Welcome to AP Capstone Seminar!

1. Welcome to AP Capstone Seminar! On the back side of the card in front of you, please provide the following information: • If you have a nickname or shortened version of your name that you prefer. • 2-3 hobbies or activities that you enjoy in your spare time. • 2-3 strengths that you feel you have as a Social Studies/English student. • 2-3 weaknesses that you feel you have as a Social Studies/English student. • What made you want to take AP Capstone Seminar?

2. QUEST Framework • Question and ExploreQuestioning begins with an initial exploration of complex topics or issues. Perspectives and questions emerge that spark one’s curiosity, leading to an investigation that challenges and expands the boundaries of one's current knowledge.

3. QUEST Framework • Understand and Analyze ArgumentsUnderstanding various perspectives requires contextualizing arguments and evaluating the authors’ claims and lines of reasoning.

4. QUEST Framework • Evaluate Multiple PerspectivesEvaluating an issue involves considering and evaluating multiple perspectives, both individually and in comparison to one another.

5. QUEST Framework • Synthesize Ideas Synthesizing others’ ideas with one’s own may lead to new understandings and is the foundation of a well-reasoned argument that conveys one’s perspective.

6. QUEST Framework • Team, Transform, and TransmitTeaming allows one to combine personal strengths and talents with those of others to reach a common goal. Transformation and growth occur upon thoughtful reflection. Transmitting requires the adaptation of one’s message based on audience and context.

7. What is your Seminar AP score based on? • Performance Assessment Task #1 (20% of your score): You will work in teams of 3-5 to identify, investigate and analyze an academic or real-world problem. Each team will conduct research in order to consider options and evaluate alternatives; develop a multimedia presentation (google slides) to present the argument for their proposed solution or resolution; and provide a defense to questions posed by the teacher. Scoring will be based on: • Individual Research Report: Every student will be required to submit a 1,200 word research report in which they examine the problem chosen by their group through a specific lens, and present solutions. Externally Scored. • Team Multimedia Presentation and Defense: You will collaborate with your group members on an 8-10 minute presentation and defense that will be viewed by the entire class. I will ask one question of each student in the group after the presentation. Internally Scored. We will work on this from January until February break

8. What is your Seminar AP score based on? • Performance Assessment Task #2 (35% of your score): The College Board will annually release cross-curricular source materials representing a range of perspectives focused on a single theme or topic. You will use these texts to identify a research question of your own; conduct research; analyze, evaluate and select evidence to develop an argument; and present and defend your conclusions. The final paper must refer to and incorporate at least one of the provided sources. • Scoring: • Individual Written Argument (2,000 words): Externally Scored • Individual Multimedia Presentation (6-8 minutes): Internally Scored • Oral Defense (two questions from the teacher): Internally Scored We will work on this from the end of February until the end of April

9. What is your Seminar AP score based on? • Assessment Task #3 (45 % of your score): AP Seminar End-Of-Course Exam (2 Hours): During the AP Exam administrative window in May, you will take the AP Seminar End-Of-Course Exam. This exam consists of four items: three short-answer and one essay question. • Scoring: • Three Short-Answer Questions (analysis of an argument in a single source or document): Externally Scored • One Essay Question (synthesizing and creating an evidence-based argument): Externally Scored

10. Unit #1: Introducing the Seminar’s QUEST Process and Entering the Conversation: Problems and Controversies in American Education (Weeks 1-6) • Introductory Activities: • What skills are needed to accomplish each aspect of the QUEST framework? • What are the different lenses through which we can analyze a particular question? (cultural and social, artistic and philosophical, ethical, political and historical, futuristic, environmental, economic, scientific). • How can we use SOAPStone (subject, occasion, audience, purpose and tone), and RAVEN (reliability, ability to observe, vested interests, expertise, neutrality) to determine the purpose and credibility of different arguments, and ultimately make our own evidence-based claims about whether they find these arguments convincing ? • What are multiple perspectives? • What are logical fallacies and how do they affect the credibility of an argument?

11. Unit #1: Introducing the Seminar’s QUEST Process and Entering the Conversation: Problems and Controversies in American Education (Weeks 1-6) • What should be the most significant goals of American educational institutions in the 21st century, and what strategies, techniques and assessments should these institutions utilize to achieve these goals? • Are standardized tests helping or hurting American public schools? • What efforts are some schools taking to better serve the social-emotional needs of their students, and are they appropriate and effective? • Does Finland provide a good model for improving American public schools? • What are the advantages and drawbacks of using affirmative action in college admissions? • How significant a problem is racial segregation in American public schools today?

12. Unit #1: Introducing the Seminar’s QUEST Process and Entering the Conversation: Problems and Controversies in American Education (Weeks 1-6) • At the end of the unit, you will be asked to write an essay in which you synthesize articles you have been assigned in class during the unit with articles you find in your own independent research in order to create an evidence based argument. You will be able to choose the topic that you write about, but it must be based on a subject discussed in class during Unit #1.

13. Unit #2: Practice for Performance Task #1 (Weeks 7-12) • You will work in teams of 3-4 to identify, investigate and analyze an academic or real-world problem of your choosing. Scoring will be based on: • Individual Research Report:You will be required to submit a 1,200 word research report in which you examine the problem chosen by their group through a specific lens, and present solutions • Team Multimedia Presentation and Defense: You will collaborate with your group members on an 8-10 minute presentation and defense that will be viewed by the entire class. I will ask one question of each student in the group after the presentation.

14. Unit #3: Practice for Performance Task #2 (Weeks 13-16) • During the month of December, you will be given the stimulus packet distributed by the College Board in 2019. You will be required to read the following sources from the packet: • “Social Media and the Movement Of Ideas,” by Edward Kessler, • “Looking for The Gulf Motel,” by Richard Blanco, from Looking for the Gulf Motel • “Speech to United Nations General Assembly,” by Margaret Thatcher • “The Urban Transformation of the Developing World,” by Mark R. Montgomery, • “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. • “Gaming Can Make a Better World,” TED Talk, by Jane McGonigal • “Blowin’ in the Wind,” by Bob Dylan • You will use these texts to identify a research question of your own; conduct research; analyze, evaluate and select evidence to develop an argument; and present this argument in an Individual Research Report of 2,000 words.

15. Unit 4: Seminar Assessments (Weeks 17-33) Performance Assessment Task #1: Team Project and Presentation (January – February Break). Performance Assessment Task #2: Individual Research-Based Essay and Presentation (End of February – End of April) Performance Assessment Task #3: AP Seminar End-Of-Course Exam (May 12, 2020)