| English 11 | English 12 | English Literature | Calculus | Statistics | Physics B |
| Biology | Chemistry | Environmental Science | U.S. History | Art [Studio] | Physics C |
ap english 11
Advanced Placement (AP) English 11 offers qualified and ambitious students the opportunity to take college-level courses and to receive advanced placement, credit, or both when they enter college. AP English Language and Composition teaches skilled reading of prose written in a variety of historical periods, academic disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. This course also provides practice and helpful criticism necessary to become a flexible writer who can compose in a variety of modes for a variety of purposes. Reading and writing in AP English Language and Composition should make students aware of the interactions among the author, the audience, the subject itself, generic conventions, and the resources of language, including syntax, word choice, and tone.
The READING strand uses terminology and concepts in prose that helps the student to grow increasingly aware of how authors from different periods and disciplines suit their rhetorical choices to particular aims, and, by imitating those models, students should develop some of the same flexibility.
The WRITING strand includes literary analysis of selected works in process-orientated development and support of the thesis statement. Besides the essay, there are three areas of concentration in writing. First, the student keeps a daily journal that is a reflection of daily work and includes personal diary accounts. Next, a summative writing portfolio is required that will combine the student's best work of the course. This portfolio is collated and presented in a professional form. Finally, the student is required to pass the research paper in order to demonstrate that he/she can research, organize, follow instructions, meet deadlines, and produce a sell-written, developed, and supported paper.
The SPEAKING strand includes the delivery of recorded readings of Shakespearean soliloquies or other classic pieces. Also, the student will recite lines from selected verse. Additionally, students will serve as leaders of discussion in peer groups. On a regular basis, students will orally critique peer writing and headline news of the newspaper and video documentaries.
The LISTENING strand requires that students follow oral instructions (step-by-step) and are prepared to respond to both the teacher and the peer's oral reports.
The LANGUAGE strand focuses on a systematic study of vocabulary as well as an in-depth study of internal punctuation and grammatical functions. Rather than working with grammar in isolation, it is improved through writing exercises.
ap english 12
The AP English 12 course in English Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through close reading of selected literary works, students deepen their understanding and enhance their pleasure in literature. They develop critical standards for interpreting the effects writers create by means of the artful manipulation of language. To achieve these goals, students study individual works, their characters, action, structure, and language. They consider both large-scale literary elements such as form and theme, and smaller-scale elements such as figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Students analyze these and other aspects of literature in their need to derive meaning from their experience in reading. Students consider literary works in their historical context and in relation to their own lives and experiences. A more general and permanent benefit for students preparing for the AP English 12 Exam is that they are at the same time preparing themselves for the rigorous intellectual demands of college and university study. Students will study works by both British and American writers as well as works written from the sixteen century to contemporary times. In addition to reading and studying, writing is an integral part of the course.
The READING strand demands that students build a reader's inventory that consists of fiction, poetry, and drams that provokes an understanding of the "world of the work," and expects subjective, or visceral responses. Students will investigate the form and structure of fiction, poetry, and drama. Units of study in drama and the novel include Sophocle's Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Emily Bronté's Withering Heights, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and Stienbeck's Grapes of Wrath. A wide variety of short stories that reflect many cultures will be studied, with such authors as Flannery O'Connor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anton Chekov, and D.H.Lawrence. Poetry selections include John Donne, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Shakespeare's sonnets, and e.e. cummings.
The WRITING strand focuses on the critical analysis of literature and should include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Although critical analysis should provide the bulk of student writing in the course, well constructed creative writing assignments may help students see from the inside how literature is written. Such experiences will sharpen their understanding of what writers have accomplished and deepen their appreciation of literary artistry. The goal of both types of writing assignments is to increase students' ability to understand what they read and to explain clearly, cogently, even elegantly, what they understand about literary works and why they interpret them as they do. Besides the analytical essay, there are three areas of concentration in writing. first, the student will keep a daily writing journal that is a reflection of daily literary pieces. Next, a summative writing portfolio is required that will combine the student's best work of the course. This portfolio is collated and presented in a professional form. Finally, the AP English 12 student will be required to write a research paper in order to demonstrate that he/she can research, organize, follow instructions, meet deadlines, and produce a well-written, developed, and supported paper.
