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Just for Advanced Placement Teachers

If you download or print anything from this site, please consider making at least a $10.00 donation through PayPal.
I can maintain and expand this website only with your help.

You may find other useful materials at Assignments, Handouts OR Yummy Bytes.

After consulting a copyright lawyer (who just happens to be married to an Advanced Placement® English teacher), I am once again sharing online some of the lists I have maintained since 2004, with modifications.

Versions of all these files are available in the DropBox in Word format so you can edit them yourself. Some materials cannot be shared online and are found only in the DropBox files. Many of these files are available in Word document form in the DropBox, so you can edit the originals easily.

Materials Available Online

Advanced Placement® Literature Tests (to 2023)

AP Lit Referenced Titles, 1970 to 2023, as Webpage.
AP Lit Referenced Titles asPDF (2-column format).

AP Literature Open Prompts, 1970-2023, as PDF, PowerPoint, and Webpage. Condensed 1-Page List (Thanks to Claudia Felske).

AP Literature Poetry Prompts, 1970 to 2023, as PDF.
AP Literature Poetry Prompts with Poems, 1970 to 2023, asPDF.
AP Poets Referenced, 1970-2023, asPDF.

AP Literature Prose Prompts, 1970 to 2023, as PDF.
AP Literature Prose Passages, 1970 to 2023, asPDF.
AP Prose Writers Referenced, 1970-2023, asPDF.
AP Prose Prompts Rewritten with Stable Wording, asPDF (Thanks to Tia Miller).

Overview of AP Literature Stable Pronots, as PDF and as PowerPoint.

Interesting re-grouping of AP Literature prompts by subjects (Thanks to Ann Elizabeth Richards). Open Prompts Grouped, Poetry Prompts Grouped, and Prose Prompts Grouped.

Advanced Placement® Language Tests

All Three AP Language Free Response Prompts, 1970 to 2023, as PDF.

AP Language Prose Passages, 1982 to 2023, as PDF (Thanks to Chris Godat).

Overview of AP Language Stable Prompts, as PDF and as PowerPoint.

DropBox Files
I am unable to share some materials online. A DropBox link will be provided to donors who contribute at least $25.00, using any of the "Donate" buttons on any page. Your donation pays for online storage space, extended bandwidth, software, security services, and my time. You will need to have a free DropBox account for access. (These materials are offered under the face-to-face teaching fair access exemption). Donors are welcome to contact me with any special requests for information (mseffie@mac.com).

Materials Available in the DropBox Files

Detailed List of All Materials - DropBox Content.

Binder materials from my summer workhops (300+ pages in .PDF format). Reworked to include both AP Language and AP Literature (with an admitted greater emphasis on literature).

New rubrics in several formats.

More than 20 Bell Work / iOpeners for beginning your classes.

More than 25 Book Projects.

More than 50 AP appropriate Short Stories.

More than 75 Passages appropriate for AP English.

More than 75 PowerPoints suited to both AP and Regular English classes.

Visual Literacy Materials for Art and Advertising.

Advanced Placement® Language and Literature Tests from 1970 to 2023.

AP Language and LiteratureTests Reorganized: Each prompt is now a separate dated file with prompt, scoring guide (6-point and/or 9-point), sample student essays, comments -- whatever I have, attached. Released multiple-choice exams are in a separate folder.

Q3 Sample Essay List organized by Title, Year, and Score (Thanks to Brian Sztabnik), as PDF.

AP Language FRQs

Argument

Defend, Challenge, or Qualify

Paired Passages

Thetorical Analysis

Synthesis Prompts

Take a Position

AP Literature FRQs

Open Question

Poetry

Prose

You can still use the list of titles to locate which file holds the scored sample essays.

Speci al Prompts -- Long lost formats, four that were actually used for both Literature & Language. Personal favorites, like the Pairs Prompt. And a 1996 Country Prompt student essay on The Things They Carried that the Chief Reader agreed was a 10 (and photo-copied for me). Yes, a 10.

It's All Happening Online -Useful Links

AP Central & YouTube -- Finding your way around the Advanced Placement website can be tricky. Direct links listed below (with some of those acronyms defined).
AP English FaceBook Groups
Teacher Sites -- Where have all the teachers gone? On sabbatical, into administration, to commercial sites, to retirement. So sorry.

Gina Korteum's Lit & More: Modest but masterful, Gina shares a wealth of free resources on her website and extensive affordable materials on Teachers Pay Teachers. Practical, adaptable jewels.

Tim Freitas' The Garden of English: Delightful, often surprising viewpoint. Sense of humor meets excellence. Love all the videos, handouts and posters.

