The Essence of AP English Language and Composition

1. Scales of Abstraction and Causation Begin with the Abstract-Concrete Continuum Incorporate a horizontal continuum: –From cause to effect –From past to future Recognize the interplay of the two continua.

2. Judging Thinking The AP English teacher is a coach is dedicated to teaching thinking in reading and writing. Teach thinking in the language arts and then judge thinking. Everything, including a mission to eradicate comma splices, is subordinate to judging thinking.

3. Thinking with Two Hands Think with both hemispheres of the brain: –Rationality –Creativity Look for the binary elements of the reading –Antecedent and sequence –Cause and effect –Concession to the opposition (“Although”)

4. Teach with Two Arms One arm points to the new—upward, outward, forward. The other arm supports students who are facing the new. Both arms are open, welcoming students to the Rhetoric Club. Never use an arm to stiff-arm students.

5. Less Is More Believe it.

6. Passing Rates Do not enhance pass rates (percentages of 3s, 4s, and 5s) by gatekeeping. A 92% pass rate is admirable, but if you were doing a better job, you’d have a lower pass rate. Teach administrators the irony of accomplishment in the AP universe. Less is more.

7. Use Data Analyze strengths and areas to improve by understanding the Instructional Planning Report. –Analyze multiple-choice performance. –Analyze essay performance. –Cross train students with multiple-choice and essay passages. Evaluate your instruction based on these analyses.

8. Borrowing Information Summary –Practice in order to evaluate students’ skills in reading, writing, and thinking. Paraphrase –Differentiate paraphrase from summary and quotation. Direct quotation –Training: Use ellipses to save ink, energy, and time and to demonstrate and define the commitment to analysis rather than copying.

9. Syntactic Maturity The phrase-oriented sentence is good. It defines. The clause-oriented sentence is better. It acts and tends to define more precisely. –Key word = that. Practice with that-clauses. –Practice using more active, vivid, defining verbs.

10. Conversing with the Text Conversing with a text is a good way to think about synthesis essays, argumentative essays, analytical essays, and multiple-choice passages and questions.