By Megan Wehring
Johnson High School in Buda will have the first advanced placement literature class at the junior level next year while other high schools keep it strictly for seniors.
While elementary and middle schools focus primarily on literature, AP language and composition is currently required for high school juniors. Tim Savoy, chief communication officer for Hays CISD, provided a statement to the Hays Free Press about the adjustment.
“The AP language and composition class in the junior year can interrupt the cumulative formation due to the focus on rhetoric, synthesis and argument,” the statement read. “It will not build the cultural literacy bank of novels and plays since none are read in this class.”
The course will focus on preparation for the AP literature exam. Students will learn to read with more depth and read complex literary works while looking at the key elements authors use.
“The novels, plays and poetry selections will be made to concentrate on those that appear most frequently on the AP literature and composition exam, not only in the FRQ [free-response question] #3, but for multiple choice questions and the other two FRQs as well,” the statement read.
While AP language and composition is fairly new to students, it will be the class that most will take their freshman year of college. It’s considered to be a preparation course for high school seniors in reading and writing papers for other classes in college.
Johnson High School is the only campus that will implement the change, thus far. Savoy said the district will only make the transition to Johnson for the upcoming school year.
“We made the change at Johnson because they do not have an established practice yet,” Savoy said. “The sequence will stay the same for now at Hays and Lehman since any changes would require a doubling-up in course offerings.”
