AP English Language and Composition Course Don Stoll, Associate Professor Writing Arts Department Rowan University

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 Denotation - The explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that a word usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguished from those elicited for any individual speaker because of personal experience. Connotation - the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.” Inference - reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence Implication - a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred

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.”