Ap English Language Reflection

Coming into the course, I didn’t know what to expect. In my opinion the AP English Language I took Junior year was not up par with the actual AP standards and the teacher was extremely lenient. However, I had some difficulty adjusting but once I became use to the course and workload, my grades improved. I really enjoyed the class and when the AP exam came, I felt prepared and confident. This was a huge difference compared to junior year whereas I had to rely solely on self studying to score a 4. The most difficult work for me was learning how to transition my essays into college level works. In the beginning of the school year, I would score 70s on my essays because I was too redundant and didn’t analyze enough. But after the constant essay exams we had, I slowly improved my writing.
In addition, another weakness for me was poetry.
I despised poetry and could never understand what the author was trying to convey. But after the constant multiple choice practice we have in class, I can now confidently analyze poetry. Before taking this course, I thought poetry was not as common in today's world and because of this, I thought it was pointless analysing a “dead” style of writing. But the lesson that really connected everything for me was when we analyzed rap songs. It showed how poetry can transform and even gave me an new appreciation for rap songs. The lesson also really helped me to connect the rhythm and how the punctuation and writing style in the poem affects the overall work. My suggestion is to show this lesson earlier so that it can break the same misconceptions future students may
have.
My favorite parts of the class were the debates. The debates really pushed me to analyze further into the work and think of both sides. Because we’re assigned to one side, I get to think to think of other opinions and find evidence that may be different from my opinion. This really helped me to be more open minded and see the different interpretations of the work. These debates become very useful when writing essays because we have already analyzed everything. The only work left was to remember what was said and write it down. Another suggestion should be that you ask the students what side they agree with, then assign them to the opposite side of the debate.
Some of my favorite books is Siddhartha and Frankenstein. I was disappointed that because of the timing issues, our class didn’t have time to discuss the ideology and moral guidelines the book offered. There could have been so many different interruptions that would have been interesting to discuss in class. Jane Eyre is a enjoyable book too but our class focused too much time on it and it boggled it down. After reading Wide Sargasso Sea and The Awakening within such a close range, the book’s effective meanings were muddled. These books have a lot of similarities including the themes which made reading it boring because we’ve seen the theme done before. In a way, there was nothing “new” to analyze in regards to gender roles, male dominated society, etc… If these books were spaced out more, it would have been more enjoyable. This is partially one reason why I enjoyed Frankenstein so much. The new themes and symbols were refreshing.
In essence, this course gave me the materials needed to confidently take the AP and transitioned me into college workload. I enjoy your honest, witty, and sometimes sarcastic style of teaching. Our class can joke around but at the end of the day, we will always get our work done. There’s a good balance of fun and work which gives me life during the end of a long day. Although I wasn’t sure of what I was getting myself into, I’m glad I took this course and challenged myself.