AP, Novels, Poetry, Writing

Summer Reading in AP Lit.

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 different iterations over the years, but the gist of it has always been that the students had to read two books — How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines and 1984 — and develop an outline for each. There are many versions of this assignment online. Its probably where I first developed the idea. I must have Googled “How to Read Literature Like a Professor summer assignment.” A bunch of results came up, and seeing that a lot of other teachers paired Thomas C. Foster’s work with another novel probably validated its worth in my mind.

I liked that both books were accessible and my students could find help online if they needed it.

I liked that I was introducing my students to good literature without ruining their summer with dense texts and mountains of work.

I liked that when students returned from school I could assess them by asking them to apply a chapter from How to Read Literature Like a Professor to 1984.

I liked that I was doing something to prevent the summer slide.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE OLD ASSIGNMENT

There was nothing pedagogically wrong with my old summer reading assignment. But there were certain things about it that had bothered me over the years:

  • Students can easily find summaries of How to Read Literature Like a Professor online (like this link).



  • Many of my students are not readers of classic literature on their own. In spite of its cheeky humor and tone, they did not have the awareness of texts mentioned in How to Read Literature to fully appreciate the references.



  • Students felt that How to Read Literature Like a Professor simplified the process of reading, reducing everything to either a symbol or an allusion.



  • The assignment was not thoroughly thought through. It was too simplistic. Basically I was asking students to read and outline. I felt like I was simply following what others were doing without making this assignment a true reflection of my teaching and my goals.



  • There wasn’t much feedback I could provide on an outline and consequently little room for growth.



THE GOALS OF SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS

I believe that when students are faced with low-rigor tasks, they create low achievement even when students do well on these tasks. In addition, such tasks contribute to the boredom students so often complain about when they spend too many hours on work that is routine and bland, often centered on discrete skills.

Outlining a text is a low-rigor task. It requires little skill beside extrapolation and summarization.

I want my summer assignments to have what I believe are the three principles of an effective assignment:

1. Effective assignments provide clear expectations about what should be completed, how it should be completed, and why the assignment is important.

I needed to rethink the final part of that criteria. While the original assignment provided clear expectations and walked students through the steps to be completed, it never explained why the assignment was important. When there is no value attached to an assignment, the work can feel like busy work.

Assignment-making requires teachers to clarify what learning is demonstrated and how it can be demonstrated. I needed to answer questions about purpose and relevance: “Why are my students doing this? What greater good will result from this work? As well as, are there significant concepts connected to the curriculum?”

2. Effective assignments are formative, providing feedback that allows teachers to adjust their instruction and scaffold learning.

I also needed to understand how my teaching can be informed by what the students completed. This is where the outlines of the prior assignment failed to be valuable. I was learning nothing about my students nor anything about their thinking.

With the new summer assignment adjustments would I make based on the work that students produced? What was I learning about their reading skills or their writing skills?

Good assignments, whether in the summer or during the school year, should inform instruction, giving teachers a chance to assess skills and modify instruction accordingly.

3. Effective assignments set high expectations and provide pathways to achieve those expectations.

I want the new assignment to communicate high expectations for critical thinking and levels of analysis. I want my students to be challenged no matter what skill sets or content background they bring into the course.



WHAT MY STUDENTS ARE DOING INSTEAD

  • I want my students to have a summer experience that is not punitive but is preparatory. I don’t want to punish them with mountains of work or use a summer assignment as a gatekeeper for the class. I want to set a foundation for the enjoyment that comes from reading, thinking, and writing creatively and analytically.



  • I want my students to see that great ideas can be expressed in a variety of formats. Therefore, they will read blog articles, watch YouTube videos, and read poems as well as a novel.



  • I want them to learn from readers, writers, and thinkers that I admire. I’m not just handing them books and asking them to read them, I want them to observe how others analyze and how others approach the act of writing.  These pieces have the levels of analysis that will promote high expectations for my students.



  • I want them to choose the novel they read, not have one assigned to them.



  • I want them to have a space of their own creation (their StudyTee Notes) where they will respond to each text that they encounter in thoughtful and diverse ways.





