Wednesday, November 27, 2019

How to Pass Your AP Course Audit

How to Pass Your AP Course Audit SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Need to learn the ins and outs of the AP auditing process? You're in luck. Whether you’re a new teacher or just new to AP, check out this guide to make sure your course is approved! We will explain the auditing process in detail, including how AP courses are reviewed,how to submit your audit, andhow to write an appropriate syllabus. What Is Course Auditing? Why Do You Need It? AP Course auditing is what allows a school to officially give a course the â€Å"AP† label. Having classes with the official AP label is important for your students' transcripts, especially if they are applying toprestigious schools and scholarships. The AP label showscolleges and scholarship committees that your school’s courses have a high level of rigor. That said, a course does not have to carry the official â€Å"AP† label for your school to order the corresponding AP exams. For example, you could teach a course titled just â€Å"United States History† and still order the AP United States Exam for your class at the end of the year. But generally, if you’re teaching a course with the goal of your students taking the AP exam, it’s worth it to go through the audit to get the â€Å"AP† label to improve your students’ transcripts. AP course are auditedonce everyyear, but it’s the most onerous the first time your course is approved. Each year after your first audit you just go through a quick renewal process. During that first audit, you’ll submit a detailed syllabus of your AP course as well as an AP Course Audit form for review. For the rest of this guide, we will go over that first auditing process, explain re-auditing, and finally give some tips for writing your syllabus for the first audit. What Happens During My First Audit? For your first audit, you'll create an online account with the College Board and submit the AP Course Audit form and a copy of your syllabus (more on that process below). Once your form is approved by a Course Audit administrator, your syllabus will be forwarded to an external college faculty reviewer who will approve it. You’ll learn if your course was approved by the College Board within 60 days of submitting your forms. For a course to be authorized, the syllabus has to clearly show that each of the AP course's curricular requirements is included in your class. There are two possible outcomes of the first review: 1. Good news:Your reviewer finds that yoursyllabus meets all requirements, and your class is approved. You'll be notified via email, and then you'll be all done with the auditing process! Good news! 2. Bad news:The reviewer does not think your syllabus meets or exceeds the requirements, and your syllabus is passed on to a senior reviewer. If the senior reviewer agrees, the senior reviewer will send you an email with a rationale as to why your syllabus wasn't approved. You can then revise and resubmit your syllabus based on that feedback. If, after submitting a revised syllabus, the reviewers still don't think your syllabus meets the requirements, the College Board will provide a curriculum adviserto provide additional suggestions for how yoursyllabus should be revised. You will then have a third and final chance to revise and submit the syllabus. If your course isn’t approved on your third try, it won’t be authorized for that year. (Again, your school can still order and administer AP Exams for that subject regardless of the audit outcome.) You can re-submit materials for authorization starting next year. How to Start Your First Audit To start, you'll need tocreate an online AP Course Audit account with College Board. Through this account, you can submit the Course Audit form and your syllabus. The AP Course Audit form is where you list information about the class, your school, your district, and your students. It’s fairly straightforward and shouldn't take more than a few minutes. The syllabus is where you describe your course in detail and explain how it meets AP guidelines. Writing an appropriate syllabus is the most important and time-consuming piece of the auditing process. During the audit, theCollege Board isn’t looking at your background or credentials as a teacher, and it doesn’t require any specific professional development for you to get your course certified – they’re just checking to see if your course aligns with the AP class’s goals. And in case you're worried, the College Board isn’t going to randomly drop in during the year and monitor your actual class – you just need to get the syllabus right! We'll break down how to write an appropriate syllabus below. Re-Auditing Technically, even after your course is approved, you still have to re-audit every year if you want your class to keep the â€Å"AP† title. Fortunately,you don’t have to do much work for re-authorization. After you get your initial approval, you don’t need to resubmit the Course Audit form or a syllabus unless your course changes significantly, the AP course itself changes, or a new teacher is given the class. Beginning every August, Course Audit administrators can renew AP classes for the following year through their online AP Course Audit accounts. If you’re not sure who your school’s Course Audit administrator is, ask the head of your department or someone in your school’s administration. The Course Audit administrator isprobably someone who doesn't mind lots of paperwork. In short, your course should be re-approved without you having to do anything unless you make major