Resources for Planning

The summer before my first year teaching AP Language I attended AP Summer Institute to receive the requisite training. I reviewed the provided course syllabi from my instructor and discussed the course description and expected outcomes with experienced teachers. We worked on sample prompts and answered practice questions. I felt confident in my ability to accomplish the demands of the AP Language exam, but when it came to planning day-to-day lessons in a meaningful and effective way, I was lost. I didn't want to only focus on the exam, but I felt overwhelmed by the open-endedness of the material and class. I needed structure and guidance. So I decided to spend my final weeks of summer researching and studying argumentation and determining how it fit with the expectations of the AP Lang exam. 

I determined that in order for my students to understand the depths of argumentation, I would need to introduce the material in the following order:

1. Constructing arguments

2. Analyzing arguments

3. Synthesizing arguments 

Here are my top resources that helped me understand and plan for each of these categories:

Constructing arguments: Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs 

This book is divided into 20+ easy-to-understand chapters that break down the qualities of successful arguments. Heinrich's is a pro when it comes to demonstrating techniques and finding modern examples of them in the wild. This book is commonly assigned to AP Lang students as summer reading so they have foundational understanding before diving into the specifics. I really like the activities Heinrich's includes within each chapter and have found them useful in the creation of classroom activities. 

Analyzing arguments: Teaching Nonfiction in AP English by Renee H. Shea and Lawrence Scanlon

Although this resource is out of print, it is available via PDF here. This resource partners with 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, which is used in many AP classrooms. What makes this resource so helpful to AP Lang rookies is that it provides a general overview about the text and how a teacher can approach it with their students. Then, it provides sample analysis activities and prompts to use instructionally. When it came to feeling confident as an AP Lang teacher, this resource was the most helpful for me as it helped me develop lessons that got students to critically analyze a myriad of texts, not just the conventional speeches. 

Synthesizing arguments: Room for Debate from The New York Times

One of the most effective synthesis activities I do nearly each unit utilizes a Room for Debate post. I ask students to read the provided articles and then I break them into groups (one group per writer). They work as a group to ensure they understand the writer's point of view and then I host a Socratic Seminar where I pose questions and students must participate as if they are the writer. The questions ask them to debate various elements of the given situation or problem. I hold students accountable to embody the writer by saying, "As _____, I believe..." and then use evidence from the writer's article for support. After the discussion, I ask students to write their own opinion using the sources for support. I do not require students to use 3 sources (like the exam) for this assignment, and have found that they do better selecting sources that truly support their argument as a result. 

Best Resource Overall: Teaching Arguments by Jennifer Fletcher

This text was written with the high school teacher in mind. It walks through the process of learning argumentation: comprehending, analyzing, and responding. When my students are stuck or frustrated with a specific topic, this is my go-to resource to find a new way to reach their needs. 

Additional Resources:

Logical Fallacies:

Being Logical 

An Illustrated Guide to Bad Arguments

Writing Instruction:

Writing with Mentors

The Journey is Everything

They Say I Say

Understanding Rhetorical Devices/Tools:

Word Hero

Words Like Loaded Pistols

Share your favorite resources in the comments!

Text Message Rhetoric Lesson

One of the biggest challenges for AP Lang students is rhetorical analysis. Analysis is naturally difficult for them to wrap their heads around, and it's difficult to us to teach because we're essentially trying to teach thinking, which is about as abstract as it gets!

Of course teachers recognize the irony of this is that we, and our students, actually practice rhetorical analysis skills subconsciously all the time. Every time we over-think a conversation with a friend or a parent or a would-be significant other, we analyze how their conversational choices may have betrayed an underlying purpose.

So a few years ago I decided to harness this in my classroom as our very first introduction to rhetorical analysis. Instead of just analyzing face to face conversation, which would be difficult to replicate in the classroom, I had the idea to analyze text messages: they're written communication with infinite composition choices available, easily accessible en masse by students bringing their phones, and would allow students to realize that they do this kind of analysis by default.

I always start off with a general conversation about what analysis is, and I ask for examples of the last time they "over-thought" something someone said in a conversation; I like using that terminology because they immediately get it that they do this pretty regularly, even if they don't think they analyze rhetorically. Then of course I transition to the fact that formal analysis is just doing this intentionally and on a grander scale.

