Preparing for Part B of the End-of-Course Exam | Session 2 | AP Seminar

Summary

In this insightful session, Mrs. Malloy from Carmel High School dissects Part B of the AP Seminar end-of-course exam, focusing on essential skills students need to excel. She emphasizes understanding the task, its process, and the rubric, which helps in crafting a strong argument. Mrs. Malloy advises AP Seminar students on how not to misconceive the process by merely summarizing sources or pre-deciding arguments without authentic engagement with the provided materials. She also discusses effective planning and time management strategies for stitching together a persuasive essay under exam conditions.

Highlights

• Mrs. Malloy emphasizes the importance of understanding the task and process for Part B. 🎓
• Students often misconceive the task as summarizing sources instead of forming an argument. 🚫
• Effective arguments require integrating evidence authentically from the provided sources. 📜
• Planning is emphasized as a crucial step before starting to write. 🗂️
• The video stresses the value of addressing counterclaims to add depth to arguments. ⚔️
• Clarity in writing and handwriting is vital to convey ideas accurately. ✍️
• Students are encouraged to manage their time effectively during the exam. ⏳

Key Takeaways

• Understand the task: It's vital to know exactly what the exam asks you to do! 🎯
• Don't rush to writing: Planning your argument is key. Take your time to organize your thoughts first. 🧠
• Use evidence wisely: Integrate your sources authentically to support your claims. 📚
• Complex arguments win: Address counterclaims and different perspectives to strengthen your argument. 🤔
• Clarity is crucial: Keep your handwriting legible and ideas clear. 🖊️
• Timing strategy matters: Allocate time wisely between planning, writing, and revising. ⏰

Overview

Mrs. Malloy takes AP Seminar students on an enlightening journey through the nuances of Part B of the end-of-course exam. She begins by underscoring the critical components: a well-crafted argument requires a complete understanding of the task, clear organization, and seamless integration of source material. This session provides students with a roadmap to create not just any argument, but a compelling one.

The session busts some common myths about the process. Many students mistakenly believe Part B is about summarizing provided sources or already coming in with a preset argument. Mrs. Malloy detangles these misconceptions by reinforcing that true success lies in authentically engaging with the materials to build and support an original argument that incorporates multiple perspectives.

Additionally, Mrs. Malloy lays out practical strategies for exam success. She advises students to spend ample time planning their arguments before diving into writing. Crafting a thesis, incorporating evidence cohesively, and addressing counterclaims are highlighted as crucial steps. Her advice extends to ensuring the clarity of communication and effective time management, ensuring students leave the exam with their best foot forward.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview of Part B In the chapter titled 'Introduction and Overview of Part B', Mrs. Malloy from Carmel High School addresses AP seminar students about the end-of-course exam. The focus is on Part B, discussing the task, process, and rubric necessary for crafting an effective argument. This overview aims to ensure students are well-prepared and confident for this portion of the exam.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Understanding the Task Instructions This chapter explains the task instructions for an assignment, whether taken digitally or on paper. Readers are required to carefully read four sources, identify a connecting theme or issue, and understand the different perspectives presented. Subsequently, they need to craft a logically structured, well-reasoned argument reflecting their own perspective on the identified theme or issue, incorporating at least two of the provided sources.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Breaking Down the Task This chapter discusses techniques for effectively linking claims in arguments to supporting evidence. It emphasizes the importance of using provided sources or personal knowledge, and encourages referencing sources clearly as 'Source A', 'Source B', 'Source C', or 'Source D', or by the author's name. The chapter breaks down the approach of integrating four interconnected sources to build a coherent argument.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Crafting an Argument The chapter "Crafting an Argument" emphasizes the importance of using sources to inspire and construct a logically organized, well-reasoned, and well-written argument. It highlights the necessity of linking claims with commentary and ensuring that evidence is tied to claims. The focus is on creating a debatable argument, mirroring the process of writing an individual writing assignment (IWA), where each source offers a different perspective or argument.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Process Misconceptions The chapter 'Process Misconceptions' discusses the similarities between different tasks that involve constructing arguments, specifically comparing the IWA and Part B. It highlights that both require a stimulus and an argument. However, a key difference is that in the IWA, you must establish a theme that connects two elements and then incorporate them into the argument, whereas Part B requires incorporating two pieces of stimulus into the argument.
