Matthew worked on the essay portion of an AP practice exam during today's session. He will complete the exam tonight and we will review and edit his essays and review his MCQ results in class tomorrow.
Today's session addressed the AP synthesis essay. Although JP studied the six sources, he encountered difficulty generating a thesis that did more than repeat the opinion of one of the sources. As such, I provided instruction and modeling for crafting the AP synthesis essay. On the board, I demonstrated how to begin the essay with a provocative idea followed by a thesis that was original yet responded to the topic :Should space travel be privatized ? I then explained how to use the sources to support a claim and provided JP an outline for proceeding. For homework, he will complete the essay and the MCQ Test 1 practice questions.
Matthew continued working on the synthesis essay portion of an AP Practice Exam. We reviewed how to form an original thesis from the six sources provided by the exam, as well as how to incorporate the given topic into the thesis paragraph. Last, we examined how to use the first paragraph to establish a line of reasoning to preview the essay's argument.
As the AP exam gives students a 15 minute reading period prior to commencing the timed essays, we today began examining the essay portion of a practice test by first reading all of the essay material which includes 6 sources for the synthesis essay, an argumentative prompt, and a speech . Matthew then began his synthesis essay in class. We worked on pacing and toward the end of the session, I reviewed the first paragraphs of Matthew's essay and provided direction on avoiding merely summarizing sources rather than creating and arguing a thesis .
We first reviewed the synthesis essay JP drafted over the weekend. I provided comments on the need for a clear specific thesis and noted that JP's diction, transitions , and style were very good. I reminded JP to add concession and acknowledgment to his essay. JP then began working on a synthesis essay from our first practice test which we will review this week along with his practice MCQ responses.
We reviewed JP's AP MCQ assignment as a foundation for instruction on the use of transitions to signal differences and similarities. I placed on the board a series of "But" transitions such as "however, despite, while ,and although" and we then applied the instruction to a sample AP question on transition phrases that illustrate contrast. We then worked on forming a thesis statement for the synthesis essay . I provided suggestions for consideration with a goal toward guiding the essay away from just a mere repetition of the claims of the source material. JP then analyzed the sources and crafted a thesis and some ideas for an essay introduction.
