AP lit---newbie question

Parents Forum
1

<p>Does every individual teacher of AP lit develop their own curriculum and literature selections for the course or do guidelines/suggestions come from the College Board? Is the class that dependent on the interpretations of the teachers or is there some uniformity of class content?
I apologize if this is a silly question but this is new to us. We also have a brand new teacher who I am not sure has taught this class before and I am just wondering if my student is going to have to do a lot of work on his own to be prepared to take the test.</p>

2

<p>I have two kids who have gone through it. Both had different teachers who approached the material differently. D had a brand new out of college teacher for her’s, and S has a 20 year veteran. </p>

<p>No matter what the teacher or approach, kids is going to have to do a lot of work on his own to be prepared to take the test. There are great review books out there.</p>

3

<p>An officially designated AP course has to pass the AP course audit with the College Board.</p>

<p>That said, there’s a LOT of leeway in the AP English Literature & Composition course description (which you can download free from the CollegeBoard website). The English teachers are really resistant to identifying a core set of literature that needs to be covered. </p>

<p>No matter what, it’s probably best to

  • Get a review book with practice tests. For English Lang & Comp, my daughter just used a book with multiple choice questions instead of full tests. However, it wasn’t her first AP test.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Download the free response questions from past years from the College Board website. Make sure that you have the sample essay responses and the rubrics, so you can tell how they will be graded.</p></li>
<li><p>Find a list of the books that have been suggested for use each year on “Question 3”. The student can use whatever he/she chooses, but the exam always includes some suggestions. They’re good indicators of the types of books a student should use.</p></li>
</ul>

4

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<p>Probably because that could lead to political fights that distract from other curricular issues. What some school districts consider to be an important work of literature may be considered offensive and inappropriate by others (e.g. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).</p>