Getting Started

Course Description and Expectations

Mock AP Exam

Discussion of Mock AP Exam, including scoring guidelines, sample responses and scoring summary

Discussion of Summer AP Essays & Peer Reviews

Standard 1: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

ELA-AP.12.1.3  Evaluates own and others' writing

Peer Reviews, AP Training, Common Errors, AP Website

The Elements of Fiction – Part One

Reading the Story

Richard Connell – The Most Dangerous Game

Tobias Wolff – Hunters in the Snow

Essential Literary Terms - 8 to 12

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.1  Knows the defining characteristics and understands a variety of literary forms and genres

·         fiction

·         nonfiction

·         poems

·         parodies

·         satires

·         drama

ELA-AP.12.6.8  Uses language and perspectives of literary criticism to evaluate literary works

Plot and Structure

Graham Greene – The Destructors

Alice Munro – How I Met My Husband

Essential Literary Terms - 150 to 154, 167 to 178

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.2 Analyzes the use of complex elements of plot in specific literary works

·         time frame,

·         cause-and-effect relationships,

·         conflicts,

·         resolution

Characterization

Alice Walker – Everyday Use

Katherine Mansfield – Miss Brill

Mary Hood – How Far She Went

Essential Literary terms - 125 to 144

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.3 Analyzes the simple and complex actions (e.g., internal/external conflicts) between main and subordinate characters in literary works containing complex character structures

Theme

Toni Cade Bambara – The Lesson

John Updike – A & P

Eudora Welty – A Worn Path

Nadine Gordimer – Once upon a Time

Essential Literary Terms - 154 to 162

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.5  Understands how themes are used across literary works and genres

·         universal themes in literature of different cultures, such as death and rebirth, initiation, love and duty;

·         major themes in World literature;

·         authors associated with major themes of specific eras 

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.4  Knows archetypes and symbols

Supernatural helpers
Banishment from an ideal world
The hero
Beneficence of nature, dawn
American literature,
world literature
literature based on oral tradition
mythology, film, political speeches
understands allusions to mythology and other literature
 

 

Point of View

Shirley Jackson – The Lottery

Katherine Anne Porter – The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

Ernest Hemingway – Hills Like White Elephants

Essential Literary Terms - 112 to 122

Standard 5:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

ELA-AP.12.5.2 Understands the philosophical assumptions and basic beliefs underlying an author's work

·         point of view, attitude, and values conveyed by specific language

·         clarity and consistency of political assumptions

 Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.7  Understands relationships between literature and its historical period, culture, and society

influence of historical context on form, style, and point of view;

influence of literature on political events;

social influences on author's description of characters, plot, and setting;

how writer's represent and reveal their cultures and traditions

The Elements of Poetry – Part One

What is Poetry?

Robert Hayden – The Whipping

Emily Dickinson – The last Night that She lived

William Carlos Williams – The Red Wheelbarrow

Langston Hughes – Suicide’s Note

Adrienne Rich – Poetry: 101

Archibald MacLeish – Ars Poetica 102

Essential Literary Terms - 13 to 16

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.1  Knows the defining characteristics and understands a variety of literary forms and genres

·         fiction

·         nonfiction

·         poems

·         parodies

·         satires

·         drama

Reading the Poem

John Donne – Break of Day

Emily Dickinson – There’s been a Death, in the Opposite

House

Mari Evans – When in Rome

Sylvia Plath – Mirror

William Blake – The Clod and the Pebble

Standard 5:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

ELA-AP.12.5.1 Understands writing techniques used to influence the reader and accomplish an author’s purpose

·         organizational patterns, figures of speech, tone, literary and technical language,

·         formal and informal language

·         narrative perspective

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.5  Understands how themes are used across literary works and genres

·         universal themes in literature of different cultures, such as death and rebirth, initiation, love and duty;

·         major themes in World literature;

·         authors associated with major themes of specific eras 

Denotation and Connotation

Henry Reed – Naming of Parts

Langston Hughes – Cross

Robert Frost – Desert Places

John Donne – A Hymn to God the Father

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6 Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work

·         tone;

·         irony;

·         mood;

·         figurative language;

·         allusion;

·         diction;

·         dialogue;

·         symbolism;

·         point of view;

·         voice;

·         understatement and overstatement;

·         time and sequence;

·         narrator;

·         poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Imagery

Gerard Manley Hopkins – Spring

William Carlos Williams – The Widow’s Lament

in Springtime

Adrienne Rich – Living in Sin

Seamus Heaney – The Forge

Robert Frost – After Apple-Picking

Jean Toomer – Reapers

John Keats – To Autumn

Essential Literary Terms: 83 to 92

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6 Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work

·         tone;

·         irony;

·         mood;

·         figurative language;

