Advanced Placement & College Now at Bronxdale
AP Language and Composition
The purpose of this course is to help students “write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives”. This course is organized according to the requirements and guidelines of the current AP English Course Description, and, therefore, students are expected to read critically, think analytically, and communicate clearly both in writing and speech. The motivation behind this curriculum is to create instruction that allows students to freely access, question, and explore what it truly means “to be”. Works of literature are mindfully selected to create a clearer picture of the life experiences, inclusive of all perspectives in our society, with a sharp focus on how that inclusive voice develops over time. The goal is to create a space where students can develop, through productive struggle, the ability to write and communicate effectively and confidently as they navigate various genres of literature and recognize the relevance of those pieces and the larger essential questions to their academic, personal and prospective professional lives. Through these different forms, students will maintain a dual focus on the content as well as the delivery of that content.
AP Literature
Beginning with the question of "why do we read literature?" AP Literature and Composition is designed to build students' reading stamina in advance of college and promote conversations about meaningful issues that persist today. Mr. Ginsberg's take on AP Literature and Language is a reading and writing intensive course that provides students with a close look at how both poetry and fiction function. Students gain a sense of how literature has worked differently during various periods in literary history and will regularly work to find a real life, modern day application for every text we read.
AP US History
In AP US History (otherwise known as APUSH), students will take a survey course of US History from the 1600s to present day that prepares them for both the US History Regents and AP US History Exam. Students will be asked to read and analyze complex primary source texts from throughout US History, as well as engage with college-level articles and books written by historical scholars. The APUSH course asks students to master several types of historical writing (document-based, thematic, and argumentative) using key historical thinking skills and lenses (i.e. comparison, periodization, contextualization). Students will also be asked to independently run socratic-style discussions and debates, as well as participate in complex research projects and group activities.
Power and Politics: Money, Media, and Our Modern Democracy
This class is a year-long senior seminar divided into two interrelated topics; U.S. Politics and Government and U.S. Economics. During the first semester, students will analyze and critique the formal and informal structures of government and the processes of the American political system. The second semester curriculum will focus on both personal and national finance, business, and how we participate with the economic processes. The class is a college-level course where students will be expected to complete assignments independently and engage with their peers in weekly debates about current issues facing our nation. Students who pass this course will receive 2 social studies credits (1 per semester) with honors.