Chalk Talk

It’s spring, and we’re officially in countdown mode at Colony High School, as I suspect are students all across the district.

We start with a countdown to prom, then to final exams for seniors (11 school days) to final exams for everyone else (20 school days). In some classes, the big date is in fewer than 11 school days, as May 5 this year marks more than Cinco de Mayo; it’s the beginning of AP week. For one week every school year, college-bound sophomores, juniors and seniors run across one of their biggest challenges — national tests for advanced placement credit.

AP classes are offered in many subjects, including calculus, world and U.S. history, English, music and art. To teach an AP course, teachers must have been trained at an officially sanctioned workshop and must create and submit a syllabus for approval to the College Board, the same organization that creates the SAT and ACT tests.

Students can sign up and, for a fee, take any AP exam they wish in a given year, although most enroll in AP

classes for preparation first. The tests average three to four hours and are scored on a scale of 1 to 5. Students earning scores of 3, 4 or 5 may earn college credit at the institution they plan to attend, thus saving time and money as college freshmen.

I have been teaching AP English for several years now, and it’s a class I really enjoy. It’s usually a small group — this semester I only have nine students — and it’s a lively group. I also appreciate the opportunity to choose the books we read with the class. AP English is unique in that it is an entirely skills-based class; there is no pre-determined curriculum. Students are tested on their ability to read closely and critically and demonstrate analytical skills in a series of essays. It doesn’t matter much which books and poems we read in class to practice those skills, so I work with students to choose readings I think are important and they will enjoy.

This year, in addition to poetry and essays, we read “Beowulf” (just in time to see the new movie), “Frankenstein,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Othello,” “Twelfth Night,” “Things Fall Apart” and now our final novel, Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House.” I put a heavy emphasis on British literature, as we don’t offer that as a class selection for students, and most college English programs expect students to have a working knowledge of basic British classics. I try to balance comedy and tragedy and provide books that appeal to both genders. In addition to class reading, students are required to read two books each quarter and present them to their classmates.

In those outside reading choices, students are quite free to try literature they wouldn’t normally run across in a high school class. The College Board tests students on a variety of materials from all time periods and cultures. The goal is for students to read widely, although the College Board’s requirement they read works of “literary merit” is sometimes nebulous, especially where modern literature is concerned. No one would argue that Shakespeare’s works are of literary merit, but what about Anne Enright (winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize) or Cormac McCarthy (winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize)?

To help my students become acquainted with a wide range of literature, I provide them with lists of Pulitzer Prize winners, Man Booker Prize winners (the equivalent of the Pulitzer for British writers) and the winners of the Nobel Prize for literature, as well as lists of books by non-Western authors. We track the long- and shortlist finalists for the Man Booker prize, and any time I find a note or article about a new novel that sounds interesting I bring that information to the class so it can consider it for a Book Talk.

This year, as usual, my students have fascinated me with the books they’ve read and their presentations. As we enter the final weeks before the test, I get nervous about all the things I haven’t taught them, but as I read their practice essays and review multiple-choice questions with them, I am proud of all they know and remember. AP English is not a class that can be taught in a single year; many of the concepts that will be on the test are things I began teaching them as juniors in honors English last year. I spend a lot of my time in my AP class saying, “Remember when we read that story last year?” or “Remember, we learned about that literary device last year?” They don’t always remember the details, but at least they know they’ve heard of the book, story or concept before. This year, the sophomore honors English teacher started preparing her students with some AP concepts, and I am planning to build on those next year. The College Board calls that structure a vertical team, recognizing that the number and complexity of skills in AP English cannot be mastered in only one year.

I’m looking forward to May 8 this year, the date of the AP English exam, as it is a test for me as much as it is for my students (although they are probably not as eager for test date to arrive as I am). I know that this year, like every year, they will surprise me with their skill and mastery of writing, and I know that it will not be because I made them read “Bleak House” this semester. It will be the result of the four years they have worked on English since they came to high school. In our world of instant messaging and instant results we’ve come to expect instant gratification, but some things just take more time.

Prudence Plunkett teaches English at Colony High School.