How to Read Lit Like a Professor Ap Lit Assignment
You've probably heard of Thomas C. Foster'southward How to Read Literature Like a Professor and may already utilize it in your classroom. Foster'due south text, while not originally written for classroom use, has become a staple for many AP®* Lit teachers. Foster puzzles over this phenomenon in the preface of the book'southward second edition, saying he is flattered by the new audience only did non anticipate the book being a tool for teachers.
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How to Read Literature Similar a Professor (henceforth called HTRLLAP for the sake of my sanity) is neither textbook or novel. And yet, AP® teachers take integrated it into their classes in many dissimilar ways. I've been instruction it for a few years and have deduced some excellent strategies for incorporating HTRLLAP into the AP® classroom. Furthermore, I've learned four consistent ways to effectively kill HTRLLAP's joy and potential for learning. Here are four means that AP® teachers misuse Foster'south text:
#1 Assign information technology as summer reading
This one is going to ruffle some feathers, merely I think the biggest mistake AP® teachers brand when using HTRLLAP is assigning it for summertime reading. That beingness said, I totally understand the reasons backside doing it. Foster's volume is not exactly short. And of course, a universal truth among AP® Lit teachers is that we always run out of class time. Notwithstanding, exporting it to summer reading introduces a new set of issues:
- Some kids will not read it
- Many kids will not fully grasp all of the book'southward significant
- Students oftentimes forget information over the summer months
- Chapters blend together, making individual lessons difficult to remember
- SOME KIDS WILL NOT READ It
That first one seemed so obvious I felt it needed mentioning once more. Personally, I discover HTRLLAP besides valuable to permit students blitz it, skim information technology, or skip it altogether. Instead, I devote the get-go three weeks of AP® Lit to studying the book, commonly three-4 capacity at a time. Each day the students take a brusk quiz on the reading, so nosotros go over notes and breakout texts from each chapter (available for buy from my Teachers Pay Teachers shop, see below). Past including it in the school year my students larn that the volume is important. In fact, we care for it as our textbook, referencing it ofttimes enough that some students buy their own copy so they can comment the text permanently. For these reasons and more, I will not let Foster's text to dice on the summer reading list.
1.a – Sometimes it has to be summer reading
…and yet, so oftentimes we run out of time. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I am forced to assign HTRLLAP for summer reading, as I know we won't accept time for information technology in the fall. Therefore, if you must assign it over the summer, make sure y'all do it justice in the fall. I recommend devoting a skilful amount of time (at to the lowest degree a calendar week) reviewing students' understanding of Foster'south novel. You can too utilize bell-ringers, notes, and expansion strategies to aggrandize HTRLLAP's in preparation for the coming schoolhouse year.
#2 Confine information technology to the page
Some other common flaw is to simply discuss HTRLLAP as it is. Still, I believe teachers should model intertextuality skills and connect Foster's lessons to their own favorite books. Foster does an astonishing job of this in his book, which is 1 of the reasons people beloved reading it. He throws in allusions as well as Chief Shakespeare, and clearly he has washed his reading homework earlier writing the book. However, not many teenagers have read Lolita, "Sonny'due south Blues," or Dubliners in their spare fourth dimension. To say information technology bluntly, some of Foster'due south textual references are too highbrow for teenagers.
In club to combat this, I motion HTRLLAP beyond Foster'south text and connect it to novels and plays that I know my students have read earlier coming to my class. To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and Brute Farm are popular choices in my lessons. Another matter I dear to do is use Foster'southward lessons to analyze film and telly. Some of my students were more insightful in their assay of Breaking Bad and Inception than whatsoever other text we read throughout the yr. (To learn more about how to apply media to enhance engagement, read this blog post.) See below for some examples of the connections to telly and film I brand in my notes:
Examples
Ane of my favorite memories was of a educatee running into my classroom and joyfully telling me that his family wouldn't watch television with him anymore. Their reason: because he couldn't stop analyzing the shows. He was using Foster's methods to make predictions and spoiling the endings of live television! I was and so proud!
Foster's appeal grows when modeled and expanded. I urge yous as a teacher to model agreement of Foster's lessons with books, plays, movies, songs, television shows, and other references from your feel. Past showing them that yous can make these connections with HTRLLAP, they'll brainstorm to make their own. To learn more than about integrating film and television clips to heighten analysis skills, bank check out this post.
#3 Use the One-and-Done Approach
Probably the most common criminal offense against HTRLLAP is analyzing information technology as the beautiful resource that it is–and then abandoning it on a shelf for the rest of the year. In my use of the text, we study it at the beginning of the year for a reason. The students are told to use each of Foster's lessons (there is one per chapter) to guide them throughout the year. At the cease of the unit, I requite students smaller versions of a classroom poster I had designed, showing each of Foster'south chapter lessons on one document. My students look to this poster throughout the year and use the handout to study for the AP® Lit test.
One twelvemonth, my course discussing a detail from All the King's Men when all all of a sudden a student shouted out, "He'southward going South!" The rest of the class was puzzled for a moment, until some other kid lit up and responded, "He's going to run amok!" The poster reminded them of one of Foster's chapter lessons, and all at once the class was making predictions as a group. I nigh cried.
You tin purchase this printable affiche here.
#four Skip the Writing Assignment
The terminal misuse of HTRLLAP is skipping Foster'southward terminal chapter. Foster'due south concluding chapter contains a short discussion of Katherine Mansfield'due south "The Garden Party." I sympathise the motive to skip it, since Mansfield'south story is 1) long, and two) hard. However, Foster included it in his text for a reason. AP® Lit students need to practice close reading paired with analytical writing.
In my classroom, I enquire students to read "The Garden Party" only, without the commentary afterwards. They come in to class set to discuss information technology and we spend 20 minutes drafting an on-demand essay. They partner upwards and share their insights, and and then we return to HTRLLAP. Together nosotros read the residuum of Foster'due south text and his insightful have on Mansfield's short story. My students usually have a dramatic reaction to his chapter, and it is e'er one of despair and anger. I accept withal to have any student brand the connexion to hell that Foster makes in his book.
Yet, this practise is not designed to break their spirits. Information technology is to evidence how a story can be interpreted in varying means, and how looking for patterns can yield such interesting results. I follow this lesson with our first prose timed writing of the year. Overall, consistently pairing HTRLLAP with writing trains students to read closely, looking for patterns and predictions like Foster trains them in his book.
Conclusion
If you already use How to Read Literature Like a Professor in your AP® classroom, I commend you for finding such a rich resource for your students. I hope this post has convinced you to use information technology purposefully in order to make the book more than but a book only a valuable resources in your AP® students' toolbox.
If you lot are looking to add How to Read Literature Similar a Professor to your AP® Lit curriculum (or your own lessons need an overhaul), I accept a ready-fabricated unit available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I recently modified this resource to match the College Lath's new CED. It can even count every bit a brusque fiction according to the CED. You can purchase my How to Read Literature Like a Professor bundle hither, or the typography posters lone here.
Source: https://lit-and-more.com/4-ways-ap-teachers-misuse-how-to-read-literature-like-a-professor/
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