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Gaining Confidence for Teaching AP
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by Charles Grimes
Pembroke Pines Charter High School
Pembroke Pines, Florida
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More About Getting Started for Teachers...
Learning By Doing
Before I began teaching an AP English Literature and Composition course, my mentor, Dr. Israel, suggested that I attend a College Board Summer Institute to get some idea of what was involved with teaching AP. During the five days of intensive training, I was given reams of handouts on literary devices, vocabulary, and past AP prompts, as well as practical advice and teaching strategies. Leaving the conference, I thought to myself, What on Earth have I gotten myself into? I had been teaching for six years, but I wasn't sure if I was ready for the challenge of teaching AP.
Before school started, Dr. Israel and I met to discuss the game plan: she would plan the course for the year, create the lesson plans, and select passages for our after-school workshops, and I would stay close at hand observing everything. For the first month or two, she explained, our classes would be combined. I would gradually take over as the primary instructor for my class while still working together -- and in some instances, teaching specific units together.
As it turned out, my idea of my responsibilities during the first months of teaching AP was quite different from my mentor's. I thought that I would sit at my desk, take copious notes, record students' reactions to different novels and passages, and fill my binder with Dr. Israel's wonderful lessons. I wanted to be a silent, disconnected observer. During the early part of the semester, Dr. Israel encouraged me to complete the assignments given to the students, but I hesitated. I was afraid to make a mistake. After three weeks, my mentor gently but firmly insisted that I do exactly what the students were doing. She told me that if I were going to be a good AP teacher, I had to experience what the kids were going through. She was right.
Preparation Pays Off
Facing the class alone for the first time and grading my first set of essays terrified me. I have always been a firm believer in Socratic seminars and have used them with my younger students regularly, but when I was sent into the room with the students on my AP roll sheet, my confidence wavered. I had never taught seniors. I was intimidated by their intelligence and knew that they had taken Dr. Israel's AP English Language and Composition course the previous year. Fortunately, the students did what they had been trained to do, and the session ended without one catastrophe.
For the next class, Dr. Israel handed me an AP Exam prompt. No problem, I thought, I will give the students the prompt, and they will write for 40 minutes. I handled that just fine until I handed the completed essays to my mentor, and she gave them back. "Don't you want to grade them?" I asked, baffled. She handed me the rubric for the prompt and told me to write the grade on a separate piece of paper and to justify the score. I struggled with that set of papers, trying to make sure that they had been perfectly perused. It was at that point that Dr. Israel reminded me that I had been grading papers for years and to trust my experience. She sat down with me, and we discussed all 19 papers. We shared ideas about good writing, analysis, and valid interpretations of the text. My confidence grew because she listened to what I had to say.
In November, we assigned the students to do skits on King Lear. After the class was over, Dr. Israel asked me how the kids had done, and I replied, "Great!" She told me that her students had not done well and wanted to know what I had done to help my students perform well. I told her that I had given them detailed instructions explaining how to do the exercise. It was from this experience that we opened a dialog about the value of providing students with detailed guidelines. She suggested that I might be taking away their opportunity to think and be creative by overinstructing them. She offered an alternative approach: asking the students to write about their performances, analyzing what they had done well and how they could improve. I realized that I had gotten into a habit of giving so many instructions that I was crushing my students' natural ability to think creatively.
New Knowledge Benefits All Students
Now that we are in the second semester, our classes come together only once or twice a week, depending on the lesson. My mentoring experiences have affected how I teach not only my AP courses but my other courses as well. Now that I have gained experience and confidence, I modify the strategies I've learned from Dr. Israel to complement my other coursework. I have witnessed more growth in thinking, reading, and writing with this year's sophomores than any class in my seven years of teaching. Not only have my younger students benefited from better teaching, but I have been able to share all that I have learned with my fellow tenth-grade colleagues.
I feel very confident about taking over the AP classes next year, when I'll teach them completely on my own. Dr. Israel has prepared me in ways that only time, trial and error, and years of experience could. I have gained a tremendous amount of practical experience with AP by working with her. I'm looking forward to being able to take what I've learned and put my spin on it. Being mentored has been the best experience of my career. I wish that all teachers could have the opportunity to be mentored. I feel fortunate to have access to my mentor's brilliant mind and all of the knowledge that is stored there.
Charles Grimes teaches tenth grade English and AP English Literature and Composition at Pembroke Pines Charter High School in southern Florida. He was recently awarded National Board Certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and will be pursuing his master's degree in the near future.
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