Free Early American Literature Materials (AP Lang)

I taught AP Language and Composition for about 7 years and it was my favorite class, In 2018, I switched to IB Lit & Lang because my school wanted to start offering an SL version of IB English. They asked me to spearhead the class since some of it overlaps with AP Lang & Comp, but I still like AP Lang & Comp a lot more. There are not enough sections of AP Lang & Comp to go around anymore, and I am transitioning away from teaching English anyway, but I highly recommend this class to anyone who gets the chance to teach it.

It took a few years for me to get the pacing, content, and intensity of the class correct. The first year or two, I was still determined to follow the sequence of American Literature since that was the curriculum for my grade level 11 kids, and I felt really strongly that the AP kids should not miss out on the only year of American literature in the curriculum. I did abandon that idea after time, but this blog post has the materials from those early years when I tried to fuse AP Lang & American Lit.

Introduction To Class

• Ridiculous PowerPoint I used to introduce the class this particular year. (Mostly I was trying to mentally prepare them for how hard the writing was going to be and for the corresponding drop in grades...it never really worked. Kids were always in shock, anyway, when they got their first few essay grades back.)

• Beginning of the Year Survey

• American Lit Time Period Descriptions

Early America/Puritans

• Introduction to Puritans PowerPoint

• Anne Bradstreet "Versus Upon the Burning...." Annotations

• John Winthrop "Letter to My Wife"

• Winthrop "Letter to My Wife" Analysis"

• Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the Hands...." Rhetorical Analysis Practice

• Introduction to Rhetoric (General but I had connected the lecture to Edwards.)

• Rhetorical Analysis Template for Jonathan Edwards

• Word Parts and Literary Terms Quiz

• "Sinners" Vocabulary List

• "Sinners in the Hands..." Vocabulary Quiz (paid product)

• Puritan/Religion Socratic Seminar

• Seminar Reflection

Rationalism

• Introduction to Rationalism PowerPoint

• Declaration of Independence Dialectical Journals

• Declaration of Independence Rhetorical Analysis Template

• Ben Franklin Annotation Packet (Excerpt of his Autobiography)

• Vocabulary for Ben Franklin

• Self Improvement Tracking Chart

• Ben Franklin Autobiography Paragraph by Paragraph Analysis

• Ben Franklin Autobiography Questions

• Everything's An Argument & "Ain't I a Woman" Discussion Questions

• Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis w. Sojourner Truth (paid product)

• Thomas Paine Open Prompt

• Thomas Pain Open Prompt Prep Activity

• Rationalism Socratic Seminar

Romanticism

• Romanticism Introduction (I used Legends of the Fall & Grizzly Man for the clips. Here are the clips I recommend using for Grizzly Man.)

• "On Ben Franklin's Virtues" by D.H. Lawrence

• D.H. Lawrence & Romanticism Quiz

• Thoreau Rhetorical Terms List (for "Why I Went Into the Woods")

• Thoreau Rhetorical Terms List (filled in)

• Thoreau Group Analysis Questions

• Literary Devices in "Why I Went Into the Woods"

• Rhetorical Analysis Thesis PowerPoint

• Rhetorical Analysis Thesis Statement Note-Taking Guide

• Romanticism Dialectical Journal Assignment Sheet & Rubric

• Romanticism Movie Assignment Sheet & Rubric

• Nature Practice Open Prompt

• Art Related to Romanticism

Modernism

*Sorry for the paucity. One of the reasons I gave up on time periods was because I was never able to get to the good stuff before the end of the year.

• Modernism Extra Credit

I pretty quickly abandoned my idea to organize the class by American Literature time periods and switched to organizing by paper type (open, synthesis, rhetorical analysis). I didn't like that either and eventually decided to organize by topic, which I enjoyed.

If you have any American lit materials that are tailored for AP Language & Composition and you would like to share them with others, please feel free to do so in the comments section below.