After creating the Visual.ly infographic based upon AP’s previous FRQ exams, I created a more user-friendly guide for teachers and students to use in preparation for their exams. I would love to say that these protocols can also work for Ap Gov., Econ, Macro, Micro, Psychology, and U.S. but we can not since these protocols are based off observations of how the Human Geography rubrics scored each command.

FRQ Writing Command Protocols with Good Examples

Nevertheless, I think they are very good protocols for teaching a student how to answer these types of questions in any class.

I received a writing protocol at an AP conference about 6-7 years ago, and I used to hand it out to students. Though a great jumping off point, my students were still fuzzy on what some of the differences were between certain writing prompts and I also think that this guide better reflects the commands that AP Human Geography use through the most current rubrics.

How I use the guide
I am currently teaching an AP prep course for the social studies this summer for incoming freshman and every day, I am introducing to them a topic of the social studies, giving them some background information, and then teaching them how to tackle one or two of the writing commands. I started with low-order prompts, but now have them working on high-order prompts. I am having them grade their peer’s work based upon if they are following the writing protocols. I then transitioned to have them create the FRQs using both low and high-order questions and have them create general rubrics so that they can grade their peer’s responses. The whole process is working out very well and I am excited to implement these lessons  into my class this year.

Please let me know if you have any constructive criticism.