AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION EXAM REVIEW

AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION STUDENT PREPARATION SESSION

IRVING, TEXASApril 5, 2014

Why is this funny?Dogs in middle-class America frequently live in doghouses.At middle-class parties, people stand around holding drinks.Bathrooms are sometimes difficult to locate in middle-class homes; therefore, guests have to ask the host discretely where the bathroom is located.Middle-class homes usually have backyards.Dogs usually relieve themselves in the backyard.

Marking a text What should you mark? Main ideas are a good place to start, and you should not only underline them, but write them in your own words in the margins. You should also note moments you feel emotion as a reader. Note surprises in the text. Note shifts in time, place or point of view. Note unusual diction or words that you need to define (and define them in the margin).

Marginalia—marginal notes—can include check marks, question marks, stars, arrows, brackets, and written words and phrases. Create your own system for marking what is important, interesting, quotable, questionable, and so forth.

Mark any literary or rhetorical devices you know. They may or may not be important to the development of the author’s message, but are useful to mark in the event that you need to note them for other purposes later. Use the space that often appears at the end of a chapter to note summaries of the chapter, main events or ideas in the chapter, your reaction to the events/ideas, questions or predictions you have so far in your reading.

Inside the front cover of your book, keep an orderly, legible list of "key information" with page references. Key information in a novel might include themes; passages that relate to the book's title; characters' names; salient quotes; important scenes, passages, and chapters; and maybe key definitions or vocabulary. Remember that key information will vary according to genre and the reader's purpose, so make your own good plan.

Look for major shifts…such as in a poem:

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This is an illustration of a Victorian paragraph: usually with a few REALLY long sentences… but don’t let it intimidate you.

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Topic sentence 2

Topic sentence 3

Poetry Question AP Lit Exam 2010: How to read an AP essay promptInstructions: Read carefully the following

poem by Marilyn Nelson Waniek. Then write an essay analyzing how Waniek employs literary techniques to develop the complex meanings that the speaker attributes to “The Century Quilt.” You may wish to consider such elements as structure, imagery, and tone.

Introduction: How do I arrive at my thesis?

Step 1: What is the prompt asking you to do? e.g. Since prompt asks you to discuss the complex

meanings of the century-old quilt (Waniek poem), write the definition of “complex meanings” for yourself.

Step 2: Mark the text every time the quilt is described in a complex way: intense feeling, strangeness, contradiction, irony, hot-cold, tension-release.

Step 3: Linger in the details about the many meanings of the quilt! Texturize and layer that quilt. Approach the quilt from as many angles as possible. Let the details about the poem pile up. Annotate, annotate, annotate. Circle/ highlight any detail, word, or sentence that stands out about the complexity of the quilt.

The Prompt and the ProblemThe following prompt can be found on Question 1 of the 2010 AP English Lit/Comp Exam: Read carefully the following poem by Marilyn Nelson Waniek. Then write an essay analyzing how Waniek employs literary techniques to develop the complex meanings that the speaker attributes to The Century Quilt. You may wish to consider such elements as structure, imagery, and tone.

2010 Q1 Sample B; score: 4

…and the Problem again…

2010 Sample A; score: 3

…and the Problem again

2010 Q1 Sample R – Score 4

What instructional questions do these low-scoring essay-openings raise?

1. Should students be trained to repeat the prompt in the first paragraph?

2. Should students be trained to organize essays around a list of literary techniques/devices?

3. Should the first paragraph make specific claims about the complex effect or meaning of the text? Or should it remain vague?

What important tasks are these essay writers failing to take on?These writers don’t discuss specific “complex

meanings” that the speaker attributes to The Century Quilt.

They introduce specific literary techniques without stating how these are used by the poet “to develop the complex meanings that the speaker attributes to The Century Quilt.”

What an adequate response might look like:

Sample YYY; score: 9

What strategies does this highly successful student-writer use?The first paragraph has a thesis which

defines the complex meanings attributed to the quilt.

The description of the quilt’s theme or meanings respects that fact that the poem’s meaning is not static but “develops” as we read and as we deepen our understanding of the work.

What is this highly successful student-writer NOT doing?The student does not repeat the prompt.There is no laundry list of technical terms for

literary techniques.There is not much of a distracting “grabber”-

type introduction. Nearly all of this first paragraph is about the poem; there is a brief “grabber” sentence, but it is seamlessly related to the statement of the poem’s theme (i.e.“complex meanings”).

How does the successful writer introduce the “literary techniques”?The one “technique” mentioned in ¶ 1, “symbol”, is not from the list of suggested techniques in the prompt; moreover, it is embedded in a meaningful statement about a specific idea:

A different way to succeed:

2010 Q1 Sample VVV – Score 8

Prose Question AP Literature 2012:How to read an AP essay prompt

Carefully read the following excerpt from the novel Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze the development of Estrella's character. In your analysis, you may wish to consider such literary elements as selection of detail, figurative language, and tone.

Introduction: How do I arrive at my thesis?Step 1: What is the prompt asking you to do? e.g. Since prompt asks you to discuss the character of Estrella

(Viramontes text), write the definition of “character” for yourself.Step 2: Mark the text every time the character is described in the

passage: physical, attitude, appearance, dialogue, thoughts, actions, reactions.

Step 3: Linger in the details about the many meanings of the character! Layer the character. Approach the character from as many angles as possible. Let the details about the character pile up. Annotate, annotate, annotate. Circle/ highlight any detail, word, or sentence that stands out about the complexity of the character.

Raising the level of student workEssays scored 4 (out of 9) or lower most often

result from students “dumbing down” the task.

Here is a series of lower-scoring sample essay opening paragraphs. What instructions would you give these students in order to get them to engage the task more fully?

The Prompt and the ProblemThe following prompt can be found on Question 2 of the 2013 AP English Lit/Comp Exam: The following passage is from D. H. Lawrence's 1915 novel, The Rainbow, which focuses on the lives of the Brangwens, a farming family who lived in rural England during the late nineteenth century. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Lawrence employs literary devices to characterize the woman and capture her situation.

2013 Q2 Sample A; score: 3

…and this one…

2013 Sample I; score: 4

…and this one…

2013 Q2 Sample H; score: 6

…and this one…

2013 Q2 Sample F; score: 8