Among all the courses offered at FHC, one of the most challenging but rewarding classes is AP Seminar. AP Seminar is a year-long course that places its main focus on students improving their research, writing, and presentation skills through a plethora of difficult projects and coursework. These projects include analysis of fiction books, varied group presentations, and, most notably, the Performance Task 1 (PT 1) and Performance Task 2 (PT 2) projects.
PT 1 and PT 2 are two projects that students work on for the entirety of the second semester leading up to the AP exam in May, with a presentable and researchable topic that is of interest to them. Currently, students are working on a mock PT 1 project to help prepare them for the actual assignment in the second semester. PT 1 is a group project that consists of writing a lengthy essay of 1000-1200 words individually and then presenting it together. The presentation has a minimum requirement of five minutes and a maximum of ten minutes, proving to be a difficult task for students to endeavor, especially for those who don’t yet feel comfortable public speaking.
For AP Seminar teacher Morgan Beckett, seeing students gain confidence in their presentation skills over the school year is one of the most fulfilling aspects of her job. Teaching a college-level course such as AP Seminar can come with difficulties, but watching students grow with each presentation makes it all worthwhile.
“[Presentation skills] are what I see students grow most in because it’s tangible,” Beckett said. “Usually, students do a presentation within the first five days of our class for a grade, and then the presenter that they are by the end of the year is drastically different, just because we get people up talking in front of the class so much. It’s fun to see the growth, even though I consider myself a writer at heart.”
Once students have improved significantly in their presenting skills, they will perform their presentations in April as part of their AP exam grade. Beckett will submit them to the College Board—the nonprofit organization that governs the nation’s AP program—and in May, students will sit down alongside other AP students and take a short written exam. All of this culminates in determining whether a student will achieve a 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 on the exam, with 5 being the best score a student can receive. The average student taking AP Seminar will most likely get a score of 3, which is the minimum passing grade students are given on AP exams.
Junior Susie Foresman decided to take AP Seminar due to her love of presenting. In sophomore year, presentations are one of the paramount points of classwork in English, with the TED Talks that all sophomores must give in the lecture hall and the famed FHC Inspires event at the end of the year. Through these presentations, Susie gained a new perspective on public speaking and has grown to appreciate it. Even so, she’s highly nervous about the final AP exam due to its abstract format.
“I’m a little nervous for every exam, but especially for this one,” Susie said. “It’s the fact that you can’t really study for [the exam]. You have to work hard in class to do well on the exam. It’s not like you can go home and study; you have to participate and do your work with the people around you so you won’t fall behind.”
Falling behind is a very real situation that students this year have already started to encounter with AP Seminar due to its rigorous day-to-day requirements and tedious lessons. One of these requirements is finding the proper research to build an argument for the final exam projects. Unfortunately, this is a skill that most students haven’t been taught in school. It can be hard to distinguish between a reputable source and another that may provide false information, primarily when hundreds of students are used to teachers giving them evidence for their papers.
This is a skill that junior Claire Busch has been having some trouble with for her project. Comprehensive research takes time to develop and explore, time that Claire doesn’t often have in her busy schedule. However, during class, lots of work time is given for students to work with their group and research, which can be both a benefit and a deficit since getting distracted and talking with friends is very easy.
“The thing I like most about [AP Seminar] is also kind of a downfall,” Claire said. “Sometimes, I procrastinate a lot. It’s very easy to procrastinate, but as long as you’re on top of your work, it’s amazing.”
For Susie, collaboration is an essential aspect of AP Seminar that she genuinely enjoys. Although many classes provide the opportunity for group work in different ways, Susie finds that group work has a higher emphasis in AP Seminar.
“I really like working with people I’ve never worked with before,” Susie said. “It’s a lot of fun working with other people on presentations instead of just doing individual work. [I also like] seeing other people’s presenting styles. It’s good to improve your own [presenting style] based on other people.”
To grade students on their presentations, Beckett uses a rubric formulated from the College Board rubric and her own expectations. Since AP Seminar is a class based heavily on teacher feedback, she constantly gives her students feedback on the smallest details that the general public wouldn’t notice, from not saying “um” to using particular hand motions. Any seemingly nit-picky detail can affect the students’ grades on the exam.
Students like Claire utilize this feedback to the best of their ability, attempting to reach the primary goal of becoming a better presenter for later on in life. A critical event that presenting skills is essential for is the college application process that juniors will begin next year.
“I want to become a better presenter and be able to feel strong about the evidence that I do find,” Claire said. “[I also] want to know how to tell if a website is [credible] or not.”
By choosing to take AP Seminar, students under the instruction of Beckett will learn the importance of a good work ethic, keeping up with their expectations, and valuable learning skills that will continue to assist them in their personal and professional lives in the future. It’s a course that promotes teamwork and the ability to speak confidently, which are values that are admired in a workplace setting. Although this is her first year teaching AP Seminar on her own (after beloved co-teacher Steve Labenz retired last year), Beckett hopes to continue teaching students these skills to see them excel for a long time to come.
“I just got officially certified by the College Board this summer [to teach AP Seminar on my own], now that Mr. Labenz retired,” Beckett said. “I had never taught the course before [getting hired], but after two years, I really like AP Seminar. I love what it stands for.”
