Institute Week
Week 5: July 18-July 21, 2022
This four-day course is designed to benefit experienced AP English Literature and Composition instructors. Our focus will be on collaboration and augmentation of the good work we are all doing.
Overall Plans
● Examine the Course and Exam Description and its alignment with AP Classroom and AP Daily online supports.
● Discuss and share ways to address the particular challenges presented by our current culture of distracted nonreaders.
● Explore instructional strategies and write collaborative lessons designed to develop and maintain student skills in critical reading and written literary analysis.
● Share and plan activities and assessments that offer students opportunities to practice and revise written responses to the types of questions appearing on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam. We will also share ideas for research and written responses to it.
Topics
● Overview of the Course and Exam Description and different ways to plan the pacing and organization of a course around mandated skills (and what’s no longer tested).
● Discuss what an inclusive, equitable, diverse classroom and curriculum is in practice. Plan modifications, as needed.
● College Board online resources (AP Daily, AP Classroom, videos, and other resources) and their use as teaching supports.
● Critical reading and analytical writing considerations and skill scaffolding
● Textual selection and cultural sensitivity considerations (is the canon necessary?)
● Assessment and its rationale (what are your assessment goals, and how do they support student learning?)
● Seminar and Workshop Approaches
● Sharing and developing new lessons on poetry, short fiction, novel, drama
● Grammar and Usage considerations (discussion and sharing)
Course Outcomes
● Reconsideration of the AP Student, and the critical importance of Equity and Access, Diversity and Inclusion
● Discussion of the Course as both preparation for the Exam and as a legitimate English Literature course
● Competence in planning the Course – readings, analysis exercises, writing exercises, assessments
● Competence in teaching the Course – the modified Workshop model
● Competence in assessing student skills mastery – the importance of practice and revision
● Invigoration about the good work you’re doing for kids. :)
Course Outline
File
Instructor
Michelle Iskra
Michelle Iskra has been an Austin-area AP English Literature & Composition instructor since 2004. She has also taught Composition and British and American Lit as an adjunct professor at Austin Community College since 2003. Michelle has served as an AP English Literature & Composition Exam Reader and Table Leader since 2010 and is a frequent presenter at the AP Annual Conference and other conferences and institutes.