- This event has passed.
AP® Literature and the Southern Gothic
As a uniquely American Genre, Southern Gothic literature offers a rich landscape for exploring character complexity, cultural tensions, and stylistic nuance—making it an ideal fit for AP® English instruction. Join former AP Chief Reader Prof. David Miller and AP Consultant and Professor Brandon Abdon to explore this genre in the AP classroom. In this session, Applied Practice will introduce our brand-new AP Aligned Guide on Southern Gothic, designed to help teachers connect to the skills emphasized on the AP Literature exam.
Participants will get to geek-out a bit with some texts while learning how to incorporate the guide’s texts and questions into both daily instruction and unit-level planning. We’ll walk through best practices for using the guides to build students’ confidence, deepen their understanding of genre, and strengthen their analytical skills.
_
Facilitator: Dr. David Miller
Dr. David Miller is professor of English at Mississippi College where he has been teaching for thirty-five years. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in English from Nyack College/Alliance University in New York and did both of his graduate degrees at Baylor University in Texas. In addition he worked with the Advanced Placement English Literature exam for over twenty-seven years, first as a reader/scorer of the examination and most recently as Chief Reader for the exam from 2017 to 2021 and was involved in both revising the learning objectives for the course and the rubric used for scoring. He currently serves on the Advanced Placement Council on Humanities Education. Dr. Miller has spoken to many groups of teachers on subjects ranging from “messy readings” to rethinking literature education in the 21st century and has been lead instructor in redesigning his own university’s core literature requirement.
Facilitator: Dr. Brandon Abdon
Dr. Brandon Abdon is a former English teacher who has been doing instructional design, school coaching, and professional development around the intersection of composition, literacy, literature, pedagogy, and technology for over a decade. A fellow of the National Writing Project, Brandon believes in the power of writing daily in the classroom. He also knows that all students have a path to literacy when engaged and challenged suitably. He likes to read and play sports but does both of them slowly and only one of them well. He has been married to his brilliant wife, Angela, since 2008 and has two sons, Hilton and Dorian.
He has consulted for or served in some capacity with a number of organizations, including the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Writing Project, the Bluegrass Writing Project, the Kentucky Council of Teachers of English, the National Math-Science Initiative, and others. In addition to consulting and professional development, he has been on staff with the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program and Savvas K-12 Learning Services (Formerly Pearson K-12 Learning Services). While at the College Board, he led the development of the current course and exam descriptions for both Advanced Placement English courses, including creation of course skills, revision of exam guidelines, and the development of analytical scoring.
Along with experience in an array of organizations, he holds advanced degrees in both English and Education - including a Doctorate in English Pedagogy - and certification as both a teacher and an administrator. During his full-time work in high school classrooms, he was recognized with the National Council of Teachers of English “High School Teacher of Excellence” award in 2010. He has also worked at the University of Kentucky and Georgia State University teaching courses including English Composition 1, Introduction to Literature, Literature for Teachers, Composition for Teachers, and others.