Kate Hoffman has taught for over 25 years in public and private schools and at many levels—middle school, high school, and college.

Last summer, my administration gave me the green light to attend an AP^® Summer Institute because we were offering two new sections of AP^® Seminar to students in the fall.  So much of what I heard about AP^® Seminar seemed different from teaching AP^® Literature; there’s less fiction, more research, and new terms like “IRR” and “IWA.” But as my intense weeklong training went on, things gradually felt more familiar. Essentially, AP^® Seminar allows students to earn an AP^® score from 5 assignments throughout the year (see the chart below). I realized my experience teaching with “They Say / I Say” with Readings (TSIS) offered me a foundation for this new course and made my first year as an AP^® Seminar teacher far more manageable than I anticipated.  

Elements of the AP^® Seminar Classes and Scores 

​​Task 1: based on student-selected current issues (20% of score)	​Individual Research Report – 1200 words or less (IRR)	​Team Multimedia Presentation – students share information from IRR to make a group presentation (TMP)
​Task 2: based on materials from the College Board (35% of score)	​Individual Written Argument – 2000 words or less (IWA)	​Individual Multimedia Presentation – students create a presentation based on their research and deliver it (IMP)
​End-of-Year Exam (2 parts in 2 hours) ​(45% of score)	​Part A: A1. Identify the author’s thesis. A2. Explain the author’s line of reasoning. A3. Evaluate effectiveness of the evidence the author uses.	​Part B: Read the 4 sources provided. Then, write an argument that presents your own perspective on the theme or issue you identified using at least 2 of the sources.​

Essentially, the entire Individual Research Report (IRR) assignment from Task 1 is a “They Say” task. In groups, students decide on a current issue or problem and then divide research into parts. They write their research review from one perspective, and then share information and create a presentation as a team. Offering my students practice with TSIS before we begin the Task 1 assignment gives them a strong foundation of skills that align directly with the AP^® Seminar transferable skills: analyze sources and evidence, construct an evidence-based argument, and understand context and perspectives. 

I begin the year teaching students how to understand the line of reasoning in an argument—a huge element of AP^® Seminar’s two tasks as well as the end-of-year exam. Both Chapter 1: “They Say: Starting with What Others Are Saying” and Chapter 2: “Her Point is: The Art of Summarizing” help my students learn to summarize arguments. It makes it easy for the students to understand what they need to do when I can show them a template like this one from Chapter 2: 

X and Y, in their article ___________, argue that ___________. Their research, which demonstrates that ___________, challenges the idea that ___________. They use ___________ to show ___________. X and Y’s argument speaks to ___________ about the larger issue of ___________. 

This skill is especially helpful for the IRR as it helps students begin to use appropriate academic language while summarizing their sources. After all, the highest row in the IRR rubric for Understand and Analyze Argument (row 2 on the IRR rubric) states: “The report demonstrates an understanding of the reasoning and validity of the sources’ arguments. This can be evidenced by direct explanation or through purposeful use of the reasoning and conclusions.”  

Once students understand how to summarize and point out the line of reasoning, or how someone builds their argument, we move on to Chapter 3: “As He Himself Puts it: The Art of Quoting.” The chapter reminds students to “get in the habit of following every major quotation by explaining what it means” (52) and then offers a few templates to practice this skill. This helped teach my students about the concept of connective tissue in their reports.  They need to be able to explain what sources are saying and how the sources talk to each other–that is, if the sources support each other, create tension, or show disagreement. The element of being able to think about how each source interacts initially felt difficult to explain, but then I started using the metaphor of a tea party or a podcast. I ask students to imagine they are the host and need to facilitate a conversation between multiple people with different perspectives, moderating that conversation by finding points of convergence and divergence.  

When I remind students they are the moderators, doing so aligns with Chapter 9: “As a Result: Connecting the Parts,” which is useful for teaching students about Understanding and Analyzing Perspectives (row 4 on the IRR rubric). This states: “The report discusses a range of perspectives and draws explicit and relevant connections among those perspectives.” Additionally, the list of commonly used transitions in that chapter is invaluable for my students in alternating between perspectives. We had that page marked with sticky notes for common reference in class. 

I also build a foundation of skills needed for Task 2, the Individual Written Argument (IWA) and Presentation before officially starting both AP^® tasks. “They Say / I Say” has five sets of thematic readings, including:

• Who Decides What Freedom Is?
• How is Technology Changing Us?
• Why Care About the Planet?
• What’s College For?
• How Can We Bridge the Differences That Divide Us?

Before we delve into a set of readings, I assign Chapter 13: “I Take Your Point: Entering Class Discussions,” which helps my students understand how to enter a discussion, finding points of convergence or divergence in their perspectives on a topic. 

Before we begin our research, I teach students about writing research questions, so students read and discuss Chapter 15: “Research as Conversation.” To write their questions, they need to understand how to narrow down a topic and create a strong research question. Chapter 15 delves into this process and offers not only templates, but also examples of professional research. Another element I appreciate about Chapter 15 is the portion about evaluating sources and reading laterally. This offers concrete ways for me to help my students understand how to do credibility checks on authors, sources, and websites. The list of tips for “Researching Like a Fact-Checker” is invaluable.  

When we work on the official IWA, I ask students to read and discuss the following chapters to help them understand how to comment on sources, how to deploy data and quotes, and how to explain data:  

• Chapter 11: “But Don’t Get Me Wrong: The Art of Metacommentary” 
• Chapter 17: “The Data Suggest: Writing in the Sciences” 
• Chapter 18: “Analyze This: Writing in the Social Sciences” 

Depending on what topics my students research–whether they write about carbon footprints, coffeeshops, or cityscapes–these chapters offer concrete examples as well as templates that help them structure their writing.   

But the process of learning and writing and research is recursive, so we return to what we had done before. When writing the IWA, Chapter 3 comes in handy to remind students they needed to “use the details from different sources’ arguments to explain specific relationships or connections among perspectives” (row 4 on the IWA rubric).  And because students must establish their argument by providing “commentary that explains fully how evidence supports claims” and “integrat[ing] alternate views” (row 4 the IWA rubric), we return to Chapter 9: “As a Result: Connecting the Parts” to remind ourselves how to write that connective tissue between perspectives.  

During my AP^® Seminar in-class writing time for Task 1 or Task 2, students regularly grab a copy of “They Say / I Say” to refer to templates, explanations, or examples. We have sticky notes flagging useful pages, and some students pull out notebooks that have their favorite templates jotted down so they can refer to them while writing. 

As a first-year AP^® Seminar teacher, I was really nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to offer my students all the support they needed. But, since my students had access to “They Say / I Say,” I felt as if I had a mentor teacher with me at all times, and any of the skills I need to teach for Seminar have a corresponding chapter or section in the book.  While there is plenty I need to revise for my second year of teaching this course, I am grateful I have this resource available to me.  

AP^® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product. 

MEET THE AUTHOR

Kate Hoffman has taught for over 25 years in public and private schools and at many levels—middle school, high school, and college. For many years she taught AP® Literature and Composition, but now she teaches AP®  Seminar, among other courses. She currently teaches high school English in Central Pennsylvania. In her spare time, she enjoys going to thrift stores, antique stores, and independent bookstores. She writes regularly and has tried her hand at poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. You can reach her at: k1a9t7e5@gmail.com.