We move into discussing text messages as "texts" that can be dug into. They're skeptical until I give them an anecdote about how I was out shopping one Black Friday and texted my then-new husband something long and wordy and bubbly about my busy day and being excited to see him soon when I got home. I turn to the board and write "ok." and tell them that was his response.

They immediately go, "Oooooohhh yeah" and chuckle in recognition. They instantaneously get why that text message freaked me out thinking something was wrong.

So we talk about the choices that he made: the choice to put a period at the end of it, the choice to respond to an effusive message with a two-letter response, the choice to just write "ok" instead of "okay," "OK," or "o.k. :)"

(To be fair, we also talk about how his rhetorical choices may not have been intentional at all, because he's a stereotypical guy and doesn't think like that! But this leads to a conversation about whether authorial-intent or reader-assumption is more relevant here.)

 I ask them to get out their phones and spend some time looking for messages that seem to have made specific rhetorical choices: punctuation, unusual typing or spelling styles, abbreviations, emoticons, etc. A few volunteers write them on the board and the class analyzes what choices were made and what affect they could have on the reader's interpretation of author's purpose.

Finally, we end up trying to take the same message and write it with different choices to change the rhetorical effect. I have a graphic organizer that they used to take notes on the whole lesson.

Years ago I would have them wrap up by writing a brief analytical paragraph on the prompt seen on the handout. But that is now outdated because with the advent of full-keyboard phone screens, people don't text in that same style of shorthand anymore, so if I were going to do that part of the lesson again, I would probably change the example in the prompt.

This lesson works as a really great non-threatening intro to rhetorical analysis. It gives them confidence that they can do this and it just takes time to build into reading more complex texts.

But I'd say my favorite part of the lesson is more than just what they take from it; the best part is that it's a fun lesson. We spend most of the block laughing at the seemingly-silly choices that get made in texts between teenagers, and we laugh at ourselves for the over-analyzing we manage to talk ourselves into. I will relish any opportunity to make analysis seem like something they actually want to engage in.

It is their job! Foster Student Writing Self-Analysis and Goal Setting

“Grading papers today? Don’t confuse the job of a writing teacher with that of a copy editor.”

--Carol Jago[1]

The message in the twitterverse is clear.  How much work are we doing as teachers?  How can we foster metacognitive students who self-assess their own writing needs and create a plan for growth? While students may note strengths or weaknesses in the writing of others, many students still make the same rhetorical choices and grammatical errors in their own papers.  If students are to succeed as college writers and in the workforce, a teacher can’t be, as Carol Jago terms it, “a copy editor.” As the quarter draws to a close, it is time to make a plan for students to evaluate their writing, apply their writing practice and learning, and set goals for writing growth through a Writing Analysis Portfolio.

The Writing Analysis Portfolio is a combination of a Diagnostic Portfolio designed by AP Institute Consultant, Sharon Johnston, Ed.D.[2], and a Rhetorical Rationale I used as an English 1010 concurrent enrollment instructor.   The Diagnostic Portfolio requires students to analyze their grammar and style.  The Rhetorical Rationale requires students to evaluate themselves on how well they met the college’s composition outcomes by providing evidence from essay drafts and finals written during the term.  As an AP Lang instructor, I use the Chief Reader Challenge Areas[3] and Core Intro to Comp Skills presented at the 2015 AP Reading Open Forum for student self-evaluation.  Both methods require students’ metacognitive reflection and goal setting to increase performance by focusing on specific writing outcomes based on their analysis of work.  The Writing Analysis Portfolio utilizes both assignments to help students become more conscious the errors they make and provides ways for students to improve their writing.

The first step in a Writing Analysis Portfolio is for students to gain knowledge of their grammar and syntax knowledge and practice.  Students take a diagnostic grammar assessment to test their knowledge.  I use either an assessment I create on noredink.com or an online assessment designed by Dr. Kristi Siegel for this purpose.  Students will use these results to later compare knowledge with practice in a reflective analysis of writing.  Next, students evaluate their grammar usage by completing an Error Chart and their syntax by completing a Grammar Grid for a timed essay and a process paper.  While I mark one of the essays as if I were a copy editor, the other essay must be evaluated by a student for grammar errors.  I allow students to use the Writing Reviser by sascurriculumpathways.com or the error information from turnitin.com to help students locate errors.

