The AP Spanish Exam Email reply is an open-ended task that requires students to demonstrate their interpersonal skills. They need to understand a short letter and respond appropriately. Looking for some quick tips to make this easier for your students? Keep reading!
Tips for the AP Spanish Email Reply #1
Have your students practice finding key information with short readings. Though I think this is the easiest of the 4 open-ended tasks on the AP Exam, the brief amount of time students have is challenging. Have them practice reading and identifying the key information!
Remember: students are looking for the specific reasons for why someone is writing to them. They will show they understand this later when they reply!
AP Spanish Email Reply: Tip #2
Now have them practice quickly identifying the questions that will appear in the body of the email. Teach them to star, underline or highlight those! That will be the major part of their response- the answers to those questions!
Tips for the AP Spanish Email Reply: #3
There are a few special things students should memorize for this task.
1. Estimado/a
Most students never have a reason to know or learn this formal way of starting a letter before AP Spanish. They should memorize it and you should quiz them on it (formally and informally) often!
2. Atentamente, Cordialmente
Same here- most students have never needed to use these formal closings. Make sure they memorize both! Ask them to use whichever closing was NOT used in the original email. It shows depth of vocabulary!
AP Spanish Email Reply: Tip #4
QUESTIONS!
It feels like all I talk about lately is making sure students can and remember to ask questions! : )
Whether for the Seal of Biliteracy tests (like AAPPL) or in this email reply, students must ask questions. It’s a key skill in communication!
For this task, asking questions and requesting more information is where students really show their comprehension of the original email. They need to ask logical questions that have not already been addressed. One pitfall for students’ scores is if they forget to ask follow-up questions. The other pitfall is asking a question that has already been answered in the email.
Good News!
The email reply is a short task, and after the initial instruction on what the task entails, it’s an easy thing to practice quickly! The AP Spanish Classroom has plenty of practices you can do in class, and maybe even assign at home. If you are lucky enough to have a textbook series, they usually have test prep materials. And there are other test prep books that teachers can buy as well that come with pre-made emails for students to reply to, if you don’t want to create your own!
Resources
AP Spanish E-mail Reply: How To
AP Spanish Lesson Plans for the Whole Year without a Textbook