• 02:30 - 03:00: The Planning Process The chapter 'The Planning Process' discusses the importance of incorporating sources into arguments. It stresses the familiarity of the process with previously learned skills, specifically through the iwa (Independent Writing Assignment). The only new element is the requirement to include two sources into the argumentation. The chapter provides reassurance to those who feel nervous about the task, emphasizing their preparedness due to similar past experiences.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Importance of a Strong Main Claim In this chapter, the focus is on the significance of having a robust main claim in writing. It discusses the importance of constructing strong arguments and demonstrates understanding of argumentation beyond just producing work for assignments. The chapter addresses common misconceptions about the writing process, emphasizing that proficiency in creating arguments requires skill and is not merely an accident.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Outlining and Organization This chapter focuses on common misconceptions students have when outlining and organizing their writing. It highlights the mistake of summarizing sources individually instead of synthesizing them to address a theme comprehensively. The chapter emphasizes that merely describing each source's relation to the theme is insufficient for successful writing.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Scoring and Evaluation Criteria The chapter focuses on clarifying common misconceptions among students regarding scoring and evaluation criteria in academic writing and evaluations. Students often mistake summarizing sources for forming an argument, which is a key point addressed in the chapter. Additionally, it highlights students’ tendencies to rely on their past work or prior learning inappropriately, such as referencing previous assignments instead of forming a unique, evidence-backed argument for their current task.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Timing and Managing Exam Time The chapter discusses strategies for managing time during exams, using the context of an AP US History exam. It emphasizes the importance of developing arguments based on the stimulus material provided in the exam rather than pre-determined arguments. The text warns against trying to manipulate sources to fit a preconceived argument, suggesting that this approach fails to meet the true objectives of the exercise.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Analyzing Past Exam Themes The chapter titled 'Analyzing Past Exam Themes' focuses on understanding the requirements of rubrics or prompts in a way that integrates them authentically with the actual content and arguments of sources. It emphasizes the importance of not manipulating sources to merely fit one's argument but understanding and incorporating them genuinely. The process of doing this is depicted as complex, with visual cues suggesting that it is not straightforward, indicating that it requires careful consideration and analysis.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Generating a Perspective and Argument The chapter emphasizes the importance of proper preparation before writing an essay, particularly Part B. It warns against the common mistake of rushing into writing without completing necessary pre-writing steps. The author, speaking from the perspective of an essay grader, highlights that many students think they know the direction of their essay from the start, but often it's not clear until the second or third page. Thus, proper planning and generating a perspective and argument beforehand are crucial.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Structuring and Supporting the Argument This chapter emphasizes the importance of planning before writing an argument. The process involves reading and understanding all the stimulus material and sources provided, even if some of them appear challenging or difficult to comprehend.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Incorporating and Using Evidence The chapter 'Incorporating and Using Evidence' emphasizes the importance of reading all sources available, especially when time is limited. It acknowledges the challenge of some sources being too complex or overwhelming and suggests strategies to tackle them efficiently. The chapter underlines the necessity of incorporating at least two sources into work, even if one source seems daunting, indicating their significance to the overall theme. The guidance provided aims to enhance strategic reading and effective evidence utilization.
• 07:00 - 07:30: Takeaways and Exam Advice The chapter emphasizes the importance of efficient reading and annotating techniques for exam preparation. It suggests not spending excessive time, such as 90 minutes, on a single source. Instead, students should focus on identifying and noting the key ideas or a gist of the source. This practice helps in retaining the core information for effective revision.

Preparing for Part B of the End-of-Course Exam | Session 2 | AP Seminar Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey AP seminar students it is Mrs Malloy from Carmel High School in Carmel Indiana and I am here today to talk to you about the end of course exam specifically today we're going to talk about Part B so what are we going to learn well today we're going to focus on the task the process and the rubric because having a clear understanding of those elements is going to make sure that you can confidently craft an effective argument for the part B you will do on the exam so let's start by
• 00:30 - 01:00 looking at the task instructions themselves so whether you're taking this digitally or in person on paper you're going to have the same task the task is going to read as follows you're going to read the four sources carefully focusing on a theme or issue that connects them and the different perspectives each represents then you're going to write a logically organized well-reasoned and well-written argument that presents your own perspective on the theme or issue you identified you must incorporate at least two of the sources provided and
• 01:00 - 01:30 Link the claims in your argument to supporting evidence you may also use the other provided sources or Draw upon your own knowledge in your response refer to the provided sources as Source a source B Source C or Source D or by the author's name so let's break this down first of all we're going to be given four sources of those four sources they're all going to connect okay they're going to have some overarching
