AP Calculus

Mr. Liftig

Block 1A: Room 107

Phone: (203)-239-1641 Ex. 2107

PREREQUISITES: Successful completion of Precalculus L3 with teacher recommendation from either Advanced Precalculus or Precalculus. (NHHS Program of Studies)

Primary Text: Stewart, James. Calculus: Single Variable Calculus Early Transcendentals 8th ed. Cengage Learning. Boston, Ma. 2016

Supplementary Text: Boelkins, Matthew Austin, David and Schlicker, Steven. Active Calculus - single variable Mountain View, California. Creative Commons. 2020 https://activecalculus.org/single/

We will also be using resources from collegeboard.com AP Classroom including the practice tests and personal progress checks.

Instruction: The course material, which is presented as a teacher-led discussion as well as student group discovery, includes all topics in the Calculus AB topic outline as it appears in the AP® Calculus Course Description. The teacher uses a projector and both the desmos online graphing calculator and the TI 84 smartview app to lead the classroom in developing curricular items through graphical, numerical, algebraic and verbal means. Students also work in peer groups to explore problem-solving techniques and discover new mathematical concepts. Some activities are done individually either from the Active Calculus preview discovery activities, selected desmos or teacher created activities, or other activities. A class set of TI-84 calculators can be used for in class work or some assessments. Physical calculators can also be assigned out from the department to students for the year.

Assessment: Students are assessed each class through a one to two problem “quick quiz” on key concepts from the homework and previous class(es). Students are assessed through daily and weekly written homework assignments, written desmos or paper lab activities, biweekly quizzes and semester tests. Assessments are divided between calculator driven and non-calculator type questions.

Completion based homework counts for 2 points

Homework graded for accuracy (problems sets and labs) will vary with most being work about 10 total points

Quizzes will be worth 20 to 30 points

Larger tests will be worth 50 to 80 points depending on the amount of content they cover

Calculus Standards

Each quarter will have a set of key concepts (Standards) that will be assigned grades that reflect your level of proficiency and understanding each will be assessed on a scale of 1 to 5. This is assessed by our daily warm ups, our other assignments, quizzes and tests but can be re-assessed to improve your score throughout the course of the quarter. There may be 8 to 10 per quarter depending on pacing. Each is weighted at 4x weight so they will take 20 total points each. They are designed to be around 40% of each quarter grade. Without reassessment they will often reflect the grades you have initially received on class assessments, with reassessment you are able to significantly improve your grades from where they initially were.

Rubric for Standards Based Grading

5	You have totally mastered the skill- meaning you have demonstrated a full understanding of the concepts involved, all steps of your reasoning, have used notation correctly, have written in clear, well reasoned prose (if applicable) and have made not algebraic errors.
4	You have a solid grasp of the skill. You have demonstrated a full understanding of the concept but may have not show all the steps of your work, had a small notational error, or minor algebraic mistake.
3	You have a grasp of the skill. You have almost demonstrated a full understanding of the concept, but there may be a flaw in your reasoning, you possibly did not show all of the steps of your reasoning, did not use consistent notation, could have written a more clear explanation (if applicable), or made a non-fatal algebraic error.
2	You have demonstrated some conceptual understanding but there may be a large flaw in your reasoning, did not completely answer the question, used incorrect or inconsistent notation, wrote an unclear explanation (if applicable) and/or made multiple (non-fatal) algebraic errors (that do not derail the entire problem).
1	You have demonstrated weak or no conceptual understanding. You may have confused reasoning, poor written explanation (if applicable) and/or made one or more serious algebraic error.
0	You have left all the problems on this standard blank

Reassessing Standards:

The model of Standards Based Grading allows you to reassess the standards. Once you have gone through the built in opportunities to assess each standard during the quarter if you haven’t demonstrated mastery you can request another opportunity to assess the standards.

To do so you must meet these criteria:

You must show evidence that you have done some work to get to a better understanding. Redoing the homework whether is khan or bookwork, doing other practice, getting extra help can all meet this criteria.
You must let me know in advance. This is so I can have problems prepped and ready for you.
It can’t be immediately after I’ve just explained to you how to do the problem. If we’ve just gone over the mistake or concept you were having trouble with, you should wait a day to make sure you’ve internalized it and moved it from immediate to at least short term recall.
Only one reassessment attempt can be made (per standard) per day.

The reassessment is added to the pool of assessments to determine the grade.

You also might reassess a previous standard by showing competence with a new standard. Since everything builds on each other, some standards are prerequisites to others. I’ve designed some of the assessments in such a way that some early standards might be reassessed automatically later in the quarter.

Extra Help:

I am available after school on Wednesday and Thursdays and by appointment other days of the week.

Attendance:

Please review the school’s attendance policy for questions relating to attendance. It’s always a good idea to give me a heads up if or when you are out to make sure you have any necessary materials. Most of our work will be posted to google classroom.

Units of Study

Limits and Continuity

Intro to Derivatives

Derivative Rules

Applications of the Derivative

Intro to Integration

Integration Techniques

Differential Equations

Applications of Integration

Mean Value theorem of integration visual