No Wonder I Have a Headache

I just finished scoring three sophomore classes' essays on The Grapes of Wrath, approximately 100 essays. These were written as a response to an AP Literature prompt from a few years ago. This prompt, like nearly all AP Lit prompts, has multiple parts. Invariably, no matter how many parts the prompt has, the last item mentioned is where the bulk of the response is expected, with the other parts providing context for the argument. So this prompt asks students to explain allusions to other texts and then to discuss how the allusions enhance the meaning of the work. Paper after paper, students retold stories from the Bible but never got around to discussing how those stories enhance John Steinbeck's meaning. Some students chose the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the source of the analogies but for some reason more than half of them thought Lee Greenwood wrote that song. The allusions enhance Steinbeck's work because of their messages of faith, hope, charity, righteousness, etc. Simply writing that Moses led the Israelis around in the desert and that this is similar to the Joads' trip on Route 66 is not what the College Board expects. If you think that Lee Greenwood rather than Julia Ward Howe wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", it's not surprising that you cannot make a connection between the sentiment behind the song and the meaning of the text. Most students did poorly because they didn't answer the question asked. Even students whose papers didn't have many grammar errors had serious errors in addressing the crux of the prompt.

Small wonder that I have a reputation for being mean even though meanness is not my motivation. I want all of these students to do well. I want them to read and enjoy good literature, to think about all of those human aspirations it expresses, not just think of the AP exam as an avenue to score well and pad that resume.

Anyway, I have a headache but at least I can return to sewing now that I have spent ten hours over the last three days reading dreck. The new quilt is either named Felix Navidad II or "If Athletes Get Athlete's Foot, What Do Astronauts Get?"