AP SENIOR SEMINAR
This course
is about asking questions. Mr. Addie and I will ask many of them, but we expect
you to ask even more. The level of benefit you receive from Senior Seminar will
depend on how good you become at asking the RIGHT questions. The Advanced
Placement tests in May will ask you tough questions, too, but those of you who
score very well will probably be the ones who probe and ask questions of your
own. The thoughtful student and citizen of our classroom will realize there are
many answers to most questions, and that each answer deserves our respect and
consideration. Let “thoughtful” be the buzzword of Seminar.
Our goal is to prepare you for lives
of responsible citizenship by teaching you to reflect critically on your own
assumptions and beliefs by studying the writing, statements, and actions of
others.
Each Seminar activity will be
followed by the writing of a connecting log. In those logs we will ask you to
explore the issues raised in the Seminar and write concretely and
philosophically about them. You’ll quickly learn the difference between
thoughtfulness, and empty assertions you think sound good, but don’t mean much.
(We call those SGNS---sounds good no substance.) There will be three or four
Seminar activities per quarter, each followed by the writing or a 3 point log
due the next class period. Those logs must be typed.
Portfolio
The portfolio will be your creative
outlet for the first two quarters. You’re half way between teen and adult,
wanting it all but not certain how everything will turn out. You feel
ambivalent and conflicted. You are a perfect candidate for introspective,
complex writing. You’ll need a plan, a word processor, and some courage. Write
poems or college essays or letters to future roommates. It’s up to you. The
final product must be polished and show pride of workmanship. This will be
worth over one third of your grade for first and second quarters.
These essay tests are like the AP
exam and your future college midterms. You will need to think creatively, using
concrete examples from the test. This is the hardest part of my course. I use
the national AP standard for grading, and it’s hard to dispute my judgment since
I’ve been grading the AP exam for twelve years for the
Educational
Testing Service. Although it’s hard to do well on the timed writings, you’ll
feel incredibly accomplished each time you improve your score. They are graded
on a nationally-agreed-upon scale of nine points.
You’ll need it after the timed
writings! Each time you see a Shakespearean play performed live you’ll receive
2 points extra credit (maximum 4 points per quarter.) I’ve reserved half price
seats for The Shakespeare Theatre in D.C. for three plays: Timon of Athens,
Richard II, and Love's Labour's Lost. All will be Sunday
matinees. Seats are limited so reserve early.
You can also receive up to two
points for reading a book from my shelves and writing a two-page response to
it. It must be a book you haven’t received grade credit for reading before.
Your total extra credit cannot exceed four points per quarter.
1984
Their Eyes are Watching God
Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Dead
The Dubliners
Metamorphosis
Poetry by John Donne, Keats,
Tennyson, Atwood, Marvell and others
Choice novel written by a female
(novel into film unit)
Things Fall Apart
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories
Choice novel for GMU Colloquium
At the end of fourth quarter you
will teach freshmen or sophomores. You will have the pleasure of designing a
Seminar for them. This is a difficult and rewarding way to complete the year.
All students in Senior Seminar will
take both the English and Government AP tests in May. You can take either the
AP Language Test (May 7) or the AP Literature Test (May 9) free of charge. If
you take both, you will need to pay for one of them.
Just because Mr. Addie and I are
good guys and love you doesn’t mean we don’t follow the rules. We follow the
rules BECAUSE we’re nice and love you. You’ll be graded according to the
Fairfax County Grading Scale. You’ll receive an interim. Work missed on a day
you’re unexcused absent cannot be made up. Tardies will result in a warning,
then a detention, and (third infraction) an administrative detention. There
will be no sodas in the classroom. All students will respect others and refrain
from behaving in a demeaning fashion. Late work will result in a grade
deduction for each class period. In the case of connecting logs, late logs will
be penalized a point for every calendar day late. An honor code will be in
effect for all assignments and extra credit. Plagiarism, in whole or in part,
as well as cheating and misrepresenting your work are honor code violations.
Mr. Addie and I will remain after
school on Wednesdays and Thursdays for make-up work, extra help, and
detentions.
Portfolio 20
Publication 10
Drafts 6
Timed Writings 18 or 27
Oral Presentations
5 or 10
Connecting Logs
9 (15 first quarter)
The
total points for each quarter will equal 75-100. So each point counts.
In this class, EVERYTHING counts. We
want you to learn and enjoy exploring new ideas and new methods of discussion
and thinking. We hope Senior Seminar will be a learning adventure for you---one
that will never end.