Course Syllabus

This is the first semester in a two-semester sequence and provides students with college level instruction in studying and writing various kinds of analytic or persuasive essays on literary and nonliterary topics in language, rhetoric and expository writing. Students will become skilled readers of prose written in various periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Both their reading and writing should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way writing conventions and language contribute to effectiveness in writing. This course will effectively prepare students for the AP Exam by enabling them to read, comprehend, and write about complex texts, while developing further communication skills on a college level. Course does not include the AP Exam; students can contact their school’s AP Coordinator or the College Board to sign up to take the Exam. In order to maintain the integrity of AP standards, all AP course midterm and final exams must be proctored. Prerequisites: Three years of high school English

Course Objectives: After successfully completing this course, the student will:

• Recognize and use kinds and levels of diction from the casual to the formal.
• Use appropriate varieties of sentence structures in writing.
• Employ logical and functional relationships in sentences within paragraphs and in paragraphs within essays.
• Comprehend the use of major modes of discourse (narration, description, analysis).
• Identify and select appropriate aims of discourse (information, persuasion, expression) for specific writing tasks.

Course Outline:

Module 1: Early Edition

Module 2: Revolutionary Edition

Module 3: Romantic Edition

Module 4: Civil War Edition

Segment One Exam

Resources Included: Online lesson content, learning activities, graded assessments, and a certified online instructor.

Additional Costs: Students must provide their own copies of the following books for both Semester 1 and Semester 2.

Semester One

Choose one of the following:

• Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

• On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Semester Two

Choose one of the following:

• **Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

• *A Work in Progress: A Memoir by Connor Franta

• The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida

• *The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

• *The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

• *I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafza

• *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

• Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston

• ***Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

• **The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

Choose one of the following:

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

• *Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

• *The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

• **Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

• Warmth of Other Suns by Isabell Wilkerson

• Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

* All works have rhetorical merit for the AP English student; texts marked with asterisks deal with mature subject matter or contain adult language or situations. If this is a concern for you or your family, please choose a different text from the list.

** This text can be read online.

Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue transcripts or diplomas. A final score reported as a percentage of total points earned will be sent to students upon completion of a course. Your school mentor is also able to access this score within the Student Learning Portal. Schools may use this score for conversion to their own letter grading system.

Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.

Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube. 

Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/

Lightweight devices such as Apple iPads, Google Chromebooks, and tablets have limited support for Java or Flash which still appear in a small percentage of our catalog. While FLVS does not offer technical support for these devices, FLVS is working to remove Flash from their remaining course content. Students will need extra work-around steps or alternate browsers to engage with some portions of those courses. FLVS recommends students have a Windows or Mac based computer available to complete coursework in the event that your selected mobile device does not meet the needs of the course. Fully supported Operating Systems for FLVS courses include Windows (10 or higher) and MacOS (11 or higher). Supported Browsers include the most recent versions of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari on devices that support Java and HTML5. Browsers need to be up to date, and some FLVS courses may require installation or enabling of the following Plug-ins: JavaScript enabled, Cookies enabled, Java installed. https://www.flvs.net/student-parent-resources/more/system-requirements

Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.

Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments.

Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:

• Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
• Download and install software
• Use a messaging service similar to email
• Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
• Open attachments shared in messages
• Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
• Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
• Save a file as a .pdf
• Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
• Insert images or links into a file or html editor
• Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
• Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
• Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
• Use presentation and graphics programs
• Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
• Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
• Create and maintain usernames and passwords

Additional Information: The official course descriptions for Advanced Placement courses and information about their exams are located on the College Board site at a http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/descriptions/index.html. 

Michigan Virtual prepares students in AP courses for the AP exam, but does not offer the exam test itself.  It is the responsibility of the school or parent to register for a local administration of the AP exam.

There are required due dates in AP courses. The pacing of due dates in AP courses aligns to the completion of all lessons and required assignments and assessments prior to the national AP exam date related to this course title. The calendar of AP exam dates is published by the College Board (Exam Calendar).