Instead of being handed a worksheet of questions, AP Literature and Composition students were tasked with the job of shortening Sophocles’s play, Oedipus Rex, and performing it in one minute.

“The point of the activity is to get the students to go back into the text and look at it closely and look very carefully how the play develops, how Sophocles develops the play and how he uses classic elements and tragedy to propel the viewers,” AP Lit and Comp teacher MaryKris Roberson said.

Split into three groups, Roberson’s first hour class was allowed to use ellipses to take out words and phrases they found less important, but beside that, they were not allowed to paraphrase.

“Everyone interpreted it different and saw different advantages to certain things and disadvantages to, just, other things,” senior Claire Kringen said. “It furthers my understanding of the play, Oedipus.”

Though mostly a close-reading exercise, preparing to perform Oedipus Rex helped students prepare for the test the following day.

“It’s much more interactive probably than most reviews,” senior Ashley Stuckwisch said. “You had to, like, be more independent and figure out what was the important parts yourself instead of being prompted.”

But that wasn’t the only advantage to close-reading.

“When we read [Oedipus Rex] in class, they’re reading for plot and for basic understanding of what’s happening and chronology,” Roberson said. “But then when you go back into it and really look closely at the text, you see more deeply, like how the characters are developed.”