AP Language & Composition and AP Literature teacher John Mahoney is currently holding his annual Hogwarts-inspired Lit Cup, a tournament to keep students engaged throughout the second half of the school year. The competition is held between each of his classes, and consists of different English-related challenges: IXL practice, AP Classroom questions, trivia, class engagement, song contests, visual presentations and more. Students battle each other to see who can put up the most impressive stats in each area of the challenges in exchange for points. At the end, the class with the most cumulative points takes home the Lit Cup trophy.
This year, three AP Lit classes and one AP Lang class are battling head-to-head for literary supremacy. Students have been quick to show their competitive sides, Mahoney said, and so far have answered thousands of grammar-related questions. Mahoney has kept up with this increased level of competitiveness by adding new opportunities for bonus points and competitions, raising the stakes even higher. Students say it’s been a fight for the top of the leaderboard and the rivalries between classes still reign on.
“I think that it’s been really fun and it’s good to compete with my senior friends,” junior Molly Trauman said. “The IXLs have been helping me with my grammar and the way that I write.”
“The Lit Cup is a great experience to bring seniors together one last time,” senior Anna Wilcomes said. “I also like the sense of competition that it creates.”
While the cup remains fun for students, it also plays a key role in AP exam preparation and class performance, students said. Participating in the activities force them to take ownership of their exam studying while also fostering creativity in the classroom, which can be hard and even neglected for second semester students, especially seniors.
The cup has been centered around three main texts that the senior literature classes have recently been working with: “Beowulf,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Macbeth.” These seniors specifically have the opportunity to make their insightful connections and conversation with the literature count for cup points. This helps them to better digest the language and also appreciate what they are learning.
“I’m hoping that they might work hard for the cup and then realize they love the book,” Mahoney said.
The Lit Cup has proven to be more than an English competition. It has brought students together and taught them the importance of something much deeper than points: teamwork and growth.
“It brings the periods together,” Mahoney said. “People were encouraging each other to read closely because there’s trivia, and encouraging each other to come to the review sessions or take the AP questions.”
While students are still in the height of the Lit Cup, no matter where the trophy ends up, they are left with enjoyable memories from the light-hearted competition.
“I hope that people take away the trophy as a remembrance of some fun they had in my classes and remember the classmates that they had fun with while they were here,” Mahoney said
