Instructional Lesson Plan

English Language Arts

Grade: AP 12th (Literature and Composition)

Unit Title: AP Literature and Composition Prose

Lesson Overview
Include:
Lesson Length: 1 class period (43 minutes)
Purpose of Lesson: Students will be able to identity the two types of prose found on the AP exam; students will be able to
identity aspects of plot
Text: Passage one of the 1997 prose section along with the multiple choice questions, 1994 AP Prose Essay prompt, The
Flowers by Alice Walker
Explanation of Instructional Process: Students will come in and complete the warmup. (What do you know about prose found
on the AP literature and composition exam?) Students will then preview a previous prose essay and a previous prose passage
with sample questions for an understanding on the two different kind of prose found on the AP exam. Students will then read the
short story The Flowers and answer the provided questions. The class will go over the questions together.
Student Products: Students will complete the questions for The Flowers
Teacher Planning and Preparation
Consider:
Neither AP lit and comp class has a need for differentiation strategies, but if they were to arise, they would be given as needed
The teacher has to read the two previous essays before class and be able to explain them to the students, along with what to
expect on their own AP exam in terms of questions. The teacher will also read and annotate The Flowers
Each student will get one hand out of The Flowers and the questions
Essential Question
What style questions should the students be prepared to answer on the AP Literature and Composition exam?
What style questions should the students be prepared to answer in terms of plot as a literary device?
Unit Standards Applicable to This Lesson
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a
story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic
impact.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3
Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a
story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
Student Outcomes
Students will be able to explain the style questions found in the prose section of the AP exam
Learn how to selectively annotate a prompt
Be able to describe how to use plot as a literary device
Materials
1 copy of the 1994 prose essay prompt
1 copy of the 1997 passage one along with multiple choice questions
1 class copy of The Flowers by Alice Walker with questions (19 copies)
Copy of how to annotate in the margins (students would have this, as it was given to them on a previous day to be kept in their
binders)
Pre-Assessment
New unit. No pre-assessments needed
Lesson Procedure
The students will come in and be seated before the bell rings; after the bell has rung, students will be greeted by the teacher
before being directed to the warmup. (What do you know about the prose sections on the AP literature and composition test?)
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English Language Arts
The teacher would then take volunteers to answer the warm-up. (4 minutes)
The teacher will then direct the students attention to the front of the room, in which a document camera has been set up prior to
the class beginning. The teacher would preview the 1994 prose essay prompt, explaining how they could go about answering
the prompt, along with what to expect for their own prompt question. The teacher would then preview the 1997 passage one
along with multiple choice questions. The teacher would preview what types of passages the students should expect to see, as
well as how to annotate the passage for the important information. The students would also preview the different kinds of
questions may accompany the passage. The teacher would then take questions. (10 minutes)
The teacher would then pass out The Flowers by Alice Walker, explaining that this particular story will help them understand
plot as a literary device. The teacher would explain while the story is only a page in length, it does hold all elements of a story
(middle, beginning and end) while also having rising actions, climax and falling actions, thus showing it has a full plot in such a
short story. The students would use their copy of how to annotate in the margins to mark important sections of the text. The
students would then turn to answering the questions about The Flowers. (20 minutes)
The teacher would stop the students and confer the literal meaning and plot of The Flowers to ensure all students understand
the general meaning of the story. The teacher would then discuss the answers to the questions the students had answered
while reading. (7 minutes)
The teacher would collect The Flowers from the student and explain why understanding plot is important for the AP exam. The
teacher would remind the students that selective annotation is also helpful. The students would receive no homework for the
night before being released. (2 minutes)
Lesson Closure

The teacher would relate the activities the students did to the AP exam they previewed, as well as the one they would be taking.
Students would understand the two different prose areas they would cover on the exam (the essay and multiple choice), and be
able to identify the way in which the questions will be worded and what they may be asked to do. The students would also be
able to identify how to use plot as a literary device.

