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Articles of the Week 9.26.18

September 26, 2018, 10:36 am
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I am a firm believer that writing at the sentence level is not emphasized enough in high school and college composition classes. How to Write a Great Sentence by Joe Moran in Guardian this week turns to famous writers and their sentences to find meaning. How Poets Communicate with their Readers by Matt Brisbin provides a ready-to-roll lesson using Jose Olivarez’s poem “(Citizen) (Illegal)”. I plan on using this lesson when we go all in with poetry in a couple of weeks. The Great American Read features videos exploring different themes or archetypes in literature which could be used to supplement lessons, extension activities, or even as a lesson. This week’s video on The Great American Read: Heroes features commentary from an APLitHelp friend Shanna Peeples.  With more teachers moving to choice reading, the question becomes how to hold students accountable for the independent reading. Jori Krulder offers some good tips in The Unexpected power of Reading Conferences.    Unexpected Benefits of Flash Fiction by Melanie Meehan of Two Writing Teachers details ... KEEP READING

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Playing with Punctuation

September 30, 2018, 5:30 am
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Style is one of the hardest concepts to teach students. The idea of playing with sentences and experimenting with style is foreign to so many students – and teachers I dare say. I’m amazed at how many students who live their lives determined to either get around rules or flat out break them yet are terrified of moving a comma or writing a thesis that does not look like a chicken finger (seriously – one of my seniors said this to me last week) because they may lose points and get a bad grade. Oh grades – the bane of my existence. But I digress. Rules are made to be broken as long as students understand the purpose and effect of punctuation. When students understand that punctuation can be used to group words for clarity, speed up or slow down the reader, or contribute to the meaning of the text, they will be equipped as writers to ... KEEP READING

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Articles of the Week 10.3.18

October 3, 2018, 4:15 pm
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Building Better Topic Sentences by David Rickert gives a step by step approach to teaching students how to make a claim that’s not too narrow but not to broad. The Human Development Index: Analyzing Economic Data in the English Classroom found on the WVCTE blog is a very detailed curricular unit providing students opportunity to analyze videos and infographics. An added bonus is this unit fits perfectly when focusing on the American dream. The Honor List of 2017 Prize Winning Young Adult Books in NCTE’s English Education journal gives details reviews and with an emphasis on building relationships and developing identity. It’s About More than Just the Skills from 3 Teachers Talk is a timely reminder for me as I am solidifying nine week grades. Is Is Real? Twenty-Five Writers on Writer’s Block on The Literary Hub would be a great text to prompt discussion on students not knowing what to write or to understand the mind and process of a writer. I’ll definitely be using portions ... KEEP READING

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Simply Syntax

November 11, 2018, 4:20 am
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Editor’s Note: Jori Krulder, a friend and member of the AP Lit community, found out yesterday that her home was lost in one of the California wildfires.  A Go Fund Me – Krulder  has been set up to help her family with immediate needs.  Order does not come easy to me. Cleaning my desk, keeping papers in the correct files, and keeping track of lessons are yearly struggles for me as a teacher. However, I have always been fascinated by the order of words and am forever rearranging words in my head always thinking about the subtle differences in meaning changes make. I was that student in my graduate studies who was eager to take linguistic classes and design syntax trees. Syntax is simply sexy. The beauty of helping students unpack syntax provides a double blow as this information can help students become better readers as well as better writers. Activities to help students use syntax to understand ... KEEP READING

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#NCTE2018 Recap

November 25, 2018, 6:27 am
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Editor’s note: Several of the AP Lit/Lang group were at NCTE 2018 last weekend. Below are reflections from Roy Smith and me and links to presentations from those in our community. Sadly, several of us were presenting in a different session during the AP Lit session with Kathy Keyes,  David Miller, and Brandon Abdon. Their session was great, and I will make it available after it has been publically released.  Roy Smith My definition of a successful professional development session is two-part: 1) can I use the information in my class tomorrow; and 2) did the session cause me to reconsider my practice.  This year’s NCTC convention in Houston, Texas was a success on both accounts. Presenting a strategy I use in class (Noodle Nudgers) was a highlight for me.  Presenting with my friends/colleagues (we all met on Twitter) allows me to explore and share new ideas I am experimenting with  in my classroom. I also get a front row ... KEEP READING

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Semester One – Almost Done

December 16, 2018, 4:43 am
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December is the perfect storm in many ways in the classroom. Teachers are exhausted from week after week of classroom instruction with the hustle and bustle of the holidays added in the mix. The semester is winding down which means finishing up units, collecting outstanding work and long-term projects, and adjusting plans by cramming in content and activities due to schedule adjustments. As English teachers, the end of the semester often brings extra grading since the skills we have been teaching can rarely be assessed on a scantron sheet. Last week I assessed 120 poetry blogs – a summative assessment after spending the semester practicing  – and now roll straight into 120 Q3 essays as a way of looking at not only student writing but insight into what students learned in their choice reading. I try to stagger assignments, but the end of the semester just doesn’t allow for this. Someone asked me the other ... KEEP READING

