A few years ago I revamped my summer reading assignment. It marked an important departure for me. It was a significant step in my growth as a teacher. I’ll explain why, but first I want to share what I have done in years past. THE OLD SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT My summer assignment has gone through … Continue Reading
So many big test tips are generic. They include things like “get a good night of sleep the night before,” “read the questions before the passage,” and “eliminate wrong answers.” Rarely, does those tips provide a strategic plan to make a major jump in the days leading up to the exam. Here are eight ways … Continue Reading
Whenever I prepare my students for the AP Literature exam, I don’t really want it to feel like test prep. I want to take the stress out of it all. I want the experience to build confidence. I want the process, starting around February, to have no stakes or very low stakes; it should be … Continue Reading
Small tweaks often yield big gains. Here are five writing activities that put the work in students’ hands and help them improve their writing. 1 – Strong Verbs At some point during the second semester, I will ask students to take an essay and highlight every verb in the essay. Every. Single. Verb. This is … Continue Reading
We talk about the AP Lit exam on day 2 of class (day 1 is always some high-interest poetry activity). Here’s what I say: This class is all about the exam, and this class is not at all about the exam. We will live in this dichotomy all year. You will have the opportunity to … Continue Reading
Mary Shelley began Frankenstein at the same age of many high school seniors. She was 18, and legend has it, she was a part of a parlor game with Percey Shelley and Lord Byron while vacationing in Geneva. They challenged each other to come up with a ghost story during a summer in they spent … Continue Reading
One of the consistent issues that I have to combat throughout the year is that my students – in their close reading and analysis – keep tripping themselves up because they can’t “find any literary devices” in the passage or poem. They seem to think, as much as I try to break them from this … Continue Reading
Fences. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Doll House. A Raisin in the Sun. Trifles. Antigone. Short plays can pack a powerful punch. I love the possibilities and teaching points that plays provide. A play offers so many opportunities for interaction as students can read and act out scenes which easily leads to lessons about, … Continue Reading
Thesis statements are tricky. Maybe that’s because there’s so much pressure riding on them. How do you distill all of the ideas of an essay into one or two sentences? It has also been said that the thesis statement is a road map, marking the path of an essay and guiding the reader through the … Continue Reading
by Susan Barber and Matt Brisbin (repost from APLitHelp.com) This year, I have had to rethink my teaching. I moved from a suburban to urban school, left a 4×4 block where I had my AP students everyday all year and now teach on an A/B block only seeing my students every other day, and I have … Continue Reading
