By Bertha Delgadillo and Claudia Elliott
In our last post, we shared two of our most actionable strategies to tackle the free-response questions of the AP Language and Culture exam. Click here to read more about how to use model text and chunking to help your AP students be successful with those free-response questions.
In this post, we will share 3 more strategies for the free-response questions of the AP Language and Culture exam. Time is running out but we still can make a difference. In addition to these strategies, I use these scaffolds to support my students in the four, free response questions of the AP Exam. If you want this in your inbox, click HERE.
III. Lead Learners To Make Self to Text Connections
One of the biggest struggles students have when they complete the free-response questions of the AP Language & Culture Exam is that they don’t have anything to say or they feel they don’t have the language to say it. They believe they need to share complex ideas which are difficult to express when they are at the intermediate low or intermediate mid-level.
However, most of the AP tasks can be completed using personal experiences, ideas, and beliefs of the students, and simple language. Of course, students need to share what they know about the culture but from their own perspective and it can be shared using simple language.
How can we help students connect the content of our AP classes with their own lives? By having students make text-to-self connections. These connections will help them gain insights about the texts, process the information better, and discover their own identities. These connections will amplify their voices.
Some examples of these self to text connections are:
- This part reminds me of …
- This part surprises me because …
- This part makes me feel …
- This part is similar to me or my community because ..
- This part is different to me or my community because …
- I don’t agree with this section because …
- I agree with this section because …
When we work on text-to-self connections, we want to visualize and share those connections with the class. Why? Because they serve as a model and ignite more and richer connections. It also allows students to see how we can express complex and personal thoughts about education, immigration, discrimination, languages, identity, etc. using language that is accessible to them.
If we’re in the classroom, we can use paper and markers. If we’re behind the screen we can use tools like Jamboard, Padlet, Nearpod, or Peardeck to do it.
IV. Grade with Real Expectations and Lead to Self Evaluation
Is the AP Language & Culture exam a challenging assessment? Yes, it is. However, sometimes we make it harder than it is for our students and for us. 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 have a specific level of proficiency to be successful in this exam.
When we do that, our students feel defeated and incompetent. On the contrary, when we show our students how they can use their language to complete these tasks, we empower them. We make them feel competent, and competence ignites motivation.
Do you want to have motivated students? Grade with realistic expectations, and lead to self evaluations.
Grade with Realistic Expectations
When we look closely at the AP Language and Culture Exam rubrics for the free-response questions, we can see that they are much more accessible than we may think. Check out the scoring criteria of a 3, and you’ll see that in general, it says that 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 of specific tenses, and they even acknowledge the possibility of errors in the criteria of a 5.
What is essential? To complete the task. We need to make sure that our students understand what each task asks, and help them find ways to complete it with the language they already have.
Let’s look at these rubrics and grade our students’ work 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 in the AP exam, 65% a 4, and above 75% a 5. Are these percentages set in stone? No, but they give us great insights.
Again let’s be realistic with our grading so our students 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. Self-evaluation is so powerful. If we lead students to look at their work and 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 they can grow.
V. Be their best cheerleader:
Believing that our students can be successful in the AP exam is paramount. Showing our students that we believe in them and that we have the certainty they can pass the AP exam can be very powerful. 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 in 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 their children make to stand up. They are young people and they sense if you believe in them. So believe in them and celebrate them.
We hope these 5 strategies help you and your students during this last big push before the big day.
Don’t forget, I use these scaffolds to support my students in the free response questions of the AP Exam. If you want this in your inbox, click HERE.
Would you like to learn more about strategies for advanced courses? Make sure to check out the course that Bertha Delgadillo and I created. Find out more HERE.
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