4-Week Ap Prep Unit
All the resources needed to help students prepare for
the AP English Language and Composition Exam are in
Strange Bedfellows and in the Teaching Tips that work
with this unit sequence.
WEEK ONE
30-MINUTE LESSON
SHORT TEXTS TO READ AT HOME
Monday
Explain exam format.
Hand out Week 1 Key Literary Terms (listed below).
Highlight and discuss definition of rhetoric.
Hand out and introduce I Have a Dream.
Martin Luther King’s I Have a
Dream—p. 2 in Strange Bedfellows
Tuesday
Discuss rhetoric of I Have a Dream
Explore key literary terms in I Have a Dream
Hand out and introduce “Saint Crispin’s Day Speech.”
“Saint Crispin’s Day Speech” from
William Shakespeare’s Henry V—p. 2 in
Strange Bedfellows
Wednesday
Use Key Questions to compare/contrast the rhetoric of each speech.
WEEK 2
30-MINUTE LESSON
SHORT TEXTS TO READ AT HOME
Monday
Give quiz on Week 1 Key Literary Terms.
Hand out Week 2 Key Literary Terms.
Hand out and introduce the letters.
Coca Cola and Grove Press Letters
—p. 101 in Strange Bedfellows
Tuesday
Discuss rhetoric of letters.
Introduce AP Exam question, do small-group activity.
Explore key literary terms in the letters.
Hand out and introduce A Modest Proposal.
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal
—p. 76 in Strange Bedfellows
Wednesday
Use Key Questions to explore A Modest Proposal and compare/contrast with
the letters.
WEEK 3
30-MINUTE LESSON
SHORT TEXTS TO READ AT HOME
Monday
Give quiz on Week 2 Key Literary Terms.
Hand out list of Week 3 Key Literary Terms.
Hand out and introduce Under the Influence.
Scott Russell Sanders’ Under the
Influence—p. 186 in Strange
Bedfellows
Tuesday
Use Key Questions to discuss Under the Influence.
Hand out and introduce Alcoholism.
Alcoholism (anonymous)—p. 186 in
Wednesday
Use key questions to explore Alcoholism.
Introduce home assignment.
Thursday
Give a practice test.
WEEK 4
30-MINUTE LESSON
SHORT TEXTS TO READ AT HOME
Monday
Give quiz on Week 3 Key Literary Terms.
Hand out and review test-taking tips sheet.
Suggest review of all terms before exam.
Hand out and introduce “The Rights of Women.”
Olympe de Gouge’s The Rights of
Women—p. 32 in Strange Bedfellows
Tuesday
Use Key Questions to explore “The Rights of Women.”
Introduce and hand out “Ain’t I a Woman.”
Sojouner’s Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman
—p. 32 in Strange Bedfellows
Wednesday
Use Key Questions to explore “Ain’t I a Woman?”
Strange Bedfellows
Strange Bedfellows ◗ 4-Week Ap Prep Unit ◗ Page 1
Teaching Tips
General
◗
Key Literary Terms: Hand out both a master list of the Key Literary Terms as well as
weekly sheets that highlight the 10 students will need to know for the lesson. As time
permits, discuss each term during the lesson.
◗
Small-Group Activities for Key Literary Terms: Deepen students’ understanding of
terms through small groups. Have groups explore and report to the class each on a
Key Term. Or have groups look for examples of Key Terms in other texts.
◗
Consider reading aloud some or all of the pieces during the lesson.
◗
Encourage students to read everything with unusual attention to form and content.
Week 1
◗
Discussion: Build students’ confidence with the well-known I Have a Dream speech,
exploring the meaning of rhetoric and its resources. Because I Have a Dream is full
of rhetorical devices, it provides a great opportunity to explore Key Literary Terms
efficiently. It has the further advantage of being approachable and emotionally
resonant for students.
◗
Key Questions:
•
How does audience affect tone?
•
What can allusions tell you about audience? Which
speech has the more complex audience?
•
How is each piece organized?
•
How does syntax influence meaning?
•
What is the affect of the refrain running through the
texts?
◗
Use the lesson in Strange Bedfellows to give students practice with comparisoncontrast, which is typically on the essay portion of the AP exam.
◗
Pay particular attention to building students’ understanding of alliteration, allusion,
imperative, polysyndeton, and asyndeton.
Week 2
◗
Read aloud the letters in class and give students 10 minutes to read them on their own,
marking up the letters with what they notice.
◗
Discussion: As a class, study the following question about these texts from the 1998 AP
(it appears in the 2010 College Board AP essay question samples):
he following letters constitute the complete
T
correspondence between an executive of the Coca-Cola
Company and a representative of Grove Press. Read
the letters carefully. Then write an essay analyzing the
rhetorical strategies each writer uses to achieve his
purpose and explaining which letter offers the more
persuasive case.
