Digital Options

LaunchPad

Get the e-book, do assignments, take quizzes, prepare for exams and more, to help you achieve success in class.

Learn About LaunchPad Schedule LaunchPad Demo Go to LaunchPad

Table of Contents

1 STARTING THE CONVERSATION
Building a Classroom Community
Thinking about Voice  
Active Listening
Public Speaking
     Culminating Activity

2 WRITING
The Power of the Pen
Voice and Tone
Precise Word Choice
Strong Sentences
Clear Punctuation
Well-Built Paragraphs
     Culminating Activity

3 READING
Defining Texts
Active Reading
Reading for Understanding
Reading for Interpretation
Reading for Style
Reading Visual Texts
     Culminating Activity

4 USING SOURCES
Sources as Conversation
Types of Sources
Finding Sources
Evaluating Sources
Keeping Track of Sources
Using Sources in Your Own Writing
     Culminating Actity

5 FICTION
Workshop 1: ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(Section 1)    Ray Bradbury, The Veldt 
                     Sherman Alexie, from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
                      Lena Coakley, Mirror Image 
(Section 2)    Etgar Keret, What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish? 
                      Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amontillado 
                      Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game 
                      Angela Flournoy, Lelah
CENTRAL TEXT Amy Tan, Two Kinds 
                     CONVERSATION – Are We Pushing Kids too Hard to Succeed?
                     Malcolm Gladwell,  from Outliers 
                     Amy Chua, from The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother 
                     Adam Grant,  How to Raise a Creative Child  
                     Daniel Pink, from Drive 
                     Andre Agassi, from Open 
(Section 3)   Nadine Gordimer, Once Upon a Time 
                     Kirstin Valdez Quade, Nemecia 
                     Kate Chopin, Story of an Hour
                     Luke Jones & Anna Mill, Square Eyes (graphic novel) 
 
WORKSHOP 2: WRITING FICTION
WORKSHOP 3: ANALYZING FICTION

6 ARGUMENT
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF ARGUMENT

(Section 1)    Lisa L. Lewis, Why School Should Start Later in the Day
                     NY Times Editorial Board, End the Gun Epidemic in America
                     Thomas Sowell, History Shows the Folly of Disarming Lawful People
                     Marc Bekoff, Why Was Harambe the Gorilla in a Zoo in the First Place?
(Section 2)    Steve Almond, Is It Immoral to Watch the Super Bowl?
                     Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Paranoid Style of American Policing
                     Tina Rosenberg, Labeling the Danger in Soda
                     Leonard Pitts, September 13, 2001: Hatred is Unworthy of Us 
                     Barack Obama, Hiroshima Speech
CENTRAL TEXT Peggy Orenstein, What’s Wrong with Cinderella?
                     CONVERSATION – How Does the Media Shape Our Ideas about Gender?
                     Madeline Messer, I'm a 12-year-old girl. Why dont the characters in my apps look like me?
                     Terryn Hall, When I Saw Prince, I Saw a Vital New Black Masculinity
                     Vanessa Friedman, Don’t Ban Ads of Skinny Models
                     Geena Davis Institute, Gender Bias Without Borders
                     Kali Holloway, Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Men: The Roots of Male Trauma
                     Jack O’Keefe, How ‘Master of None’ Subverts Stereotypical Masculinity by Totally Ignoring It
(Section 3)    Daniel Engber, Kill All the Mosquitoes
                     Sarah Kessler, Why Online Harassment Is Still Ruining Lives—and How We Can Stop It
                     Mark Twain, Advice to Youth
                     Cesar Chavez, Letter from Delano

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING ARGUMENT
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING ARGUMENT

7 POETRY
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
(Section 1)   Jose Olivarez, Home Court
                     Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
                     Suheir Hammad, What I Will
                     Rachel Richardson, Transmission
                     Dana Gioa, Money
                     Billy Collins, Flames 
                     Jenni Baker, You American Boy AND Find Your Way
(Section 2)    Nate Marshall, Harold’s Chicken Shack #86
                     Naomi Shihab Nye, Kindness 
                     Michael Ondaatje, Sweet Like A Crow
                     William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18: “Shall I Compare Thee…”
                     Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
                     David Tomas Martinez, In Chicano Park 
                     Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop For Death
                     Amit Majmudar, T. S. A.
                     Ha Jin, Ways of Talking

CENTRAL TEXT Langston Hughes, Let America Be America Again
                     CONVERSATION – What Does the Statue of Liberty Mean to Us Now?
                     Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
                     Concord Oral History Program, Remembrances for the 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty
                     Tato Laviera, lady liberty
                     Suji Kwock Kim, Slant
                     jessica Care moore, Black Statue of Liberty
                     Michael Daly, The Statue of Liberty was Muslim
(Section 3)   Nikki Giovanni, Ego-Tripping
                     Anna Akhmatova, Somwhere there is a simple life
                     Reed Bobroff, Four Elements of Ghostdance
                     Adrienne Su, Things Chinese
                     Kevin Young, Eddie Priest's Barbershop & Notary
                     John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
                     Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING POETRY
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING POETRY