changes or switch courses at your school. If a new teacher is assigned to an existing AP class, he or shemustresubmit the Course Audit form and syllabus. However, they can use the old teacher’s syllabus, so the approval process should be pretty quick. Writing Your Syllabus Like we mentioned above, the AP Course Audit is just the submission of a form and your syllabus, sothe syllabus is the main piece of work you have to complete. You can find detailed info about each AP class, including a checklist for the syllabus and example syllabi, right here. Definitely make use of this page as you write your syllabus! This guide will focus on AP English Language, the most popular AP class, but we will go through the general syllabus-writing process that you can use for any AP class. First, take a look at the example syllabi College Board has posted for your class. This will give you a sense of what College Board is looking for in your syllabus. As a guide, College Board has posted four example syllabi for AP English Language: Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 The first thing you'll probably notice in these syllabi is the cover page, which lists all the scoring components for the syllabus and where they are addressed: Source: The College Board Acover page is not required for submitting your syllabus, but using onecan help you keep track of the various requirements you need to meet for your syllabus. If you're overwhelmed by the requirements for your class, using an organizer like this cover page could be incredibly helpful. You can get a sample cover page for every AP class by going to the webpagefor each class, linked above. You will need to write a syllabus that explains your class’s assignments, structure, and reading list so that it fits into the AP guidelines. It’s going to be pretty long – at least 10 pages – so make sure you set aside some quality time to write it. In addition to using the example syllabi on College Board’s website as a guide, you can also reach out to another AP teacher at your school to learn how they approached their syllabus. They might have some tips for writing a College Board-approved syllabus or havemore inside information on the auditing process. If you're worried that you may have a hard time sticking to this incredibly detailed syllabus, don't stress. You’re never held accountable by College Board for sticking to this syllabus, so you don’t have to follow it to the letter. Finally, remember you’re given two additional chances to revise your syllabus if it doesn’t pass the audit the first time. Using the College Board's Self-Evaluation Checklist Afteryou’ve written your syllabus, go through the self-evaluation checklist that the College Board has made for your class. (You can find all AP course checklists at the link above.) Read through theitems on the list and make sure your syllabus addresses each one. In addition to the cover page, reviewingthe checklist should ensure that your syllabus meets all theCollege Board's guidelines and will be approved. As an example, this is the list for AP English Language and Composition: Have you read through the most recent AP English course description? Do you require students to write in several forms during the year (narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays) as well as write about a variety of subjects (public policies, pop culture, personal experiences)? Do you have essays that go through several stages or drafts, with revision by you or other students? Do you also have students write in informal contexts (imitation exercises, journal keeping, collaborative writing, and in-class responses)? Do you assign nonfiction readings (e.g., essays, journalism, political writing, science writing, nature writing, autobiographies/biographies, diaries, history, criticism) to give students opportunities to identify and explain an author's use of rhetorical strategies and techniques? (If you use fiction and poetry, it should be to help students understand how various effects are achieved by writers' linguistic and rhetorical choices.) [Note: you can see a list of possible authors and works in the AP English Language course description.] Do you teach students to analyze how graphics and images both relate to written text and serve as texts themselves? Do you teach research skills, specifically the ability to evaluate, use, and cite sources? Do you assign a researched argument paper, which has students both cite and synthesize various sources to come up with their own argument? Do you have students cite sources using a standard style (like Modern Language Association or Chicago Manual of Style)? Do you give instruction and feedback on student writing focused on these skills: wide and effective vocabulary, variety of sentence structures, logical organization, balance of generalization and specific detail, effective use or rhetoric? The College Board's auditors will be using that same checklist to evaluate your syllabus. If your syllabus falls short on any of these questions, make sure to edit it before you submit it for review! It may alsobe helpful to have another teacher read through yoursyllabus andconfirm that itclearly meets the checklist guidelines. Other Syllabus Tips The deadline for your first submission to authorize a course taught in 2016-17is January 31, 2017. Make sure to start working on your syllabus well before that deadline! If your school has a multi-year course sequence leading to an AP class (for example, an honors biology class that feeds into AP Biology), only the course taken in the year that ends in the actual AP exam can carry the "AP" label.However,you should still submit syllabi from both coursesif the first year includes some AP class material. If your school has an interdisciplinary class, e.g. â€Å"American Studies,† that encompasses both history and literature, you can apply separately for AP the English Literature label and AP United States History label. Your final class might be called American Studies (AP English Lit/AP United States History). Just make sure you don't try to rename your final class something like "AP American Studies." Many AP science courses require a hands-on lab where â€Å"students manipulate, observe, explore, and think about science using concrete materials.