What to Teach in the First Weeks of an AP® English Course

The first weeks of an AP English course carry more weight than the calendar suggests. Some students walk in certain they belong. Others were talked into the class by a counselor or a parent and are already quietly convinced they've made a mistake. Both groups are watching to see what kind of room this is going to be.

Dr. Brandon Abdon sat down with two veteran teachers, Gina Kortuem (AP Literature) and Stephanie Kirk (AP Language), to talk about how they use that window. What came out of the hour was less a list of first-day activities than a shared conviction: rigor doesn't come from the volume of work, and the diagnostic work of September should feel like learning rather than testing.

Gina explained why she gives up instructional time for independent reading and how a set of five-minute "Olympic events" told her more about her students' thinking than a pretest would have. Stephanie described setting Patrick Henry aside when the room needed to talk about something else, and why she teaches through the exam instead of to it. Attendees brought their own material, including a bomb-shelter scenario that has students arguing about bias without ever hearing the word. AP Lang and Lit Teachers in the audience also shared their own ideas for lessons to kickstart the year. 

Watch the recording, and below, find an edited transcript of the full conversation and some ideas pulled from the live webinar chat.