Susa n Barber's and Brian Sztabnik's Much Ado About Teaching: The reincarnation of AP LIT Help. These gifted inspiring teachers have mastered the ability to explain everything AP clearly. Articles, videos, handouts are amazing.

Beth Hall's Coach Hall Writes offersmany free AP Language materials with links to Teachers Pay Teachers materials. Subscribe to her YouTube channel for excellent, focused videos.

Brian Tolentino shares dozens of short videos on his YouTube Channel, Tolentino Teaching. SAT Vocabulary and Rhetorical Terms are especially helpful.

Kristian Kuhn's home page shares some excellent assignments. Teachers Teaching Writing, his YouTube channel has dozens of clever, useful videos for AP Literature.

Susan Barber's Teach with Class site offers Teacher Resources.

Jerry Brown's website has buried treasure, well worth seeking.

Don Pogebra's Quixotic Pedagogue: Gorgeous website with generous materials. Retired.

Ronnie Campagna's DropBox is a wealth of materials. Please download; do not delete or move.

Dawn Hogue's Online English Resources provides a Teacher's Toolbox and other online resources for AP and regular classes.

Terminology Writing Help Literary Theory and Criticism Miscellaneous Resources -- $ Resource Requiring Payment

TeachIt is a United Kingdom site (for their teachers) whose worksheets approach texts in a different way than we do. Though designed for their "regular" classes, the emphasis is usually on the kind of analysis we do in Advanced Placement classes. PDF files are free to download if you register.

Thought.Co Writing is the old About.com and offers a disorganized but intriguing mess of articles on language, literature, art, and more -- tips on grammar, sample paragraphs of every mode, suggestted topic lists, critical analyses, passages by well-known authors focusing on specific stylistic traits, and so on. The short introductions analyze each piece and help focus discussion.

TED Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing -- Based upon the regular TED Talks and a library of original animated videos, TedEd provides a platform for teachers to share lessons based on the videos.

CrackAP.com -- provides free access to 50+ practice multiple-choice exams on various passages, many of them from previous AP exams. A very awkward confusing site, but students get immediate assessment and explanations. Just IGNORE all the pop-ups & exterior clicks. AP Language Practices. AP Literature Practices.

PrepScholar -- One-stop location for every AP Literature Practice Test available, free & official, including many older ones not available at AP Central.AP Language. AP Literature.

$ Applied Practice -- Resource Guides for more than 100 titles. Each includes AP style multiple-choice and free response questions withy answers. With explanations of answers. Other stuff available, too.

$ Prestwick House -- Reasonably priced packages include Activity Packs, Response Journals, Literature Teaching Units, AP Teaching Units, and Multiple Critical Perspectives, Response Journals, and Activity Packs. Samples available to download to check them out. (Free Crossword Puzzles and free Posters.)

Links to My Pages with Handouts & URLs for Specific Major Works

Advanced English Genre Packets

Advanced World History Resources

How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (1st & 2nd editions)

"The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Projects for Reports (creative projects)

Why the Mystery? Why Sherlock Holmes?

Thomas Hardy Poetry & Novels

You may find other useful materials at Assignments, Handouts OR Yummy Bytes.

If you download or print anything from this site, please consider making at least a $10.00 donation through PayPal.
I can maintain and expand this website only with your help.

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Just for Advanced Placement Teachers If you download or print anything from this site, please consider making at least a $10.00 donation through PayPal. I can maintain and expand this website only with your help. You may find other useful materials at Assignments, Handouts OR Yummy Bytes.

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All resources on this page are free (which is everyone's favorite price)!

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Production Reviews

New Republic -- "It is a dazzling piece of writing-terse, suggestive, mystifying, intense." Version casts Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle in a flawed production. 31 January 1981.

Variety -- "It's simply scaldingly funny, and formly grounded in a recognizable time and place, not to mention the primal territory of family dysfunction." 10 March 2000.

Observer -- "Sam Shepard's screamfest is funny enough in its own weirdly schizophrenic right, with its dark, absurdist undertow of emotional murders and the death of the American family." 27 March 2000.

Nation -- "When the scenery is actually torn down in True West, the American home, brotherhood and the idea of masculinity are eviscerated." Version casts Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly in both roles, with the two actors alternating the parts every three performances. 24 April 2000.

National Review -- "In the end, one feels the brothers (and their different Wests) are equally inauthentic and tainted by their association with Tinseltown's schlocky superficiality." Same performers, different slant.19 June 2000.

