AP Lang: May 16-20

Much to the students’ chagrin, we ARE actually “doing something” for the remainder of the year. Many were hopeful that we’d just kick and relax now that our test is over, but I have quite a bit planned still!!

Our main focus will be on narrative writing since many of them are interested in getting a jump on their college application essays. They will not be required to write a college app essay, though, as many of them are considering colleges that do not require one. I’ve encouraged them to do a little research and find out if they need one. Many were shocked when I told them how many schools don’t require them!  Students who do not write a college app essay will have the option of choosing from a number of different creative writing options for their final writing piece. My main goal for the remainder of the year is for students to experiment more with their genuine, natural writing voice.

We won’t be jumping into the writing just yet, though. Most students struggle with writer’s block or generating ideas when faced with narrative or creative writing. We will spend the next two weeks working on generating and organizing ideas. This week we’ll explore infographics as a way to organize information and next week they’ll work on creating their own, personal infographics so that they have a wealth of ideas/topics from which to choose when we begin writing.

A note on grades:  At this point, students know their final exam scores because we conferenced about their essays and scored their multiple choice.  I will input those scores soon, but they won’t be weighted as final exam scores yet because of limitations with MiStar.  I will show students how to manually calculate their grades so that they can see how the score impacts their overall grade.  Additionally, reflective portfolios will *fingers crossed* be graded and put in my MiStar by the end of this week.

Enjoy your week!!

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