Perspectives on Advanced Placement Literature and Composition

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Perspectives on Advanced Placement Literature and
Composition
Mr Rappleye Welcome The Exam
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Looking at the Exam a frame of reference

• 3 hour exam in early May
• 1 hour 50-60 Multiple Choice Questions
• 2 hours 3 essays
• Poem
• Prose
• Open Question (analytical-expository essay)

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Multiple Choice

• 4 passages period/diversity/canon
• 10-15 questions on each passage
• Close Reading
• Poetry/prose/plays
• Late 16th century to present
• 60 minutes
• weighted 45
• reliability
• available

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Essays

• 3 Essays
• Approximately 40 minutes each
• Sight Reading
• Poem
• Prose
• Open question
• device or theme
• choose a work of merit

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Scoring

• Each Essay read and scored separately, by
  different readers
• Readers are trained for ONE question
• One room reading Each Essay
• Chief Faculty Consultant (1)
• Question Leader (3)
• Table 6 readers and a Table Leader
• 600 readers from around the country
• Experienced High School AP teachers
• College teachers (rhetoric and confidence)

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Reading

• Holistic Scoring
• Scoring Guide
• 9 point scale
• Range Finders
• First half of first day
• Regular checks after that after every break
• Table leaders first days checking scores

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9 point Scale

• First Draft
• Top half or Bottom half?
• Scoring Guide key terms
• Samples--range finders
• Internalizing Standard
• Watch the 5 (Nine Point Scale)
• Use full range

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Touchpoints

• You dont know what the score means in terms of
  final grade
• AP
• 1No Recommendation
• 2Possibly Qualified
• 3 Qualified
• 4Well Qualified
• 5Extremely Well qualified

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Cross referencing

• Standards established by the students
  performance NOT before the essays are read
• Similarities in phrasing but
• Readers results correlated to the MC
• Emphasis on accuracy
• Grading Blind

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Getting to the Final Score

• Raw Score Multiple Choice 45 (67 pts)
• Raw Score of Essays 55 (83 pts)
• FORMULA 150 Point total
• The lines separating 1,2,3,4,and 5 are then
  determined by Chief Reader, looking at results,
  comparing to past in consultation with
  statisticians from ETS.
• What does the score mean?

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FYI...

• 25 Questions on Prose
• Global mean 13.8
• 30 Questions on Poetry
• Global mean 18.5
• Poetry Analysis 4.6
• Prose Analysis 4.6
• Analytical-Expository Essay 5.0

• 1999 AP Lit and Comp Exam
• 176,221 candidates
• FIVE 11.3
• FOUR 21.5
• THREE 35.5
• TWO 26.4
• ONE 5.4

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Implications Habitual focus on COMPLEXITY

• of Tone
• of Characterization
• of Theme
• Also, Cultural Literacy
• Style (composition)
• Timed Testing (practice and preparation)

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To Whom? Various Perspectives on the Exam

• Colleges
• Administration/Marketing
• Studentsdo you know why they are there?
• Marketing?
• College Credit?
• Interest!
• Parents
• ETS
• You!

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My perspective...

• English teacher at MICDS 14 yrs
• Evolution of an AP program
• Coach Cross Country and Track
• Reader for the AP Lit and Comp exam
• try to get involved
• Have taught AP Lit and Comp as
• year long junior level course
• year long senior course
• semester long course

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The Test and YOUR Course

• No required Coverage
• BUT!
• Variety
• Genre
• Period
• Skills Test Close Reading
• Freedom and Limitations

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Limits and/as Opportunities

• Whats Your Unique Situation?
• Whos Paying?
• Texts...
• Teaching to the Test
• Its a good test, but...
• Teaching Your Passion

• What can you Control and what lies beyond your
  control?
• Enrollment
• How many take tests?
• How will You Evaluate your success?
• How will OTHERS?

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Sharing some perspectives

• This Course and how it got that way
• Items for Emphasis Some Things that work
• Items to Mention helpful hints
• Scoring the Exam practice
• Questions