The College Board does not prescribe specific texts for an AP English Language and Composition course. That said, several guidelines are useful in determining the appropriateness of texts used in this course. These guidelines include the following:

• Texts that represent a clear rhetorical situation (e.g., topical nonfiction)

• Texts that speak to one another through a variety of genres

• Texts that could be read in an introductory composition class in college

• Texts that require teacher direction for students to discern meaning

• Texts that rate as upper high school level on a Lexile chart

Neither does the College Board prescribe an amount of reading for an AP English Language and Composition course. Several questions, however, are useful in assessing the volume of reading students should be assigned in this course:

• Are students reading challenging texts every day?

• Do students employ rereading as an interpretive strategy?

• Do students gain sufficient practice to develop skills in reading purposefully and rhetorically?

• Do students write on a regular basis about what others have written?

• Do the selected readings provoke responses from multiple perspectives and thus generate public discussion?

• Are students given the opportunity to immerse themselves in substantive texts—ones that require several days or weeks to read—as well as texts that can be read and reread within a single class period?

• Are students spending at least eight hours per week (both inside and outside of class) engaged in their reading and writing? Is there a clear connection between their reading and writing?

• Are students reading texts that require teacher involvement or scaffolding, or can the texts be read independently?