AP Seminar in 10th Grade

[Anonymous]

My DD's school is now offering AP Seminar in 10th grade as an alternative to English 10 Honors. (This is an FCPS school). I've looked at the AP website to learn more about AP Seminar but am interested in hearing student experiences and pros and cons to taking it in 10th grade in place of English 10 Honors. I actually haven't been able to find much on the content of English 10 Honors as a comparison on the FCPS website (it's a very generic description with teachers being able to do their own curriculum). In any case, would love to hear student experiences with AP Seminar! My DD is an A student in honors classes. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Seems like it should be an elective, not an alternative to English.

[Anonymous]

Post to regular FCPS Forum as it is a HS class and not really related to AAP since anyone can register for it. My child's HS also just sent out this email for a 9th grade AP Geo and a 10th grade AP English(Seminar??) that they are piloting next year. No one will have info for you because next year will be the first year for these classes. These classes are new AP classes that College Board has created. Similar to AP Pre Calc this year(a bunch of posters claimed this 'would be" a watered down class for kids who normally would not take an AP course.Not the case at our HS. It is extremely difficult and the teachers are having/had a hard time teaching it because there was not much guidance. My typical A math student has struggles to keep a B/B+ but this IS what AP if suppose to be... A challenging college level course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Post to regular FCPS Forum as it is a HS class and not really related to AAP since anyone can register for it. My child's HS also just sent out this email for a 9th grade AP Geo and a 10th grade AP English(Seminar??) that they are piloting next year. No one will have info for you because next year will be the first year for these classes. These classes are new AP classes that College Board has created. Similar to AP Pre Calc this year(a bunch of posters claimed this 'would be" a watered down class for kids who normally would not take an AP course.Not the case at our HS. It is extremely difficult and the teachers are having/had a hard time teaching it because there was not much guidance. My typical A math student has struggles to keep a B/B+ but this IS what AP if suppose to be... A challenging college level course.

I highly doubt that AP precalc is a "challenging college level course". It is much more likely that the students are struggling partially as a consequence of teachers not being able to teach the new course.

Most teachers do not have math or science degrees and can only teach math procedurally, unless they have proper training. It's doubtful the college board provides the type of training that teachers need to elevate their methods.

[Anonymous]

Most teachers at the High School level who teach Math have a degree in math. I’m not sure where you think that this is not the norm. But I do agree that when a new AP comes out from the College Board, it take teachers a few years to figure out how to effectively teach the concepts/Curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most teachers at the High School level who teach Math have a degree in math. I’m not sure where you think that this is not the norm. But I do agree that when a new AP comes out from the College Board, it take teachers a few years to figure out how to effectively teach the concepts/Curriculum.

I guess I should have said they have a Education degree concentrating in math to be more accurate. The teachers at our high school all have their math specialties in terms of what they prefer to focus on teaching but they may get stuck teaching something that is less familiar to them as in AP Pre Calc