Seminar Pacing Part 1 Vanilla Excellence

The posts I see most often on the Facebook teacher groups that I never wade into answering have to do with pacing. There are just so many different site-specific situations (class period length, meeting frequency, block schedules, when does the school year start, are you doing Seminar as E2? and on and on). So, I keep my mouth shut. I know what works for me, and I can't begin to tell others what they should do with their situations.

Well, maybe I'm a little wrong on that point. Maybe I should share so others can get ideas. Maybe I should share so people can get a feel for how I do things and adjust from there. Maybe I should share so my audience can chime in the comments with a "hey, what is this? Can you share what that lesson is?"

So welcome to the first post in a three-part series. This is (more or less) how I did things for years. I learned, I tweaked, I got to 100% pass rate and then I hit repeat.

In Part 2, I will show you how I tried (and I think succeeded) in doing more than 100%.

In Part 3, I will share my pacing guide for a virtual version of the class that my district (one of the largest in the United States!) asked me build.

This is a rough and flexible outline. Don't understand something you see below? Ask me in the comments! I'm always trying to figure out what my seminar teachers would like me to share, so I would be happy to give you more materials based on what you're interested in. Without further ado, Write All Along's AP Seminar Vanilla Pacing Guide.

Quarter 1: AP Seminar Basics 

• Week 1: Class Basics
  • Team Building
  • Notebook Setup
  • Summer Reading Socratic
• Week 2: Core Concepts
  • Lenses
  • Perspectives
  • Rubrics
    • IRR
    • IWA
    • A NOT Seminar Paper
  • Intro to Talking Points
• Week 3: Perspectives in Conversation
  • Lens and Perspectives Quiz
  • Very Basic Research Intro
  • Talking Points Paper Due
  • Vocal Variety Presentations
• Week 4: Thinking Outside the Author
  • Context
  • Line-of-Reasoning
  • Question Writing
  • Intro to Databases
• Week 5: Research
  • LIL notes
  • Source Types
  • CRAAP
• Week 6: Writing Workshop
  • Freewriting and Outlining
  • Making Moves with Evidence
  • IRR Samples
  • Notebook Checks
  • Rough Drafts Due
• Week 7: Revision Workshop
  • Peer Review
  • Banning Intros and Conclusions
  • APA Style
• Week 8: Infographics
  • Visual “Texts”
  • Examples and Construction
  • Stage Presence
  • Presentations
• Week 9: The 4 P’s
  • Practice (EOC)
  • PowerPoints (that don’t suck)
  • Passion (energy)
  • Party (PowerPoint)                                    

Quarter 2: Argument Clinic

• Week 10: Mock Stimulus
  • Additional Note Taking Strategies
  • Quiz
  • Socratic Seminar
• Week 11: Exemplars
  • Research Questions
  • IWA
  • IMP
  • Questions and Initial Research Due
• Week 12: Advanced Research
  • Media Bias
  • Wikipedia and Reference Mining
  • Implications and Limitations
• Week 13: Writing the Debate
  • Analyzing Arguments
  • Argument Structures
  • Notebook Checks
• Week 14: Writing Workshop
  • Rough Drafts Due
  • Peer Review
  • Fixing a broken paper
  • PowerPoint as paper revision
• Week 15: Presentations
  • PPTs due
  • Rehearsals
  • Presentations
  • Papers Due
• Week 16-18
  • Option 1: Flex time for inevitable over run (this happens most commonly because I get so far behind with the aggressive schedule above / I allow students additional time on everything because I’m a nice guy)
  • Option 2: EOC practice (I rarely do this, but it happens)
  • Option 3: Mock PT1 with teacher supplied topics and initial research 8-12 sources (good if there are actually 3 solid weeks or somehow more)

Quarter 3: PT1 and Beginning PT2

• Week 19: Starting PT1
  • Group Formation
  • Topic Brainstorm
  • Research Questions
• Week 20: Beginning a Research Journey
  • Lens and Perspective Review
  • Research Set up
  • Plagiarism Review
• Week 21: Collaborating on Research
  • Dinner Party for Perspectives
  • The Next Invitation
  • Begin Checkpoint Conferences
• Week 22: The Squishy Middle
  • Concluding Research
  • Constructing Group Presentations
  • Forming Arguments / Argument Structures
    • Weighing Solutions
  • Rough Drafts Due
  • Peer Feedback
• Week 23: Prepping for Presentations
  • Scripting and Transitions
  • Rehearsals
  • IRR Revision Strategies
• Week 24: Presentations and IRR Finals Due
  • Mini lessons as needed:
    • paragraph construction
    • writing research-based openers
    • connecting to sources
• Week 25: Beginning PT2
  • Stimulus
  • Socratic / Issue Brainstorm
• Week 26: Research Questions and Beginning Research
• Week 27: The Research Faire

Quarter 4: PT2, the Portfolio, and the EOC

• Week 28: Argumentation Review and Research
  • Checkpoint 1 Conferences
  • Checkpoint 2 Due
• Week 29: The Squishy Middle
  • Mini-lessons as needed:
    • including figures
    • writing the debate
    • what to do with fringe opinions?
• Week 30: Concluding PT2
  • Presentations
  • Finish IWA
• Week 31: The Portfolio
  • Final Revisions to IRR
  • Final Revisions to IMP
• Week 32: EOC Prep
• Week 34: Somewhere in here is the EOC...
  • More review and practice... as much as you can...