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American Literature & Rhetoric
Robin Dissin Aufses, Renée H. Shea,
Lawrence Scanlon, Katherine E. Cordes
You told us & we listened

Opening chapters introduce key reading and writing Visuals and outside texts engage students

skills for the American literature course. and enrich the study of American literature.

Targeted writing instruction: Chapter Culminating Activity Extending Beyond the Text
Developing key reading and writing features: Encouraging exploration
skills for nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. 1. Analyzing Rhetoric Crafting a Rhetorical Analysis Essay and inspiring new ideas
Chapters 1-4 teach the reading and writing 2. Evidence-Based Arguments Crafting an Evidence-Based Argument Essay This feature provides ways to both
skills key to success in the American challenge well-prepared students and
literature course. With equal attention to 3. Analyzing Fiction Crafting a Fiction Analysis Essay engage reluctant readers by giving
nonfiction and literature, these chapters students the opportunity to explore
provide scaffolded step-by-step instruction, 4. Analyzing Poetry Crafting a Poetry Analysis Essay how the ideas of a piece connect
activities, tips for revising, and model with real-world issues and other texts.
student essays. Each chapter culminates
with an essay assignment that lets students
apply what they have learned.

to cutting-edge technology. Batteries had 5
Conversations reinforce evidence-based argument skills. plummeted down the same cost curve as
renewable energy, so the fact that the sun went
down at night no longer mattered quite so Bill McKibben
much — you could store its rays to use later.
Because students’ ability to synthesize multiple sources is a primary concern of college And the third realization? People began 5
composition courses—as well as a skill that must be demonstrated on the AP Language to understand that the biggest reason we
®
Exam—the Conversation in each chapter provides source material and guiding questions weren’t making full, fast use of these new
to help students use the words and ideas of others to develop their own arguments. Each technologies was the political power of the
fossil-fuel industry. Investigative journalists had
Conversation is centered on an enduring issue that continues to be a subject of debate today. exposed its three-decade campaign of denial
In joining these Conversations, students investigate how the past continues to shape the and disinformation, and attorneys general and Emphasizing visual analysis:
present and develop positions on how to approach the future. plaintiffs’ lawyers were beginning to pick them Images with a purpose
apart. And just in time.
These trends first intersected powerfully on We believe that visual literacy is crucial
Election Day in 2020. The Halloween hurricane to being able to understand and analyze our
that crashed into the Gulf didn’t just take world, which is why American Literature &
hundreds of lives and thousands of homes; it
revealed a political seam that had begun to show Rhetoric includes visual texts that accompany
Greta Thunberg, shown here at age 16, has
profoundly influenced the climate-change up in polling data a year or two before. Of all the nearly all of the readings in the book. These
conversation. In this issue, Time magazine issues that made suburban Americans — women images are carefully chosen—each one has
credits Thunberg with “transforming millions especially — uneasy about President Trump, his
of vague, middle-of-the-night anxieties into a stance on climate change was near the top. What a clear, authentic pedagogical purpose
worldwide movement calling for urgent change.” had seemed a modest lead for the Democratic and a critical thinking question. We made
Why has Greta’s voice commanded the challenger widened during the last week of the
world’s attention? What aspects of this campaign as damage reports from Louisiana and it our goal to carefully select images that
cover help explain why McKibben referred inform the reading of a print text, suggest
to her age group as “the Greta Generation”? Mississippi rolled in; on election night it turned
into a rout, and the analysts insisted that an new ideas, or provide additional context.
under appreciated “green vote” had played a vital
part — after all, actual green parties in Canada,
stages, had begun to hurt: watching a California
the U.K. and much of continental Europe were
city literally called Paradise turn into hell inside
of two hours made it clear that all Americans also outperforming expectations. Young voters
were turning out in record numbers: the Greta
were at risk. When you breathe wildfire smoke 1
half the summer in your Silicon Valley fortress, Generation, as punsters were calling them,
AP ® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this product. or struggle to find insurance for your Florida made climate change their No. 1 issue.
beach house, doubt creeps in even for those who And when the new President took the oath
of office, she didn’t disappoint. In her Inaugural
imagined they were immune.
Two, there were actually some solutions. By Address, she pledged to immediately put
2020, renewable energy was the cheapest way
to generate electricity around the planet — in
1 A reference to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (b.
fact, the cheapest way there ever had been.
The engineers had done their job, taking sun 2003). She started an international movement addressing the
seriousness of climate change when she began skipping school
and wind from quirky backyard DIY projects to protest outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018. — Eds.
63
Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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