Category: 2017-2018

Parent category for posts from the 2017-2018 school year.

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Eve of the Exam: Focusing Feedback

  By AP English Language & Composition (2017-2018)

As the last post strongly suggests, the best ways to spend the night before our AP exam are

  1. reading through selections in The Language of Composition (our sometimes textbook);
  2. reading through the glossary of terms provided from The Language of Composition; and/or
  3. reading through feedback like the feedback posted below.

Your skills can’t be sharpened overnight. You can sharpen your focus, however. Read on. If you have any last-minute questions, leave them here or send an email; I’ll do my best to get back to you this evening.

Section I

To sharpen your focus for Section I, consider just these three multiple-choice questions: 5, 39, and 53.

Question 5 asks about lines 19-25 of the passage (“Men do not . . . the kitchen”), which supports a claim by comparing work-related activities. Most of you chose the distractor, which was answer choice C. The key here is which verb each answer choice uses. C is the distractor because its verb (“evaluates”) is not quite as accurate as the correct answer choice, E, which uses a more appropriate verb (“supports”). Watch the verbs. That’s one reason we did the GARAS exercise on that part of speech; the rest of these answer choices are almost identical, but the verbs are not.

Question 39 has a distractor, but your answer choices were all over the place. The correct response is choice A, because “as it were” indicates a pun. This is a phrase you might not have seen before, but in context, it ought to be clear that the author is saying “go out of my way” both figuratively and literally — hence the play on words. You should be able to eliminate choices C, D, and E here, and B is incorrect because it’s not underscoring a main point; it’s a pun that contributes to tone and style more than anything else.

Question 53 saw you split most evenly between choice A and choice D. E is the correct answer choice, and what I’d like you to keep in mind for tomorrow morning is Occam’s razor: Sometimes it’s the most straightforward answer that fits. Choice E is the most direct result of the author coping with “the distortions of memory,” and it’s the simplest: He made it part of his novel.

Section II

To sharpen your focus for Section II, read the feedback below. This was transferred over from a Google Doc. One of you asked for direct feedback on the typed versions of all three timed responses; I went through and added feedback that could, if given by proxy, help more than just him.

In lieu of the Google Form, this was probably the best way to go about it, and I was able to knock together feedback that might help all of you. Read the essays, of course; that’s part of what will help you.

Note that my comments became footnotes when converted to HTML. Clicking the superscript letters should work; if it doesn’t, scroll back and forth.

Essay 1

With the emergence of the Internet age, more and more people can access information and knowledge from their homes, so they may no longer have the need to go to public libraries. However, public libraries should be kept because they are still centers of education, providing the foundations of democracy, bringing communities together, and supplying resources for learning[a].

Many critics of public libraries argue that since “the connected world has.. Infinitely more information than can be found in even the largest library (Source E)[b],” libraries no longer have a role in society. It is true that anyone with a computer can access information on the Internet, but that doesn’t mean libraries have to go. Library science researcher Michael Crandall writes that for many people, libraries are their “only access point for digital information and services.” In fact, 22% of library computer users relied on libraries as “their only source for access to computers and the Internet (Source C).” Without libraries and their supply of computers, these already-underprivileged students would be at an even greater educational disadvantage than their peers. Furthermore, former American Library Association president Nance Kranich believes education serves as the foundation of democracy (Source A). It is necessary to have “an informed citizenry” to maintain a successful, reliable democracy. With that being said,[c] it would be best to keep public libraries in the future in order to give access to online information to as many people as possible.

Additionally, public libraries are constantly evolving and adapting to the rapidly-changing age of technology. Libraries are proving wrong the common believe that more technology equates to the decline of libraries. In reality, they are always “finding creative ways to meet demand (Source C).” They have recreated the “bookmobile,” for example, that take “computers and Internet access to parts of their communities where there are no library buildings.” Some libraries also provide homework help, access to e-reading materials, and lessons in how to use these devices. For example, an Illinois public library hosts lessons on Microsoft Excel (Source B). To many students, the library is one of their most useful resources.

Libraries are not only the traditional “quiet place to study (Source E),” they are also hubs for community activities. People of all ages — toddlers, grade-school children, adults, seniors — can come together[d] for events at public libraries. Examples include “Terrific Tales for Toddlers,” “Nursing Home Visits,” and “Writer’s Group for Adults (Source B).”

Public libraries should still be kept in the future, even with the advancement of technology, because they are centers of education and community activities[e].

Essay 2

Clare Boothe Luce gave a speech at the Women’s National Press Club in 1960 in front of an audience of journalists. In her speech, her goal was to criticize the journalists’ tendency to write sensationalist, rather than accurate, stories. She prepares the audience for the upcoming criticism by building her ethos through parallel structure, anaphora, and diction[f].

In the first paragraph, Luce says to the audience, “I am less happy than you might think and more challenged than you could know.” This line utilizes the power of parallel structure, juxtaposing her presumed emotions and her real feelings. It emphasizes that this speech that she would be giving to the journalists will be different than most they have encountered before. Luce is here to “throw rocks” at the American press, something that it is not used to hearing. Luce admits that she is “flattered to be a guest of honor,” but in the first half of her parallel line — “I am less happy than you might think” — she quickly explains to the audience that just because they invited her, doesn’t mean that she will say only positive things about them, preparing them for the inevitable criticism. The latter half of the lin — “more challenged than you could know” — builds Luce’s ethos by portraying herself as a sympathetic and understanding speakers. She does not want to tear down the audience just for the fun of it, but rather reminds the audience that they asked for it, wanting the criticism, by inviting her to speak[g].

Luce also utilizes appropriate[h] syntax through anaphora. In the fourth paragraph, Luce repeats “It is the effort” at the beginning of three consecutive sentences. Following this phrase in each sentence, Luce describes all the positive aspects about journalism. By complimenting and heaping praise onto her audience, Luce is able to show that she is unbiased and objective. She puts things into perspective, recognizing that the reporters are indeed good in many ways, demonstrating that she isn’t going to blindly insult them. Luce’s compliments culminate in her saying that “[good journalism] is the pursuit of and the effort to state the truth.” Luce acknowledges that the journalists obviously do their best to write an accurate story, that they don’t have any deceitful malintentions. This statement is directly relevant to the main topic of Luce’s argument, so it well-prepares the audience for Luce’s criticism. It means that Luce isn’t trying to take anything away from the journalists’ hard work, but it just giving a valid opinion.

Lastly, Luce incorporates specific phrases to boost her ethos. In the last two paragraphs of her opening, Luce says that there is much “right with [the American press]” and that it is “the best press in the world.” These phrases further prove that Luce is a reliable, rational speaker, making it more likely for the audience to pay attention to whatever criticism Luce has to say about them. Again, she is complimenting the press to show that she knows not everything is bad about the press and will only be condemning on particular aspect of it[i].

Essay 3

I do agree that having a good outer image is essential, but it doesn’t always have to be artificial[j].

With the current prevalence of social media in today’s age of technology, celebrities are constantly scrutinized, so having the ability to project a good image of themselves is important. But just because they “appear to have these qualities,” doesn’t mean they are faking it — they could genuinely be good people. For example, NBA superstar LeBron James is one of the most scrutinized athletes ever by media, so naturally, he must portray himself as a good person otherwise he would receive even more criticism. However, he backs up his image through his actions. He is a generous philanthropist, donating millions to charity; he uses his Instagram Stories as a platform for other people to share their own inspirational journeys; he is seen in multiple videos as having great relationships with his family and fans[k].

In some cases, the image is, in fact, artificial, [l]but the artifice is necessary to avoid discomfort of conflict. For example, in “The Catcher in the Rye,” the main character, Holden, is talking to one of his classmate’s mother on the train. She asks him how her son is doing, and Holden lies to her, embellishing and fabricating her son’s “achievements.” He does this to comfort the mother because he doesn’t want her to be concerned or worried about her son’s experience and performance at school. Holden’s interaction with the mother supports this “phoniness” being an essential skill in life.

