A Time of Growth and Learning: AP Language Teachers Reflect on Their First Years

By Sergio Lopez

The current AP Language and Composition teachers describe their first year of teaching the course and their experience.

Entering the school year, two teachers stepped up and took over the AP English Language and Composition course following the leave of the prior instructor, beginning their first years of teaching the class.

The new teachers instructing the course are Ashley Jurica and Elizabeth Forsythe, both existing teachers at Redwood.

Following the course exam on May 9th, the instruction material is over, and at the end of the year, both teachers reflected upon their experiences throughout the course.

Starting from the beginning, prior to the school year both Forsythe and Jurica attended the week-long AP Summer Institute in Sacramento, being a week-long instructional course. Forsythe says how this helped relieve her nerves but felt prepared already as both she and Jurica were finishing up their Master’s in English with a Specialization in Rhetoric, both feeling confident and prepared to teach the course.

Reflecting upon the year, Forsythe says how her first year went “really well,” mostly because her students this year felt like they were prepared and did well on the exam, being a win for her, patiently waiting to see the results. Jurica says that she had an “incredible time teaching the course,” with teaching AP being both challenging and rewarding, having grown in proficiency as a teacher, along with being able to see the improvement in the writing skills of her “wonderful” students.

Forsythe goes on to say in reference to the possible results of the exam how, “Nothing ever really goes as [she] thinks it will go,” but not being inherently bad as it can lead to new discoveries, or if things do go bad, then it’ll be room for improvement.

In terms of any challenges or difficulties in picking up the course, Forsythe says how naturally this year there was “a ton more time spent planning” as opposed to teaching a course for several years. Luckily, having Jurica alongside her, Forsythe says it can erase pressure off her.

A main part of the reason why so much time was spent on planning this year was because of the lack of a textbook, and not having anything to build from. Faced with this, Jurica says how she and Forsythe were able to “pull [their] resources together,” collaborating to create a solid curriculum for this first year. For the future of the course though, they both worked with other AP Lang teachers from the district to approve the adoption of a new textbook, with Jurica being “really proud” of the work they have accomplished with their students.

Looking ahead to the upcoming year, Forsythe says she’s “excited to look back at what was successful and what was not,” running polls with her students on ways to improve the course, and removing what was not as effective, feeling confident going into next year, further saying how she doesn’t know when she’ll feel “dialed in,” but finds joy in the journey there. 

Jurica says how she feels excited to continue teaching the course with Forsythe, now having created a solid curriculum and adopted a textbook, looks forward to being able to “enhance” her teaching.

Tags: AP Language and Composition, Ashley Jurica, Elizabeth Forsythe, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, Reflection