As I Lay Dying is a bold choice for the AP Literature open question, and students who pick it tend to be either very prepared or in over their heads. The book gives them plenty to say, but it also invites sprawling summary. Teachers grading practice essays need a clear way to sort the two.

The open question rewards students who fit a novel to the prompt, not the other way around. A student who wants to write about the Bundren family regardless of what is asked will lose points on relevance. Grading should start by checking whether the argument answers the actual question.

From there, you look at the quality of the thesis. The strongest ones make a defensible claim that could be argued against. Weak ones restate the prompt with the novel's name dropped in.

Then comes evidence and commentary, which is where Faulkner tends to trip students up. The novel's structure makes it hard to cite cleanly, and many essays rely on vague references to what a character "does" rather than specific moments. Precision is often the difference between a middle score and a high one.

Using the Rubric Language Students Already Know

Practice essays are more useful when your feedback uses the same categories as the scoring guide students will see on test day. Thesis, evidence and commentary, and sophistication each get their own comment. That helps students connect your feedback to the exam.

• Does the thesis respond directly to the prompt?
• Is evidence specific to identifiable moments in the novel?
• Does commentary explain how the evidence supports the claim?
• Does the essay handle complexity or tension in the text?
• Is the prose clear enough that the argument is easy to follow?

Common Patterns in Faulkner Responses

Many students default to a theme like death or family and stop at the obvious. Encourage them to find tension inside the theme, such as the gap between honoring a promise and honoring a person. That kind of complication is what raises an essay above the average.

Another pattern is overusing character names without explaining who they are. Graders cannot assume knowledge, so a sentence of context is worth including. Students often skip this because they assume the reader has the book open.

Scoring Practice Sets Consistently

If you are grading a set of practice essays, calibrate first. Read two or three together, agree on what earns each point, and then move on. This is easy to skip and hard to fix later.

AI grading tools can help by applying the same scoring criteria to every essay and flagging where thesis, evidence, or commentary is thin. Teachers can then focus their attention on borderline cases. The value is in speed and consistency, not in replacing the reader's judgment.

Helping Students Decide When Faulkner Is the Right Pick

Not every prompt suits this novel. Some students choose it because it feels impressive and then struggle to make it fit. Encourage them to have two or three works ready and to pick based on the question.

Timed practice helps here too. When students try to plan an essay in five minutes, they quickly learn which books they can use and which they cannot. That lesson is worth more than any single piece of feedback.