THE SUMMER READING TEXTS

  • StudyTee’s Note-Taking Method
  • The NerdWriter Analyzes Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks”
  • Leo Babauta’s Why I Read (+ a Dozen Book Recommendations)
  • Any novel on this list or this one
  • Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day



Download the Summer Reading Assignments for Susan Barber and Brian Sztabnik



CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

I know that I am asking my students to complete somewhat unorthodox summer assignments. They are not being handed a textbook or a stack of novels and asked to complete a series of study guide questions or outlines. There comes a point in a teacher’s career when he or she stops doing things just because everyone else is doing them and strikes out on his or her own path.

And this has been that moment for me.

Instead, I am giving them models of critical thinkers. I am exposing them to a variety of texts across a span of genres. I am giving them the power to choose the novel and poems that they want to read. And it will have clear expectations, an understanding of why each component of the assignment is important, a chance for me to gain formative feedback, and high expectations for success.

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Lesson ideas

End of Year Activities

May 1st. How in the world are we here? I had a hard time imaging making it to this point of the year in the late fall and early winter, but now that we’re here, I have no idea what kind of time machine I have been in for the last three months. My seniors last day is May 11th with senior exams starting May 5th, so we’re at the end. (Don’t worry though, I’ll be back to work on July 25th when the rest of you are still at the pool).

Here’s are several end of year activities that were formerly posted on APLitHelp. I’d also love to know what you’re doing to end the year. Stay strong, teacher friends!

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AP, Lesson ideas, Poetry, Writing

8 Things to Know for the AP Literature Exam

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 to maximize your score in the eight days leading up to the AP Literature and Composition exam.

  1. YOU CAN GET THE THESIS POINT

The thesis point is low-hanging fruit that is easy to reach on the exam. In 2021, 85% of students earned this point across all three essays, and that number would probably be higher if it were not for the hand turkeys, music lyrics, and College-Board-is-an-evil-monopoly letters written to AP Readers. Lots and lots of students get the thesis point and you can too.

Here’s the key — have an original and insightful idea about the prompt.

How do you do that?

Well, insight means to see into the nature of something or having a deep understanding. If you see what the poem or the prose passage is really about, your well on your way to the thesis point.

In 2017 with Q2’s prompt for Peregrine Pickle, if you saw how foolish the two men looked as their emotions escalated, you were well on your way to the thesis point.

Here’s are two examples that highlight this difference:

weak thesis: In the passage there is a complex interplay between emotions and social norms as Smollett uses a plethora of literary devices to point this out.

stronger thesis: As Godfrey Gauntlet intrudes on the relationship between Peregrine Pickle and his beloved Emilia, both men follow the social norms of the time to suppress their increasing rage, yet this suppression ultimately makes them look more like fools than gentleman.

2. THINK BIG TO SMALL

This strategy works for multiple choice as well as Q1 and Q2. Start with the biggest broadest idea that you can identify and refine your way to more specific and nuanced insights. These ideas will be your guiding principles when you tackle the multiple-choice questions and give you lots of things to write about for the essays.

What does it look like?

After reading and annotating a poem or passage, mentally say to yourself:

“This is really about ______.”

“But it also about __________.”

“And while it starts with _________, it ends with _____________.”

“And at this moment I see a subtle change when ___________ happens.”

There’s another subtle shift from _________ to _________ at this moment.”

If you do this over and over again, starting big and broad and refining your way to deeper understand, you will enter the multiple choice or the essay from a place of confidence.

3. UNDERLINE THE STRONG VERB ON PROSE PASSAGES

If you know the verbs, you know the action. Underlining the strong verbs keys your brain, it makes an impression on the mind, helping you understand what characters are doing, what is transpiring in the setting, or how things are being said.

4. STUDY SIX SCENES TO THEMES

My students complete Six Scenes to Themes for every major work we read during the year. There is an AP Literature mantra to “know few works well.” Reviewing key moment from the novels and plays that we read in the days leading up to the exam is their best preparation for Q3.

5. KNOW THE BIG 7

You can memorize a list of 55 literary terms, but these seven are the heart of the Q1 and Q2 on the exam. They will almost always be there in the passage or poem, which makes them wonderfully reliable. They are:

tone

diction

syntax

imagery

characterization

conflict

figurative language

6. CONJUNCTIONS = SOPHISTICATION

Ahh… the elusive sophistication point.

In 2021, 94 % of students DID NOT earn the sophistication point. It feels like the AP unicorn.