8 EXPOSITION
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF EXPOSITION
(Text Set 1)    Stephen King, Stephen King's Guide to Movie Snacks
                       Derf Backderf, from Trashed (graphic essay) 
                       Lisa Damour, Why Teenage Girls Roll their Eyes
                       Raph Koster, from A Theory of Fun for Game Design
(Section 2)      Alan Weisman, Earth Without People
                       Karl Greenfeld, My Daughter's Homework is Killing Me 
                       Susan Cain, from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
                       Martin Luther King Jr., Blueprint for Life
CENTRAL TEXT Troy Patterson, The Politics of the Hoodie
                       CONVERSATION – How Does Clothing Connect to Identity?
                       Kehinde Wiley, Willem van Heythuysen AND Ice-T (paintings)
                       Nora Caplan-Bricker, Women Who Wear Pants: Somehow Still Controversial
                       Michelle Parrinello-Cason, Labels, Clothing, and Identity: Are You What You Wear?
                       Hugh Hart, From Converse to Kanye: The Rise of Sneaker Culture
                       Jenni Avins, In Fashion, Cultural Appropriation Is Either Very Wrong or Very Right
                       Peggy Orenstein, The Battle Over Dress Codes
(Section 3)     Jon Ronson, How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life
                       Rebecca Solnit, from Men Explain Things to Me
                       Helen Rosner, On Chicken Tenders
                       Edwidge Danticat, Black Bodies in Motion and Pain
                       Samuel Johnson, On the Decay of Friendship

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING AN EXPOSITION
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING EXPOSITION

9 NARRATIVE
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF NARRATION 
(Section 1)    Santha Rama Rau, By Any Other Name
                      Mindy Kaling, from Why Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
                      Marcus Samuelsson, Yes, Chef
(Section 2)     Carrie Brownstein, from Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl
                       Monique Truong, My Father's Previous Life
                       Steven Hall, You, Me, and the Sea
                       Sarah Vowell, Music Lessons
CENTRAL TEXT Julia Alvarez, La Gringuita
                       CONVERSATION – What Is the Relationship Between Language and Power?
                       Jimmy Santiago Baca, from Coming into Language
                       Richard Wright, from Black Boy
                       Joshua Adams, Confessions of a Code Switcher
                       Douglas Quenqua, They're, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve
                       Jessica Wolf, The Seven Words I Cannot Say (Around My Children)
(Section 3)     Amanda Palmer, from The Art of Asking 
                       Thi Bui, from The Best We Could Do (graphic memoir) 
                       Haruki Murakami, Even if I Had a Long Pony Tail Back Then

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING NARRATIVE
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING NARRATIVE

10 DRAMA
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
(Section 1)      Sylvia Gonzales S., from Boxcar
(Section 2)      CENTRAL TEXT WillIiam Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
                       CONVERSATION – Does Tribalism Bring Us Together, or Pull Us Apart?
                       Adam Piore, Why We're Patriotic
                       David Brooks, People Like Us
                       Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
                       Diane Farr, Bringing Home the Wrong Race
                       David Ropiek, Sports, Politics, Tribe, Violence, and the Social Human Animal's Drive to Survive
(Section 3)      B. T. Ryback, A Roz by Any Other Name

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING DRAMA
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING DRAMA

11 MYTHOLOGY
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF MYTHOLOGY
(Section 1)     Neil Gaiman, How the Gods Got Their Treasures 
(Section 2)     CENTRAL TEXT Homer, from The Odyssey
   CONVERSATION – What Is a Hero?
                       Linton Weeks, Heroic Acts to Protect the Word "Hero"
                       Katy Waldman, Is Anybody Watching My Do-Gooding?
                       William Rhoden, Seeing Through the Illusion of the Sports Hero
                       Stephen Kinzer, Joining the Military Doesn't Make You a Hero
                       Kyle Anderson, Why Captain America Is America’s Hero
(Section 3)     Yusef Komunyaka, from Gilgamesh: A Verse Play

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING MYTHOLOGY
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING MYTHOLOGY

Grammar Workshops
• Sentence fragments
• Run-on sentences and comma splices (w/semicolons)
• Verbs (tense and voice, but not mood?)
• Subject-Verb agreement
• Pronoun reference
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement
• Adjectives and adverbs
• Shifts in tense
• Shifts in person
• Misplaced and dangling modifiers
• Parallel structure
• Commas
• Capital letters
• Homophones

MLA Guidelines for Works Cited
Glossary/Glossario of Academic and Literary Terms
Index (key terms + author/title)

Authors

Renee H. Shea

Renée H. Shea was professor of English and Modern Languages and Director of Freshman Composition at Bowie State University in Maryland. A College Board® faculty consultant for more than thirty years in AP® Language, Literature, and Pre-AP® English, she has been a reader and question leader for both AP® English exams. Renée served as a member of the Development Committee for AP® Language and Composition and the English Academic Advisory Committee for the College Board®, as well as the SAT® Critical Reading Test Development Committee. She is coauthor of The Language of Composition, Literature & Composition, Advanced Language & Literature, and Conversations in American Literature, as well as two volumes in the NCTE High School Literature series (on Amy Tan and Zora Neale Hurston).

John Golden

John Golden teaches at Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon. He was an advisor to the College Board® 6–12 English Language Arts Development Committee. An English teacher for over twenty years, John has developed curriculum and led workshops for the College Board’s Pacesetter and SpringBoard® English programs. He is the author of Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom (NCTE, 2001) and Reading in the Reel World: Teaching Documentaries and Other Nonfiction Texts (NCTE, 2006), and the producer of Teaching Ideas: A Video Resource for AP® English (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008) and The NCTE Centennial Film: Reading the Past, Writing the Future (2010).

---

Tracy Scholz

Tracy Scholz has been an educator for over 20 years. She has experience as an English teacher, department specialist, district interventionist, and served as the Associate Director for the Teacher Education Program at Rice University. She earned her doctoral degree in 2012 from the University of Houston in Curriculum and Instruction, and currently serves as the K-12 Advanced Academics Coordinator for Alief ISD.

Related Titles