Overview
Thanks to Timm Freitas |
Overview
Obviously, though anyone is welcome to use this page if they want to, the information is intended primarily for AP teachers. Students, though, might appreciate the information and find that it clarifies certain points or explains the reasons a teacher may use to emphasize a particular strategy. Though most of the information here is courtesy of Mr. Timm Freitas, some of it has been modified based on my own experiences using this information. Although Mr. Freitas' strategy was originally developed for AP Language passage analysis, much of his insights into looking for the "command" and "conquer" in the prompt are precisely the tool for AP Literature students struggling to answer the question. |
Step One: ATSQ
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Answering the Stinking Question
One of the biggest obstacles students often face on the AP, particularly with regard to the prose passage analysis question is the failure to ATSQ, or Answer the Stinkin' Question. Students who fail to answer the stinkin' question often do so in some fairly predictable ways:
Therefore, students need a method of breaking down the prose analysis prompt BEFORE they begin reading the selection and definitely before they begin writing their essays. The reason breaking down the prompt in this way is important is that doing so creates a purpose for writing the essay (beyond "I want to get a 5 on this exam") and empowers students to write about what they know as opposed to what they don't. |
Step Two: Find the "Command" and "Conquer"
Create the "Conquer Question" BEFORE reading.
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Find the "Command" and "Conquer"
Let's consider the prompt from the AP Lit 2019 passage analysis prompt for a second:
It's not always easy for students to determine what it is, exactly, that they are being expected to do. In order for students to be successful, they have to answer the stinkin' question, and even more importantly, they have to understand what the question IS. Students first need to identify and create the "Command" and "Conquer." Like strategic soldiers, students need to get a command, and then when they understand that command and that objective, then they can devise a way to conquer the territory (in this case, the passage for analysis here). Of all the things I do with my students, the most important step of the whole process is having students create the "Conquer Question" BEFORE reading the excerpt they need to analyze. Let's move back to the Howells passage again to see how this question is generated:
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The "Command"
Find the word that means "analyze." Underline to the end of the sentence.
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The "Command"
Find the Word that Means "Analyze" and Underline to the End of the Sentence The "Command" is a simple way to get students to focus on the SAME THING every time they read a prompt. Essentially, I have them constantly remind themselves that they need to ANALYZE in the paper, not merely summarize or identify. Locating the "Command" always requires them to find the word (or the variant of) "analyze." Then they must underline from "analyze" to the end of the sentence. Like I said, this is a reminder technique. Therefore, in the Howells prompt, the "Command" would be "Analyze how the author portrays the complex experience of two sisters, Penelope and Irene, within their family and society." |
The "Conquer"
The WHAT, the HOW, and the ARGUES ABOUT
Start with "WHAT" and "HOW"
What does the author ARGUE ABOUT?
Your Turn!
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The "Conquer": The Most Important Part
To find the "conquer," students should be given the following instructions:
The WHAT IS, the HOW DOES, and the ARGUES ABOUT.
The Questions Must Start with "What is" and "How Does"
It's Always an Argument
Examples
NOW YOU TRY!
I hope that the above examples are clear, and should you go look at the past prose analysis prompts, you will find that almost all can be broken down in this way. So, what is the point of me telling you all of this? You asked for templates, right? Right. Well, here is why I made you go through this: when students have the “Conquer” question, they now know what they need to comprehend once they are done reading the essay. If they can answer the question, they can write this paper, and they can do it well. |
Step Three: 6 Pieces of Evidence
2 Beginning / 2 Middle / 2 End
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Evidence Counts
The next important step is to read the passage. Students need to look very specifically for those answers to the "Conquer" questions as they read, annotating any and all evidence that seems to pertain to the question. PROCEDURE
Finding at least six pieces of evidence -- from throughout the text -- is crucial because one of the qualities that AP graders are looking for is "coverage": the ability of students to look at a text holistically, seeing the development of an idea throughout the text from the beginning to the middle and to the end. |
Step Four: Set Up a Claim Chart
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How to Do the Claim Chart
Your claim chart allows students to look at the distribution of evidence, look for "holes" in their coverage of a text, and most of all, look for "clumps" of evidence. For example, consider the Howells example.
Remember the answers to your WHAT IS /HOW DOES /ARGUES ABOUT questions
Set up the chart as follows in three columns headed this way:
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Step Five: Fill In Your "Doing"
No "USES"!
Sonnet 130 Example
What is the term DOING?
Now You Try!
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Write In Your Six Examples
What Is S/He DOING? For EACH ONE of the six major pieces of evidence, students should ask, "What is [the author] DOING here?" The answers should basically be a kind of "label" for a particular tactic the speaker is deploying in that piece of evidence. For example, in the speech between Portia and Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Portia wants Brutus to tell her what's wrong. She uses a number of tactics here. What is she DOING? Here are some possibilities. Begin with a strong verb.
