Welcome to the 2022 School Year

 Hello parents, guardians, and students!

In the years prior to the shutdown of March 2020, I enjoyed keeping parents in the loop with weekly (or sometimes monthly!) blog. When my son was in elementary school, I was struck by how much I knew about his daily activities in school. I realized that at the secondary level the parents and guardians are a little more out of the loop unless you're lucky enough to have a chatty kid!  For those of you wanting more information or hoping for insight about how to support your student in AP English Language and Composition or AP Seminar, this blog will be for you! If you're too busy to keep up with my ramblings, no pressure to read each month. This is truly just an extra support. 

For this first post, just some quick info about each class.

AP English Language and Composition 
The link will take you to the College Board's official page and more information about the exam and the curriculum than you could ever want! 

Here are the basics:
This is considered a college level composition class. Students who score well on the test (a 4 or a 5) typically will receive credit for Freshman Composition at many universities. This varies from college to college so students should do some investigating to find out what type of credit they will be eligible to receive.  

The bulk of our work in this class will be reading professional writing to analyze the choices writers make to accomplish certain purposes. If a writer is trying to convince me of something, how does he do it?  How does he structure his text? What language choices does he make? What types of evidence does he include?  

Once we get good at reading like writers, then we will WRITE like writers! Students will practice crafting their own arguments with their audience in mind. They will make choices about language, structure, and evidence to make the most compelling arguments. 

What should you see/hear at home? Lots of reading and occasional writing! I work very hard to give students ample time to confer with me about their writing and practice strategies in class.  Students should be doing about 30 minutes of homework (usually reading) each night.  If students are doing more than that, they're probably not using their class time well. If students are doing LESS than that (or telling you they have "nothing" to do for my class) then they are not fully engaging in our practice activities or taking their own reading seriously. 

AP Seminar
The link will take you to the College Board's official page and more information about the exam and the curriculum than you could ever want! 

Here are the basics:
This is the first year of a two year Capstone experience for Advanced Placement. Students who take AP Seminar this year (and pass the exam!) will be eligible to take AP Research as seniors. Those two courses plus 4 additional AP exams will qualify them for an AP Capstone diploma.  

The Capstone diploma is worth wildly different things at different universities because it is a relatively new program (about 8 years).  Some schools give preference in admissions to Capstone students, some grant humanities or English credits, and others give elective credit. 

The main focus of our work in AP Seminar is to learn how to do academic research. Students will learn to navigate academic databases, read and analyze complex texts, and use their research to write formal, academic research papers. Students have a great deal of choice regarding their topics; the goal of the program is to give students an opportunity to engage in higher level research in an area of their interest.   In addition to a traditional AP Exam in May, students will also submit two formal research papers to the College Board for scoring and two videotaped presentations of their research for external scoring. 

I'm looking forward to connecting with all of you at some point this semester! Please never hesitate to reach out with questions if you have them. 

​--Mrs. Maguire