A Small Book, but Huge Impact

Attending the AP training afforded me the additional reading opportunity (as if I needed yet another book to frantically read before August 17th!), but this book holds the pedagogy I learned at the AP Institute from our speaker Jeff House, but lessons and sample writing that I hope other English teachers will take time to read. Included in the back is a CD with all his material. Excellent! Several key points Jeff made that really resonated regarding Honors and AP classes:
1) slow down...give up some of the literature to really discuss deeply what students are reading...they love literature, let's not kill it!
2) allow for various types of writing...it is essential for college, for life careers, AND the AP test does ask students to relate reading to life, so they better know how to analyze literature through various modes (exmples and theory discussed in his book)--literary analysis (aka the 5 paragraph essay is stifling and not true to The New Yorker, The Times, or any other modern piece of writing
3) skill-based learning is the ONLY way to really address students' needs and to assess what they are learning

I will pass on this book to any takers; it's wonderful.