So close…
…From (Literally) Dark Clouds
Well, that was unexpected. Where I live, the storm tore up the trees and knocked out the power for a day, but everyone is safe; I hope you can all say the same.
To Twitter for an update on your AP exam:
Due to BCSD being closed on 5/16, all students scheduled to take the AP English Language exam today will instead take the exam during the late administration period on May 23rd. Mrs. Sullivan will be in touch with more details. @brewsterschools @BHS_class_of_19 @BrewsterHS18
— Michelle Gosh, Ed.D. (@BCSD_Asst_Supt) May 16, 2018
May 23 is next Wednesday. Here is the silver lining: You have another week to prepare. You also have another weekend to do the assigned test prep, which is a lucky thing for some of you.
I will adjust the deadlines for anything that posted recently to Google Classroom, so if you see a Friday or weekend deadline, expect that to change. I’ll make sure you all have time in class for GAP reports, since some folks are without power right now.
The TL;DR here, however, is that anyone who didn’t do any part of the assigned test prep over the last two weeks is now expected to make up that work by next Tuesday. That’s a practice test requiring three hours and fifteen minutes, plus data entry, writing revisions, and a bit of metacognition.
About two dozen of you never input your multiple-choice answers. Many of you, whether you wrote responses to the free-response questions or not, never got to the revisions and metacognition.
That’s obviously a poor way to prepare for a high-stakes exam, but it’s also a poor way to build evidence for any sort of profile. Here’s what I have on my end for the GAP period that ends tomorrow, May 18:
That’s lifted from Google Sheets. As always, there’s in-class focus and individualized work to consider, but this is pretty much it: AP exam prep, a couple of quasi-optional responses1, and your end-of-panel GAP reports.
Start by visiting the post from April 29:
That is the first thing you see on the main instructional page of this website, and an entire bookshelf in Room 210 was overtaken, like so much Southern kudzu, by physical copies of this stuff. For a couple of weeks now, you have had one goal: Prepare to take down the AP exam on May 16.
So you need to do this prep. You’ve been given another chance, and that will make it much more damning if you do nothing. Here are the other two posts you need to consider, including the one from May 15:
Q4B GAP scores will be run for students in AP at some point early next week. Q4A scores will be up tonight. If you are missing any part of the test prep assigned on April 29, you have three or four days to get it done.
About Q4A
Most of you got a massive extension on the start of Q4, because it all had a purpose tied to the exam and the end of the year. Consider:
- 4x Onomatopoeia Quizzes on Grammar as Rhetoric and Style
- GARAS Review
- GARAS: Final Analysis
All of the grammar work was collaborative, open-note, etc., and built to boost your writing and reading on the exam, plus every other exam you take as juniors. Absolutely essential stuff.
- Pareto Project: Final Goals
This is what we’ll use to set up the last three weeks of the year. Pretty essential, considering it’s been a project since September.
- GAP Evidence and Formal Self-Assessment
This, too, was essential: An in-class, incremental look at your learning profile for the start of Q4. The form was much more substantial, so that finishing it would almost automatically produce the metacognition and reflection you need.
If you see a GAP score you don’t like, you didn’t do some of that. Make sure you do a little detective work on your own before asking about a profile score.
If you have questions about the rescheduled exam, the test prep, or anything else expected over the next few days, you can ask here or in the comment section of the appropriate post. Hopefully, we’ll see each other tomorrow to talk in person.
Meanwhile:
And that exam debriefing is going to need to be truncated considerably. By the time you get back to class from the AP exam, it will be only three weeks before the end of the year. ↩