It is also important to make a good impression of oneself in order to make it in the real world. An example of this is in interviews, whether for a job or for college. It is essential for the prospect to bring out the best in him or herself to obtain the desired role. It is true that he or she may spin some negative characteristics into positive ones for the sake of making a good pitch, but this does not necessarily imply artifice since it is still one of his or her traits[m][n].

[a]Exactly the kind of thesis you want for this essay.

[b]Put the source citations after the quotation. The blending you’ve done is great — placing the quot. within your own sentence.

[c]The essay’s strong enough that I’d focus on memorizing a couple of techniques for the future, like avoiding successive sentences that have the same sort of structure. You can drop this transitional phrase; the next paragraph starts similarly enough to want a different sort of rhythm here.

[d]This is where you’d develop the idea, if you had more time — explicating what it means for a community to come together, offering details about the examples you give in the next sentence, etc., to flesh things out. Time is the issue, I know.

[e]This is still a 6 or 7 essay, despite the underdeveloped ending, because of the strength of the earlier writing. I’d lean toward a 7; that might be overvaluing the style and control you have, but those elements are particularly strong.

[f]That’s exactly how to use precise verbs to set up this kind of analysis — “prepares” and “building” instead of some variation of “uses.” That’s the proxy feedback to give any peers who are listening: Use the best verb, and the task gets easier.

[g]Stellar paragraph.

[h]That adjective doesn’t convey enough meaning. It’s not an issue, though; the way you go on to analyze what this does (“complimenting and heaping praise”) is more than enough. Try to find consistently precise adjectives, though, and you’ll be in range of a 9.

[i]I’d edge toward an 8 on this one, although the lack of even a perfunctory conclusion might lead some graders to hold you to a 7. I think the sentential adverbs (“Lastly,” “Again”) set this up as a culminating bit of analysis. Better to squeeze in a recap, though, even if you are parroting the first paragraph’s ideas.

[j]This is a bit too short an introduction to be effective. That second paragraph is strong; this first one needs at least some context and background, even if it’s just a boilerplate reference to the prompt that sets up the real work of the essay.

[k]Effective use of parallelism here. James is a recognizable example, too, that lets you draw the contrast you want.

[l]You’re adept at varying syntax, and this is a prime example of that. If you are able to offer last-minute proxy feedback to your peers, encouraging them to find a place to introduce this way of emphasizing through this kind of language — the use of “in fact” n the middle of a sentence — is likely to boost the writing.

[m]Through this point, your reasoning is cogent and your examples are illustrative. Time is the issue. You could see a 7 or 8 here with even a perfunctory ending. I’d lean toward a 6 for what you have on the page; your style and meaning are so strong that anything less would be nit-picking.

[n]So that’s a 7, 8, 6 from me for what you have on the page, with a margin of error putting you no lower than a 6, 7, 6. Great work. And thank you for always doing more than just what is required. It never goes unnoticed, and it is always appreciated.

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Regents Prep: 30 to Go

  By English Regents Prep (2017-2018)

Exam Date: June 12, 2018

You are just about 30 days from the Regents Exam.  Castle Learning now has five new prep assignments:

  • 8/16 Practice: Part 1 – Passage A
  • 8/16 Practice: Part 1 – Passage B
  • 8/16 Practice: Part 1 – Passage C
  • 8/16 Practice: Part 2
  • 8/16 Practice: Part 3

This practice all comes from the exam given in August of 2016. Follow the directions carefully. For each assignment, there is now also a CR — constructed response — asking you to be metacognitive about your choices and performance.

Here is the set of five assignments with multiple-choice count and constructed-response count indicated:

These new metacognitive constructed responses are essential. They allow us to apply your performance over the next 30 days to the actual Regents Exam, regardless of your efforts up to now.

For each reading passage, the metacognitive prompt in Castle Learning is this:

Use teacher feedback, your peers, and the correct answers that are provided by Castle Learning to engineer an understanding of how these questions and answer choices work. Write metacognitively about the passage, the questions, and your problem-solving efforts.

And for both writing responses, the metacognitive prompt in Castle Learning is this:

Identify and analyze several writing choices you made in this response. You can focus on your use of detail, your arrangement, your central meaning, or your rhetorical manipulation of grammar and style.

All five assignments will be open from May 14 at 7:00 AM until June 11 at 11:59 PM. Castle Learning will track your time spent on task using 180 seconds as the timeout period, and I will use class time to conference with you about your progress.

Any work previously assigned that was not completed by last week’s deadlines may be completed at your discretion. The list:

  • Part 1: June ’15 Exam (Castle Learning)
  • Required Analysis: June ’15 Exam, Part 1 (Google Classroom)
  • Part 1: June ’14 Exam (Castle Learning)
  • Required Analysis: June ’14 Exam, Part 1 (Google Classroom)
  • Part 2: June ’14 Exam (Castle Learning)
  • Part 3: June ’14 Exam (Castle Learning)

Finishing a missing assignment will also obviously help you prepare for the Regents Exam. Only the assignments assigned on May 14, however, will further contribute to whether or not you pass or fail this course.

Ask questions in class or in the comment section of this post.

Click for the full strip.

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RE11: Mid-May Updates

  By English 11 Regents (2017-2018)

Carefully read the updates below. Ask questions in the comment section.

Regents Exam Prep

The most recent Regents Exam available from the state was assigned to you, in full, on April 29. It has been prioritized in class since then. As of May 14, all of you have finished Part 1 and entered your multiple-choice answers in the appropriate Google Form. You should be finishing your responses for Part 2 and Part 3.

Here are the instructions, pulled directly from the instructional post:

JAN. ’18 ELA EXAM: PART 2

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 2 | https://goo.gl/forms/Qd96mHQacYBieUy73

This is the source-based argument. You’ll need to type your handwritten response, and then you have some metacognitive analysis to complete.

JAN. ’18 ELA EXAM: PART 3

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 3 | https://goo.gl/forms/V61DNFuFN4wdQdei2

This is the text-based analysis. You’ll need to type your handwritten response — remember, it’s not a full essay — and then complete a bit of metacognition.

Get these writing responses done immediately. You have had two weeks; you’ll have only two hours or so on the day of the exam, once you finish Part 1.

We will use the data you generate to design lessons on particularly difficult questions. That’s why you are entering your responses. For Part 1, for instance, it leads to a spreadsheet:

That’s a randomized sample from all classes. You can see that certain questions, like Question 23, had more incorrect answers. (Green indicates correct responses.) That shapes what we focus on in class.

The same thing is possible with the essays and short responses, but you first need to write them, revise them, and post them to Google Forms.

GAP Scoring

The last three weeks have seen a couple of deaths in my extended family, a move to another state, and a bit more of the most disruptive stuff life has to offer. That’s why GAP scores aren’t yet finalized for Q4A. Q4B ends Friday, so you’ll receive both scores around the same time.

Changes to the GAP report:

  • There will be an offline version available. Here it is as a PDF.
  • The online version no longer requires any analytical writing.

You are still strongly encouraged to do the now-optional analytical writing (It is the only way to justify high profiles and one of the best ways to improve low ones. I’m making it optional to speed up the reporting process: If you neglect these paragraphs, that’s evidence enough of a lower profile.))

If (when) you sit down to analyze your progress, do it having studied the form in advance. Here it is again in offline form:

[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F05%2FGAP-Report-Offline-Template-Google-Forms.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=500px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]

 

The online version will be posted to Google Classroom on Thursday.

End-of-Year Work

By the end of this week, you will shift your focus away from test prep and onto a couple of end-of-year assignments. This is the good stuff. We will circle back to the Regents Exam, but not in class; instead, you’ll do a kind of triage through Castle Learning. In class, you’ll be splitting your time two ways.

First, we will finalize this year’s work on your Pareto Projects. We’ll talk details in person. I’ll also post more directions toward the end of the week. It looks very much like we’ll be able to use the iLC and some space online to showcase your accomplishments.

Second, we will look back on your writing. This will be a bit like compiling a writing portfolio, but you will be encouraged to stretch your focus beyond this year. The simple goal will be to write reflectively and metacognitively about your growth as a writer; the more complicated goal will be to make sense of the last decade, give or take a few formative years, of your writing life.