·         allusion;

·         diction;

·         dialogue;

·         symbolism;

·         point of view;

·         voice;

·         understatement and overstatement;

·         time and sequence;

·         narrator;

·         poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Figurative Language: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy,

Sylvia Plath – Metaphors

John Donne – A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Andrew Marvell – To His Coy Mistress

Langston Hughes – Dream Deferred

Billy Collins – Introduction to Poetry

Essential literary Terms - 32 to 42

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6 Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work

·         tone;

·         irony;

·         mood;

·         figurative language;

·         allusion;

·         diction;

·         dialogue;

·         symbolism;

·         point of view;

·         voice;

·         understatement and overstatement;

·         time and sequence;

·         narrator;

·         poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Speaking Listening and Viewing

Standard 8:  Uses listening and speaking strategies for different audiences and purposes

ELA-AP.12.8.2  Asks questions as a way to broaden and enrich classroom discussions

Discussion Rubric, Novel and Daily Discussions

 

ELA-AP.12.8.3  Makes formal presentations to the class

Chapter Summaries

·         includes definitions for clarity;

·         supports main ideas using anecdotes, examples, statistics, analogies, and other evidence;

·         uses visual aids or technology, such as transparencies, slides, electronic media;

·         cites information sources

·         Uses text, images, and sound

- selects the appropriate medium, such as television broadcast, videos, web pages, films, newspapers, magazines, CD-ROMS, Internet, computer-media-generated images;

- edits and monitors for quality;

- organizes, writes, and designs media messages for specific purposes

ELA-AP.12.8.4  Understands influences on language use

Discussion Rubric, Novel and Daily Discussions

·         political beliefs

·         positions of social power

·          culture

Writing About Literature - Formal & AP Essays

        Writing Interpretive Essays based on a careful observation of the work's textual details, considering such elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.

Essential Literary Terms - 247 to 274

Standard 1:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

ELA-AP.12.1.1 Drafting and Revising: Uses a variety of strategies to draft and revise written work

Peer Reviews, Teacher Reviews, Content & Structure Checklist, Voluntary Rewrites, Common Errors

·         rethinks content, organization, and style;

·         checks accuracy and depth of information;

·         redrafts for readability and needs of readers (AP and Formal Essays);

·         reviews writing to ensure that form and content meet the purpose (AP and Formal Essays);

·         responds productively to reviews of own work

 

ELA-AP.12.1.2  Editing and Publishing: Uses a variety of strategies to edit and publish written work

Grammar Checklist, Peer Reviews, Teacher Reviews, Voluntary Rewrites, Common Errors

·         uses a checklist to guide proofreading;

·         edits for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling at a developmentally appropriate level;

·         refines selected pieces to publish for general and specific audiences;

·         uses available technology, such as publishing software or graphics programs, to publish written work

 

ELA-AP.12.1.3  Evaluates own and others' writing

Peer Reviews, AP Training, Common Errors, AP Website

·         accumulates a body of written work to determine strengths and weaknesses as a writer (AP Website)

·         makes suggestions to improve writing (Peer Reviews)

 

ELA-AP.12.1.4  Writes expository compositions

Formal Essays, AP Essays

·         Uses descriptions

·         synthesizes and organizes information from first- and second-hand sources, including books, magazines, computer data banks, and the community (Integrating Quotes); 

·         uses a variety of techniques to develop the main idea [names, describes, or differentiates parts; compares or contrasts; examines the history of a subject; cites an anecdote to provide an example; illustrates through a scenario; provides interesting facts about the subject] (Content);

·         distinguishes relative importance of facts, data, and ideas (Choise of Support);

·         uses appropriate technical terms and notations (Essential Literary Terms)

 

ELA-AP.12.1.5  Writes in response to literature

Formal Essays, AP Essays

·         suggests an interpretation (Thesis);

·         recognizes possible ambiguities, nuances, and complexities in a text

·         interprets passages of a novel in terms of their significance to the novel as a whole;

·         focuses on the theme of a literary work (Theeme);

·         explains concepts found in literary works (Essential Literary Terms);

·         examines literature from several critical perspectives (Critical Analyses)

·         analyzes use of imagery and language (Voice)

·         understands author's stylistic devices and effects created (Voice & Tone); 

 

Standard 2:  Uses style and rhetoric in writing 

 

ELA-AP.12.2.1 Uses precise and descriptive language that clarifies and enhances ideas and supports different purposes (Rhetoric)

Formal Essays, AP Essays

·         to stimulate the imagination of the reader,

·         to translate concepts into simpler or more easily understood terms

·         to achieve a specific tone,

·         to explain concepts in literature

 

ELA-AP.12.2.2  Uses a variety of sentence structures and lengths (Style)

