Possible Thematically-Organized Readings for AP Language and Composition

Idea for Teaching Syntax: Woolf, Room of One’s Own—men’s v. women’s college meals"We'll Go Forward From This Moment" by Leonard Pitts about 9/11"Soldier's Home" by Hemingway

Education

Bedford:Francine Prose, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read--EXLEMPLIFICATION

CAUSE/EFFECTRalph Waldo Emerson, From Education—DEFINITION; PROCESS ANALYSISSherman Alexie, Superman and Me--NARRATIONMargaret Talbot, Best in Class--EXLEMPLIFICATIONJames Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers—NARRATION; CAUSE/EFFECTKyoko Mori, School—COMPARE/CONTRASTBilly Collins, The History Teacher (poetry)--EXLEMPLIFICATIONSandra Cisneros, Eleven (fiction)—NARRATION; DESCRIPTIONVisual Text—Reading at Risk tables—DESCRIPTION; CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION*Conversations:Horace Mann, from Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education—COMPARE/CONTRAST

DEFINITIONLeon Botstein, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood--CAUSE/EFFECTTodd Gitlin, from The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut--COMPARE/CONTRASTDavid S. Broder, A Model for High SchoolsFloyd Norris, U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills

COMPARE/CONTRAST; CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONNorman Rockwell, Spirit of Education--DEFINITION

World of Ideas:Michel Eyquem De Montaigne, Of the Education of ChildrenFredrick Douglass, From Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American SlaveMaria Montessori, The Montessori MethodJohn Dewey, Thinking in EducationPaulo Freire, The Banking Concept of Education

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.Bell Hooks, Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class--NARRATIONFredrick Douglas, Learning to Read and Write—PROCESS ANALYSISJamaica Kinkaid, Girl

50 EssaysMaya Angelou, Graduation—NARRATIONGloria Anzaldua, How To Tame A Wild Tongue—DEFINITIONJoan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook—PROCESS ANALYSISFredrick Douglas, Learning to Read and Write—PROCESS ANALYSISMalcolm X, Learning to Read—PROCESS ANALYSISPlato, The Allegory of the Cave—COMPARE/CONTRASTDavid Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day—NARRATION

Bedford Reader, 9th EditionSherman Alexie, Indian Education—NARRATION

Work

Bedford:Barbara Ehrenreich, From Serving in Florida—NARRATION; DESCRIPTIONBooker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition AddressRichard Selzer, The Surgeon as Priest—NARRATION; EXLEMPLIFICATION

Compare/ContrastClaudia O’Keefe, The Traveling Bra Salesman’s Lesson--CAUSE/EFFECTThomas Carlyle, From Labour--DEFINITIONAnnie Dillard, From The Writing Life—NARRATION; DESCRIPTIONEllen Goodman, In Praise of a Snail’s Pace—DESCRIPTION; COMPARE/CONTRAST

DEFINITIONTillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing (fiction)—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION Jean Toomer, Harvest Song (poetry); DESCRIPTIONVisual Text—We Can Do It! (poster)

The Great GAPsby Society (cartoon) –DEFINITION; CAUSE/EFFECT*Conversations:Marilyn Gardner, More Working Parents Play “Beat the Clock” –DESCRIPTION

DEFINITION; EXLEMPLIFICATIONAmelia Warren Tyagi, Why Women Have to Work--COMPARE/CONTRAST

CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION; CAUSE/EFFECTClaudia Wallis, The Case for Staying Home--DEFINITIONChristopher Mele, Sick Parents Go to Work, Stay Home When Kids Are Ill

--EXLEMPLIFICATIONKimberly Palmer, My Mother, Myself, Her Career, My QuestionsBuzz McClain, Don’t Call Me Mr. Mom

Community—Relationship of the individual to the community

Bedford:Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail--CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONHenry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived for—DESCRIPTION;

