AP Language and CompositionMrs. Heidi Hayes

Course Information

• Core Focus: Developing informed, thoughtful, engaged citizens.• Increasing students’ capacity to enter into consequential

conversations with others about meaningful issues and contribute to the conversations

• Engaging with outside sources in reading, writing, and research• Writing is a significant component, but the core skill is the

ability to read well and address questions about the content, audience, purpose, and strategies used by an author to convince an audience.

• Read like writers and write like readers.

How to Get an A

• Be creative and original in your thinking• Always ask why and how do you know for everything• Find evidence to back up everything you say• Think analytically and critically• Notice details that others might skip over• Read carefully and engage with the text

Test Overview

• Multiple Choice: 52–55 Questions | 60 Minutes | 45% of Exam Score • All questions based on passages from non-fiction texts• 4-6 non-fiction texts, at least one pre-1900• Each excerpt is accompanied by several multiple-choice questions

• Free Response: 3 Prompts | 2 Hours 15 Minutes | 55% of Exam Score• Synthesis: Students read several texts about a topic and create an argument

that synthesizes at least three of the sources to support their thesis. • Rhetorical Analysis: Students read a non-fiction text and analyze how the

writer’s language choices contribute to his or her purpose and intended meaning for the text.

• Argument: Students create an evidence-based argument that responds to a given topic.

AP Credit

• Students should always check with their chosen schools for updated information, but as of August, 2014:• UVA accepts a 5 for 3 credits• VT accepts a 3 for 3 credits, and 4 or 5 for 6 credits• JMU accepts a 4 or 5 for 3 credits• GMU accepts a 4 for 3 credits or 5 for 6 credits.

Special Ed

• Note: If a student has an IEP, they have to specifically apply to the College Board to receive their accommodations on the AP Exam. Check with Guidance for help with this.

Contacting Me

• Email is best: heidi.hayes@lcps.org• Phone: 571-252-2200 ext. 82038• The easiest way to speak with me by phone will be to

email me asking for a phone call• I will respond to emails or phone calls within 24 hours

during school days

Website Information

• Follow me on Twitter: @HayesSBHS• Tweet to #HayesAPLang if you like

• Edmodo.com, Group Code: zgwxr9

One To The World

• Students can and should bring a technology device to school. A laptop is the most useful, but a phone, iPad, or other device is fine.• Options are available for students who do not

have their own device

One To The World

• The focus is on connecting lessons from the classroom to the larger world. If you would be willing to come speak to students, video conference, work with me on a project, etc. please email me ASAP so that we can set things up.

To Do ASAP

• Students need to buy: They Say, I Say, by Graff and Berkenstein (3rd Edition)

• Students need to complete the summer assignment ASAP