A practical, confidence-building approach to the 2026–27 AP Spanish Language and Culture changes

With Bethanie Carlson Drew

If you teach AP Language and Culture this year, you may be feeling a little nervous. The exam has changed. The course project is new. Some of the familiar free-response tasks are gone. And because teachers are still waiting for some of the materials that will guide the project, it can feel like we are being asked to start the year without having every piece in our hands.

But before we begin rebuilding the entire course, take a breath.

That was the first, and perhaps most important, message from my conversation with Bethanie Carlson Drew, an extraordinary educator, longtime AP teacher, and someone I deeply admire as both a teacher and a human. Bethanie is beginning her 33rd year in the classroom, and when we sat down to talk about the revised AP exam, she offered a reminder many of us need right now:

“At its core, it is still an AP class. We are just testing it a little differently. I would say about 80% of it is unchanged.”
— Bethanie Carlson Drew

That does not mean we ignore the changes. It means we approach them with perspective. We keep the practices that already build language, cultural competence, and confidence. We let go of the test-specific routines that no longer serve students. And we intentionally increase the kinds of communication the new format asks students to do.

If you want to go deeper, Bethanie has written more about these AP changes on her incredible blog, Aventuras Nuevas. Her blog is truly a treasure trove of classroom-tested ideas, practical strategies, and generous, ready-to-use resources for language teachers.

👉 Click here to read more and explore Bethanie’s invaluable resources.

What Is Changing on the AP Language Exam?

The revised AP Language and Culture course begins in the 2026–27 school year, with the first revised exam administered in May 2027. The exam will be fully digital in Bluebook. Students will complete three free-response questions: a Project Presentation, a Project Q&A, and the familiar Argumentative Essay. Reading and listening remain part of the multiple-choice section.

The email response, simulated conversation, and cultural comparison are no longer separate free-response tasks. However the skills behind those tasks have not disappeared. Students will still need to present information, respond to questions they have not seen in advance, and demonstrate cultural understanding. Those abilities are now integrated into a more connected project experience.

So the question is not, “How do I replace everything I used to do?” A more useful question is, “What have I already been doing that prepares students for this and what should I adjust?”

Keep: Small Presentations That Build Toward the Final Task

Long before College Board announced a Project Presentation, Bethanie’s students were already opening class with short presentations. Students sign up for a date, prepare one image with no more than three words on the slide, and speak for approximately 60 to 90 seconds at the beginning of the year.

The first-quarter topic is simple and meaningful: talk about someone important to you.

Is that the exact presentation students will deliver on the AP exam? No. But it gives them practice with the pieces they will eventually need: organizing an idea, introducing a topic, speaking to an audience, projecting their voice, and communicating without reading an entire slide.

And because students choose their presentation date, those who need more time can watch several classmates model the task before it is their turn. That small choice supports confidence without lowering expectations.

“The things we do may not look exactly like the exam, but they connect directly to what we want students to do at the end of the year. They are simply the August or September version of it.”
— Bethanie Carlson Drew

This is a powerful way to think about scaffolding. Students do not need to deliver a polished three-minute presentation in August. They need a supported first step they can repeat and strengthen across the year.

In this blog post, Bethanie is sharing a rubric for this activity. 

Keep: Teaching Students How to Ask Follow-Up Questions

Many students have had plenty of practice answering questions. Asking a thoughtful follow-up question is a different skill.

After each mini-presentation, Bethanie’s students practice creating questions for the presenter. She supports them with a cue card containing question starters and sentence frames. Over time, students develop a small repertoire of questions they can use naturally.

This prepares both sides of the interaction. The student asking the question learns how conversations continue. The presenter becomes more comfortable responding in the moment. And the entire class begins to understand what kinds of questions might come after a presentation.

It is also bigger than AP preparation. Our students communicate through text constantly, but many feel unsure about how to keep an in-person conversation moving. Follow-up questions give them a practical interpersonal skill they can use in Spanish and beyond our classroom.

Keep: Reading, Music, and Rich Cultural Input

Bethanie is not abandoning the reading and music that have always been central to her course. Why? Because the foundation of the class has not changed. Students still need to build language skills and cultural understanding.

Music is especially rich because it brings together lyrics, audio, video, artists, genres, history, and cultural context. One song can create opportunities to interpret language, research a topic, identify products and practices, consider perspectives, and communicate what students have learned.

What may change is the sequence. Bethanie traditionally taught a reading- and music-rich unit on Cuba near the end of the year. Now she may move it earlier so students develop more language and analytical tools for discussing music before the project begins.

The unit itself does not necessarily need to be rebuilt. Sometimes the adjustment is simply deciding when it will do the most work for students.

For more ideas about using music in class, check out these blog posts from Bethanie. Click here and here. 

Drop: Isolated Practice for Tasks That No Longer Exist

Bethanie is very ready to say goodbye to the simulated conversation. She is also letting go of preparing students for the cultural comparison as a stand-alone timed task.

That does not mean conversation or cultural comparison no longer matter. They do. But teachers no longer need to spend instructional time rehearsing the exact format of tasks that have been removed from the exam.

Instead, students can practice those underlying abilities in more authentic contexts: answering follow-up questions about their own research, discussing why a cultural practice matters, or comparing perspectives as part of a larger investigation.

This is an important distinction. We are not dropping the skill. We are dropping the old container.

Increase: Oral Sharing in Everyday Learning

One area Bethanie plans to increase is oral reporting. Not necessarily more formal presentations, but more opportunities for students to share what they know aloud.