Start thinking about how you will spend the three weeks from May 21 through June 11 in those terms:

  1. You’ll finish up this year’s work on your Pareto Project.
  2. You’ll complete a writing life retrospective.

This is why it is so essential that you complete the practice Regents Exam, including the revision and reflection work, as soon as possible. That will free us for more authentic learning.

If you have any immediate questions, ask them below. We will be fine-tuning these plans all week, though, so there is no rush.

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AP11: Penultimate Shifts

  By AP English Language & Composition (2017-2018)

Another potential metaphor for us: The blobfish, when removed from the pressure to which it is accustomed, explodes a little bit. This is the much-less-horrifying plush version.

Your AP Exam

48 hours from now, you’ll be on the other side of the hadal pressure of the AP exam. Very few of you have typed up the free-response practice assigned a while back, which means I had little to give feedback to this weekend. That shifts your focus for these next 48 hours, because

  1. it might not be all that helpful to write three essays, revise three essays, and then write another three essays1; and
  2. it will be a bit harder for me to give you much individual feedback on those essays once we’re inside 24 hours until the exam.

Instead of writing and revising, focus on decoding the prompts and brainstorming approaches. Do outlines. Only write and revise responses if you know that will help you.

Doing the multiple-choice is still valuable, if you haven’t done it yet. Find an hour. Otherwise, study the glossary of terms and review the format of the test. Here’s the glossary work again:

Copies are in Room 210. They actually have some utility beyond the exam, but not much. As the last post suggested, you might also benefit from reading over the summer reading:

That folder contains other review material, too. Reading now helps. Writing, less so.

About the Multiple-Choice

The 2017 exam was assigned on April 29. It was due on May 4. Then it was prioritized in class from May 4 through May 11. As of May 14, however,

  • only 16 of 29 students in P2 had entered their Section I answers; and
  • only 14 of 26 students in P9 had entered their Section I answers.

Some of that is due to apathy and poor self-control; much of it is due to anxiety, pressure, and burnout. Whatever the cause, 45% of you didn’t enter the data necessary for us to work together2

I’m going to send you notes on the nine most pressing questions from Section I, based on the 55% of you who did the work:

  • Most critical: 5, 39, 53
  • Others: 18, 19, 35, 36, 37, 47

That will be posted tomorrow, when there are no other AP exams but this one in front of you.

GAP Scoring

The last three weeks have seen a couple of deaths in my extended family, a move to another state, and a bit more of the most disruptive stuff life has to offer. That’s why GAP scores aren’t yet finalized for Q4A. Q4B ends Friday, so you’ll receive both scores around the same time.

Changes to the GAP report:

  • There will be an offline version available. Here it is as a PDF.
  • The online version no longer requires any analytical writing.

You are still strongly encouraged to do the now-optional analytical writing (It is the only way to justify high profiles and one of the best ways to improve low ones. I’m making it optional to speed up the reporting process: If you neglect these paragraphs, that’s evidence enough of a lower profile.))

If (when) you sit down to analyze your progress, do it having studied the form in advance. Here it is again in offline form:

[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F05%2FGAP-Report-Offline-Template-Google-Forms.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=500px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]

 

The online version will be posted to Google Classroom on Thursday.

The Good Stuff

By the end of this week, you will shift your focus away from test prep and onto a couple of end-of-year assignments. This is the good stuff. We will circle back to the Regents Exam (in all its ignominious glory), but not in class; instead, you’ll do a kind of triage through an online practice test.

First, we will finalize this year’s work on your Pareto Projects. We’ll talk details in person. I’ll also post more directions toward the end of the week. It looks very much like we’ll be able to use the iLC and some space online to showcase your accomplishments.

Second, we will look back on your writing. This will be a bit like compiling a writing portfolio, but you will be encouraged to stretch your focus beyond this year. The simple goal will be to write reflectively and metacognitively about your growth as a writer; the more complicated goal will be to make sense of the last decade, give or take a few formative years, of your writing life.

Start thinking about how you will spend the three weeks from May 21 through June 11 in those terms:

  1. You’ll finish up this year’s work on your Pareto Project.
  2. You’ll complete a writing life retrospective.

Add a footnote about Regents Exam triage, too, but focus on three weeks or so of authentic, makerspace-infused work.

If you have any immediate questions, ask them below. We will be fine-tuning these plans all week, though, so there is no rush.

  1. The lesson, as always, is about organization: The more organized and prepared you are, the better you’ll do. Procrastinating only works when the process isn’t all that important. That’s often the case, unfortunately, but not when it comes to test prep in a course like ours. Spamming a lot of prep work in the hours before the exam will just exhaust you. ↩

  2. This is why we started the year with a focus on self-control and akrasia, talked frankly about blame, and continue to emphasize accountability and self-efficacy. 45% of you didn’t meet expectations. For the free-response section, the time required to write and then to revise might pose a problem, even across two weeks of steady in-class focus; there really isn’t an excuse for this multiple-choice work to go unfinished. You know the metaphor about shooting oneself in the foot? You’ve murdered your feet like they are Rasputin and you’re his assassins. It’s brutal. ↩

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Bric-à-Brac and Added Value

  By AP English Language & Composition (2017-2018)

From a College Board video, capturing the uniquely existential dread that comes with high-stakes testing.

For Students in AP English Language & Composition

There are so many course updates, clerical corrections, low-level crises, etc., that we need a post to organize them all. Read carefully, bookmark what you need to bookmark, and ask questions in the comments.

Note: This post is only for students in AP English Language & Composition. English 11 students will have their own post, once I’ve crawled from the wreckage of this one.

Corrected 2017 Exam

I meticulously organized photocopied packets for each free-response question, adding rubrics, sample essays, and scoring sheets, plus a cover sheet and even a cover post. So, of course, I mixed up the prompts. Entirely.

Here is everything, again, with the proper materials in the proper place:

If you can follow the logic of this: You were given the right sample essays, scoring sheets, etc., but not the right prompts. You have a different form of the 2017 prompts. The correct prompts for Section II correspond to the sample essays, scoring sheets, etc., you have in your packets.

There won’t be photocopies of the corrected materials, because there isn’t time. We’re also running out of trees. To help us avoid the tentacling litigation of the College Board, the corrected materials are linked directly from the College Board’s website. If there is a problem with any of those links, use the following folder, which is locked to your BCSD accounts:

Free-Response Essays and PRN Feedback

In the subtitle, PRN stands for pro re nata, which is a term used in medicine for “as needed.” It seems to fit.

You know that test prep requires you to be self-motivated and organized. That’s relatively easy with the multiple-choice work you’ve been assigned, since you get the answers automatically. As you’ll see below, it’s easy enough to run pattern recognition, too. Uf you want to get expert feedback on a timed essay, however, you need an expert or proxy to read it for you.

Use the following form for that:

Copies are in Room 210, or you can print one yourself. It requires you, the writer, to fill out a prefatory section before soliciting feedback. This directs the reader, who needs context and framework to help you the most.

Use this PRN sheet whenever possible when collaborating on test-specific writing. And keep the bit of poetry from Elizabeth Bishop in mind while you do that.

Reminder: Google Forms

If you have not already, enter your multiple-choice answers for Section I immediately into the following Google Form:

And get revisions of your essays into the following Google Form as soon as possible:

Complete the metacognition for your writing, too. This enables me to help you individually and in groups. The longer you take to complete the work, the more you will be on your own in the days before the exam.

Pattern Analysis

As an example of what all these data do for us:

That’s a set of your responses for the 2017 Section I practice. Green means the student entered the correct answer. You can see that you need the most help, as a group, with Passage 3. That was the one about “[w]alking for walking’s sake” from a British essay written in 1918. And you struggled most — alongside 85% of the population; see the scoring data — with the question on the phrase “as it were,” which emphasizes a pun in that sentence.

I’d guess that this is about missing the humor in the passage, and that’s a good lesson for us to run this week or next: What do you do if you don’t get the humor of a piece, especially if the barrier is due to the language? In context, this one is easier than the data suggest. It’s more about reading the separating phrase (“as it were”) as likely to indicate irony or a play on words.