Formal Essays, AP Essays

·         complex and compound-complex sentences;

·         parallel sentence structure

 

ELA-AP.12.2.3  Uses a variety of transitional devices (e.g., phrases, sentences, paragraphs) (Transitions)

Formal Essays, AP Essays

 

ELA-AP.12.2.4  Uses a variety of techniques to provide supporting detail (Style & Support) (See ELA-AP.12.1.4)

Formal Essays, AP Essays

·         analogies;

·         anecdotes;

·         restatements;

·         paraphrases;

·         examples;

·         comparisons;

 

ELA-AP.12.2.5  Organizes ideas to achieve cohesion in writing (Structure)

Formal Essays, AP Essays

 

Standard 3:  Uses grammar and mechanical conventions in written compositions

 

ELA-AP.12.3.1  Uses mechanical conventions in written compositions (See ELA-AP.12.1.2)

Formal Essays, AP Essays

Grammar Checklist, Peer Reviews, Teacher Reviews, Voluntary Rewrites, Common Errors

·         Uses conventions of spelling in written compositions

- spells high frequency, commonly misspelled words from appropriate grade-level list;

- uses a dictionary and other resources to spell words

·         Uses conventions of capitalization in written compositions

- within divided quotations;

- for historical periods and events, geological eras, religious terms, scientific terms

·         Uses conventions of punctuation in written compositions

- uses commas with nonrestrictive clauses and contrasting expressions

- uses quotation marks with ending punctuation

- uses colons before extended quotations

- uses hyphens for compound adjectives

- uses semicolons between independent clauses

- uses dashes to break continuity of thought

·         Uses commonly confused terms in written compositions (e.g., affect and effect) also false cognates - Spanish

·         Uses standard format in written compositions (MLA Style Sheet)

- includes footnotes (MLA Style Sheet)

- uses italics [for works of art, for foreign words and phrases]

- uses bold or underlined headings

Standard 4:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

 

ELA-AP.12.4.1 Synthesizes information from multiple sources to draw conclusions (Use of Critical Analyses, Small & Large Group Discussions, Primary Text, Secondary Support Materials)

Formal Essays

ELA-AP.12.4.2 Use standard format and methodology for documenting reference sources  (See ELA-AP.12.3.1) (MLA Style Sheet)

Formal Essay

·         credits quotes and paraphrased ideas;

·         understands the meaning and consequences of plagiarism;

·         distinguishes own ideas from others;

·         uses the Modern Language Association style sheet for citing sources;

Quarter Three Novel:
King Lear - Shakespeare, William

Quarter Four Novel:
Great Gatsby, The – Fitzgerald, F. Scott

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.1  Knows the defining characteristics and understands a variety of literary forms and genres

·         fiction

·         nonfiction

·         poems

·         parodies

·         satires

·         drama

        The Elements of Poetry – Part Two

Symbol &  Allegory

Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken

Walt Whitman – A Noiseless Patient Spider

William Blake – The Sick Rose

Seamus Heaney – Digging

Robert Frost – Fire and Ice

Richard Wilbur – The Writer

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.4. Knows archetypes and symbols (e.g., supernatural helpers, banishment from an ideal world, the hero, beneficence of nature, dawn) present in a variety of literary texts (e.g., American literature, world literature, literature based on oral tradition, mythology, film, political speeches

Paradox, Overstatement, Understatement, Irony

Emily Dickinson – Much Madness is divinest Sense

Countee Cullen – Incident

Marge Piercy – Barbie Doll

William Blake – The Chimney Sweeper

Elisavietta Ritchie – Sorting Laundry

Billy Collins – The History Teacher

W. H. Auden – The Unknown Citizen

Robert Browning – My Last Duchess

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6. Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work
• tone;
• irony;
• mood;
• figurative language;
• allusion;
• diction;
• dialogue;
• symbolism;
• point of view;
• voice;
• understatement and overstatement;
• time and sequence;
• narrator;
• poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Allusion

Robert Frost – “Out, Out—”

e. e. cummings – in Just—

Countee Cullen – Yet Do I Marvel

Edwin Arlington Robinson – Miniver Cheevy

T. S. Eliot – Journey of the Magi

Adrienne Rich – I Dream I’m the Death of Orpheus

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.7. Understands relationships between literature and its historical period, culture, and society connection to other subject areas
• influence of historical context on form, style, and point of view;
• influence of literature on political events;
• social influences on author's description of characters, plot, and setting;
• how writer's represent and reveal their cultures and traditions
 

Meaning and Idea

Robert Frost – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Ralph Waldo Emerson – The Rhodora

Emily Dickinson – “Faith” is a fine invention

John Keats – On the Sonnet

Billy Collins – My Number 189

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.5. Understands how themes are used across literary works and genres
• universal themes in literature of different cultures, such as death and rebirth, initiation, love and duty;
• major themes in American literature;
• authors associated with major themes of specific eras
 