COMPARE/CONTRASTJane Howard, All Happy Clans Are Alike, In Search of the Good Family--DEFINITIONAmitai Etzioni, The New Community--COMPARE/CONTRAST; DEFINITIONAnna Quindlen, Commencement Speech at Mount Holyoke CollegeLori Arviso Alvord, Walking the Path between Worlds—NARRATION; DESCRIPTIONEdwidge Danticat, New York Day Women (fiction)-- NARRATIONAurora Levins Morales, Child of the Americas (poetry) –DESCRIPTION;

CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONVisual Text—Lee Teter, Reflections (painting)*Conversations: Bertrand Russell, The Happy Life--COMPARE/CONTRAST; DEFINITIONPeter Singer, The Singer Solution to World Poverty--EXLEMPLIFICATIONGarrett Hardin, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor--EXLEMPLIFICATIONJohn Betjeman, In Westminster Abbey (poetry)

Bedford Reader, 9th EditionShirley Jackson, The Lottery—NARRATIONAnna Quindlen, Homeless—DESCRIPTIONBarbara Lazear Ascher, On Compassion--DESCRIPTION

Notes:Anthem??Omelas??

Gender

Bedford:Stephen Jay Gould, Women’s Brains--CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONVirginia Woolf, Professions for Women—EXLEMPLIFICATION; PROCESS ANALYSISJohn and Abigail Adams, Letters--DESCRIPTIONGretel Ehrlich, About Men

Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria—DESCRIPTION; EXLEMPLIFICATION

Paul Theroux, Being a Man--DEFINITIONStephen Lewis, AIDS Has a Woman’s FaceDeborah Tannen, There is No Unmarked Woman--COMPARE/CONTRAST

CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION; DEFINITIONZora Neale Hurston, Sweat-- NARRATIONMarge Piercy, Barbie Doll (poetry)-- NARRATIONVisual Text—Cathy Guisewite, Cathy (cartoon) --CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION

Bill Broadway, New and Newer Versions of Scripture (table)*Conversation: Focus on Defining MasculinityMark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky, Why Johnny Won’t Read--COMPARE/CONTRASTDavid Brooks, Mind over Muscle--COMPARE/CONTRASTRebecca Walker, Putting Down the Gun-- NARRATIONAnn Hulbert, Boy Problems (with table) --COMPARE/CONTRAST

World of Ideas: (listed under heading of feminism)Mary Wollstonecraft, Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural

Distinctions Established in SocietyVirginia Woolf, Shakespeare’s SisterSimone De Beauvoir, Woman: Myth and RealityCarol Gilligan, Woman’s Place in Man’s Life CycleBell Hooks, The Significance of the Feminist Movement

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.James Fallows, Throwing Like a GirlKatha Plooitt, Why Boys Don’t Play with DollsSusan Orlean, The American Man at Age TenAndrew Sullivan, The “He” HormoneDeborah Tannen, Listening to Men, Then and NowWendy Kaminer, Let’s Talk about Gender, BabyAmy Cunningham, Why Women SmileEdwidge Danticat, We Are Ugly, but We Are Here

Bedford Reader, 9th EditionJessica Cohen, Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman’s Eggs—NARRATIONDave Barry, Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out—COMPARE/CONTRASTFatema Mernissi, Size 6: The Western Woman’s Harem—COMPARE/CONTRAST

Sports and Fitness—How Do Sports Affect the Way We See Ourselves

Bedford:Gay Talese, The Silent Season of a Hero—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION;

EXLEMPLIFICATIONTheodore Roosevelt, The Proper Place for SportsJohn McMurtry, Kill ‘Em, Crust ‘Em, Eat ‘Em Raw! –EXLEMPLIFICATION

COMPARE/CONTRAST; CAUSE/EFFECTFrances Willard, From How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle--PROCESS ANALYSISKris Vervaecke, A Spectator’s Notebook--EXLEMPLIFICATIONRick Reilly, The Real New York Giants--DESCRIPTIONSamuel G. Freedman, From Fasting and Football, a Dedicated Game Plan-NARRATIONJohn Updike, Ex-Basketball Player (poetry)-- NARRATIONMaxine Kumin, Prothalamion (poetry) --DESCRIPTIONVisual Text—Edward Koren, Untitled (cartoon)*Conversation—Focus on Body ImageDonna Britt, A Unique Take on Beauty--DESCRIPTIONSports Illustrated, Little Sister, Big Hit (cover)Natalie Angier, Drugs, Sports, Body Image, and G.I. Joe--CAUSE/EFFECTAmerican College of Sports Medicine, Disordered Eating and Body Image

Disurbances May Be Underreported in Male Athletes--DESCRIPTION

National Eating Disorders Association, Enhancing Male Body Image

Language—How Does Language Reveal Who We Are?