The more data you give me, the more I can help. Get your responses into these forms as soon as possible.

Glossary of Terms and MLA Guidelines

This next update is about your short-term memories and the kind of gamesmanship we lean into in the days before a high-stakes exam. Here is a glossary of terms and guide to MLA citations from the same textbook we used for your GARAS studies:

You should review these two documents briefly in the week or so before the exam. They will help you earn a point or two on multiple-choice, and they may give you a more precise and clarifying term to use on the rhetorical analysis essay you write in Section II.

Many terms will be review of what should be rattling around in your long-term memory. For example, anaphora appears early on in the glossary, and you encountered that in our deep dive into grammar as rhetoric and style. Other terms will be new, and it’s at your discretion what you store briefly in that capacious short-term memory of yours.

I will help you organize your studies here. Plan to use our space for direct instruction in small groups.

Update, two hours later: Here is a handout that cuts down the terms you should review to a more manageable list:

Copies will be in Room 210.

The Rest of The Language of Composition

While we’re revisiting the textbook from your summer reading, grammar work, and periodic dive into test prep:

That is a Drive folder with all of the excerpts and GARAS lessons from The Language of Composition. These are the materials photocopied for you in class, attached to various in-class assignments, and available through our class set of textbooks. The folder is locked to BCSD accounts and provided under under copyright law as a fair use exception.

if you read these chapters, review these lessons, and briefly examine the glossary of terms, you will be just fine.

Hamlet Response

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Group will visit the high school on May 8 to perform Hamlet. All juniors are required to attend. Here is more information on the touring company and its educational program:

A short responsive assignment is on Google Classroom for students who attend the production. It asks for a brief but insightful response to the experience of seeing the play. if you are absent or otherwise unable to attend, you are exempt from this. It is otherwise an opportunity to do more than just what is required in these test-heavy days of early May. Take it seriously.

Score Reporting: July

Speaking of these test-heavy days: The video and handout below provide information about getting your AP scores in July. I can answer any additional questions you have about the process.

I’d also like to encourage us to meet up interstitially the morning of Friday, July 6, to talk about how you did. I’ll build you a post and probably reach out to all of you by email to congratulate you — and it will be to congratulate all of you, because putting your best effort into this exam is what matters, not the score. It’s a cliché, sure, but a meaningful and true one. Exams are a refraction point; we have to be careful not to let them mean more than they should.

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Test Prep: Endgame

  By All Junior Classes (2017-2018), AP English Language & Composition (2017-2018), English 11 Regents (2017-2018)

This post covers our final preparations for two high-stakes tests: the Regents Examination in English Language Arts, given by New York State in June, and the AP® English Language and Composition Exam, given by the College Board in May. If you’re reading this, you’re probably taking one or both.

Read on for instructions. Skip what doesn’t apply to you specifically.

Regents Examination in English Language Arts

This is a straightforward test of skills. We’ve practiced each part of it in isolation already, and we’ve been working on the skills themselves all year. Search the site for references to exam prep; you’ll find a few dozen lessons and posts.

Refer to our end-of-year calendars for when you’ll take the June exam. The practice exam we’ll be using was given on January 22, 2018, which is the most recent test available to us.

These cover sheets delineate the three parts and the resources you’ve been given:

The test itself is in the classroom. You’ll be taking it, sans cell phone and Chromebook, until you’ve finished it, at which point you’ll be asked to complete the following Google Forms.

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 1

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 1 | https://goo.gl/forms/lgTs1G1dX0GADfW02

This covers three reading passages and 24 multiple-choice questions. You’ll need to enter your original answers all at once. We’ll track patterns and provide support based on your in-class work and these data.

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 2

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 2 | https://goo.gl/forms/Qd96mHQacYBieUy73

This is the source-based argument. You’ll need to type your handwritten response, and then you have some metacognitive analysis to complete.

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 3

Jan. ’18 ELA Exam: Part 3 | https://goo.gl/forms/V61DNFuFN4wdQdei2

This is the text-based analysis. You’ll need to type your handwritten response — remember, it’s not a full essay — and then complete a bit of metacognition.

AP® English Language and Composition Exam

Do you notice the ® by “AP” in this post? That refers to the registered trademark of the College Board. I don’t take the time to add it, usually, but I probably should. The folks at the College Board take their intellectual property rights seriously:

That’s why the 2016 exam, which we practiced intermittently throughout Q3, was never posted to the interstitial classroom. The same goes for the 2017 exam, which you’ll be taking this week and next. It’s a purely offline bit of practice.

Google Classroom blurs the line a little bit — it’s pedagogically the same thing as distributing work in class — but it’s part of the testing frenzy of this part of the year to stare at printed pages and bubble in small circles and write until your hands cramp.

Everything you need is in the classroom. We’ll discuss the possibilities outlined in the end-of-year calendar as May gets going, because we’ll want to balance rigorous test prep with your own units of study.

2017 AP Exam: Section I

You probably want to take 60 uninterrupted minutes to do this. When you’re ready, enter your answers here:

2017 AP Exam: Section I https://goo.gl/forms/yylJ8XjCuzvXGzit2

2017 AP Exam: Section II

You probably want to take the suggested time here, too — two hours and fifteen minutes, all at once. When you’re ready, type up your responses:

2017 AP Exam: Section II | https://goo.gl/forms/EyDZ3W0Y2xQQNnp83

The form for Section II asks you to identify and analyze several writing choices you made in one or more of these essays. We’ll focus our metacognitive work for Section I through face-to-face conferences.

I’ll monitor your work online and offer help as necessary and on request. Use all of your resources. Most of them are in the photocopied packets lining our bookshelves. It might be useful to see that the cover sheets for those packets delineate their contents:

Above All

Above all, remember that these AP and Regents tests are important, because they do reveal something about your skill and potential. They are tests of skills and traits that matter, for the most part. But they are ultimately emphasized so much only because of the failure of the system to design anything better.

In other words, no one believes these tests get at the inimitable, wonderful parts of you that truly matter. They don’t. You must take the tests seriously because of what high scores do for you — and because it is good to beat the system at its own game:

Know Your Enemy: High-Stakes Tests

That’s from January. Your confidence should be high, if you’ve done your work; this is about confirming the things that the last eight months have taught us about you. That, and playing the game.

Ask questions below.

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F5 on Infinite Campus

  By English 11 Regents (2017-2018)

Click to visit the image source, which is home to a teaching philosophy that might make its way into our studies before the end of the year.

For Students in Regents 11 Only

A lengthy post like this is designed to teach you in between classes. A calendar for the rest of the year, like this one, is designed to help you prepare for the next class. The entire assessment system is designed to help you be productive during class.

We, your two teachers, try not scold or hold hands. But the work you’ve been assigned is valuable. You need to finish it.

Therefore, for the next three weeks, we are going to give you daily feedback based on what was observed during class. Your in-class focus and productivity will be assessed after 42 minutes on a scale of 0-3.

That scale has been posted before, in the notes that were part of an instructional post. It’s as simple and straightforward as it gets:

Starting this evening, you’ll find daily scores in Infinite Campus. They are posted out of three points and are categorized separately from all GAP scores. None of these three-point scores has any impact on your average. This is informational.

Note: Because we are not yet in Q4, the scores for April 9-13 will be located in the gradebook for Q3. This cannot be changed. You will have to look there for the first week.

Brief Background and Basis

I’d like to make it clear that we have avoided tracking your in-class work this way for philosophical reasons, opting instead for slightly less Skinner-box-like options. As Alfie Kohn aptly writes:

It’s not enough to disseminate grades more efficiently — for example, by posting them on-line. There is a growing technology, as the late Gerald Bracey once remarked, “that permits us to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn’t be doing at all” (quoted in Mathews, 2006). In fact, posting grades on-line is a significant step backward because it enhances the salience of those grades and therefore their destructive effects on learning.

Emphasis added. The impact of Infinite Campus is to make the destructive effects of grades immediately available to you at every point during your day.

You need to do this work, however. If grades are the currency, we’ll try daily scores, briefly, to see if it finally shows you the impact of your choices.