† If you want examples of hands-on labs for the various science classes, check out the course’s page at the AP Course Audit website. Finally, if you want to read a first-person account from a teacher going through the audit process, including how a syllabus evolves to meet College Board standards, check out this blog post by Adrian Dingle. He writes in detail about how he had to edit his AP chemistry syllabus to get itapproved, even when the College Board's requirements didn't seem to make a lot of sense. For example, he says while trying to meet a requirement about connecting chemistry to the real world: â€Å"It seems as though they want me to describe an assignment with a specific topic for connecting chemistry to the real world. I’m just not prepared to do that at this stage – who KNOWS what current event might come up during the course that I think will make for a great opportunity to fulfill this criteria?† The main takeaway from his post is that even after extensive and sometimes annoying edits, he was still able to get his course approved by the College Board.Even though going through your first AP audit can be a bit nerve-wracking and time-consuming, remember that you have severalchances to revise your syllabus. Don’t feel pressured to get it perfect the first time! As long as you give it enough time and work to follow College Board's requirements, your syllabus should be approved. What’s Next? The audit process is fairly strict and not always a favorite among teachers. What are some other problems with the College Board’s AP program? Read in-depth about some of the AP program's problems. Are any of your students studying for the ACT or SAT? Does your school have an SAT/ACT class or tutoring program? If not, learn about the best way to teach the ACT / SAT to give your students the support they need. Teaching AP US History? We have a list of the best textbooks on the market. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Driving and Cell Phones Essays

Driving and Cell Phones Essays Driving and Cell Phones Essay Driving and Cell Phones Essay 1. Introduction In digital epoch. function of telecommunication equipments in back uping the manner people communicate and helps concern to smooth their daily operations is obvious. This advantage of digital age. in bend. enables us to see the epoch where people can pass on in many signifiers: voice ( through telephone. cellular phones. ready to hand chatty etc ) . informations ( short message services/SMS. facsimile etc ) . and picture ( video cyclosis. picture conference etc ) . This state of affairs refers to the epoch people call as the convergence in digital engineerings. Interestingly. there are appliances that convey all mentioned characteristics in little size ; they are cellular phones that grow since 1980s and presently have commercialized the 3G ( 3rd coevals ) services that enable users to pass on face to confront via little screens in their 3G-enbaled nomadic French telephones. All above information are facts about the development of cellular phones engineerings. Thankss to the betterment and adulthood in networking engineerings that helps people to pass on one to another across the metropoliss. lands. or even continents. Refering this issue. I will supply some illustrations of how cellular phones provide undisputed benefits for society in three wide facets: journalism/broadcasting industry. societal activities. and practical instruction. Refering the concern point of position. for cases. the being of cell phones enable employers to make their employees anyplace. anytime every bit long as they are covered by BTS ( Base Transceiver Station ) of their service providers/ mobile phone bearers. In these fortunes. we can witness that current pattern in news media shows that cellular phones truly simplify the manner the journalists/reporters report a state of affairs in one locale. For illustration. a airing company assigns one newsman to describe the unrecorded music public presentation someplace in a state ( Cohen. 2005 ) . The company asks the newsman to interview the sets and straight broadcast to audiences at place. In order to supply cost-effective interview. the newsman interviews the sets via his cellular phone. The interview is received at the company’s studio so straight broadcast the interview into the air. Although cellular phones have many benefits. the challenge is to educate users to utilize them suitably. Refering the issue. this paper will discourse about drive and cell phones. We will supply two opposing readings about the issues. 