Creating an AP Syllabus

[ginlindzey]

Any new teachers out there?

I sometimes feel like I am a perpetually new teacher.  When I came back to teaching 8 years ago, I was a new teacher again (I had taught a year right out of college and then ran away screaming back in the late 80s and did other things for about a dozen years).  For 6 years I taught the same three courses: Latin 1a, Latin 1b, and exploratory.  Frankly, there's a LOT to be said for teaching middle school first, if for no other reason than you can usually keep your preps limited to three.  I had time to develop and modify materials, figure out what worked and what didn't, and get "good" at it, or at least really comfortable.

Then I switched to Dripping Springs HS where I had a Latin 1 class (CLC), a Latin 2 class (Ecce) split with Latin 3 (Ecce), plus four sophomore English classes.  So I had materials for the Latin 1 class, but it was like I was a newbie all over again for Latin 2/3 and English.  I made tons of quia stuff for Ecce (that I probably will not use ever again!) and survived teaching English.  Last year I had 3 Latin 1 classes, and Latin 2/3 split, but this time Latin 2 was CLC--once again, I needed to make my style of quizzes and tests, and quia stuff.  Plus I had two English classes.  So I still had new things, plus I decided to change up part of my tests--for all Latin levels--so I was revising stuff a lot.

Now....  now here I am again.  Still feeling like a newbie.  I will have Latin 3 this year with CLC, and need to make up quia stuff and my style of quizzes, etc etc.  And I agreed to do Latin 4 with 2 girls--so 3/4 will be my split-level.  Latin 4 will be Vergil and I told the girls that if they really wanted to, I could get them ready for the AP Latin and they could challenge it.

THEN I discovered on the College Board website that June 1 was the recommended due date, but they would accept them after (with no promise of acceptance!).  So, now I'm trying to write a real AP syllabus.  I had thought I could get it done in a week, 2-3 weeks ago.  I wasn't counting on how much time I can't sit and focus on it because I try to wear my Mom hat in the summer as much as possible.

Even still, I've poured a lot of time into this.

I've studied the four sample syllabi.  I've read all the pertinent materials.  I've made up school calendars with our holidays and test days and anything else I could think of.  I pondered what would be the best split-level schedule for the Latin 4's, when I would require what, etc.  I've looked at materials.

I'm going to use my pal Rick LaFleur's _Song of War_ and Bolchazy-Carducci's _A Vergil Workbook_.  In my mind's eye, Monday's will be a quia.com day (for review for vocab quizzes and grammar and whatnot), Tuesday's will be for quizzes and reading, Wednesdays I'll read with them, Thursdays for independent reading again, Friday I'll read with them.  (Therefore, I'll be working with Latin 3 on Tues/Thurs and maybe Mondays as well....)  I'll assign parts of a Lesson from the workbook over the weekends and work on developing reading skills during the week.  At least twice a grading period students will have to phone in an oral recitation of a passage of my choosing, and twice during the grading period students will have major tests.  That's as much as I've worked out.

Not sure about wiggle room for discussions, essay writing (though some of that is in the workbook material), etc.  

And frankly, it's been 20 years since I've read Vergil (with the exception, of course, of the sea serpent scene!), so I don't have any great ideas for clever projects so it's not just toiling through the lines.  But I have to think of something.

Frankly, just working out WHAT lines for WHICH WEEK and how to get through it all fast enough is really tricky!  I ended up making a table in Word that had the Lessons from the Vergil Workbook with the lines it covered aligned with the subtitles and line breaks in Song of War.  Mostly it lines up, but some places it doesn't.

OF COURSE, if I planned my other courses with this kind of detail, I might finish the texts....then again... well, I dunno.  I think if you push to fast through beginning stuff you lose too many people, but maybe the reality is that I'm too soft a touch.

All I know is that I really want this to work.  I want these two girls to have a good shot at a 4 or a 5 on the AP exam, ya know?  At least a 3, maybe, to say that I'm on the right track.  

<sigh>

I have these crazy ideas of how I want them to work and take notes that I'm not sure are practical... maybe I need to try them out for myself.  Not a bad idea....

Well, there are things I can be doing regarding the syllabus and stuff for next year.  I better get going.  Man, June is almost done and what the hell have I got to show for it?  Only a lot of thinking, it seems. 