• 01:30 - 02:00 theme that connects them within each Source there's going to be a different perspective or argument that's presented our job here much like the iwa is to use those sources to inspire our argument we're going to create an argument that is logically organized well reasoned and well written which means that we're going to have claims that are linked with commentary our evidence is going to be linked to our claims through commentary we're going to be creating an art argument that is debatable okay
• 02:00 - 02:30 something that can be argued against because that's really what we're doing with an argument so we're thinking about the difference here between the iwa and Part B there's a lot of similarities first of all right we know we have stimulus and we have to make an argument but for the iwa you had to establish a theme connecting two and then only were required to incorporate one within your argument for the part B you are required if we look back at the line to incorporate two pieces or two stimulus
• 02:30 - 03:00 sources into our argument so we have to make sure that we are incorporating those two so that we can fulfill the task itself if you're feeling nervous about doing this just remind yourself that the process and the skills that you did through the iwa are so incredibly simil similar that you are prepared to do this the only difference now is that we have to incorporate two of these sources into our argument and yes you might be thinking well this isn't
• 03:00 - 03:30 multi-draft and I'm not using outside sources well that might be true but everything you have is here and so what you can do is show that yes I do know how to make an argument it wasn't just a fluke thing that I could do it for the iwa when I had the time to write multiple drafts I actually know what an argument is and I know how to make them using the sources that are presented to me so there are a few misconceptions as to what the process is not okay or what
• 03:30 - 04:00 some kids think the process is so some students automatically think okay I'm going to read the stimulus I'm going to figure out what the theme is and then I'm G to write this paper in which I just really individually talk about each source and tell you what is happening in each source as it pertains to the theme so I saw this theme of of work and so I'm going to tell you how I see work in every single source that was provided to me in the time I have and then I'm done but unfortunately Ely this is not what
• 04:00 - 04:30 you should be doing a lot of times at reading they call this a marching through the sources because you're not really presenting an argument you're just summarizing what each Source says related to the theme and then moving on that is not an argument the second misconception that we see a lot as graders is that some students come in and they'll say I wrote my iwa about this or my irr or you know what in AP environmental we're talking about about this topic I had to do this
• 04:30 - 05:00 in in AP US History you have some idea of what you already want to argue then when you sit down and actually see the stimulus material you decide how you can manipulate the sources so that you can make them work with the argument you want to make the one that you decided in advance of sitting for the exam this again is not what you want to do because here yes you could say you're making an argument but you're not fulfilling the
• 05:00 - 05:30 requirements of the rubric or the prompt it's asking you to incorporate too but not just incorporate them so that you have them but incorporating them in an authentic way that is true to what the sources are actually about or arguing and not manipulating them just to fit your argument so what is the process and I know there's a lot of arrows on the screen but that should visually cue you right now that this isn't a straightforward process you know there
• 05:30 - 06:00 is a lot of things you have to do than just compose Your Part B A lot of people like to jump right to the end and then I will tell you as a grader and other graders can tell you and your teachers can tell you this too if you start writing your essay before you've done any of the other steps you just start writing here's the thing you may think you have an idea of where you're going but the truth is you don't know where you're going graders don't know where you're going nobody really does until maybe you hit page two or three but at
• 06:00 - 06:30 that point it is too late to make a really really good argument so if you take away nothing else please know the biggest takeaway here is that you need to plan before you start writing okay so what's that process look like well we're going to read the stimulus material and you're going to read all four sources one of the things that kids in my students always ask is they'll say what if one of the sources is really hard or I don't really know what's going on well
• 06:30 - 07:00 here's the thing should you attempt to read all four sources absolutely but if you know that you have a time crunch and one of those sources seems so over your head that you you just don't know what to do and you feel stuck then you can just read it quickly and move on to the other sources we're not necessarily encourage you just to eliminate a source because it's still connected in some way with the theme but we also want to be smart about the fact that we have to incorporate two of these so if you feel completely overwhelmed at some point because one of those sources is just too
• 07:00 - 07:30 much that's okay because we're reading these not so quickly that we lose substance but we don't have the time to take 90 minutes to annotate One Source okay that's the time we have for this whole process so what we're doing is we're reading the sources we're annotating I always tell my students to write down you know what are the key ideas that you see or if you had to give a gist if you had to tell somebody in just a few words what this source is about just make a note of that so you can remind yourself after you've read
• 07:30 - 08:00 the four sources you want to figure out what that theme is that's connecting the sources that bigger overarching theme but then what's that smaller theme or what's a more nuanced connection that you can see between two sources because you're going to have to narrow the scope to make an argument in which you connect those two sources related to a theme the next thing you want to do is you want to generate your own perspective or if you've worked all year with the idea of you make a research question and then you make make a claim you can still jot
