Blog Number Six: Stepping Up The Lit Game

My years of high school and middle school classes could be summed up as rising action that leads to a climax- a standardized test that is suppose to sum up all the knowledge I would be expected to absorb throughout the entire year. The concept of standardized testing does not bother me when the material accessed was taught, however the level of education instructed often comes in conflict with the material of the exams. For instance, the TS-CD-CM-CS paragraph format was a virtual doctrine in the beginning of high school, however this format proved to be inapplicable by the time advanced placement classes took writing to a more sophisticated, scholarly level. I had to relearn how to write using outside information, originality, and coordinate my own ideologies with those of an author. As it became clear the content of a paragraph could be open to interpretation, I felt overwhelmed and ill prepared to meet the state's transformed requirements for scoring highly on the written portions of major exams. If there had been a more gradual ascent into erudite writing for a mature audience I would have been much happier with my grades, and my outlook on standardized testing than I was. My teachers did not seem to realize the loftiness of their expectations for our writing abilities when, a year before,  we were taught to communicate in an entirely different, or simpler manner. Frankly, the learning curve for writing in advanced placement courses has personally been a steep hill full of potholes and "updated" rubrics along the way. It took months before a lightbulb was illuminated over my head and I became proficient in writing for a new group of scrutinizing  graders who leave little to the imagination. Essentially, our foundations in writing must be stronger, and relevant to college level diction to ensure students keep ahold of their sanity and maximize their potential in more advanced courses.