DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

"About half of the essays I read go wrong at the answer to the prompt." This bit of wisdom shared by an AP test grader for College Board stuck with me. So, I set out to develop a system by which all of my students unpack the prompt and plan their essays before jumping in. Broadly stated, the goal is to generate specifics for what the prompt has phrased generally: If the prompt asks "what factors led to..." the task is to insert three specific factors; if it asks about the "domestic and international challenges..." the task is to list three or four specific domestic challenges and three or four specific international challenges, and so forth. In order to do this, students must always read the prompt twice and then ask themselves, "what do I need to know to answer this question?" Because the APUSH test requires so much outside information, the next step is to use the documents as spring-boards and to play an association game by going through and listing all of the outside information you can associate with a particular document (before even reading the document). As a teacher, the most gratifying thing was to get the students' answer booklets back and to see how students marked up the test itself. I am confident that I could predict fairly accurately how well each student did based on how they marked up the essay question. Please view examples in the gallery below. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.