• 08:00 - 08:30 yourself down a research question here because if that question helps you to better formulate your perspective then do it that way right whatever works for your process is going to work here but you have to make sure that if all the sources are arguing one thing we have to figure out what we're going to argue that's different and each of the sources is going to have its own argument but your job is to figure out your own position and how you're going to enter the conversation just like Mr Gonzalez
• 08:30 - 09:00 and I talked about for the iwa the idea here is to think about alignment and think about your position are you going to write a position paper or a solution paper right we don't want to be doing both once we have that idea of how we can craft our our perspective or our question we're then going to turn that into a very specific and complex main claim or thesis this is where we start to narrow the scope even further to make sure that we have something that is going to control our entire paper
• 09:00 - 09:30 now I know some of you are over your teachers saying this but it is so true if you have a weak main claim or thesis then the rest of your argument is going to be weak because that sentence is what's going to drive the complexity of your paper it's also what's going to drive your alignment now here's the thing once you have that claim we have to go back to the stimulus material to start to identify evidence and if we realize that our claim is too far away from the stimulus material we actually
• 09:30 - 10:00 have to go backwards we have to go back to that crafting of the claim and we have to adjust or we have to see if there's another stimulus material source that we could use instead but we don't move forward until we know that we are authentically aligned to the stimulus material okay once you know that your main claim is complex and specific and you know that you are authentically connected to the stimulus then we're going to outline our argument and we're going to make sure logically organized
• 10:00 - 10:30 and complex just like you did for the iwa think about what are your claims going to be what are your counters what are your rebuttal how am I going to start it how am I going to end it right we're we're outlining the entire paper and I want to point out to you that we have went through six steps or this is the sixth step before we've started writing so do not start this until you've done all the back work to make sure you've planned an effective and aligned argument okay another question
• 10:30 - 11:00 that I get from students a lot in my own classroom is do I have to include a counter do I have to include concessions but if we look at that word complex that college board is asking us to focus on um then complexity how how convincing can your argument be if you're not addressing any limitations or counter claims or the other side and the answer is not very complex so we want to make sure that we're addressing this with complexity which means we want to not only present the things that support our argument but we want to show the other
• 11:00 - 11:30 side we want to show multiple or alternate perspectives so try to incorporate those counter claims or concessions as you go to really show a more complex and thoughtful argument now we are finally at the step where we're going to compose our part B after you write it I always encourage students to leave five to 10 minutes at the end to go back and proof reate just to make sure your ideas are clear as you go now one of the things I want to emphasize here especially when we're talking about
• 11:30 - 12:00 proof reading um but really is something to think about on the front end is sometimes we start writing fast and Things become um not legible anymore so those are things that we can fix however if your whole paper is written in a way that we can't understand it that's going to be a problem for how it's going to be interpreted because graders aren't going to be able to make sense of some of the things that you're saying so make sure as you're writing you take the time to write legibly and clearly and that your ideas come through now you have 90
• 12:00 - 12:30 minutes roughly to do this so are you going to make mistakes absolutely you're going to make mistakes it's a time setting it's not a multi-draft essay we're not asking for Perfection here but you want to leave yourself some time to proofread so that you have time to go back and catch the major things the things that might be distracting from your argument or making your ideas unclear or the spots in your handwriting where we no longer can make sense of what you're saying okay but know those of you who are perfectionists it's okay if there's an error here or there as as long as your ideas are clearly
• 12:30 - 13:00 communicated so let's remind ourselves of the task itself remember Part B is one question you're going to get four sources all connected by a similar theme you're going to have approximately 90 minutes to write this essay and it is 31.5% of your AP score so of all of the things that you've done all year that contribute to your AP score this one is the greatest weit this is the one that
• 13:00 - 13:30 shows that you have all the skills that we've been working on because if you can make a really good argument you've done all the things that we've been asking all year when thinking about how to break this down I have included how I would suggest breaking it down this isn't a one-size fits all because keep in mind that if you are doing this on paper um you will have two hours to do this test if you're doing it online you will have the same however if you're on paper you
• 13:30 - 14:00 can move back and forth between part A and Part B and so you can start with Part B and go back to part A or see how much time and all of those things are a little bit more flexible if you are doing this digitally once you finish part A you will have whatever time you have left for Part B now I can tell you in my own classroom most of my students when we do practice versions of part A take 40 to 45 minutes to do a part A so that's going to leave them with a little bit less than 90 minutes to finish Part B and that's okay your timing might be a
