AP Seminar: End of Semester

The end of the semester in AP Seminar is a bit strange because it falls right in the middle of a giant project--the Individual Research Report and Team Multimedia Presentation-- for us.  That means that next week will be devoted to continuing work on those two projects, and there will not be a midterm exam.

This weekend, students are doing final revisions on their IRRs. Students have had full drafts that they’ve been revising, editing, rethinking, and rewriting for about a week now.  Please help me help them!! Each student is different and you probably know best what they need. Some of them need to stop stressing, hit print, and be DONE.  Some of my students have worried themselves into a frenzy about these essays and need to remember that although they are important, this essay is only 10% of the total AP score. Other students are the exact opposite and need a bit of a fire lit under them to keep them going.  Those students need to revisit the powerpoint I showed them on Friday (on Google Classroom), and spend more time revising based on those guidelines.

Frankly, I think I have more of the first students than the second!! Please encourage your students be honest with themselves about how much work they have left to do. Midterms are stressful enough; they do not need to needlessly add to that stress.

After students submit their IRRs to me, they will work in small groups to mesh their IRRs into one, cohesive, group argument and presentation.  We will be doing trial run-throughs of those presentations at 6pm on Wednesday, January 31.  We would LOVE to have all of you attend!! You are welcome to just watch; last year many parents remarked that they were blown away by the high quality work their students had produced.  You will also be able to give the students feedback on their presentations if you are comfortable doing that. I’ll give you a crash course in how the presentations are scored, and you will be able to give verbal or written feedback if you’d like.

**Feel free to bring younger siblings on 1/31.  My kids will probably be there if my husband is working! We will have snacks and a place for them to hang out if the presentations are too boring for them.

Enjoy your weekend and remind your students to take some breaks from studying!

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