AP Literature and Composition (Period 1)

Welcome to AP Literature and Composition. This class is designed to meet the College Board's expectations for an Advanced Placement class. Through in-class discussions, online discussions, Socratic Seminar, analytical essays, multiple-choice AP style tests on poetry, prose, and drama, this class is driven to prepare you for the final test as well as prepare you as thinkers who are ready for the challenges of college. Our main focus will be on close reading and text-driven analysis, and we will use a variety of tools to support those goals, including Canvas and Turnitin.com.

Why AP Lit?

• For me (the teacher): You have no idea how excited I am to be teaching this course. I’ve always loved literature, but it wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I learned to appreciate it not only for the stories it contained, but for the details of the craft itself. My own AP Lit teacher, Mrs. Mary Ellen Kearney, is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Her passion for literary analysis inspired me to examine texts in a fresh, new way that isn’t always possible in lower-level English classes. After graduating from high school, I attended UCLA where, thanks in part to my positive high school experience, I chose to major in English with the goal of becoming an AP Lit teacher myself. As a Bruin, I traveled to England to study Shakespeare, attended author readings and signings at local museums, and took classes from professors who doubled as poets, editors, and authors themselves. These experiences have added to my own passion for literature, and I hope to be able to share that passion with you.
• For you (the student): Yes, taking AP classes is good for college applications, and yes, you probably have friends in this class. But even if you’re here for the grade points and the academic “ego” boost, I hope you’ll invest fully in the process of reading, discussing, and writing about literature. I truly believe that intentional close reading of texts can inform understanding and increase appreciation, thereby making students better readers. Better readers become better writers and better speakers, capable of communicating their own ideas with the world in a powerful way. By engaging in the reading, discussion, and writing required in this rigorous course, you will be well-prepared not only for the AP English Literature and Composition exam and subsequent academic endeavors, but also for life after college, when you will go out into the world to make decisions for yourselves. As millions of people have done before you, you will have the opportunity to write your own life-long narrative, making decisions about what you believe and how you present it to the world. Literature is the whetstone upon which we sharpen ourselves for these tasks.