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

·         makes suggestions to improve writing (Peer Reviews)

 

Mock Paideia Seminar – Lost in the Funhouse, Barth

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

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 

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

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

A. E. Housman – Is my team plowing

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

Edwin Arlington Robinson – Eros Turannos

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;

·         includes a bibliography of reference material

Quarter Three Novel:
Scarlet Letter, The – Hawthorne, Nathaniel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writing About Literature - Formal 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.

Standards and Benchmarks 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) 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 Formal Essays, AP Essays ·         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 - includes footnotes - 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

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

AP Test Prep