The "DOING" Labels HAVE TO BE ACTION VERBS...but not "USES"!
Turning back to our Shakespeare example, note that there are many ways to say what Shakespeare's speaker is DOING.
Think About It: What is that Lit Term DOING?
Lit terms are only labels for tools. Tools are FOR DOING THINGS. Think for a minute about what the literary term is fundamentally FOR. What does it DO? A saw saws, right? A printer prints, a refrigerator refrigerates. For literary terms, it's sometimes not so obvious, so let's start. Examples
Now You Try! For each of the literary terms below, think of a verb. ONE WORD only, please.
a. Parallelism (No, you can't say "parallels.") b. Onomatopoeia c. Understatement (No, you can't say "understates.") d. Synecdoche e. Pun |
Step Six: Look for Clumps
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Label the "Doing" Tactics
Key Skill: Look for "Clumps" After coming up with the list of tactics -- what the speaker is DOING -- students will often find more than one piece of data that provides evidence for a speaker's intended goals or purposes. This is actually a really good thing. For example, look in this (fictional) "Tactics" column. Suppose these were a student's labels for what the speaker, a father writing to his son, actually DID:
Look for Clumps At this point, the student should say, "Which one of these tactics are clumping together? Which tactics are similar to each other or like each other in some way?" Obviously, comparing him to a worm and and mocking his personal appearance are similar, as are blaming Mom and the friends. At this point, direct the student to put a label on these tactics to describe both of these clumps. "Ridicule" and "Blame" work just fine. These are Strategies...and They Answer the "Conquer" Strategies are large-scale maneuvers, a "big picture" game plan. Not surprisingly, the strategies often point the way to the "conquer" questions, especially the ARGUES ABOUT one.
TEACHING NOTE: Getting students to say what the speaker is JUST SIMPLY DOING is surprisingly difficult. The most helpful example is often the one from Julius Caesar in which Portia compares herself to a prostitute. What is she DOING? She's CALLING herself a prostitute. Students are often surprised that the answer is really that simple. Really pull them away from general one-size-fits all verbs such as "displays" or "shows" or "uses." Instead, ask HOW? What, specifically, is she DOING to manipulate Brutus? The "clumping" works well here. |
EXAMPLES
Students need six examples. Include line numbers.
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DOING
It's fine if they identify literary terms here, but what are the terms DOING?
Forbidden words:
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ARGUES THAT
What's the overall point here? What is the larger, universal realization that the author wants us to understand about society? Power? Human nature?
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Procedure
Yes, There Is an Argument There
Struggling Students: Use a Theme Template
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Get the Examples
Ask, "What Is S/He DOING?"
Find Large-Scale Strategies
"What Is S/He ARGUING?"
Skill Lifeline: Use a Theme Template*
Sometimes, it's hard for struggling students to put a thematic idea into words. They can get hung up on the characters or the author and forget that the theme is not about specifics but universals.
Theme templates help give students structure in coming up with universal ideas. In the templates below, X and Y stand for abstractions such as truth, , love, ambition, evil, justice, etc. -- that is, the major Really Big Ideas that authors write about in their works. These templates can help translate a student's ideas and give them structure.
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Step Seven: The Essay Writes Itself
Use the Thesis Template!
Let the Essay Write Itself
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Start With the Thesis
Have students write a thesis according to a fairly structured thesis template, especially early in the year. Tell them they are to stick to this fairly structured thesis template like Rose on the floating door of the Titanic until they become super-skilled at writing thesis statements on their own that perform all of the necessary functions that the template compels them to do. THESIS TEMPLATE: In the ______(Genre)____ ___(Title)___, (Contextual Information about Author and/or Text) (Author’s Name) (Powerful Verb + strategy) and (Powerful Verb + strategy), (optional powerful verb + strategy), in order to argue that ____(larger goal or message. Be sure you have answered the "conquer.") Example
I think we can all agree that the example thesis here reads much better than something along the lines of “Shakespeare uses metaphor, simile, and allusions to evoke emotion." Point Out that the Essay Writes Itself When students have completed their chart with six (or more) pieces of evidence, six DOING tactics, (at least) two larger-scale "clump" strategies, and the ARGUES THAT, point out that they've basically written the entire essay. Why?