Because you must learn self-control. You must follow the rules of your classroom, just as you’ll have to follow the rules of a workplace. If you have a concern about those rules, you can advocate in an appropriate way. You can ask for further clarification. But ignoring and breaking the rules will only hurt you, now and in the future.

Read this, if you haven’t already, and even if you have:

“Just say, how will you walk?”

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A Not Inconsiderable Amount of Feedback

  By All Junior Classes (2017-2018), AP English Language & Composition (2017-2018), English 11 Regents (2017-2018)

In honor of the snowfall on April 6. Click for more snowman antics from Calvin and Hobbes.

Justifying 6200+ Words

When I’m asked about the need to make instruction and feedback interstitial — to spend Saturday morning with a pot of coffee and keyboard, like I have here — I think of days like April 4, a Wednesday, which was one of three days added to the calendar after we used up all of our allotted snow days. It was also a day with pretty low attendance:

Those are the numbers for each class on April 4. 37 different students missed class that day. That’s more than ¼ of the total roster. Thursday and Friday were the same, and this doesn’t include students who were late, sometimes significantly, or who left early.

When I write to students, it circumvents all of those problems. It gives everyone a chance to access deep, meaningful feedback at any time, from anywhere, with total transparency. When hard data are included — like the spreadsheets embedded later — there is a chance to self-assess and adjust even more. No aspect of it is wholly dependent on the unpredictable personal and environmental parts of a high school.

Background, or What You Should Have Read Two Weeks Ago

The following instructional and feedback post led to a lot of good student feedback. Here is the post, which absolutely needs to be read in full before you proceed:

Verbing Weirds Language

I’m going to walk you through quite a bit of what students had to say, because I want you to see what your peers are thinking alongside my responses. It’s all much more valuable when it’s transparent and accessible to the entire group.

Under the Hood

We’ll start with some constructive criticism:

For this GAP period you decided to put everyone’s GAP scores up on classroom. It was made as anonymous as it could be because it was done by student id and it wasn’t in alphabetical order. I still found this incredibly rude though because now everyone can see everyone’s scores. I think a grade should be something that is private between a student and a teacher and if the student feels comfortable enough to share their grade then they can. Now, student know that someone got a 3 or a 4 on their GAP profile and will now start to speculate on who that was, causing rumors to start. And imagine how badly the person who got a 3 or 4 must feel after seeing that people in their class got a 9 or 8. They might see that they did as much as someone who got a higher score but the quality of their work wasn’t as good as that other persons.

This is why I didn’t post those under-the-hood scores until now, right before the last quarter of the year. Some of you needed the reminder: Every choice you make is significant. But I don’t want you to be embarrassed. Of course not. I want to help you confront the idea that what you see in your own work and growth might not be accurate — because our sworn nemesis, the Dunning-Kruger effect, is always lurking.

If you walk away from our classroom with nothing else, I hope it’s a sense that you and you alone control whether you avoid that:

Self-Awareness and Self-Efficacy

I flipped numbers to give some of you a chance to grapple with your actual performance. The post on the process — read it again here — is clear about how feedback is embedded in everything we do, which makes these numbers redundant for anyone paying attention. It also emphasizes the need for herd immunity — read that essay again, too — since you should be empathetic enough to your peers to want to help them.

Here is a student who didn’t complete a lot of work for the first two-thirds of the third quarter:

I like this approach you did to explain how you arrived to the grad you gave, and I am one of the people who didn’t do that well, which should say something. It showed us what really goes isn’t the grading, and showed the difference between the people who actually put in the effort to get an 100, and those who didn’t (like me). This actually really help show me what I can do to improve in this course.

I am quoting her for a specific reason: She’s actually being too hard on herself. It’s not always about a lack of effort, and it’s not always about the delusions of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Sometimes, it’s about recognizing that real life — never to be confused with the Sisyphean landscape of school life — can interfere with our ability to get work done. When that happens, as it did with this student, admitting to it isn’t capitulation or weakness; it’s the most sane and rational response.

In other words, you all deserve to be human beings, and often human beings are overwhelmed and overcome by things outside our control. So we work on hacking the impact real life has on your school work, usually by targeting metacognition and the more therapeutic aspects of reading and writing.

Correlation and Causation

As always, you need to know how to read data to reach the right conclusions. One student had this to say:

When looking at the AP11 P2 GAP Q3A+Q3B some people have 7+ assignments missing throughout the quarter yet still come out with an 8 and kids that have handed in all the assignments come out with 5+. After seeing this chart im confused as to how the grading policy works because I feel like it can’t be based off how many assignments that you hand in. I was not surprised with my GAP score and was happy with it but I can see why some people were not, looking at the chart it makes no sense.

Again, the original post covers all this in significant detail. You can’t just look at the chart; you have to look at the explanation, too. If you take data at their most superficial level, you will make mistakes in reasoning and understanding. Correlation isn’t causation.

In fact, take a break from this post to visit this site about spurious correlations:

You have to keep an open mind about what you think you know.

What You Put into It

The most important thing that last student highlights, however, is that GAP scoring “can’t be based off how many assignments that you hand in.” That’s correct. It’s not enough to hand in work. You have to meet the criteria for a profile, and those criteria are far more about growth, collaboration, self-awareness, amenability, etc., than they are about checking assignments off a list.

If there’s a lesson in flipping these numbers, that’s probably it: The system is a bit complicated, but it’s fair and transparent and consistent in its expectation that you do more than just the bare minimum. You get out of your education what you put into it, for the most part, which is exactly why someone handing in poor work might fit a lower profile than someone doing exceptional, individualized work.

But the individualized work is the exception. Many students will complete just the formal assignments, because that’s where the most accessible learning opportunities are embedded. You should do what you’re asked to do. That’s not different from any other aspect of school.

Decoding the Data

More student thoughts on that flipped set of data, feedback, and direction:

I think this chart could be a helpful tool throughout our GAP periods and that we should have access to a diagram like this, not just at the end of the GAP displaying our scores, but throughout the whole gapping period so that we are given a chance to fix and make up assignments before the GAP is over and it is too late.

This is from a student who put herself down as an 8 and probably fits a 9 — and I only say “probably” because I am still going through evidence as I type this.

Here’s another insight1:

The aspect of the post that I found the most intriguing was the way in which the information was presented to us, almost in a type of code. Therefore, if we cared enough to know what those numbers meant, it became our responsibility to decode the charts on our own, which wasn’t much work at all, as we simply just had to use our brains and digest the writing which followed.

That’s exactly it. You had to decode the feedback. The struggle — which, as this student notes, isn’t really a struggle, not if you are paying attention — teaches you how to decode, helps you grapple with close reading, encourages you to think critically, etc., and serves, therefore, as a microcosm of interstitial instruction and feedback overall.

Rock Bottom

If necessary, force yourself to write responsively to what you’re studying, and do it often. Skill and understanding will come with repetition. Meanwhile, you’ll generate enough evidence to earn a higher profile.

Here’s the same idea from another perspective:

Today I took a good look at the spreadsheet that was made for us individuals to really look at what I was doing. The whole idea with the spreadsheet really helped open my eyes to a lot. It made me realize my time management is terrible. For the majority of the assignments, I had a bolded number. It made me realize that I need to be more responsible and consecutive with my work. I need to turn many thing in way before the deadline. Also, I noticed that I only had one Rubicon point, which gave me a bit of a sigh of relief. It shows to me, that my teacher has noticed, I try my best to stay on track and be focused with whatever is going on in the class. Another thing that the spreadsheet has opened my eyes up to is my actual work quality. Seeing all the one’s or two’s really hit me hard. Going back to another post on Sisyphean High from a while ago that I really related to, I hit rock bottom. Seeing numbers for every assignment shows, my work isn’t where it should be. Now, after analyzing everything, I feel more inclined to try harder. That means, getting assignments on time and really diving into every instructional post that is given to me.