The SPEAKING strand includes the delivery of recorded readings of Shakespearean soliloquies and other classic pieces. Also, the student will recite lines from selected verse. Additionally, students will serve as leaders of discussion in peer groups. On a regular basis, students will orally critique peer writing and headline news of the newspaper and video documentaries.
The LISTENING strand requires that students follow oral instructions (step-by-step) and are prepared to respond to both the teacher and the peer's oral and didactic presentations or reports.
The LANGUAGE strand focuses on a systematic study of the vocabulary as well as in-depth study of internal punctuation and grammatical functions. Rather than working with grammar in isolation, it is improved through writing exercises.
ap english literature
The AP course in English Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work's structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.
The course includes an intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on works of recognized literary merit. The pieces chosen invite and reward rereading do not, like ephemeral works in such popular genres as detective or romance fiction, yield all (or nearly all) of their pleasures of thought and feeling the first time through.
Students in AP English Literature and Composition read actively. The works taught in the course require careful deliberative reading. And the approach to analyzing and interpreting the material involves students in learning how to make careful observations of textual detail, establish connections among their observations, and draw from those connections a series of inferences leading to an interpretive conclusion about a piece of writing's meaning and value.
Writing is an integral part of the course and exam. Writing assignments focus on the critical analysis of literature and include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Although critical analysis makes up the bulk of student writing for the course, well constructed, creative writing assignments may help students see from the inside how literature is written. Such experiences sharpen their understanding of what writers have accomplished and deepen their appreciation of literary artistry. The goal of both types of writing assignments is to increase students' ability to explain clearly, cogently, even elegantly, what they understand about literary works and why they interpret them as they do.
ap calculus
This course is designed to prepare students for the College Board's Advanced Placement Calculus AP Test. All students taking this course must take the College Board's exam in May. The course covers both differential and integral calculus. Topics include, but are not limited to: real numbers, functions and graphs, limits and continuity, the derivative and differentiation, applications of the definite integral, exponential and logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions and their inverses, and L'Hopital's Rule. Technology is an integral part of this course. Students will use a graphing calculator, the model of which will be specified by the instructor.
ap statistics
Students interested in Statistics need to take Statistics in the first Semester. The second semester students will delve deeper into topics covered in the statistics exam.
This course is designed to prepare students for the AP examination. The purpose of AP Statistics is to introduce students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes: exploring data, planning a study, probability as it relates to distribution of data and inferential reasoning. Technology is an integral part of this course. Students will use a graphing calculator, the model of which will be specified by the instructor. Projects will be assigned to groups of students during the second half of the course. Students who successfully complete the course and examination may receive credit and/or advanced placement for a one-semester introductory college statistics course.
ap biology
This course follows the standard syllabus prepared by the College Board in the United States. The AP course is divided into 3 main areas: Molecules and Cells, Heredity and Evolution, and Organisms and Populations. The main emphasis is on understanding the 3 areas of biology rather than memorizing terms and technical details. The following are essential to this conceptual understanding: a grasp of science as a process, personal experience in scientific inquiry, recognition of unifying themes, and application of biological knowledge and critical thinking to environmental and social concerns. The experimental laboratory exercises encourage scientific skills in problem solving, research and the scientific literature. Students must take the A.P. exam in May. Students are required to stay after school or come Thursdays or holidays to do the twelve standard laboratories.
ap chemistry
Students wishing to take AP Chemistry must have Chemistry I grades of "A" or a high "B" level. Concurrent enrollment or prior completion of pre-calculus is desirable.
