AP English Language
Farmington Public Schools
Farmington High School
English Department
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
Farmington Public Schools
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Table of Contents
Unit Summary
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Stage One: Standards
Stage One identifies the desired results of the unit including the broad understandings, the
unit outcome statement and essential questions that focus the unit, and the necessary
knowledge and skills.
The Understanding by Design Handbook, 1999
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Stage Two: Assessment Package
Stage Two determines the acceptable evidence that students have acquired the understandings,
knowledge and skills identified in Stage One.
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Stage Three: Curriculum and Instruction
Stage Three helps teachers plan learning experiences and instruction that aligns with Stage One and
enables students to be successful in Stage two. Planning and lesson options are given, however
teachers are encouraged to customize this stage to their own students, maintaining alignment with
Stages One and Two.
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Appendices
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Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
Farmington Public Schools
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Summary
Stylistic analysis is the first unit taught in AP English Language. When students arrive in September,
very few have had experience in critically reading and analyzing how and why an author chooses to write in a
certain style, and how this style enhances the meaning of a work of fiction or non-fiction. Consequently, this
unit focuses on critical reading and writing toward the end goal of helping students recognize, analyze, and
utilize the power of language in expressing human experience. In this course, students will read and analyze
works from a variety of sources, including works from the American literary and historical tradition,
contemporary fiction, and both expository and persuasive essays to develop proficiency in writing stylistic
analysis essays using assessments based on their reading and from actual AP English Language exams. This is
the first of three major units in the course, and provides the essential skills necessary for the rhetorical analysis
and persuasive writing that follow.
The second major section of the course focuses on rhetorical analysis. Students build on the reading and
analytical skills they have started to develop in the stylistic analysis unit to address the rhetorical strategies
authors use to persuade their audiences through argumentation. Again focusing on critical reading toward
recognizing and analyzing the broad strategies and specific techniques that authors employ in structuring an
argument, students will read, analyze, and compose critical essays that deconstruct published works. The end
goal is for students to understand not just what an author claims, but also how an author manipulates language
through such techniques as appeals to logic, ethics, and emotion, inductive and deductive reasoning, and
evidence
The final section of the course focuses on applying the stylistic and rhetorical skills students have
learned to construct arguments that refute, support, or qualify a position expressed by a published author.
Again, students need to apply critical reading skills to deconstruct the author’s position. Students then need to
use the information they have gathered from the piece and their own background knowledge to create a position
essay that exhibits a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail, appropriate, specific evidence,
cogent explanations, logical organization, an establishment of voice, and a control of tone.
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
Farmington Public Schools
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Stage One: Standards
Stage One identifies the desired results of the unit including the broad understandings, the unit outcome
statement and essential questions that focus the unit, and the necessary knowledge and skills.
The Understanding by Design Handbook, 1999
Essential Understandings and Content Standards
English Essential Understandings and Content Standards for AP English Language
Reading Essential Understanding 1
Successful readers comprehend texts by reading fluently, strategically and accurately
Content Standards
Students will be able to:
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Use a variety of comprehension strategies before, during and after writing
Reading Essential Understanding 2
Accomplished readers read a wide range of literature and respond in personal, interpretive and critical ways
Content Standards
Students will be able to:
• Form an understanding of the main idea(s)
• Develop interpretations by examining text evidence and inferring relationships between an author’s
purpose and style
• Critique the elements of literary style and rhetoric
Reading Essential Understanding 3
Accomplished readers make effective decisions, explain complex issues, draw conclusions and solve problems
by strategically reading informational texts
Content Standards
Students will be able to:
• Determine central ideas
• Determine author’s views and recognize bias and purpose
Writing Essential Understanding 3
Effective writing has a clear purpose and is focused, organized, elaborate and fluent, and requires appropriate
conventions
Content Standards
Students will be able to:
• Create, develop and prove a thesis with sufficient, appropriate and relevant evidence
• Provide a logical progression of ideas by using an appropriate organizational structure
Outcome Statement
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June, 2004
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As a result of this course, students will understand how and why writers manipulate stylistic techniques and
rhetorical strategies to achieve purpose and create meaning in their writing. By the end of this course, students
will:
• Critically read, analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining how and why
an author uses stylistic techniques and rhetorical strategies
• Develop an ability to “see the forest for the trees” in analyzing how the stylistic and rhetorical elements
an author chooses to employ work in concert to create tone and meaning
• Compose essays that introduce and develop a complex central idea using a balance of generalization and
specific illustrative detail, appropriate, specific evidence, cogent explanations, logical organization, an
establishment of voice, and a control of tone.
Essential Questions
Stylistic Analysis Unit
• What is style in writing, and how is it created?