Akrasia, Back Again

This next excerpt is specifically about an AP class, but the idea that everyone should, at least, complete all assignments is a universal one:

Personally, I liked the way the GAP scores were displayed this quarter. It was nice to have some feedback as to see what I was missing, and how many assignments I have submitted in each catergory. For my one catergory that was a 0, I was able to understand what I was missing and how it was effecting my GAP score, when before I didn’t realize I was missing it. I noticed some of my peers commenting on how they didn’t like the way it was arranged and how there was so much emphasis on a number. I agree that its disapointing that in high school our education is measured by a number, however that is just how it is. It is impossible in my opinon to have a class without any sort of grade ever. Although there are exceptions, most teenagers would take advantage of that and not have any motivation to do anything. It would be treated like a study hall and not be effective. In addition, it was interesting to see the other grades in our class. Without knowing who they are, we can see the environment around us. I was very surprised at the number of lower grades in the class. I would assume everyone who takes AP Lang, is going to do the work given at least. In addition, looking around the class it seems as most people are on task everyday. This just goes to show how decieving people can be, and why grades are necessary somewhat.

That idea of “how deceiving people can be” is interesting. I don’t think there is real malice in the deception, but it is a conscious choice — or, at least, a choice made despite knowing the consequences. It’s a bit different from the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is about the perceived quality of the work.

This is akrasia again. Revisit this older post and its threat of flying guillotines for a reminder:

The Fatal Flying Guillotine

Slashing Canvases

Flying guillotines haven’t been our only metaphor, and I tried to come up with a less violent one in this post. It ended up with knives and slashing, of course. Students had their fair share of reactions:

I like the idea of thinking how for each GAP period we are a blank canvas and we get a chance to start over and change our ways. However, I don’t like the idea of how one wrong thing and the canvas is ruined. I think as students we are human and we aren’t some perfect robots that don’t make mistakes or get distracted. I think the analogy should be more of we are a blank piece of paper and when we mess up it gets a mark. But, that mark can easily be erased as it was drawn on there. I don’t like the fact that if we do one wrong thing we are ruined and there’s nothing we can do to fix it. It’s unfair and unrealistic. This is the only class where what we do during class time effects our grade. In every other class its if the work is completed then you get a good grade. In here I do above and beyond what is needed for a good grade but if I slip up in class once, my whole canvasis ruined. I dont think thats right at all. We’re real people not just a canvas and we make mistakes but that shouldn’t mean we are ruined entirely.

Like all metaphors, this one helps clarify an aspect of what we do, but it has its limits. Think of it more in terms of the act of destruction: If you make a mistake while drawing or writing, you might be able to erase it; if you make a small mistake while painting, you might be able to paint over it; but if you take a knife to the canvas, you’re going to need to start over.

Even then, that’s the key: starting over. No one is “ruined” by mistakes in here, and every three or four weeks, you can set aside even the most serious mistakes. You can start over.

We Are What We Repeatedly Do

It’s not true, by the way, that “[t]his is the only class where what we do during class time [a]ffects our grade.” What you do in class contributes to most of your grades to some extent. In Physical Education, it’s dressing or participating, but that’s the obvious one; less obvious is that you often receive classwork or participation grades. You’re assessed formatively all the time. It’s part of the DNA of this district now.

I think what this student is identifying is that most classes give you a heads-up before a grade — a bit of forewarning, like knowing that you have a seminar or an in-class lab or station work.

But that’s just it: In here, you have just as much forewarning. You know exactly what you have to do, each and every day. You have had around ten different calendars, tailored to your needs and updated whenever necessary — and they cover every day of the entire year:

That’s just the most recent update, which covers April, May, and June. It’s posted to the main website, shared over Google Classroom, and tacked to the bulletin board by the door to our room.

I’ve even added your skill- and content-based goals for each assessment panel. You have the flexibility of meeting those goals according to your own strengths, but you have the guiding focus of knowing exactly what’s happening.

Most importantly, the expectations for staying on-task and the penalties for failing to do work have been clear since September. You are surrounded by the posters every day.

Nothing Is Ever Ruined

Still, you’re not “ruined” by small mistakes, and certainly not by one mistake, as that student fears. If one mistake could devastate you, just a little more than 100% of you would be devastated. It’s human nature.

Read the feedback and guides to this carefully, and note that it is always about patterns of behavior or massive, impossible-to-ignore choices. In other words, you are always given plenty of chances and a sizeable benefit of the doubt.

If you are chatting with a peer for a few moments before starting an assignment, that’s okay. If you take out your makeup during a practice essay and spend five minutes adjusting your eyeliner, that’s obviously not okay. If group discussion gets off-topic here and there, that’s to be expected. If you barely register that the discussion has a topic, that’s not good. If you hand in a few assignments late, but we’re in constant communication about it, that’s probably fine. If your work is always late or missing, that’s somewhere south of fine.

There are levels to this. I’m encouraging you to experiment, so you can mess up as many canvases as you like, especially if you are trying to do something interesting. If you take a knife to that canvas, however, you’ve made a different sort of choice. And if you slash one canvas, get a second one, slash that one, and then are told, “Stop slashing these canvases, please,” then you need to stop.

It Can Feel Inhuman

There’s a cost to this approach, since we remain in a public school:

I know that that’s not the intention of the Crossing the Rubicon score and the WIP GAP score, but when someone uses a number to tell you whether or not you’re doing something bad, it can feel inhuman in the way that it just makes our goal to just lower the number. It makes it so instead of genuinely wanting to be focused during class, we are doing it just so our GAP score doesn’t drop.

It’s hard to find a balance. That’s why information dumps are not the usual practice in here. All of these experiments in Rubicons and Skinner boxes and other, even weirder metaphors? They’re to help you get at the “genuinely wanting to be focused” part of learning. When they work, we stick with it (e.g., with the profiles themselves), and when they don’t, we try something else (e.g., with the “tallies” of crossed Rubicons — I think we’re done with that).

Sisyphus is our mascot because of Camus’ essay, or at least a pop-culture understanding of it: We have to imagine ourselves happy in a situation that often makes us feel inhuman.

Another, less existential perspective:

I realize now that my everyday habits affect my performance in school and in order to succeed, I must push these habits aside and focus on what’s really important.

From a 5 to a 9

This is universal and universally useful stuff. You should practice it constantly. The more you practice, the easier it gets, the better you do, etc., until you can report something like this:

With there being a sub on the first day this week, I found this as a test for myself. This was a test to see if I could focus even if there was slight chaos around me. And I am proud of what I did. I stayed on task the whole class and completed the in class assignment on time. This triptych, I will be 100% sure that I do not hand a single assignment in even one minute late.

This is the kind of goal-setting that you want. And what’s heartening is that she did it. She didn’t miss any assignments, and what she’s writing now is thoughtful and invested. Here is the same student in another response:

While I was writing, I realized how much I actually appreciated that [The Catcher in the Rye] was a text we were able to read on our own time. In past years we have been forced to read novels during class. It became such an obligation that I absolutely hated it. If someone would have asked me last year, to write about my thoughts on the book we were reading, I most likely would have laughed in their face. Most of the time I never knew what was going on, and if I did I was never interested enough to have an opinion in it. However, since we have been able to read both 1984 and Catcher In the Rye on Our own time, I was able to analyze the books deeper than I ever had before. I was able to….. Enjoy the book.

I take this sort of thing at face value, because (1) this student seems like a genuinely good human being, and (2) even those of you fake this kind of appreciation are still engaging with what we do. Read the tenth part of this essay: Faking it can work in here, if you fake the right things.

Anyway, this student went from a profile in the 5s to a 9 in less than a month. That’s how important in-class focus is: It translates into success everywhere. And even if it feels a bit hokey — especially when it feels a bit hokey — there is power in realizing what we’re trying to do here.

Find Yourself through Your Writing

Here’s another student noticing the power of it:

Everyday when I walk into math class I get handed a worksheet. It has different numbers, but the same idea. I have to solve for X, using only the knowledge that has been shoved into my brain. Every person in the class must come to the same conclusion, and if you don’t, it’s considered to be wrong. It’s similar to be given a sketch and then told to color it. You can choose any color you would like, but ultimately it comes out to be the same picture. It contains no individuality, especially when the beginning picture has been provided to you. Math is like a sketch. A copy of somebody else’s work. Essentially, plagiarism.

