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AP Language & Composition / AP US History 2023
Are we making progress towards freedom, equality and opportunity?
A Study in Reparation, Recognition and Revision
The culminating work of AP Language & Composition and AP US History will involve identifying an issue of reparation, unrecognition, or wrongful recognition with roots in the past that you believe has caused damage to a select group of people or American society in general.
You will research this issue and then construct an ARGUMENT (case) to REPAIR the damage, OR RECOGNIZE a person or group OR REVISE something already in place. You will have choices in how you go about doing this.
CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:
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REPARATION Group of people who have been wronged by a government in the USA and deserve reparation (money, formal apology, educational or training, monument) Who deserves it? Why? What should the reparation be? |
RECOGNITION Group, person, or event that has been unseen, underrepresented, misunderstood or ignored that should be reignited and remembered, brought back into public consciousness Who or What deserves it? Why? What or how should it/they be recognized? (monument, memorial, literature), and what will that look like? |
REVISION/REPLACEMENT Someone or something has been hyped up undeservingly (overrated perhaps) and needs revision or replacement to show the truth Who or what has been recognized, memorialized, credited or commodified that doesn’t deserve it? Why is this a problem? How would you revise or eliminate it? |
Choose a category and topic.
Start looking for sources. Research and keep track of sources in a running works cited document.
Make a plan
Write a draft and revise it
Turn in a cool paper
Research paper Requirements
5-7 pages multi-paragraph (more than 5) double spaced 10/12 point font (does not include the annotated works cited) (¼ will be presenting the person, issue, event, ½ will be convincing the audience that this needs to be reparation, recognized or revised, and ¼ will be a proposal.)
MLA format with a title
5-7 sources are required. Use sources like those listed below. You must have a variety of types of sources. You may have more than 5 but no more than 10 sources for this paper:
Historical database (including historical newspapers)
A visual source (Documentary Film or short video, art, chart etc.)
Non-Fiction text
Newspapers
Magazines
Oral History - in-person interview or other
Scholarly Journals
Library databases
POSSIBLE TOPIC IDEAS: People, policies, issues, or causes that need tweekification or replacement.
(Many of these topics will need to be narrowed significantly. This is a short paper, so topics will have to be very specific. You are not limited to these topics!)
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REPARATION IDEAS |
RECOGNITION IDEAS |
REVISION IDEAS |
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Native Americans, people of color food deserts people with disabilities vaccination deserts injustice in sports.. drugs, girls in sports or school university admissions environmental racism wealth disparities disabled groups obesity child labor sexual assault travel and leisure LGBTQ rights Police, Firefighters, Libraries Employment and workplace issues Immigration and assimilation Braceros University admissions/ HBCUs/Affirmative Action Issues raised by your summer reading or non-fiction text Women’s rights (school or workplace) child labor, child care, maternity and paternity leave, child trafficking indigenous issues (native Americans |
AN AUTHOR, ISSUE, CELEBRITY OR SOCIAL ACTIVIST , SPORTS FIGURE, SCIENTIST WHO HAS BEEN UNDERREPRESENTED OR UNDERAPPRECIATED Stacy Abrams Frederick Douglass Marsha P Johnson A Philip Randolph Braceros Bayard Rustin Dolores Huerta Russell Means Women in stem (“Hidden Figures”) Fannie Lou Hamer Sylvia Rivera Rachel Carson Betty Friedan Abigail Adams York Title IX Marginalized people who have made difference Caesar Chavez A book or author (Mark Twain) Electric Car |
Monuments or memorials that should be removed, replaced or revised Commodifications in America (school, prison, technology, beauty) Electoral college Student loan program College admission process Standardized testing monuments to certain people outdated laws GPA bump Filibuster Green New Deal DC Statehood Puerto Rico Statehood or Independence school classic book curriculum Gas guzzling Cars SUV’s ** Commodification is when something that shouldn't be about money is popularized for profit (examples include education, prisons, yoga, keto diets, veganism, etc.) |
Research Tools
Library Guide and links to source
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Due Date |
What is Due |
Examples |
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Friday February 24 |
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Thursday/Friday March 2/3 |
Preliminary RESEARCH PROPOSAL |
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Thursday/Friday 3/30/3/31 |
Preliminary Thesis and Final Topic |
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Thursday/Friday March 30/31 |
Annotated Works Cited with 5 sources |
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Thursday/Friday April 13/14 |
Outline |
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Thursday/Friday April 20/21 |
Rough Draft Due in class for peer editing |
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Thursday/Friday April 27/28 |
Final Draft (no exceptions) |