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June 02, 2006
AP Reading - Day 1
As you might expect, the first day is all about norming. What you might not expect, as I didn't, was spending the first full hour introducing ourselves (in tables of 8) while runners brought people copies of missing stuff. (Excuse me, but the room is fully set, nametags and all, and there are copies of stuff missing from various places? Score -5 for preparation).
From a very large stack of sample essays, we were asked to read sets of 3 or 4 and assign scores based on the rubric provided. Then we took a survey of the room to see how well aligned we were. I was surprised, at first, at how central the center of the distribution was. But then I recalled that many of these folks have been doing this for years, so maybe it's not so surprising.
Anyway, here's the deal: The readers for this project at mostly high school teachers who teach AP courses. Some of us are college folk, including my roommate (who reminds me sooo much of my friend Bridget that I keep forgetting her name...). All the student who take the exam answer 3 "free-response" questions. Each of us is assigned to 1 question. Mine is a selection from an Oscar Wilde play (I knew that Victorian Lit specialty would come in handy...).
As you might expect, if you know me, my scores are usually below the room majority. Not by much, but by a point usually. Sometimes I'd right on the norming mark. Sometimes I'm generous. But mostly I'm more critical. I'll have to see how that develops after I've read a few hundred of these things.
The room situation worked out okay, I guess. We're almost 3 miles from the reading site, and there's a shuttle bus on an uncertain schedule. I walked this morning, and I'll walk back again tonight. Since I can't use the fitness center I was planning on having, the walk on the beach seems a good substitute.
Stay tuned for more exciting reading details....
Posted by cageyer at June 2, 2006 09:11 PM