Official Pre-AP English Practice
Free Pre-AP® English writing practice aligned to the Pre-AP English High School Course Framework for the English 1 and English 2 courses with immediate feedback for students and progress reports for you.
Pre-AP Writing Skills Surveys
Pre-AP Writing Skills Survey 1: Basic of Sentence Patterns
For Pre-AP English 1
For Pre-AP English 2
Students complete a 12-item survey their understanding of key writing skills, fundamental grammatical elements, and compound/complex sentence constructions. After students complete the survey, Quill will automatically recommend up to five activity packs for each student based on their needs. Each pack contains four to six activities that each take about 15 minutes to complete and provide scaffolded, sequenced practice on one of the five skills addressed in the survey.
Skills:
Subject-verb agreement; pronoun-antecedent agreement; compound subjects, objects and predicates; coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences; subordinating conjunctions.
Pre-AP Writing Skills Survey 2: Tools for Sentence Expansion
For Pre-AP English 1
For Pre-AP English 2
Students complete a 12-item survey their understanding of key writing skills, focusing on constructions for expanding sentences with description and detail. After students complete the survey, Quill will automatically recommend up to five activity packs for each student based on their needs. Each pack contains four to six activities that each take about 15 minutes to complete and provide scaffolded, sequenced practice on one of the five skills addressed in the survey.
Skills:
Conjunctive adverbs; appositive phrases; relative clauses; participial phrases; parallel structure.
ELL Writing Skills Surveys
ELL Starter Skills Survey
ELL students complete a 22-item survey to gauge their mastery of foundational English grammar. This survey is most appropriate for students who are in the Entering or Emerging WIDA levels. After students complete the survey, Quill will automatically recommend up to five activity packs for each student based on their needs. Each pack contains a series of activities that each take about 15 minutes to complete and provide scaffolded, sequenced practice with one of the skills covered by the survey.
Skills:
Simple verb conjugation; articles; simple subject-verb agreement; simple word order; singular and plural nouns; adjective placement.
ELL Intermediate Skills Survey
ELL students complete a 23-item survey to gauge their mastery of English grammar. This survey is most appropriate for students who are in the Emerging or Developing WIDA levels. After students complete the survey, Quill will automatically recommend up to six activity packs for each student based on their needs. Each pack contains a series of activities that each take about 15 minutes to complete and provide scaffolded, sequenced practice with one of the skills covered by the survey.
Skills:
Subject-verb agreement; singular possessive nouns; possessive pronouns; prepositions; future tense; articles; intermediate questions.
ELL Advanced Skills Survey
ELL students complete a 23-item survey to gauge their mastery of English grammar, specifically in areas that are challenging for non-native English speakers. This survey is most appropriate for students who are in the Developing or Expanding WIDA levels. After students complete the survey, Quill will automatically recommend up to five activity packs for each student based on their needs. Each pack contains a series of activities that each take about 15 minutes to complete and provide scaffolded, sequenced practice with one of the skills covered by the survey.
Skills:
Regular and irregular past tense; progressive tenses; phrasal verbs; choosing between prepositions; responding to questions; commonly confused words.
Pre-AP writing practice features
Writing Practice Aligned to Course Frameworks
Each 12-item Pre-AP Writing Skills Survey covers five of the ten key grammar skills from the English 1 and English 2 course frameworks. Each survey helps identify which of the five skills your students need to practice most.
Personalized Recommendations
After your students complete a Pre-AP Writing Skills Survey, Quill will use the results to recommend a set of independent practice activities. You can choose to assign all the practice at once, or you can pick and choose the activities that best fit your instructional and students’ needs.
Additional Practice
Some of your students may benefit from more opportunities to practice a skill after they have completed the activities recommended based on their writing skills survey results. In that case, you can assign a second set of independent practice activities: same skills, new content.
Learn more about the additional activity packs.
Passage-Aligned Activities
For Pre-AP English 1
Unit 1: Telling Details
Learning Cycle 1
- Sentence Combining: “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones
Explore first-person narration and characterization.
- Sentence Combining: “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones
Learning Cycle 2
- Sentence Combining: “What Happened During the Ice Storm” by Jim Heynen
Explore flash fiction and the establishment of tension and setting. - Sentence Combining: “The Red Fox Fur Coat” by Teolinda Gersão
Explore fantastical storytelling and character evolution. - Sentence Combining: “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
Explore narrative revelations with sudden character shifts.
- Sentence Combining: “What Happened During the Ice Storm” by Jim Heynen
Learning Cycle 3
- Sentence Combining: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
Explore complex characterization and narrative truth.
- Sentence Combining: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
Unit 2: Pivotal Words and Phrases
Learning Cycle 1
- Sentence Combining: “Lottery” by Rasma Haidri
Explore personal essay and poetic revision. - Sentence Combining: “The Fight” by John Montague
Explore poetic contrast and human truths.
- Sentence Combining: “Lottery” by Rasma Haidri
Learning Cycle 2
- Sentence Combining: “Tamara’s Opus” by Joshua Bennett
Explore spoken word and performative expression. - Sentence Combining: “The Hamilton Mixtape” by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Explore the application of hip-hop storytelling to a historical figure.
- Sentence Combining: “Tamara’s Opus” by Joshua Bennett
Learning Cycle 3
- Sentence Combining: Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Explore dramatic characterization and Shakespearean turns of phrase.
- Sentence Combining: Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Questions and Answers
What is Quill.org?
Quill is a writing tool that provides over 600 writing, grammar, and proofreading activities designed to engage students in the writing process.