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"The Flowers" by Alice Walker

Reading and Writing about Short Fiction. Ed. Edward Proffitt. NY: Harcourt,
1988. 404-05.
It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been as
beautiful as these. The air held a keenness that made her nose twitch. The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts
and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws.
Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at random at chickens she liked, and worked out the beat of a
song on the fence around the pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun. She was ten, and nothing existed for
her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment,
Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family's sharecropper cabin, Myop walked along the fence till it ran into
the stream made by the spring. Around the spring, where the family got drinking water, silver ferns and wildflowers
grew. Along the shallow banks pigs rooted. Myop watched the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale of soil
and the water that silently rose and slid away down the stream.
She had explored the woods behind the house many times. Often, in late autumn, her mother took her to gather nuts
among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out
for snakes. She found, in addition to various common but pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue flowers
with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown, fragrant buds.
By twelve o'clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she was a mile or more from home. She had often
been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in
the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp, the silence close and deep.
Myop began to circle back to the house, back to the peacefulness of the morning. It was then she stepped smack into
his eyes. Her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose, and she reached down quickly,
unafraid, to free herself. It was only when she saw his naked grin that she gave a little yelp of surprise.
He had been a tall man. From feet to neck covered a long space. His head lay beside him. When she pushed back the
leaves and layers of earth and debris Myop saw that he'd had large white teeth, all of them cracked or broken, long
fingers, and very big bones. All his clothes had rotted away except some threads of blue denim from his overalls.
The buckles of the overall had turned green.
Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where she'd stepped into the head was a wild pink rose. As she
picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose's root. It was the rotted remains of
a noose, a bit of shredding plowline, now blending benignly into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great
spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed, rotted, bleached, and frazzled--barely there--but spinning restlessly in the
breeze. Myop laid down her flowers.
And the summer was over.

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Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper.

1) How do you interpret the final line of the story? What is the effect of the brevity of that sentence?

2) Describe the atmosphere and tone of the first three paragraphs. What emotions do they produce concerning
Myops childhood?

3) How might paragraph 5 be described as an example of foreshadowing?

4) What is the conflict in the story? What is its climax? Is there a resolution to the conflict? Explain.

5) What do you think is the central point of the story?

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1) How do you interpret the final line of the story? What is the effect of the brevity of that sentence?
Myop enjoyed the outside. Even in the very first one it says, She skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to
smoke-house (82). It can be interpreted that she love going to the woods to explore. The author even states, She
had explored the woods behind the house many times (82). Myop was frightening after finding that man in the
woods. I think it scared her so much that she wouldnt go back that summer. That is why the final line states that
the summer was over. The outside things she enjoyed of summer she wouldnt enjoy them anymore this year. I
think the effect of that line is to make the reader understand how short her summer really was.
2) Describe the atmosphere and tone of the first three paragraphs. What emotions do they produce
concerning Myops childhood?
Myop lived on what we would call a farm. In the first line it talks about the hen house and pigpen. Myop is
happy with the way that she lives. There are many indications of Myop being happy. The story says she skipped
and worked out the beat of a song. The author even states, She felt light and good in the warm sun (82). I can
only think of positive emotions concerning Myops childhood in the first three paragraphs.
3) How might paragraph 5 be described as an example of foreshadowing?
I started to sense something was going to happen in paragraph 5. The author says, She had often been as far before,
but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts (82). The words strangeness and not
as pleasant made me realize that something is different. This is a foreshadowing what is going to happen in the next
paragraphs to come.
4) What is the conflict in the story? What is its climax? Is there a resolution to the conflict? Explain.
The climax of the story is exactly when the author says, It was then she stepped smack into his nose (82). The
conflict has a lot to do with the climax. Myop will be haunted by the man in the woods. This will stop here from
going into the woods for the summer. There is a negative resolution to the conflict. Myop will give up her love for
exploring in the woods for the summer.
5) What do you think is the central point of the story?
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English Language Arts
The central point of the story is how one thing can dramatically change a person. This innocent child found a dead
man. By the end of the story one can infer that this event has affected her for the rest of her life. Before this event
the tone of the story was cheerful. At the end of the story the tone is despairing. The author states that, Myop laid
down her flowers. And the summer was over (83). Myop is done exploring in the woods.

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