Point out that the thesis will AUTOMATICALLY be supported by the data because this entire chart was driven by the data in the first place. Rather than pulling down rando quotes from somewhere to (maybekindasorta) fit the thesis, students have specifically started with the data FIRST, then used the data itself to name the tactics and name the strategies. In short, they have custom-tailored their thesis around their evidence, and the rest of the paper will fall into place. But Isn't This Just a Four-Paragraph Essay? What About the Sacred Number Five? Yes, this is a four-paragraph essay. If you have three strategies, then make that the third point in your thesis and develop a third paragraph. However, it's most often a better idea to go deep rather than broad. Planning on two longer, well-developed paragraphs will allow you the depth of analysis you'll need to get that higher-level score. |
Step Eight: Self-Editing and Peer Editing
Claim Must Match Thesis
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Match Like a Bridesmaid
The Thesis Must Match the Claims In this crucial classroom step, especially the first time you do this with a class, it will be necessary to check the thesis and (when the claim sentences for the body paragraphs are written) to check that the thesis matches the claims (the topic sentences) both in content and in order. For example, if the thesis for a prompt about Lord Chesterfield reads like this, then the key ideas highlighted in pretty colors MUST be featured in the claim sentences AND IN THAT SAME ORDER. ______________________________________________________________ Example Thesis (Humorous Example) In a personal letter to his son traveling abroad, Lord Chesterfield disparages his son's personal appearance, alludes to Greek mythology to suggest his son is a disappointment, and ironically compares him to Isaac Newton in order to emphasize his belief that a son owes total loyalty and obedience to his father. _____________________________________________________________________ The Claim Must Match the Thesis
Trade, Grade, Check
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Step Nine: Planning the Essay and Paragraph Structures
Chronological Order By Paragraph
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Most Important Thing: DISCUSS FIRST THINGS FIRST!
But Wait! What Do I Discuss First?
Which Strategy Do I Discuss First?
Then, Organize it By Paragraph
Great. Now you know what paragraph you're going to discuss first. That's the one with the EARLIEST piece of evidence. That's the "comparisons" one because the first piece of evidence is from line 1. Your two paragraphs will look more or less like this:
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Step Ten: Paragraph Template and Example
Body Template
Warrant Template
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Template and Example of a Body Paragraph
What, Why, Where, How?
BODY PARAGRAPH TEMPLATE: Claim Sentence (What/Why):
Data (Textual Evidence /Where):
Warrant (Analysis/How): The warrant is more complicated. See the breakdown below. REPEAT DATA AND WARRANT AS NEEDED. YOU WILL NEED A MINIMUM OF TWO DATAS PER PARAGRAPH. _________________________________________________ WARRANT TEMPLATE Here is a suggested template for doing a warrant along with a specific example below so you can see how this all looks when put together.
How it Looks Like All Put Together In the following example, notice how I use the evidence from my chart to give my thesis the substance it needs to direct my paper. Also notice the importance of the word “because." Having the kids use that word forces them to attempt to provide analysis. I make my students use it all the time! Key ideas from the thesis, especially powerful verbs, rhetorical strategies, and crucial transitions, have been bolded or underlined.
Now, although this essay is mechanical—and not finished, as it is an example—it clearly is driven by the thesis, it is centered around the purpose as directed from the prompt, and it allows students to explain what they know based on the evidence they found. |
Taking It to the Next Level: Adding Quotes
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Literary Analysis and Adding Quotes: Not Just for Textual Evidence!
The following is an example of methods I use to teach students to do more with the text than just use it as evidence. I have provided two examples of literary analysis; the second not only has textual evidence but simply exchanges some ideas in the original analysis with words from the text. Although this seems like a simple move, it demonstrates a control of the text. Check out these examples that are completely derived from the thesis and body paragraphing templates Adding Quotes (Without)
With Added Quotes
NOTE: These examples were developed by Timm Frietas. |
Struggling Students: A Helpful Lifeline
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Template for Struggling Students
This last template is for students who really struggle with analysis. It lets them know that they need to bring what they “know” to the table. I use this ONLY as a springboard and mandate that students then remove all first-person references when they actually put it in their paragraphs. You will notice, however—should you try this with a struggling student—that when they remove the first-person element, there will be clear attempts at analysis. Check out my template and examples. Simplified Analysis: If I were (insert actual audience), this [name the tactic] would make me (answer to the conquer) because it would prove to me that (explain how it would move you toward the answer to the conquer). To add this to your paragraph, GET RID OF THE FIRST PERSON NONSENSE!!!!! Initial Version If I were Brutus, this would make me feel pity towards my wife because I am supposed to love her, and she doesn’t feel loved by me. Actually, she feels like I’m just using her for pleasure, but I have a deeper bond than that, so I must really be doing something to hurt her, and I don’t want that. But, I could potentially repair these damaged feelings if I told her my secret. Analysis with First Person Removed Brutus would feel pity toward his wife because he is supposed to love her, but she doesn’t feel the love from him. Actually, she feels like she is being used for pleasure, but marriage is supposed to be about more than that. It’s about support. Brutus is led to consider that he must be the cause of her pain, and he shouldn’t want that for his wife. Because of this, he could be potentially moved to repair the damage by telling her his secrets. NOTE: These examples were developed by Timm Frietas. |