The most common way I’ve seen students earn the sophistication point is by “Identifying and exploring complexities or tensions within” the work. If something is complex, it is not one dimensional. There are layers to it. It is one thing and another. This happens but something else complicates it. While one moment a truth emerges, yet in another it is vanquished. These conjunctions show that things aren’t so simple. There are layers of meaning. The more a student can successfully incorporate conjunctions in their sentences without going overboard, the more they increase their chances of earning the sophistication point.

7. FIND YOUR FOOTHOLDS

In rock climbing, a foothold allows you to gain your security before you advance to a higher elevation. This is the analogy I use with my students for multiple-choice questions. Rather than focus on what you don’t know about a poem or passage, focus on what you do know by moving from big to small. Then use each multiple-choice question as a foothold. The questions on the exam typically move in chronological order, guiding you through an understanding. Each question should take you to a higher elevation of understanding.

8. GUSH YOUR INFERENCES

Body paragraphs (how you earn your evidence and commentary points) are really about making a case for the inferences you develop. Many students fall short of the total point value because they summarize what it literally said. To earn 3 or 4 points in evidence and commentary, you have to use your body paragraphs to discuss what is the author or poet implying, suggesting, hinting, or saying without actually saying in certain moments.

You have to convince AP Readers that those inference are valid based on the evidence that you present.

Look at each body paragraph as a opportunity to gush your inference. Make an effusive display of your idea and give all the evidence that exists to support it.

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AP, Poetry, Writing

AP Lit Poetry Essay Review

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 practice, not fear mongering. And I want there to be plenty opportunities for improvement.

So what does that look like?

Well, with essay writing we start small — on the sentence-level — at the beginning of the year, working to achieve mastery over thesis statements, evidence, and commentary. Multiple-choice practice is always completed in class, on paper and while scores are recorded, they never go in the grade book. When my students write full-length essays, they have the opportunity to rewrite as long as they conference with me because I learned long ago that a 15 minute conference with a student is far better than anything I could write in the margins.

But this week I was scratching my head trying to figure out how I could make rubric review NOT feel like test prep. My AP Lit classes were reviewing the Q1 essay, which is the poetry prompt. In my experience, rubrics can suck all the life out of a lesson. Students feel like the speaker in the Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.”

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

The lesson I devised ended up being one of the more memorable ones of the quarter.

Day 1: Rubric Rhymes — I hand out copies of the Q1 rubric and toss highlighters to each student. They have to highlight the key descriptors for each category and point value on the rubric. Once that is done, students have to use their highlights and develop a poem in rhyming couplets that identifies what must be accomplished in order to score a six on this essay.

The poem had to be at least 10 lines long.

I will say, they loved this assignment and it I think its effect will endure.

Here are some samples:

Student I

You wants to make a good poetry essay creation? 

That thesis best be full of top notch interpretation 

Don’t just restate or rephrase information 

But rather provide a good explanation 

How many literary elements should you choose? 

Multiple is what you should use

And sprinkle on some good seasoning 

The one that tastes like strong reasoning

The last criterion to make you do well on your examination 

Is make sure the essay demonstrates that advanced type of sophistication

Student II

I be writing a thesis 

Just like I be eating reese’s, in pieces 

If you don’t want evidence that’s horrific 

Then you gotta be specific 

I could ask Stabz for assistance 

Or I could remember one word: consistence -y 

Unlike my ex, 

You gotta be complex 

If you tryna get to the graduation 

Then you gotta understand sophistication

Student III

You aint got time to waste

But that doesn’t mean that your essay should be written in haste

40 minutes to read and write

And develop ideas with sophistication and insight

First, make sure your thesis isn’t a bore

To develop a sophisticated interpretation really is a chore.

Answer the prompt, be clear and concise,

Throw in poetic elements and a device

That central idea must be developed

Once stated, evidenced and commentary need to envelop

By not just saying what is true, but how and why

With brilliance so bright it would make an AP Reader cry.

Summarize and your grade will surely suffer

Articulate the complexity is much tougher

But do it over and over again

Establishing a line of reason, then

Polish your thoughts like gems

Make those sentences sweet like M&Ms

And never forget to discuss what is complex

All these boxes you must check

And a six on this essay will be yours

And you will have the wisdom of a thousand Dumbledors.

Day Two: Performances/The whole-class essay — Class started with an opportunity for students to read their rap/poem in front of the class for extra credit. Some of the performances were epic.

Then I passed out a previous AP prompt and students had seven minutes to complete my four-step pre-writing organizer. Once those seven minutes were up, the fastest typer in class (we had a contest earlier in the year) came to the class computer and we worked together to develop a whole-class essay. This allowed students to think aloud together, wordsmith key phrases, and discuss their insights in a collaborative and non-threatening environment.