• How and why do writers manipulate style to achieve purpose and create meaning?
• How does one read critically, and why is it necessary?
• How do the different elements of style and stylistic analysis influence one another?
• Why do audiences need to read for both the big picture and the intimate details?
• How do I develop and manipulate style in my own writing?
Rhetorical Analysis Unit
• What is rhetoric, and how is it utilized?
• How and why do writers manipulate audiences through the application of rhetorical strategies to achieve
purpose and create meaning?
• How does one read critically, and why is it necessary?
• How do the different elements of rhetoric and rhetorical analysis influence one another?
• Why do audiences need to read for both the big picture and the intimate details?
• How do I develop and manipulate rhetorical strategies in my own writing?
Argument Unit
• How do I respond thoughtfully to a convincing argument?
• How do I manipulate stylistic techniques and rhetorical devices to achieve purpose and create meaning in
my writing?
• How do I control tone in my writing?
• How do I write with voice and style?
• How does one read critically, and why is it necessary?
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
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Knowledge and Skills
The Knowledge and Skills section includes the key facts, concepts, principles, skills, and processes
called for by the content standards and needed by students to reach desired understandings.
The Understanding by Design Handbook, 1999
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Knowledge
Describe and apply grammatical structures/terms
Describe and apply stylistic and rhetorical analysis terms
Describe and apply writing structures terms
Thinking Skills and Processes
Use close reading strategies to expand comprehension before, during and after reading (inferring,
summarizing, synthesizing, making connections, etc.) in order to gain proficiency analyzing written
texts
Use text evidence, including text features and structure, to develop and support inferential thinking
Identify and articulate an author’s main ideas and purpose(s) in a text
Select, synthesize and use relevant text evidence to develop and support a thematic thesis idea analyzing
how a writer’s stylistic techniques and rhetorical strategies achieves his or her purpose
Use the vocabulary of stylistic and rhetorical analysis to critique and deconstruct passages
Distinguish between essential and support information (“see the forest for the trees”)
Identify, explain and analyze differences in writing styles
Identify, analyze and utilize varied writing structures
Compare/Contrast point of view using two or more texts
Identify and analyze how an author’s epistemology and paradigmatic stance influences what they think
and how they write
Identify and analyze the relationship between music and writing
Identify and analyze important grammatical and syntactical structures
Increase reading vocabulary
Write effective analytical and persuasive essays that manipulate stylistic and rhetorical strategies in
order to achieve a purpose
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June, 2004
Farmington Public Schools
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Stage Two: Assessment Package
Stage Two determines the acceptable evidence that students have acquired the understandings,
knowledge and skills identified in Stage One.
Stylistic analysis unit
Authentic Performance Tasks
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Complete a timed stylistic analysis of Mary Oliver’s Owls (from 2001 AP English Language exam)
Complete a timed stylistic analysis of Richard Rodriguez’s Days of Obligation (from 2003 AP English
Language exam)
Write a nature description of an ordinary place with which you are intimately familiar based on the style
of Dillard’s Death of a Moth
Tests, Quizzes, and Ongoing Checks for Understanding
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Take home stylistic analyses and rewrites, timed and untimed
Close reads and thesis generation on articles from The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic Monthly
Reader’s journal on articles from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic
Monthly
Discussion questions on The Catcher in the Rye
Close reads and thesis generation on sample AP stylistic analysis questions
Stylistic terms quiz
Grammatical structures quiz and exercises
Rhythm in Words exercises
“I am a cripple” marking text activity
Mimic Holden’s voice activity in pairs
Use SLIDDS to complete a take-home close read of a AP style question and to generate a thesis about
the tone and purpose of the work
AP multiple choice, timed and untimed
Projects, Reports, Etc.
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Okeefenokee Swamp (from 1999 AP English Language exam) take home: close read, read models,
write, and reflect on similarities/ strengths/weaknesses, especially in light of AP scoring rubric
Scarlet Letter stylistic analysis
Application of Orwell’s Politics and the English Language to a recent political speech
Application of concepts introduced in Rhythm in Words to JFK’s speech dedicating the Robert Frost
Library at Amherst College
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June, 2004
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Rhetorical analysis unit
Authentic Performance Tasks
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Complete a timed stylistic analysis of Alfred Greene’s speech (from 2003 AP English Language exam)
Complete a timed stylistic analysis of Lord What’s His Face’s letter (from 2004 AP English Language
exam)
Create an original pictorial satire on an issue of local, national or global significance and self-assess the
effectiveness of specific stylistic and rhetorical techniques in achieving satirical purpose.