• 14:00 - 14:30 little bit different than somebody else's but what we don't want you to do and what you don't want to do is to take 90 minutes on part A and leave yourself 30 minutes for Part B you still want to be aware of the time but you might be a little bit um over the 90 minutes or a little bit under and that's okay but one thing you cannot do again no matter how much time you have left even if you leave yourself with only 60 Minutes take the time to plan out your argument in advance and then the time you have left
• 14:30 - 15:00 you can use to actually write so let's say you are working off of 90 minutes what I would encourage you to do 25 to 30 minutes to to read to think to plan out your argument that gives you about 45 to 55 minutes to write your argument and that should leave you about 5 to 10 minutes to edit and revise again the most important step the step with the star here is the time to plan to think about it to read the stimulus in it Advance before you just start
• 15:00 - 15:30 writing so let's talk about how you're going to be scored so there are four major components of the part B evaluation the first one is your understanding and engagement with the stimulus material so did you say to the true to the stimulus material is it clear that you understood them when you were creating the theme um or topic that United them and then did you incorporate two of them into your response for those of you who are doing this digitally this
• 15:30 - 16:00 is going to be extremely important because we are going to be assessed slightly different in terms of um how much the stimulus is going to factor into the other rows as well it's not just going to be by itself but the big idea no matter which way you're testing is to remember that we want to stay true to what this is asking you to do you have to show an understanding of the stimulus and then use the stimulus integrate them authentically into your to your argument to get a high score here okay the next way that you are
• 16:00 - 16:30 being assessed is in your line of reasoning this is very very similar to your iwa we're looking at your claims your evidence your commentary the linking of them right we want to make sure that your argument is controlling this paper not the arguments of other sources not a description of other sources or not just um things that you wanted to tell us that are not necessarily an argument then you're going to be assessed on your ability to select and use evidence to make an ARG doent and again what we're looking at is did you
• 16:30 - 17:00 select evidence and then use it authentically to make the claims that you're trying to make did it um extend and complicate and confirm the things that you're making um we don't want it to be one of those things where I I did pick the evidence and I used it but I didn't use it correctly and so I've either manipulated The Source or I've used it incorrectly some of you too will use a bunch of unsubstantiated claims which means things that you're just saying without any evidence and that's
• 17:00 - 17:30 going to be problematic for this Row one of the questions that students always ask about evidence is can I use outside stuff and how how do I handle that if you're using things that are from your own knowledge just like you would have with the iwa remember that things that are anecdotal right um stories that you have or personal experiences there's a place for those but your entire evidence shouldn't be all of those things that are from your own experience okay and then the last we're looking for your Clarity of communication how well you're
• 17:30 - 18:00 conveying the argument that you're making in your ideas and then we're also looking for you to be consistent in the attribution that you have for the sources remember you can use the name of the sources that are provided or you can attribute it to Source a source B Source C Source D respectively okay if you are going to pull in something outside give us much information as you can to help validate The credibility and relevance of those sources so if you are current ly taking a push for example and your AP
• 18:00 - 18:30 History teacher taught you something and you want to be able to cite it give that teacher credibility or if you know the name of your textbook you can use that as well to help establish if you heard something on NPR but you can't remember who actually said it but you know it's true it's okay to attribute just saying according to NPR and then give the information that you know again this is a time setting and we're going off of what we know so besides the stimulus material which we can we have to use but
• 18:30 - 19:00 we also have more details to be able to convey um better citations for those other things that you're going to pull in from the outside give as much as you can to address those credibility and relevance pieces so let's remind ourselves how we identify the theme the first slide I wanted to include I only wanted to include to show you that this process is no different than what Mr Gonzalez and I talked about with the iwa you read the sources you figure out the broad theme you identify the sub themes you narrow
• 19:00 - 19:30 your scope what's that focus in scope and why would people care then we identify the two provided sources that we can use authentically then we start outlining so nothing here has changed again same process as the iwa so if we look at four sources that were given in the 2019 AP seminar Part B we can see from the screen that there are four different sources now I'm not expecting you as you're watching this to go in and read all of these sources but if you want to you can use the packet that's provided on AP Central um you'll
• 19:30 - 20:00 go into past exam questions for 2019 and you can look at these sources more in depth but all you need to know is if we look at the sources that were provided these are the most common themes that came out of those sources and so we saw a lot of stuff about consumer culture or U materialistic Society about consumption about excess about how we treat um nature this idea of um quality over quantity and need to reform because
• 20:00 - 20:30 we're thinking about how we get rid of some of these uh you know of garbage that we have or of waste and recycling um so these are the themes that that came up most consistently this doesn't this isn't a one-size fits all list by any means but if we take that idea of what we're noticing between all of the four sources and then we say okay as I'm reading through what connection do I see between two sources that I can then use within my paper so I'm English teacher so I immediately went to thorough
