ENGLISH
Core Training Modules 1-4
Participants will explore the skills, concepts, and teaching strategies included in the LTF Resource and Planning Guides for Pre-AP* English. The guides were developed to help teachers begin at the middle grades to prepare students for success in Advanced Placement* English Language and Literature courses. Each guide includes lessons that are classroom-ready as well as lessons that serve as models from which teachers can develop their own lessons. Participants are given passwords to access the protected materials on the LTF website, including diagnostic activities and End-of-Course test materials. Teachers leave every training day with lessons that are classroom-ready and with sufficient preparation to begin using the lessons in their own classrooms.
Module 1: Introduction to Laying the Foundation®
Participants are introduced to the grade specific Laying the Foundation English guides, study the Skill Progression charts, learn techniques for moving through the Levels of Thinking, and work through lessons in the areas of close reading, grammar, and composition. The day concludes with a tour of the LTF website and a review of the many available resources. Participants are given passwords to access the protected materials on the LTF website, including diagnostic activities and End-of-Course test materials. Teachers leave the training, and every subsequent training day, with lessons that are classroom-ready and with sufficient preparation to start using
the lessons in their own classrooms.
Module 2: Annotation and Analysis of a Text
In this session, participants focus on analyzing and annotating texts, linking devices to meaning, and understanding the levels of reading. Trainers demonstrate the importance of teaching skills rather than specific texts. Teachers are full participants as LTF trainers model strategies and activities from the guides and the LTF website. Also included is a lesson written in English and in Spanish for use with English language learners in Pre-AP classes.
Module 3: Integrating Grammar, Exploring Syntax
This session reiterates the idea that grammar cannot be taught in isolation and discusses the distinction between grammar and syntax. Using lessons from Laying the Foundation guides and
from the Laying the Foundation website, the trainer will model strategies and lessons developed to illustrate practical methods for integrating grammar instruction into the study of almost any passage. Participants will receive numerous lessons that can be adapted for use with different passages. Also included is a lesson written in English and in Spanish for use with English language learners in Pre-AP classes.
Module 4: From Journal to Essay
In this session, trainers take teachers through the entire process from creating an essay prompt to teaching students how to develop and organize an essay to scoring with rubrics. Skill-focused dialectical journals are modeled as a tool for developing student thinking and writing. Teachers will write in response to a prompt and will read and discuss sample student essays from the LTF website. Also included is a lesson written in English and in Spanish for use with English language learners in Pre-AP classes.
Style Analysis Modules 5-8
The second year of LTF training for English teachers will provide an in-depth look at some of the skills, concepts, and teaching strategies introduced in the first year of training and will integrate close reading, grammar, and composition activities in a study of style analysis. Using challenging and grade-level appropriate passages from both fiction and poetry, teachers will complete a variety of lessons designed to help students learn to unlock meaning in texts and to compose paragraphs and essays that include textual evidence and analytical commentary. Each day of training includes lessons from Laying the Foundation guides and new lessons only available on the website.
Module Five: Connecting Devices to Meaning
The activities for this day focus on connecting devices to meaning. Included in this one-day training is a review of the Levels of Thinking, integrated into a lesson on Analyzing a Visual Text. Participants will examine the types of questions students encounter on Advanced Placement* English exams and Pre-AP* assessments. Using a passage from the 2007 Laying the Foundation® End-of-Course Test, participants will review methods for teaching students to find examples of literary devices in a text, link those devices to meaning, and compose an essay that includes textual evidence and analytical commentary.
Module Six: Linking Characterization to Meaning
The activities for this day focus on analysis of direct and indirect characterization. Participants will examine the types of character-related free response questions students encounter on Advanced Placement* English exams and Pre-AP* assessments. Using passages from novels and a short story, participants will review methods of teaching students to recognize examples of direct and indirect characterization and to compose paragraphs that include textual evidence and analytical commentary. The training includes lessons from Laying the Foundation® guides and from the Laying the Foundation® website. Participants will also review Levels of Thinking and apply their knowledge to lessons used in the day’s training.
