Internalizing the Scoring Guide

My first year as an AP Reader, I’d hear this “internalizing” mumbo-jumbo and wonder when I’d evolve into this higher state of consciousness. I think I was mostly unconscious. Year Two, I would’ve been willing to roll the scoring guide into a paper burrito and eat it if it meant I’d expedite the internalizing. By Year Three, I was on the verge of internalizing, but often kicked myself right out of it by not trusting the process.This year, I experienced extended bouts of scoring guide internalization nirvana. But, it’s like a skittish cat. You can’t acknowledge that you’re aware of it because it will run out faster than gas in your tank.

After a few days of discussing the scoring guide, reading and scoring sample essays, you begin to read with a focused sense of upper and lower range papers and the shades of differences. In fact, initally, I didn’t understand why we were directed to not labor over each paper by reading it three or more times. What I learned was the very thing I’d been teaching my own students for years…trust yourself. . .read it once, twice at most. This is not the same as scanning or reading carelessly or haphazardly.

Eventually, as a reader, you learn to zero in on what will move the essay up the scoring guide food chain. This is what makes those illegible papers so frustrating. It’s difficult, sometimes impossible, to develop a sense of the paper and the writer’s intent when stopping to decode words.

Scoring Guide Guidelines

Readers are directed to remember the time constraints under which students are writing; papers aren’t to be evaluated as if they were out-of-class assignments. The essays are to be considered drafts, and students are to be rewarded for what they do well.

One of the first considerations when reading an essay is to determine if it’s a lower or upper range essay.

Lower range essays:

4 Inadequate

3 a diminished 4

2 Little Success

1 a diminished 2

In the lower range, it’s important to keep in mind that a 3 is NOT an improved 2. Here’s why: a 2 is labeled as having little success because it does one or more of the following:

• misunderstands the prompt
• fails to analyze the strategies used to characterize, in this prompt, scientific research
• substitutes a simpler task by responding to the prompt tangentially with unrelated, inaccurate, or inappropriate explanation

So, to score a paper a 1, it must meet the criteria for a 2, but is especially undeveloped, simplistic, or weak. Generally, papers in these ranges paraphrase, discuss generic issues about scientific research, misunderstand entirely what the author is expressing, and/or contain no analysis.

Here’s the kicker…any evidence of analysis can lift the paper to a 3. That’s why we read all the way through. If there’s a sentence of analysis, I can move the paper from a 2 to a 3. Granted, for a student who’s scoring in these ranges, that might not be all that significant a bump. But, if you’re one of those kids who ran out of time and your other two essays are upper range, this one point difference could be important.

An inadequate paper (a 4) does analyze, but it does so in a limited way, and generally, though the writer’s ideas are understood, the prose reflects immature control. These papers are consistent in their attempt at analysis. Analysis, for our purposes in scoring, is defined as: 1) identifying text features, and 2) explaining how those features mentioned in #1 serve to achieve the writer’s purpose, create an effect. If the paper is less successful and has less control of writing, then it’s a 3.

Moving to the upper range essays:

6 Adequate

7 an enhanced 6

8 Effective

9 an enhanced 8

In the upper range, it’s important to remember that a 7 is NOT a diminished 8, nor is an 8 an improved 7.

An adequate paper (a 6) reflects an overall understanding of the prompt and demonstrates analysis with relatively clear writing. If the paper is more extensive or complete in elaboration, with a more mature writing, it can be bumped to a 7.

Papers that effectively analyze, reflect strong organization, specific elaboration, and-while not without flaws-reflect a mature control of writing are scored as 8s. The writer’s voice is evident in these papers. A 9 is all of the above on steroids. It’s controlled, organized, well-developed, sophisticated, exhibits and maintains a control of language. When it’s a 9, you know it. And though I may be sitting mute in the chair, every time I read a 9, I’m doing the happy dance inside and cheering that kid on because it’s a glorious piece to read.

Now, some of you should have been looking under your keyboards by now wondering what happened to the 5. Oh, yes, the 5…which, oddly enough, is not the between of a 4 and a 6. A 5 is NOT an enhanced 4, not is it a diminished 6.  A 5 must contain analysis, but the explanations are uneven, inconsistent, or limited. Generally, these papers fail to carry the analysis throughout the essay. While they may contain lapses in clarity, a 5 needs to effectively convey the writer’s ideas. It’s one of those papers that I define as having “moments” of effective analysis. You know, the paper you’re rocking along with, then it suddenly plummets into generalizations, then perks up a bit, then swerves off slightly…roller coasterish.

I do hope this post didn’t propel you into a trance that now has you drooling on your monitors. Tomorrow, I’ll post a formula for how score calculations are made, which may serve to remind you why you majored in English.