Students, teachers debate best order for advanced placement english courses

A decision last year to allow for flexibility in the order that students take two advanced placement English classes has prompted debates among students about the benefits of completing the courses out of order.

Starting last school year, HVRHS allowed AP students to choose their own path in the order that they took English classes.

This means students could pick between AP Literature and Composition or AP Language and Composition first. In the years before that, language was the path for Juniors, and literature for Seniors. At the end of Sophomore year, students talked to their English teacher about which class they were recommended to take first.

A majority of students opted to take Language in their Junior year, but a small group broke with tradition and enrolled in Literature. Last year’s Literature class was made up of mostly Seniors and these few Juniors, but this year’s Literature class is just Seniors, with the few who took Literature last year taking Language now with mostly Juniors.

The decision to let students take it in either order was mostly to help scheduling. Lori Bucco, who teaches AP Language, said providing more options meant juniors could still take an AP English class even if the Language course conflicted with another desired course.

“The problem, and the reason we started to negotiate it in this building, is that we’re such a small school,” Bucco said. “If a kid wanted to take French 4, or Spanish 4, or ECE Environmental, and it bumped up against my class, then that put them into the honors English class when, if they could take AP Lit, they would.”

Damon Osora, who teaches AP Literature, explained the difference between the two courses. He said AP Language is centered around rhetoric and the use of language for persuasion, while AP Literature is meant to focus on subtext and teaching students to read between the lines to figure out what the author really means. The differences in the classes means different skills have to be put to work.

He also said that the English faculty at the school try to consider a students’ strengths as they rise into their junior year. “Ms. Freese’s philosophy has been to build on the demonstrated strengths at the end of sophomore year,” Osora said. This contributes to an easier pathway for sophomores into junior year, and into their first AP English class. The hope is these students would have more confidence going into the second AP English class.

For senior Mollie Ford, who opted to take AP Literature first, “I think that it was worth it being in Lit as a junior, because it was more of the English that I liked to do, and because it was my junior year, I really wanted to make sure that I could get good grades in my classes, so that when I sent my transcripts into colleges, it looked better,” Ford said. The class where she had stronger skills to be successful is not only important because of transition, but because of the significance of junior year.

“Lang, for some people, it’s an easier class because you are reading large books, but I think that I would have struggled last year in that class, so I am thankful that I took AP Lit,” said Ford.

Alexa Meach, senior, had a different perspective which both Lori Bucco and Damon Osora agree with.

“Ms. Freese actually put me into Lit, but after talking to some of my teachers, I thought it would be better to be with peers that were of my own age, because I think that I learn better that way. I think that it was the right choice because just being with people that I knew and that I had previous classes with in my high school experience helped a lot.”

The decision does have some social aspects to it. Bucco says, “It’s a lot about social grouping, kids want to be where their friends are. So if all your friends have been recommended to go into AP Lang, but Ms. Freese is talking to an individual saying, “you would do well in AP Lit,” you suddenly are gonna leave your, like, camaraderie, this group that you’ve, and take that class on your own, which could be really good for kids, but it’s also very intimidating.” Students are afraid or not willing to stray from their friends even if the other class would be better for them.

Additionally, Osora said that students who took AP Lit last year as juniors were more independent and comfortable in themselves in order to be taking a class of mostly seniors.

For the actual AP test itself, Bucco will let her kids know the format, she said. When talking about AP Lang, Meach said, “we got to go through the structure of the test, and as somebody with test anxiety, having a lot riding on one assessment, I liked having the time to go through step by step, which you get a little bit with Mr. Osora, but not as much because that’s not how his course was designed.”

With this being one of the first AP tests that many students take it can be stressful. Having a teacher that will review even just the design of the test can help students feel more prepared. Since this is such a small school, having the conversation with the teachers is possible and was helpful for many. For AP Lit this year, “I think that we were prepared for the test, but I think that I was prepared mainly because I had the background of taking it already, and so I knew the outline and layout much beforehand,” said Meach.