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AP Spanish Lang + Lit, AP English Lit, AP Capstone, PhD Candidate
Jose V.

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Hourly Rate: $80
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Response time: 23 hours

About Jose

Bio

I teach AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish Literature, AP English Literature, and AP Human Geography at International Studies Academy Broward, where I also serve as AP Department Lead. Four courses, five sections, every year. I watch the same students move between a language exam, a literature exam, and a social science exam, and I know how differently each one has to be prepared.

My background is PhD, FIU. Graduate of the Spanish Literature doctoral program at Florida International...

I teach AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish Literature, AP English Literature, and AP Human Geography at International Studies Academy Broward, where I also serve as AP Department Lead. Four courses, five sections, every year. I watch the same students move between a language exam, a literature exam, and a social science exam, and I know how differently each one has to be prepared.

My background is PhD, FIU. Graduate of the Spanish Literature doctoral program at Florida International University, and I hold Florida certification in English, Spanish and Social Studies. I was named Teacher of the Year in 2024 and 2025. Outside the classroom I work as a published literary translator and bilingual writer, which is where most of my instinct for close reading comes from.

I have taught high school for 5 years, mostly juniors and seniors working toward a May exam, along with ninth graders in AP Human Geography, where the approach changes considerably. In one-on-one work I start by finding out what a student can produce under timed conditions, because the AP exam rewards performance on demand, a separate skill from knowing the material. We work from released College Board prompts and real scoring rubrics from the first session on. Students write to the rubric, score their own work against it, then revise. Handing a student an essay that earned a 3 and asking them to explain why teaches more in twenty minutes than a week of content review.

For Spanish, I run sessions in the target language in proportion to where the student is, building until we can hold an interpersonal exchange without dropping into English. For literature in either language, we read slowly and out loud. Plot summary does not interest me. I want a student who can say what a poem is doing at the level of the line. I work comfortably in English or Spanish, including with families who prefer to discuss progress in Spanish.

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Education

Florida International University
Spanish Literature and Culture
Modern Languages
PhD
Modern Languages
Masters
  • Licensed teacher

Additional Languages

Spanish

Policies

  • Hourly Rate: $80
  • Rate details: Rate reflects AP exam preparation, literary analysis, and college application work. Sessions run in English or Spanish at no difference in price. Sibling and small-group rates available on request.
  • Lesson cancellation: 24 hours notice required

  • Background check passed on 7/26/2026

  • Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee

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Approved Subjects

College Counseling

College Counseling

I worked with seniors at International Studies Academy Broward from 2024 to 2026 on personal statements, scholarship essays, résumés, and application materials, alongside teaching AP English Literature. I am a published writer, an arts and culture columnist, and a literary translator with four book-length translations, so my focus is on getting a student to sound like themselves on the page rather than like the essay they think admissions wants. We start from a specific memory or detail instead of a theme, because the essays that work are built out of concrete material. I completed an A.A. through dual enrollment while still in high school, so accelerated-credit pressure is something I lived rather than something I supervise, and I work with families in English or Spanish.
Creative Writing

Creative Writing

I am a published poet and literary translator with four book-length translations and work appearing in anthologies from Anhinga Press, University Press of Florida, and Jai-Alai Books. My original children's poems on South Florida wildlife are on permanent exhibition at the Frost Museum of Science, and I write an arts and culture column on poetry for the Biscayne Times. I have served as Senior Managing Editor of a literary magazine and as an acquisitions editor, and I spent six years as lead instructional assistant at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival supporting workshops for adult writers. I teach AP English Literature and work with students in English or Spanish.
Essay Writing

Essay Writing

I taught AP English Literature, AP Spanish Literature, and AP Spanish Language at International Studies Academy Broward from 2024 to 2026, which means I read student free-response writing against College Board scoring rubrics across three different exams every week. I founded and ran a Saturday AP Bootcamp with more than fifty weekly participants for two years, and my final evaluation documented eighty-nine individual after-school tutoring sessions in a single school year. Sessions run on released prompts and the real rubrics from the first meeting, with students scoring their own drafts before revising, because handing a student an essay that earned a 3 and asking them to explain why teaches more in twenty minutes than a week of content review. I am also a published writer and literary translator, so I work on argument, evidence, structure, and sentence-level clarity in English or Spanish.
Geography

