One of the most exciting English classes at Shadow Ridge High School is AP Literature and Composition, a college level course that is designed to push students to be their very best. Ms. Coyle, the teacher for this course, loves the subject and her students.
Ms. Coyle has been teaching at Shadow Ridge for 3 years, but she has taught AP Lit for 6 years. She also runs the Student Council organization, which she has been doing for 7 years, which makes for an overall 20 years of teaching. Ms. Coyle loves challenging herself and trying out new subjects.
“It [AP Lit] was an opportunity that came up at my old school and I was excited for the challenge,” Ms. Coyle comments. “It’s turned out to be my most favorite of all of the classes and grade levels I’ve taught!”
In this class students will learn how to analyze poetry, short stories, and novels. They also examine how authors use figurative language, details, and characters to convey messages about life, as well as ideas they want to impart to readers.
One of the things Ms. Coyle loves about AP Literature is that she can make her own choices about what to teach in the classroom and how best to help her students.
“I love the freedom it gives me as a teacher to choose the material I want to use in my classroom while giving me a goal for my students to achieve,” Coyle says. “It’s more than just passing a class or getting a GPA boost. There are tangible benefits to taking AP- students become stronger all around academically and take on challenging work, and they can potentially earn college credit that’s recognized globally if they pass the test.”
In AP Lit students will read books all together, in small groups, and outside of class. During class they will read The Awakening and Macbeth. There is a free choice of what they read both within small groups and outside of class. Some of Ms. Coyle’s favorite short stories include The Yellow Wallpaper, The Flowers, Hills Like White Elephants, and The Story of an Hour. Some of her favorite poems are Theme for English B, Lobsters, Whoso List to Hunt, and America.
AP Lit differs from AP Lang because Literature focuses solely on fictional poems, short stories, and novels, while Language focuses entirely on nonfiction and informational text. Fiction stories can be so fun, and Ms. Coyle thinks the most engaging and interesting story is The Awakening, which is a short novel about a woman in the 1890s who does not fit the traditional role that society says she should be in, and what she does to try and break free.
Bella Valenzano, sophomore, is excited to take AP Lit next year because she loves fiction and wants to get better at writing.
“I’m excited to learn a lot more and improve my writing skills in AP Lit,” Valenzano comments.
The most difficult part of AP Lit is trying to unlock the meaning behind poetry and understand its structure, but the class works together to understand the poet. As for the AP Exam at the end of the school year, students must take a multiple choice test and write three timed essays. Ms. Coyle knows that it is challenging but not out of reach. Since Ms. Coyle grades the AP Lit exams every summer, she knows exactly what students need to do and how they need to write in order to pass.
Ms. Coyle encourages students to take her class because of the valuable skills they will learn and even taking such a high level course.
“I think AP Lit is a very manageable AP class that builds on skills students have been learning in English classes over the past 5-6 years,” Coyle explains. “AP looks great for colleges- AP is the gold standard for colleges and universities!”