Everyday when I walk into the makerspace, I get handed my own imaginary canvas. In this case it’s my worn out chromebook. For other students, it’s the Macbook pro they were gifted from their last birthday. Either way in 2018 a blank canvas, usually contains some kind of technological advancements. This class was designed for students to take a new step in their english learning career, but also an opportunity to find themselves through their writing.

I think I’ve said before that not everything can be experienced through ironic detachment and memes. We have to allow ourselves to be excited about learning, to want to learn, to enjoy the freedom to figure things out. Then you can send each other memes.

In the Kingdom of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man Is King

Here is another student whose work over the last month fits a 9:

This post starts with a very powerful quote “Do not gather your pitchforks and torches without reading everything available to you in this post.” I understand what this means, because a lot of people like to form their own opinion or become aggressive or defensive about something that they don’t even have any knowledge of. This is the very definition of ignorance. However, in this class, referring to the posts that detail what is required of each student, a lot of kids don’t read it. So, it is hard to tell them not to say anything without completely understanding, when in reality they are probably not even going to touch this post so they would never even see that quote. This can make it very frustrating for others that hear people complain when in reality they do not even know why they got the grade that they got.

I read the gap quarter three A and B notes, however I have to say that they were not very useful because these are things that have been reiterated in class. It was more of reminding people than saying anything new.

That is pretty insightful. I know that the people who most need the feedback in a post like that — or a post like this one, right here — aren’t going to read it. But as this student points out, most posts “are things that have been reiterated in class.” That’s why the term is interstitial. You get the same access and feedback and so on in class as online.

Another purpose of all this writing is to galvanize the best of you to help others — to have you galvanize, in turn, the people who don’t read posts or seek feedback. Read it again: GAPs in Herd Immunity. The more you help each other, the stronger we all get.

Metacognition Is the Key

The other way you get stronger is through metacognition:

I mostly get my higher grades through metacognition, which is a key aspect of the class and my Pareto Project, which I work on every quarter because it is something I like to do. So as we near the next grading section I would like to see my work on that spreadsheet again, so I can make sure I am doing all the work required and doing it right.

The bolded phrase in “Verbing Weirds Language,” gave my a smile and also stated the truth. In this day in age, people like to act before thinking, fix something before knowing exactly what they are fixing. Some people just don’t have the awareness to realize what they are doing wrong and how their grade reflects that. I saw a couple grades that were low in the spreadsheet, but when looking at the work, it justified the low grade. One student didn’t do any work. Zero. Another completed two assignments, asked for a 7, and got a 5-. Some students think that they are invincible to low grades, others think that by doing nothing and trying to fake their way through the class, their grade won’t suffer. They are wrong. This class is student oriented. If you don’t put in the work, your grade will reflect that. If you do, you grade will prosper.

Metacognition is, always has been, and always will be the key. Done properly, it unlocks everything else you want, from a high grade to a truer understanding of how you learn. That’s done properly , though. This student does it properly. And it’s true that “people like to act before thinking, fix something before knowing exactly what they are fixing.” You need patience to improve.

Your Style, On Your Terms

This student refers specifically to the AP curriculum, but the insight applies to every class in Room 210:

As we’ve progressed throughout the year, I’ve noticed that I have become more aware of my actions and thinking about why I did something, or what pushed me to do or not do something. I think that GAP scoring is a great way to self assess because it lets you evaluate from your perspective how well you did. Mr. Mullane’s military history class also has GAP scoring because for most assignments there are no right or wrong answers which I feel applies here too. When someone writes in this class, they write in their words, their style and on their terms. This class allows for that, which I haven’t experienced in other English classes, but I have the freedom to respond to a prompt in anyway that I want. I like that I’m not graded on just my writing because I don’t write formally and I don’t prefer to. I want the reader to hear me when they read whatever I’ve written or else it won’t feel like I wrote it. I don’t know if that flies for the AP but my goal in this class isn’t to pass the AP or even stress about it. I want to use this class to my own advantage and do the assignments in the way that they will benefit me. For example, writing about reading helps me break down what I’ve done, how I’ve understood it, and how I should move forward. As I go on with the book I would like to write about it more and how I connect with Holden- I plan to have a few of those for myself for Quarter 4.

Consider this line: “I want to use this class to my own advantage and do the assignments in the way that they will benefit me.” That’s a good approach, as long as you recognize that it always helps to have help figuring out what will benefit you. Your idea of what works is likely to be improved by some feedback — critical and constructive feedback, especially.

The Two Aspects of the Class

Here’s more feedback about how difficult it is to square the circle:

The central message of this post was clearly that we must learn how to find success in this course. That does not mean we should work merely towards a high grade (even though achieving a high grade should reflect an investment in the course). We should instead be focused on growing and improving our character. I noticed in the comments that some of my classmates were having difficulty separating the grade from the process of learning. I completely understand the confusion here, but I’m not really sure how it can be amended. It’s difficult to separate these two aspects of the class, especially when grades are so impactful in our lives.

That’s why it’s abatement, not de-grading or a “Kohnian shift” (which was its original form). Grades can’t be eliminated. They can barely be mitigated. All we can do is gut the smoke-filled, belching machinery inside of them, replace it all with something better, and change what the number means. The number is ineluctable.

Lengthy Feedback: Read Carefully

Which brings us to a set of responses written to a student asking questions about the difficulty of separating these two aspects of the class. While his questions have been answered before, I thought there might be a benefit to using them to help everyone at this point in the year.

My responses are in red:

Read that carefully, as its title suggests. If you’ve gotten this far, tell that friend who blew off this post to read this document carefully, even if you can’t make them see the value in the rest.

Next Steps: Proxy Feedback

When this kind of feedback is flipped — posted anonymously so that you can all benefit from it — the student is pretty much required to become a proxy teacher, using his or her newfound insight to help others. You’ll see that idea emphasized in that “Lengthy Feedback” above, but it needs to be emphasized, because two things are about to happen: You’re going to see the GAP Q3C data I have, and you’re going to hear about a list of students who should be acting as proxy teachers.

These students are what I’d call journeymen. They’re learning how to make themselves better students and people, how to think and read and write well, how to hack their own learning, etc., and they’re well on their way to a kind of master craftsmanship. They’re able to teach others.

If you’re one of these students, you’re going to get a notification about it. You need to reach out to help others, and if you haven’t realized that already, it will be made explicit. Everyone needs to start working together more regularly. Remember: The best learning happens in groups, and collaboration is the stuff of growth.

A Bunch of Numbers and Notations

Now you’re ready to see the numbers. You should know how to read these spreadsheets, or you know that you need to go back to the GAP Q3A/B post to learn.

Make sure you recognize that the score out of 100 in the “GAP Q3C (Report) — 3/29” column is the one you selected for yourself. It’s what came in as part of your report and self-assessment. You won’t find a true WIP GAP or final GAP score. You’ll have to parse this as-is.

AP students: The first multiple-choice assignment is here, too, as a reference point. It does not factor into your profile, but it obviously matters as part of your exam prep. It might help to see it all together.

Here are the flipped spreadsheets for Q3C:

Ask questions below. Your in-class time is reserved for other assignments for a little while. You need to practice using this kind of forum, and you need a reason to examine your choices outside of the school day.

If you want a starting point for how to process everything in this post, make sure you follow the instructions you were given in the last one:

“Just say, how will you walk?”

  1. I’m editing this after the fact, and I’m going to invite all of you to have a conversation with me about why that is. Here’s the original introduction to this quotation: “To see what one of the strongest 9s has to say, you’ll want to read the entire response that is copied below, in the next subsection of this post.” That’s been deleted, as has the following section. ↩

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Regents Prep: Last Quarter

  By English Regents Prep (2017-2018)

The following spreadsheet is organized by student number. Find your row, and then consider each of the following data points:

  1. Your in-class focus during recent periods, evaluated on a 0-3 scale.
  2. An in-class self-assessment that was due on March 23 or March 26, depending on your schedule, and which was evaluated on the same 0-3 scale.
  3. Two Castle Learning assignments, evaluated on the same 0-3 scale.
  4. A score from this sheet, indicating whether you are currently passing or failing the quarter.