2. Professionals of Driving and Cell Phones It is acceptable that cell phone’s usage is best done while people are non driving. Everything that brings about a problem might direct to a greater hazard of sing a clang. However. it does non stand for there should be a ordinance opposed to it. The finest method to maintain away from a traffic clang is to drive protectively. Drive in the guess that all other drivers on the street are foolish that we should remain off from hitting. In add-on. people need to be tolerant. Peoples should non be one of those insensible drivers that are at velocity continuously ( Strayer. D. . Drews. F. . Albert R. . and Johnston W. . 2005 ) . The careful driver will maintain off from utilizing cell phones in so far as is possible while driving. However. it possibly some state of affairss wherein clip and practicality affirms a little rush in accident menace. peculiarly if the driver is otherwise focussed. Peoples have plenty ordinances that restrict single freedoms. for illustration the use of place belt. They do non necessitate one more ( Haas. W. . 2006 ) . Some peoples argue that it is sensible for leting them to go on utilizing their cell phones while they are driving on the streets. if they make usage of the cell phones that included by speaker unit characteristic. Therefore. when they are holding some conversations by the cell phones. they do non hold to take clasp of it. Other people besides refer to utilize hands-free. as an property of their cell phones that are believed can maintain them off from the hazard of accident ( Cell Phones A ; Driving . 2005 ) . Some peoples besides say that peculiar cell phones ordinances are non required because every state has respectable driving ordinances antecedently. Laws are effectual in establishing suited penalty for knowing people behavior. and Laws make regulation for obedient citizens. However. in mainly states. about $ 50 will be charged to people. which is driving and utilizing cell phones. Peopless think that it is non appropriate because it is highly exaggerating. If needed. they will do indispensable calls while their autos are stopped in right topographic points ( Cell Phones A ; Driving . 2005 ) . Adversaries of the drive and cell phones Torahs enlighten there is unequal confirmation to presume cell phones are any dissimilar from other breaks to drivers. In add-on. they debate aligned with Torahs by shouting that the cell phones present many advantages. for illustration the capableness to name for aid in the pressing state of affairs ( Pachter. B. . and Magee. S ) . Cell phones have developed into an of import device for people to execute their activities. Amid other appliances. cell phones assist to better productiveness by maintaining peoples ever connected to the others. Then once more. cell phones advance several topics refering protection. defence. and privateness every bit good. If peoples were obliged to utilize cell phones while driving. they consider that they can utilize the velocity dialing characteristics to simplify the use of cell phones. At the same clip. people can maintain their eyes on the street while driving ( Zielinski. K ) . 3. Professionals of Driving and Cell Phones – Contras Nowadays. there are assorted arguments about the safety of utilizing cell phones while driving. Probes explain that people who use cell phones while driving conveying about a much larger per centum of clangs than people who do non utilize their cell phones. Furthermore. the probes have revealed that it is non simply the physically activities needed to dialed Numberss in the cell phone while people are taking to drive the autos that brings about clangs. In fact. it is the deficiency of consciousness resulting from driving and chew the fating on the cell phones at the same time. When people are unfocused. they are more possible to do clangs ( Hitti. M. . 2006 ) . The use of cell phones can be covered merely after an accident. and guilty drivers can non be anticipated to squeal that their cell phone use was a causal ground. Whilst at the event of an accident. it is hard to anticipate that a constabulary officer will make an absolute probe of the auto and of the citizens to happen out whether cell phones had been on manus or used. It is difficult to place cell phones usage by drivers even for adept clang research workers. That is why. while something is insecure. some peoples look frontward to Torahs to be delivered for their safety. They want lawgivers set up ordinances to curtail the cell phones usage by drivers ( Strayer. D. . Drews. F. . Albert R. . and Johnston W. . 2005 ) . When the cell phone rings. people normally feel obliged to reply it. whether it is good situated. safe. or acceptable to make. They later become concentrated on the call. and lose their consciousness that needed for driving. Some survey evokes that cell phones use while driving creates larger hazards than assorted other sorts of distractions. A survey has set up that peoples who are engaged in cell phone conversations proved well slower reactions to traffic warning marks and failed to see warning marks wholly much more often than peoples who were hearing the wireless or else ( Pachter. B. . and Magee. S ) . Drivers who are unfocused by chew the fating on a cell phone or dialing Numberss at the same clip as they are driving are bring forthing traffic accidents progressively. Some metropoliss have restricted utilizing cell phones while driving since it has produced such a important calamity. The probe concentrated on the cell phone confab. because it needs action and reaction. It besides highlighted another facet such as people have to keeping the cell phone while chew the fating ( Hitti. M. . 2006 ) . Overall. probes set up that chew the fating on both a hand-held and a hands-free cell phone directed to considerable decreases in driving execution. The cell phone use while driving disturbs public presentation by airting concentration to an affecting cognitive state of affairs that immediately related with drive ( Hitti. M. . 