In my attempts to find a fun way to review for the AP Lit exam I saw someone post about playing Apples to Apples. I didn’t see exactly how they used it, but I tried it with my students this past week and it was easy and fun! So here’s what I did if you’d like to squeeze it in the days before the exam.
What you’ll need:
- The game Apples to Apples (green adjective cards only)
- Printed noun cards that you make yourself (see below for details)
- Blank cards for write-in cards
Making the “Red” Cards
For the noun cards, red cards in Apples to Apples, I used characters from our whole class reads and other AP Lit terms and concepts.
Here were some of mine:
- Juxtaposition
- The Thesis Point
- Line of Reasoning
- Poetry
- Voice Lessons
- The speaker of “To an Athlete Dying Young”
- Thomas C. Foster
I typed these up on a Word document (in size 22 and 3 columns, to be specific) and printed them off on cardstock the morning of. I cut them quickly and was set to go. In total, it took me about 30 minutes to brainstorm the lists and create the cards.
Set-up
Invite your students to sit in a circle or around a table. I had a class of 15 and we played as one whole group. Any larger and I’d recommend getting into small groups of 8-12.
I distributed the printed cards around the circle, then gave each student 10 blank cards for write-in answers. I gave students a few minutes to come up with some ideas for their blank cards, but most of them wrote in answers based on the adjective card that was played.
Gameplay
Follow the rules of Apples to Apples! It’s that simple!
My students appreciated a review day that was both fun and no-stakes. I also found that it helped students remember the names of characters from our whole class reads (such as Henry Clerval and Justine Moritz from Frankenstein). It also helped build community going into the exam. AP Lit is sort of like training for a marathon, so this was our carbo-load feast leading up to the big race.
One final word
One final piece of advice is to know your class community. If there’s any bad blood between students or potential bullying, make it a rule that they can’t write classmates’ names on their cards. I worried about this with my kids and there were some harmless jokes made, but no bullying ensued. However, I would have set down this rule with some other classes I’ve had in the past.
How would you do it?
I know I’m not the only teacher who’s played Apples to Apples for test prep. I also know this works great for any kind of review, not just for AP Lit. So, I’m curious, how have you used Apples to Apples in the classroom? Let me know and I’ll add the idea to this blog post!
I love using Apples to Apples to make connections. This is a great creative way to use it, too! I’ve used it where I used someone else’s template for Q3 prompts (adjective card) and filled in books titles my students have read (noun card).
That was fun, but I’ve most often used it was before final exams to have students play plain old Apples to Apples, but the judge or each round has to guess which combo has the best/strongest connection to any content from the studies we’ve done over the unit/semester.
So many great conversations and debates are sparked everytime we play this game. I always tell my students Literature is about connections, and this activity always reinforces that message so well!