9th grade APS for Blair SMCS magnet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying SOOOO hard to convince my rising 9th grader at the Blair SMCS to not take APUSH (which is being offered for the first time next year). She really wants to make sure she is a good writer and is worried are that the SMCS classes will be great but humanities won't be, so she will graduate without well-developed writing skills. Ninth grade in the magnet seems so intense - I don't like the idea of making it even harder. Anybody willing to give me more ammunition for her to not do this, please reply away

I had the same discussion with my rising 9th grade SMSC student. Before the high school decisions came out there had been s solid push at his middle school to encourage kids to take APUSH and it worked - he was convinced and excited about getting an AP in 9th. Then he got a place in the magnet and they discouraged it. Ultimately he decided against APUSH because 1) the magnet program advised against it unless you love history and 2) he learned that it requires a very heavy reading load of very dry history text books (hours a night) and though he loves reading that didn’t sound fun. I think the magnet workload will be intense enough that there’s no reason to add to it at this point.

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I teach APUSH and I can almost guarantee that this is not how it is being taught. If you are lucky enough to have a textbook, it is probably no more than 10 pages a night, and the books usually aren't dry. But 9th graders, even smart ones, would do well to wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying SOOOO hard to convince my rising 9th grader at the Blair SMCS to not take APUSH (which is being offered for the first time next year). She really wants to make sure she is a good writer and is worried are that the SMCS classes will be great but humanities won't be, so she will graduate without well-developed writing skills. Ninth grade in the magnet seems so intense - I don't like the idea of making it even harder. Anybody willing to give me more ammunition for her to not do this, please reply away

I had the same discussion with my rising 9th grade SMSC student. Before the high school decisions came out there had been s solid push at his middle school to encourage kids to take APUSH and it worked - he was convinced and excited about getting an AP in 9th. Then he got a place in the magnet and they discouraged it. Ultimately he decided against APUSH because 1) the magnet program advised against it unless you love history and 2) he learned that it requires a very heavy reading load of very dry history text books (hours a night) and though he loves reading that didn’t sound fun. I think the magnet workload will be intense enough that there’s no reason to add to it at this point.

.

I teach APUSH and I can almost guarantee that this is not how it is being taught. If you are lucky enough to have a textbook, it is probably no more than 10 pages a night, and the books usually aren't dry. But 9th graders, even smart ones, would do well to wait.

10 pages of a very heavy history text book can take a long time. These are reports from kids taking APUSH. Smart kids who are used to heavy reading who have advised that it takes a couple of hours a night to get through the reading even if it’s only 10 pages. I am going to guess that as a history teacher you love that type of reading but for most people esp 14 year olds that is intense.

[Anonymous]

Can you suggest a text for us to have my kid look at to see how hard the text if for her to absorb? We need to let Blair know before the end of the year if we change our mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am trying SOOOO hard to convince my rising 9th grader at the Blair SMCS to not take APUSH (which is being offered for the first time next year). She really wants to make sure she is a good writer and is worried are that the SMCS classes will be great but humanities won't be, so she will graduate without well-developed writing skills. Ninth grade in the magnet seems so intense - I don't like the idea of making it even harder. Anybody willing to give me more ammunition for her to not do this, please reply away

Wait, you mean to tell me, the kids are not taught to write in English classes? How are the honors English courses in the magnet? How many books do the children read eaxh year and how much writing is being done? I hope the program emphasizes writing because it is just as important to have excellent writers and communicators in STEM. How much writing is taking place in APUSH?

Anyone who have had kids pass through the magnet program care to enlighten us on what kids are doing in honors English. Are these the same honors English courses as those being taught to the rest of the Blair kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying SOOOO hard to convince my rising 9th grader at the Blair SMCS to not take APUSH (which is being offered for the first time next year). She really wants to make sure she is a good writer and is worried are that the SMCS classes will be great but humanities won't be, so she will graduate without well-developed writing skills. Ninth grade in the magnet seems so intense - I don't like the idea of making it even harder. Anybody willing to give me more ammunition for her to not do this, please reply away

Wait, you mean to tell me, the kids are not taught to write in English classes? How are the honors English courses in the magnet? How many books do the children read eaxh year and how much writing is being done? I hope the program emphasizes writing because it is just as important to have excellent writers and communicators in STEM. How much writing is taking place in APUSH?

