In our last post of this series, we shared two strategies to tackle the free response questions of the AP Language and Culture exam when time is almost out even behind the screen. Click here to read more.
In this post, we will share 3 more strategies for the free response questions of the AP Language and Culture exam that work even behind the screen. Some of these strategies are very impactful to get your students motivated to sit and do their best on that big day. Let’s pick up where we left off with our strategies.
#3 - Lead Learners to Connect Text to Self Experiences
One of the biggest struggles students feel when they complete these free response questions is that they don’t know what to say. However, for the most part, these tasks can be responded using personal experiences, ideas, and beliefs. Of course, students need to share what they know about the culture. However, having students use personal experiences to connect to text will help them gain insights about the texts, process the information better, and identify what to say.
Some examples of these text to self connections are: This part…
- reminds me of …
- surprises me because …
- makes me feel …
- is similar to me or my community because ..
- is different to me or my community because …
Making these connections visual for all students behind the screen is very powerful because it helps them to create even more connections. How? Tools like Jamboard are great for this purpose. Check out these examples here:
Read more about these Jamboard annotation tools, and get your free copy in this blog post!
#4 - Grade with Real Expectations & Lead to Self-Evaluation
Is the AP Language & Culture exam a challenging assessment? Yes, it is. However, sometimes we make it harder for our students. Sometimes, we misunderstand the rubrics and expectations of the AP Exam and tell our students that they need to master specific complex grammar structures or levels of vocabulary, or need a specific level of proficiency to be successful in this exam.
Also, we can spend a ton of time providing feedback to students when the most powerful feedback can come from them.
Grade with Realistic Expectations
The reality is that when you look at the AP Language and Culture Exam rubrics for the free responses, they are much more accessible than we may think. Check out the 3 ranges of the rubrics, and you’ll see that a response must be generally understandable with errors that may impede comprehension, there is some control of the language, and vocabulary is basic. The rubrics don’t ask for specific grammar structures or use tenses, and they even acknowledge the possibility of errors in the 5 score range.
Let’s look at these rubrics and grade accordingly. Also, for the multiple choice section, we need to recognize that historically a student that scores around 55% will be able to get a 3, 65% a 4 and above, and 75% a 5. I expect that these percentages will be lower this year.
Again, let’s be realistic with our grading so our students will feel motivated to do their best when they sit to take the test.
Lead Students To Self-Evaluation
As AP teachers, we can go overboard with feedback, but we don’t have to. Self-evaluation is so powerful! If we lead students to look at their work, identify what they’re doing well, and how they can improve, that feedback will have a bigger impact on their growth.
Check out some of these incredible glow and grow rubrics we can use with our students. Take some time to explore with them the rubrics, and let them know how important they are for their growth.
You can get a copy of these self-evaluation tools for the simulated conversation & the cultural comparison in my past blog posts.
#5 - Be Their Best Cheerleader
Believing that our students can be successful on the AP exam is paramount. Showing our students that we believe in them and that we have certainty they can pass the exam can be very powerful, and it’s real. Have you heard about the Pygmalion effect?
In our AP classes most of our students have been in a Spanish class for more than 3 years. They have been exposed to the language for a long period of time and even if their proficiency level is below the “expectation”, they can be successful on the AP exam.
Celebrate any success! Celebrate any good sentence or expression they use. Be on their side. It’s like a parent celebrating every step or attempt to stand their children take. They are young people, and they sense if you believe in them. So, believe in them and celebrate them.
BY BERTHA DELGADILLO AND CLAUDIA ELLIOTT
We hope these 5 strategies help you and your students during this last big push before the big day.
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Make Your Advanced Spanish Course Accessible!
Teaching advanced Spanish courses such as AP and you aren’t quite sure how to start or how to break down information so that all of your learners can understand and stay in the target language. Spending countless hours grading and providing feedback? We were once there, and we want to share with you what we have been doing for years to save us time and sanity with upper level classes while engaging learners in meaningful and effective units Click here if you want to know more!
Hola!
Me gustaría comprar el material para la clase de AP, pero deseo saber si la escuela puede comprarlo. Si la escuela me lo compra, cómo puedo accesar al material? Tengo que crear una cuenta antes de la compra o cómo fun esto ciona?