One of the most common questions I see before the AP®* Lit exam is not about test prep, but about what teachers should do with their students on the exam days are over. It is more than a valid question. For months, a good AP® teacher cultivates an environment of exploration and rigorous learning. To abandon all work once the exam is over seems wrong, and depending on your school calendar, can be a huge waste of student time. But at the same time, upperclassmen often face burnout after their AP® exams and it can be hard to get them to continue the rigorous work that comes with AP-level® classes.
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Like many teachers, I was faced with the dilemma with filling class time with purposeful activities that didn’t push the kids past their breaking point.
The best activity I have found is a book club unit analyzing plays from the AP® reading list.
The focus for this activity is on reading and discussion, and the summative assignment is a simple presentation to the rest of the class. Overall, my students find it entertaining, enlightening, and a learning activity that is not too intense for those waning days of May.
Unit Design & Procedure
Step 1: Group Up – If student reading choice was the only factor, this activity could result in too many small groups of 2 or even 1, which won’t work for this unit. Instead, I ask students to get into groups of 3-5 before they choose a play. To add to the more relaxed atmosphere of the unit, I allow them to form their own groups, a strategy I would not normally use during the regular school year.
Step 2: Choose a Play – Once they are in groups, they will need to select a play to read. There are two parameters for this: 1) it must be AP-level®; 2) no one in the group can have read it already. There are many plays on the AP® Lit reading list, but some of my favorites for this unit include:
- Oedipus the King by Sophocles
- Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
- An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
- Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
- 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
- Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco
- A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
- Fences by August Wilson
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
- The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance
I usually type up descriptions of some of my favorites, or provide students with time to look online for descriptions of each. Goodreads.com is a great resource for this.
Step 3: Form a Plan – To cultivate a student-led design, I ask students to form their own reading plan. Ideally the plays should be read aloud in class and should take about 1 to 1 1/2 weeks to finish. I also ask students to give themselves roles or titles, such as:
- President: Someone to keep the group on task and lead discussions
- Vice President: Someone to fill in for any absent group members
- Secretary: Someone to take notes and submit daily attendance
- Presentation Preparer: Someone with a computer open turning notes into a final PowerPoint or preparing a presentation for the final assessment
Step 4: Assign Formative Assessments – To keep this a learning activity (instead of an approaching summer free-for-all), make sure there are assessments in place both for group discussions and individual close reading. I usually grade discussions as I would a Socratic Seminar and assign individual students reading journals or written reflections 2-3 times a week.
Step 5: Design a Summative Assessment – The students need a final grade to aim for, and I’ve had good luck with a group presentation. I ask each group to give a plot premise and overview of the main characters. They then have to summarize some of the main themes and plot events they analyzed during group discussions. Finally, each student should provide a review of the play, including what they liked and didn’t like about each play. These presentations are usually paired with a dramatic recreation of a scene or two from the play, as well as why the scene is significant.
This is just one idea for filling the 2-3 weeks after the AP® Lit exam, but I have had excellent luck in my own personal experience. I’d love to hear more, what activities do you use after the AP® Lit exam?
Looking for more literature circle ideas? Check out my Gothic Novel Unit for AP® Lit. It gives you everything you need to guide students through 5 different gothic novels, including six different rubrics for scoring!