Analyze contemporary political speeches and campaign advertisements for rhetorical strategies,
classical appeals and logical, ethical and pathetic fallacies
Tests, Quizzes, and Ongoing Checks for Understanding
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Close reads, models analysis, thesis development, and timed (in-class) and untimed (take-home)
analysis essays on rhetorical analysis passages from AP exams (Orwell on Gandhi, Frederick Douglass,
Ellen Goodman’s “The Company Man”) with self-reflection on similarities/strengths/weaknesses in
light of AP scoring rubric
Close reads and thesis generation on articles from The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic Monthly
Reader’s journal on articles from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic
Monthly
Discussion questions and quizzes on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Death of a Salesman, The
Great Gatsby
Quizzes on satirical techniques, irony, logical fallacies
Round-Table Discussion on the question “What is Twain’s purpose in The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn and to what extent does he achieve it?” (assessed for use of text evidence and discursive skills)
Analyze The Declaration of Independence and identify classical appeals and inductive and deductive
reasoning
Analyze David Brooks’ “The Organization Kid” for rhetorical strategies, logical fallacies, etc.
AP multiple choice, timed and untimed
Projects, Reports, Etc.
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Small group work analyzing and presenting American historical documents and speeches (Sojourner
Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?”, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, JFK’s
inaugural address, King’s “I Have a Dream, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “speech to convention, etc.) for
rhetorical strategies, creating AP-style free response essay questions and multiple choice questions
Outside reading of a work of American fiction or non-fiction that addresses an issue in American
cultural history (eg.: Autobiography of Malcolm X, Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, Irving’s The
Cider House Rules, etc.) after which students create and revise three thesis ideas: 1) literary – what does
this work say about America?, 2) rhetorical analysis – author’s use of literary/stylistic/rhetorical devices
to achieve purpose, and 3) argument – support, refute or qualify author’s main thesis
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
Farmington Public Schools
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Argument unit
Authentic Performance Tasks
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Complete a timed argument essay from 2004 AP English Language exam (on topic of choice)
Debate on Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture” and Seymour Hersch’s New Yorker series on the
prison abuse scandal at Abu Graib prison
Tests, Quizzes, and Ongoing Checks for Understanding
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Close reads and thesis generation on articles from The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic Monthly
Reader’s journal on articles from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic
Monthly
AP multiple choice, timed and untimed
Projects, Reports, Etc.
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Close reads, models analysis, thesis development, and timed (in-class) and untimed (take-home)
argument essays from AP English Language exams (Wendell Berry, Lewis Lapham, Susan Sontag,
Coke letters, etc.) with self-reflection on similarities/strengths/weaknesses in light of AP scoring rubric
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
Farmington Public Schools
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Stage Three: Learning Experiences and Instruction
Stage Three helps teachers plan learning experiences and instruction that align with Stage One and
enables students to be successful in Stage Two.
Learning Experiences and Instruction
The learning experiences and instruction described in this section provide teachers with one option for
meeting the standards listed in Stage One. Teachers are encouraged to design their own learning
experiences and instruction, tailored to the needs of their particular students.
Lesson Topic
The Scarlet Letter –
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Orwell Essays
• Shooting an
Elephant
• Politics and the
English Language
• Why I Write
• Reflections on
Ghandi
The Catcher in the Rye
AP Style analysis intro
Reading development
Guiding Questions
• What do you think that
your summer work
was asking you to do?
• What is Hawthorne’s
Purpose? Tone? How
do you know?
• How does the way you
read something
influence your
interpretation?
• What do you think that
your summer work
was asking you to do?
• What is Orwell’s
Purpose? Tone? How
do you know?
• How does reading
something a second
time affect how you
understand it?
• What was Salinger’s
overall purpose?
• What stylistic choices
did he make in crafting
this novel?
• What is style? Why
does it matter?
• What is tone?
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Suggested Sequence of Teaching and Learning Activities
• Quiz on summer reading
• Define style in general terms
• Group work to define Hawthorne’s style in general terms based on
summer work
• Discuss Hawthorne’s perception of human character based on
summer work
What cognitive
processes constitute
effective reading?
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
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Group work based on summer reading choice, reviewing argument
guidelines
Apply the concepts of Orwell’s Politics and the English Language
to a recent political speech
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Review questions for Catcher in the Rye
Mimic Holden’s voice activity in pairs
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Define style analysis terms
Okeefenokee Swamp model AP question activity/reflection
Review/define terms of AP English Language scoring rubric
Read/define tone of journal articles
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Reading strategies lesson on Patricia Grace’s “Butterflies”
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How does an author
create meaning with
words? How do you
know?