Strange Bedfellows ◗ 4-Week Ap Prep Unit ◗ Page 2
◗
Small-Group Activity: Ask small groups to come up with an outline for a test essay.
Guide students to see how to easily formulate a response to the question by using the
key words in the essay prompt. Share and explore outlining strategies.
◗
◗
Key Questions:
•
What is the “modest proposal”? Where exactly does Swift
announce that?
•
When do you know this is parody?
•
What persona does Swift adopt?
•
What arguments and attitudes does Swift mock?
•
In comparison to the Grove Press letter, is A Modest
Proposal more or less serious in tone and subject?
Home Assignment: Write a sample introduction on the board and then ask students to
work on their own introductions as homework.
Week 3
◗
Discussion: These two sharply contrasting pieces help students explore genre and
diction. The first is a personal narrative essay and the second a medical pamphlet. As
you discuss them, ask students to notice how audience and authorial intention affect
the sort of diction a writer uses.
◗
◗
◗
Key Questions for Under the Influence:
•
How does Sanders discuss his father’s alcoholism? What
is his tone?
•
What makes the piece powerful?
•
Who is his audience?
•
Does the essay have a particular point or argument
underlying it?
•
Where does Sanders use polysyndeton, and what is the
effect?
Key Questions for Alcoholism:
•
How is this pamphlet different in form from Sanders’
discussion?
•
How is the diction different?
•
Which piece has simpler syntax? Why might that be?
•
Which piece is more didactic?
Home Assignment: Ask students to spend exactly 40 minutes composing a response to
this question about the two texts about alcoholism:
In terms of steering a reader away from alcohol, which
piece is more persuasive? What in the writing makes it
more persuasive?
◗
Practice Test: These and a host of other materials can be found online at the College
Board Website, www.collegeboard.com. Take time to review tough questions
afterward.
Strange Bedfellows ◗ 4-Week Ap Prep Unit ◗ Page 3
Week 4
◗
Discussion: This particular text pair is a powerful way to look at argumentation.
Explore the form of each, their organization and diction, and the power each has to
make its case.
◗
◗
Key Questions for The Rights of Women:
•
What is the purpose of de Gouge’s document?
•
What form is it in? Why does she use that form?
•
Who is her intended audience?
•
What rhetorical strategies does she use?
•
What sort of diction does she use? How formal is her
language?
Key Questions for Ain’t I a Woman?:
•
What is Truth’s point?
•
What rhetorical strategies does she use?
•
What sort of diction does she use? Who is her audience?
•
How does the spoken nature of this speech differ from de
Gouge’s form?
•
Why can colloquial, dialectical speech be powerful?
•
Both de Gouge and Truth speak about the rights of
women. How are their purposes different? How are their
strategies different?
Strange Bedfellows ◗ 4-Week Ap Prep Unit ◗ Page 4
Key Literary Terms
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
allusion
conceit
declarative sentence
diction
dialect
elegiac
didactic
diction
figurative language
exhortation
didactic
imagery
imperative
hyperbole
personification
invocation
irony
propaganda
metaphor
jargon
prose
personification
lampoon
satire
refrain
paradox
spoof
rhetoric
parody
strategy
rhetorical
satire
theme
simile
spoof
tone
question
verbal irony
understatement
tone
verbal irony
understatement
Strange Bedfellows ◗ 4-Week Ap Prep Unit ◗ Page 5
Test-Taking Tips for
AP English Language and Composition Exam
Multiple Choice Section: One Hour
◗
Read all passages through to the end. Pay close attention to the subject and tone of
the piece and don’t panic if a piece’s subject is not immediately clear. Some pieces are
organized so that you have to read to the end to understand the main idea.
◗
Read all questions very carefully, being sure to note such phrases as “all but” and
“except for.”
◗
When a question references a line, immediately find it in the text so that you look at
that question in context.
◗
Do not make a random guess: a quarter of a point is deducted per error. However,
if you can eliminate even one answer, it makes sense to take an educated guess.
Remember, first instincts are sometimes best.
◗
If you don’t know an answer, move on and come back if time permits. You don’t want
to miss an opportunity to answer easier questions.
Free-Response Section: Two Hours
◗
All questions should be read very carefully.
◗
For essays that involve the close reading and interpretation of a passage, read the
passage carefully, focusing closely on subject, tone and theme. Consider not only what
is said but also how it is said and presented.
◗
Carefully note any information given about the text, such as its date.
◗
Be sure to sketch out an outline before you start writing.
◗
Look closely at the multiple-source essay, which involves the study of several readings
in response to an interpretive question. Be sure to the read the question carefully.
◗
Be strategic about time. Three essays in two hours leaves you roughly forty minutes
per essay. Wear a watch in case you can’t see the clock during the exam.
◗
Leave a little time to proofread your work after you’ve completed all the essays.
Strange Bedfellows ◗ 4-Week Ap Prep Unit ◗ Page 6
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