IB vs AP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

My child is at an FCPS school and read 6 novels in their junior year of IB English Literature HL and has 7 assigned this year.

+1. PP where do you teach IB? I thank you for your perspective but that has not been the experience at our IB school. Wouldn’t it be uniform everywhere since IB has certain requirements?

+1 IB HL English requires 13 literary texts. They also focus on close analysis and extensive writing. IB SL does 9 texts. This is not accurate at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

Bc anyone can come in here and claim to be something they are not? I have no issue with a teacher saying she prefers one program over the other. But when you make stuff up, you don’t have credibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

DP:
IB Lang/Lit SL read 9 literary texts, HL read 13:
https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/language-a-literature-slhl/

You said 2 for a total of 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

DP:
IB Lang/Lit SL read 9 literary texts, HL read 13:
https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/language-a-literature-slhl/

You said 2 for a total of 4.

You mention DP Lang/Lit, but you have failed to understand that your link is to the DP Lit. curriculum, NOT the DP Lang/Lit curriculum (to which I referred). DP Lit and DP Lang/Lit are not the same course. You are confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

DP:
IB Lang/Lit SL read 9 literary texts, HL read 13:
https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/language-a-literature-slhl/

You said 2 for a total of 4.

Here is the link to DP Lang/Lit, which clearly confirms the 6 and 4: https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/language-a-language-and-literature-slhl/

Now that we've cleared up the fact that you are confused about DP Lit and DP Lang/Lit and that they are two different courses, I'm still waiting for you to tell me what I've said that is incorrect. Go ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

DP:
IB Lang/Lit SL read 9 literary texts, HL read 13:
https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/language-a-literature-slhl/

You said 2 for a total of 4.

Here is the link to DP Lang/Lit, which clearly confirms the 6 and 4: https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/language-a-language-and-literature-slhl/

Now that we've cleared up the fact that you are confused about DP Lit and DP Lang/Lit and that they are two different courses, I'm still waiting for you to tell me what I've said that is incorrect. Go ahead.

My DP: referred to Different Poster not diploma programme--I'm not the person you are talking to. But it does show that your response was somewhat intellectually dishonest because the Literature course is what is equivalent to the AP English course--so it doesn't make sense to compare it with Lang/Lit which is more about diverse critical analysis and production of language. So saying you prefer one over the other so strongly when they are not the comparable course doesn't really make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

DP, but why in the world are you spending your time on a forum about the AAP program in Fairfax County if you're teaching in Europe? Genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach both. In my subject, AP English Lit and AP English Lang are more rigorous than IB English Lang/Lit or IB English Lit. There is more content in the AP courses, and a high amount of fluff in the IB courses to allow them to stretch to two years.

SL IB Lang/Lit kids read only two literary texts (novels, plays, or short story collections) per year, for a total of four literary texts at the end of the diploma. The non-literary units are quite unstructured with very little oversight from the IB. HL kids in the same course read only six literary texts over two years.

Many of the students who have been successful in my IB courses would not have been able to pass AP Lit or AP Lang/Lit.

It always makes me sad when a kid who loves English opts fo the IB course, but my IB experience is what makes my CV strong, so...

I am sure that now parents with no teaching experience, or teachers with experience in only one of the courses will come to say I am wrong, but at this point I have been teaching both AP and IB for almost ten years.

I feel a lot of your statements are not accurate. Why were you teaching the IB program poorly?

I'm not making it up, and you clearly have no idea of course construction or components of the IB.

I teach at an international school in Europe that has been running the IB for years prior to America's attempts to implement the program. I guarantee that I have had many more hours of "real" IB training than your US public school teachers. The IB was invented in Europe.

So go ahead: what have I said that is in accurate? Be specific.

DP, but why in the world are you spending your time on a forum about the AAP program in Fairfax County if you're teaching in Europe? Genuinely curious.

I am thinking troll.

[Anonymous]

I would love some advice on this. My child is an 8th grader who has been in level IV/AAP since 3rd grade. He is zoned for an IB HS. DS has ADHD. He is an A student who is in geometry right now who wants to major in computer science. Math is his favorite subject. He STRUGGLES with writing. I don't mean grammar and sentence structure, I mean he cannot get words down on paper struggle. Spends hours looking at a blank page. Has perfectionist tendencies. Doesn't know how to expand what little he does manage to get down on paper. He works with a writing tutor and has made great strides from where he started but is still a terrible writer. (I write for a living so I cannot relate nor do I know how to help as it comes so naturally to me.)