Throughout the process, we kept going back to the rubric to check if we were meeting the requirements.

Here are the intros from each class:

Period 1 — In Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s poem “The Mystery”, the speaker discusses navigating through life by himself. Throughout the poem, the speaker exists in a figurative darkness in which he experiences loneliness and questions the benevolence of a higher power; in this frustrated search for meaning and understanding, he illustrates through personification and imagery that whether or not there is a higher power. His conclusion is that he cannot wallow in his dependency and that he must be self reliant.

Period 6 — In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “The Mystery,” the speaker reflects on life. In a state of existential dread, he feels a sense of purposelessness and seeks navigation from a higher being. Paradoxically, in being given no direction, the speaker achieves solace in the inevitability of death and accepts the power of the present. 

Period 8 — In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “The Mystery”, the speaker is in a lonely place of uncertainty. While reflecting on the inevitability of death and appealing to a higher power, the speaker gains an awareness, not only of his own solitude, but also his powerlessness in the face of destiny. Through the use of personification, juxtaposition, and imagery, an epiphany is achieved in which he accepts the absurdity of life, thus gaining his autonomy.

Day 3: Essay test day — At this point students know the rubric, they did a practice essay the day before as a class, and now they are ready to do it all on their own.

In the comments section below, please share how you prepare students for the poetry essay on the AP exam.

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AP, Lesson ideas, Writing

Elevating Student Writing

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 usually eye-opening and helps students identify patterns or overused words in writing. Next students replace verbs with stronger verbs which automatically elevate writing. If working on an academic paper, I provide these words as suggestions to try out, but this activity also works well with creative or fiction writing.

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AP, Lesson ideas, Writing

Exam Resources

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 become a better reader, writer, and thinker; skills you will carry with you throughout life. You will also have the opportunity to consider different perspectives which if you are willing to open your mind will allow you to learn about others as well as yourself. We will learn with each other and from each other and become a sort of family. The texts we read and the work we will do with them will potentially be life-changing. This class is so much more than an exam.

But at the end of the year, if I have not prepared you for the AP Lit exam, I have not done my job. Many of you need this credit for a variety of reasons. I promise this class will not be all test, but I will provide you with the resources you need to be prepared for the exam. What you choose to do with them and how hard you work is up to you.

This class is all about the exam, and this class is not at all about the exam.

And then we don’t really talk about the exam for a while. We spend our time reading closely, thinking deeply, and learning how to writing well. Now, however, we are getting closer to the exam (I have 12 more classes before exam day – insert gif of a person breathing into a paper bag here). We are all in different places and have different students in front of us. I will not pretend that I know how everyone should review for the exam (or even how I should conduct review – ha). So I am giving you resources upon resources for you to chart your path forward. Use what you can, make copies (don’t ask for access – just make a copy and credit the correct person), tweak to your needs, and let the exam review fun begin. 

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AP, Lesson ideas, Novels

Teaching Frankenstein

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 much of the time indoors. Cloud cover from the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 created a volcanic winter in Switzerland and most of Europe.

Shelley had a nightmare during one dreary night. She wrote in the introduction that she dreamed of what would become Victor Frankenstein, “He sleeps; but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold, the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes.”

Once she awoke, Mary Shelley felt compelled to write more of this story. She told her readers, “I have found it! What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.”

Perhaps students will take our creative writing prompts with a little more gravitas knowing that it may lead to the next Frankenstein.

Here are seven concepts and approaches that have guided my instruction of the novel.

Enhancing vs Misappropriating

Google list 99,400,000 search results for Frankenstein. IMDB.com returns 388 films that feature the key word “Frankenstein.” Perhaps no other no novel has spawned so many clones in pop culture in so many genres. Exploring the phenomenon that is Frankenstein can lead you down an intense rabbit hole. Instead pick the one or two things that can serve as points of contrast from the novel. This allows for students to debate which manifestations enhance its legacy and which misappropriate it.

I show two scenes from the classic 1931 Boris Karloff Frankenstein. The “it’s alive!” moment of creation and when the creation befriends Maria when I am 3/4 of the way through the novel and my students know the characters and the story well enough to understand the thematic intents and artistic purpose of the novel. These clips become a lesson on misappropriation and a class discussion/debate ensues on the transfer of art from one medium to another. Questions arise such as, “is it misappropriation to incorporate new characters that did not appear in the original work?” and what is gained/lost by altering the intent of scenes?”

