AP English III

Mr. Fatheree

General Workload

Throughout the course of a given nine-weeks, you can expect the following assessments (more or less): Major (60%)

Vocabulary Timed Writing(s) (all major essays count as 1.5 test grades) Take-home essay(s) (typed, MLA format, submitted to

Turnitin.com) Novel (standard test and graded seminar)

Daily (40%) Participation Vocabulary quizzes Literary terms quizzes Mini-analyses/ short essay response Applied Practice Reading quizzes

Odds and Ends

Tutorials: Everyday – 6:00 am – 7:00 am Wednesday – 2:15 pm – 2:45 pm Otherwise, you will need to make an alternative arrangement.

Create an account on Turnitin.com 1st Period – ID# 10454583Password – freedom1 2nd Period – ID# 10454589 Password – freedom2 3rd Period – ID# 10454593 Password – freedom3 5th Period – ID# 10454595 Password – freedom5 6th Period – ID# 10454599 Password – freedom6 7th Period – ID# 10454603 Password – freedom7

Create an account for Remind101 (Receive text message reminders about assignments and other class-related business) Using your NSA tracking device/ cell phone Text “@mrfatheree” to 81010 This cannot be used to send messages to me personally. It’s a one-

way street.

Late Work (or, The Shabbiness Scale)

All MAJOR assignments will be penalized as follows: 1 Day = -15 2 Days = -25 3 Days = -50 After 3 days, the assignment will be recorded as a

ZERO Retesting: * Must be within three days of the original

assessment; * Will be formatted for essay responses only

Daily grades WILL NOT be accepted late.

Technology excuses lack originality. Everything should be saved onto a flash drive.

Speaking of flash drives…. these are the items a student might need in order to be

ready for class:

Pen (preferably blue or black) or Pencil

Paper (preferably college-ruled, loose leaf)

FLASH DRIVE for backing-up all papers and essays (you can check these out from the library if needed)

FOLDER – I give out an abundance of materials. Don’t lose them!

If some of you could bring some Tissue and/or Hand Sanitizer – that would be special.

Novels

(I give extra-credit if you buy the book. Otherwise, I do have extra copies that you may check out.)

The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave – Frederick Douglass

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

OTHER MAJOR WORKS INCLUDE: “Self Reliance” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “Civil Disobedience” – Henry David Thoreau “Letter from Birmingham Jail” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Expectations

This is a college-level class with a focus on rhetorical analysis and argument. As such: Students should be willing to commit to a

substantial amount of college-level reading (both inside and outside of the classroom).

Students should have a foundational understanding of basic composition: Clear and complete sentence structure Thesis development Topic sentences, transitions, and body

paragraph development

The AP Composition Grading Scale

The following scale will be used to evaluate all major essay assignments:

AP Score = Academic Score

9 (Sophisticated) = 99% A

8 (Effective) = 93% A

7 = 88% B

6 (adequate) = 82% B

5 = 78% C

4 (Inadequate) = 72% D

3 = 68% F

2 or 1 (Little Success) = 63% or lower F

Beware the Lies of Your Peers

No one rides for free. If you took the class because you heard that I might be “fun”, “funny”, or otherwise “entertaining” – don’t forget that there is a price to pay. The curriculum demands time and effort.

Universities would rather see an ‘A’ or ‘B’ in “regular” English than a ‘C’ or ‘D’ in AP English.

If you were told that the class is “easy”, ask to see a transcript. People lie. Teenagers lie A LOT! Anything in high school is “easy” if your goal is a 70.

Your so-called “seat of higher reasoning” (prefrontal cortex) is still undeveloped. Disregard everything you have been told by my former students; these were the reports of individuals with brain damage and totally unreliable. Judge for yourself. Develop your own opinion.

At all times, please remember:

This class is an ELECTIVE

Now you may ask:

…Don’t Ask A Scientist…

"[T]he atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.” - Werner Heisenberg

“Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” Albert Einstein

“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force that brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” – Max Planck

"When the province of physical theory was extended to encompass microscopic phenomena through the creation of quantum mechanics, the concept of consciousness came to the fore again. It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.” – Eugene Wigner

…Writers Say the Same Things “There's no reality except the one contained within us. That's why so many people live an unreal life. They

take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.”

― Hermann Hesse

“All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.” – Edgar Allan Poe

The study of Rhetoric allows insight into the ways in which the components of language reveal an underlying system of meaning…

Language is magic:

To SPELL a word/ To cast a SPELL…

To WRITE my ideas/ To perform magical RITES and rituals

The rules of GRAMMAR/ A book of spells is a GRIMOIRE

To CONJUGATE a verb/ To CONJURE a ghost

To COMMUNICATE my thoughts/ To COMMUNE with spirits

A magical emblem is called a SIGIL/ As related to SIGN, SIGNATURE…

Consider the metaphorical relationship between time and money. What does it say about the human condition?

If you do not have the LANGUAGE, can the thought even exist?

Limitations in the ability to use language are limitations to the quality of thought. A more dynamic and proficient ability with language equals: agility of wit – depth of thought – ability to discern – ability to persuade – ability to self-actualize. (Improve the parallelism in the first sentence)

Language offers the ability to communicate ideas in such a way that you are able to alter the conscious mind of another. You can quite literally change or direct the way in which they see the world, others, themselves.

If the power of language can help you to shape another person’s reality, what can it do to help you mold a new reality for yourself?

Cognito ergo sum; I think therefore I am.

Focus in on the use of the word “therefore”. What does this word serve to signify? What are the deeper implications of the statement due to the use of the word “therefore”? What impact does it have on the overall idea being expressed?

Aphorisms, Allusions, and Evidence

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” George Orwell

“A man with a scant vocabulary will almost certainly be a weak thinker. The richer and more copious one's vocabulary and the greater one's awareness of fine distinctions and subtle nuances of meaning, the more fertile and precise is likely to be one's thinking. Knowledge of things and knowledge of the words for them grow together. If you do not know the words, you can hardly know the thing.” Henry Hazlitt

“A drop of ink may make a million think.”George Gordon Byron

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”Socrates

In Closing…

If you are not willing to put in the work, then there is no reason to stay. Your Junior year is vital. Leave a positive paper trail.

Take ownership of your deficiencies and improve them on your own time. There is not time in the year to remediate basic skills. If you are

having trouble with your sentence structure, or punctuation, or paragraph development, just ask Mr. Google. Nearly the sum total of human knowledge and experience is online (and growing exponentially). You can also see me before school. We can Google it together.

READ READ READ READ – Absorb the architecture of language, enrich yourself with new ideas and perspectives, escape the empty and vacuous culture of distraction, and evolve.