Geography

I taught AP Human Geography at International Studies Academy Broward from 2024 to 2026 while chairing the AP department across fourteen courses, and I hold Florida certification in Social Science, grades 6-12. Most of my students in this course were ninth graders, which changes the approach considerably from a junior or senior AP section, and I plan accordingly for younger students. The exam rewards precise use of models and vocabulary under time pressure, so we drill the free-response command terms and work from released prompts and official scoring guidelines. I also founded and ran a weekly Saturday AP exam-preparation program serving more than fifty students.
Linguistics

Linguistics

My B.A. from Florida International University is in Spanish Literature and Linguistics, and I hold an M.A. in Spanish from the same institution along with a PhD candidacy (ABD) in Hispanic Literature. I worked as a research assistant to Professor Melissa Baralt in applied linguistics and to Professor Ana Roca in content-based language teaching. As a literary translator working in both directions between Spanish and English, including a text in medieval Spanish, questions of register, morphology, and historical change are daily working problems for me rather than abstractions. I am a native speaker of both languages and taught Spanish at the university level from 2013.
Literature

Literature

I taught AP English Literature and AP Spanish Literature at International Studies Academy Broward from 2024 to 2026 and was invited to the College Board AP Reader pool for English Literature and Composition in 2026. I am a PhD candidate (ABD) in Hispanic Literature at Florida International University and a literary translator with four published book-length translations, including the first English translation ever issued by Cuba's national press. Close reading is my professional practice, not only my subject, so we read slowly and out loud and I push students past plot summary toward what a text is doing in its language. I work with high school and undergraduate readers in English or Spanish, and I teach AP Seminar and AP Research at Mater Academy Charter High School.
Personal Statements

Personal Statements

I worked with seniors at International Studies Academy Broward from 2024 to 2026 on personal statements, scholarship essays, and application materials while teaching AP English Literature. I am a published writer, an arts and culture columnist, and a literary translator with four book-length translations, so my whole training is in making a voice land on the page. We start from a specific memory or detail rather than a theme, because the statements that work are built out of concrete material and the ones that fail are built out of adjectives. I completed an A.A. through dual enrollment while still in high school, so the pressure these students are under is something I lived rather than something I supervise.
Public Speaking

Public Speaking

I teach AP Seminar at Mater Academy Charter High School, a course built around researched argument delivered and defended orally before an audience. I have presented at academic conferences including the Latin American Studies Association, the Cuban Heritage Collection Fellows Symposium at the University of Miami, and panels at the Miami Book Fair and HistoryMiami, and I have facilitated workshops as an invited lecturer at the University of Miami and Florida International University. I taught university courses as an instructor of record from 2013, so I have stood in front of a room for over a decade. I coach in English or Spanish and work on structure, delivery, and handling questions rather than on memorized scripts.
Spanish

Spanish

I taught AP Spanish Language and AP Spanish Literature at International Studies Academy Broward from 2024 to 2026, where I served as Director of AP Instruction and chaired both the AP and World Languages departments. In May 2025, 94.4 percent of my AP Spanish Language students scored a 3 or higher with 44 percent earning 5s, against 21 percent globally. I am a native Spanish speaker, born in Havana, with a B.A. and M.A. in Spanish from Florida International University, a PhD candidacy (ABD) in Hispanic Literature, four published book-length translations, and Florida certification in World Language Spanish, grades K-12. I have taught Spanish at every level since 2013, from middle school Pre-AP through university literature courses.
Thesis Writing

Thesis Writing

I teach AP Seminar and AP Research at Mater Academy Charter High School, two courses built entirely around producing and defending a long-form academic research paper. I am a PhD candidate (ABD) in Hispanic Literature at Florida International University, where I held the Dissertation Year Fellowship, awarded to one researcher annually, along with the Dissertation Evidence Acquisition Fellowship and two research fellowships at the University of Miami's Cuban Heritage Collection. I have also worked as Senior Managing Editor of a literary magazine and as an acquisitions editor, so I have read manuscripts from the reader's side of the desk and know where an argument loses its reader. I work with students on research question design, literature review, evidence structure, and revision, in English or Spanish.
English
Social Studies
Vocabulary
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Response time: 23 hours
Hourly Rate: $80
Response time: 23 hours
Contact Jose