AP* and Pre-AP* Summer Institute

Pre-AP* English Language & Composition- Middle School-for New and Experienced Pre-AP* Teachers

English is a skills course, and critical thinking skills must be the heart of a challenging English program at all grade levels for all students.  This course is designed to present both new and veteran teachers with practical strategies to develop these skills in their students. Participants will identify the skills necessary for success in higher level courses through an examination of the AP English Literature and Language exams.  Once the skills are identified, the focus of this hands-on workshop will be the presentation, modeling, and practical application of strategies to teach close reading, analysis, questioning, grammar, rhetoric, and writing to middle school students using grade level appropriate fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. All strategies are adaptable to any material currently in use in the participant’s curriculum.  Participants will have the opportunity to collaborate to create lesson and unit plans that will be ready to go when school begins in September.

What participants should bring ----

·         Copies of texts and other materials currently used in classroom

·         “A lesson that works” to teach a critical thinking skill to share with the group

LEAD INSTRUCTOR:  [NAME]

Recently retired, Cheryl Petersohn taught English for 39 years in the Lower Merion School District, a suburb of Philadelphia, PA. Experienced in teaching all levels of students in grades 7 through 12, Cheryl’s last teaching assignment was AP English Literature, International Baccalaureate English, and College Prep seniors at Harriton High School. She served as department chair at Harriton for nine years and developed its IB English curriculum. A College Board consultant for 10 years, Petersohn read the AP English Literature examination for 7 years and is presently a designated reader for International Baccalaureate.  Petersohn leads AP, Pre AP, and Vertical Team workshops for the College Board Middle States region and has been the lead instructor for the AP English Literature and Composition at Allegheny College since July, 2005. She was the recipient of two NEH grants for summer study: Shakespeare at the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. and Teaching Poetry at DePaul University in Chicago.

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