Coming into AP Literature, I was eagerly anticipating the reading of great works like Shakespeare and Hemingway. I haven’t been disappointed. My first semester in this class has reinvented the way I view English learning and literature, because the tools, such as TPCASTT and SOAPStone, has shown me how much I have missed before. In Unit 1, I initially struggled quite a bit with analyzing and writing poems. However, through assignments like the Great Poets Reflection, the Q1 Final Draft, Great Poets Teaching Project, I have witnessed improvement in my Unit 1 skills. In the Great Poets Reflection, even though it was short, I was able to show that I can pick out the key trends and symbols that Wright employs in his poems, which is something I wouldn’t have been able to do before this semester. I have never examined a poet at such depth before, and this reflection showed me that I can identify a poet’s writing style and what meaning that adds to his/her final product, especially when compared to poems from other poets about the same subject. This unit’s strong emphasis on discerning allusions within texts also helped me find allusions to a famous Chinese poet, Du Fu, in my poet’s works, when he used similar poetic techniques and thoughts.

The APL:U1: AP Q1 Final Draft was possibly the greatest example of my growth over Unit 1. I felt discouraged initially when I got back my first draft in class because I thought it had done a good job comparing the poems given by the prompt. However, as time went on and I learned more material, I realized that my old techniques of analyzing poems only limited me to a superficial level. I really appreciated the rewrite as an opportunity to build on my old understandings and to take me to a higher level. When I went back to my first draft, I saw that I had completely overlooked the central message of both poems since I didn’t realize the characters that both poets were calling out to (Douglass and Milton), were both dead. The feedback given to me for this assignment was that I had expanded far too much on the points that were not as significant as I first thought. For example, I emphasized a lot on their diction, like how Wordsworth used words like “fen” and “swamp” to describe the state of England. When I went back to do the rewrite, I completely revamped the essay to include less about diction and more about style and tone, while using poetic devices as supporting evidence to those two topics above. Talking more about style and tone was what you emphasized in class, and my growth in this Unit 1 is shown by refocusing my essay in this manner. It was hard for me to incorporate elements from my first draft because of how much my understanding changed over this unit.

For Unit 2, I am particularly proud of my DragonNotes video project and my short story interpretation. I had encountered very few short stories in the past, and this unit really opened my eyes towards not only interpreting them but appreciating them as well. In my DragonNotes project, the format we chose forced us to take a creative approach in approaching the short story itself, as it required us to take the most critical elements and themes and make it into a song. I believe this project demonstrated my growth and improvement in standards such as SC1.1 and SC1.2, beyond the levels that I had shown with my APL: U1: Q3 Diagnostic, even though that I received both EEs on that assignment as well. For example, with the lyric writing that went into this project, I showed that I was able to form coherent ideas with a limiting structure. Reading through “You’re Ugly, Too” taught me what it meant to analyze a character-driven rather than plot-driven story, because these stories are showing, rather than telling, making it harder to determine what the message the author is trying to send. Furthermore, the advanced themes I discussed such as a nihilistic worldview were far more advanced than what I was able to deduce before. I was also able to link this to the use of irony, showing my ability to connect various textual details to form a complete analysis of a literary work. Outside of literary sense, I am pleased with my ability to use my audio and visual skills to create a product that was polished and informative. Overall, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do a project that pushed me beyond my literary comfort zone. I think that it is a prominent milestone in my literature learning, where I showed that I am able to adapt the techniques we learn in class to suit any project.

Similar to the Unit 1 Final Draft, the short story interpretation was also a great source of growth in my literature learning. In my first final draft, I was far too ambiguous and convoluted when I was describing the textual details that William Faulkner used in his “A Rose for Emily” short story. As an example, I talked about structure, style, and theme all in separate paragraphs. This structure prevented me from describing how these specific textual details contributed to the story’s message itself, which I learned should be the main focus of any essay of this nature. Additionally, the way I organized the analysis in my first final draft was problematic because I wrote about less important details first, making it hard for you to tell what my message was. The second final draft I wrote is a testament to the growth I have experienced over Unit 2 because I felt like it was far more coherent and organized, as well as using the textual details I discovered just as evidence for my thesis rather than making them the main focus of the essay itself. For example, my thesis in my second final draft was that Faulkner was using Emily as a symbol to represent the decadence of the Old South’s values. I used advanced elements from the story as evidence to support my claims, such as analyzing how Faulkner’s use of “we” as the pronoun was actually a manifestation of his perspective and lens when at a superficial level the use of “we” is meant to echo the townspeople’s perspective towards Emily. Other points such as symbolism and sub-topics like the issue of race within the story helped me solidify my argument and is representative of growth in my ability to holistically analyze details in short stories.

While I haven’t gotten any summative assignments back for Unit 3, the experience of reading Hamlet both in class and out of class has immersed me in the world of Shakespeare. His use of language and plot device taught me the complexity that can be embodied in only dialogue between characters, as well as how different subplots are intricately tied in to make a very intriguing story. Furthermore, I have gotten more comfortable with reading the type of English I don’t get to encounter on a regular basis. I anticipate that I will gain a whole new lens and perspective of analyzing literature from this unit, and I am excited about the possibilities that hold. I look forward to understanding more about Hamlet itself and other plays, especially since this is a type of literature I haven’t had the chance to enjoy up to this point.

I believe my first semester in AP Literature has been a tremendously rewarding and enriching experience. I came into this course expecting that I would learn the fine details about analyzing and appreciating all types of literature, and I think the assignments I have done over this semester have strongly demonstrated my growth and learning. Through rewrites, reflections and projects, I have gained first-hand experience in not only methods to comprehend literature, but also applying it in various situations. The application aspect is what I want to take away from this course, and I hope to continue building on these skills through other types of literature next semester.