Anyone who have had kids pass through the magnet program care to enlighten us on what kids are doing in honors English. Are these the same honors English courses as those being taught to the rest of the Blair kids?

English and social studies are not part of the magnet. Only math, science and computer science classes are part of the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Your Magnet kids usually takes Honors English in 9/10 and then in 11/12 either Honors or AP English. The same applies to History. Usually Honors in 9, then many take AP in 10/11. We have found the English and History classes at Blair to be Very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your Magnet kids usually takes Honors English in 9/10 and then in 11/12 either Honors or AP English. The same applies to History. Usually Honors in 9, then many take AP in 10/11. We have found the English and History classes at Blair to be Very good.

My non-magnet Blair kid takes the same classes and says their fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many have the average kid taken by the end of 11th or 12th grade?

The average is 8~9 by 11th. The magnet Program isn’t ap oriented. The coordinator was clear about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many have the average kid taken by the end of 11th or 12th grade?

The average is 8~9 by 11th. The magnet Program isn’t ap oriented. The coordinator was clear about that.

Most take

AP NSL
AP Calc BC
AP CS
AP Lang
AP Foreign Lang
AP Psyc | AP Econ
AP Bio

Some may also take a few of these
AP World Hist
AP Lit
AP FL Lit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am trying SOOOO hard to convince my rising 9th grader at the Blair SMCS to not take APUSH (which is being offered for the first time next year). She really wants to make sure she is a good writer and is worried are that the SMCS classes will be great but humanities won't be, so she will graduate without well-developed writing skills. Ninth grade in the magnet seems so intense - I don't like the idea of making it even harder. Anybody willing to give me more ammunition for her to not do this, please reply away

Is there an option to do AP Gov freshman year and APUSH sophomore? My former Eastern magnet kid did it in that order, and says it’s definitely the way to go. AP Gov is a good on-ramp to the AP framework without requiring an insane amount of specific content, and the readings are slightly less dense.

But most SMCS kids are generally smart enough to manage the APUSH workload, I’d think. Mine found the readings were easier to get through quickly if they first listened to the textbook chapter while on the bus, doing chores, etc. It was much easier to pull out important details while taking notes if they’d had an overview of the whole chapter first. (Class had a print textbook, plus an online version available so they didn’t have to hail the giant print book around. Kid used a screen reader to get the audio.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many have the average kid taken by the end of 11th or 12th grade?

The average is 8~9 by 11th. The magnet Program isn’t ap oriented. The coordinator was clear about that.

Most take
AP NSL
AP Calc BC
AP CS
AP Lang
AP Foreign Lang
AP Psyc | AP Econ
AP Bio

Some may also take a few of these
AP World Hist
AP Lit
AP FL Lit

include AP STATS under most take list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying SOOOO hard to convince my rising 9th grader at the Blair SMCS to not take APUSH (which is being offered for the first time next year). She really wants to make sure she is a good writer and is worried are that the SMCS classes will be great but humanities won't be, so she will graduate without well-developed writing skills. Ninth grade in the magnet seems so intense - I don't like the idea of making it even harder. Anybody willing to give me more ammunition for her to not do this, please reply away

Is there an option to do AP Gov freshman year and APUSH sophomore? My former Eastern magnet kid did it in that order, and says it’s definitely the way to go. AP Gov is a good on-ramp to the AP framework without requiring an insane amount of specific content, and the readings are slightly less dense.

But most SMCS kids are generally smart enough to manage the APUSH workload, I’d think. Mine found the readings were easier to get through quickly if they first listened to the textbook chapter while on the bus, doing chores, etc. It was much easier to pull out important details while taking notes if they’d had an overview of the whole chapter first. (Class had a print textbook, plus an online version available so they didn’t have to hail the giant print book around. Kid used a screen reader to get the audio.)

Blair seems to want kids to take USH in 9th and NSL in 10th. I'm guessing this has to do with studying USH in 8th, but you got me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many have the average kid taken by the end of 11th or 12th grade?

The average is 8~9 by 11th. The magnet Program isn’t ap oriented. The coordinator was clear about that.

Most take

AP NSL
AP Calc BC
AP CS
AP Lang
AP Foreign Lang
AP Psyc | AP Econ
AP Bio

Some may also take a few of these
AP World Hist
AP Lit
AP FL Lit

I would add Stats, World and Lit to "most take" list and remove Econ & Psych and maybe Bio. Sure some take these, but I don't think it's most.