In many language classes, written work becomes our default evidence of learning. Yet when we ask students why they chose to study another language, many say, “I want to talk to people.” Then the skill they fear most on the exam is… talking to people.

That tells us something.

Oral sharing can be brief and supported. Students might report one finding to a partner, explain a choice to a small group, describe an image for 60 seconds, or answer one follow-up question. They do not need to give seven-minute presentations every week. They need frequent, manageable experiences that help speaking feel normal.

This applies far beyond AP. In my Spanish 1 classes, students were already eager to say small things during the first week. When we give them useful chunks of language and create space to use them, they feel more competent—and they feel like participants in the class, not simply recipients of information.

Increase: Products, Practices, and Perspectives—Starting Early

Products, practices, and perspectives, often called the three Ps, are more prominent in the revised project materials. But Bethanie does not recommend teaching one isolated lesson on the three Ps, checking a box, and moving on.

Instead, she wants students to use these lenses repeatedly whenever the class explores culture:

The product is what people create, use, or value. The practice is what people do with it. The perspective asks: Why is this important?

That last question is essential because it moves students beyond naming visible cultural elements. It asks them to think about meaning.

It can also feel intimidating. What if we interpret a perspective incorrectly? What if we oversimplify or reinforce a stereotype? I understand that concern deeply. I am Colombian, but I am one small dot within Colombia. I cannot claim to represent every Colombian experience.

Our goal is not to announce one definitive perspective for an entire culture. We can examine multiple authentic voices, identify patterns, name our interpretations honestly, and invite students, especially heritage and native speakers, to contribute their knowledge. We can say, “This is what the evidence suggests. What do you notice? What does this look like in your family or community?”

Bethanie shared the example of Panini World Cup sticker albums. A teacher could begin with the tangible product, explore the practice of collecting and trading stickers, and then examine multiple voices explaining why the tradition matters. One perspective that may emerge is its intergenerational nature: children, parents, and grandparents participating in a shared tradition.

We do not need to know everything before we begin. We do need to research responsibly, avoid treating one voice as universal, and stay open to learning alongside our students.

Increase: A Manageable Structure for the Course Project

The official Course and Exam Description includes the project manual, suggested pacing, and many supporting documents. That information is essential, but it can also feel like drinking from a fire hose.

Bethanie is responding by distilling the project requirements into a smaller student notebook or packet. Rather than handing students every document at once, she wants them to have one clear place that guides each part of the process when project development begins.

That is a useful reminder for all of us: clarity is a form of support. Students do not need more pages simply because a task is important. They need the right information, at the right time, in a structure they can follow.

Before You Begin: Breathe, Read, and Find Your Backup Singers

When I asked Bethanie what she would tell teachers who are beginning this new AP year, she offered three pieces of advice.

First, breathe. No teacher has every answer yet. Everyone is learning this version of the course together.

Second, read the Course and Exam Description carefully, including the project manual. Many of the questions teachers are asking are addressed there, and it should be our starting point before we build or buy anything.

Third, find your backup singers. Connect with other AP teachers, professional communities, and colleagues who can help you think through questions and share what they are learning. You do not have to figure this out alone.

“We are all learning this together. Juntos podemos.”
— Bethanie Carlson Drew

Do Not Let the New Exam Steal the Beginning of the Year

Perhaps the most important practical advice is this: you do not need to begin with Unit 1, Day 1 while everyone is already stressed.

Bethanie begins by building classroom culture and helping students believe three things: they can do this, she will help them, and the classroom is a place where growth is expected.

That matters in an AP class where one student may have completed only Levels 1, 2, and 3, another may come from an immersion program, and another may be a native or heritage speaker. Before those students can take academic risks together, they need trust, confidence, and a shared understanding of how the class will work.

I have felt this reminder in my own classroom this year. I tend to plan every second because I worry that any empty space will become chaos. But slowing down has been surprisingly good for my students and for me. If most students need the full five minutes, we take the five minutes. If twelve minutes remain at the end of class, I do not begin something new simply to fill the time. We complete the exit ticket, breathe, and maybe talk for a few minutes.

Those minutes are not wasted. They can become space for connection, a quick conversation about a student’s experience, or authentic language that no curriculum could have predicted.

We can hold clear boundaries without controlling every second. Less can truly be more.

The Bigger Lesson Behind the AP Changes

The revised exam asks AP teachers to make some real adjustments. But the most valuable practices in Bethanie’s plan are not narrow test-prep tricks. They are good language teaching:

Give students frequent, supported opportunities to speak. Build complex tasks through small repetitions across the year. Use rich texts and music to develop language and cultural understanding. Invite students to ask questions, not only answer them. Teach culture as something we investigate with humility, not something we reduce to a list of facts. And create a classroom where it is safe not to know yet.

Because, as Bethanie said, it is okay not to know. It is simply not okay to stay there.

So if the new AP Language and Culture exam has you feeling behind before the year has even begun, pause. You do not need to rebuild everything. Keep what develops communication and confidence. Drop what existed only to rehearse an old task. Increase the practices that help students speak, think, investigate, and connect.

Then take the next small step. Poco a poco, juntos podemos.

Listen and Explore the Resources

Listen to the full conversation with Bethanie Carlson Drew on Growing With Proficiency, the podcast, for more classroom examples and encouragement for the year ahead.

Bethanie´s Blog here with many ready-to-use resources for your class. 

Official AP Spanish Language and Culture exam information: AP Central exam page

Course framework and project guidance: AP Spanish Language and Culture Course page and CED

AP Chat Mats with vocabulary here.  This free resource has not been updated but you still can use it for different activities in class.