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AP Seminar is an Inquiry-Based course. That means that students' own interests and curiosity will guide their learning!
AP Classes-the Basics
AP Classes-the Basics
AP CAPSTONE DIPLOMA
AP CAPSTONE DIPLOMA
AP SEMINAR COURSE
AP SEMINAR COURSE
The Foundation
The Foundation
Here's the syllabus, but the core is this:
Course Overview:
Course Overview:
AP Seminar is a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexities of academic and real-world topics and issues by analyzing divergent perspectives. Using an inquiry framework, students practice reading and analyzing articles, research studies, and foundational, literary, and philosophical texts; listening to and viewing speeches, broadcasts, and personal accounts; and experiencing artistic works and performances. Students learn to synthesize information from multiple sources, develop their own perspectives in written essays, and design and deliver oral and visual presentations, both individually and as part of a team. Ultimately, the course aims to equip students with the power to analyze and evaluate information with accuracy and precision in order to craft and communicate evidence-based arguments.
This is a rigorous college-level course. As such, the focus of the course will be on the intensive study of argumentation through the close reading of works from variety of genres, the writing of reports and critical essays as well as through collaborative and individual presentations of researched arguments. Class time will focus on class discussion, some lecture, group and individual presentations, analysis of various works and writing/vocabulary/analytical skills.
This course is taught using an Inquiry Model. What this means is that students are evaluated, not solely on how they perform on exams and assignments, but on their ability to be reflective on their own practice as readers, writers and learners.
Student leadership roles and participation in class discussions are vital to the quality of learning for which we are all responsible.
Student Responsibilities
Student Responsibilities
UBUNTU FRAMEWORK
“I am because you are. If I am not, you are not.”
–translation of Bantu-language term “Ubuntu” by Dr. Ngolela wa Kabongo
In this course we do hard work using skills and texts that many students won’t encounter until college or graduate school. To succeed in this, we will need to make our classroom a scholarly community that supports each person’s dignity. Only then will we be able to accomplish the intellectual and academic work of AP Seminar.
AP Seminar is a rigorous college-level course. This means that we will quite often be attempting assignments that include tasks students are unfamiliar with and that may be outside of students’ comfort zone, particularly when students are used to performing really well and are used to school work feeling easy. The work of Dr. Zaretta Hammond teaches us that students must go through a stage of confusion and uncertainty with new tasks and understandings before they can get to a place of mastery and that the best way for students to work through that hard stage is by talking it through with peers. We will use discussion, co-inquiry, and peer feedback as the pillars of our work in this course, and students will need to rely on each other and become comfortable being vulnerable in sharing their ideas with each other. It will take us a while to build the comfortable rapport we need to offer and receive support from each other but Hammond states:
“Be patient. Remember the rule of the first pancake. Recognize that, like the first pancake, deep discussions are going to be a bit messy in the beginning. But after making some adjustments, the pancakes will come off the griddle round and ready to eat. Similarly, over time students get used to using protocols to take their discussions deeper. This is where the design thinking principles of prototyping and iterating are important.”
AP Seminar requires that team and individual presentations be recorded and stored for up to 3 years to ensure the integrity of the presentation scores. When we record our classmates, the recordings will be used solely for educational purposes. Any use of these videos for harassment or any publication of recordings on social media without the direct and complete consent of all persons appearing in the video constitute a violation of the principle of Ubuntu and the BPS Acceptable Use Policy
OVERVIEW OF AP SEMINAR
OVERVIEW OF AP SEMINAR
Quest Infographic.pdfWhy is AP Seminar Different from Other AP Classes?
Why is AP Seminar Different from Other AP Classes?
Most AP Courses assign students an AP score based on one End-of-Year Exam that students take in May. Students spend all year learning content and receive grades and feedback from their teacher, but only the exam counts in deciding whether students get AP credit for their work.
In AP Seminar, the focus is not on memorizing content or preparing just for one exam. The course is designed to help students build stronger skills in research, critical thinking, collaboration, presentation, and academic writing instead of just taking a test. To do this, the course includes both an End-of-Course Exam and two Performance Tasks that count as part of the final exam, but are completed IN CLASS during the school year.
This means students' AP Scores depend on Group Work and on Independent and Collaborative Projects and Presentations.
This also means that the "test" is much longer--half of the school year's class time is work included in their exam. That also means that the way an AP Seminar teacher interacts with the class during these projects is very different as well since the teacher can't give traditional feedback that would skew the results of the exam.
AP Seminar as ELA 10
AP Seminar as ELA 10
Because of the project-based and independent research focus of the course, AP Seminar can be taught as a course is many different subject areas.
At BLA, we are offering it as an ELA class because we are centering the class on students' writing and text analysis skills.
Students will read some literature in the course, but much less than in a traditional ELA course. Instead they will focus more on nonfiction argument-based reading and writing.
What are the Performance Tasks Like?
What are the Performance Tasks Like?
Purple Colorful Modern Roadmap Timeline Infographic (1).pdfPerformance Task 1: Team Multimedia Presentation
Performance Task 1: Team Multimedia Presentation
Products:
Individual Research Report (1200 words)
Team Multimedia Presentation & Defense (8-10 minutes)
CW 1.2-Syllabus Infographic Group Assignment (1).pdfPerformance Task 2: Individual Research-Based Essay & Presentation
Performance Task 2: Individual Research-Based Essay & Presentation
Products:
Individual Written Argument (2,000 words)
Individual Multimedia Presentation & Defense (6-8 minutes)
What's the End-of-Course Exam Like?
What's the End-of-Course Exam Like?
End of Course exam part A (1).pdf3 Open Response Questions
3 Open Response Questions
Understand & Analyze an Argument
Understand & Analyze an Argument
AP SEM - SYLLABUS INFOGRAPHIC (1).pdf1 Long Essay
1 Long Essay
Evidence-Based Argument Essay
Evidence-Based Argument Essay
What Mrs. Dibinga Believes about Writing Instruction
What Mrs. Dibinga Believes about Writing Instruction
Writing is a conversation on paper.
We can't get better at writing without having a real audience to respond to.
Practicing talking about texts IS practice in how we refine our writing.
Real academics write for other academics. They submit their work to journals where other experts in their field evaluate their work and decide what gets accepted as new knowledge. We can have the same discourse communities ourselves in the classroom and learn to do what academics in colleges do--to put forth and debate ideas, to weigh them and evaluate them, build on them and reapply them.
What Texts Will We Read in Common?
Texts about Argument Analysis & Academic Writing
Texts about Argument Analysis & Academic Writing
Literary Texts
Literary Texts
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