2006 ) . 4. Argument Cell phones would non hold better repute if they did non present significant advantages to clients in the value of mobility and helpfulness. Research workers and route safety experts identify that cell phones present safe advantages every bit good as disadvantages in a similar manner. Cell phones create a possibility for drivers rapidly to inform pressing state of affairss to public safety governments and to inform overcrowding countries to traffic decision makers ( Cell Phones A ; Driving . 2005 ) . For people who are driving unaccompanied. at nighttime. in awful conditions. or on little-used roads. cell phones present extra protection and a better infinite for mistake. However. the cogent evidence emerges to be lifting that chew the fating on cell phones while driving nowadayss a new and peculiarly hazardous visual aspect of driver break. Lawgivers may state that criminalizing cell phones would diminish the measure of traffic clangs. However. I argue that it relied on the person. Some people might be under the drugs or rummies. and they turn into a menace to the other drivers on the street. However. there are other peoples that absolutely able to chew the fating on the cell phone or working other electronic tools while they are driving. I consider that it should be verified by the response clip of individuals. non simply indicating whether they utilizing a cell phone or other nomadic electronic tool. Some individuals have to be taken off the streets merely the manner they are. even with no any breaks. because they own about a two-second response clip. These people are a menace to other drivers. despite what tools they might be utilizing. Furthermore. surely. at what clip they answer a cell phone. their response clip might twice to four seconds. and later they are more than possible traveling to crash into person. The augmented consciousness arranged to the safety consequences of cell phone use while driving has generated a new impulse to congregate more information on cell phone use particularly and driver distractions overall. For the clip being. public sophistication will stay. even though non invariably with indistinguishable note. High-tech flawlessnesss are besides expected to keep their fast motion. but their capableness to happen the implicit in cause of all concerns environing cell phones and drive is possible to be restricted. 5. Decision Technology becomes driving factors that favour the growing of any concern ; fabrication. cordial reception ; car are some illustrations of industries that take benefits of engineering development. This is because engineering has becomes built-in portion of concern operation. One of engineering that continues demoing unbelievable advancement is telecommunication and electronics. The engineering grows at full velocity due to the benefits it provides to clients. Currently. telecommunication besides becomes primary demands non merely for concerns to pass on with their clients and co-workers but besides for parents to speak with their kids. However. the increasing velocity of technological innovation in cellular phones provide a important challenge particularly sing the moralss of utilizing cellular phones in public topographic points including while driving a auto. This paper has provided two opposite stances sing the issue.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Black Criticism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Black Criticism - Assignment Example As a critical theory, Black criticism single out condemnation and critique knowledge which is marked by more specific characteristic. The knowledge about racial discrimination presents itself as definite, final, and past human motivations and interests. As such, critical theory seek to destabilize such knowledge. Black criticism acknowledges that racialism is engrained within the system and fabric of American society. An individual racist does not need to so as to note institutional racism is universal in the leading culture. The theory recognizes that white supremacy and white privilege dominates the power structures, which propagates the marginalization of Blacks. Black criticism also discards the traditions of meritocracy and liberalism. Legal discourse reveals that the existing law is impartial and colorblind, nonetheless, the theory challenges this lawful â€Å"act† by scrutinizing meritocracy and liberalism as a means of self-interest, privilege and power.   Black criticism recognizes that meritocracy and liberalism are habitually stories told by those with power, wealth, and privilege. Such stories creates a wrong picture of meritocracy; every person who works hard enough can attain power, wealth, and privilege but disregarding the systemic inequalities which institutional ra cism offer. Intersectionality (examination of sexual orientation, race, class, gender, national origin, and how they interplay in various settings) in Black criticism leads to a multiple oppressions and identifies that race, in itself, cannot suggest disempowerment (Camara, 2011, pg. 63). This is a significant tenet in emphasizing that Black criticism is crucial for most oppressions facing folks of color. The theory does not commit to racism as one–dimensional approach to oppression due to the complexities of the world. An interpretation of white writing especially in racist nations illumines the level of Blacks` oppression –