Bedford:Richard Rodriguez, Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood-- NARRATION

COMPARE/CONTRASTGeorge Orwell, Politics and the English Language--CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONAmy Tan, Mother Tongue—DESCRIPTION; CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONNgugi Wa Thiong’o, From Decolonizing the Mind--COMPARE/CONTRAST

DEFINITION; CAUSE/EFFECTMarjorie Agosin, Always Living in Spanish--COMPARE/CONTRASTPeter Berkowitz and Michael McFaul, Studying Islam, Strengthening the Nation

--PROCESS ANALYSISS.I. Hayakawa, Bilingualism in America: English Should Be the Official

LanguageLan Cao, From Monkey Bridge (fiction)—NARRATION; DESCRIPTIONChang-Rae Lee, From Native Speaker (fiction)--DESCRIPTIONNaomi Shihab Nye, For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15--DEFINITION

and Why I Could Not Accept Your Invitation (poetry)--COMPARE/CONTRASTCAUSE/EFFECT

Visual Text—Mike Twohy, Rumors, Lies, and Innuendo (cartoon)James, Crawford, Census Data on Language Use in the United

States (table) –DESCRIPTION; COMPARE/CONTRAST

*Conversation—Focus on Current Language UsageGeoffrey Nunberg, How Much Wallop Can a Simple Word Pack? --COMPARE/CONTRAST

DEFINITIONDaniel Okrent, The War of Words: A Dispatch from the Front Lines--COMPARE/CONTRAST

DEFINITIONLetters to the Editor in response to The War of Words--COMPARE/CONTRAST

DEFINITIONCourtland Milloy, Pride to One Is Prejudice to AnotherRay Magliozzi, Help Us Overthrow the Tall/Short Mafia

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One DayGloria Anzaldua, How to Tame a Wild TongueJames Baldwin on Black English

Bedford, 9th EditionStephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie—CLASSIFICATIONWilliam Lutz, The World of Doublespeak—CLASSIFICATIONGloria Naylor, The Meanings of a Word—DEFINITIONChristine Leong, Being a Chink--DEFINTION

Science and Technology—How are advances in science and technology affecting the way we define our humanity?

Bedford:Loren Eiseley, The Bird and the Machine—NARRATION; COMPARE/CONTRASTT.H. Huxley, The Method of Scientific Investigation--EXLEMPLIFICATION

DEFINITIONJacob Bronowski, The Reach of Imagination--COMPARE/CONTRAST;

DEFINITIONMihaly Csikszentmihalyi, The Future Happiness--CAUSE/EFFECTSteven Pinker, The Blank Slate--EXLEMPLIFICATIONUrsula Franklin, Silence and the Notion of the Commons--DEFINITIONSven Birkerts, Into the Electronic Millennium--COMPARE/CONTRASTElizabeth Royte, Transsexual Frogs—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION; PROCESS ANALYSIS

CAUSE/EFFECTEdgar Allen Poe, Sonnet—to Science (poetry)--DEFINITIONWalt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (poetry)Brian Aldiss, Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (fiction)—NARRATION; DEFINITIONVisual Text—Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Calendar--PROCESS ANALYSIS

Gahan Wilson, Food Fight (cartoon)*Conversation—Focus on the Ethics of Genetic TechnologyLewis Thomas, On Cloning a Human BeingPhilip M. Boffey, Fearing the Worst Should Anyone Produce a Cloned BabyDavid Ewing Duncan, DNA as Destiny—NARRATION; PROCESS ANALYSISRick Weiss, Pet Clones Spur Call for Limits--CAUSE/EFFECTMarilynn Marchione and Lindsey Tanner, More Couples Screening Embryos for

Gender

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.Stephen Jay Gould, Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs

Bedford, 9th editionLinnea Saukko, How to Poison the Earth—CAUSE/EFFECT

Popular Culture—To what extent does pop culture affect our values?