The student’s Error Chart shows the reflection made during this process:

The student Grammar Grid allows student to note sentence structure and verb choice:

Finally, students collect all prewriting and drafts for their process essay and any evaluation information for their timed essay.  Using this information and the data collected from the test and grids, students are ready to write a reflective analysis of their writing in a cover letter.  Students will compare their writing with AP rubrics, the Chief ReaderChallenge Areas[4] and Core Intro to Comp Skills in order to assess current skill levels and create goals for improvement. 

Here is a section of a student cover letter that demonstrates the power of self-reflection and goal setting:

Depending on where students are in writing, a teacher can modify the analysis to include items that fit the writing needs of the student.  Maybe your students need to eliminate dead words or they need to “verb loudly” as Crys Hodgens tells her students.  Other students may need to use more complicated sentence structure to improve the style of writing, so one may need to include a syntax analysis with model sentences that they could emulate in their papers.  The options are yours to create a writing analysis assignment that meets the needs of your writers. 

Note: Files are available using the hotlinks or on google drive.

---

[1] @CarolJago. “Grading papers today? Don’t confuse the job of a writing teacher with that of a copy editor.” Twitter, 16 Oct. 2016. 7:44 a.m., https://twitter.com/CarolJago/status/787650316380569600.

[2] Johnston, Sharon, Ed.D., “Diagnostic Writing Portfolio Assignment.” 2008. Print.

[3] Rice, Jodi. “Slides from Open Forum at Lang Reading.” AP Teacher Community English. 13 June 2015. The College Board. https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/group/apenglish/discussion-boards/-/message_boards/view_message/64736048#_19_message_64736048. Accessed 14 June 2015.

[4] Please note an updated Challenge Area slide is available online for members of the AP Teacher Community.  See Rice, Jodi. “Presentation from AP Lang Open Forum at Reading.” AP Teacher Community English. 14 June 2016. The College Board. https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/group/apenglish/resource-details?p_p_id=contentItem_WAR_aptccontentitemportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_col_id=column1&p_p_col_count=1&p_r_p_1243656882_resourceId=92798848&pageQueryString=p_l_id%3D2954628%26p_v_l_s_g_id%3D0%26p_p_id%3DSearch_WAR_aptcsearchportlet%26_Search_WAR_aptcsearchportlet_pageName%3DresourceLibrary%26backToSearch%3Dtrue . Accessed 18 October 2016.

Multiple Choice: Creating Houses and House Challenges

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find working with multiple choice a bit boring. Let's be real for a second - some of those passages do not tickle my fancy...much less that of a teenager. So I was looking for a way to work with multiple choice that did not make it feel like it was a daunting task.

I attended a workshop years ago, and while there, one of the presenters shared with us that she sorts her students into Houses and they compete for House points throughout the year.

I thought, “This is genius! Why didn’t I think of that?” When I returned to my classroom, I gave it a shot. I loved it. The kids loved it. The kids still love it.

Each year we have a House Cup winner. Their prize varies. I have exempted them from the final timed writing of the school year; I have had a donut party for them; I have had a cake party. It’s always different, but most kids enjoy the bragging rights. When they are seniors, several will pop in to see how their House is doing this year.

I use my Houses mostly for multiple choice, but I have also added points for other things as well such as acts of kindness, following directions on the board, etc.

The General Setup

1. My House names are based on authors my students will encounter throughout the year. Other teachers allow their students to pick their own House names, but since I usually have four periods (this year I have five) of AP, I find it more manageable for me to just stick with six houses.

2. Some Houses have their name in a font that represents that author in some way. For example, for House of King, their font is “Chiller.”

3. Each House also has a House color. The House color is usually symbolic of the writer or the text students read. For example, House of O’Brien’s color is green for the jungle Viet Nam soldiers encountered.

4. To keep the Houses as even as possible, I have to do a little math. I sit down and work out how many students from each class period should be in each House before I type the House names. This year it was especially important because my largest class has 32 and my smallest class has 14. It was important that I even out the House numbers from across the class periods. So I set it up to where each House has roughly 21 or 22 students per House across all of my classes.

5. Once my math is complete, I type House names in Harry Potter font. This adds a little flair to the sorting. I type those House names for each class period. With such a difference in class numbers, 3A may have two students in House of King but 3B may have 6. So I would type House of King two times for 3A and then six times for 3B.

