This year, AP Seminar was made available to sophomores as an alternative to English 10. Unlike a traditional English 10 class, AP Seminar focuses heavily on research, presentations, and analytical thinking. Students spend the year learning how to evaluate sources, create arguments, write research papers, and present their ideas.
Mr. Munson explained that teaching AP Seminar for the first time came with an adjustment period, since the course was brand new for tenth graders, sparking major experimentation throughout the year. Nevertheless, he believes that students have made major progress, especially in presentations.
According to Mr. Munson, students improved greatly in their speaking confidence, organization, and ability to communicate ideas clearly. He described presentations as the “bright spot” of the course when asked what his favorite part of the school year was, as presentation skills are becoming increasingly crucial as artificial intelligence is growing more common. He believes that the ability to confidently present in front of an audience is a skill that AI can never replace.
Simultaneously, Mr. Munson expressed his concern regarding the difficulty when attempting to determine how much of a student’s outside writing was truly independent work. Since most assignments were completed outside of class, he found it increasingly difficult to accurately measure a student’s natural writing ability.
As a solution, Mr. Munson hopes to include more in-class writing opportunities next school year and reduce some of the completely independent work time, as it can also result in procrastination and the loss of focus. Additionally, he wants to spend more time helping students understand oral defense questions and breaking down arguments so that important concepts become clearer.
Current AP Seminar students express mixed opinions surrounding the course, with Dylan Park stating that, “I dislike the writing and I like the analytical thinking skills that it teaches you.” He also shared that he disliked the heavy amount of group work required, expressing his displeasure particularly with the group presentations.
However, he was fond of the independence in the end-of-course exam, saying that “the exam was pretty easy” because of the opportunity to work alone. Although he would not personally recommend the class due to the intensive workload, Dylan admitted that AP Seminar helped him improve in research and collaboration skills, pushing him outside of his comfort zone.
Soli Afework shared a more positive overall experience, explaining that the course taught her how to analyze arguments, find credible sources, and better understand different perspectives during group projects and peer reviews. Soli stated, “It’s the right difficulty for a tenth grader and has taught me a lot about analyzing arguments and finding sources.”
While she found the large amount of essays and journal assignments stressful, especially when keeping up with other classes, she still believed the class helped strengthen her writing and observed that her “public speaking definitely got better” with the consistent presentation opportunities throughout the school year.
Both students agreed that AP Seminar has helped them build useful real-world skills like presenting, although the workload can be overwhelming. Their experiences show the success of the course in allowing students to become better independent thinkers and communicators.
In the future, AP Seminar at Centreville High School will continue to improve as teachers and students gain more familiarity with the course and its structure. Mr. Munson plans to make adjustments next year by focusing on more in-class writing, argument analysis, and oral defense preparation.
Despite the challenges, he strongly recommends the course to students who are willing to become more mature and independent learners. He believes the freedom to research independently about topics of passion is one of the most rewarding parts of the class.