Module Seven: Determining Tone
The activities of this day focus on analysis of poetry with particular emphasis on determining tone. Participants will examine the types of tone-related free response questions students encounter on Advanced Placement* English exams and Pre-AP* assessments. Using various poems, participants will review methods of teaching students to recognize devices that contribute to tone and to compose paragraphs and essays that include textual evidence and analytical commentary. Participants will also review Levels of Thinking and apply their knowledge to lessons used in the day’s training.
Module Eight: Determining the Underlying Meaning
The activities in this one-day training focus on teaching strategies that will enable students to recognize and state the theme of a literary work and support their theme statement with relevant textual evidence. Using both prose and poetry selections, participants will review strategies for teaching students how concrete elements such as character, diction, imagery, figurative language, and syntax help to reveal an abstract concept such as theme in a work of literature. The day’s training includes an emphasis on writing paragraphs and essays that include textual evidence and analytical commentary. Included are lessons from Laying the Foundation® guides and from the LTF website. Participants will develop an original lesson on theme to use in their own classrooms.
Argument and Persuasion Modules 9-12
In the third year of LTF English training, participants will explore a variety of argumentative texts, including essays, speeches, advertisements, and visual texts, and will practice strategies for teaching rhetorical analysis through the integration of close reading, grammar, and composition activities. These training modules will emphasize recognition and use of the rhetorical appeals, persuasive techniques, and organizational structures. Training will also include lessons for teaching students to develop their own persuasive writing and revising skills. Participants will examine diagnostic activities and End-of- Course test materials from the LTF website, review the tenets of holistic scoring, and evaluate a set of student responses to a rhetorical analysis free response question.
Module 9: Understanding the Appeals
This session focuses on analyzing prose, including advertisements and comic strips, from a rhetorical perspective. Logical, ethical, and emotional appeals are closely examined, and inductive and deductive reasoning are introduced. Dialectical journals focused on rhetorical devices are modeled as a tool for developing student thinking and writing. A review of questions
from the Persuasive/Rhetorical Analysis Diagnostic Activities on the Laying the Foundation® website is also included in this session.
Module 10: Analyzing Organization and Syntax
Activities in this session focus on the analysis of persuasive writing with an emphasis on the organization and structure of both the whole text and the sentences within it. In the analysis of the whole text, teachers are introduced to persuasive techniques such as concession and counterargument, claim, rebuttal, and assumptions. They will then identify and analyze the effect of various sentence structures, including loose/cumulative, periodic, antithetical, and balanced, as well as a variety of syntactical techniques. After learning to identify the devices and analyze the effect they have, teachers begin to work with concrete strategies for incorporating these techniques into student writing. Additional materials from the Laying the Foundation® website are incorporated into the training.
Module 11: Writing Analysis and Persuasion
This session builds on the lessons learned in “Understanding the Appeals” and “Analyzing Organization and Syntax” and focuses on strategies for analyzing and writing persuasive texts. LTF™ trainers demonstrate strategies and models that help students recognize rhetorical devices and elements of persuasion and incorporate appropriate evidence and effective commentary into their analytical and persuasive essays. The concepts of concession and counterargument are introduced, and special emphasis is placed on writing commentary and organizing an essay effectively. Included in this session is a look at some of the Rhetorical Analysis and Persuasive Free Response Diagnostic Activities available on the LTF website.
Module 12: Evaluating and Revising
This session begins with an analysis of how a visual text can make a claim. The day continues with an overview and review of the tenets of holistic scoring. Participants study the Laying the Foundation® End-of- Course Scoring Guide for Rhetorical Analysis and discuss and evaluate a set of student responses to a Rhetorical Analysis Free Response question. Practical strategies for teaching revision and editing, as well as techniques for developing style and voice, are reviewed and applied to a student essay. Teachers will complete a lesson on how to teach argument and persuasion using an editorial cartoon. Additional materials from the Laying the Foundation® website are incorporated into the training.