AP for ALL

You will explore college-level literature and work to produce college-level writing. Through this process, you will be challenged to examine the relationship between literature and our thoughts, perceptions, and understandings of the world. Through intellectual ‘play’ we will breathe new life into these works, and maybe discover that their vibrancy hasn’t yet faded. In our investigations, we will critically expose the implicit and explicit cultural assumptions embedded in literature and learn to express our insights and analytical understandings of literature. We will “compose” our thoughts in various means: Socratic seminars, presentations, creative expression, small group discussion, and of course writing in different genres with different audiences and voices. We will emphasize the writing workshop and the use of feedback in revision.

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is designed with college-level English courses in mind, leading to a dual focus on critical, engaged reading of difficult texts and skillful writing for a variety of audiences and purposes. Students in this course will read both fiction and nonfiction in a wide range of styles and rhetorical contexts. They will respond to these texts orally and in writing in debates, online forums, presentations, classroom writing exercises, essays and creative projects, learning to synthesize multiple sources in their own works. In studying language, students will learn about writing technique specific to a writer’s purpose, audience expectations, genre and subject; students will also study grammar, conventions and the writing process to gain better control of their writing. More importantly, though, this course is dedicated to student writers. Students will write frequently, focusing on rhetoric and style as they analyze, imitate or argue with model texts. Many of their assignments will be low-stakes or ungraded to encourage creativity and growth, and they will learn to rely on peer editors and self-reflection for daily feedback. Through assignments ranging from synthesis papers to definition essays to rhetorical analyses to fictional narratives students will not only become well-prepared for the spring AP exam but will become better analysts of and communicators about their world.

AP Statistics is a yearlong course in which students study topics generally covered in an introductory statistics course at the university level. The four major topics covered are:

1. Analyzing Data

2. Experimental Design

3. Probability

4. Statistical Inference

The course is a mixture of lecture, group activities, paired problem solving, and class discussion.

The Advanced Placement biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a college introductory biology course usually taken by biology majors during their first year. After showing themselves to be qualified on the Advanced Placement Examination, some students, as college freshmen, are permitted to undertake upper-level courses in biology or register for other courses for which biology is a prerequisite. Other students may have fulfilled the laboratory science requirement or a pre-professional requirement and will be able to undertake other courses.

This is a double period full year Art course. The AP Studio Art portfolios are designed for students who are seriously interested in the practical experience of art. AP Studio Art is evaluated on the submission of a portfolio at the end of the year.