Succeed in the AP English Literature and Composition Exam

Extensive research studies have shown that students who develop the content knowledge to pass an AP Exam (a grade of 3 or higher) have much higher rates of college completion and have higher grades in college. The 2005 National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA) study shows that students who take AP have much higher college graduation rates than students with the same academic abilities who do not have that valuable AP experience in high school.

In line with its commitment to academic rigor, EMC Publishing offers a new series of guides for teaching Advanced Placement® (AP®) English literature. EMC’s Guide to AP Literature series provides teachers multiple opportunities to teach students the skills necessary to succeed not only on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam but also in college-level reading, thinking, discussing, and writing about literature. The ten titles in the series include those often cited on the exam and studied in high school programs.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Awakening
Beloved
Crime and Punishment
Great Expectations
Invisible Man
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
The Sound and the Fury
Wuthering Heights

EMC’s Guide to AP Literature series provides teacher and student editions for each literary work. The Teacher Edition, designed for both novice and experienced instructors, is organized into these sections:
-An introduction that addresses how to teach the literary selection within the context of a high school English program (vertical alignment) and offers classroom reading and activity schedules
-Background information about the author and the work, including coverage of relevant social, political, and historical issues
-Strategies for teaching the literary work, complete with prereading, classroom reading, and postreading activities
-Comprehensive explanations and activities for conducting a literary analysis of the work, along with an introduction to theories of literary criticism
-An overview of the AP English Literature and Composition Exam and guidelines for how best to prepare students for taking it

Each accompanying Student Edition is a workbook that provides sample multiple-choice questions and both types of free-response questions (analysis essay questions and open-response prompts), simulating the actual questions students will encounter on the AP examination. The practice questions are designed to give students exposure, practice, and confidence prior to taking the exam.

Give your students the tools they need to succeed on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam!

Great Expectations! Great Results!!

Acclaimed authors hosting free appearances in Twin Cities

Award-winning authors Garrison Keillor and Tim O’Brien will appear at the Schwan Center in Blaine, Minnesota, this spring. Selections by Keillor and O'Brien, who were both raised in Minnesota, are featured in EMC's Mirrors & Windows: Connecting with Literature textbook program.

O’Brien is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Vietnam novel, The Things They Carried, and will appear at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 22. Keillor will appear at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 15. He is best known for Lake Wobegon Days and Good Poems for Hard Times, as well as for creating and hosting the public radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion.”

The events will be free and open to the public and books will be on sale. The appearance is part of the Club Book Program, which is funded by Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. The program will bring acclaimed authors to libraries across the Twin Cities metropolitan area. It is planned to run at public libraries in the seven-county area from April 2010 to June 2011, and possibly beyond, according to the program’s website: http://www.clubbook.org/. For more information call 952-847-8107.

It's definitely time for a field trip!!

Customizing Reading Assessment Tip

Would you like to be able to copy and paste the reading assessment questions, located in the 9-12 Mirrors & Windows textbook after the selections, into a Word document? You can do this by locating the Annotated Teacher Edition in the Teacher Resource CD, highlighting the questions, then copying them into a Word document. You will need to adjust the format, then add the questions to tests you are creating, or even copy and paste into ExamView and save in your test bank file.

The Teacher Who Changed My Life

Today, May 4th, is National Teacher Appreciation Day. National Teacher Appreciation Week is being celebrated all week, May 3-7, to honor teachers and to recognize the lasting contributions they make to our lives. Most of us can think of at least one or more teachers who inspired us to reach for our dreams.

In his memoir "The Teacher Who Changed My Life," Nicholas Gage explains how teacher Marjorie Hurd changed his life. He describes coming to New York in 1949 as a nine-year-old immigrant and tells of the challenges of learning in a new school in a new language.

“The person who set the course of my life in the new land I entered as a young war refugee—who, in fact, nearly dragged me onto the path that would bring all the blessings I’ve received in America—was a salty-tongued, no-nonsense schoolteacher named Marjorie Hurd.”

Gage credits Hurd with helping him understand English and with becoming his mentor and muse. Hurd encouraged Gage to write about what happenend too his family in Greece. His experience in her newpaper club set him on the course of a writing career. You can read Gage’s complete memoir in Mirrors & Windows: Connecting with Literature, Level IV.

Take the time this week to find a way to say thank you to the teachers who make such a difference in all of our lives.

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." --William A. Ward