Based on his profile it seems we should try to transfer to the AP HS. People have told me not to do that. They say the IB HS will teach him how to write. But how do you teach getting ideas down? His issue is not technique. I think it has a lot to do with his ADHD and poor processing speed. I have been told he can a la can do the IB classes a la carte and not go full diploma. I was even told he does not even have to sit for the exams and that the point would be to stay in zoned school with friends and let the counselor check the box for rigorous coursework (because he took some IB classes). Having him leave his friends is upsetting to him but I feel like I am setting him up to fail by having him in an IB HS. Can anyone speak to this?

Also is it true he can take IB courses and not the exam and it won't mess him up for graduation? If he does that can the counselor still check the rigorous coursework box??

I would love any input/thoughts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love some advice on this. My child is an 8th grader who has been in level IV/AAP since 3rd grade. He is zoned for an IB HS. DS has ADHD. He is an A student who is in geometry right now who wants to major in computer science. Math is his favorite subject. He STRUGGLES with writing. I don't mean grammar and sentence structure, I mean he cannot get words down on paper struggle. Spends hours looking at a blank page. Has perfectionist tendencies. Doesn't know how to expand what little he does manage to get down on paper. He works with a writing tutor and has made great strides from where he started but is still a terrible writer. (I write for a living so I cannot relate nor do I know how to help as it comes so naturally to me.)

Based on his profile it seems we should try to transfer to the AP HS. People have told me not to do that. They say the IB HS will teach him how to write. But how do you teach getting ideas down? His issue is not technique. I think it has a lot to do with his ADHD and poor processing speed. I have been told he can a la can do the IB classes a la carte and not go full diploma. I was even told he does not even have to sit for the exams and that the point would be to stay in zoned school with friends and let the counselor check the box for rigorous coursework (because he took some IB classes). Having him leave his friends is upsetting to him but I feel like I am setting him up to fail by having him in an IB HS. Can anyone speak to this?

Also is it true he can take IB courses and not the exam and it won't mess him up for graduation? If he does that can the counselor still check the rigorous coursework box??

I would love any input/thoughts.

I'm a parent of a kid who loves to write and did an IB diploma and my 2c based on just what you've shared here is that he would be better served by an AP HS (unless there are other reasons--friend groups etc.) than the IB school. It is very writing intensive, and writing across the disciplines. You write in AP too, but not to the same degree. BUT if he is motivated to stay with his friends, maybe you can make it work out as a growth process. Some dysgraphia is developmental--have you had him do speech to text? I would get him a 504b and talk to the IB coordinators and the HS counselor about exams and rigorous coursework. There are different policies depending on both of these.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love some advice on this. My child is an 8th grader who has been in level IV/AAP since 3rd grade. He is zoned for an IB HS. DS has ADHD. He is an A student who is in geometry right now who wants to major in computer science. Math is his favorite subject. He STRUGGLES with writing. I don't mean grammar and sentence structure, I mean he cannot get words down on paper struggle. Spends hours looking at a blank page. Has perfectionist tendencies. Doesn't know how to expand what little he does manage to get down on paper. He works with a writing tutor and has made great strides from where he started but is still a terrible writer. (I write for a living so I cannot relate nor do I know how to help as it comes so naturally to me.)

Based on his profile it seems we should try to transfer to the AP HS. People have told me not to do that. They say the IB HS will teach him how to write. But how do you teach getting ideas down? His issue is not technique. I think it has a lot to do with his ADHD and poor processing speed. I have been told he can a la can do the IB classes a la carte and not go full diploma. I was even told he does not even have to sit for the exams and that the point would be to stay in zoned school with friends and let the counselor check the box for rigorous coursework (because he took some IB classes). Having him leave his friends is upsetting to him but I feel like I am setting him up to fail by having him in an IB HS. Can anyone speak to this?

Also is it true he can take IB courses and not the exam and it won't mess him up for graduation? If he does that can the counselor still check the rigorous coursework box??

I would love any input/thoughts.

I'm a parent of a kid who loves to write and did an IB diploma and my 2c based on just what you've shared here is that he would be better served by an AP HS (unless there are other reasons--friend groups etc.) than the IB school. It is very writing intensive, and writing across the disciplines. You write in AP too, but not to the same degree. BUT if he is motivated to stay with his friends, maybe you can make it work out as a growth process. Some dysgraphia is developmental--have you had him do speech to text? I would get him a 504b and talk to the IB coordinators and the HS counselor about exams and rigorous coursework. There are different policies depending on both of these.

