All I Need for the AP Exam is Harry Potter

 Recently, I had my students working on some prep for the upcoming AP English Literature Exam.  They had recently finished reading a Shakespearean play (selected by student choice, interest, and previous Shakesperience).  In order to prepare for their Shakespeare in-class essay, students were brainstorming possible questions that might be presented for Question #3, the Open Question.  

Students were focusing on part-to-whole ideas that might be addressed in the prompts.  They considered past questions and made their own, and no matter how much they tried to focus on Shakespeare, they just kept coming back to Harry Potter.  

Now, no matter how much I tell them it might not be the wisest decision to use Harry Potter on the AP Exam, there is no stopping the love they have for this magical series.

Some samples from their conversations:

Student 1: The question about a character who briefly appears or doesn't appear at all?

Student 2: Works for Harry Potter.  You could address Harry's parents, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew

The list went on...

Student 1: A question about seeking revenge?

Student 2: Again, Harry Potter!  Could be Snape.  Or Harry.  Or Hermione. Or Mrs. Weasley.  SO MANY.

Student 1: Hmmm...and if we wrote about Harry Potter, would we have to stick to one book? Or could we address action that happens in all of them?  Would we have to limit our knowledge?

Another:

Student 1: We could do the symbol question!

Student 2:  Yeah!  It could be the snitch.  Or the Whomping Willow.  Or the Hapee Birthday Haree cake.  Or Hogwarts itself!

Student 1:  Oooh--and that could be a setting question! Hogwarts!

Other Prompt Creations They Made:

Death of a character

Dysfunctional family relationship

An act of betrayal

Impact of a matriarch

They DID eventually make it back to Shakespeare, but it was fun to see them think of all the different ways that part-to-whole functions...which what I wanted them to do in the first place.  

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Different Approaches to the Same Task

 This lesson was focused on poetry in an AP Literature classroom.  

I gave small groups of students an envelope with 19 slips of paper in it.  The slips were individual lines of the poem The Death of a Toad by Richard Wilbur--plus the title.

Then, based on what we had learned about poetry in terms of syntax, rhyme scheme, structure, point of view, & more, students were to fit the "puzzle" of the poem together.  (NOTE: I did NOT cut the papers such that the students could actually fit the lines together puzzle-style...and I told them this.)

This year, my students were so thoughtful about their approach to solving the puzzle, that I just had to share it with you.

Here are some direct quotes from their conversations:

• After reading over the poem "let's organize it before & after his death." (Focusing on PLOT & STRUCTURE)

• "Let's look at all of the periods so then we can figure out how full sentences fit together" (Focusing on SYNTAX & STRUCTURE)

• "How does the rhyme scheme work? Is it AA BB or is it AB AB...?" (Focusing on RHYME SCHEME & STRUCTURE)

There were more, but these were the few I jotted down as they worked.  I was so impressed with them--pulling together all the things they knew and had learned about poetry in order to figure out how this poem "worked."

Everything I Need to Know About Teaching I Learned From Supermarket Sweep

Okay, okay...so I didn't learn everything from Supermarket Sweep, but the show WAS an inspiration for a recent lesson.

Students were about to embark on their Shakesperience, and to introduce a variety of topics related to Shakespeare, his life, and works, I created a trivia game for my students.  I told them that their success in the trivia game would directly correlate with their success on another game tomorrow.

Here's what I did:

1. Teams with the highest scores got additional minutes for a Scavenger Hunt throughout the school.

2.  All of the clues were written in "Shakespearean language"--with a textual example, integrated properly, of course.

3. For example: The place you go to let your “candied tongue lick absurd pomp” (III.ii.50) Here, you may buy food during a tournament of men and quench your thirst and hunger.

4. Here are the time allowances I provided:

High Score: 2:00 lead time for the hunt

Next Score: 1:30

Next Score 1:00

Everyone else: released after the one minute was up

Ultimately, the times didn't matter all that much. The kids with the least amount of time won...they just did better with the clues.  However--the gradual release time was super helpful in not having all them racing to the same spot at the same time.

In the end:

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