South Paulding High School – AP Language

Mar 2026 · 2nd Semester

This course focuses on the study of American literature, embracing its rhetorical nature and recognizing the literature as a platform for argument. It also emphasizes a variety of writing modes and genres and the essential conventions of reading, writing, and speaking. The students will develop an understanding of how historical context in American literature affect its structure, meaning, and rhetorical stance. The course will enable students to become skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. The students will encounter a variety of informational, literary, and non-print texts from across the curriculum and read texts in all genres and modes of discourse, as well as visual and graphic images. Instruction in language conventions and essential vocabulary will occur within the context of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The students will demonstrate an understanding of listening, speaking, and viewing skills for a variety of purposes. This course will focus on the consideration of subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, and tone as the guide for effective writing, as well as the way generic conventions and resources of language contribute to writing effectiveness. The students will compose a variety of writing, including expository, analytical, and argumentative writings which support the academic and professional communication required by colleges; and personal and reflective writings which support the development of writing facility in any context. The students will produce responses to timed writing assignments, as well as writing that proceeds through several stages or drafts, which include opportunities for revision guided by feedback from teacher and peers. Students will analyze primary and secondary sources and develop the research skills needed to effectively synthesize these sources for their writing.