• 20:30 - 21:00 because for me I like thorough but I also enjoyed what he was saying in this particular passage I also was interested in the garbage Art Source so as I'm reading through what I did is I changed the text on here to Blue so that you could see the difference if you want to pause and read this whole selection you can but they're talking about in this section John Hoffman who essentially made the idea of dumpster diving a trendy cool thing and explains how his parents taught him the dumpster diving
• 21:00 - 21:30 lifestyle so that made me start thinking about this idea of waste and how many things we get rid of and if if people can live off of of dumpsters you know we are a culture that is excess in what we're getting rid of then I started reading thorough and I saw this connection and again you can see the things in blue that stood out to me about a new suit and jackets and trousers and hats and shoes and clothes but the idea here was essentially the cliche that you know it's not clothes that make a man things don't make a man
• 21:30 - 22:00 you know it's the content of the character and so as I was putting those two things together I started to think about how I can connect them and I came to the idea of fast fashion and by fast fashion I really mean those you know when we think about fashion that's created and then we get rid of it now we have a new trend right because these things are popping up one different per season but also because styles are are going in and out and those of your teachers who are familiar with fashion
• 22:00 - 22:30 in the 90s I notice now when I walk into Target that those styles are are starting to come back it looks like clueless is becoming popular again so how do we then generate a perspective now that we figured out the theme well now that we have a theme we then want to make sure we've identified our theme or topic we got to go back to the stimulus material and identify what arguments are being made because we can't just regurgitate an argument they're already making we have to come up with an argument of Our Own then we're going to narrow the focus and scope so that we
• 22:30 - 23:00 can frame our own perspective to then decide if we're going to do a position paper or a solution paper and then we go back to the stimulus again to make sure that that's going to work with the sources that we've picked so I did the same process with the idea of fast fashion so remember I started with the connection of source B and Source C I saw these terms of reuse and dumpster diving and and the need for new clothes so that led me to a focus of fast fashion and social media
• 23:00 - 23:30 influencers and if I'm a student who I know a lot of stuff about pop culture I'm going to take what I know and what I feel confident arguing but also staying true to the stimulus material and so I thought I would argue a position paced paper to what extent are social media influencers on sites like Instagram and Twitter impacting the popularity of fast fashion for American consumers now do you have to write this out in question form you don't but for me that was better for me to plan when I thought about well what question do I want to
• 23:30 - 24:00 ask how would I frame this okay this allows me to stay true to sources B and C while still trying to make an argument that is much more narrow than just saying fast fashion is it good or is it bad now I could take that same idea same sources of B and C and say that I am a student who's more into science or environmentally base without manipulating the sources I could then make an argument about the EPA and maybe looking at would the the US
• 24:00 - 24:30 Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA would regulating the fast fashion industry reduce the amount of pollution produced by the the industry now you might be thinking well if I go back to the stimulus I do that last connection does this really work well the answer is no because Source C is actually now being manipulated because he's not talking about Theo's not talking about this in any capacity so if I go back to the stimulus then what I can do instead is swap out Source C for Source D where
• 24:30 - 25:00 we're talking about Innovation and Technology um and how we can adapt to better Heth and so now I have two sources that allow me to keep the focus and the question that I have but I wasn't the two sources that I originally thought I was going to use but now I can be authentic so the next step then is to plan the argument so if I take that same idea that we were talking about I'm going to shift it from now my perspective to being my main claim just
• 25:00 - 25:30 a reminder the main claim your thesis or your argument is the most important sentence in your entire paper it's going to answer the question what am I trying to prove and why right this is going to be clear and specific and narrow in both focus and in scope and most importantly if it's an argument it's got to be argumentative or de debatable and the other thing that we want is you want to explicitly reference it throughout your paper because the more that you reference it
• 25:30 - 26:00 the more clearly tied to your argument you're going to be right we want to be explicit and blatant about our argument but here's what we don't want to do we don't want to write a cliche and we also don't want to make it overly generalized so if I took that same perspective that we just talked about or the question that I wrote and I said you know would the environmental um Protection Agency regulating the fashion industry reduce pollution and I said well fast
• 26:00 - 26:30 fashion is bad for the environment so I'm going to write about that well how can I make this a little bit more complex because at the end of the day this is overly generalized right if you think about complexity this is good for the environment this is bad for the environment that doesn't really get us anywhere but could I take that same idea and start to narrow down well what about it is bad is it bad for our water and those of you who are more familiar with environmental um policies or climate change or things like that you know if
• 26:30 - 27:00 you're thinking about the climate and how it affects nature we know that there's a problem with some of these micro fibers and them getting into the water and things like that so narrow down the scope there's an idea here that can work but right now it's too generalized we take that same idea about the US Environmental Protection Agency and their regulation and we turn it and we say you know what regulation would help encourage the idea that one one man's trash is another man's