Comments

[gamila-walrus.livejournal.com]

What did you have to do to recertify to get a teaching license after 12 years of not teaching? I've heard horror stories that amount to teachers having to completly redo their undergraduate degrees. Does this really happen? or are there other ways to re-certify?

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

It depends on the type of certificate you have. When I got my degree & certification in 1987, I received a lifetime certification (here in Texas).

I don't know where you are writing from, but if there's an education governing body in your state, you need to check with them. In our case, the State Board of Educator Certification (http://www.sbec.state.tx.us/).

Hope that helps.

[slytherinbtch.livejournal.com]

June 1st was the AP deadline for next year? Man, are we in trouble. I've been teaching AP Lit, so we haven't had an AP Vergil at our HS in a few years (pre-syllabus requirements). My colleague's doing AP Vergil next year, in the spring (yay 4x4 block), but we haven't sat down and written a syllabus yet. And now she's home in Spain till August. I guess we'll have to hope for the best.

How are you finding the writing of your syllabus? Are you on a year-long schedule, or a block? When I did the Catullus-Ovid syllabus for my spring semester class a few years ago, it was very difficult to fit all the required lines into my class time along with all the other work involved.

I always feel like a new teacher, because there's always something new to try, especially in the AP and other upper level classes. I've just finished my sixth year of teaching, and I still consider myself "new" to the profession.

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no. June 1 is the deadline, but more as a guideline, I guess, to insure that there's time to see that the syllabus actually passes the audit.

We're on a year long, but remember I'll be teaching it in a split-level class. So it's not like I'll be personally meeting with them each day, but if I keep up (ha ha) I should have quia.com things plus plain old-fashioned time to read on their own when they aren't meeting with me.

This will be my...hm...10th year year. I taught one year right out of college, ran away screaming for a dozen years (ran away for a dozen, I wasn't screaming that whole time!), then taught middle school for 6 years, and just finished 2 years at Dripping Springs HS.

I figure it will all be *better* once I have a file cabinet filled with materials like I have for level 1 Latin. But right now I don't have that.... Yes, there's always something new to try. I had the Latin 1's writing some this last year and I want to continue that in Latin 2, but it probably stole a week or more out of my year, and you know that can add up.

But, yeah, 10 years isn't that much in the greater scheme of things, but I have 10 additional years in the profession as an editor and such, which taught me a lot even though I wasn't in the classroom.

I just joined the AP List the other day, and while I would feel at home throwing most anything out to Latinteach, I am very hesitant to speak up there. I don't have AP experience, so I am the neophyte there. I have IDEAS about teaching AP, and how I would do it differently from others, but how can I say my way is better when I have no proof? And frankly, just these two students won't be enough to tell because they are both very bright.

ANYWAY. I better work on something productive. I just felt like venting earlier. I haven't done anything fun or creative this summer without AP being in the back of my mind OR the FRONT of my mind. Not that I'm complaining. Clearly I like this stuff or I wouldn't care so much about it.

But anyone who things that teaching is an easy job with summers off is a fool.

[slytherinbtch.livejournal.com]

Ours is a split class as well. Latin has five years in our district, and the only way to have an AP is to combine it with 4 and 4 Honors. On block. Because we're geniuses. Two years ago when I started teaching it, we had no books, really, just the text from thelatinlibrary.com and some commentaries I had from college. I was working only about a week ahead of the AP class, and about 3 days ahead of 4/4 Honors. This past year, I got some of the workbooks from Bolchazy-Carducci, and found an AP Catullus book at Borders, which I used when writing up my vocabulary and notes for them. The class this year was the same size as last year (5), but they complained more, even though they had more resources than the previous year. What made me the most upset with this class, however, was the fact that the passages on the AP test were, literally, five of the about dozen or so we didn't get to finish.

It's good to know June 1 is more of a guideline. We just have to work hard during teacher work week to get it done.

I need to join the mailing lists, but they seem so intimidating to me. All the more reason for me to join, since it'll get me over my fear of looking silly in front of my peers.

I agree with the last statement. I may not work on school-related things every day, but I'm thinking about school nearly every day. And I use summers to catch up on all the reading I don't have a chance to do during the year.

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

catching up on reading... and there's so much to read!