Don’t Teach All The Allusions

The creature gains knowledge through observation of human behavior but it also engages in serious bouts of self improvement and understanding by reading some of the great works of literature. You could teach all the references throughout the novel, but that might overwhelm and confuse your students. I focus on the three most important allusions that highlight the big ideas that I want students to understand — suffering, choices, and violations of nature.

Prometheus — This video checks in at just under five minutes and gives enough context for students to understand the novel’s subtitle.

Paradise Lost — I provide the context for Paradise Lost in a mini lesson by explaining that Milton did not so much write Paradise Lost as he did dictate it. He was totally blind at that time in his life, and the thing for which he had passionately fought (a better English government) was in ruins. In many ways, his epic poem was about the loss of Paradise, seeing as how his own aspirations for a brand new government had gone up in smoke. Throughout the epic poem, Milton advocates for freedom and autonomy; there is no such thing as fate or predestination in the world he describes. For Milton, God doesn’t predestine anybody, humans have to choose between right and wrong. When God banishes Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and evil enters the world, it is because they chose to break the rules. After this mini lesson, students can see examine the consequences of each character’s choices with greater sophistication as they debate which paradise is lost.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner — The poem is too long to teach in its entirety in my unit but students do research on the Wikipedia page for the poem so that they see how the poem “explores a violation of nature and the resulting psychological effects on the mariner and on all those who hear him.”

Human vs Humanity

The richest debates in my class come from the question “Who is more human, Victor or his creation?”

Students take this question and run with it. They identify what makes someone human and recognize the biological imperatives. Then the discussion always moves beyond that and explores the social, emotional, and cognitive components of being human. Somehow the debate touches upon what it means to be inhumane, what does it mean to possess humanity, and how that applies to Victor and his creation.

It culminates with a one-page paper in which students must decide who is more human and defend their choice.

The Ethics of Body Transformation

This New York Times article from 2016 is my anticipatory set for the novel. It reports on doctor’s plan to “remove two heads from two bodies, connect the blood vessels of the body of the deceased donor and the recipient head, insert a metal plate to stabilize the new neck, bathe the spinal cord nerve endings in a gluelike substance to aid regrowth and finally sew up the skin.”

While the article provides an overview of the procedure its strength is the way in which it balances the ethical debate of such a procedure. It helps students understand that Victor’s ambitions are not unique and that scientific progress has often come from rejecting the status quo.

Birthing Something Into the World

Shelley’s mother died less than a month after giving birth to her. In the novel, Victor’s mother dies early as a result of coming in contact with a sick Elizabeth.

Two years prior to writing Frankenstein, Shelley gave birth to her first child, a premature baby she did not name. She wrote in her diary that on the eleventh day: “I awoke in the night to give it suck it appeared to be sleeping so quietly that I would not awake it,” and then, in the morning, “Find my baby dead.” Later she wrote that she “Dream that my little baby came to life again; that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire, and it lived,” “Awake and find no baby.”

The creature, like her child, is never given a name.

Shelley went into an acute depression after the death of her baby. Victor is haunted by horror, guilt, and depression for bringing something monstrous into the world.

One way to read Frankenstein is to examine it as Jill Lepore of the New Yorker does as “four stories in one: an allegory, a fable, an epistolary novel, and an autobiography, a chaos of literary fertility that left its very young author at pains to explain her ‘hideous progeny.’”

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AP, Lesson ideas

Black Out Poetry for Prose Analysis

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 belief, that close reading is an act of scavenging for literary terms, and that by merely identifying a metaphor or a simile or personification will magically grant them access the elusive “author’s purpose.”  Over the course of the year, many of my students become particularly adept at identifying weighty text within a passage or poem; however, many of them become fixated upon the idea that it needs to be formally classified under one of the aforementioned devices, and if they’re not able to classify it under a larger term, many simply discard it or neglect to discuss its significance.  

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AP, Novels

Fences

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, tone, setting, and characterization. The division of acts and scenes make for easy discussions about structure. This post is going to focus on and provide resources for the play Fences, but these ideas and strategies work for any drama. Cindy Dixon and I collaborated on this unit but approach it differently. I’ll share my approach then Cindy Dixon will share hers.

