Hello and welcome to my 10th 11th 12th Grade English Testing Strategies: Grammar Writing Reading Diagnostic course, where we practice each week how to think like an English expert! Each class we will explore new concepts, re-visit new variations of old concepts, and tie them all to tested problems from newly-released exams. This set of meetings is designed to bring the best exam prep skills to those students in most need of testing assistance. 

*Each meeting is designed as stand-alone lesson, so that a student can enroll at any point during the year and begin to immediately receive the instruction that they need to be academically successful as they move through each grade level. The core skills throughout this entire course are inferencing and critical thinking skills - as the College Board has specifically requested that these skills be tested above all else when determining what types of problems will be written into the exams. 

*Each enrolled student in this course will receive the most up-to-date of materials to use as a main reference point for all of the work completed throughout this course. This Ongoing subscription-based course is designed to be an ever-continuous stream of new material and practice problems, designed to reinforce Common Core Standards of content knowledge and critical thinking skills.  

*Each meeting is designed to explain in full details a handful of concepts that are widely-tested . These concepts are then tied directly to practice problems and drills from newly-released exams and educational material. This method allows for a student in any one of the three grade-levels (and at any point during the duration of the course) to enroll and immediately begin receiving the academic instruction that they need. 

Week of February 3

Theme:

GRAMMAR

Topics:

Commas, punctuation marks, colons, semicolons, different types of phrases, clauses, and sentence types; proper form of word; subject-ver agreement; writing for purpose and audience; diction

Week of February 10

Theme:

*ENGLISH Diagnostic Exams*

Topics: 

English and Reading (Passage Analysis) Schedule:

-What's on an English test?
--Writing: complete, consistent, clear, and concise 

-The Passages

-The Questions 

-Topic, POE, Context 

-Grammar Review
--Verbs, Pronouns, Modifying Words, Adjectives and Adverbs, Comparisons and Superlatives  

Week of February 17

Theme:

Complete and Incomplete Ideas

Topics:

-Stop Punctuation

-Go Punctuation 

-Commas

-Half-stop

-Conjunctions 

Week of February 24

Theme:

*ENGLISH DRILLS*  

Topics:

Consistent, Clear, and Concise 

-Verbs

-Tricky Pronouns 

-Prepositional Phrases 

-Irregular Verb Participles 

-Passive Voice

-Pronouns

-Apostrophes

-Transitions

-Concision


Following Topics:

*English Drills*

Rhetorical Skills

-Except/Least/Not

-Word Choice and Idioms

-Strategy Questions

-Order

-And in the end . . . 

*RHETORICAL SKILLS DRILLS*



-Whats's else is on a Reading Test?

-Reading skills

-Order the passages

-Now, later, never

-POOD

-Social Science, Humanities, Natural Science

-Order the Passages, Redux

-Order the Questions

-Pace Yourself

-Be Flexible

6-Step Basic Approach 

-The passage, the questions

-The Six-Step Approach
--Preview, Work the passage, Select and Understand the Question, Read what you need, Predict the Correct Answer, Use POE

-Referral, Reasoning, Later, Last Questions

-Prose Fiction

-Score and Analyze Your performance 

*READING DRILLS*

Advanced Reading Skills 

-Later Questions, Vocabulary-in-Context, Roman Numerals, Dual Reading Passages, A note on the golden thread, 

-How to work through a Dual-passage Reading section 

-Critical Reading
--Critical thinking, topic sentences and main points, transitions, modifiers, translation 

-Advanced POE Skills 
--The art of wrong answers, work backwards

*READING DRILLS* 

Introduction to the Essay

-The thesis should be your perspective on the given issue

-Make sure the topic sentences connect to your thesis

-Argue against a counter-example for a higher score

BRAINSTORMING

-Perspective 1

-Perspective 2

-Perspective 3

-Your Perspective

IBC

-Introduction

-Body

-Conclusion 

High Scoring Student Responses

*Students will begin to explore advanced Language & Literature concepts and movements + answer question-types: 

LANGUAGE SKILLS, REVIEW, & QUESTION-TYPES:

-How to approach the essays: Basic Principles

-How to approach the Synthesis Essay

How to approach the Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Rhetorical Analysis

 How to approach the Argument Essay

TERMS AND MODES REVIEW

-Rhetoric and the elements of style

 Basic rhetorical modes

Rhetorical Analysis 

Complex rhetorical modes

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Fallacies  

Rhetorical Analysis

 Introduction to the Analysis Essay

Some Basics

Types of Analysis Essay Prompts

Rating the Analysis Essay

The Unicorn

Timing and Planning the Analysis Essay

Working the Prompt

Reading and Notating the Passage

Developing the Opening Paragraph

Writing the Body of the Essay

Sample Student Essays

Rating the Essays

Other Types of Analysis Essays

Writing the Body of the Essay

Rapid Review

 Introduction to the Argumentative Essay

Some Basics

Timing and Planning the Essay

Working the Prompt
Developing the Opening Paragraph

Developing the Body of the Essay

Sample Student Essays

Rating the Essays

Rapid Review

Introduction to the Synthesis Essay

Some Basics

Timing and Planning the Synthesis Essay

Working the Prompt

Developing the Opening Paragraph

Developing the Body of the Essay

Writing the Conclusion

Sample Synthesis Essay from the Master Exam

Sample Student Essays

Rating the Essays

Rapid Review

Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High

Comprehensive Review—Analysis

Some Basics

Rhetorical Strategies

About Style

The “Connective Tissue” Issue

Voice: Pen, Paper, Action!