• 27:00 - 27:30 treasure this is problematic because this is a cliche right how many times have we heard that expression or idiom the idea that it's someone's trash is now someone's treasure you can't write a complex paper about that could you shift this a little bit and think about how it could encourage the idea of um reusing or recycling or things like that absolutely but in its current form it is just a cliche and it's not going to
• 27:30 - 28:00 serve you well going forward and if you go back to that first slide remember this is the most important sentence that you have in your paper or sentences because a main claim or a thesis doesn't have to be one sentence so this is what's going to shape the direction and complexity of your paper so make sure it is written well so if we took the other idea and we looked at social media social media influencers on Instagram and Twitter impacting the popularity of fast fashion for American consumers then we can start to create something a
• 28:00 - 28:30 little bit more specific social media influencers on sites like Instagram and Twitter directly advertise fast fashion thus making them responsible for the popularity that fast fashion has with American consumers so we can start to see more complexity here rather than just say they're popular or they're not popular we started to make the argument that we're going to blame social media influencers for why people so quickly get rid of fashion or switch Trends or
• 28:30 - 29:00 need all of these excessive clothing the complexity here at the level of detail is much better than the generalization or a cliche so once we have that main claimer thesis we then need to start thinking about the parts of our argument just like we would have for the iwa how am I going to start this what am I doing in terms of introduction how am I setting the context making sure that they know where we're going and know why why it's important then I'm going to
• 29:00 - 29:30 think about my sub claims or reasons what are those going to be and then what evidence can help me prove each of those how can I link those with commentary same thing for counter claim with evidence same thing for rebuttal we also want to make sure that we're addressing any limitations and implications and then ending with a conclusion these are all of the parts of a effective argument it doesn't change if you're doing it in a time setting versus a multi-draft setting the parts of the argument in terms of what makes sense um complex and convincing and cohesive
• 29:30 - 30:00 are the same the only difference here is maybe in your iwa you had time to do two claims um and two counter claims but maybe now you only have time for two claims and one counter claim right that's okay the level of complexity that you're going in to get into the level of Deb it's going to be different when you can do the research and find all of these outside sources to help build that right now you're only relying on what's been provided in the stimulus material
• 30:00 - 30:30 and what your own prior knowledge is and there's enough in the stimulus material to make a really effective argument okay but just know that we're not going to hold it to the same standards of the iwa because this is a time setting it's like the first draft of it okay but with the iwa you have all of these other resources that you have at your disposal that you don't have here okay so if we look at how you're assessed in terms of argument or line of reasoning one of the things I want to point out in that high response is that it's driving the
• 30:30 - 31:00 argument is driving your response whereas in a medium we know what you're trying to argue but you don't have the command or control that you really need because the linking isn't there versus a low you really are just summarizing and sometimes summarizing what each um Source provided says so make sure like we talked about with the iwa your argument what you are arguing is in control of the entire paper and we do that by making sure we're linking claims and evidence through commentary and we have an organization that
• 31:00 - 31:30 explicitly um makes clear the purpose that we have but also makes sense in what we're trying to prove so what I did is I took that same topic of social media and I thought about okay if I were a student and as you're planning you don't have to plan this out I mean if you want to use visuals to plan this out as you're writing in the book or just like bullet points whatever works for you is totally fine but I took that same idea of social media influencers and I thought okay how would I break this down so that I could write this argument and write it well in
• 31:30 - 32:00 the time that I had well one of the claims for why I'm blaming social media influencers is that they give the impression that fashion or material Goods define a person and I can talk about how that is you know I can use the thorough source to talk about how that's not true and I can go back to that idea um but they do give the impression that the fashion that you have what you wear is what defines you I also thought another reason why they're to blame is that social media influencers never
• 32:00 - 32:30 wear the same outfit more than once and so they give you this impression that if you rewear something if you um use it again it's almost wrong and that to me was really problematic because again if we're thinking about waste and fast fashion they're encouraging the use of having more fashion or more Trends then if I thought of the counter well how can I you know what would the other side argue well the other side would say that influencers are less responsible for popularity than affordability if if things are cheaper at certain places or
• 32:30 - 33:00 less expensive then of course that's where what people are going to buy and those clothes being less effective or less expensive typically don't last as long as other clothing and so therefore they're not as responsible as prices however the rebuttal that I could use is if I go back to Source B and it talks about that about Hoffman making the idea of dumpster diving cool right influencers literally influence they set Trends so if these Instagram or Twitter
