I'm curious where you got the idea that writing for the AP exam is "writing that's divorced from thinking"? That seems wildly bombastic - and in my experience just not true. The AP exam requires students to think about a text and structure an argument around an interpretation of that text. How is that "divorced from thinking"?
I'm curious where you got the idea that writing for the AP exam is "writing that's divorced from thinking"? That seems wildly bombastic - and in my experience just not true. The AP exam requires students to think about a text and structure an argument around an interpretation of that text. How is that "divorced from thinking"?
The AP exam is a performance or imitation of thinking, rather than the genuine article. Students are not required to think through how to structure an argument, they are coached to use a pre-canned template (5-paragraph essay) and then fill in the boxes. The essays are also scored on criteria that do not consider the accuracy or integrity of the content. Essays merely need bear a resemblance to a "good" essay, rather than being a well-developed, coherent interpretation of that text. I've written at length about the myriad problems with the exam at Inside Higher Ed. This is one of those times: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/ap-literature-exam-terrible. I also hosted a guest blog from Annie Abrams, author of "Shortchanged: How Advanced Placement Cheats Students" that I think is persuasive, as is her book: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-post-teaching-writing-aroundtodespite-ap-english-language-exam
This isnтАЩt true, though. Quality of thought and writing do matter on the exam. Sure, тАЬtimed writesтАЭ are narrowly constrained, but that doesnтАЩt make the exam an exercise in brainless template-plugging. Just because the practice falls short of ideal doesnтАЩt mean the experience is pointless or useless. By the way, my AP Lit. sections typically seat 40 students per class period (thatтАЩs just how it goes in Southern California), and IтАЩve never taught a canned template.
There's a difference between what happens in an AP classroom where the instruction is often excellent, and what kind of writing performance is incentivized by something like the AP exam, and I promise you that students are being coached with templates and even being told it does not matter if what they are saying is accurate, as long as it "sounds good" because of the way the exam is scored, and because credit on the exam is so meaningful to them. Every good thing you do in your class can exist without the existence of an AP exam.
I'm curious where you got the idea that writing for the AP exam is "writing that's divorced from thinking"? That seems wildly bombastic - and in my experience just not true. The AP exam requires students to think about a text and structure an argument around an interpretation of that text. How is that "divorced from thinking"?
The AP exam is a performance or imitation of thinking, rather than the genuine article. Students are not required to think through how to structure an argument, they are coached to use a pre-canned template (5-paragraph essay) and then fill in the boxes. The essays are also scored on criteria that do not consider the accuracy or integrity of the content. Essays merely need bear a resemblance to a "good" essay, rather than being a well-developed, coherent interpretation of that text. I've written at length about the myriad problems with the exam at Inside Higher Ed. This is one of those times: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/ap-literature-exam-terrible. I also hosted a guest blog from Annie Abrams, author of "Shortchanged: How Advanced Placement Cheats Students" that I think is persuasive, as is her book: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-post-teaching-writing-aroundtodespite-ap-english-language-exam
This isnтАЩt true, though. Quality of thought and writing do matter on the exam. Sure, тАЬtimed writesтАЭ are narrowly constrained, but that doesnтАЩt make the exam an exercise in brainless template-plugging. Just because the practice falls short of ideal doesnтАЩt mean the experience is pointless or useless. By the way, my AP Lit. sections typically seat 40 students per class period (thatтАЩs just how it goes in Southern California), and IтАЩve never taught a canned template.
There's a difference between what happens in an AP classroom where the instruction is often excellent, and what kind of writing performance is incentivized by something like the AP exam, and I promise you that students are being coached with templates and even being told it does not matter if what they are saying is accurate, as long as it "sounds good" because of the way the exam is scored, and because credit on the exam is so meaningful to them. Every good thing you do in your class can exist without the existence of an AP exam.