ap english language and composition course don stoll, associate professor writing arts department...
TRANSCRIPT
Self Introduction…
Prepare a 2-minute self introduction for a specific audience – the participants in this workshop
Purpose– to make audience want you on their team –
Include relevant personal information, professional information, reason(s) for taking the workshop, etc.
The AP English Language & Composition Course
Course Requirements Teacher Curriculum Learning Outcomes The Test
Teacher Teacher has read the most recent AP
English Course Description available on the AP English Language and Composition Course Home Page
Course teaches and requires students to write in several forms about a variety of subjects
Course requires students to… write essays that proceed through
several stages/drafts with revision aided by teachers and peers
Write in informal contexts designed to help them become increasingly aware of themselves as writers and of the techniques employed by the writers they read
Course requires… Expository, analytical, and
argumentative writing assignments based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres
Nonfiction readings selected to give students opportunities to identify and explain an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.
Course teaches… students to analyze how graphics and visual
images both relate to written texts and serve as alternate forms of texts themselves
research skills, in particular the ability to evaluate, use and cite primary and secondary sources by assigning projects that ask students to present an argument of their own that includes the analysis and synthesis of ideas from an array of sources
AP Teacher provides instruction and feedback that help students develop…
A wide-ranging vocabulary A variety of sentence structure Logical organization A balance of generalization and specific
illustrative detail An effective use of rhetoric including
controlling tone, clear voice, and appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure
AP English Language Course Outcomes
A description of the learning outcomes and the means to
achieve & assess these outcomes
We want our students to… Read Well Learning Goals:
Denotation & Connotation Inference & Implication
Read a variety of texts from a variety of genres and historical periods
Understand the conventions of the genres and their relationship to rhetorical situations
We want our students to… Understand and Follow Directions
Read essay prompts accurately Recognize there is a pattern to the prompts -
Read the selection Write an essay in which you… Pay close attention to the word following “you”
Analyze Develop Support, refute, qualify Characterize Take a position on
We want our students to… Think Critically Thinking should not be programmatic
nor simplistic What Constitutes Critical Thinking Skills
Finding analogies and other kinds of relationships between pieces of information
Determining the relevance and validity of information that could be used for structuring and solving problems
Finding and evaluating solutions or alternative ways of treating problems
Critical Thinking #2-Getting below the Surface
Understanding the meaning of a text before identifying writer’s strategies and techniques
To begin by identifying the techniques often leads to a list of parts that may only tangentially relate to the meaning of the text
We want our students to… Have Persuasion Skills The responsibility of a writer is to
convince the reader the writers’ POV is viable
We teach persuasion techniques and devices and we want our students to…
Incorporate these skills into their own persuasive, descriptive, and analytical writing
We want our students to… Select Evidence Effectively Teach students to use evidence for
which they can provide a clear rationale Eschew novels or other literary texts to
gain false credence for an argument Evidence fails to convince if the reader
cannot fully grasp its relevance
We want our students to… Effectively Select Details Students must understand the
difference between “telling” details and details that merely “pad”
More details are not necessarily better Three examples may or may not be
better than two
We want our students to… Effectively Decipher Text The trinity of stylistic analysis - imagery,
diction, and syntax - is a useful tool to understand how a writer has accomplished the effect.
But…tools are only as good as what they accomplish - they have minimal intrinsic value. Maintain balance.
We want our students to… Develop Ethos Personal essays have value Students need to learn the value of
establishing ethos as a tool in convincing the reader the writer’s POV is viable.
Students need to learn how to present personal experience as relevant and appropriate evidence.
We want our students to… Go Beyond the 5-Paragraph Essay
5-paragraph essay and other formulistic methods cause more problems than they solve…. Lack of individual voice Limitation of Invention to three points Ignoring salient issues and belaboring the
obvious Can annoy reader…
We want our students to… Develope Personal Voice Urge students to risk making their own
perceptive claims Urge students to create their own
organic structures Encourage risk taking Flawed “something” is almost always
preferable to the well-wrought “nothing”
Course teaches… students how to cite sources using a
recognized editorial style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style
Overview
I. Preparation for the Exam
II. The Exam
III. The Prompts
IV. Scoring
II. The AP English Exam Date - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 8am Website -
apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc The fee for each AP Exam is $86. Fee Reduction - The College Board provides a $22 fee
reduction per exam for qualified students with acute financial need. For each eligible student, schools should also forgo their $8 rebate. Thus, eligible students pay $56 per exam.
