English, Social Sciences, and Foreign Languages
AP English Courses
AP English III Language and Composition
- The AP English Language and Composition course aligns to an introductory college-level rhetoric and writing curriculum, which requires students to develop evidence-based analytic and argumentative essays that proceed through several stages or drafts. Students evaluate, synthesize, and cite research to support their arguments. Throughout the course, students develop a personal style by making appropriate grammatical choices. Additionally, students read and analyze the rhetorical elements and their effects in non-fiction texts, including graphic images as forms of text, from many disciplines and historical periods.
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-english-language-course-overview.pdf
- All High Schools
AP English IV Language and Composition
- The AP English Literature and Composition course aligns to an introductory college-level literary analysis course. The course engages students in the close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret literary works.
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-english-literature-course-overview.pdf
- All High Schools
AP Foreign Language Courses
AP Spanish Language and Culture
- The AP Spanish Language and Culture course emphasizes communication (understanding and being understood by others) by applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational skills in real-life situations. This includes vocabulary usage, language control, communication strategies, and cultural awareness. The AP Spanish Language and Culture course strives not to overemphasize grammatical accuracy at the expense of communication. To best facilitate the study of language and culture, the course is taught almost exclusively in Spanish. The AP Spanish Language and Culture course engages students in an exploration of culture in both contemporary and historical contexts. The course develops students’ awareness and appreciation of cultural products (e.g., tools, books, music , laws, conventions, institutions); practices (patterns of social interactions within a culture); and perspectives (values, attitudes, and assumptions).
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-spanish-language-and-culture-course-overview.pdf
- NHS
AP Social Science Courses
AP United States Government and Politics
- AP United States Government and Politics introduces students to key political ideas, institutions, policies, interactions, roles, and behaviors that characterize the political culture of the United States. The course examines politically significant concepts and themes, through which students learn to apply disciplinary reasoning assess causes and consequences of political events, and interpret data to develop evidence-based arguments.
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-usgopo-course-overview.pdf
- NHS, SBHS, SWHS, WOHS
AP United States History
- The AP U.S. History course focuses on the development of historical thinking skills (chronological reasoning, comparing and contextualizing, crafting historical arguments using historical evidence, and interpreting and synthesizing historical narrative) and the development of students' abilities to think conceptually about U.S. history from approximately 1491 to the present. Seven themes of equal importance - American and National Identity; Migration and Settlement; Politics and Power; Work, Exchange, and Technology; America in the World; Geography and the Environment; and Culture and Society - provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. These require students to reason historically about continuity and change over time and make comparisons among various historical developments in different times and places. The course also allows teachers flexibility across nine different periods of U.S. history to teach topics of their choice in depth.
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-united-states-history-course-overview.pdf
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-united-states-history-course-overview.pdf
AP Psychology
- The AP Psychology course introduces students to the systematic and scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. While considering the psychologists and studies that have shaped the field, students explore and apply psychological theories, key concepts, and phenomena associated with such topics as the biological basis of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, motivation, developmental psychology, testing and individual differences, treatment of abnormal behavior, and social psychology. Throughout the course, students employ psychological research methods, including ethical considerations, as they use the scientific method, analyze bias, evaluate claims and evidence, and effectively communicate ideas.
- file:///C:/Users/elizabeth.klompstra/Documents/ap-psychology-course-overview.pdf
- file:///C:/Users/elizabeth.klompstra/Documents/ap-psychology-course-overview.pdf
AP World History
- AP World History focuses on developing students’ abilities to think conceptually about world history from approximately 8000 BCE to the present and apply historical thinking skills as they learn about the past. Five themes of equal importance — focusing on the environment, cultures, state-building, economic systems, and social structures — provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. AP World History encompasses the history of the five major geographical regions of the globe: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, with special focus on historical developments and processes that cross multiple regions.
- https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-world-history-course-overview.pdf
- JHS, NHS, SWHS