This is all very good advice. I think that the County has also made it very hard to move from an IB school to an AP school by the way they concentrated them in one area of the county. Your child would have to go pretty far to get into a school and be away from the friends that he grew up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love some advice on this. My child is an 8th grader who has been in level IV/AAP since 3rd grade. He is zoned for an IB HS. DS has ADHD. He is an A student who is in geometry right now who wants to major in computer science. Math is his favorite subject. He STRUGGLES with writing. I don't mean grammar and sentence structure, I mean he cannot get words down on paper struggle. Spends hours looking at a blank page. Has perfectionist tendencies. Doesn't know how to expand what little he does manage to get down on paper. He works with a writing tutor and has made great strides from where he started but is still a terrible writer. (I write for a living so I cannot relate nor do I know how to help as it comes so naturally to me.)

Based on his profile it seems we should try to transfer to the AP HS. People have told me not to do that. They say the IB HS will teach him how to write. But how do you teach getting ideas down? His issue is not technique. I think it has a lot to do with his ADHD and poor processing speed. I have been told he can a la can do the IB classes a la carte and not go full diploma. I was even told he does not even have to sit for the exams and that the point would be to stay in zoned school with friends and let the counselor check the box for rigorous coursework (because he took some IB classes). Having him leave his friends is upsetting to him but I feel like I am setting him up to fail by having him in an IB HS. Can anyone speak to this?

Also is it true he can take IB courses and not the exam and it won't mess him up for graduation? If he does that can the counselor still check the rigorous coursework box??

I would love any input/thoughts.

I'm a parent of a kid who loves to write and did an IB diploma and my 2c based on just what you've shared here is that he would be better served by an AP HS (unless there are other reasons--friend groups etc.) than the IB school. It is very writing intensive, and writing across the disciplines. You write in AP too, but not to the same degree. BUT if he is motivated to stay with his friends, maybe you can make it work out as a growth process. Some dysgraphia is developmental--have you had him do speech to text? I would get him a 504b and talk to the IB coordinators and the HS counselor about exams and rigorous coursework. There are different policies depending on both of these.

This is all very good advice. I think that the County has also made it very hard to move from an IB school to an AP school by the way they concentrated them in one area of the county. Your child would have to go pretty far to get into a school and be away from the friends that he grew up with.

Not Person who asked but following with similar concerns. What is the alternative? OP put her son in a program with extensive writing and watch him flop in HS? I have a DD with similar issues and don't know what to do. For us she will have to leave friends but the AP HS is not far from us. And some kids in the MS will go there because my DD is in a center MS so kids branch out to 3 different HSs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love some advice on this. My child is an 8th grader who has been in level IV/AAP since 3rd grade. He is zoned for an IB HS. DS has ADHD. He is an A student who is in geometry right now who wants to major in computer science. Math is his favorite subject. He STRUGGLES with writing. I don't mean grammar and sentence structure, I mean he cannot get words down on paper struggle. Spends hours looking at a blank page. Has perfectionist tendencies. Doesn't know how to expand what little he does manage to get down on paper. He works with a writing tutor and has made great strides from where he started but is still a terrible writer. (I write for a living so I cannot relate nor do I know how to help as it comes so naturally to me.)

Based on his profile it seems we should try to transfer to the AP HS. People have told me not to do that. They say the IB HS will teach him how to write. But how do you teach getting ideas down? His issue is not technique. I think it has a lot to do with his ADHD and poor processing speed. I have been told he can a la can do the IB classes a la carte and not go full diploma. I was even told he does not even have to sit for the exams and that the point would be to stay in zoned school with friends and let the counselor check the box for rigorous coursework (because he took some IB classes). Having him leave his friends is upsetting to him but I feel like I am setting him up to fail by having him in an IB HS. Can anyone speak to this?

Also is it true he can take IB courses and not the exam and it won't mess him up for graduation? If he does that can the counselor still check the rigorous coursework box??

I would love any input/thoughts.

I'm a parent of a kid who loves to write and did an IB diploma and my 2c based on just what you've shared here is that he would be better served by an AP HS (unless there are other reasons--friend groups etc.) than the IB school. It is very writing intensive, and writing across the disciplines. You write in AP too, but not to the same degree. BUT if he is motivated to stay with his friends, maybe you can make it work out as a growth process. Some dysgraphia is developmental--have you had him do speech to text? I would get him a 504b and talk to the IB coordinators and the HS counselor about exams and rigorous coursework. There are different policies depending on both of these.

This is all very good advice. I think that the County has also made it very hard to move from an IB school to an AP school by the way they concentrated them in one area of the county. Your child would have to go pretty far to get into a school and be away from the friends that he grew up with.

The only schools open to transfers are usually not great ones.