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AP, Lesson ideas, Novels, Writing

How to Craft a Killer Thesis Statement

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 points of the body paragraphs.

I think that intimidates the heck out of students.

A Better Way to Approach Thesis Statements

A thesis statement, in its simplest terms, is a statement. That’s a nice starting point. Instead of conveying all the implications above, and scaring students, just start by saying, I want you to make a statement.

They can handle that.

They like to make statements with their clothes or their taste in music. In doing so, they express something about who they are and how they see things. This isn’t that much different. They are going to express something, an opinion.

That’s the next step… to have an opinion.

If our goal as writing instructors is to teach our students how to write, not what to write, then we must preach that they express their own ideas. And it all starts with the thesis. They must make a statement that comes from their own thinking and understanding. They must write for themselves. Unfortunately, most student write based on what they think their teacher wants to hear.

Years of experience back this up. Each spring I spend a week grading the AP Literature exam essays.  Over the course of the seven days, I typically grade 1,100-1,300 essay. The ones that stand out check off the same boxes — insightful and original thesis, perceptive analysis, well-appointed textual support, and a strong and confident voice. The lower-half essays do just the opposite.

What a Thesis Should Do

A more advanced, but still not intimidating, way to think about the thesis is to view it as engine of the essay.  That’s something that can all understand and relate to. After all, high school kids want to drive everywhere.  With a car, the engine converts energy into power, making all the other parts move. The engine propels it forward. The same is true of a good thesis. It moves the argument or opinion forward. It makes all the other parts of the essay turn.

Our students have the keys to a powerful engine that will move the reader.

They are in control.

And they get to decide where the reader is going.

That’s different than a roadmap with landmarks and coordinates already plotted and submissively followed. An engine gives them the freedom to go where they want.

The Finer Qualities of a Thesis

  • It moves from the general to the specific
  • It has insight
  • It is original
  • It answers the prompt

An Example of a Rock-Solid Thesis

Here’s a prompt I gave my students this week:

Chapter 26 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor questions, “Is He Serious? And Other Ironies.” Using Foster’s text as a guide, analyze the use of irony in 1984 and connect its purpose to the meaning of the work as a whole.

A Sample Weak Thesis

Here is a formulaic, superficial thesis that our students need to avoid.

In George Orwell’s futuristic novel, 1984, irony plays a major part and affects many of the novel’s plot twists, contributing to the development of the story and the meaning of the work as a whole.

Let’s poke some holes for a second. There are two glaring weakness with this thesis statement:

1. It basically repeats the prompt, hiding the true voice of the writer.

2. There no insight, and perhaps worse, there is no demonstration that this writer has read 1984.

A Stronger Thesis

In the novel 1984, Winston feels the incongruity between appearance and reality in this supposed utopia, but as he crusades against the psychological manipulations of the party he ultimately is doomed to conform to its power.

What makes this better?

  • It start with general ideas — in the novel 1984 — but it quickly identifies specific elements by naming a character, mentioning the utopia, and identifying the goals of the party.
  • It has insight because it argues that Winston is aware of the irony that exists between the party’s propaganda and reality, but it sets up the bigger irony of the crusader that is doomed to love Big Brother.
  • It answers the prompt by identifying the irony — the supposed utopia — and connects that irony to the meaning of the work as a whole — psychological manipulation as a tool to maintain power.

Writing a Killer Thesis Statement

My class drafted that thesis statement during a mini lesson that connected 1984 and How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

Writing a good thesis statement is the result of two simple actions:

  1. understanding what the prompt is asking
  2. asking questions of yourself to develop insightful responses to the prompt

This prompt had two parts:

  1. The role of irony in 1984
  2. How that irony factors into the work as a whole

Here are the questions we asked in class during the mini lesson:

  1. What are some of the examples of irony in 1984? — The party slogans, the utopia/dystopia disconnect, the ministries, doublethink, the acts of betrayal.
  2. Are these examples limited or pervasive? They are pervasive
  3. Why has the party created a society in which these things are pervasive? Because it feeds their purpose, which is to have psychological control over its citizens. The more the party slogans are repeated and the more doublethink occurs, the more a person loses their humanity and becomes part of a herd mentality.
  4. Why does the party want to strip people’s humanity and exert psychological control? It is how they can maintain totalitarian power.

When you progress through a sequence of questions that feed upon each other, you arrive at insightful conclusions that can be pieced together to form an outstanding thesis.

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