English Literature
Advanced Placement Institute
Participants in this institute will work together and explore a variety of teaching strategies proven effective in teaching students the goals and objectives shared by teachers of Advanced Placement English literature which include confidence and facility with language; skill in critical reading, writing, and thinking; and success in academic endeavors. The institute design is based on the premise that the exam measures those skills that students need in order to be successful in college. This institute will ask participants to actively engage in those activities designed to demonstrate specific instructional strategies that have proven effective in preparing students to perform well on *AP Exam in English Literature and Composition.
Teaching the Advanced Placement course in English literature includes using approaches that develop skills to study and write about poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction. We will concern ourselves with the construction of style analysis covered in the *AP English Literature Examination, and with several other modes of writing. Discussion of the *AP examination will include test materials and student exemplars from current and previous examinations. We will explore the multiple-choice section to determine the teaching of close reading skills and literary terms and techniques. We will also look specifically at strategies to teach tone, alternative discussion techniques, and how to use critical theory in the *AP English classroom.
1. Advanced Placement Examination in English Literature and Composition.
We will spend a significant amount of time dealing with both the free response and multiple-choice sections of the examination. The study of student samples for a variety of free-response questions from the 2008 exam will provide participants with analysis, reading and scoring techniques. These techniques will enable the AP English teacher to return to his/her classroom and empower students to read, analyze, write about and score essays based on literature selections. The examination in English Literature free response section is composed of three essays which usually require students to analyze a prose fiction or non-fiction passage, a piece of poetry and a work of their own choosing to analyze a universal idea or literary theme. We will consider passages from a variety of sources. We will also discuss a variety of strategies to assess student writing.
2. Close Reading and style analysis of prose (including drama and non-fiction) and unit design.
"Students should read widely and reflect on their reading through intensive discussion, writing and rewriting" (The College Board, Advanced Placement Course Description, May 2001, 2002). During the institute participants will read, analyze and develop lessons using genre from a variety of periods and styles in order for students “to understand a work's complexity, to absorb its richness of meaning, and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form" (The College Board, Advanced Placement Course Description, May 2000, 2001).Participants are encouraged to bring units or activities with which they have had success in order to share their ideas with the other participants. The works we will look at include a variety drama, fiction, and non-fiction. We will address the concept of weaving a variety of genres within a single unit. In all cases we will discuss how the assessments should drive the design of the unit.
3. Poetry
The most essential difference between the English Language and English Literature courses is embedded in the inherent distinction in the way one reads and writes about "imaginative literature"—which must include poetry—as opposed to other forms of prose, generally non-fiction in its many forms. During the institute we will attempt to identify classroom techniques for studying poetry from a variety of time periods, using many of Helen Vendler's ideas to guide our discussions. We will also focus specifically on the concept of how to teach tone.
4. Critical Theory
Teaching literary theory to high school students may seem irrelevant. After all, Appleman (2000) acknowledges that literary theory is often "dismissed as a sort intellectual parlor game played by MLA types"
(p. 2). However, she goes on to argue that in fact not only is it relevant, it "will better prepare adolescent readers to respond reflectively and analytically to literary texts" (p.2). We will explore how using critical lenses allows new distinctions or categories for looking at a work.
5. Varied Approaches to Texts
We will examine approaches to critical thinking that include not only printed text, but non-print text including musical and visual texts.
Daily Schedule
Monday
Teaching the AP English Course: Who should take this course? What are the standards for this course? What resources are available? Is there an accepted Curriculum? Why should my students take the test?
Using assessments to drive curriculum and instruction.
Prose
Tuesday:
Prose Continued.
Literary Devices: The Three C’s
Discussion Strategies
The 2008 AP English Literature Test: Question One
Wednesday: Teaching Poetry
Teaching Poetry with a Focus on Tone
The 2008 AP English Literature Test: Question Two
Thursday and Friday
Teaching Drama
Teaching Critical Theory
The 2008 AP English Literature Test: Question Three
The AP English Literature and Composition Test: Multiple Choice