6. When House names are printed, I cut them and place them in one of two containers. I do have a Minerva McGonagall hat, and I usually use it during the sorting; however, this year I forgot my hat, so I used a pink trick or treat pumpkin I have in my classroom.

shoe bin with House label

7. House names for one class period go into the hat/pumpkin, and I am ready for sorting day.

8. For setting up where students sit during a House challenge, I have my desks set in groups of six to seven. I have shoe bins for each House. The bins are a way for me to pass out and collect papers, store cell phones, etc. One bin is placed in each House. I make House name labels and tape them to the side of each bin. This allows students to know the location of their House, and the location remains the same the entire year.  

Sorting Day

1. Sorting day is my favorite day because my kids have no idea what to expect or how this will go or what House they will be. Can’t you feel the excitement just reading this?

2. I play the soundtrack from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

3. I walk around the room and have students draw from the hat/pumpkin. As they draw their House name, we yell it. House of King! House of Steinbeck! House of Capote! You get the picture.

4. Once students are sorted, they move to their Houses and introduce themselves to one another.

5. I move around the room, visiting each House, handing them their House paper. Their House paper is a sheet that I have created with four boxes, one for each class period. It also reveals their House color. While visiting with each House, I have a quick conversation with them about the symbolism of their House color, and I show them which box is assigned to their class period. I ask them to each sign their names in that box.

6. Once all classes are sorted, I laminate the House papers, and this is where I record their House points.

7. The House papers are taped on a cabinet by my desk, and I put the Houses in alphabetical order the first day. Once they start earning points, I place the Houses in order of points earned. If Houses are tied, I put them in alphabetical order.

House paper after all classes have signed; House points are recorded on their House color

Some of you may be wondering, what is a House Challenge?

House Challenges are a way I fit multiple choice practice, deconstruction, etc. into my class. This year we have rotating Fridays, where I see my kids every other Friday, so I decided to use Fridays as House Challenge days. It makes it easier on me and easier on my kids to know that on Fridays, we do multiple choice.

My favorite way to use House Challenges is when we play The Multiple Choice Game.

• First, I made cards for the multiple choice game using card stock. The answer choices are colored coordinated: all As are the same color, all Bs, etc.
• Each House receives a set of these cards.
• Each House picks a House leader.
• The leader has two jobs: they have the final say on the answer; they hold up the card when it’s time to reveal their answer.
• Once the time is up to work through the passage and questions, House leader prepares to reveal their choices.
• I read each question, I ask House leaders to get their card ready, I yell, “1, 2, 3!” and House leaders hold their answer card high in the air.
• This is really fun because sometimes they will all have the same answer, but many times they do not, and they can instantly see that.
• When every House has a different answer, we call that “tasting the rainbow” because it does look like Skittles in the air.
• This part is important - I do not reveal the correct answer until I have recorded who has received a House point.
• While they wait for me to reveal the answer, sometimes they will be supportive of each other: “Come on As, we got this!” And sometimes they trash talk: “Oh I see you have a B over there; you know the answer is A, right?”
• This is when it is fun for me to reveal the answer. They celebrate when they are correct, and I ask them to “walk us into that answer.”

cards I use for the multiple choice game - easy to make

It’s just a fun way to work through multiple choice. And it is just one way I use House Challenges.

Another way I use House Challenges is having students work through a passage and questions on their own, then moving to confer with their House members (I give them roughly 5 to 8 minutes to do this). I reveal the correct answers, and ask students to revisit questions they missed, writing rationales for the correct answers. I have them draw a basic table on a sheet of paper to complete this. On their paper they include their name and their House name. This House Challenge is a way they can add individual points to their Houses instead of as one group.

Your Answer	House Answer	Correct Answer	Answer Rationale

Some of the teachers in my department also use Houses, and their students earn House points by turning work in on time, being on task, etc. Their students lose House points for being on their phone, putting their head down, etc.

There are so many possibilities with using Houses in your own classrooms. Many of you probably already do something similar.

I hope I have shared something you can take back and use in your classroom, whether it is creating Houses of your own or playing the multiple choice game with your kids.

If you incorporate one or both of these, come back and share your experience on this post. I love hearing from fellow Langers.

Happy Teaching!

• The Hodgenator

Update: Developing Voice using the Classic Essay

This unit has exceeded my expectations.

