:: 2013 AP* Summer Institutes at UT Austin

AP English Literature and Composition for Experienced AP Teachers
Institute Code AP13037
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This week will be a seminar, not a lecture format. Participants will discuss and practice strategies for creating and maintaining a student centered learning environment through close reading strategies and careful analysis of written text. Because there will be a variety of experience levels in the class, we will utilize all methods we bring to share, including the following:

  • How much and what genres we should include in the course
  • How we get students to better assess their own products
  • How to give written feedback and coach our students to do the same
  • How to help students learn to read and think carefully and critically
  • How to incorporate more multicultural texts in a Texas classroom

Institute Preparation: teachers should do the following before the institute:
  • Because we are experienced teachers, please bring a Best Practice lesson to teach to the seminar participants. You will explain the lesson, and we will discuss how to incorporate it into our own curriculum. We will load all lessons into a Dropbox folder for all to use.
  • Please read one of the following young adult, multi-cultural novels to work with during the week. They are all examples of the bildungsroman and have prose sections we can all teach to our classes if we have not the time to teach the entire novel. Feel free to read more than one!
    • The Round House by Louise Erdrich
    • Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
    • Moloka’I by Allan Brennert
    • Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones

  • Please also bring a laptop or tablet.

      We do not recommend that new AP English teachers take this institute.

      Lead Consultant: Gretchen Polnac Gretchen Polnac taught AP literature and film for 31 years in the Austin Independent School District in Austin, Texas, where she received numerous teaching awards. She is now in year seven teaching full time at The University of Texas in Austin in the UTeach Liberal Arts program, guiding pre-service teachers though their professional sequence of methods courses. Gretchen’s undergraduate work was completed at The University of Texas and her graduate work at Texas State University and The University of Texas. She is a consultant for both AP Literature and Language and reads the literature exam. In January 2010, Gretchen participated in The Professor’s Study Tour with The Anti-Defamation League Echoes and Reflections Program in Israel studying Holocaust literature. Additionally, she conducts teacher and student training in many states for a number of AP programs.



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