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Close read sheets/ guidelines
“I am a cripple” marking text activity
Practice/discuss close read and define purpose and tone for journal
articles, sample AP exam questions, selections from fiction such as
Catcher and Scarlet Letter
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What are the major
stylistic categories that
create an effect? How
do they work together?
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Define terms and examples of SLIDDS acronym (Structure,
Language, Imagery, Diction, Details, Syntax)
Analysis of Frederick Douglass AP question by individual and then
as a whole group, focusing on how SLIDDS acronym can aid in
identifying and synthesizing major effects
Use SLIDDS to complete a take-home close read of a AP style
question and to generate a thesis about the tone and purpose of the
work
Develop an outline of an essay based on class discussion of theses
and close read
Close read and discuss sample AP question, model answers on scale
range of 1-9, reflect on what types of scores have what writing
traits; focus on student writing style, voice, ideas, and proof
Write, score, and revise an AP style analysis question (Edward
Abby, Avariapa Canyon)
Show/analyze pieces of student work that exemplify the “forest for
the trees” idea of seeing the relationship between big picture and
supporting detail
Complete a timed stylistic analysis of Richard Rodriguez’s Days of
Obligation (from 2003 AP English Language exam)
Review AP model answers and FHS essays
Rewrite essays based on class conversation and writing conferences
Rhythm in Words article and exercises
Close read and analysis of JFK Inaugural Address, Dedication of
Frost Library, focusing on how analysis of rhythm supports and
enhances stylistic analysis of tone and purpose
Close read - intro
SLIDDS
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Style analysis essay
How can a close read
of a passage lead to an
analysis of the what,
how, and why of the
work?
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Performance Task I
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The Rhythm and Music of
Language
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How do writers
employ rhythmic and
musical techniques in
their writing?
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Annie Dillard, The Death of
a Moth and How I Wrote the
Moth Essay and Why
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How can you employ
stylistic devices in
your own writing?
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What specific, detailed
writing techniques do
authors use to create
effect?
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Performance Task III
Ongoing vocabulary,
grammar, journal analysis
work
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Performance Task II
Supporting Structures of
SLIDDS
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What background
knowledge and
familiarity with
supporting details do I
need to have to
understand and
analyze complex
writing?
Michael Dunn and Peter Cummings
June, 2004
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Read Annie Dillard, The Death of a Moth and analyze and describe
how her style helps her achieve her purpose
Read How I Wrote the Moth Essay and Why and discuss her
methodology in comparison to what you expected and what you
know about good writing
Write a nature description of an ordinary place with which you are
intimately familiar based on the style of Dillard’s Death of a Moth
Analyze how supporting structures such as parallel construction,
alliteration, etc. add to stylistic analysis by indicating the specific
choices authors make to achieve a specific tone, effect, or meaning
Apply both major and supporting structures of style analysis to a
sample AP question
Complete a timed (40 minute) stylistic analysis of Mary Oliver’s
Owls (from 2001 AP English Language exam)
On a rotating basis students will turn in the following types of
assignments:
Vocabulary – 50 words with definitions, parts of speech, usage in
sentence from 2 units of Word Wealth
Grammar – chapters on syntax, parallel construction, diction, etc.
Close Reading Journals – on a contemporary article from the New
York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly or Harpers
Multiple choice packets
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Ongoing AP multiple choice
work
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How do I use my close
reading and analytical
skills to decipher the
correct answer?
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June, 2004
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Individual multiple choice work and group analysis of answers
Group multiple choice work and analysis of answers
Timed multiple choice assessment
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Sample Stage Three Sequence of Activities for Rhetorical Analysis and Argument Units
Rhetorical Analysis
• Introduce rhetoric by revisiting passage from Orwell’s essay on Gandhi used for 1997 AP English
Language exam
• Chapters on Arguments (on classical appeals, inductive and deductive reasoning, logical fallacies) from
and Norton’s Essays, Heath Handbook
• Three classical appeals (logos, ethos and pathos) in Marc Antony’s funeral oration from Act III, sc. ii of
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
• Quiz on logical fallacies
• Group analysis of Frederick Douglass speech from AP exam
• Quiz analyzing Declaration of Independence for classical appeals and inductive/deductive reasoning
• Mini-project – analyze and present political speech and/or campaign ad for rhetorical strategies,
classical appeals, fallacies, etc.
• Introduce Satire – analyze political cartoons for elements of definition of satire from OED, techniques,
etc,
• Create and self-evaluate original satire
• Introduce Huck – How can Huck be said to be both “a profound statemwhent against racism” (Keith
Nielson) as well as “the most grotesque example of racist trash ever written” (John What’s His Name?)
– be able to craft an argument for Round Table discussion at the end of reading Huck.
