Exile on Fourth Street - Wrapping up the AP Lit Exam Reading

One week ago this morning, I sat down with seven readers and one very gracious leader at Table 89 for the AP Lit Exam reading. Seven days and 1250 essays later, it's time to head home. But first, a few notes from the week that was. . .

I read Question 3, the "open" essay, where students answer a prompt using a major work they've read. This year's question dealt with the concept of being exiled as being both "alienating" and "enriching". I've endured hundreds of essays on Heart of Darkness, Jane Eyre, and Brave New World. Future students should be grateful for this, as I have no intention of ever teaching these titles after this week.

While there were some incredibly lame responses, on the whole, I thought the essays were better this year than last. Unfortunately, they were also much, much longer on average. Our colleagues on Question 1 (poetry) had it much easier; they were finished at 10:00 AM yesterday. The rest of us wrapped up just before 3:00 PM.

This was the first year that both the AP Lit and AP Lang exams were read in Louisville - some 2000 high school and college English teachers under the same roof. 1200 of us gathered Sunday night to hear former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins - some of us got there two hours early to snag a decent seat. Collins is a phenomenal poet, one of the few rock stars of the profession.

The food was edible. That's an improvement over last year's "wouldn't feed it to my dog" rating. We managed to get out for a tasty rack of BBQ ribs at FABD (Frankfort Ave. Beer Depot), where they also serve Oberon on tap. Follow that up with a night at the ballpark with the Louisville Bats, and you have the makings of a wonderful week.

But it will be good to get on a plane at 9:55 and head home.

Live from Louisville - AP Reading 2010 - Monday AM Edition

Billy Collins was AMAZING. But after spending 14 hours in the Kentucky Convention Center, I had a strong desire to have a conference with my pillow. Photos to come, promise.

Lowell has once again made Newsweek's Top High Schools list! Details here.

Live from Louisville - AP Reading 2010

Since the College Board frowns on detailed blogging, I'm going to keep this vague and brief: All is well. Good group of readers at my table, good question, and pretty decent responses to the prompt so far.

Best t-shirt I've seen: "Shakespeare hates your emo poems." Love it.

Tonight's entertainment: Poet Billy Collins (who probably hates emo poems, too). I'll post pics of his visit later tonight.

Today in the Death of Common Sense

Woman sues Google for bad walking instructions. Apparently "Left, Right, Left, Right" was a bit too much for her to comprehend.

Oddly enough, it's an idea straight out of Dances With Wolves

Avatar's James Cameron is part of a group helping the Feds figure out how to stop the BP oil fiasco.