II. The AP English Exam Exam Structure
How the exam is constructed
Committee of 8 (4/4)
Psychometricians & Specialists
Testing Questions
II. The AP English Exam Committee
II. The AP English Exam Section I - Multiple Choice Questions
45% of grade
54 - 56 questions on 6 readings
60 minutes allotted
II. The AP English Exam Advice on Multiple Choice Questions
First look at and then scan all the readings
Note the number of questions associated
with each reading - pick readings with the
largest number of questions
Answer the easy questions first - there are
easy and hard questions on each reading
II. The AP English Exam Advice on Multiple Choice Questions
Of the five choices…4 are “distracters” 1 is clearly wrong 1 is partially wrong 1 is the opposite of the right answer 1 is nearly right 1 is right (key)
Guess… if you can reduce the possible answers to at least 3 - better 2
If the answer is obvious, it is usually right
II. The AP English Exam Advice on Multiple Choice Questions
New Question - At least one of the
readings will include footnotes and there
will be 2 - 4 questions associated with that
reading that refer to the footnotes
II. The AP English Exam Section II - Free Response Questions
55% of grade
3 Questions
135 minutes allotted of which 15 minutes is
devoted to reading provided sources for
the “synthesis” question
II. The AP English Exam Section II - Free Response Questions
Advice on Free Response Questions Scan all the questions and pick the easiest for
you - maybe start with the “synthesis” question
Plan before writing and identify examples you
plan to use
Timing - give yourself time for all three essays
Relationship between short answer and essays
III. The Prompts Read the prompts carefully - Recognize there is a pattern to the
prompts - Read the selection Write an essay in which you…… Pay close attention to the word following
“you”
III. The Prompts
The passage below is an excerpt from What are People For? By Wendell Berry. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you support, refute, or qualify Berry’s argument. Use appropriate evidence to develop your position.
III. The Prompts“Below are excerpts from a crucial scene in
Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar…. Read the excepts carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetoric of both arguments and explain why you think the Caesar finds Decius’s argument more persuasive than Calphurnia’s. You may want to consider such elements as choice of detail, use of appeals, and understanding of audience.”
III. The Prompts“The following passage concludes an essay by
Edward Abbey about Aravaipa Canyon in New Mexico. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you characterize Abbey’s attitudes toward nature and analyze how Abbey conveys these views.”
III. The Prompts“From talk radio to television shows, from popular
magazines to Web blogs, ordinary citizens, political figures, and entertainers express their opinions on a wide range of topics. Are these opinions worthwhile? Does the expression of such opinions foster dramatic values?
Write an essay in which you take a position on the value of such public statements of opinion, supporting your view with appropriate evidence.”
III. The Prompts“The passage below is an excerpt from “On Want of
Money,” an essay written by nineteenth-century author William Hazlitt. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies Hazlitt uses to develop his position about money.”
III. The Prompts“The passage below is an excerpt from Jennifer Price’s
recent essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History.” The essay examines the popularity of the plastic pink flamingo in the 1950s. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Price crafts the text to reveal her view of United States culture.”
III. The Prompts“The following prompt is based on the accompanying six sources. The
question requires you to integrate a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. Refer to the sources to support your position: avoid mere paraphrase or summary. Your argument should be central; the sources should support this argument.
Remember to attribute both the direct and indirect citations.Television has been influential in United States presidential elections since
the 1960’s. But just what is this influence and how has it affected who is elected? Has it made elections fairer and more accessible, or has it moved candidates from pursuing issues to pursuing image?
Read the following sources (including any introductory information) carefully. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources for support, take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the claim that television has had a positive impact on presidential elections.”
The Scoring The reading context The training The Rubric The instructions to readers Insider tips
The Scoring 2002 Free-response essay - rangefinders “Carefully read the following passage
from Testaments Betrayed, by the Czech writer Milan Kundera. Then write an essay in which you support, qualify, or dispute Kundera's claim. Support your argument with appropriate evidence.”