AMDG

AP Psychology A
2010—2011
Room 314

Teacher: Mr Eric E Castro

Office: Beta Lab office

Office Hours: Mo Tu We Th
7—8:30 am, and by appointment

Email: ecastro@siprep.org

AIM: mreecastro

Course Description:
The AP Psychology course is designed to introduce students to the systematic and
scientific study of the behavior of human beings and other animals. Students are
exposed to the psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with the
major sub-fields within psychology, and students will learn about the methods
psychologists use in their science and practice.

General Course Objectives:

When I think about this course and what I want you to know and be able to do by its
conclusion, the following comes to mind:
1. Mastery of psychology’s core concepts and vocabulary; you will understand the
foundational ideas of modern psychology’s major subfields, and you will have a
functional grasp of the vocabulary necessary to communicate with psychologists
2. The ability to think like a psychologist; you will overcome intuition with the rigorous
application of critical thinking and a reliance on the scientific process
3. The ability to apply psychology’s findings to your own life; to maximize your health
and happiness, you will be able to make changes to your own habits based on the
most current research findings
4. Increased literacy in 21st Century technologies and skills; you will grow in comfort
with the technological tools, collaborative skills, and personal responsibility that will
be the hallmark of your future academic and work life.

Assessment and Grading Policy:

Assessment is the general process of collecting and reviewing information from
multiple and diverse sources in order to develop an understanding of what a student
knows, understands, and can do. Assessment is about measuring learning. This
professional evaluation is then communicated, usually in the form of a grade, back to
students, parents, program administrators, and outside institutions as needed.
There are many assessments in AP Psychology, and many grades. All grades are
informed by assessments, but not all assessments are graded. Some activities are for
practice and others for enrichment.

There are no category weights in AP Psychology, as all grades are recorded as points
and all points are equal, but based on past experience and the syllabus for the course,
roughly 15% of a student’s grade will be based on open-note quizzes, 15% on projects
and papers, 50% on chapter or unit tests, and 20% on a summative Final exam.1

We are working towards mastery here; mastery of understanding and mastery of skills
associated with the work of Psychology. Thus, any test (except Midterms or Finals) or
project that does not earn a passing grade may be re-taken or re-written once (for a
maximum of 85%). Any “do-over” must be scheduled by the student and completed
within one workweek of the original being passed back.

50% is the grade floor. Except for the Midterms or Finals, I will register any test, quiz,
or project grade that is actually completed by the student for which the student earns
less than 50% simply as an F, or 50%.

Any late work will receive at least a 15% deduction; all such late work is due within one
workweek or it receives only 50%. This is simply because any homework that is
assigned, is scheduled to be completed prior to an exam on which that material will be
tested. Any project should be turned in early; doing practice work after the actual exam
is less helpful.

Classroom Policies:
In every way possible, I try to treat AP Psychology as the college-level course that it is;
as such, there are very few classroom rules or policies. If I were teaching Psych 100 at
City College or San Francisco State, the one classroom rule would be: Do no harm.
There is a slightly higher threshold here at SI given our wider Mission, and so the one
classroom rule for AP Psych is: Do what is right.

Of course we all need to follow the school rules in the Student Handbook, but those
too are just a further delineation of the basic principle: Do what is right.

You may do anything that you want in class as long as it doesn’t pose a problem for
yourself or others. If you find yourself with a problem, you may do anything you want to
solve it, as long as that doesn’t pose a problem for yourself or others.

1 In the case where a studentʼs score on the Final is higher than their calculated score on previous work,
their Final exam grade will become their Semester grade.