Oregon Live -- "In this confrontation, Shepard captures more than the unresolvable tension between the brothers, a tension that lies at the heart of the so-called true West; he conveys a sense of a conflict that lies at the heart of the nation as well as within the soul of each and every one of us." Insightful review of a local production. 9 November 2014

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Production Reviews New Republic -- "It is a dazzling piece of writing-terse, suggestive, mystifying, intense." Version casts Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle in a flawed production. 31 January 1981. Variety -- "It's simply scaldingly funny, and formly grounded in a recognizable time and place, not to mention the primal territory of family dysfunction."

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From the moment El Pachuco glides on stage, we find ourselves drawn into a jazzy savvy world of rebellion. Using English, Spanish, and the dialect Caló, Valdez weaves music, slang, dance, and fashion into a fascinating tale of cultural pride, creative spirit, and self-determination. Drawn from the American immigrant experience during World War II, the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial of 1942, and the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, Henry Reyna and the other members of the 38th Street Gang must navigate a landscape of racial intolerance, unjust law enforcement, media manipulation, and a discriminatory legal system.

Introduce the play with a short YouTube clip: Spanish Stage Production or Movie Exerpt

Background

June 7, 1943 Los Angeles Times

Perhaps the best introduction to the context of the play is the sixty-minute PBS American Experience video on the Zoot Suit Riots. Also available from iTunes. Viewing Guide.

A twenty-minute overview, Zoot Suit Riots: Causes and Riots, is an edited version of the PBS video.

For a six-minute introduction to the period, A Look at Injustice During the Zoot Suit Era works well and can also serve as a model for student productions.

Pachucos During War Times is a six-minute exerpt from the Latino Americans PBS series Latino Americans.

John Chiodo's "The Zoot Suit Riots: Exploring Social Issues in American History" provides a historical review of events related to the riots, an extensive lesson plan, and resource materials.

Videos

Screenplay and direction by Luis Valdez, the film version of this play is literally a play within a play. Essentially filmed as a stage performance that occasionally overflows into the audience, the audience includes the "real" people acted on stage.

Color Trailer Black & White Trailer
Movie available for rent or purchase on YouTube and iTunes.

YouTube offers the full performance of Monterrey High School. Not bad at all.

Websites

The CNT (Compañia Nacional de Teatro) Website is as good as it gets. Many thanks to the hard work of everyone at the Mexican National Theatre and to Janet Johns for the Teaching Curriculum. The Discovery Guide includes:

Zoot Suit: The Production includes character studies, playwright biography and background on Teatro.

L.A. in the Zoot Suit Era includes immigration, World War II, and music.

Sleepy Lagoon Trial.

Zoot Suit Riots.

Glossary.

Discussion Points for all major themes and issues.

Resources include letters from participants and activists and contemporary newspaper articles.

Teaching Curriculum goes with the website and the play itself to engage students. Includes anticipatory and extension activities.

My handout which combines all the Teaching Curriculum in a single Word or PDF document.

Teacher Guides

Zoot Suit from Masterplots is brilliantly written. Really. Active verbs, vivid descriptions, concrete details. Overviews usually plod; this one dances.

Robin Harris has produced a PowerPoint/PDF that thoroughly covers the background and the follow-up to the real story. Attractive and accurate. 42 slides.

Teaching Curriculum from CNT (discussed below).

Overview: Zoot Suit is from Drama for Students. Includes scene-by-scene summary and character lists.

Overview: Zoot Suit is from Literature and Its Times. Includes historical context and a bibliography.

Zoot Suit from Gale Research Group is the most extensive analytical overview.
Criticism
In "The Riddle of the Zoot," Robin Kelley focuses on the symbolism of the zoot suit for blacks, and particularly for Malcolm X. Includes eleven questions.

In "Zoot Suit and Style Warfare," Stuart Cosgrove focuses on the symbolism of the zoot suit for Latinos. Includes six questions.

"The Zoot Suit: Its History and Influence" by Holly Ashford is a sophisticated analysis of its cultural, political, and social implications. Because she is a professor of fashion design and merchandising, Ashford's perspective is intriguing.

"Zoot to Boot: The Zoot Suit as Both Costume and Symbol" by Sarah Elizabeth Howard includes insights about art, music, comedy, cartoons, and costume.

"Looking for a Third Space: El Pachuco and Chicano Nationalism in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit" by Granger Babcock is an in-depth analysis of the character and his political and cultural influences.

"Saying 'Nothin': Pachucas and the Language of Resistance" by Catherine S. Ramírez analyzes the power of language, particularly slang.

Reviews

"Zoot Suit: Chicano Music-Drama" presents the New York Times review of the Broadway debut of the play in 1979.

"Filmed from the Stage" in the New York Times reviews the movie debut in 1982, emphasizing the movie as a kind of metaplay.

"Zoot Suit Tailored for Contemporary Audience" is the focus of Variety's 2000 review of the Chicago stage performance.

