![]() For a number of years now, our AP Lang PLC has waited to tackle timed writing until semester two. We believe fully in the power of process writing and conferring and, though it scared us at first, switching to all process writing for half of the year paid off big time. Our students committed to improving as writers and by the time we we were ready to tackle timed writing, they were confident and prepared. And then ChatGPT hit the scene. This is not a post about ChatGPT and what we can or can't do with the technology. This is just a post about our first response to the reality of teenagers using whatever tools are at their disposal to make their lives easier. We realized at the end of last year that we would need to do at least some timed writing in the first semester this year to make sure we had an accurate view of our students' writing. So...we went back to the drawing board. Starting With Q3: Argument We start the year with a process argument essay so it made sense for us to do a timed argument next. Our students had done lots of work with claims and evidence and some analysis of reasoning and organization, so we felt they were ready to tackle the open argument in a timed setting. To prep them, though, we had to work through some of the priorities for a solid timed essay:
Go-To Frames for the Thesis When I teach process writing, I like to approach it much more organically and slowly. I love a good ideas conference where we wrestle with the student's position and think through the best way to tackle the writing. With prompted writing, though, students don't have time for that. The stress of the task means they need some supports in place to get their wheels turning. I'm very explicit with my students that these are different tasks and different types of writing. I worry about sending kids out of my room thinking there are formulas for good writing. HOWEVER, another fear is that my students will freeze on the exam and have no idea how to start. For that reason, I post this as an anchor chart in my classroom: Going from abstract to concrete Once they have a thesis, they hit what is (for my students at least) the biggest struggle: generating evidence. Most of the prompts are big, abstract concepts and students need to show what those concepts look like in the concrete, real world. A huge benefit of doing timed writing in the fall is that students have to reckon with the fact early in the year that they need to spend more time engaging with the world around them in order to have evidence. There are a thousand different really cool acronyms for helping students with generating evidence. I think two of the most popular are CHORES and REHUGO. CHORES= Current Events, History, Outside Knowledge, Reading, Experiences, Science. REHUGO=Reading, Entertainment, History, Universal Truths, Government, Observation I have a hard time with acronyms, though, and find that many students spend more time remembering the acronym than just thinking about their evidence. We do a very simple visualization of all the ways to think beyond ourselves. We put ourselves at the center and then draw circles out from that center to represent the different pools of knowledge we have. This is a good time to help students think about their strengths and weaknesses. Some students will always go to history examples; others to politics, and others to pop culture. That's great and totally fine and a good reminder that there are many different ways to approach these essays successfully. I post this anchor chart on my wall as a help to them: ![]() Organizing and Creating a Plan Finally, as with the thesis, I think it's incredibly important that we verbalize to our students that organizing for a timed write might look very different than organizing for a piece that will go through multiple drafts. We talk a lot about the perils of "writing yourself into a corner" during a timed write and how that's likely to happen if you don't make a plan. If you're writing a multi-draft piece, it's fine if it goes sideways 4 paragraphs in--just use that to write another draft. In a timed setting, though, going sideways after 4 paragraphs means you'll probably run out of time. To that end, we spend several class periods practicing JUST the planning process. We start in groups and students use a released prompt. I used the 2018 prompt about the value of the unknown because it feels very accessible for students. The first time we practice planning, students work with a small group to discuss the prompt, develop a thesis, and the write topic sentences for the body paragraphs. We discuss their plans and then look at the released samples. I pull just the thesis and body paragraph topic sentences out of the high scoring sample first to give them an idea of what a plan might look like for an effective essay. We look at the evidence generated to go with each topic sentence and go back to our anchor chart diagram--which pools of knowledge did this writer access? The next day, students get a new prompt and do the planning independently in 15 minutes to begin experiencing the time crunch. They write a thesis, topic sentences, and then add bullets underneath of their evidence ideas. With those plans in place, I do some 1-on-1 conferring. I spend about 3 class periods meeting with each student individually about their plans. It's time consuming, but an excellent way to get a sense of who is ready to try a full timed write and who still needs more practice. I like to give students some really challenging texts to read and annotate independently while I'm doing these conferences; it's a great way to give them time to wrestle with meatier texts and carve out some time for conferences. So how did it go?? I'm happy to report it has been much more smooth than we anticipated! We did two different timed essays a week apart and students are choosing ONE for us to score. The two chances really lowered their anxiety and most of them reported feeling pretty successful when they were done. . I'm not through grading them yet, but I'm happy with what I'm seeing thus far. I think the big takeaway for me is that it doesn't really matter when you start timed writing. The important part is putting supports in place so students can tackle it with confidence! --Hattie
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Hello!If you found your way here, you were likely in one of my APSIs for AP Language over the summer. This blog is intended as a place to continue our work together. Please email me if you're willing to write a post! ArchivesCategories
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