What AP® English Teachers Must Know about Their Students on Day One

The first days of any AP®  English course are less about handing out a syllabus and more about laying a foundation: telling students what is expected of them as readers and writers in the course, diagnosing where they are, and designing instruction that both challenges and supports. Two truths guide everything I do at the start of the year: all students are capable of college-level thinking, and many arrive without the confidence, prior experience, or scaffolding they need to show it. Starting well means closing that gap quickly—by diagnosing skills, reducing unnecessary cognitive load, and building a classroom culture that grows confidence.

1. Diagnose intelligently: know what "ready" really looks like 

AP expectations are explicit: both AP Language and AP Literature ask students to read complex texts with understanding and to craft sustained, evidence-based writing. The College Board’s Course and Exam Descriptions (CEDs) are roadmaps for the skills students must develop and what they must know. Use short, low-stakes diagnostics (a timed close reading paragraph, a synthesis-style quick write, a vocabulary-in-context quiz) to discover patterns: decoding or fluency issues, limited background knowledge, uneven vocabulary, or weak written argumentation. These snapshots let you prioritize early support without lowering the cognitive bar.

2. Remember literacy is multi-component, and so is intervention

Reading comprehension at the teen level isn’t a mystery: research frames it as the product of several interacting skills (word recognition/fluency, vocabulary, grammar/knowledge, and higher-order inference). If students struggle with dense passages, the cause may be word-level fluency or thin vocabulary rather than a lack of “ability.” Plan instruction and interventions that address the specific subprocesses you detect—fluency practice, explicit vocabulary routines, discipline-specific background-building—alongside the close-reading habits AP requires.

3. Reduce cognitive load so students can do the hard thinking

AP tasks demand juggling evidence, analysis, and organization in real time—a heavy burden on anyone’s working memory, not to mention still-developing students. Cognitive load theory reminds us that novices learn better when we remove extraneous load so their working memory can focus on essential processes (making inferences, connecting evidence to claims). In practice, that means teaching strategies and scaffolds early: model close-reading aloud, use guided annotation routines, provide sentence starters for analytical moves, and gradually fade supports/scaffolds as students internalize routines and develop the skills and understandings they need. Balance new and/or difficult skills with accessible texts at first. Likewise, first introduce challenging texts with the background and context to aid comprehension before asking students to apply newly learned skills.

"Classroom routines that normalize revision and emphasize process over instant perfection dramatically expand students' willingness to take intellectual risks."

4. Build confidence with concrete, early wins

A lack of confidence—not ability—often silences otherwise capable students. Interventions drawn from mindset and self-efficacy research are practical and low-cost: teach a growth-mindset language about ability (intelligence and reading skill grow with practice); celebrate productive struggle; and use public, structured peer critique that emphasizes revision over judgment. Small, frequent successes (a revised paragraph that improves clarity, improved timing on a short in-class analysis) produce the self-efficacy required to attempt more complex tasks. Classroom routines that normalize revision and emphasize process over instant perfection dramatically expand students’ willingness to take intellectual risks.

5. Teach strategic reading and writing habits explicitly

AP success is less about “native intellect” and more about learned habits and strategies: how to annotate a passage for rhetorical moves, how to synthesize several texts into a tight thesis, how to convert evidence into interpretation. Teach those as moves: model them live as students watch and you think aloud, give checklists and examples (that look like what you are teaching), and stage practice so students can perform discrete steps under decreasing support. For example, start with guided annotation (identify claim, evidence, rhetorical device), move to short analytic paragraphs, then to timed essays. These steps respect both cognitive development and the College Board’s emphasis on skill development.

6. Normalize and scaffold vocabulary and background knowledge

Complex texts often fail not because they’re “too hard” but because students lack the vocabulary or the context/background knowledge to access them. Use explicit, cumulative vocabulary routines tailored to the texts you’ll read (morphology, context clues, deliberate spaced practice). Build quick context-priming activities before difficult texts (2–4 minute mini-lectures, brief primary-source images, or simple mapping of historical/cultural context). These moves help students convert opaque sentences into understandable meaning and reduce the cognitive cost of decoding the text’s ideas.

7. Use assessment to inform instruction, not to sort students

If students believe AP is a gatekeeper for an identity (smart/not smart), they’ll self-select out of hard tasks. Use formative, diagnostic, and growth-oriented assessments to track progress and to plan targeted instruction—not to label. Telling a student they may “pass” (that is, earn a qualifying score) on the exam early in the course (or at all during the course) may have the effects of both causing them to stop trying and telling others that they just can’t do it.” Share results with students in a growth-focused way (“here are three habits you can use this week to get better”) and make the path to improvement visible (revision cycles, conferencing, examples of progress). Frequent low-stakes feedback beats infrequent high-stakes grading for both learning and confidence-building.

"Frequent low-stakes feedback beats infrequent high-stakes grading for both learning and confidence-building."

8. Design the first quarter as a bootcamp for habits, not just content

Make the opening weeks into a deliberate “skill camp” where you teach the routines and cognitive strategies students will need all year (for your class and the AP course). Short, daily habits (annotation practice, timed micro-writes, vocabulary spirals, peer feedback protocols) may help build automaticity. By prioritizing process and metacognitive routines early, you make room later in the year for complex thought rather than spending class time reteaching basics.

9. Keep equity in focus: expect ability, provide access

Don’t inadvertently give-in to what has been called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Research and practice converge on one instructional ethic: expect high-level thinking of every student, and provide the scaffolds that make that expectation realistic. That dual move—high expectations + high support—produces the best outcomes. Students from diverse backgrounds may lack prior access to the specific skills and/or knowledge that AP asks for; your role is to make those skills learnable in your room, not to use previous exposure as a proxy for potential

Final Note: start with empathy, then teach with rigor

Begin the year by telling students what you believe about them: you expect them to grow, you will teach the strategies they need, and you will judge their work by progress and effort as much as raw performance. Pair that message with quick diagnostics, targeted scaffolds grounded in literacy and cognitive research, and intentional routines that build confidence through mastery. When students leave your room in May, you want them to say: “I can do this work now”—and mean it. That confidence is as important as any score.