For a book called How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster’s guide is surprisingly entertaining. I first encountered the book in its first edition, back in 2005 (how is that possible?), years before I began teaching AP Literature. Foster explains that he originally imagined his audience as nontraditional students returning to college,…
I absolutely love teaching Song of Solomon. I’m excited to start it with my current AP Lit seniors this Friday. One reason I love teaching this book is that it rewards the patient reader, and it’s a joy to see students discover Morrison’s writing. I recently heard from a former student who graduated years ago, and…
Students finish reading a chapter and ask: “What does it mean?” or “What’s the right interpretation?” Many students see literary analysis as guessing what the teacher is thinking. The problem wasn’t that my students couldn’t think deeply. They didn’t yet have a framework for asking productive questions. Like many teachers, I started with existing critical…
This is the point in the year when AP teachers look at the calendar and panic a little, particularly if our students are still freezing when they see the prompt or defaulting to formulaic, shallow essays. We teach students five-paragraph essays and encourage them to hunt for devices, which leads students to focus on what…
Believe it or not, Mrs. Dalloway might be one of my favorite books to teach. It definitely presents many challenges. It doesn’t divide neatly into chapters. It’s non-linear. It’s written in a stream of consciousness. Students struggle with it. Honestly, many teachers struggle with it! Common approaches, such as teaching the traditional plot arc (Freytag’s…
I’ve been lurking on a couple of AP Lit* groups on Facebook. I see lots of great ideas, but I have questions about the texts I most often see discussed. I sense that many teachers are limited by what is available in the bookroom, and I completely understand that many teachers are living in places…
One of the things I dislike about teaching AP English Literature is that I really need to offer students opportunities to practice for the exam, which means timed writing and multiple choice practice. I don’t think timed writing is pedagogically sound because we are not replicating the kind of writing students will have to do…
I received my course survey results, and the feedback has me thinking, as it should, about what I need to improve and what is working well. I have consistently received good feedback from students on connections between my class and other classes and connections to the world outside the classroom. I prioritize these types of…
Some things I like to point out: Queen Elizabeth II appears in the video. This history isn’t that long ago””the same monarch is on the throne (true, she is the longest-serving English monarch, but it still offers important perspective). A student pointed out a couple of years back that E. T. Mensah’s highlife song in…
I said in my previous post that the chapters about James, Kojo, and Abena are some of my favorite parts of the book. Well, the chapters about H, Akua, and Willie are my real favorite, favorite parts. In fact, Willie’s chapter might be my favorite chapter in the book, and I have some great resources…
