A.P. English Literature

Mr. Haller’s comments to students about the Honors and A.P. levels of D'Evelyn English

Since the 1999-2000 school year, I have taught all but a few of D’Evelyn’s A.P. English Literature sections, and I have taught various underclassmen Honors sections over the decades as well. I taught Honors as a preparation for AP, introducing minds like yours to the interpretive and compositional strategies that can make you a successful AP student. But to thrive in the challenging opportunities such courses present, you too—you yourself-- must take conscious and intentional possession of your own learning. Consider a few intellectual habits to expect from yourself.

Read actively, alertly, and independently derive interpretations of each work’s messages, purposes, and aesthetic strategies. Reading is not simply looking at all the words in order, and learning does not mean merely waiting for others to explain what you have read. Yes, as your teacher I will deepen your understanding of the literature; your peers' discourse will as well. But our authors are speaking to you as much as to me. Heed them.

Informed by our study of periods and movements, appraise the works as voices of an era and yet divergent voices. Evaluate how Bradstreet and Taylor align yet differ within Puritanism, for example, or how transcendentalism appears in Whitman versus Thoreau. What emptinesses does Cather mourn as opposed to, or in concert with, Thurber and Fitzgerald? Mine these rich complexities.

Contribute to class, developing and disputing others’ interpretations, urging us to address matters we’re overlooking, and always offering evidence from the text. Offer the insights you derived from your reading, and offer them daily. Earnest interpretive conversation hones our insight; habitually detachment will diminish your growth.

Pose your own questions in class. What is eluding or confusing you? What insights are you excited by yet unsure about, and why? Your questions might be as focused as a single troubling word or as broad as the work’s whole purpose. But ask them.

Come for the delight and bounty and humanity of our nation’s literary heritage. Come with unabashed curiosity. Foster your appreciation for this long-enduring discipline. Do not resign yourself to doing bored chores for hollow credit or a pretty transcript. Embrace our glad studies.

Ready yourself to learn a number of very specific yet highly flexible writing skills that I will exemplify for you, and which will bolster your compositional repertoire. Examples are fetch words, fetch and capture phrases, managing the complexity, characterizing and judging, active voice, single word modifiers, predisposing, frontloading, confession phrases, “-ing” and “by –ing” phrases, giving intention back to the work, 2- and 3-step themes, concluding through progress, efficiency and reduction, verbs for attitude, etc. You’ll also learn flaws to avoid, like categurgling, mincing little words, zombies (yes, zombies), free-lance truisms, PTWIBs, bad passives, and others.

Recognize criticism as your opportunity—not your bane, but your opportunity. I will comment on your essays with an attentive thoroughness to strengths and setbacks, giving you the means for reinforcing the first while freeing yourself from the latter. I grade this way from genuine care, to grow you into intent writers who bring directive purpose and method to your case-making. Please reciprocate that care--not to me, but to the learning you’re here to pursue. Summon and sustain the willing self-assessment that will make your growth possible.

In my joy for literature and composition, I’m sometimes amazed that they actually pay me for our classroom discourse about our written legacy. And I look forward to the rigorous and fulfilling school year that I wish for each one of you.