AP Capstone Tutoring
As any AP Capstone student and parent knows, the performance tasks for both AP Seminar and AP Research are incredibly demanding and challenging. Many high schools offer these courses with large class sizes, which prevents teachers from being able to provide significant feedback in the early parts of the year to fully prepare students for the independent work that contributes to their AP Score. While the international and national pass rates for both courses are high, very few students receive scores of four or five. One way to increase the odds of receiving those top marks is to work one-on-one with a qualified AP Capstone tutor.
I firmly believe that I am that tutor! Since 2019, my AP Capstone tutees have all passed their courses and received scores of four or five. I debuted the AP Capstone program at St. John Paul II School in Hyannis, MA, where my students achieved an 86 percent pass rate and 24 percent of my students received scores of four or five. What did I do as the tutor and teacher to achieve these results?
AP Seminar
As an AP Seminar tutor, I will:
AP Research
As an AP Research tutor, I will:
Policies
All teachers and tutors, as well as students, must abide by the College Board's policies. Any violation of these policies may result in a score of zero for that particular component of the performance task. I have observed in the last year that the College Board has been very strict with enforcing its policies, particularly its policy regarding the use of generative Artificial Intelligence. You can rest easy with the knowledge that I am trained in both AP Seminar and AP Research, meaning that I am well-versed in these policies. I can support students without violating them, as well as help students with documenting their research and writing process so that they are not at risk for a false positive with Turnitin.
I firmly believe that I am that tutor! Since 2019, my AP Capstone tutees have all passed their courses and received scores of four or five. I debuted the AP Capstone program at St. John Paul II School in Hyannis, MA, where my students achieved an 86 percent pass rate and 24 percent of my students received scores of four or five. What did I do as the tutor and teacher to achieve these results?
- I provided frequent practice of the AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam free response questions, Part A and Part B.
- I explicitly taught the College Board's rubrics and how to use them for both self reflection and peer review in order to maximize scores.
- I provided copious written and verbal feedback on mock performance tasks.
- I led students through dissections of papers and presentations.
- I scaffolded writing assignments with sentence frames that foster an academic voice.
- I implemented acting games and vocal exercises as part of presentation rehearsal. We also rehearsed presentations and oral defenses... a lot.
- I demonstrated techniques for innovation with Google Slides and PowerPoint.
- Most importantly, I broke the performance tasks down into smaller tasks and created a schedule for students to follow. While they worked independently, I held frequent conferences and I used students' previous work to model improvements that they could make on their own.
AP Seminar
As an AP Seminar tutor, I will:
- Read, score, provide feedback on, and score revisions of all practice EOCs and mock performance tasks
- Assign, read, score, provide feedback on, and score revisions of practice EOCs
- Support the primary teacher's schedule for performance tasks
- Create supporting assignments as necessary (annotated bibliographies, outlines, etc.)
- Ask guiding questions that help identify areas for improvement in the performance tasks, as well as possible strategies and solutions for common pitfalls and problems
- Teach research skills
- Teach public speaking skills
- Rehearse multimedia presentations and oral defenses
- In a group setting (i.e., the entire team for performance task 1), mediate disputes and teach cooperative and collaborative skills
- In a group setting (i.e., the entire team for performance task 1), rehearse multimedia presentations and oral defenses
AP Research
As an AP Research tutor, I will:
- Support the primary teacher's schedule for performance tasks
- Create supporting assignments as necessary (PREP portfolio entires, annotated bibliographies, outlines, section drafts, etc.)
- Coach the entire research process:
- Developing research questions
- Conducting a literature review
- Finding the research gap
- Choosing a methodology and method
- Conducting research
- Analyzing and interpreting results
- Communicating findings
- Teach email/phone communication with expert advisers
- Assist with obtaining IRB approval
- Teach public speaking skills
- Rehearse multimedia presentations and oral defenses
Policies
All teachers and tutors, as well as students, must abide by the College Board's policies. Any violation of these policies may result in a score of zero for that particular component of the performance task. I have observed in the last year that the College Board has been very strict with enforcing its policies, particularly its policy regarding the use of generative Artificial Intelligence. You can rest easy with the knowledge that I am trained in both AP Seminar and AP Research, meaning that I am well-versed in these policies. I can support students without violating them, as well as help students with documenting their research and writing process so that they are not at risk for a false positive with Turnitin.