Help! --Lucy Whitman Sandmeyer

Overall this year, I thought you did a very effective job teaching to the test. Probably the most notable suggestion I have is to review analysis once more before the test in more detail, maybe through a written but ungraded prompt. I know some people sort of felt like the rug was being pulled from under them when we suddenly started the synthesis and argument but I liked how we only did a couple of those. The problem was, I completely forgot how to write an analysis by the AP test. One of the things I did feel like was missing, and this could have just been a time issue, was taking a paper through the whole writing process. This might not be a direct improvement for the quick draft skills the AP test demands but just to make us better writers in general. I also love real feedback on my writing so as much as we can capitalize on that the better.

            I was really bad at scoring because I find it hard to make a distinction between how I judge it in the class and how an AP scorer would judge it. Maybe you could run through a set of examples at the beginning while emphasizing the describing words (effective, little success, etc) instead of the specifics of the rubric because I feel like that’s easier to classify/comprehend. We had this discussion a little in class but the more technical stuff we learn at the beginning (Trimble, etc) can be given as homework a little more since it’s not necessary to read it in class, just discuss it. The last thing I want to talk about is homework. While I truly appreciate how little we had over all, the bursts where we did (both finals, Socratic seminar) was an unexpected amount of work that took a lot of time. For all of those projects, I think it’d be great if you’d warn us a little more in advance just so we aren’t caught so off guard.

            What I can say very genuinely is thank you for actually making me consistently write things and then setting it up so I get real, constructive feedback. That was cool. Also, thanks for being chill.