[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F03%2FP1-P-F-Update-032718.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=500px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]

 

Notes on Data

That spreadsheet is a copy of the one I use for in-class feedback and redirection. Because you either pass or fail this course, you do not need to see those numbers; instead, you need that in-class feedback and redirection, most of which comes down to the simple completion of assignments.

In the hope that it helps, however, I am giving you these notes. Here is what a number from 0-3 indicates, roughly speaking:

In a course where you pass or fail, the line is right in the middle, hence this version of the universal profiles used in Room 210. You can actually quantify that line, if you read carefully:

When your flaws outnumber your successes, you fail. In an exam-driven course, this is about as straightforward as it gets. The expectations:

  1. Complete any assigned practice sections during class.
  2. Complete any assigned metacognition during class.
  3. Meet with your teacher during class.
  4. Repeat.

If you don’t complete the first step, you can’t complete the rest. When you complete the first step at a very low level, you can’t complete the rest. And you only need class time to do this, hence the “during class” in that list.

Individualized Work

About half of the current roster has stayed in this course despite passing the ELA Regents Exam in January. That’s fine. These students use the time to work on core English assignments, to prep for the writing portions of other exams, or to help their peers with this exam.

The original purpose of the course continues with the rest of the roster: You are assigned practice exams, usually through Castle Learning; you analyze your performance, using my feedback and the automatic feedback given by Castle Learning; and then we meet to review the results.

Regardless, this is far less about exams and English work than it is about choice and responsibility. If you make good choices, you pass this course. If you make good choices, you will pass pretty much any exam you have to take this year.

Starting with Wednesday, March 28, you will meet five times before the end of Q3. Two those meetings will happen before our shortened spring break, and four of them will happen after it.

Today, I will enter a provisional pass/fail note in Infinite Campus. Use the spreadsheet in this post to make sense of that feedback. Then talk to me in class over the next two days about your performance.

Starting on Wednesday, April 4, and continuing until Friday, April 13, you must orient your perspective and expectations for Q4. Look to this list:

  • You must have a plan for how to use your time in class.
  • You must set goals for yourself.
  • You must meet those goals.
  • You must demonstrate focus in class.

You have two weeks to salvage Q3, if you are failing. Starting with Q4, it will not matter if you are taking the Regents Exam in June or not; you must meet these requirements, and we will document every choice you make.

If you are taking the Regents Exam in June, start by printing a report from Castle Learning. You must be able to analyze that report. You must be able to bring questions and observations about that report to any meetings with me.

Ask questions about any of these expectations in class or in the comment section below.

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Character and Catcher in Context

  By All Junior Classes (2017-2018), AP English Language & Composition (2017-2018), English 11 Regents (2017-2018)

The Aft Agley Gang Rides Again

If you search this site for the word “agley,” you get more than a few posts on the unpredictability of our schedule. Most of those posts make some allusion to Robert Burns’ poem, which gives us the phrase “gang aft agley” and a chance for a very weird pun.

This week was another microcosm of unpredictability. A snowstorm kept us out on Wednesday, which was naturally the first day of spring; we lost three hours on Thursday to a weather-related delay; many of you were, therefore, forced to spend all day on Thursday preparing for the spring musical; and some of you spent the period on Friday taking the the twice-rescheduled DCC Accuplacer exam.

Even the predictable elements of that lineup are chaotic. That’s why we use the term interstitial here: When the learning is accessible anytime and anywhere, we can ride out the chaos. All it takes is a focus on preparing in advance and watching each other’s backs. Hence the Aft Agley Gang.

Regulators, Mount Up

We will meet four times next week (barring another misplaced winter storm), have five days for a makeshift spring break, and then return for more than seven consecutive weeks of classes. It is a good time to self-assess.

We’ll start on Monday with a period of extemporaneous writing about writing and continue on Tuesday with a period of extemporaneous writing about reading. This worked well when we did it in mid-February, and it works especially well to tie together the writing and reading processes that were disrupted last this week.

The prompts for Monday and Tuesday are below. The first will be posted to Google Classroom at the start of the period on March 26. You will have the next 42 minutes to answer the prompt and submit your response. On Tuesday, March 27, you will answer the provided prompt by hand, with your phones and computers stored until the bell rings at the end of the period.

If you’re doing your job, you should be reading this well in advance of the work itself. That’s why we’re using the term extemporaneous, which has a number of possible meanings in context. You can prepare as much or as little as you like, because the focus will be on the skill of extemporaneous metacognition.

Monday’s Prompt: Character Essay

Here is how we planned out the writing process for your essay on character, starting with a bit of direct instruction on Monday, March 19:

You had the rest of the week, starting on Tuesday, to work with me and each other. The focus, whether you were applying to NHS or not, was on finding an unexpected or surprising approach.

You’ll be asked to submit copies of any and all digital evidence related to your character essay work. This includes final drafts, outlines, and collaborative notes. This evidence will be checked in separately from what you do during class on Monday.

For that in-class writing, you will spend about 40 minutes of a class period writing about the writing. How did you use the notes taken on the whiteboard? How did you use feedback from your peers and teacher? What did you discover in brainstorming, and how did that fit your various intrinsic and extrinsic goals? Most importantly, what did you learn about how you write from this week’s process?

This response must be submitted before you leave and folded into the GAP scoring process that culminates on Thursday, March 29.

Tuesday’s Prompt: The Catcher in the Rye

You started this novel on February 25 with an atypical look at online annotations. Since then, you could have signed out a hard copy of the novel. You’ve also been invited repeatedly to return to the story when you have time, sometimes as an in-class alternative to your formal assignments. It’s now been a month.

On Tuesday, you will spend about 40 minutes of our class period writing about your reading. You should start with what’s going on in the book. How far have you gotten? What’s happening? What do you know? Then you should write your reactions to the novel, including your perspective on the narrator. Finally, you should write about the most important aspect of this process: What have you learned about how you read over the last month?

This response will be written by hand — no computers, phones, etc. — and collected before you leave class on Tuesday. If you are absent, you will have the usual 24 hours to make up the work. It will then be folded into the GAP scoring process that culminates on Thursday, March 29.

Video meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor.

For some of you, these two days of silent, introspective writing are opportunities to focus on what you’ve learned about your learning over the last month. This will put you in the right frame of mind to self-assess as the GAP panel ends, too.

For others, it is your last, best chance to drag your body of evidence out of the lowest tier of profiles and earn a passing score for the quarter. This is it. Look at the threshold for failure:

That untiered set of profiles hangs on our wall. The key language in that 2: “a deliberate and systemic disengagement from the learning process.” It’s repeated a sentence later: “There is no investment in the learning environment.”

If you invest for this entire week of focused self-assessment, writing as much as you can as honestly as you can each day, then you will genuinely fit a higher profile. It’s an incredibly forgiving system.

But if you continue to be weak in virtually all facets of the course? If you continue not to meet even the most basic requirements? You will fail, just as you would in any classroom.

As always, this is about self-control and choice. (And flying guillotines.)

GAP Scoring and Miscellanea

These instructional posts are used to set up our in-class work, so I want to explain a change to the GAP protocol for next week. On Thursday, March 29, you’ll be asked to complete the usual Google Form to self-assess your performance since March 12. In addition, you’ll be asked to submit a link to a Google Drive folder that contains organized evidence.

Here’s what that will look like in Google Classroom:

When clicked, that will open up a folder of evidence that is clearly labeled, like this:

This may require you to make copies of evidence, depending on your existing organizational strategy. It may require you to move a few things around. It should be easy enough, however, to organize your work under one hyperlink. We’ll talk more about the process on Wednesday.

A few more notes:

  • AP students will need to complete both the multiple-choice assignment and the required analysis outside of class, since Monday will be dedicated to something else.
  • Updates to the course calendars will be online as soon as possible, but probably not until spring break.
  • Previous GAP scores will be posted tonight or tomorrow morning. Because of the extensive feedback and data released last week, there will be no further discussion or revisiting these scores.

If you have questions about anything in this post, ask below.