Languages

Students will cover a variety of topics ranging from deforestation to immigration, racism, and the many challenges that arise with these issues. Through authentic documentaries, articles, and podcasts, students will live the issues facing many Spanish speakers in the United States and in their home countries. With the use of debates, speeches, and persuasive writing, the students will culminate their language experience by covering current topics and being able to speak to the topic in the second language.

Conducted exclusively in French, this course is the culmination of multiple years of rigorous study and continues to develop all four language skills leading to proficiency. Through the study of the six cultural themes, students explore the French-speaking world and learn to compare various cultural aspects of it to their own community. The students also read articles online, watch videos of native speakers, keep a journal in French, make regular recordings for homework, compose and express more complex thoughts and ideas, review grammar, collaborate with the teacher on vocabulary lists, and become familiar with the format of the AP exam. The course prepares students to take the AP French Language exam in May and requires permission of the instructor.

AP Latin is equivalent to an upper-intermediate level college course in Latin focusing on the in-depth study of selections from two of the greatest works in Latin literature: Vergil’s Aeneid and Caesar’s Gallic War. Students cultivate their understanding of classics through preparing and translating readings and considering themes in the context of ancient literature as they explore concepts like literary techniques, Roman values, war and empire, leadership, views of non-Romans, history and memory, and human beings and the gods.

Students in this class read representative prose (short stories, novels, and essays), poetry, and drama from the Spanish-speaking world. This is a survey course that follows the reading list published by the College Board. The students make connections between the works read and the historical period and regions in which they were written. Students develop a deeper understanding of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. The course prepares students to take the AP Spanish Literature exam in May.