Teachers Preparatory High School

The AP English Literature and Composition course aligns to an introductory college-level literary analysis course. The course engages students in the close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret literary works. 

The AP World History course focuses on developing students’ understanding of the world history from approximately 8000 BCE to the present. This college-level course has students investigate the content of world history for significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in six historical periods, and develop and use the same thinking skills and methods (analyzing primary and secondary sources, making historical comparisons, chronological reasoning, and argumentation) employed by historians when they study the past. The course also provides five themes (interaction between humans and the environment; development and interaction of cultures; state building, expansion, and conflict; creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems; development and transformation of social structures) that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places encompassing the five major geographical regions of the globe: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

The AP U.S. History course focuses on the development of historical thinking skills (chronological reasoning, comparing and contexualizing, crafting historical arguments using historical evidence, and interpreting and synthesizing historical narrative) and the development of students’ abilities to think conceptually about U.S. history from approximately 1491 to the present. Seven themes of equal importance – American and National Identity; Migration and Settlement; Politics and Power; Work, Exchange, and Technology; America in the World; Geography and the Environment; and Culture and Society – provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. These require students to reason historically about continuity and change over time and make comparisons among various historical developments in different times and places. The course also allows teachers flexibility across nine different periods of U.S. history to teach topics of their choice in depth.

AP Biology is an introductory college-level biology course. Students cultivate their understanding of biology through inquiry-based investigations as they explore the following topics: evolution, cellular processes — energy and communication, genetics, information transfer, ecology, and interactions.

The purpose is to develop proficiency in the Spanish language. Students have already acquired a basic knowledge of the language and culture of Spanish speaking peoples and have developed a reasonable proficiency in listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing. This course stresses vocabulary, oral skills, composition and grammar, and requires students to use Spanish for active communication. In order to promote language proficiency, this class is conducted primarily in the target language. Students work toward building a larger reading, speaking and listening vocabulary through use of materials representative of the Spanish-speaking culture. Extensive training in the organization and writing of compositions is an integral part of AP Spanish.

El propósito es desarrollar el dominio del idioma español. Los estudiantes ya han adquirido un conocimiento básico del idioma y la cultura de los pueblos de habla hispana y han desarrollado una competencia razonable en comprensión auditiva, expresión oral, lectura y escritura. Este curso enfatiza el vocabulario, las habilidades orales, la composición y la gramática, y requiere que los estudiantes usen el español para la comunicación activa. Para promover el dominio del idioma, esta clase se lleva a cabo principalmente en el idioma de destino. Los estudiantes trabajan para construir un vocabulario más amplio de lectura, expresión oral y comprensión auditiva mediante el uso de materiales representativos de la cultura de habla hispana. El entrenamiento extenso en la organización y redacción de composiciones es una parte integral del español AP.

AP Computer Science  is a programming class. The course emphasizes object-oriented programming methodology, especially problem solving and algorithm development, plus an overview of data structures and abstraction. The AP Computer Science exam tests students on their knowledge of Java.