We began by talking about the end point and where we were going and why we were doing it. Then we started examining mentor texts. We read You Are What You Eat by Katie Wood Ray and What I Want to Be... by Randy Bomer and used those to examine how essayists write about ordinary things, but pull out some truth about life or some little insight into what it means to be human. It need not be profound, just true. We talked about how it didn't look like a 5-paragraph essay at all. We talked about how some of the paragraphs only had one sentence. We talked about how they made us feel. We talked about how the author pulled us in and made us care about green beans or think about who we were becoming right now. We used Katherine Bomer's "things to notice" that she explains in The Journey is Everything to try to start noticing things they weren't used to looking for in texts. Then we read Joyas Voladoras by Brian Doyle. We read it one day and kind of marveled. The next day we read it again and started to analyze it. Trying to figure out how he could talk about hummingbirds and make us feel. A boy (did you hear that? A boy!) stayed after class to talk to me about how that essay was awesome, and it was already giving him ideas for his essay.

The next day after Joyas Voladoras each person made lists of anything and everything they knew about or cared about or made them wonder about or they felt about. They picked 3. Then they talked about it with a partner for five minutes. Then we switched for another 5. Then they free wrote on that topic/idea for 10 minutes. The next day we read The Thing About Cats by Vicki Vinton and used that essay to discuss frames and some of the different patterns of development an author can employ. In class we went back to our free writes and had them try one of Vinton's techniques with a snippet of their work.

Homework that night was to write a prospectus paragraph (Ellen Greenblatt, Bellevue ASPI 2016) talking about what they wanted to write about, evidence they were considering to support it or via which they would explore that idea, and the so what truth they were trying to get at in the essay. When they came in, about half the class had them and half didn't. I had said it was pay to play, so we sent the half that showed up empty handed out into the workroom (I have a window I can see them through) in order to finish. The rest of us circled up. Each student took turns reading their paragraph and we gave them feedback. Good idea? Maybe you could consider this. Etc.

It was AWESOME.

As kids finished outside and came in, we expanded the circle and brought them in. Not everyone did it right, but many did. Those who didn't said to the group, "I didn't get it before, but I get it now. I know what I'm going to do." I was beaming. They helped each other. They were generous. They were wonderful. Another boy (a different boy!) stayed after class to talk to me about how this was working for him. He didn't get it before, but now he did. He has an idea that he really likes.

Students are writing about amazing things.

• Our relationship with the dark
• What lying does to us
• How social media affects our perception of reality
• How photography can reveal the truth, or hide it
• Why people can be so devoted to sports when so few ever go pro or make it to the Olympics, how the journey is everything

Yes. Yes it is.

I should make it clear that, though I intend to use this unit with my AP Lang classes, I've been trying it out on my regular English 11 course. Let this sink in. One hundred percent -- 100% -- of my students turned this essay in on time. I've read a handful of them thus far and am very pleased. One student worked hard on the rhythm of his essay and experimented with varying sentence length as a means of doing so. He used syntax for a purpose!!! Another boy did the same as he experimented with a one-sentence paragraph. He came up to me during a class writing session to ask if it was okay to have a paragraph with one sentence like the mentor texts because it would sound better and give more emphasis to that sentence.

YES! Yes, it is all right!

Actually asking students to break free from the sordid chains of the 5-paragraph essay and giving them models and permission to emulate bore fruit. Rather than me teaching grammatical knowledge, they started using grammar to accomplish a purpose. Now, I wouldn't submit any of these for publication, but compared to what I typically get for a first paper from English 11 classes, it's head and shoulders more sophisticated. Many of them took a lot of pride and care in the writing of these. One of my goofballs that I redirect at least once every day agonized about hitting the turn it button in Google Classroom as he wanted to look it over one more time. I couldn't be more pleased.

We spent a ton of time on this. I used about 3 and a half weeks. I won't need near that much with my AP Lang groups, but I used this with English 11 to lay a foundation. At our open house, two parents came up to me to tell me their kids were loving this unit. I bumped into a set of parents in the counseling center as their son is in danger of not graduating. They talked to me about how he'd been talking with them about his essay.

The proof will be if I can build on this to foster greater confidence and voice in their writing as we move in to more conventional argument and analytical pieces.

If you're looking for a bit of fresh air in writing instruction, I encourage you to check out The Journey Is Everything by Katherine Bomer.

Happy writing with your students!