The key components of a class preparing students for the AP Lang & Comp exam are:
- writing narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays
- writing multiple drafts of essays
- some informal writing (journaling, etc.)
- writing assignments based on a variety of prose styles & genres
- nonfiction readings of a variety of types (essays, journalism, political writing, science or nature writing, biography, diaries, history, criticism, etc.)
- graphic/visual image analysis
- citing sources
Articles, essays, and books by Rick Reilly and Jim Murray, arguably two of the best sportswriters ever. If you've never read anything by Reilly, go find some Life of Reilly now.
Moneyball by Michael Lewis focuses on economics and analytics in baseball. It traces the beginnings of an extremely important movement towards analytics and different kinds of statistics in baseball and had a large impact on how that movement grew.
Baseball's Great Experiment by Jules Tygiel tells the story of Jackie Robinson and other early black players in the MLB. The book is very much placed in historical context and shows both how that context influenced baseball and what impact the integration of Major League Baseball made on American society.
The Great Swim by Gavin Mortimer looks at four women who competed to be the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926. That was a period with a lot of change in how women were considered, and this is a good entrance point to spending some time on women in sports.
Read something about the impact of Title IX; two suggestions are Course Correction by Ginny Gilder, which focuses on rowing, and Meeting her Match by Debbie Powers, which looks more at basketball and volleyball. Both are autobiographical accounts.
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan focuses on issues of training and seeking perfection in sports like women's gymnastics and figure skating. It's rather out of date -- I believe the more recent edition was published in 2000 -- but definitely still worth reading. It would be interesting to look at some of the changes made since the book was published (and what has not been changed).
Spend some time on the Olympics. There are lots of issues here, especially over the past couple of decades. You could spend some time looking at candidate/bid files and talking about costs vs gains of having the Olympics. Look at difficulties in preparing to host (Athens, Beijing, London, Sochi, Rio, etc.), controversies around hosting (Salt Lake, some of the previously mentioned), issues of security, the shift towards less-democratic countries being those that want to host. There are all kinds of economic, political, and social issues tied up in the Olympics. The Olympics are also a decent lens through which to look at doping and other issues (2012 badminton match-fixing, athlete age, etc). There are lots of articles on all of these things.
For books, you could start with Rome 1960 by David Maraniss. There are lots of books on individual Olympics like this, some focusing more on particular aspects (like Jesse Owens and the 1936 Games).
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger brings down the scale to a very local level, looking at a very successful West Texas high school football team. This is as much about the town as it is about football, and this is a good way to talk about the interaction between sports and communities.
There are a lot of options for sports biography. To spend a bit more time on football and how sports and culture influence each other, When Pride Still Mattered (about Vince Lombardi) by David Maraniss is a good option.
Boy on Ice by John Branch talks about the life and death of a hockey player whose main role on his team was an enforcer (essentially, he was expected to fight). This is a good way to start talking about concussions, violence in sports, and the push to play through injury.
Read or listen to speeches. Lou Gehrig's farewell speech definitely recommended, as well as Jimmy V's ESPY speech.
Read articles from sources like Sports Pickle for satire. Appreciating these will also require keeping up with non-satirical sports news. Sports cartoons are also good for satire. The Olympics especially tend to generate lots of these.
For other visual/graphic sources, look at team logos and mascots as well as sports-related Google doodles.
Moneyball by Michael Lewis focuses on economics and analytics in baseball. It traces the beginnings of an extremely important movement towards analytics and different kinds of statistics in baseball and had a large impact on how that movement grew.
Baseball's Great Experiment by Jules Tygiel tells the story of Jackie Robinson and other early black players in the MLB. The book is very much placed in historical context and shows both how that context influenced baseball and what impact the integration of Major League Baseball made on American society.
The Great Swim by Gavin Mortimer looks at four women who competed to be the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926. That was a period with a lot of change in how women were considered, and this is a good entrance point to spending some time on women in sports.
Read something about the impact of Title IX; two suggestions are Course Correction by Ginny Gilder, which focuses on rowing, and Meeting her Match by Debbie Powers, which looks more at basketball and volleyball. Both are autobiographical accounts.
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan focuses on issues of training and seeking perfection in sports like women's gymnastics and figure skating. It's rather out of date -- I believe the more recent edition was published in 2000 -- but definitely still worth reading. It would be interesting to look at some of the changes made since the book was published (and what has not been changed).
Spend some time on the Olympics. There are lots of issues here, especially over the past couple of decades. You could spend some time looking at candidate/bid files and talking about costs vs gains of having the Olympics. Look at difficulties in preparing to host (Athens, Beijing, London, Sochi, Rio, etc.), controversies around hosting (Salt Lake, some of the previously mentioned), issues of security, the shift towards less-democratic countries being those that want to host. There are all kinds of economic, political, and social issues tied up in the Olympics. The Olympics are also a decent lens through which to look at doping and other issues (2012 badminton match-fixing, athlete age, etc). There are lots of articles on all of these things.
For books, you could start with Rome 1960 by David Maraniss. There are lots of books on individual Olympics like this, some focusing more on particular aspects (like Jesse Owens and the 1936 Games).
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger brings down the scale to a very local level, looking at a very successful West Texas high school football team. This is as much about the town as it is about football, and this is a good way to talk about the interaction between sports and communities.
There are a lot of options for sports biography. To spend a bit more time on football and how sports and culture influence each other, When Pride Still Mattered (about Vince Lombardi) by David Maraniss is a good option.
Boy on Ice by John Branch talks about the life and death of a hockey player whose main role on his team was an enforcer (essentially, he was expected to fight). This is a good way to start talking about concussions, violence in sports, and the push to play through injury.
Read or listen to speeches. Lou Gehrig's farewell speech definitely recommended, as well as Jimmy V's ESPY speech.
Read articles from sources like Sports Pickle for satire. Appreciating these will also require keeping up with non-satirical sports news. Sports cartoons are also good for satire. The Olympics especially tend to generate lots of these.
For other visual/graphic sources, look at team logos and mascots as well as sports-related Google doodles.
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