This course follows the standard syllabus prepared by the College Board. It is designed to be a college level course of study. Students must be prepared to do this level of work. The course encompasses the following topics: (1) conservation of atoms and molecules, (2) the periodic law of atomic structure, (3) chemical bonding and molecular structure, (4) chemical phases an phase equilibrium, (5) chemical equilibrium, (6) rates of reactions, (7) thermodynamics, (8) electrochemistry, (9) structures of properties of solids, and (10) descriptive chemistry.
ap physics B
Advanced Placement Physics B is the Physics B curriculum. The broad goals of this course are to develop the student's ability to (1) handle physical information in verbal, mathematical, and graphic forms, (2) analyze step-by-step physical phenomena and problems that include describing the ideal model; stating definitions, principals and assumptions; specifying limitations; carrying out the analysis; and interpret the results, (3) use mathematical reasoning applied to physical phenomena, and (4) perform experiments and interpret the results including the uncertainties.
ap physics C
AP Physics C is a one-semester course. During the first term, topics from classical mechanics is covered. These will be covered at the calculus based level and use of calculus in problem-solving and derivations increases as the course progresses. The second term is devoted to the study of electromagnetic theory. Calculus is used freely in formulating principles and solving problems. AP Physics C covers the following material:
- vectors
- kinematics
- Calculus (The Derivative)
- Two and Three Dimensional Motion
- Forces
- Friction
- Work, Energy, Calculus (The Integral)
- Conservation of Energy
- Center of Mass, Impluse, and Momemtum
- Oscillations
- Torrque and Static Equilibrium
- Rotational Kinematics
- Rotational Dynamics
- Conservation of Angular Momemtum
- Gravitation
ap u.s. history
AP United States History is designed to cover the same events and time periods of American history as the regular U.S. History course (from 1607 to 1980). The material, however, is covered at a faster pace and in more depth. Students will focus on readings from various texts as well as primary documents. They will be expected to write analytical,astute, and discriminating essays. The class is designed to prepare students to take the Advanced Placement exam.
ap environmental science
The goal of the AP Environmental Science course is to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to examine alternative solutions for resolving or preventing them.
Environmental Science is interdisciplinary; it embraces a wide variety of topics from different areas of study. Yet there are several major unifying constructs, or themes, that cut across the many topics included in the study of environmental science. These are:
- Science is a process.
- Energy conversions underlie all ecological processes.
- The Earth itself is one interconnected system.
- Humans alter natural systems.
- Environmental problems have a cultural, and social context.
- Human survival depends on developing practices that will achieve sustainable systems.
The AP Environmental Science course is an excellent option for any interested student who has completed two years of high school laboratory science - one year of life sciences and one year of physical science (for example, a year of biology and a year of chemistry). Due to the quantitative analysis that is required in the course, students should also have taken at least one year of algebra. Also desirable (but not necessary) is a course in earth science. Because of the prerequisites, AP Environmental Science will usually be taken in either the junior or senior year.
ap art [studio]
The AP Studio Art portfolios are designed for students who are seriously interested in the practical experience of art. AP Studio Art is for highly motivated students who are seriously interested in the study of art; the program demands significant commitment. It is highly recommended that studio art students have previous training in art. AP Studio Art is not based on a written exam; instead, students submit portfolios for evaluation at the end of the school year. AP Studio Art sets a national standard for performance in the visual arts that contributes to the significant role the arts play in academic environments.
The instructional goals of this program can be described as follows:
- Encourage creative as well as systematic investigation of formal and informal conceptual issues.
- Emphasize making art as an ongoing process that involves the student be informed and critical decision making.
- Help students develop technical skills and familiarize them with the functions of the visual elements.
- Encourage students to become independent thinks who will contribute inventively and critically to their culture through the making of art.
The portfolios share a basic, three-section structure, which requires the student to show a fundamental competence and range of understanding in visual concerns (and methods). Each of the portfolios asks the student to demonstrate a depth of investigation and process of discovery through the Concentration section. In the Breadth section, the student is asked to demonstrate a serious grounding in visual principles and material techniques. The Quality section permits the student to select the works that best exhibit a synthesis of form, technique, and content. All three sections are required and carry equal weight.