Tone

Richard Eberhart – For a Lamb

Michael Drayton – Since there’s no help

William Shakespeare – My mistress’ eyes

Adrienne Rich – Miracle Ice Cream

Thomas Hardy – The Oxen

John Donne The Apparition

John Donne – The Flea

Matthew Arnold – Dover Beach

Standard 5:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

ELA-AP.12.5.2. Understands the philosophical assumptions and basic beliefs underlying an author's work (e.g., point of view, attitude, and values conveyed by specific language; clarity and consistency of political assumptions)

Musical Devices

Ogden Nash – The Turtle

Theodore Roethke – The Waking

Gwendolyn Brooks – We Real Cool

Maya Angelou – Woman Work

William Stafford – Traveling through the dark

Marilyn Hacker – 1973

Robert Frost – Nothing Gold Can Stay

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6. Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work
• tone;
• irony;
• mood;
• figurative language;
• allusion;
• diction;
• dialogue;
• symbolism;
• point of view;
• voice;
• understatement and overstatement;
• time and sequence;
• narrator;
• poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Rhythm and Meter

George Herbert – Virtue

Walt Whitman – Had I the Choice

Sylvia Plath – Old Ladies’ Home

Claude McKay – The Tropics in New York

Linda Pastan – To a Daughter Leaving Home

Judith Ortiz Cofer – Quinceañera

Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Constantly risking absurdity

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6. Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work
• tone;
• irony;
• mood;
• figurative language;
• allusion;
• diction;
• dialogue;
• symbolism;
• point of view;
• voice;
• understatement and overstatement;
• time and sequence;
• narrator;
• poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Sound and Meaning

Alexander Pope – Sound and Sense

Emily Dickinson – I heard a Fly buzz—when I died

Margaret Atwood – Landcrab

John Updike – Recital

Galway Kinnell – Blackberry Eating

Richard Wilbur – A Fire-Truck

William Carlos Williams – The Dance

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

ELA-AP.12.6.6. Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work
• tone;
• irony;
• mood;
• figurative language;
• allusion;
• diction;
• dialogue;
• symbolism;
• point of view;
• voice;
• understatement and overstatement;
• time and sequence;
• narrator;
• poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Pattern

John Keats – On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Dylan Thomas – Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

John Donne – Death, be not proud

Martha Collins – The Story We Know

Wendy Cope – Lonely Hearts

Maxine Kumin – Woodchucks

Robert Herrick – Delight in Disorder

Michael McFee – In Medias Res

Standard 5:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
ELA-AP.12.6.6. Understands the effects of author's style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work
• tone;
• irony;
• mood;
• figurative language;
• allusion;
• diction;
• dialogue;
• symbolism;
• point of view;
• voice;
• understatement and overstatement;
• time and sequence;
• narrator;
• poetic elements, such as sound, imagery, personification

Evaluating Poetry: Sentimental, Rhetorical, Didactic Verse & Poetic Excellence

John Donne – The Canonization

John Keats – Ode on a Grecian Urn

Emily Dickinson – There’s a certain Slant of light

Robert Frost – Home Burial

T. S. Eliot – The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Langston Hughes – The Weary Blues

Adrienne Rich – Diving into the Wreck

Standard 6:  Uses skills and strategies to understand and interpret literary texts

Writing About Literature - Formal Essays

ELA-AP.12.4.2 Use standard format and methodology for documenting reference sources

Formal Essay

·         credits quotes and paraphrased ideas;

·         understands the meaning and consequences of plagiarism;

·         distinguishes own ideas from others;

·         uses the Modern Language Association style sheet for citing sources;

·         includes a bibliography of reference material

Speaking Listening and Viewing

Standard 8:  Uses listening and speaking strategies for different audiences and purposes

ELA-AP.12.8.2  Asks questions as a way to broaden and enrich classroom discussions

Discussion Rubric, Novel and Daily Discussions

 

ELA-AP.12.8.3  Makes formal presentations to the class

Chapter Summaries

·         includes definitions for clarity;

·         supports main ideas using anecdotes, examples, statistics, analogies, and other evidence;

·         uses visual aids or technology, such as transparencies, slides, electronic media;

·         cites information sources

·         Uses text, images, and sound

- selects the appropriate medium, such as television broadcast, videos, web pages, films, newspapers, magazines, CD-ROMS, Internet, computer-media-generated images;

- edits and monitors for quality;

- organizes, writes, and designs media messages for specific purposes

ELA-AP.12.8.4  Understands influences on language use

Discussion Rubric, Novel and Daily Discussions

·         political beliefs

·         positions of social power

·          culture