AP Lang: Feb.27-March 3

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather over break!! It made this past week hard to focus, so I’m (almost) hoping the weather will go back to normal so we can get back to our serious practice in AP Lang!!

On Friday, students wrote their first timed, scored essay for the semester.  Some of them seemed highly stressed about it, but I am confident that they were prepared! We have been practicing diligently in class for the past three weeks and most of them have had at least two conferences with me about their progress.  A few need to make up one conference. Many were able to talk to me about their synthesis practice essay and received direct feedback about adjustments they need to make for that type of writing. Please encourage your students to continue to use our practice and conferencing time effectively.  Students who are engaging in that time and working hard are seeing improvement.

Monday will be our first multiple choice assessment. As with the writing, students have had three weeks of practice with this. Many have chosen to conference with me about their specific problems with multiple choice; others have worked in small groups to practice.  To prepare for Monday’s assessment, they should review the three practice sets we’ve done in class. Students who wish to do additional practice should access the two additional practice passages on Google Classroom. I also posted a video of me analyzing the passage and explaining the correct answers for students who need additional help.

Finally, students should be well on their way with drafting their process pieces. I have seen their brainstorming and discussed their plans with them individually; I’m excited about their choices! Many are exploring arguments or topics they are very passionate about. I hope you ask them about this writing piece. For the next two weeks, they should use their conference time in class to talk with me about those essays; students who would like additional feedback are always encouraged to come in before school or during Academic Advisory.

Please let me know if you have any questions about what we’re working on in AP Language, and please reach out to me if your student is expressing a high level of stress about the timed writing. Sometimes they aren’t always honest with me about how stressed writing under pressure makes them and it is helpful for me to know who needs extra encouragement.

Have a great weekend!