“Did I” Sheets

Purpose

To provide students an opportunity to write essays on par with exam expectations by building student-friendly criteria and providing students the opportunity to review their own work using the same criteria.

Outcome

Students who understand expectations and have practiced essay writing to the expected performance level on the exam will have the experience and skills needed to perform to their potential on exam day.

Action Steps

  • Use anchor papers for any of the Essays or FRQs on the AP Exam. Analyze these for content, organization, quantity, and quality in conjunction with the CollegeBoard rubric to ascertain the characteristics of a high scoring response.
  • Take that information and organize it into student-friendly language and organization and then put it in list form.
  • Teach students to annotate and analyze a sample student response using the criteria checklist (Did I Sheet). Once they understand the checklist criteria, have them apply it to their own writing and their peers’ writing.
  • Repeat this process each time they practice writing so that they internalize the criteria.

Addendum

Citations

Are these strategies helpful?