In Clint Smith’s TedTalk titled “The Danger of Silence,” he asks his students to do these four things: Read critically Write consciously Speak clearly Tell your truth Since watching Smith’s video almost a decade ago, I have become more intentional about my classroom culture and now yearly ask myself what core values do I want … Continue Reading
1. Master the art of eye contact. Make ’em feel seen. Look long enough to see eye color, then you can look away. 2. Make it obvious and apparent how much you care. It cab be a grand act or a series of small gestures. But they have to know. 3. You can be the … Continue Reading
Many works of literature depict a conflict between the old and the new: Old worlds, old ways, or old values clash with newer ones… Choose a work of fiction in which there is marked tension between the old and the new. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how the tension between the old and the … Continue Reading
Christopher Gilbert’s free verse poem “Marking Time” proved to be a very accessible subject for an analytical essay on the 2026 operational portion of the AP Exam. Most responses were able to discuss the speaker’s reflections, even if they missed some of the deeper connections (i.e. the grief over the sister). Overall, there was a … Continue Reading
The end of the school year is like a flashbang: loud, disorienting, starts and ends suddenly. Between standardized testing, field trips, end of the year concerts, finalizing grades, finishing the year often equates to simply hanging on until the last day. Here are three things I do each year to provide closure at the end … Continue Reading
At their core, AP English Literature essays aren’t about telling readers everything you read this year—they’re about proving you can make a clear, persuasive interpretation of the prompt and support it with thoughtful analysis. The exam is not based on your memory of the works of literature you studied, rather it is about applying the … Continue Reading
Thank you to our friend and fellow English teacher Brett Vogelsinger for sharing his poetry wisdom with us this week. You can learn more about him and his book Poetry Pauses (highly recommend) at the end of this post. Poetry calls us to pause and notice things differently, both the words on the page and … Continue Reading
The literary argument question on the AP Literature exam is the most open of the three essays which students (and teachers) can find to be both freeing and difficult. Answering the prompt requires students to both zoom in to specific scenes to answer the prompt then zoom out to larger thematic ideas based on the … Continue Reading
The textbook I used early in my career encouraged students to think of characterization in a binary way — either it was direct or indirect. The definitions went something like this: Direct characterization is a literary technique in which a narrator or another character explicitly describes a character’s traits, qualities, or personality. Instead of allowing … Continue Reading
This past weekend I participated in a group of three dozen educators, researchers, curriculum and learning specialists, and digital program leaders to draft a framework for AI in the English classroom. To say that this was time well spent – for me personally and for the work NCTE is doing – is an understatement. I … Continue Reading
