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Years ago my teaching partner (now retired) started using the term "contextual pool" to describe the knowledge our students had about the world around them.  Some of them had deep, rich contextual pools full of information about history, pop culture, and politics. Others had...kiddie pools. Those kiddie pools were problematic because when it came time to write an argument essay for the exam--when students are often asked to take an abstract question and answer it with concrete evidence--students without deep contextual pools struggled.

I've spent every year since then trying to help my students deepen and fill those pools, but the shift to the new analytic rubrics a few years ago really helped me articulate to the students why this is so important.   Row B requires students to have specific evidence for all their claims and commentary that connects it all. If they don't know anything, that's nearly impossible. 

This summer Fall Out Boy helped me out with what I hope will be the perfect introduction to the idea of contextual pool. They covered Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and the updated list is fascinating. Things are on there that I wouldn't have considered; things are missing that I am certain should have been included (no Covid reference?!). When I look at the original version, there are things that I think any kid today would recognize (Belgians in the Congo--thank you, World History curriculum) but plenty they might not know (Studebaker? Mickey Mantle?). 

For us, this is going to pair perfectly with the article our students read for their summer reading. The article went with this summer assignment we gave and (hopefully) set them up to begin thinking about all of the "stuff" that makes up our shared contextual pool. These slides will be guiding our work on the first day and setting us up to begin our year's work with paying attention to the world around us.  Students will discuss the article they read, and then listen to both the original "We Didn't Start the Fire" and the cover. In small groups, they'll compare the lyrics and work as a team to decide what's missing.  I'm hoping this will be the perfect, first-day blend of low stakes activity, a little social interaction, and some foundational work to set the tone for the year.

How are you starting off your year in AP Lang? Or if you already started, what did you do and how did it go?? What are you doing to help your students begin to deepen their contextual pools of knowledge?  Let me know in the comments!

There is a link to my Moving Writers posts on the "Teaching Resources" page of this site, but here are direct links to some of my most AP Lang-y blog posts:
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Yes/No/So: my favorite timed write argument strategy
Why This/Not That: my favorite strategy for rhetorical analysis
Using images to teach argument
Managing the paper load in AP Lang
Pacing in AP Lang
​Working with satire
Conferring with resistant writers
Working on balance in an AP classroom
Helping students see themselves as writers
Helping students enter messy, controversial arguments

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In all of my APSIs this summer, I went on and on about helping our students think of themselves as writers.  We also talked about seeing ourselves as writers. and how that can change how we talk about writing with our students. 

Years ago, a literacy consultant at my local ISD asked me to write for our county's literacy blog. I was horrified. I could NEVER! She was persistent, though, so I did. It was terrifying and stressful that first time because I was certain that as an English teacher I had to be producing "perfect' writing. Luckily, I got over that pretty quickly and instead realized that she had introduced me to my most powerful teaching tool--writing about my practice. 

Since then I have written about my classroom for that blog and MovingWriters.com. This year I want to open up this space to all those teachers from my summer APSIs. I'm hoping you'll all have similar experiences to mine and realize the powerful thinking that happens when you articulate why you did what you did and why it worked (or didn't!).  Selfishly, I'm hoping I'll be able to steal some of your great ideas, too! 

So--What are you working on? What are you excited about trying with your students? What's something new you've tried? 

Email if you've got an idea and I'll get you set up to post!