AP Language: February 5-9

Welcome to second semester! New parents and students, this blog is my semi-regular attempt at communicating with parents what we are up to in Rm.266.  I will email out weekly (or bi-weekly, or even monthly when things get crazy) a short update of what students are working on in class and what you can expect to see at home.

Second semester is a shift in focus.  Instead of learning new skills as we did in first semester, this semester is focused two main things:

• Practicing and refining critical reading and writing skills from semester 1
  
• Learning how to manage larger chunks of work independently
  

The first bullet is key to students’ success on the AP exam in May; the second bullet is key to their success with college writing courses.

Each week will follow roughly the same pattern. On Mondays, I’ll give students several things to work on:

• A classic essay to read critically and annotate
  
• A “mentor text” to read--this will be a real world text they can use as a model when writing their own essays
  
• A practice essay prompt
  
• Multiple choice practice
  

On Mondays we will talk about the week’s theme and preview the practice for the week. Fridays are dedicated to class discussion of the shared texts. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are dedicated to one on one writing conferences with the students so that we can work on their individual writing needs. Students use this time to work on all of the practice activities and try out the things we talk about in our writing conferences.

I was pleased with how they did with our first week! Most embraced the freedom and did a nice job completing their work.  Some are still struggling, of course. You will see a number of "not graded" assignments in MiStar in the coming weeks (only one so far). These are my way of communicating to you how well your student is engaging in practice. These scores don't "count" toward your student's grade.  If you see a score of 3 or 4, that's great! That means the student is doing good or excellent work. If you see a 2, it means the student is attempting, but I need to see more consistent effort. A 1 or a 0 is cause for concern. It means there was minimal effort put toward the practice or none at all.

It would be very helpful if you could chat with your student about how they’re doing with their individual practice. Some things you might ask:

• What kinds of news and world events are you discovering for your contextual pool?
  
• What writing skills are you working on this week for your timed writing?
  
• What can you tell me about the text you’re discussing in class on Friday?
  
• What is the topic of your process piece essay?
  

Ultimately, a student’s individual growth this semester is directly related to how much he or she is willing to commit to practice!  Students should be working 5 nights a week for 30 minutes (no more!) on some type of practice.
Thanks for your continued support! Please let me know if you have any questions.