When choosing the AP Literary Argument prompt for the final essay, we also need to think about the corresponding Authentic Assessment. Whereas the final essay is a purely academic assignment, the Authentic Assessment is a final project that requires students to apply the lessons learned from the literary work to some relevant, real-world situation. Since the final essay is a written product, the Authentic Assessment should primarily be a non-written assignment—such as a speech, a presentation, an exhibit, or a performance. Authentic Assessments are a chance for students to show their understanding of the material in a non-traditional way, using multiple intelligences to create products, presentations, or performances that are shared with a classroom audience in a simulated real-world setting.
​
While it is sometimes helpful to start with the AP Literary Argument prompt and then create a corresponding Authentic Assessment, other times it makes sense to create the Authentic Assessment first and then find the most appropriate AP Literary Argument prompt afterwards. For instance, when reading William Golding's Lord of the Flies, we want students to consider why the boys' island society falls apart. Does Golding suggest that human beings are biologically driven towards violence and need to live in established societies to control their base instincts, or are the boys compelled towards conflict by societal pressures that are artificially created on the island? What accounts for the wide range of reactions to the boys' island environment as represented by Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon? Why is Ralph, in particular, drawn to the three other characters at different times in the novel? How does Ralph's internal struggle represent our own in determining the most appropriate response when faced with conflicting desires, fears, and pressures?
​
To frame this philosophical debate, we introduce three competing theories on human nature espoused by Enlightenment thinkers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and ask students to look for instances in the novel when characters behave in a manner that would support each philosopher's position:
After discussing the competing philosophies, students submit a list ranking the three philosophers in the order that they think most accurately represents the true nature of human beings. With those rankings in hand, the teacher then divides the class into three debate teams. While students are not guaranteed to get their top choice, the goal is that they at least will not get their last choice. Alternatively, the teacher can assign philosophers randomly to different groups.
Once students are divided into groups of four, each group is assigned to defend a specific philosopher's theory as it pertains to the boys' island society in Golding's novel. Even though there will be multiple groups defending the same philosopher, students will work only with their assigned group of four. As students read the book, they will look for evidence supporting their philosopher's claims and for evidence refuting the opposing philosophers' claims. Students use the following matrix to record their observations and craft their arguments:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
If this assignment were simply staged as a three-sided classroom debate, it would be interesting and thought-provoking, but it would not necessarily be an Authentic Assessment. To put the debate in a real-world context, we simulate that each group is a team of academic scholars that has been invited to present its findings at this year's International Conference on Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies in Montreal, Canada, on May 2-3:
To a certain degree, any activity inside a classroom will be somewhat contrived, but the purpose of an Authentic Assessment is to give students an awareness that scholars and academics do, in fact, serve a legitimate purpose in the real world. Events like the International Conference on Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies do exist, and people attend these conferences to learn from experts in the field. The hope is that by advancing our collective knowledge and understanding, we can improve our institutions and create policies that better our society and the world in which we live.
To enhance the authenticity of students' research, we review the aim and goals of the conference and note that our analysis of William Golding's novel fits under the "conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, or theoretical work in all areas of Peace and Conflict Resolution." We argue that our findings, as illustrated in Golding's novel, might advance our collective understanding of human nature, human behavior, and societal conflict. We then distribute the assignment sheet that outlines the debate format:
To make sure that the debate is conducted on a level playing field, students are required to follow the traditional body paragraph outline when presenting their opening, rebuttal, or closing statements. We have adapted the Jane Schaffer body paragraph model, which requires a claim to be supported by two pieces of evidence from the text:
Since Authentic Assessments are presented or performed in front of an audience, we feel it is important that the audience (i.e. the rest of the class) helps evaluate the quality and effectiveness of each performance. In addition to peer assessment, students will also evaluate their own performance in light of the criteria and what they have seen from other students' presentations. We use some variation of the following scorecard to provide a holistic assessment of every Authentic Assessment activity:
To ensure that every activity aligns with the thematic goals of the unit, we have to choose an AP Literary Argument prompt that corresponds with the Authentic Assessment. In looking at AP Literary Argument prompts since 2000, Lord of the Flies was listed as a recommended text on the 2008 and 2015 exams:
2008: In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
​
2015: In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social and political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.
Of the two options, the 2015 prompt seems to correspond most closely with our debate on human nature and why the boys' island society falls apart. When students write the essay, they will have to determine the reason for the boys' depravity. Does Golding suggest that cruelty and violence are a fundamental part of human nature, or are the boys simply products of an uncivilized, primitive environment? How do we account for differences between characters and how they respond to the same environment? Why does Jack so quickly revert to violence and brutality, for instance, while Piggy and Simon never do? There are many viable and valid theories as to why cruelty exists on the island and what Golding wants us to understand about human nature and societal conflict as a result.
​
Ultimately, the Authentic Assessment and the AP Literary Argument prompt should complement each other and provide a clear focus for the unit. Because of time constraints in our four-week courses at Literary Focus, we cannot have a full debate like the one outlined above. We still discuss the contrasting philosophies of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, but we use them to understand why the island society that seems so idyllic at first becomes one filled with such violence and depravity over time. Instead of the 2015 AP Literary Argument prompt focused on cruelty, we instead use the 2008 prompt and ask students to look back on their own childhoods and how they may been "graced by innocence and a sense of wonder" at times as well as having moments of "tribulation and terror." We ask students to consider what lessons they have learned while growing up that they wish they had understood earlier in their lives.
​
To turn these thoughts into an Authentic Assessment, we have students imagine that they have been invited to their local library to share a personal story during a "Children's Story Hour" that gives students an opportunity to articulate some of the wisdom they have gained thus far in their lives with younger children who will one day undergo a similar transition from childhood to adolescence. Students will use the following assignment sheet to prepare their stories and then share them with the whole class or in small-groups, depending on how many students we have in a particular class:​​
As teachers go about choosing the AP Literary Argument prompt and the corresponding Authentic Assessment, they should always keep their thematic goals in mind so that every successive activity and assignment prepares students to be successful on those final assessments. To make sure that our curricular plans maintain a consistent, coherent structure, we always have to keep the end of our units in mind. For that reason, we should begin the planning process by designing our culminating assessments first.