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This year I am teaching AP Lang & Comp after a 7-year hiatus. The class and the test have changed a little in that time, but not enough that I can't use my old materials. The biggest changes that I noticed were the addition of the writing questions to the multiple choice test, the new rubrics, and the emphasis on decreasing the need for obscure literary terminology. The test is also now digital (boooo-I used to like torturing my students with hand-written essays), and the College Board has provided practice questions via the BlueBook app. Did I miss anything else major? I haven't used BlueBook yet but everything is crazy right now and I think figuring out BlueBook will be an adventure for later in the year.
Anyway, I have posted all materials that I created from the last 18 years, so I thought for this year I could post my lessons as I complete them.
This blog post will feature my daily AP lessons throughout the course of the year. Sometimes I work with colleagues, use stuff from our textbooks, other people, etc., so I can't share their stuff, but I will share my stuff and point you in the right direction for everything else.
I spend the first MONTH of school warming the kids up for the class, and then I get into a loose daily routine that usually has the following parts: grammar, vocabulary, writing time, text study. We have 84 minute block periods. AP Lang at our school is taken by juniors.
Here goes.
August
August 26/27, 2024-Day 1
First Day of School
(30 minutes)
Met students at the door. Allowed them to choose their seats.
Introduced myself.
Gave each student a 5x7 index card and asked them to put their name or nickname on it.
Circle Time
Asked students to come up to the front of the room and make a circle.
Once they were in a circle (a proper circle where everyone could see each other), I shared the expectations for circle time:
Lean talking (30 seconds or less)
Respect classmates by listening
Share as much or as little as you feel comfortable sharing.
Only talk when you are holding the talking piece. (I use a stress ball.)
Once I shared the expectations, I asked them to go around the circle and answer the following questions about themselves:
What is your name?
What are you excited about this year?
What are you worried about this year?
What brings you joy?
Once everyone has shared out, I summarized the patterns that I heard and connected them t0 the closing thought quotations (see slides for quotes).
I like everything to be organized and on a PowerPoint, so here is the 1st Day PowerPoint. You will have to adjust the introductory slide so it's about you and not about me.
Homework: Bring in supplies (3-ring binder and an old 1-subject notebook that can stay in the room.)
August 28/29-Day 2
84 minutes (normal block)
On the second day of class, I started by having students make a Google Slide to introduce themselves. To do this, I make a class Google Slide with 30+ blank slides and put it on Canvas for the kids to access. I adjust the "share" settings so that everyone is an editor. I ask each kid to choose a slide and put pictures of 5 things that they enjoy doing in their free time. The pictures can be their own, actual pictures, or stock photos from Google. They create the slides today and then we spend the next few weeks sharing out a few slides at a time.
Get-to-Know-You Slides (20-25 minutes)
After the slide-making, I get into my "Introduction to AP Lang & Comp" lesson (paid product). I used to do more fluff stuff at this point in the year, but over time I have learned that my students were anxious to understand what the class was about about what we'd be doing this year, and if I didn't get to this information fast enough, they would stop whatever we were doing to ask. SO I just gave in and created this lesson. This lesson is pretty long and usually takes me about 90+ minutes depending on the quality of the discussion. I start it this class and then continue it next class.
September
September 3/4 -Day 3
Housekeeping:
Reminded students to bring in supplies
Icebreaker:
Ask first 5 students to share out what was on their Google Slide. Used this to start small, quick conversations with the class or survey others and see who else liked Chipotle, soccer, etc.
Content:
Finish introductory lesson from above.
Once I finished the lesson, I gave kids a copy of the syllabus to look over and take home.
September 5/6, 2024-Day 4
Housekeeping:
None
Icebreaker:
Have 5 more students share out their slide.
Content:
At this point, I am still warming the students up to the class and presenting the "big ideas." This lesson builds on what we talked about in the "intro to the class" lesson from the day before.
Introduction to the Rhetorical Triangle Lesson (paid product) (60-90 minutes depending on discussion)
Homework:
At this point, it's a good time to break out the textbook and have kids start digging in. Our school has a few different text options for AP (different versions of 50 Essays & other textbooks), but I have enjoyed using The Language of Composition, 2nd Edition because it includes texts to study and theory/analysis related to the class. There's a 3rd Edition at this point, but my school owns the 2nd edition so that's the one I am working with.
For homework, I asked students to read pages 1-26 of The Language of Composition. I don't require them to take notes but I do give them a reading quiz the class after the next.
September 9/10, 2024-Day 5
Housekeeping:
None
Icebreaker:
Have 5 more students share out their slide.
Content:
This year I have decided to base the class loosely around the American literature time periods. I go back and forth every year about how to organize this class (sometimes I organize by paper type and sometimes I organize by topic...), but this year I wanted to go back to my idea of lining up with the American literature time periods. I have some ideas that I want to try so we will see how it goes. An added bonus when I organize by time period is that the content lines up with history class, adding some depth to their understanding of American history.
So, that all being said, the last "big picture" thing I needed to do to kick off the year was introduce them to the time periods of American literature and our big question for the year: "What is America"
"What is America" Lesson
The first thing I did was ask students to write down 10 words that came to mind when they thought of America. I had them do this in their notebook or on any piece of scrap paper. Once they had their words, I had them put them away for a it while we looked as some other things. (5 minutes)
The second thing I had students do was respond to an old AP prompt that featured an excerpt from Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man." I asked them to read the prompt and then prepare for a class discussion by briefly noting which passages they agreed or disagreed with and why. (~10-15 minutes)
Once each student prepared their ideas, I set the class timer for 20 minutes and let the kids have at it. Just kidding-I led a class discussion for 20 minutes. Even though my AP classes are around 30 kids, it was still early in the year and no one wanted to talk. Twenty minutes was a good starting time.
After Thomas Paine, I used to show the music video "This is America" by Childish Gambino, but it's pretty graphic so this year I decided to give the students some flexibility in the music text that they chose. Giving students a text-type and topic and some flexibility in exactly which text they studied was a habit I picked up teaching my IB classes; I like it because it gives kids some small opportunities to tailor the class to their interests. I offered "This is America" as an option and I asked the students to either use that music video OR choose another contemporary music video that commented on social issues in the US. I let them work with partners to prep their ideas and they came up with a bunch of good ones. I also let them use AI to brainstorm song ideas if they were stuck. Once they chose their music video, they went through the same process of agreeing or disagreeing with the ideas presented in the video. Even though this was supposed to be a quick thing, it wasn't because they were interested in finding a video that they liked. I ended up giving them 20-25 minutes to prep the handout.
After that, I paired them with another group to share out an excerpt from their chosen video and their thoughts. Again, this could have taken forever, but I limited it to 10-15 minutes.
At this point, I ran out of time in the class period and had to continue the "What is America" lesson the next class period.
September 11/12, 2024-Day 6
Housekeeping:
None
Icebreaker:
Have 5 more students share out their "Get to Know You" slide.
Quiz
Reading quiz on Chapter 1 of The Language of Composition (paid product)
Lesson/Main Content
The last part of my "What is America?" lesson is a journal prompt where they tie together some of their thoughts from the last few activities.
"What is America" Journal (15 minutes)
Last lastly, I do a brief (ish), straightforward, surface-level lecture about the time periods of American literature. We go into depth more over the year. (~20-25 minutes)
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