AP LITERATURE · UNITS 1 AND 2
This is help for you to do better on the Unit 1 and Unit 2 retakes. Two ways in: read the study notes for your unit, then practice with a review coach that teaches you the moves, gives you one try at a time, and tells you honestly how you did. Bring your composition book.
How to use this page
1. Read. Open the notes for your unit and read with your composition book beside you.
2. Practice. Open the review coach for your unit, pick a topic (or choose Everything), and work the challenges.
3. Write. Head It, Catch It, Make It Yours, Star It: capture the lines and moves you will use on the retake.
UNIT 1 · SHORT FICTION I
Unit 1 Retake Notes: Short Fiction
Bierce and Chopin, and the five moves the retake tests: characterization and foils, plot sequence, the Pacing Dial, narration and perspective, and building the argument.
What you will be able to do
- Analyze how specific details create complex characters, and explain what a foil reveals (Skill 1.C)
- Analyze how plot sequence and the order of revelation function, not just what happens (Skill 3.A)
- Explain how pacing, slowed or sped, shapes meaning and feeling (Skill 3.B)
- Distinguish narrator from perspective, and explain how the lens limits what a reader knows (Skill 4)
- Build a literary argument as claim, evidence, and commentary that explains function (Skill 7.A)
UNIT 2 · POETRY I
Unit 2 Retake Notes: Poetry
Hughes and Dickinson, and the four moves the retake tests: speaker and literal meaning, finding the turn, figurative language at work, and the Language Function paragraph.
What you will be able to do
- Identify the speaker and state a poem’s literal meaning before interpreting
- Locate a poem’s turn and anchor a claim on its far side
- Explain how figurative language, imagery, and sound create effects, never naming a device without its job
- Write a Language Function paragraph that moves from surface reading to a defensible claim with evidence sandwiches and a So What
Getting into the review coaches
Both coaches live in one MagicSchool room: AP Lit Unit 1 and Unit 2 Review. Click either gold Practice button above, or go to student.magicschool.ai and enter the room code eaFgUw. Pick the coach for your unit, choose a topic or take the full Everything route, and finish with the reflection question: which move will you catch on the retake?