Timed Digital Prompts

We enter new territory in AP Lang this week with a complete timed digital prompt on AP Classroom. Last week, you tried a close reading and reflected on the process, hopefully garnering some ideas of how to approach your next prompt and prepare for the writing portion of this task. This week, you have a full essay to do, and it is the main assignment this week for AP Lang as I want you to designate time to complete this assignment and give it your full attention. 

Normally, we would have this in class, hard copy, with my eyes watching the clock for you. Now, you have this at home, digital, your own timer. 

I want to reinforce that the directions I am giving you for this prompt, clearly outlined in the lesson plans, is the best means of ascertaining your abilities not just in writing rhetorical analysis but also in the ability to write a digital prompt in the specified time frame. 

Ergo, this is not just a prompt to be evaluated (which I will be doing); this is also a prompt to help you build strategies for the next one. If you do not follow the guidelines/rules/instructions, you may have stronger feedback, but you may not have the base to form strategies for improvement. 

Reminders, observations, and thoughts to read PRIOR to writing the essay: 

• I want to remind you how important it is to be honest with your work, especially with timing situations, while you are digitally on the clock. 
• Whether you are taking the test or not, the ability to respond to a timed prompt is a skill for the AP curriculum, college curriculum, and course curriculum. The justification "I'm not taking the AP exam" is not valid here as this is an assignment for all of you.
• With the fact that you are not receiving a percentage grade, this is the opportunity to test out what you are able to produce in a timed situation and prepare for future activities and actual exams online.
• This prompt has a time limit of 45 minutes, which will be the same for the AP exam. This includes close reading and writing the essay. You then have 5 minutes of time for submitting the exam. 
• You are to take this prompt in one sitting - not look at the prompt, think about it, and come back another day. I am trusting you to do this. 
• If you wifi goes down, stop your timer and then resume with the same time remaining. Do not work on the prompt during this down time. This is why I'm not presetting the timer for the prompt myself (yes, I can do that) as I know tech issues might occur. 
• Yes, do your best, but be prepared to make sacrifices with your close reading and writing to finish on time. And, if something goes wrong, bring that into your strategy for next time.
• As many of you are noting in your reflections, close reading for 3 strategies and writing the essay probably won't be as successful as when in hard copy. Close reading for 2 umbrella strategies and/or shifts is probably the way to go here.
• During close reading, jot down minimal notes to help set up your essay. Do not write out full thesis statements and detailed outlines. Notes could include the strategies you note, references to evidence you may use. 
• If you are given line or paragraph numbers, use those for citations. If you are not given anything for citation, don't worry about it. Yes, I wrote that down. Digital rules.
• The biggest points are for evidence, i.e. the body paragraphs, so that is where you should spend the majority of your time. Don't waste time on writing a long introduction. Set up the context, have a fast analogy, but get into that thesis and the body paragraphs. You can always go back and add more if time permits. 
• If you need to review how to write a rhetorical analysis essay and what to do in timed situations, your classmates did a superior job on our April 7 meeting. 
• As AP has noted, they cannot stop people from "open notes" on these tests. For AP Lang, the only "open notes" could be a thesaurus/dictionary/rhetorical toolbox list. You don't have time to constantly be looking up words, so use this sparingly as to not take away from your writing. 
• We will have one more full timed prompt in a couple weeks, so that you can take this experience and feedback and do better the next time around. 
• We worked on rhetorical analysis almost all of first semester and have been highlighting it during our fourth quarter work. You know how to do this. Put yourself in the writing mental space, welcome the paper fairies into your mind and fingers, and do your best.

Once again, the expectation is you take this prompt as you would in class. Find a quiet place, a timer, and the best connection to wifi and write it. Submit the work, receive the feedback, garner what you can from your experience to better strategize the next time.