In my 20 years of teaching, I’ve avoided the use of essay, thesis, and other writing templates. I know that students like them and they’re popular teaching tools, but I have always felt that they limit a student’s natural writing curiosity and creativity.
However, I’ve noticed something in the past few years. 1) My students don’t have a great deal of natural writing creativity. 2) Students value a score more than the learning experience, so they would rather write a high-scoring essay than express themselves in a unique way.
Basically, this is my long way of saying I created an essay writing template for my AP Lit students. I’m not terribly happy about it, but I do think my students found it helpful and yours will too.
How it started
Several weeks ago, my students took their first timed writing. I very stupidly decided to tell them about complexity, line of reasoning, and sophistication—five minutes before they started the essay. Of course, they panicked. I tried to give some insight, but I ended up making the assignment ungraded.
To help students with complexity, I made this graphic that I posted online. The principles are based on a post I found on the AP Lit Facebook group (sorry I can’t remember the name of the original poster). The samples I wrote myself.
What’s included
This last week, my students wrote their first real timed writing. This time, I was prepared to tell them all things complexity, as well as suggest how to lay out their essay.
For the template, I wanted to give students brainstorming space to lay out their essays. On the right, I define a few terms and words I use in my teaching:
- Claim
- APE (Assert, Prove, Explain)
- Complexity (mirroring the graphic I made previously)
- Line of reasoning
While this is not THE way to write an essay (a reason I avoid templates), it is the way I write an essay. And to prove this, I wrote a sample essay analyzing complexity in “The Story of an Hour.” Then, I color-coded it to show how it fits the template.
How to get it
This resource is a free download on TpT and in my Free Resource Library. I hope you find it helpful!
Please note that it isn’t editable. And, once again, this is just my process for writing an AP Lit essay, not THE process. Use as you see fit!
You are amazing. I’ve taught literature for years in college and HS, but this is my first year teaching AP and your curriculum is both (from the first timer perspective) saving my life and (from the veteran perspective) a deeply impressive body of pedagogical work. Keep it up!! I hope they appreciate you where you work!!
fantastic timing! first time AP Lit teacher and we just pulled in our first on demands. They were *okay* – not great. But I was just thinking I needed to find a way to frame feedback into something more tangible and your email floated into my inbox. This is just what I was looking for!