Says/Does

A Few Words About Coherence

An Essay Editing and Revision Template

Rapid Review

Comprehensive Review—Argument

Some Basics

The Argument

Reading the Argument

Writing the Argument

Comprehensive Review—Synthesis

Some Basics

A Few Comments Before Beginning

Strategies

A Note About Summary, Paraphrase, and Inference

Final Comment

Rapid Review


LITERATURE SKILLS, REVIEW, & QUESTION-TYPES

LITERARY MOVEMENT OVERVIEW

Metaphysical Poetry

Augustans

Romantic Poetry

The Symbolists

Modernism

The Harlem Renaissance

Postmodernism

The Beats

Confessional Poets

“New York School of Poets

Black Arts Movement

Black Mountain Poets

“Other Important Representative Poets and Poems

Poetry Analysis Questions

“READING POETRY LIKE A PRO

“SAMPLE POETRY ANALYSIS PASSAGE AND QUESTIONS”

“Poetry Analysis Passage Drills”

“Prose Fiction Analysis Questions”

“USING THE SAMPLE PASSAGES AND QUESTIONS

“TAKING CONTROL OF PROSE FICTION ANALYSIS PASSAGES

“GETTING TO KNOW THE QUESTIONS

“SAMPLE PROSE FICTION ANALYSIS PASSAGE AND QUESTIONS”

GENERAL COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

DETAIL QUESTIONS

Literary Term Questions

“The Art of the Seven-Minute Passage

“Prose Fiction Analysis Passage Drills

“The Idea Machine: Starting Your Essays with a High Score”

“FROM IDEA TO EXECUTION

-The Approach

“The Classic Essay Question

“Sample Poetry Analysis and Prose Fiction Analysis Essays”

-“SAMPLE POETRY ANALYSIS ESSAY

“Poetry Analysis Answers in General

“SAMPLE ESSAY ON PROSE FICTION

“Essay (Suggested Time—40 Minutes)”

Literary Argument

“HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR AN ESSAY ON ANYTHING?

“WHAT THE TEST WRITERS REALLY WANT FROM YOUR LITERARY ARGUMENT

THE PRIMARY WORKS

THE SECONDARY WORK

“What Does “Prepare the Work” Mean?

The Prose Passage Essay

Introduction to the Prose Passage Essay

Types of Prose Passage Essay Questions

Rating the Prose Passage Essay

Timing the Essay

Working the Prompt

Reading and Notating the Prose Passage

Writing the Opening Paragraph

Writing the Body

Sample Student Essays

Rating the Student Essays

Rapid Review

The Poetry Essay

Introduction to the Poetry Essay

Types of Prompts Used for the Poetry Essay

Timing and Planning the Poetry Essay

Working the Prompt

Reading and Notating the Poetry Selection

Writing the Opening Paragraph

Writing the Body of the Poetry Essay

Sample Student Essays

Rating the Student Essays

Rapid Review

 The Free-Response Essay

Introduction to the Free-Response Essay

Types of Free-Response Prompts

General Rubrics for the Free-Response Essay

Timing and Planning the Free-Response Essay

Working the Prompt from the Diagnostic/Master Exam

Developing the Opening Paragraph

Developing the Body of the Essay

Sample Student Essays

Rating the Student Essays

Final Comments

Rapid Review

Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High

Introduction to Review Section

Comprehensive Review—Prose

Introduction to Prose

Five Aspects of Every Narrative

Types of Novels

Literary Terminology

Prose Analysis

Final Comments

Rapid Review


Comprehensive Review—Poetry

Introduction to Poetry

The Structure of Poetry

Types of Poetry

Interpretation of Poetry

Poems for Comparison and Contrast

Rapid Review


COMPREHENSIVE LITERARY REVIEW AND PRACTICE PROBLEMS:

 Pre-20th-Century Prose

Louisa May Alcott, “An Old-fashioned Girl”

Frances Burney, Evelina

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Kate Chopin, “The Kiss”

New William Congreve, The Way of the World: A Comedy (1895)

Hannah Cowley, “The Belle“s Strategem”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

Euripides, Medea

Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver“s Travels

Sophocles, Oedipus the King

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Chapter 2 20th-Century/Contemporary Prose

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

New Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

New Susan Glaspell, “Suppressed Desires”

Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, “Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life”

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw

James Joyce, “The Dead”

Franz Kafka, “Metamorphosis”

Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

New Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley

New Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

New R. A. Sasaki, “Driving to Colma”

New Zadie Smith, White Teeth

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

New Ngugi wa Thiong“o, The River Between

Virginia Woolf, “An Unwritten Novel”


 Pre-20th-Century Poetry

Anne Bradstreet, “The Author to Her Book”

Emily Dickinson, “Success is counted sweetest …”

Jayadeva, Excerpt from Gita Govinda

Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”

Christina Rossetti, “Winter: My Secret”

Phyllis Wheatley, “An Hymn to the Evening”

Walt Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!”

William Wordsworth, “The world is too much with us”

Countee Cullen, “I Have a Rendezvous with Life”

Kahlil Gibran, “Defeat”

20th-Century/Contemporary Poetry

New Pamela Hart, “Kevlar Poem”

New David Hernandez, “I Made a Door”

New David Tomas Martinez, “To the Young”

New Dorothy Parker, “Men I Am Not Married To”

New Tracy K. Smith, “The Good Life”

Rabindranath Tagore, “The Home”

New Sara Teasdale, “From the Woolworth Tower”

William Butler Yeats, “That the Night Come”