AP Language: September Review/October Preview

Hello parents and guardians! 

When my son started school, I learned quickly that school was always “fine” and they did “nothing” every single day!! It wasn’t until his second grade teacher had a blog that I learned all kinds of great things were happening in his classroom. So, this is my attempt to help you see that we are doing “something” and things are usually better than “fine”. I’ll probably update once a month, and I’ll always email to let you know!

We have begun our study of language and rhetoric by practicing the skills of close reading and analysis of a variety of texts. Students have read everything from song lyrics to children’s books to op-eds to  Ralph Waldo Emerson essays. With every text, we’ve examined three things:

1. What does the writer want me to do/think/believe?
   
2. How does the writer accomplish that purpose?
   
3. Why does it “work”? 
   

I’d love to have your students lead you through an analysis of a commercial or an editorial you've read! They should be pros at it by now.  We are finishing up this analysis unit and will build on our newfound analytical skills by adding argumentative writing to the mix in mid-October. At home, students should be working on adding entries to their vocabulary and contextual pool sections of their notebooks. They could also be reading their independent novels! They should never have more than thirty minutes of homework a night for AP Lang, but they should always have 30.  If they tell you they have "nothing" to do, ask how their notebook entries are coming along! Sometimes those get forgotten by busy students. 

What’s in the Gradebook?

If you’ve been monitoring Schoology, you’ll notice many assignments are listed as only worth 3 points in the “Formative Practice” category.  These are practice only and do not count toward the students’ grades; however, they are incredibly important! If you see many 3s, you can rest assured that your student is doing his or her work in a timely fashion and performing proficiently. They will likely do well on future assessments. If you see mostly 2s, your student is only partially proficient and might need to ask more questions or see me for some help in AA. 1s indicate that the student attempted the assignment but definitely needs more help, 0s mean the student did not attempt the practice. 

Now that we are ending this unit, you’ll start to see larger assignments in each category. For example, today students participated in a graded discussion for 100 points in the Speaking and Listening category. Next week they will do another short, analytical writing assignment that will appear in the writing category.  Please ask your students to share what they’re working on with you. I think you will be impressed with their sophisticated thinking. 

Have a great month! I’ll check in again at the end of October.