Teaching AP Lit (or Honors English): Literary Lenses

This lesson was designed for an AP Lit class, though I think there would be room for it in an honors class also.  I'll walk you through the process to recreate what I did and if you are short on time, I'll give you a link to where I put my final lesson on TPT.

One of the things I wanted to do while teaching AP Lit was to teach different literary lenses (or literary criticisms as they called it when I was in college).  I thought how hard could this be?

Turns out, not as easy as I wanted it to be.  Well, it's not that the information wasn't out there - it was.  It just wasn't already set up in the way I wanted it to be.  What I wanted was to have my students read "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and then use the different criticisms to break it apart.  I vaguely remember a lesson like that in college - it was my first exposure to the different criticisms.  Unfortunately, I did not see anything like that.

So I set out on my own to research the various criticisms (It has been decades since I was in college and I typically taught lower level students, so had no need to explain Post Modernism).  I had hung on to that college textbook for decades, but had thrown it out in the past couple of years (of course).  I began researching, hoping that I could find references to my poem of choice, but found only a little directly related to "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".

So I finally figured I would just do what I would have done in any of those college lit courses thirty years ago and do my own interpretation of the poem using each lens.

I write this poem on the white board with wet erase markers and annotate in class with dry erase so that I can wipe the annotations off while leaving the poem (that blows their minds).  It was also a major factor in me deciding to try this all in two days, rather than potentially spacing it out once a week until done.  I like the two days crash course, but I see value in the once a week method as well.

I decided to start with Reader Response Theory, which is not that valuable as a lens for an actual FRQ, but essential as a starting point for these students to understand what they bring to a text.  Plus I get to draw this amazing picture on my board which makes students wonder why I didn't become an art teacher:

If you are not familiar with the three book theory, in short it goes that Book 1 (or Text 1) is what the author envisioned writing.  Due to changing thoughts, edits, etc., what is produced is Book 2, which is often quite different in many ways from what the author had in mind.  That is the text we all read, but what is important to Reader Response Theory is that all of use have Book 3 in our heads - how we interpret Book 2 due to past life experiences, memories, connections made to other books, distractions around us while reading, prior knowledge, and a whole host of other factors that make our experience with the text unique to us. 

I use this image for all levels of classes - it is great to get them to understand that their experience with the book has merit too.  Once we get them all talking about their memories and feelings with this poem, I explain the significance of that third book which will be so important in our discussions, but can only be discussed by them.  

At this point I take a break to discuss how all the lenses we are about to learn are specific disciplines, but much like how Ultimate Fighting Championship morphed from specific fighting style vs specific fighting style into Mixed Martial Arts, we too are able to merge them together to get the most out of our analysis.

Now for the meat of the lesson - I researched all of the following criticisms:

• Biographical
• Formalism/The New Criticism (I know that these are two distinct criticisms, but they are similar enough for us to merge for an introductory lesson)
• Myth Criticism (my favorite)
• Marxist Theory
• Existentialism
• Post Modernism / Post Structuralism / Deconstruction (again, three different takes, but as they are often paired with each other by scholars, it makes sense to pair them here)
• Freudianism / Psychoanalytic (two terms for the same lens) 
• Feminist Theory
• Queer Theory
• Critical Race Theory 

For each one of these I briefly go over what that lens seeks to accomplish and then we break down the poem looking at it through that lens.   When we are done we have discovered that this poem either means anywhere from a man riding through the woods at night to a man having an adulterous affair to the problems with a social media culture and many more in between! 

I need another picture to break up the text, so here is a page form my notes:

Well, the picture is a block of text, so I don't think it really does what I want it to do.  :)

So why teach this?  

1. It's fun.  
2. This is a college level course and this is what they teach in college literature courses (well, at least they did in the early '90s when I was there - I assume they still do).
3. Once students realize how many different takes there can be in literature, they are less likely to succumb to the imposter syndrome that tells them they don't know enough to put out the "right" answer.  There are many right answers! I want to revel in all of them.

If you follow this path, I promise that you will not be disappointed.  You probably are closer to your college days than I am and have these readily available in your notes already, but if you do not, I do have it up on TPT should you just want to take my notes and play it out in your class. You can find it here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Literary-Lenses-Criticisms-Theories-Using-Stopping-by-Woods-14242490

Doing Something Different with Vocabulary This Year

With my regular level classes, I spend more time on vocabulary terms, but with my AP classes, I used to spend little time and expect the students to learn the words for themselves with a little vocabulary.com and such.  After attending a workshop on teaching reading, one of the time said there sparked me thinking and I've decided to try something a little different. 

This is still an AP class and I do not feel the need to review the definitions of the each word on the list like I would my English II class, but if what I am trying for AP works, I can see myself adapting some of this for the other classes.  Warning - this does take time to prep (though it could be adapted into a lesson where the students do the legwork instead).

The Plan

I want my students to understand the words better - inside and out.  I am going to use my established lists - each of which consists of ten new words plus a selection of words from previous lists plus a few literary terms just to keep those in constant rotation in their minds.  What I am going to do will focus only on the new words and potentially a literary term if it just works extra well.  The first Tuesday of each two week vocabulary list lesson, I will single out about 5-6 words to focus on.  I will focus on wither word parts, connotation, etymology, or Visuwords.

Word Parts

This speaks for itself.  Some words break into word parts quite easily while others do not.  Early in my teaching career we had a program put on us by the district to teach words only in context of word parts.  I dislike one-size-fits-all programs, but I was a young teacher and I did my part.  It worked well sometimes and not so well others - especially when the word meaning changed over time.