• 33:00 - 33:30 influencers start rearing the same things or start dumpster diving or thrift store buying or things like that right we can think back to um when M lore's song about thrift stores was popular people were going to thrift stores right if they influence they have the ability to then make fast fashion not popular so I have all of this stuff and now I can start to think about actually writing my essay one of the things though you have to think about during the planning stages and before you start writing is
• 33:30 - 34:00 how you're going to incorporate evidence so I wanted just to point this out now um but I'm not going to go into as much depth with this only because during the iwa we had multiple videos on how to incorporate evidence and on AP classroom there are videos about incorporating evidence as well but I just wanted to remind you so if you're struggling with incorporating evidence I encourage you to go back to those videos if not this should be enough to just remind you of the things that we've talked about previously for a high score here you need to fully integrate two um of those
• 34:00 - 34:30 stimulus or Source materials and remember integrate we can think of just like essential use in the iwa the argument can't function without those things they are used in an authentic way um and they're actually like a crucial part of your argument for a medium score you're integrating them but maybe you're doing it in a more obvious or superficial way where it's not really a lot of depth and it's it's not necessarily fully connect connected in terms of supporting your argument like
• 34:30 - 35:00 you told us what they were but you're not using them quite as well as you could we almost take that pause to talk about the source and for a low you're misinterpreting The Source or the use of the evidence doesn't really match what you're trying to say it's it's that student that manipulates I have my prepackaged argument and now I'm using this evidence just to make it work okay it doesn't really make sense with the claim so again we want to use that same idea fully integrate with the two sources we're going to use from the stimulus material we want to think of them in that essential use way if I were
• 35:00 - 35:30 to remove them my argument is weakened because of that they can be used um in terms of you know claim counter wherever they see fit but this is also true for anything outside that you bring in if you're using those pieces of evidence you want to integrate them you don't want to just say hey I heard this on NPR and then move on it needs to be an actual part of your argument so with the um slide on the screen feel free to pause and take the time to read it but I just want to point
• 35:30 - 36:00 out a couple things um to emphasize here for you and this was taken from the 2019 sample that you can find on Sample a on um AP Central but what you'll notice is this student is making an argument about the consumer mindset and he's criticizing it and he uses theow to help do that about how you know we have this belief in um our society or this wrong mindset that it's it's the clothing that make a man essentially and then he or
• 36:00 - 36:30 she takes the same idea and stays true to the argument about the consumer mindset and includes a historical event to show when we had to stop this mindset right during the the Great Depression um when we had to do that um we've got stuff during World War II and we see it again um you know in the 60s when we're talking about dumpster diving and then he pulls in Source B to help show that connection between all of these different parts so you know we have multiple times in our history where we've had to suspend the consumer
• 36:30 - 37:00 mindset because of different historical events that were happening so now Source C and Source B are used in an essential way they are integrated um into the argument and they're aligned with what the student is trying to argue which is why they feel so incredibly authentic so what's our takeaway for today well as we get into the exam one thing I want you to do is to be rational and you know as much as I do that AP seminar loves our acronyms so I was
• 37:00 - 37:30 trying to make this not only since you're used to imp and iwa but also something that you can just take with you just like you would do with Quest right so we want to be rational as we approach the part B of the exam you want to read the stimulus first then you want to authentically identify the theme that's connecting at least two of the sources and I want to emphasize authentically because we're not coming in with a prepackaged theme or idea in our head already then we're going to take a stance position or solution and we're going to craft a thoughtful
• 37:30 - 38:00 arguable thesis before we start writing once we do that we're going to go back to the stimulus again and we're going to identify how at least two of the stimulus sources can be used to develop our argument we should have been thinking about that already but now we're going to come back and do it again now that we have an idea of what we want to argue we're then going to outline the argument in advance ensuring alignment cohesion and complexity before we start drafting then and I know this
• 38:00 - 38:30 one's a little bit more of a stretch but it's not really um you're going to nourish your argument by including commentary and exploring implications limitations and objections the only way we make our argument cohesive and convincing and complex is to actually use commentary to start drawing those links between claims and evidence to also explore the complexity the implications the limitations right we want to make sure that we're not just presenting an argument and out in it but we really want to build up and develop that argument into something it's
• 38:30 - 39:00 effective and we feel really good about we're then going to attribute and embed Source material and communicate our ideas clearly so our reader knows what we're trying to argue and then last we're going to leave time to proofread and revise okay so the process just like in everything we do in AP seminar we are going to be rational about it because we are educated consumers of information who are now empowered at this point to be able to make make really effective arguments so now that you have a clear
• 39:00 - 39:30 understanding of the task the process and the rubric you can confidently craft an effective argument for Part B as always I want to thank you for watching I hope you find some joy in your day but knowing that you are going into the exam I want to say good luck um just remember that you have these skills you've been practicing them all year um so we are all confident that you can do a great job bye