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Starting a new FRQ? Need help with your lesson plans? Here are 5 low-prep lesson ideas for AP® Lang teachers.
Food and Movie Brackets
This can be a fun away to introduce or reinforce argument skills. And, as a bonus, this activity can be done with other classes too, not just AP® Lang. The premise is simple. It’s essentially a March Madness style bracket. Students pick the categories and debate which option in each pairing is better. To do this, students must make a claim and defend their position.
This activity is part of week 1 of my 5-week argument unit. If you’re looking for more done-for-you argument lessons, click here to check out that resource.
Commercial Analysis
This is one of my favorite ways to introduce rhetorical analysis because it is approachable and adaptable. I love to use this activity to introduce or reinforce the concept of the rhetorical situation and rhetorical choices. Nike commercials are some of my favorites.
Here’s a link to some of my favorite commercials to have students analyze. (I don’t think any of these suggestions are overly controversial, but remember to preview these before showing them to your students.)
Looking for done-for-you rhetorical analysis lessons? Check out my 9-week rhetorical analysis unit!
Synthesis Dinner Party
I know I’ve mentioned this recent posts and videos, but this is a simple activity to introduce synthesis. I do a low-prep version, but teachers could make this more “fun” too.
The “dinner party” idea isn’t my original idea. I’ve heard many other teachers talk about it, but that’s how I knew I had to try it back when I was a first year AP® Lang teacher.
For this activity, the sources are the guests at the dinner party. Students have to create a seating chart for the sources. This helps them realize what the sources have in common and how they contrast. I use this activity as a way to introduce the “idea” of a conversation of sources.
For more ideas of how to introduce synthesis, including a more detailed explanation of this activity, check out this video.
Is it Defensible?
Looking to reinforce what constitutes a defensible thesis? This is a quick and easy assignment that can be adapted for all 3 AP® Lang FRQ. Provide students with 3-5 thesis statements in response to the prompt you are covering. Have students explain whether the thesis is defensible and why. To extend the activity, have students then write their own thesis and explain why it is defensible.
Want to know more about this activity? Click here to access a doc with done-for-you-samples.
Want the thesis statement activities for all 3 FRQs? Check out this resource!
Thesis and Topic Sentences
While doing an ACT practice test this week, we encountered a question that asked about the main idea of the final paragraph of the passage. I know this won’t work in all cases, but I read the topic sentence of the paragraph and immediately knew which answer choice was correct. Why? Because the topic sentence matched with that answer. It conveyed the main idea.
If students are able to craft a strong thesis and topic sentences, they are one step closer to creating a strong line of reasoning. Clear topic sentences convey clear main ideas.
Have students write a thesis and topic sentences in response to a prompt. This is a quick way to have them practice a line of reasoning–and it’s easy to grade! You can also extend the activity into an outline if desired.
I hope these low-prep lesson ideas for AP® Lang ease a bit of the stress of lesson planning!