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Give Me Five: Close Reading Strategies

January 5, 2019, 11:58 am
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Happy New Year!  I can hardly believe the holidays are over and we will be heading back to the classroom to start the push to the end of the year. My hope is you are rested and were able to spend time with friends and family. My daughter has had mono all break and my son finally asked his long-term girlfriend to marry him (and she said YES). That’s how we ended 2018. I have been thinking a lot about AP Lit Help over the past few months and how to best serve our community. The number of hits on the site has doubled over the last year with October being a record month with over 30,000 hits. My desire is for more people to share what’s happening in their classrooms, and I want to add more content to our site in 2019. In addition to the weekly posts, AP Lit Help will feature three ... KEEP READING

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Articles of the Month: January

January 15, 2019, 12:44 pm
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Happy January 15th! You’re back to school and already half way through the month. I hope the articles give you ideas and inspire you as you settle back in to a new semester. Making Connections: 50 Teenagers Suggest Creative Ways to Link Classic Texts to the World Today – This article from The New York Times Learning Network has so many great idea from our target audience – teenagers! If you’re looking for ways to modernize classic texts, this article will not disappoint. Get Students Engaged with Hands-on Poetry Collection Activity – I just started Counting Descent today, so this post cannot be any more timely. I love Tia Miller’s lesson that has students thinking about how poems in a collection relate to each other. This hands-on activity will definitely have students thinking. Thanks #TeachLivingPoets! Moving Writers Plan a Lesson – January is a good time of year for a mid-year tune-up, and Allison Marchetti from Moving Writers reminds us of what’s ... KEEP READING

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Dystopian Choice Unit and 1984 Simulation

January 20, 2019, 1:21 pm
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This year, I have had to rethink my teaching. I moved from a suburban to urban school, left a 4×4 block where I had my AP students everyday all year and now teach on an A/B block only seeing my students every other day, and I have five sections of AP Literature this year – yes, five – with students representing a wide range of skills and abilities. While I have always been a proponent of choice reading, independent novels have been a huge savior for me this year. The thought is I can work on elements of poetry, prose, close reading, etc. during my reduced time with students, yet students are still responsbile for reading and building their bank of novels for Q3.  In December, my students read a dystopian choice novel. By giving the parameters of dystopian, we were able as a whole class to focus on the genre. We began the unit ... KEEP READING

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Give Me Five: Pictures from the Month

January 25, 2019, 5:00 am
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One thing I am adding to the blog this year is On the Fives with five strategies on the 5th of each month, five articles on the 15th of each month, and five pictures on the 25th of each month. The problem when I tried to narrow five pictures from all of the pictures on social media, I just couldn’t do it. So forgive me, here are ten pictures posted from members of our AP Lit community. I have included their thoughts posted with the pictures and you can click through on the people’s names if you want to ask them for more details. Y’all inspire me so much, and I love learning from this community. Keep up the good work!  Mrs. Tancredi(Twitter) Blown away by my talented #tanaplit students and their Importance of Being Earnest one pagers. (Look for directions and reflection from Traci on this activity coming up on APLitHelp soon).  Kelley Culp (Twitter) ... KEEP READING

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Give Me Five Strategies: Analysis

February 5, 2019, 5:00 am
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Essay Writing: The Nitty Gritty

February 10, 2019, 6:31 am
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At the beginning of the year, I tell my students that we will live in the dichotomy (might as well introduce them to new vocabulary from the beginning) of This class is all about the exam and this class is not at all about the exam. We have done a lot of reading (even though my transition to a new school with an A/B schedule I feel like we’ve hardly done any reading), and we’ve done a lot of writing. I’ve provided so many mini-lesson instructions in both reading and writing that I’ve lost track of the number. Students have read choice novels, explored poetry, and had productive small and large group discussions. This week, however, was a week to talk about the exam and the specifics of writing a timed essay; it was a long, slow week of work. We needed a couple of class periods to pull everything from the year together, and while ... KEEP READING

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Articles of the Month: February

February 16, 2019, 4:54 am
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Editor’s Note: So this was supposed to be pushed out yesterday, but that didn’t happen because it was Friday and well that should be enough. So here’s the On The Fives articles on the 16th instead of the 15th. I cannot believe February is half way over. Hope all is going well in your classrooms! SB Ten Search Strategies Students Should Try – Has Google become synonymous with resesarch in your class or just mine? These tips refine searching and worth sharing with students or having them posted in the room. Thanks Free Tech for Teachers! Meet the Guardian of Grammar Who Wants to Help You Be a Better Writer  from The New York Times is a review of the new book Dryer’s English and also an interesting article on Benjamin Dryer. I have not read this book yet, but it’s definitely on my TBR list (I love boks like this). 15 Assessment Activities that are Fast, Fun, and Formative – ... KEEP READING

