Information from the beginning of 2017:
- Don't forget AP central as a source for developing your lessons! / Also, join a discussion community! There is a lot of wisdom from seasoned AP teachers who are happy to share their expertise.
French teachers: Hardy's old site has songs with stories used in class as well as suggestions from students for songs they love to listen to!
Culture videos for Spanish: http://spanishintexas.org/ videos for teaching/discussing culture etc with native speakers or advanced students.
Culture videos for Spanish: http://spanishintexas.org/ videos for teaching/discussing culture etc with native speakers or advanced students.
AP tips (from the meeting on July 27th)
The area with the greatest need: presentational speaking: comparison of cultures.
- When I asked AP colleagues what they thought they suggested that students may be spending too long talking about their own culture and not getting to the comparison because they run out of time. The suggestion was to make sure the thesis statement including a comparison came early in the presentation to make sure it was at least addressed (just in case they got cut off). Practicing in class with the same time constraints may help as well.
- We are aware of how the testing environment may be influencing performance. (numbers of students in the room/noise etc.). Given the constraints (number of students being tested and available rooms etc.) our best option may be to practice in similar conditions (timed/students speaking and recording at the same time etc) to make sure the students are able to focus and concentrate on test day.
Many AP teachers structure
the year with repeated predictable
focuses: leer lunes, musico
miercoles (to solicit opinions about a video/lyrics, video viernes)
For the persuasive essay: most of the 5s have at least five or more paragraphs.
Content is more important than structure scoring wise. It’s essential students
have a coherent point of view on issues! That is why a regular “what do you
think about ___” activity can be useful!
On the oral free response students are not necessarily punished for their
lack of cultural knowledge but having
a point of view is essential.
It’s great if they do have an opinion: that is why regularly addressing the
news helps.
In the essay a student who
simply makes a list (instead of elaborating on one issue) is likely to get a 3
at most.
If one of the sources is omitted
on the essay where multiple sources are
used they will get no higher than
a 4, even if it is well written.
(Always say something about all the sources!)
Trends: Often the first and
third source will be contradictory:
often the second source can be used to support either one. Students who critique the second source will often
get a 5: they are showing
critical thinking skills. Referring to all points of view is impressive.
Critiquing the second point of view and giving your own hypothesis will often be
scored a 5 even if some of the content is misunderstood.
The ability to compare
communities is essential: doing a unit comparing two
hispanophone (or francophone cultures prepares students for this!)
Constantly practice
transitions! On the other
hand/nevertheless/moreover etc...
Teach students to say as much as they are able when speaking: if they are cut off they are not penalized. Do timed talks: can you speak for 30/60/90 seconds about _______?
They should not get discouraged if they ‘mess up’ early in the conversation: if they finish strong
the score can still be high!
Most common loss of points: simply not
following directions! A high
percentage of lower scores are simply because the student did not
read/understand/follow the directions! Scorers can tell that the students did
not pay attention to what was requested in the directions!
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