Learn That Word has a good list of prefixes and roots and a good list for suffixes, but sometimes it helps to know exactly where those word parts kick in.  Wordsmith is a good site to go to to see not only a definition, but some word parts and background as well.  

As good as they are, I found myself using plain old Google even more.  When you Google the word "definition" and whatever word you are looking up, say, "innate" for example, and you click the SHOW MORE option, this is what you get:

The origin does a fine job quickly showing you the different word parts and gave me a quick chance to see if I wanted to pursue that word for the word part segments.

Connotation

I was really hoping to find a connotation dictionary, but those don't really exist, or at least not in the way I was hoping for.  The idea here is to showcase one or two words and show that while their definition is _____, when it is used, it typically means _____.  These words are great for discerning tone (just think of the difference between "kill" and "slaughter").  One word from our list is "loquacious" and while it means using a lot of words or talkative, the understood meaning is using too many words.  Or think of the difference between "pithy" and "terse" - they both mean using few words, but being pithy is a good thing (short and too the point) while being terse usually means the speaker is angry. 

Etymology

Some words have fun backgrounds that have changed the meaning of the word over time.  There is a good dictionary for that called The Online Etymology Dictionary.  I'll do one to three words from the list.  This takes time to find the words that are going to be interesting enough for me to talk about.  The easy way is to just type the words in the above dictionary until you find a good one.

I like the idea of egregious being used ironically so much it lost its original meaning.  Also, the word "supercilious" spins off from a Latin word for eyebrows, so "supercilious" literally means "haughty eyebrows" which is so fitting for a word that means "looking down on others as inferior to your status".  Don't tell me that kids won't remember "haughty eyebrows"!  While looking for these words I found several that I am looking forward to talking about, such as "pristine" and "simpleton".

Visuwords

I'll use Visuwords for one or two words in the list.  It is a fun site to play with.  When you type in a word, it bubbles out to other words related.  The words and bubbles have elasticity, which is fun to move around a little, but they also help you to see the definition and also sometimes the connotation.  Like "haughty" (sans eyebrows this time):

Here you can see both "disdainful" and "proud" to help students see the word's more complex meaning.

Parting Comments

As for the remaining words on the list, the students are on their own.  I am thinking we will see a better comprehension of what the words mean which will hopefully translate into better retention of the words.  I also think the students seeing the variety of ways we look at a word's meaning will add value to the words we are learning.  

If you have a unique way of introducing your words to your students, share it in the comments!  Or just say "Hi!" in the comments!  I might just say "Howdy" back to you.

Using the Octopus to Start and Finish AP Lit

Flashback to 2022 - I just get hired to teach AP Lit at my new school and I have no idea what I am going to do.   It is June and I have never taught any AP course before.  I scramble. 

The first thing I did was to find a Facebook group that is dedicated to AP Lit teachers (a friend of mine who is an AP Lang teacher put me onto this idea).  I found one and noticed a lot of octopus images and a lot of octopus jokes, but with no real context.  So I started Googling "AP Lit" and "Octopus" to see what I could find and the following link was top of the list:

 Now I'm extra intrigued!  Turns out this was the year of the octopus prompt.  If you are not aware of it, it is a prompt that comes from Linda Hogan's novel People of the Whale (book available here - prompt available here page 90) and is about an octopus that walks into a cave the same time a child is born.  This evidently threw students for a heck of a loop!

Well, I am all about branding, so I decided right then and there that I was going to use octopuses in all my theming.  More importantly, I decided what to do with this prompt.

On day 2 of the class, to set the tone, I spring upon them an in class essay.  This one is all on paper and handwritten (though I do let them type the others later).  If you need the old handwritten sheets, you can get it free here.  I give them an hour in class to do their best work and then I collect them.  I let them know that this is considered the hardest prompt and now that that is behind us, all will be easier from here on out.  I do not tell them what I am going to do with them.  If anyone asks if it will be a grade, I just respond with, "We'll see."  Then I file them away.

Now, setting the tone is great and all, but the best part of this comes months later for me (we are a year long course at my school).  Right before the exam, I break these bad boys out and return them.  Then they can see with their own eyes the progress they have made.  This gives them mega confidence going into the exam and is a good day in class all around.

Feel free to share with me other ideas you have that work great in your classroom!

And if you are looking for more FRQ help, this activity works great for getting students ready for the FRQ#3 - The Deep Dive Journal.

Symbolism - On Purpose, Subconsciously, or English Teacher Nonsense?

 It is a well-known fact that English teachers LOVE symbolism.  So much so that it often becomes a meme involving English teachers going ga-ga over the blue curtains:

I've seen where non-education posts on social media mentions something about English teachers and symbolism and the comments sections would be full of people with not fond memories of their English teacher's obsession with symbols.

Of course we know that symbolism is everywhere.  There is a whole chapter on it in How to Read Literature Like a Professor after all.

Back in 1963 (just one short year after the debut of the greatest literary character of all time - Spider-Man), a young kid sent out a form questionnaire to several authors of the time asking them four questions.  Amazingly, he got back answer.  

Some were thorough, like this one from Ralph Ellison:

And some were snippy like Ayn Rand's:

The Paris Review did an article on the kid and his quest to find out if authors use symbolism or not that I found interesting and thought you might too.  You can read it here: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/12/05/document-the-symbolism-survey/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwL4cndjbGNrAvhyZWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeFXjxSsMhetpQKMva-yL4FJaOtxuBtNr08MOjrF2iHunik_P4Jc3FJj7ndYQ_aem_IHcoHwIVr7dTn_HM9NChKw