AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
Third Quarter

LANGUAGE AND POPCULTURE

UNIT OF STUDY

UNIT OBJECTIVES

Language of Composition

CHAPTERS

CHAPTER READINGS

MEDIA

Thematic Study of 

Language and Culture

A. Language and Culture

1.       Bilingualism

2.       Idioms of the 21^st century

3.       Satire

B. Popular Culture

1.       Film

2.       Television

3.       Graphic Novels

4.       Internet

5.       Media

6.       American Trends

7.       Advertising

1.      Write an expository essay detailing the difference between simple and compact and ornate and diffuse prose.

2.     Analyze an argument: After reading and discussing Brent Staples op-ed piece, “Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart out of a Classic,” write an essay in which you discuss Staples’ assumption that popular culture can communicate an important message.

3.      Utilize writing for specific audiences and purposes: After reading Danyel Smith’s “Dreaming in America,” listen to an assortment of music by the artists she mentions. Create a CD of the music and write the liner notes.

4.     Synthesize primary and secondary research to form a cogent argument answering the following rhetorical question: “Do genre films reflect reality? Or are they merely a set of conventions that refer to other films?” Use your own experiences and teen movies you have seen as evidence.

5.      Compare and analyze multiple authors’ investigations of language

6.      Analyze the impact of language and technology in an individual’s life; analyze the relationship between technology and language

7.      Analyze and respond to a newspaper argument using appropriate primary and secondary resources

CHAPTER 9

Language and Culture

How does the language we use reveal who we are?

CHAPTER 11

Popular Culture

To what extent does pop culture reflect our society’s values?

ADDITIONAL LITERATURE 

Ella Minnow Pea

1984

God of Small Things

Lan Cao, from Monkey Bridge (fiction)

Chang-Rae Lee, from Native Speaker (fiction)

Naomi Shihab Nye, For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15 and Why I Could Not Accept Your Invitation (poetry)

Naomi Shihab Nye on Writing

Visual Text Mike Twohy, Rumors, Lies, Innuendo (cartoon)

Visual Text James Crawford, Census Data on Language Use in America (table)

Conversation Focus on Current Language Usage

Geoffrey Nunberg, How Much Wallop

Daniel Okrent, The War of Words: A Dispatch from the Front Lines

Letters to the Editor in response to Okrent

Courtland Milloy, Pride to One Is Prejudice to Another

Ray Magliozzi, Help Us Overthrow the Tall and Short Mafia

Central Essay David Denby, High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies

Classic Essay Mark Twain, Corn-pone Opinions

Brent Staples, Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic

Vine Deloria Jr., We Talk, You Listen

Danyel Smith, Dreaming America

Scott McCloud, Show and Tell (graphic essay)

Teresa Wiltz, Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 is a Chorus without a Hook, A Movie without an Ending

Hans Ostrom, Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven (poetry)

Nikki Giovanni, Sanctuary: For Harry Potter the Movie (poetry)

Visual Text Mark Tansey, The Innocent Eye Test (painting)

Conversation Focus on Television

Steven Johnson, Watching TV Makes You Smarter

Corbett Trubey, The Argument against TV

Julia Scott, He Doesn’t Like to Watch

Anthony Diivo, TV Turnoff Week (detail from poster)

George Gerbner and Todd Gitlin, Is Media Violence Free Speech?

Shattered Glass