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 of the year.

1 – End of Year Letter to Parents

The past two years I have only taught AP Lit (next year I have two sections of general junior English which is soooo exciting), and I’ve sent a letter to parents (and copied students) on the day of the exam. Not only does this provide some reflection and closure for me at the end of the year but for parents also. Here’s a copy of this year’s letter:

Just like that, another group of students is taking the AP Lit exam. I had a lump in my throat and was a little teary eyed passing out Smarties and stress rings as they walked into the gym this morning. This exam is often an empowering process where students – regardless of class rank, gender, or socioeconomic status – have the opportunity to show what they know. Students were excited and confident going into the test, and my heart is full. 

Reading difficult texts is often challenging and frustrating, but these students have embraced the uncomfortableness knowing this is how we grow as readers. Learning how to organize thoughts into a compelling argument and support it with evidence and analysis is even more challenging, but we pushed through. In a society fixated on the benefits of cognitive offloading, the far majority of our work was done in an analog setting in an effort to learn how to think deeply on our own. We’ve explored the complexities of long-term friendships in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the consequences of unchecked ambition and social isolation in Frankenstein, the toll that vengeance takes on the perpetrator as well as innocent bystanders in Hamlet, and the slow process of undoing generational trauma in Fences. These texts along with multiple poems and short stories allowed us to not only understand our differences but also appreciate our differences. This Year at a Glance document details everything we read this year; ask your student what they enjoyed reading then be prepared to be amazed at what they have learned. There simply are no short cuts to becoming better readers and writers other than reading and writing. The way your students read, considered, and learned alongside each other this year is to be commended.

I encourage you to emphasize and model reading – especially reading fiction – as your adult(ish) children move on to the next phase of life. In the book Stolen Focus, Johann Hari equates reading fiction to an empathy gym claiming, “When you read a novel, you are immersing yourself in what it’s like to be inside another person’s head. You are simulating a social situation . . . So maybe if you read a lot of novels, you will become better at actually understanding other people off the page.” My hope for these students is they will continue to work out at this empathy gym by becoming lifelong readers. Even though their time at Midtown is over, I would like to offer some summer reading suggestions for students, parents, or perhaps a family read:

• Night Owl by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, a poetry collection inspired by the natural world; this poetry is very accessible.
• The Penguin Book of Modern American Short Stories, a short story collection by notable authors that is easy to pick up and put down yet still provides thought-provoking reading. 
• There, There by Tommy Orange, a modern novel about Native Americans living in urban settings and their struggle with identity. This is next year’s AP Lit summer reading. 

I’ll close with a poem that we read in class on the very first day of school. 

“Good Bones”  

– Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine

in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least

fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative

estimate, though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,

sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for every kind

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on

about good bones: This place could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place beautiful.

In spite of the senioritis (surely I’m not the only one noticing this), these students stayed engaged until our last day of class. They have been my teacher this year, and I could not be more proud. I truly believe the Class of 2026 is on their way to making this world a beautiful place.

Thanks for a great year – next stop: graduation!

2 – End of Year Survey

I ask students to complete an anonymous class survey at the end of the year and learn so much about their perception of the class as opposed to mine. This survey is also valuable in planning for the next year. Here’s a link to this year’s survey:

2026 Class Evaluation

3 – Set Aside Time to Reflect on Where You Are in Your Career

I am no longer a young teacher, and my teaching and attitude about teaching has evolved throughout my career. When I started teaching, I was involved in all of the extras trying to make my mark in the lives of students and at the school. As I settled into my career, I found myself being an ally for students and enjoying strong student relationships. Now that I’m within a decade of retirement, I am leaning heavily into being a strong classroom teacher. I am much more focused with extra roles I take on at school because I no longer feel the need to prove myself. And while I still have good relationships with students, my room is typically not overflowing with teens (unless it’s remediation day).

My class is one where students moan and groan most of the year. I am a stickler about school policies. My class is very structured and almost all work is done in class or made up during tutoring. I hold students accountable. I’ve learned the rhythms of the year and how to push myself to continue to focus on solid teaching and push students to continue to focus on day to day lessons. The result is something much bigger than the sum of the parts. Students feel immense pride at what they have learned and accomplished at the end of the year as do I for getting another group through. Trust the process, friends. Here are some things my students said to me last week that I found either amusing or encouraging.

Susan Barber teaches AP® English Literature at Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia, and serves as co-chair of the AP® Literature Development Committee. She is the coauthor of The Norton Guide to AP^® Literature: Writing & Skills (Smith, 2022) and 100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom (Stabnik, 2025). Susan is most proud of the work she does on a daily basis in E216 and never tires of the beauty and chaos of the classroom.