• Ongoing study of Huck – trace for examples of satire, Huck’s growth, development of Jim’s portrayal,
what’s up with the ending, etc.
• During Huck, revisit style analysis and Catcher by comparing/contrasting the beginnings of Catcher and
Huck
• During Huck, more timed and untimed practice on AP exam rhetorical analysis questions (Greene, etc.)
• During Huck, read, analyze and discuss David Brooks’ “The Organization Kid” – what is his argument,
how does he make it, how does the article relate to the literature we’ve studied, etc.)
• Round Table Discussion of Huck
• Assign outside reading and It’s a Wonderful Life before holiday break – for Life - take notes analyzing
what the film says about America and how it says it.
• For outside reading, be able to craft three thesis ideas – one literary, one rhetorical analysis, one
argument (see assessment package)
• Chapters from Heath Handbook on Thesis Statements
• Death of a Salesman – view in class, culminate in round-table discussion using the play/film of Death,
It’s a Wonderful Life and Ellen Goodman’s “The Company Man” – regarding what is the American
Dream?
• Gatsby intro – 1920’s, first chapter, etc.
• During study of Gatsby, revisit style analysis with group presentations on specific passages
• Group analysis and presentation of American historical documents and speeches, with creation of APstyle essay and multiple choice questions
Midterm Exam – Using questions from 2002 AP English Language exam - Style analysis of passage from
Virginia Woolf memoir, rhetorical analysis of Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address
Argument
• Presentations on argument thesis statements from outside reading
• Study, write and re-write argument essays using questions and passages from AP exams (Wendell
Berry, Lewis Lapham, Susan Sontag, etc.)
• Argument assessment from 2004 AP English Language exam on topic of choice
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June, 2004
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Review for AP exam using all questions
After the AP exam final project using technology to present an analysis of how modern media use particular
stylistic and rhetorical techniques to achieve their purposes.
Appendices
For all AP materials:
www.apcentral.com
For rhetorical, stylistic, and argument terms and strategies:
www.humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/arguments/argument1.htm
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June, 2004
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APEnglish Language Close Reading Analysis/Thesis Development Worksheet for AP Exam Passages
Reading is a process of constructing meaning from a text, requiring multiple readings until the “Polaroid picture” comes more clearly into view. Active reading
involves cognitive processes such as questioning, and making inferences and connections, eventually enabling us to clarify our emerging picture of the relationship
between an author’s purpose (the WHY of a piece) with style (the HOW). In your notes, complete the following:
Title and author of piece_____________________________________________________________________________
1. Read the passage the first time marking for the big picture (the author’s overall purpose and ideas) and first impressions paying
attention to any questions, inferences and connections you make. What strikes you? What are your first reactions? With what do
you agree and/or disagree?
2. As you continue this process, continue to clarify the following:
a. WHO is involved and WHAT is happening
b. What is the OCCASION (setting)?
c. Who is the AUDIENCE and how do you know?
d. What is the author’s PURPOSE in this passage?
e. What is the SUBJECT/IDEA/ARGUMENT/CONCLUSION? What is the author saying/proving, how do you know and to what
extent is the attempt successful?
3. Re-read the passage, (not for whole articles) this time marking and underlining carefully the WHAT, WHY, WHO and HOW.
Circle interesting words and phrases. Determine and mark connections within the text, write questions and ideas in the margins.
What is neat, interesting, bizarre, etc. Look closely at the notes you’ve made? What patterns emerge?
4. Make a brief list of stylistic devices (imagery, details, etc.) and rhetorical strategies. (See List on Reverse). How does the way the
piece is written help prove the point the author is trying to make? Questions to consider include, but are not limited to:
f. What is the TONE and how do you know?
g. Examine the DICTION (word choice) – what is important and why?
h. Examine the SYNTAX (sentence structure). Simple or complex? Varied? Why?
i. Examine the use of other stylistic devices such as IMAGERY, DETAILS, RHYTHM/PACING etc. What is the effect?
j. Appeals to logical reasoning? Appeals to emotion? Appeals that attempt to establish the author’s credibility or character?
k. Concessions/Refutations and purposes:
5. Review the passage one more time and write a statement about the IDEA resulting from the interrelationship among the
WHAT/HOW/WHY and WHO. In other words, answer the question/develop a thesis by determining what IDEA(s) the passage is
about/what the author’s PURPOSE is and HOW the writer achieves this through stylistic devices/rhetorical strategies. Rewrite this
statement so that it doesn’t just recognize or label, but ASSERTS. This is your thesis.
6. Create an OUTLINE of major points/evidence that both support and develop this thesis statement.
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June, 2004
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