By: Cathy Chen <[email protected]>

Sophomore Emerson Woerner sits in SRT with his Spanish textbook open in front of him, concentrating on memorizing vocabulary words for his Spanish III class. Woerner said that after he heard from Spanish teacher Crystal Brim that the world language department is now offering AP Spanish Literature, he decided to take the class his senior year.

“I was originally planning on taking Spanish V (senior year), but then (Brim) was kind of pushing us towards (AP Spanish Literature) a bit, so I figured it might as well be a good idea to take it to just kind of get a different Spanish class, sort of broaden your horizons,” Woerner said.

Ruth Buechlein, world language department chairperson, said the department decided to offer AP Spanish Literature to provide more options of higher-level classes to students. “I think what happens is because we are a big school, we do need to offer (classes) for those upper level students who want that challenging of a curriculum in high school, to have it there if that’s what they want.”

However, according to Buechlein, the department can only officially offer AP Spanish Literature if there is a minimum of 18 students signed up.

Brim, who will teach the course if it is officially offered, said AP Spanish Literature is completely different from any other Spanish class and could be linked more closely with the English department than with the Spanish department.

“It’s just another option for people who want to study Spanish but don’t want to study just the grammar. It’s completely different from anything that they’ve done so far here. It’s more like an AP English course, but just in Spanish and about Spanish countries.”

Buechlein said the main difference between AP Spanish Literature and the IB Spanish classes is the different focus each program has. “AP Spanish Literature is really based on more reading and discussing the literature, as opposed to practicing the right way to say certain things, and really broadening out into more culturally based things and more current things,” she said. “It will have a completely different focus than the more broad-based IB that’s mostly gearing to communication through speaking and writing.”

But Brim said AP Spanish Literature would still help students improve their Spanish grammar and communication skills, just in a different way. She said, “We don’t learn language by studying vocabulary and grammar lists. If you think about how a baby learns, a baby learns by hearing it, and then you learn more and more by reading.

“Instead of learning pieces of grammar, you get the whole picture of the language, and that’s what’s so great about this class. You see the grammar in action; you see the vocabulary in action. It’s contextual. Instead of learning a different concept every chapter, this is all right there in front of you, and you start to get the feel for how the language is supposed to be spoken and utilized, just by looking at it, just by observing.”

Brim said the literature that students will analyze in AP Spanish Literature will also give insight into Hispanic culture, and junior Sean Kearney, who is planning on taking this course next year, said he is looking forward to this aspect of the class.

“I think Spanish writers deal a lot differently than English writers, so I hope to get more cultural perception from (this class),” Kearney said.

According to Brim, the prerequisite for AP Spanish Literature is Spanish III, but it’s advisable to complete Spanish IV before taking the course if possible. However, because of the difference between the objectives and curriculums of the AP and IB programs, AP Spanish Literature does not replace Spanish IV or Spanish V, which are IB classes, but it does count as a Spanish credit. Brim said she would like any student who is considering signing up for AP Spanish Literature to talk to her first.

Woerner said he decided to take Spanish IV first and to wait until his senior year to take AP Spanish Literature because of what he gathered after talking to teachers and counselors. “It sounded like Spanish IV is kind of like Spanish II, with a lot of new important ideas, so I think it’d be kind of nice to get that out of the way first,” he said.

Brim said that students will practice a lot of reading and writing in Spanish in AP Spanish Literature to prepare for the AP exam at the end of the year, which includes writing timed essays in Spanish.

“This is a hard course,” Brim said. “(Students) are going to have to think hard… But I’m going to be in it with them, helping them along the way. If they put in the effort, we’ll all do well.”

As difficult as the course may be, Woerner said he is looking forward to reading a different type of literature and works by Spanish authors.

He said, “In English classes, you always read a lot about English authors and those kinds of classics, like we had to read Great Expectations last year, so it will be interesting to see how those compare to Spanish classics. It’ll just be a different opportunity to learn a little more about Spanish literature history.”

Buechlein said she believes that the AP Spanish Literature course, and especially its focus on reading, will benefit students tremendously.

She said, “Reading opens the door to more speaking, to more writing, to better understanding of the language. We as teachers support reading in our native language, so reading in a second language is another way to build vocabulary, to build understanding, to understand the culture… It’s just from a different angle.”