AP Lang: Oct. 24-29

This week wraps up our Education Unit so there are two major assessments happening.  
First, students will turn in their rhetorical analysis essays on Monday. We’ve been working on these in class for the past two weeks, so hopefully this weekend is not too stressful as they put the finishing touches on their essays. If you have a chance, check in with your student about how he or she tackled this task!! Some did a great job of spreading their work out over the two weeks and ended up having lots of time to ask for specific questions and receive feedback from me and from their peers. Other students struggled more with managing the writing process, missed a few check in points and seemed a little more stressed yesterday when they realized they hadn’t received as much feedback as their peers. I think this is a really great moment of learning for the students. Hopefully those that struggled will be able to tackle the next assignment more efficiently!
The second assessment this week is our third try at the critical reading test. Students have done two so far, we have practiced the skills extensively, and many are showing nice improvement! We will take another try at it this Friday.  I haven’t talked to the students about it yet, but I suspect there won’t be as much improvement in scores with this version as the text they’ll be studying is significantly more challenging. We’ve been working with analyzing older texts this unit and this test will assess their abilities with that skill. They will still have at least one more chance to try for a higher score (maybe two more!) before the end of the semester.
Please make sure you check the high school website for information about signing up for conferences this year. I’m excited about the new process for parents pre-scheduling conferences and hope it will help alleviate lines. I’d advise trying to schedule your conferences alphabetically by teachers’ last names as that’s how we’re seated in the different areas of the building. That will hopefully keep you from trying to race around the building in circles!

Have a great weekend!