Bedford:David Denby, High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies—DESCRIPTION;

EXLEMPLIFICATIONMark Twain, Corn-Pone Opinions--EXLEMPLIFICATIONBrent Staples, Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of

a Classic--COMPARE/CONTRASTVine Deloria Jr., We Talk, You Listen--CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION; CAUSE/EFFECTDanyel Smith, Dreaming America--COMPARE/CONTRASTScott McCloud, Show and Tell (graphic essay)--CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION

DEFINITIONTeresa Wiltz, Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 is a Chorus

without a Hook, A Movie without an Ending--CAUSE/EFFECTHans Ostrom, Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven (poetry) --DESCRIPTIONNikki Giovanni, Sanctuary: For Harry Potter the Movie--COMPARE/CONTRASTVisual Text—Mark Tansey, The Innocent Eye Test (painting)*Conversation—Focus on TelevisionSteven Johnson, Watching TV Makes You Smarter--COMPARE/CONTRASTCorbett Trubey, The Argument Against TVJulia Scott, He Doesn’t Like to Watch--EXLEMPLIFICATIONAnthony DiVivo, TV Turnoff Week (detail from a poster) --PROCESS ANALYSISGeorge Gerbner and Todd Gitlin, Is Media Violence Free Speech? (debate)

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.Marie Winn, TV AddictionJack Hitt, The Hidden Life of SUVsPatricia J. Williams, Hate Radio

Nature—What is our responsibility to nature?

Bedford:Rachel Carson, From Silent Spring—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION; CAUSE/EFFECTRalph Waldo Emerson, From Nature—DESCRIPTION; CLASSIFICATION/DIVISIONTerry Tempest Williams, The Clan of the One-Breasted Women—NARRATION;

EXLEMPLIFICATION; CAUSE/EFFECTChief Seattle, Message to President Franklin Pierce--COMPARE/CONTRASTWendell Berry, An Entrance to the Woods—NARRATION; DESCRIPTIONWangari Muta Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Speech--CAUSE/EFFECTJoyce Carol Oates, Against Nature—EXLEMPLIFICATION; DEFINITIONSarah Orne Jewett, A White Heron (fiction)—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION

PROCESS ANALYSISWilliam Wordsworth, The Tables Turned (poetry)--COMPARE/CONTRASTVisual Text—Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits (painting)*Conversation—Focus on Climate ChangeBill McKibben, It’s Easy Being Green--EXLEMPLIFICATIONRichard Conniff, From Counting Carbons (with table)--EXLEMPLIFICATIONEdward O. Wilson, From The Future of Life--COMPARE/CONTRASTMelissa Farlow and Randy Olson, Ice Blankets (photograph with caption)Indur M. Goklany, Is Climate Change the 21st Century’s Most Urgent

Environmental Problem?Daniel Glick, GeoSigns: The Big Thaw—DESCRIPTION; CAUSE/EFFECT

World of Ideas:Francis Bacon, The Four IdolsCharles Darwin, Natural SelectionRachel Carson, The Sunless SeaStephen Jay Gould, Nonmoral NatureMichio Kaku, The Mystery of Dark Matter

Politics—What is the relationship between the citizen and the state?