"A Freshly Pressed Zoot Suit" in American Theater reviews the CNT debut of the play in 2010.

"Zoot Suit, a Pioneering Chicano Play Comes Full Circle" in the 2017 New York Times review of the Los Angeles revival of the play.

"L.A. Theater Review: Zoot Suit" is the Variety review of the same revival performance.

Music

Zoot Suits

A fascinating look at the role of clothing in suppression and rebellion, A History of Racism in Fashion covers many eras. Includes an examination, advertising, concepts of beauty, and some parodies.

El Pachuco, a business that sells Zoot Suits and accessories, has an excellent history (and selection).

The Zoot Suit as Rebellion offers an overview.

"Zooting Up," a short overview from Smithsonian magazine, focues on the suits as icons.

"The Zoot Cat," a 1944 Tom & Jerry cartoon, is just for fun. A real cool cat.

Rebecca Grizzle explores the broader context of the zoot suit in "Zoot Suit Riots and the Role of the Zoot Suit in Chicano Culture."

Pachuco

The term pachuco comes from the Mexican city Pachuca, a poor, overcrowded community with a reputation for being a tough and sometimes dangerous place. To many older Mexicans, the term originally meant the "poorest of the poor," or "riff-raff." But some Mexican American youth in 1940s America adopted the term as a symbol of pride in their humble origins. They would play up their inclusion within the poor Mexican American community, proudly identifying themselves as "pachucos."
In addition to their name, pachucos were identiﬁable by their clothes. The zoot suit style was a unique look that had been popularized by the black patrons of Harlem's jazz clubs in the 1930s. The typical zoot suit consisted of colorful tailored shirts, dramatically tapered coats, baggy pants that narrowed at the ankle, shiny shoes, wide-brimmed porkpie hats, and ducktail haircuts. The zoot suiters, no matter what ethnicity, intended to stand out, and they did.
There were also practical reasons for the popularity of the zoot suit. Among other such reasons, the suit was comfortable for men who liked to dance. The tight cuffs around the ankles kept the dancer from becoming entangled in his pants while performing intricate dance ﬂoor moves; the wide shoulders and sleeves allowed freedom of arm movement; and the long, heavy shoes kept the dancer anchored to the floor as he spun his partner on the dance floor.

Primary Sources

The Stanford History Education Group offers a short introduction, two primary sources and a Reading Like a Historian worksheet on the riots.

The Zoot Suit and History includes images of actual newspaper articles from the time. Good for primary sources.

Primary sources can also be used as a possible synthesis prompt.

Synthesis Prompt: Media was extremely influential in the way they portrayed the Zoot Suiters. What exactly was that influence? How did it affect the consequences of the Zoot Suit Riots? Did it help or harm? Did it encourage or suppress?
Read the primary sources (11 articles and 7 visuals) carefully. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources for support, take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the notion that the media had a positive effect on the consequences of the Zoot Suit Riots.

Full Text

Watching the film is crucial to understanding this play, since students may have difficulty visualizing some of the scenes and because of the language. Having a written text is equally important for analysis, since footnotes translate the languages. This play is also sometimes hard to find in print. Be warned that some of the language is sexually suggestive or racially inflammatory. Only 33 pages long, packed with colorful language and controversial themes. I use this play with Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. This is the full text.

Script Writing: Final Scene of Zoot Suit creative writing

Dialectical Journal assignments for Zoot Suit

Zoot Suit Art: Posters for this play are especially powerful. Four are offered for analysis. Students could also be asked to create their own poster.

Los Vendidos is a one-act set in Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop, a fictional Californian store that apparently sells various "models" (robots) of stereotypical Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that buyers can manipulate by simply snapping their fingers and calling out commands. Approach with care because the play satirizes stereotypes by exaggerating them and uses the F-word, but... a brilliant short play. Full text, questions, and an AP prompt.

Luiz Valdez Website

Interview in 1982 (2 weeks after film opened)

If you download or print anything from this site, please consider making at least a $10.00 donation through PayPal.
I can maintain and expand this site only through your help.

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From the moment El Pachuco glides on stage, we find ourselves drawn into a jazzy savvy world of rebellion. Using English, Spanish, and the dialect Caló, Valdez weaves music, slang, dance, and fashion into a fascinating tale of cultural pride, creative spirit, and self-determination.

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Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum in it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don't eat fruits on the street-flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease; this is how you iron your father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease; this is how you grow okra-far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don't squat down to play marbles-you are not a boy, you know; don't pick people's flowers-you might catch something; don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don't like, and that way something bad won't fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn't fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh; but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread? ♦

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Fiction, from 1978: "This is how to love a man, and if this doesn't work there are other ways."