This week will focus on method and content used in teaching students to become superior readers, writers, and thinkers. To cultivate new texts and strategies for classroom use, the seminar will include a variety of essays, speeches, and maybe even a poem or two. The instruction of composition will be a major focus of the class. Much time will be spent looking at both the multi-draft essay—including the research paper—and the timed essay. Some of the week will be used exploring how to use holistic scoring to improve student writing.

We will work with the objective and written portions of the AP* English Language test. Special attention will be paid to the essay questions fresh from the 2011 reading. A look at formal logic, visual literacy, a variety of syllabi, forms of assessment, and managing the overwhelming paper load that comes with teaching AP* English classes are just a few other topics we will cover during the week.

David Klingenberger has been teaching AP* English classes for 20 years at
Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois. In addition to serving as a reader and
table leader for the English Language AP* exam for the last 12 years, he is also
a College Board* consultant. His essay “Disappearing in Plain Sight: Salinger and
Holden” is about to be published in EBSCO’s new volume on The Catcher in the Rye.