KWL
• Take a minute to discuss with a friend/ jot
down your KWL thoughts
• What do I KNOW about AP Language and
Composition?
• What do I WANT to know?
• When you finish this power point
presentation, you will conclude with what
you LEARNED.
Introduction to Advanced
Placement Language and
Composition
East View High School
Tamara Scholtz
What is the AP Program?
The Advanced Placement program was begun by the
College Board in 1955 to construct standard achievement
exams that would allow highly motivated students the
opportunity to be awarded advanced placement as freshmen
in colleges and universities in the United States.
The course allows students to write in a variety of forms and
on a variety of subjects. Also when students read, they
should become aware of how stylistic effects are achieved by
writers’ linguistic choices.
What does the AP stand
for?
• AP stands for
Advanced Placement
• This class is a
preparation for
college.
Why should a student take an
AP course?
• Currently college students have a 33% chance of
graduating in America.
• The AP program hired a researcher to track how
AP students do in college. AP students, regardless
of AP exam score (and after only taking 1 class),
increase that chance to 85%. There is a significant
gain just from the experience of taking a rigorous
class, regardless of performance on the exam.
How is the AP Language
Exam Organized?
• The exam has two parts and is scheduled to last
3 ¼ hours. The first section is a set of multiple-choice
questions based on a series of prose passages (usually 4). A
student will have 1 hour to complete this part of the
test. All selections are non-fiction. There are usually
approximately 55 questions.
• The second section of the exam is a 2-hour essay writing
segment consisting of three different essays. Students are
given 15 minutes to read the essay materials prior to writing.
How is the exam scored?
The multiple-choice section
counts for 45% of the total
score, and the essay section
counts for 55%.
The raw score of the multiplechoice section and the raw
scoring of the essay section are
converted into the AP grade of
5, 4, 3, 2, or 1. Check with
individual colleges to see what
scores, if any, are accepted.
What are the 3 essays?
• One is a rhetorical analysis.
• Generally, students are presented with a prose passage that
can be drawn from various genres and time
periods. Although the specific tasks asked of the students
vary from year to year, they almost always involve analysis of
language, primarily rhetorical strategies and devices .
• Rhetorical strategies are the strategies a writer uses to
persuade his audience. Devices are the linguistic choices a
writer makes for various specific effects.
The rhetorical analysis
essay
The College Board wants to determine a student’s facility
with reading, understanding, and analyzing challenging
texts. They also want to assess how well s/he manipulates
language to communicate the written analysis of a specific
topic to a mature audience.
AP is looking for connections between analysis and the
passage. How does an author use language and what is the
effect?
Second essay: Argument
While the first essay asks
students to assess the
argument of another, the
second requires students
to write their own. A
student has to make a
claim and then provide
evidence to prove it. Also
the student is required to
address and counter the
other side.
#3: The synthesis essay
• In a synthesis essay the student synthesizes at least four
sources. Some come from magazines and others from
newspapers. Some are cartoons or graphs or visuals.
• A synthesis essay is really a miniature informational research
paper. The student must take the different ideas from the
sources and put the ideas together into a new, cohesive essay
that informs the reader about a central subject.
• This essay will test a student’s organizational skills, his/her
understanding of other material, and ability to balance more
than one source in an essay--all skills that are necessary to
writing a successful research paper.
How are the essays scored?
The grading is done with a rubric, which is a scoring guide for
the essay.
Graders are trained to reward a student for things s/he does
well. They are aware of the time constraints of 40 minutes per
essay.
The top score on the rubric is a 9. This is an impressive
essay. Next is an 8, 7, and 6. These are top scores. A 5 means
that you understand the prompt but the essay is limited or
uneven. The scores of 4, 3, 2, and 1 are inadequate
responses. For a student to score well, he or she must analyze,
interpret, argue cogently, and demonstrate stylistic maturity.
Our Class…
• Will prepare students for the exam,
– (If you chose to take this course, I will assume that you
choose to take the AP test)
• Will encompass the TEKS required by the state of Texas
• Will be more work and more difficult work than CORE
classes
• Will not TOTALLY focus on the exam,
• Will challenge students to look at writing in new ways,
• Will challenge students to view images, ads, cartoons,
speeches in new ways...
• Will make them think, and
• Will drive them crazy!
• But we’ll have fun getting there!