Sample Activity:
Vocabulary
from the Pre-AP workshop
Pre-AP®: Topics for AP Vertical Teams®
in English
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Pre-AP: Topics for AP Vertical Teams in English
Sample Activity
With the arduous task of designing, developing, and aligning a vertical curriculum, team
members face many decisions. The choices of what should be taught, when it should be
taught, and how it should be taught are primary concerns. The answers to these questions
depend on the team members themselves. Each team is uniquely defined by its teachers
and its students. Therefore, each team should assess its own situation and design the
program that will best prepare the students. In this section you will practice strategies and
techniques for three areas of importance to English AP Vertical Teams: vocabulary,
reading/literature, and writing/grammar. You will have the opportunity to practice
strategies in each of these areas and to discuss possible issues that a Vertical Team might
face regarding these topics. Each section is followed by a Reflection page for you to write
your thoughts as preparation for discussion about the importance of these topics to a
Vertical Team.
VOCABULARY
What is the best approach to broadening a student's vocabulary skills?
Vocabulary study is an integral part of the foundation students need for success in English.
When designing the best approach to vocabulary study, a Vertical Team might consider:
Raising the Vocabulary Level
• Word study
• Synonyms
• Antonyms
• Analogies
Teaching Literary Terms
• Guide students from knowledge to application to analysis.
• Decide terms to be taught at each grade level.
• Use common definitions throughout the Vertical Team.
Introducing Tone Words
• Interpret the attitude of author/speaker.
• Discuss levels of emotions.
• Consider positive, negative, and neutral tones.
Tone vocabulary is the subject of the example lesson that follows.
Example Lesson:
Tone Vocabulary
Awareness of tone is an integral part of understanding the intended meaning of any type of
literature. If the tone is misinterpreted, the meaning will be misinterpreted as well. Because
identifying tone can be a difficult skill, different tactics can be implemented to help
students discern tone in literature.
Copyright © 2004 by College Entrance Examination Board. All rights reserved.
Available at apcentral.collegeboard.com.
Beginning Level:
Beginning students need to be able to recognize and name varying degrees or levels of
emotion. It does not suffice just to say that someone is rude. They need to identify the
degree of rudeness. Is the speaker cynical, hopeful, condescending, curious, or taunting?
The following exercise is one way of introducing the different levels of emotion that tone
conveys. On five- by eight-inch index cards, have students define a list of teacher-selected
words that can be "emotionally" grouped (one word per card). Next, have students draw an
illustration on each card depicting the particular emotion of the tone word on the card.
Finally, arrange the cards in order of emotion. For example, look at the following words:
afraid, petrified, and nervous. These words, when put in order of emotion from least to most
extreme, would be: nervous, afraid, petrified.
How would the following words be ranked in order of emotion?
List 1
List 2
Angry
Irritated
Bitter
Furious
Wrathful
Elated
Amused
Lighthearted
Intermediate Level:
The teacher provides a passage that exhibits a certain tone. Next, students should circle
the words that help establish that tone. Finally, using evidence from the passage, students
should write a brief explanation of the tone and the overall attitude created toward a certain
subject.
Example:
Read the following passage from "Three Days to See" by Helen Keller [The Atlantic Monthly
151, no. 1 (1933): 35-42]. Circle the words or phrases that reveal Keller's attitude about the
sense of sight.
Only the deaf appreciate hearing; only the blind realize the manifold blessings that
lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and
hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or
hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears
take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little
appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we
lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind
and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would
make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
Tone/overall attitude created:
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Advanced Level:
Divide the class into groups. Assign a certain tone, or emotional level, to each group. Allow
the students time to choose a topic and to write their own passages demonstrating the
assigned tones. On the overhead, display the passages. Compare the diction used to
produce each emotional level of the assigned tones.
Example:
The topic is "The Likelihood of Acquiring the American Dream."
Divide the class into groups. Assign each group one of the following tones: flippant,
taunting, condescending, cynical.
Students should discuss the American Dream within their groups and write a paragraph
using diction that would reveal the assigned tone.
Copyright © 2004 by College Entrance Examination Board. All rights reserved.
Available at apcentral.collegeboard.com.