Dear Incoming Seniors,
I hope you are ready for a bumpy ride down narrow Alexandria Ave. to get to an intense and informative class in Advanced Placement English Literature. In Ms. Kirkman’s class, there are many enjoyable moments and a few frustrating ones. An example of a frustrating moment would be when on a Thursday evening, your relaxed and lying down on your favorite lazy chair in front of your laptop watching Netflix nonstop, and you realize that you have to write your forum before the midnight deadline; the realization alone is enough to sober up any human being and raise their blood pressure to extremely dangerous levels. However, looking at the clock, you realize that you only have ten minutes to write a 250 word forum that is grammatically impeccable with no dead words anywhere in sight. Now a word of advice: Write your forums the day it is assigned. I know each and every one of you, after studying English for eleven years (or more), are quite an expert in your own rights. However, AP English Lit. is a whole new world, where the sounds of simple letters can determine the overall mood and tone of the author/poet, where a subtle change of season can foreshadow death and destruction, where words have symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. When entering AP Lit., do not forget to tip your English Language hat off to the side, and make room for your AP English Literature hat, because you have to look at the passages and poems from a completely new perspective; you have to be able to enter the mind of the author somewhat and analyze the meaning behind the words. Now, to many enjoyable moments I mentioned in the beginning: The more you learn about foreshadowing, symbolism, and figurative language, the more enjoyable reading a piece of literature becomes. It has been quite a ride working with this year’s motivated, hilarious, and brilliant students. I wish all of you best of luck.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline