Why Offer AP Seminar as English 10
What Is AP Seminar?
An English course taught in the AP Seminar style, English 10: AP Seminar helps students build foundational writing, collaboration, research, and presentation skills for future success in high school, college, and career.
AP Seminar is offered in nearly 3,000 schools, with rapid adoption in grade 10. More than half of current AP Seminar teachers are part of their school’s English department, though this course can be offered through any academic department.
AP Seminar has broad benefits.
The course:
- Engages a wide range of students: The project-based learning model makes the course more relevant for more students. A more diverse group of students take and are successful in AP Seminar than any other AP course.
- Builds relevant skills: Students build skills foundational to college and career success, including investigating topics, conducting research, and presenting. They work in teams to investigate a real-world or academic problem and present an argument for their proposed solution.
- Improves outcomes: Taking AP Seminar in grade 10 specifically sets students up for future high school success.
When compared with their peers, 10th-grade AP Seminar students on average:
- Have higher exam scores than students who take the AP Seminar Exam in grade 11.
- Earn higher scores on AP English, history, and government exams taken in grades 11 and 12.
Regardless of when they take the course, AP Seminar students are more likely to:
- Achieve higher first-year college GPAs.
- Persist in college.
And AP Seminar scores are more similar across White, Black, and Hispanic students than any other AP course.
AP Seminar allows me, as an educator, to address skills that are lacking, build upon preexisting skills, and develop and adapt lessons that pique students’ interests. AP Seminar allows teachers and students alike to expand vocabulary, build knowledge of real-world issues and perspectives, and develop empathy. It allows me flexibility as a teacher to best meet the needs of my students. This flexibility, and the discussion it elicits, has strengthened my love of teaching.
— Ashley Nisbett, AP Seminar Teacher, Port Huron Northern High School
Why Schools Are Choosing AP Seminar for English 10
Taught in the AP Seminar style, English 10: AP Seminar provides teachers with a unique instructional framework. The course helps students build a powerful foundation for critical and transferable research skills: investigation, collaboration, writing, and presentation. And students who take it fulfill a core course graduation requirement.
Schools across the country are already using AP Seminar as their English 10 offering because AP Seminar:
- Fits with current curriculum and allows for more flexibility to layer in cross-curricular content.
- Emphasizes evidence-based reading, writing, and speaking.
- Aligns with NCES English course code standards in several states. Visit the SCED Finder for more information.
Learn more about the history of AP Seminar, how the course has evolved, and promising implementation practices.
Read what teachers are doing in their classrooms at:
Many English classes are driven by content and spend the year with readings dominated by imaginative literature. AP Seminar has created a broader context for reading informational texts, but more importantly, the performance tasks have pushed students to explore the world around them for a deeper understanding of how it all works. Doing real-world investigations and offering research-based solutions has produced some critical thinkers who are motivated to do something in their community.
— James Wszolek, English Teacher (AP Seminar) and Department Co-Chair, La Porte High School
How to Incorporate AP Seminar into Your English Sequence
Explore these case studies to learn how high schools are using AP Seminar to rethink their English sequences: