<p>The high school where I teach will be going to a straight 4 x 4 block schedule this year and offers no form of combining individual AP classes within one class period to enable the class to be taught all year. This means that the students in the 2 sections of AP Language that I'll teach first term will have to take the AP exam in May - months after they've finished the course. Although I'd like to think that everything they've learned will stick with them until the exam, I'm actually pretty horrified about the situation. Any advice from students who've been in this situation or teachers who've taught under this type of schedule would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Maybe you could host a review session sometime in May and invite everyone to participate? Many AP teachers at our school offer this (even though we don’t have 4x4 block scheduling); and from what I’ve heard, it’s a great way to refresh the student’s memory :] Those who are willing to put effort into their studies and get a 5 will attend.</p>
<p>We have a few semester APs, notably US Govt and Macroeconomics which almost all seniors take, and the teachers hold a series of reviews before the AP (generally these occur during standardized testing days that seniors don’t have to attend, but you probably won’t have that nice time slot). Teachers also make up review packets that any first semester student can take. The problem is that instead of being able to review during class, all of these review methods require more outside work from the teachers.</p>
<p>My school had this last year, and I think a lot of teachers had reviews (not that I went to them :D).</p>
<p>Actually when I was in AP Lang I thought that the couple practice tests I took after school were a lot more useful than anything we really did in class, so just holding a few mock tests over the course of the spring should be good enough.</p>
<p>That’s going to be really tough on your kids in both semesters, I couldn’t imagine reading the ten or so books in only a semester… But anyways, the guy above who said the study session reviews is right, those help a lot. And also, I’d say if you can get your hands on any practice AP tests before May, pick out a Saturday or something where a lot of kids will be able to come and freshen up. I can honestly say I didn’t learn anything in AP Lang for the AP test until April.</p>
<p>The review session is a great idea, and offering “practice tests” is awesome. However, my very limited experience with my 2 D’s and their friends are that the kids who generally get A’s are going to do well on the AP Lang exam, no matter whether the class lasts all year, lasts just the first semester, or the kid doesn’t even take the class. It is the strong skills that they’ve gained in general in English that will dictate how well they do.</p>
<p>AP English Lang is unlike most of the other AP classes, where it’s not crammed with facts, figures, equations, and laws. Building a strong foundation in English (supplemented with taking a few practice exams to get the feel for the types of questions, and identifying the ones you need more practice on) is IMO the best predictor of performance. I had 2 kids…one who took both AP Lang and AP Lit, got A’s in both the classes, (hated both the classes—she’s a math/science geek), and got 5’s on both the exams. 2nd kid went by sisters’ advice, took honors level Eng classes to allow for more time to work in other AP classes (and flew through with A’s), registered for the AP English exams, and got "5"s on both. For both AP tests, 2nd D read some of the required reading that the AP kids were reading in class, and knew what to expect for the essays.</p>
<p>Oh, I completely forgot the fact that you teach AP English Language (rather important thing to forget) - anyways, I agree with astrophysicsmom that you’re going to be much better off than the teachers of certain other courses which involve more memorization. In my rather limited experience as a student, the AP tested mainly the types of critical reading and writing skills which are much easier to retain than facts and dates and equations.</p>
<p>Wow. I just joined college confidential today to get some ideas about how to handle this issue. Thanks for sharing your experiences and ideas; now I feel much more relaxed about the class. I’m going to take all the advice - review packets, Saturday review sessions, and Saturday practice tests. I guess I’ll have to reduce the number of novels, but although I think that’s a great part of the class that I hate for them to miss out on, it’s not really essential for the AP Lang exam. Thanks, everyone!</p>
<p>LOL. Our school district is going from a 4x4 to a 6x3.
Anyways, the AP classes are either year long or with A and B days.</p>
<p>Review sessions would be optimal.</p>
<p>Isn’t the class time extended though?
Don’t cut down on novels. There’s not that much that’s different, except you cover more in one day.</p>