AP Lang: May 23-27

Our final project for the year is underway, and I hope your students have shared a little of what we’re doing!  I have a few simple goals for these final post-test weeks.  One, I want to do something relevant and useful for the students. Two, I want to do something different from what we’ve been working on all year (they’re a little burned out on argumentation!!). Three, I want to have a little fun. They’ve earned it!

To that end, we are working on a short genre study of infographics. Click here for some examples of the types of texts we’re studying and creating. Specifically, we’re looking at personal infographics. Students are creating their own this week with the goal of answering the question, “What do I want people to know about me?”  Infographics allow students the opportunity to answer that question in many ways: visually through their font and graphics choices, organizational through their layout, and verbally through the actual words they choose. We talked a lot in class about the implicit messages you can send with your colors, layouts, etc.  I am excited to see what they come up with!!

Once these are done, we’ll use them as a springboard for the students’ final writing piece. Many students are planning to use these as inspiration for the college application essays; others are planning to work on a little fiction writing. If you have a chance this weekend, ask your student what he or she is planning to write for the final writing piece. If you’re lucky, they might show you the drafts of their infographics!
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Last thing: as always, encourage your students to keep reading! Their final independent book projects are due June 1, but beyond those, they should be thinking about what they’d like to read this summer when they have a little more time on their hands. I’ll be giving lots of suggestions in the coming days, but it would be great if you could talk about it with them at home, too.

Have a great weekend!