Pacing Guide Unit 1

Skills By Quarter 1st Quarter

  • Close Reading and Critical Thinking
    • Identifying Meaning and Purpose in Text
  • Constructing Meaningful Annotations
  • Understanding Authorial Style and Voice
  • Understanding the Purpose of Rhetoric
  • Identifying and Understanding Argument
  • Constructing Original Argumentation
    • Rhetorical Analysis, Argument, and Synthesis

2nd Quarter

  • Refining Close Reading and Critical Thinking
  • Using Annotation to Build Argument and Commentary
  • Researching and Understanding Current Events
    • Building Personal Knowledge and Observations
  • Synthesizing Information
  • Writing Persuasively
    • Marshaling Evidence
    • Constructing Original Argumentation
    • Creating Meaningful Commentary
  • 3rd Quarter
    • Refining Original Argument based upon Research/Reading/Experience
      • Understanding Concession and Counterargument
    • Researching and Understanding Current Events
      • Building Personal Knowledge and Observations
    • Evaluating and Reflecting on Writing

     

    4th Quarter

    • Writing and Reading Under Pressure
      • Refining Time Management
    • Evaluating and Reflecting on Writing
Unit 1: Introduction to AP Language                                                                                                                                                                      Time Frame: 3-4 Weeks

 

Objectives Skill Focus Instructional Strategies Suggested Activities/Assessments
·         Students will learn close reading strategies.

 

·         Students will learn how to create meaningful commentary, specifically annotations, that respond to author’s purpose in writing.

 

·         Students will be introduced to expository, or synthesis writing, which demonstrates effective task analysis, organization, evidence, and explanation.

 ·         Details and Diction

 

·         Argument and Purpose

 

·         Close Reading and Critical Thinking

 

·         Task Analysis

 

·         Expository Writing

 ·         Assign short nonfiction passages as an introduction to the AP Language course and critical reading.

 

·         Model effective reading strategies including annotation  and elements of SOAPSTone.

 

·         Model expository writing and argument.

 ·         Annotation Assignments

 

·         SOAPSTone Assignments

 

·         Understanding Authorial Purpose

 

·         Socratic Seminar

 

·         Deconstructing FRQ Prompts

Unit 1: Texts, Lessons, and Assessments

  Lessons and Resources

Free Response Questions

The free response questions below are a selection of the prompts that may be used as a diagnostic/introduction to AP Language and Composition. They compliment the ideas, arguments, and style of the essays/excerpts included in the suggested texts.

 

Argument

Rhetorical Analysis

Multiple Choice 

  • The Way to Rainy Mountain, Scott Momaday (9 Questions)
  • Living with Music, Ralph Ellison (12 Questions)

AP Language Unit One Calendar

The following calendar offers one approach for structuring an AP Language course. The activities below are not exhaustive, but they are suggestions to help teachers think about how to sequence the skills and content students need in order to be successful on AP-level assessments and the AP Language exam.

 

Week One: Introduction to the Course

  • Discussion of summer reading assignment (if applicable)
  • Discussion of syllabus, course expectations, classroom procedures, course overview
  • Review of annotation strategies, dialectical journal/note taking strategies, SOAPSTone,
  • Close reading of essays, editorials, and excerpted nonfiction

 

Week Two: Introduction to Close Reading, Critical Thinking, Argumentation

  • Close Reading Assignments
  • Socratic Seminar
  • Academic Discourse and Language
  • Synthesis of Nonfiction Sources
  • Close reading of essays, editorials, and excerpted nonfiction

 

Week Three:  Introduction to Writing Persuasively

  • Close Reading Assignments
  • Deconstructing Free Response Writing Prompts
  • Constructing Thesis, Claim, and Commentary
  • Appropriately Incorporating Evidence
  • Close reading of essays, editorials, and excerpted nonfiction

Assessment

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