The American Tapestry* Mrs. J. Besch South Elgin High School
*tapestry (def.)1. A heavy cloth woven with rich, often variegated designs or scenes... 2. Something felt to resemble a richly and complexly designed cloth: e.g. the tapestry of world history.
This course fulfills the junior year American Literature requirement of School District U-46 and prepares students for the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam. It is also aligned with Illinois State Learning Standards.
AP English Language and Composition Exam
The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Exam is an optional three-hour exam consisting of two parts: a multiple-choice section and a free-response essay section of three essays. The multiple-choice section is comprised of approximately fifty questions based on (usually) nonfiction reading selections. The free-response section requires students to analyze the rhetoric of differing prose styles and then compose essays (generally argumentative or analytical in nature) based on the selections. The synthesis essay requires students to compose a coherent essay synthesized from a variety of materials on the same subject. Teachers have been trained in AP workshops, and the teachers of English use the AP Language and Composition Writing/Analysis Guide in preparing units and lessons for their students.
The American Tapestry will focus on four strands of American thought, individual yet inseparable as its people. Like a tapestry, the three strands are ultimately woven together “into a richly and complexly designed cloth” that comprises American society today, with an abundant enough supply of thread to reach indefinitely into the future. Also like a tapestry, the traditional canon of American literature is enriched by a thick strand of rhetoric (writing and critical thinking). As in college rhetoric classes, a heavy emphasis will be placed