in what we read.
Course Orientation
We are now at the end of the course syllabus. While you continue our in-class writing and reading, use your homework time to continue here:
That orientation post will acclimate you more quickly to this style of learning than anything else at this stage. Take your time, read carefully, and ask questions. The deeper you dive, the more quickly you will feel comfortable.
You can post any of your questions so far in the comment section below. You can also send an email or schedule a time during the school day to meet.
Or traveling, or starting a career — this is universal preparation for how to think, to read, and to write. No path you take will be judged, as long as you take that path with a clear and critical purpose. ↩
The shape of the year is interesting. Class time — face-to-face time — matters most, and the first two quarters have lots of starts and stops. You can (and will) learn interstitially — you have to learn interstitially in this day and age — and you can augment your learning online. You can’t replace face-to-face work. So it’s interesting that the first two quarters are desultory: long weekends, days off in the middle of the week, plenty of fire drills, etc., plus distractions like Spirit Week, college applications (for seniors), and the inevitable influx of bad weather. The second semester is pretty solid, though, with plenty of time to build momentum and shake off the effects of the desultory start of the year. Spring break is predictable. The rest of our schedules lines up in 15-day blocks of time. ↩