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Article 0

February 17, 2019, 4:42 am
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Editor’s note: Last week I saw a post in the AP Literature and Composition Facebook group  from someone asking about newer works to incorporate in the curriculum. That got my mind thinking about a post featuring modern texts that students love which also have enough literary merit to work on the exam. I would love to feature a few novels each quarter with reflections of how teachers use the books in their classrooms. If you have a book that would work well for this and are interested in sharing, please contact me for more information. Thanks to all of this week’s contributors and have a great week making a difference in the next generation! SB Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017) “Rumors had begun to circulate of doors that could take you elsewhere, often to places far away, well removed from this death trap of a country. Some people claimed to know people who knew people who ... KEEP READING

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Pictures – February

February 25, 2019, 10:46 am
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Once again, love, love, love literally seeing what’s happening in everyone’s classes! Denise Trach  (Facebook)- Presenting reading as the gift that it is! Hours of prep for likely seconds of unwrapping (like Christmas morning)! First lines to entice students.  Mrs. Power‏ @MauraPowerAHS Feb 20 Twitter – Last semester I did a “wall of readers” and took pictures of students when they finished an independent reading book. Looking to mix it up this semester. Any new ideas for a way to celebrate independent reading? @ncte @pennykittle #aplitchat #engchat Adrian Nester‏ @adriantnester Feb 14- Review of characters in lit circle groups…great conversations happened today. That is always the best part of a creative project. #aplitchat #teachela #secondaryela #k12 Kelley Culp‏ @Culpzilla Feb 14 – Gatsby Gallery Walk about all the colors today. Putting a little expert learning into practice today. #aplitchat #UDL #bcscudl Karla Hilliard‏ @karlahilliard Feb 14 – Shout out @SarahWessling for the inspiration! Found poems & love songs. Fun, engaging day with . #wearespringmills #lovemywvschool #aplitchat Jennifer Stuckey‏ @Mrs_StuckeySays Feb 14- Valentine ... KEEP READING

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Give Me Five: Multiple Choice Review

March 4, 2019, 5:43 pm
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Articles of the Month: March

March 15, 2019, 5:00 am
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Research can be done with creative and engaging lessons also. Footnotes Made Fun by Hattie McGuire is a fun exercise that can be used as a get-to-know you activity or a regular lesson and stresses the importance of paying attention to footnotes. The playoffs officially start next week so it’s not too late for Poetry March Madness. There are so many ways to do this, but I’m partial to Brian Sztabnik’s  post here which has detailed directions and related links. Have fun with this and be sure to post pictures of your brackets! The Envelope Game by Melissa Smith at #TeachLivingPoets is super simple and while used with poetry here can easily be adapted to prose texts. If you’re wanting some rich discussion, set aside a day to try this activity. Use Digital Notebooks to Facilitate Book Clubs by Catlin Tucker links to a Google Slide deck designed to help teachers facilitate book clubs. This lesson can be adapted to different grade levels. What is English? Who decides? ... KEEP READING

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Single Line Significance

March 23, 2019, 6:33 pm
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Editor’s Note: When Ed Gillet – one of my AP Lit teacher heros –  emailed with pics of how he was using the New Sentences articles from the NYT, I immediately asked more and wanted to share. I think you’ll also agree that this lesson yeilds big results. Enjoy! Like many AP Lit teachers, during the course of the year I ask my students to submit one-page responses to poems they can select from a large and varied collection I have assembled for that purpose. Students may respond in a variety of ways to their chosen poems, as long as they keep their language consistent with the academic tone I expect to see on their other AP work. While students report that this requirement improves their interpretive skills, I do get a number of uninspired and canned submissions. So while this assignment might be an opportunity to write on a poem that engages them, too many students saw my assignment ... KEEP READING

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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – March

March 24, 2019, 11:00 pm
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Brenda‏ @brenmaha Mar 9 What’s on Hamlet’s plate helped students identify all of the issues Hamlet was struggling with. At first they couldn’t at all believe that stress may be driving H mad, but after this they were more understanding and empathetic. #aplitchat Jeri Asaro‏ @GuidingTeachers Mar 7 My Ss LOVE blackout and found poetry too! Another great “intro to poetry unit” idea to engage Ss. #nationalpoetrymonth #poetrywriter #aplitchat @ncte @englishteach8 @englishcomp @english_maven @webenglishteach @yespoetry #poetrycommunity #EnglishTeacher #EnglishTeachers K Thompson‏@aplit_teachMar 20 Love the @ncte #onepagers my AP Lang students created for their choice reading novels. #aplitchat #aplangchat brenda williams‏@mrsbwillMar 15 Colors can be more or less intense, and so can words! Loving how pretty this exercise is as we play with shades of meaning in tone words in APLit. #aplitchat Mohammed Shimal‏@shimal_mohammedMar 18 We are excited to read something new, insightful, diverse, and of the highest literary value! #FrankensteinInBaghdad @saadawi_a #aplitchat Mrs. Tancredi‏ @TancrediEnglish Mar 7 We had a blast in ... KEEP READING

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Poetry Strategies

April 5, 2019, 7:00 am
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April is National Poetry Month so let’s talk poetry strategies. Here are five stragies to help students wrap their minds around reading and understanding poetry. Enjoy! Give Me Five – Poetry Strategies Give Me Five – Poetry Strategies

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