On the AP® Literature exam, both the Poetry Free Response Question and the Prose Free Response Question ask students to consider the text complexity of the passages provided. Which means that first they have to be able to dive deep enough into a text to discover just what this means.
What is Text Complexity for AP® Literature?
In the greater educational world, text complexity refers to the difficulty of a text for the reader. But in AP®, text complexity refers to how students analyze the layers of meaning in a text.
To do this, students need to look at the layers, the contradiction, and the paradoxes in a text.
Helping your students hone in on these layers will help them to be more successful on the Poetry FRQ and the Prose FRQ.
7 Ways to Help AP® Students Focus on Text Complexity
One: Use Essential Questions
A well crafted essential question can really help students to explore the big ideas in a text. Having students track the essential question as they read will help them to see the layers as well as any contradictions that might arise. You can do this through text tagging, collecting quotation or class discussions.
Two: Provide a Vocabulary List
A Text Complexity Anchor Chart gives students the language they need to discuss complexity. I give my students this anchor chart that includes words they can use to discuss complex relationships, complex attitudes, complex encounters and more. Having this list at the start of year helps give students the confidence to discuss the layers of meaning in a text.
Three: Contemporary Haiku
Although we learned when we were kids that haiku is a poem of 17 syllables, 5-7-5, the contemporary definition of haiku is a “breath length poem” with a juxtaposition of nature and humanity. And the short form is a great place to begin looking at text complexity and layers of meaning. Check out The Haiku Society of America for examples of short, complex poems.
Four: Beginning-Middle-End Sticky Notes
Have individual students choose the most important events from the beginning, middle and end of the text. Have them write it on a sticky note. Then have students get in groups of 3-5 to share their events. They should discuss the events and narrow it down to 3 again. Then as a class the groups can share their events to compare. And as a class, determine the three most important events.
Through the narrowing conversion, there should be discussions that include the layers and contradictions in the text.
Five: Essential Quotes
Students should select 3-5 quotes that they feel are essential to the text. Then they should describe the quotes in one word. They can then use these words to connect to ambiguities, power struggles, conflicts and more.
Six: Tone Sort
Use this tone activity to note how the tone shifts throughout a text. Have students discuss how the shifts indicate contradictions or inconsistencies.
Seven: Practice Weekly with Bell Ringers
Encouraging students to practice regularly through close reading like a Poem of the Week/ Prose Passage of the Week Warm Up is a great way to have students examine text complexity. For more on Poem of the Week, check out this post.
Oh, and don’t forget to grab your free Bell Ringer Sampler Set.
AP® Text Complexity and More
Getting your students to see and understand text complexity will take their writing and analysis to the next level. To help them really focus, check out my other AP® Literature writing posts: Helping Students Master the AP® Lit Thesis, Line of Reasoning: Three Activities for AP® Literature and Teaching Writing through AP® Literature Anchor Charts.
Related Resources
Free: Bell Ringer Sampler Set (includes a Poem of the Week and a Passage of the Week)
Helping Students Master the AP® Lit Thesis
Line of Reasoning: Three Activities for AP® Literature
Teaching Writing through AP® Literature Anchor Charts.
Tone for Literature: How to Teach it in High School ELA
Teaching Poetry Analysis through Poem of the Week
How to Create a Theme Tracker Graphic Organizer Bookmark in 5 Easy Steps (The Teacher Rewrite)
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Poem of the Week Bell Ringer Bundle
2 Responses
Thank you! Your resources are outstanding. I genuinely enjoy reading your posts, and I have gathered so many wonderful ideas to share in my classroom.
Thank you so much. It is so heartening to hear that my words are helping other teachers.