A Closer Look At AP Lit and AP Lang: What’s a Better Fit For You?

Students and teachers share their opinions on the recent change made giving upcoming juniors a choice between AP Lit or AP Lang as their choice of AP English. 

By: Cami Lewis

Recently a change was made giving upcoming juniors (class of 2027) a choice between Advanced Placement Literature and Composition (AP Lit) and Advanced Placement Language and Composition (AP Lang) for their junior year AP English class.

This changes things for the upcoming juniors, since in the past, they didn’t have a choice between the two and could only take AP Lang as their choice of AP English for their junior year, and AP Lit for their senior year.

Each class has very different courses. AP Lang focuses on rhetoric, while AP Lit focuses on reading and analyzing imaginative literature. 

Mr. Nick Miller, an AP Lit teacher, describes the class as a course that focuses on language as an “art form” and it uses it “as a tool to change a heart, to change what you feel.” 

Ms. Forsythe, an AP Lang teacher, says “Lang is focused on nonfiction, and there are more short-writes in Lang than Lit.”

Each student has different skill sets and might be more successful in one course than the other. This change will be beneficial to students like Abby Stroble, ‘27, who thinks AP Lit is a better fit for her because she is “really good at writing.”

Sehrish Hirani, ‘27, thinks AP Lang is a good choice for her because “writing more essays is definitely going to be a better fit” and will benefit her in the future. 

Teachers also acknowledge the fact that it is important for students to have a choice between the two. 

Different students might be more successful in one class rather than the other. Mr. Miller states good reading skills will help you be successful in AP Lit. Ms. Forsythe says “people who are self motivated to learn how to write better” would help them be successful in Lang.

However this does come with some negatives. Due to the new age group in AP Lit, they might not be able to handle the mature topics discussed in class. 

Mr. Miller hopes that “young people will rise to the occasion” because he has “designed a course that works really, really well” and doesn’t want to change it due to kids’ immaturity. 

This could also affect class sizes, as now there will be juniors and seniors taking AP Lit instead of just seniors. Mr. Miller acknowledges the possibility of bigger class sizes and he looks forward to having a larger class that “can get a conversation going.”

With this change, AP Lang teachers will have kids in their classes who actually want to be there, not because it is their only choice. 

Ms. Forsythe says, “There will be a greater variety of kids who want to try it, and [for] kids who didn’t take it junior year and want to take it senior year, it will be open to them as well.”

Tags: AP lang, AP lit, class of 2027, clubs & lifestyles, new classes, news, rangers, Redwood, redwood class of 2027, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, rhs, visalia ca