Class Spotlight: AP Seminar is Teaching Students to be Effective Writers and Engaged Global Citizens

When was the last time you had a meaningful, in-depth conversation with someone? What was it about? What points did you bring to the table? Well, there is a class at PTHS in which students must aim to answer all of these questions and more while learning how to be “engaged global citizens.”

AP Seminar is a relatively new creation of CollegeBoard’s compared to other classes, but it arguably contains some of the most fundamental concepts any high school student or person, for that matter, should know. As a student in AP Seminar myself, I still remember the first key point of the course we took notes on. Mrs. Schreck, the AP Seminar teacher at PTHS, directed us to write down four words in our notebook, claiming that they would carry us on throughout the rest of the year: EVERYTHING IS AN ARGUMENT. At first, I was perplexed. Logically, how could everything be an argument? Who was even arguing? In truth, the answers to these questions were simpler than I thought. 

According to Mrs. Schreck, “[Seminar] entails an understanding of proper research strategies, source evaluation, and inquiry processes…it will help [students] spark interest in global and local topics that they can get involved in and start solving problems on behalf of.” Fittingly, throughout the year in Seminar, students partake in a variety of research opportunities, such as individual research reports, stimulated arguments, group presentations, and identifying lines of reasoning in other scholarly work. Essentially, students’ arguments and topics are “situated in the real world,” in the words of Mrs. Schreck. The course, therefore, aims at making students better writers through the agreed-upon concept that writing is an ongoing conversation between different authors in which each written piece is another addition to the “discussion.”

Moreover, Seminar is composed of two elements unlike most AP classes: Seminar and Research, both of which are a part of the overarching AP Capstone Program. As Mrs. Schreck put it, “Seminar is step one in a two part process. It gives the skills and builds an attention to detail and ethical research that will be needed when students move on to part two and make their own contributions to topics in society.” While both courses are highly rigorous and require extensive research, writing, and argumentation, students expand on these topics exponentially by the end of the course and the AP Exam in May. 

In a broader sense, however, Seminar is more than just a course, and thought that could be said for any AP class, Seminar includes a component of life that humans use everyday: conversation. In the scheme of things, we say and do everything with a purpose or goal, and writing contains a similar process. It allows people across the world to connect in ways that would otherwise only be accessible through face-to-face discourse. So, as for my original questions as to how everything could be an argument, and who was even participating in this discussion, the answers are purpose lends itself to argumentative reasoning and everyone capable of forming their own opinions to contribute to this reasoning. 

I want you to think back to my early inquiries—about the latest meaningful discussion you had with someone—and compare how it felt to speak your thoughts versus writing them down in your English class for example. Quite different, huh? Fascinatingly, there is a reason for this. 

Misinformation and the inability of people to discern truth from falsehood is becoming ever-present in the technologically-advancing world. When we keep our thoughts to ourselves rather than vocalizing them and being given input from others, we tend to shy away from the truth if it conflicts even slightly with our beliefs. That is where the ethical research component of AP Seminar comes into play. The course not only teaches students how to consider multiple perspectives; it also shows them how important discernment is in an ever growing global landscape of misinformation. The importance of reliability, reputation, and accessibility of sources when pulling information from a variety of accounts becomes clear through Seminar.

Therefore, I would encourage all students at PTHS to consider taking AP Seminar in order to learn how to become engaged global citizens capable of utilizing different information sources to create cohesive perspectives and share their own thoughts with others in a respectful manner. After all, conversation marks a key aspect of human life that we can all civilly contribute to if taught how. 

Sabrina Cristea