Bedford:Jamaica Kincaid, On Seeing England for the First Time--DESCRIPTION

COMPARE/CONTRASTJonathon Swift, A Modest Proposal--PROCESS ANALYSIS; CAUSE/EFFECTChris Hedges, From The Destruction of Culture--EXLEMPLIFICATION

DEFINITION; CAUSE/EFFECTOliver Goldsmith, National Prejudices--DEFINITIONVirginia Woolf, Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION

COMPARE/CONTRASTHenry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience--DEFINITIONWole Soyinka, Every Dictator’s Nightmare--DEFINITIONTim O’Brien, On the Rainy River (fiction)—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION

CAUSE/EFFECTYevgeny Yevtushenko, Conversation with an American Writer (poetry)Visual Text—Pablo Picasso, Guernica (cover)

The New Yorker, March 17, 2003 (cover)Harper’s, April 2003 (cover)

*Conversation—Focus on the Politics of ImperialismGeorge Orwell, Shooting an Elephant—NARRATION; DESCRIPTION

CAUSE/EFFECTChinua Achebe, The Empire Fights Back--COMPARE/CONTRAST; CAUSE/EFFECTEavan Boland, In Which the Ancient History I Learn Is Not My Own (poetry) --DESCRIPTION

COMPARE/CONTRASTNational Park Service, Christiansted: Official Map and Guide—NARRATION; CAUSE/EFFECTBombay Company, What Park of you lives in Bombay? (advertisement)

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

Anthem?

Government

World of Ideas:Lao-Tzu, Thoughts from the Tao-te-ChingNiccolo Machiavelli, The Qualities of the PrinceJean-Jacques Rousseau, The Origin of Civil SocietyThomas Jefferson, The Declaration of IndependenceHannah Arendt, Total DominationStephen L. Carter, The Separation of Church and State

Justice (Some selections may be better suited to Government/Politics)

World of Ideas:Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Defense of JusticeHenry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (also in Bedford’s Politics)Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments and ResolutionsMartin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (Bedford’s Community)John Rawls, A Theory of JusticeMartha C. Nussbaum, The Central Human Functional Capabilities

Philosophy: An Introduction through Literature:Stephen Crane, An Experiment in Misery (fiction)John Dos Passos, The House of Morgan (fiction)Plato, The RepublicJohn Stuart Mill, On the Connection Between Justice and UtilityJ.J.C. Smart, Distributive Justice and UtilitarianismMilton Fisk, Economic Justice

Wealth and Poverty (Possibly merge some selections with Politics or Community’s Conversation)

World of Ideas:Adam Smith, Of the Natural Progress of OpulenceKarl Marx, The Communist ManifestoJohn Maynard Keynes, Social Consequences of Changes in Valuable MoneyJohn Kenneth Galbraith, The Position of PovertyRobert B. Reich, Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer

Mind

World of Ideas:Plato, The Allegory of the CaveRene Descartes, Discourse FourSigmund Freud, The Oedipus ComplexCarl Jung, The Personal and the Collective UnconsciousMelanie Klein, The Psychological Principles of Infant AnalysisHoward Gardner, A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.Sherman, Alexie, The Toughest Indian in the World (fiction)Raymond Carver, Popular Mechanics

Ethics and Morality (Possible Overlap with Bedford’s Community)

World of Ideas:

The Torah, Moses and the Ten CommandmentsAristotle, The Aim of ManSt. Matthew, The Sermon on the MountThe Koran, The Night JourneyFriedrich Nietzsche, Morality as Anti-NatureIris Murdoch, Morality and ReligionHis Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Ethic of Compassion

Writer’s Presence, 4th ed.Alice Walker, Everday Use (fiction)

Philosophy: An Introduction through Literature:Frank O’Connor, Guests of the NationRobert C. Mortimer, Moral AuthorityBrian Medlin, Ultimate Principles and Ethical EgoismJohn Stuart Mill, UtilitarianismImmanuel Kant, Passage from Ordinary Rational Knowledge of MoralityA.J. Ayer, Critique of Ethics and TheologyGilbert Harman, Ethics and ObservationLowell Kleiman, Morality as the Best ExplanationBruce Brower, Virtue Concepts and Ethical RealismKurt Baier, Why Should We Be Moral?

Personal Identity:

Philosophy: An Introduction through Literature:Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (fiction)Plato, The PhaedoGilbert Ryle, Descartes’ MythJohn Locke, The Prince and the CobblerDavid Hume, Of Personal IdentityAnthony Quinton, The SoulE. Victioria Spelman, Woman as BodySaul Kripke, from Naming and NecessityEddy M. Zemach, Looking Out for Number One