AP Psychology: the Summer Assignment
AP Psychology
Mr. Detjen
AP Psychology: The Summer Assignment
Hi everybody, and welcome to the most challenging and rigorous college-level course you will ever love! The standards and expectations of this elective class are impressive, but so are the rewards, subject in no small part to your engagement and commitment to your own learning. The Advanced Placement program was established in 1946 as servicemen and -women returned from World War II,and was designed in part to offer course curricula to people who had had to leave high school to enlist for military service against Germany or Japan, and were then returning 2-4 years later, significantly more emotionally and intellectually mature than the 18-year-olds they had been in 1941-42-43. And because those then20-somethings were more emotionally and intellectually capable, the AP course requirements created by the College Board were resultantly more demanding. To help current high school students begin the processes of AP content learning and skill development, the College Board strongly recommends, strongly encourages AP teachers to make use of the summer break to get a head start on the course. With the support of Metro’s administration, I have decided to heed that advice. Okay. So much for the explanation and the justification. Let’s get to the summer tasks.
Close to the end of the end of the semester, I shall place a daily announcement calling for a lunchtime meeting of all students who have already enrolled in (this means you), as well as students who are thinking of enrolling inAP Psychology for the Fall 2016 academic term. Since you have, if you are receiving this document, already enrolled in AP Psychology for next year. Will you please, sometime before that meeting, purchase (specifically and exactly) one 5-section spiral notebook (I recommend a reinforced cover) to be used exclusively for AP Psychology.
The notebook will be essential for the summer assignments and for the 2016-2017 school year. When we meet for the lunch meeting I shall explain: the organization of the notebook (see the next page for a preview, but please don’t write anything until we meet and I walk you through the instructions); the course requirement of chapter Reading Study Guides (RSGs)*; and then hand out the chapters I’d like you to read and thoroughly outline over the summer. I shall also, at that meeting, request your email address so as to create an academic Google group or a Remind101 group as a communication avenue this summer.
The Textbook: Myers, Psychology for AP 1e (Worth, 2011)
Summer Assignments
1. By July 1, 2016, write out comprehensive, thorough, and complete chapter notes for the “Introduction” chapter,and alsocomplete the entire Reading Study Guide (RSG)* for Ch. 1, “History and Approaches,” and Ch. 2 “Research Methods.”
2. By Aug. 1, 2016, complete the entire RSG for Ch. 14, “Social Psychology.”
I shall, on each of the above dates, email you via the Google group or Remind 101 to enquire as to your progress. My assumption, my presumption, my expectation is that you will respond honestly about that progress. And in any event, I shall collect and check the notebooks on the first day of classes in August,and your completed RSGs for those 3 chapters will be the first assessment of the year.
*The Reading Study Guide (RSG) will be the primary homework assignment venue for the class. For each chapter you will: (1) take thorough, comprehensive notes, including all section and topic headings, subheadings, titles and topics; (2) write out definitions for the unique vocabularies in each chapter (typically 40-60 terms); and finally (3) write a comprehensive paragraph or so in response to each “Learning Outcome” at the end of the RSG. I shall walk you through all of this when we meet before the end of school.
I look forward to meeting you officially and to beginning a wonderful academic time with you.
The Notebook: Organization
I shall talk more about this when we meet, but in a nutshell AP Psychology is offered as a college-level course and is created and designed to be the first, or among the first, permanent courses of study and learning of the rest of your life. That is, it is not at all of the “cram-test-forget” variety of classes, but rather an ongoing interactive discourse about a social science that focuses on human behavior and cognitive processes whose content knowledge and related skills are designed and created for you to apply beyond the classroom and into your life. A purpose of the notebook is to create, by the end of the school year, an extensive document that you may continue to use and benefit from in college and beyond. The structure and organization of this document is so that you will ultimately have your own permanent, interactive, self-created textbook. It should begin to be organized as follows:
1. Centered on the front cover of the notebook, in permanent marker, print“AP Psychology”
2. On the lower right-hand corner of the front cover, in permanent marker, print your first name.
From this point forward, please write only in PEN, not pencil
(think ‘permanent’).
3. Paginate the entire notebook (1, 3, 5, 7, 9…on the top right-hand corner of each and every respective page
from 1 to the last page of the notebook)
4. Leave the first sheet/page (front and back) blank,except for “1” at the top right corner.
5. The second sheet/page (p. 3) is the Title Page.
--Centered, 1/3 of the way down the page, write “AP Psychology”
--Centered, 2/3 of the way down the page, write “Myers, Psychology for AP 1e (Worth, 2011)”
--Bottom, right-side corner, on 3 separate lines, write:
[Your Name](and to the 1 or 2 invariable class clowns among us, please do not write “Your
Name,” but rather the specific and actual letters that comprise your name !)
Metro 2016-2017
Mr. Detjen
6. At the top of the next sheet (p. 5), write “Table of Contents.”
7. Skip the next 4 sheets/pages. This should take you to page 15. Write the title, “Introduction”
Stop there for the moment.
A final note: Take a look at any textbook you’ve got and see how the author and publisher lay out the contents. How do they organize chapters, highlight, differentiate, draw your attention, illuminate topics and sections…that sort of thing? And then consider how you might create a similar textbook on your own. How would you create your own “Psychology” textbook? How will you make this year-long project into something permanent, accessible, and helpful so as to make it comprehensive and efficient for you to learn?
AP Psychology Exam (Nationwide)
Monday, May 2, 2017 @ 12:00pm
(Start reviewing today! )