THE BASICS

• Students are presented with a poem that is not commonly taught of approximately 100 to 400  words. The obscurity of the passage is designed to level the playing field so that one student is not advantaged over the other.
• The passage can be from any time period (pre-20th century to contemporary literature).
• The suggested time is 40 minutes to read the poem and write the essay.
• Students are scored according to a six-point rubric (one point for the thesis, up to four points for evidence and commentary, one point for sophistication).
• The poem and essay does not assess a student’s ability to know a literary time period or author’s background. It measures a student’s ability to apply the skills of close reading, literary analysis, and effective composition to a passage they are seeing for the first time.
• There is no point on the rubric for a formal introduction beyond a thesis statement or conclusion. They are optional.

CHALLENGES

I have been on the AP Literature and Composition Test Development Committee for five years working on the exam and Q1 is always my favorite question to write, teach, and score. Students, however, do not share my sentiments and often find Q1 to be the most challenging. Here are its particular difficulties:

• Students have much less exposure to and experience with poetry in school. 
• Students often find themselves lost in the abstractness of poems. While some poems have a narrative arc, many do not, leaving students grasping for an entry point into the poem thus taking more time to make meaning and build an interpretation than prose texts. 
• As students read to make sense of what is happening in the poem, they also have to read for complexity.
• Students have to read, think, and write quickly. 40 minutes is not a lot of time, especially considering this is the first time students are seeing the poem.

A ONE-DAY PLAN TO PREPARE FOR THE Q1 ESSAY

I use this one day (90 minute) lesson to review the reading and writing strategies for the poetry essay on the exam. This lesson can be used early in the year to introduce the FRQ1 essay or at the end of the year as a review before the exam. Students only write a full essay on the final day.

The Lesson:

Using the 2024 prompt and poem, “On Summer” by George Horton Moses published in 1829, the lesson will include

• How to deconstruct a prompt
• A review of reading strategies. 
• Time to practice reading and annotating the poem.
• Reading and scoring sample essays. 
• Final reminders of how to be successful on the Q1 essay

1 – Working with the Prompt

Each year the Q1 prompt gives students context clues about the poem. These clues can be particularly helpful since students often struggle with poetry so students should spend a few minutes deconstructing the prompt before reading the passage. A helpful strategy when reading the prompt is to think about what questions should be answered in order to write a successful essay. 

For example, in the 2024 “On Summer” prompt, students may consider the following questions to guide their reading: 

• What aspects of summer can I identify in the poem?
• What do these aspects reflect:
• What in addition to summer constitutes the setting? 
• What contrasts do I notice in the setting? 

2 – Mini-lesson on Reading Strategies

Now that students have a purpose for reading, I discuss the difference between exploration reading and excavation reading. One mistake students often make is reading the poem in FRQ1 only once before writing. Since the poems are not long, students should read the poem at least twice but preferably 3 – 4 times before writing. The first time through is a reading for exploration of the insights that answer the prompt and subsequent readings are for excavation of evidence that supports their insights. 

3 – Practice Time

Now it’s time to put these strategies into practice, so I set the timer to 8 minutes and students read and annotate “On Summer.” Since I used this lesson at the end of the year, 8 minutes seemed right (maybe even 7? 6 – no less than that), but if I was using this at the beginning of the year, I would give students more time to read and mark. After the timer goes off, students share ideas 

4 – Scoring Guide Review with Mini-Lesson on Line of Reasoning

Next we work our way through the rubric row by row considering how to earn the thesis point, how to maximize Row B, and finally ways to earn the elusive sophistication point. 

I spend most of the time breaking down how to structure the essay based on students chunking of the text and gathering evidence. Students say this instruction has been beneficial. Line of reasoning is hard, so the more we can talk through it and provide examples, the more confident students are crafting their own argument. I also briefly cover how to handle intros and conclusions during this time. 

5 – Sample Reading / Scoring / Discussion

6 – Final Sermonizing (Reminder)

We end the lesson reviewing key points which can serve as a final review or also can set students up to write an essay the next class period. And that’s it. 

If you liked the slides (there are 25 in total) in this post, I made them available here.

Susan Barber teaches AP® English Literature and Dramatic Writing for Film, Stage, and TV 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 (2022) and 100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom forthcoming in May. 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.