Mrs. Iversen’s class, pictured on a recent morning. 

Photo credit: Teddy, 11th grade

The Advanced Applied Course Program is a new addition to the GCDS curriculum which adds another layer of depth and challenge for students. Because it’s so new, what exactly the classes entail and what students should expect is still murky. 

Dr. Ruoss added context for what the classes will be and why they were introduced. According to him, the “Advanced Applied Course Program was introduced in every discipline as a collaboration between the academic office, the college counseling office, and our academic departments. And the idea was to create academic opportunities that represented the highest level of independent responsibility, rigor, and research in that discipline.”

As Dr. Ruoss notes, “prior to this year, for example, we didn’t have an advanced opportunity explicitly for someone who’s really interested in History or English. We offered opportunities for our diploma programs and for the sciences and math, but we wanted to make sure that students had that opportunity in all areas in which they wanted to pursue advanced work.” 

In addition to adding extra opportunities for those interested in pursuing a certain topic or topics in greater depth, advanced courses also benefit those looking to craft their narrative in preparation for the college process. Dr. Ruoss says “It also enabled us to create opportunities for students to continue to develop their narratives in preparation for the college process.” 

Dr. Ruoss states that “these are courses that rely on really strong self-management skills in alignment with our Portrait of a Learner capacities. It’s a lot of self-driven work; it’s fast-paced.” He adds that “it’s not about collecting accolades as much as it is an opportunity to really dig deep in a field of your demonstrated interest”, and that he “would only encourage students to take those classes if they have a genuine interest and track record within that field.” 

Advanced Seminar in Historical Methods, an advanced social science class, for example, is, according to Dr. Ruoss, “ a college-level course that’s going to focus in on the methods and skills needed to pursue advanced study of history.”

In reference to the difference between honors and advanced classes, Dr. Cullen says his “understanding is that an honors situation is one where an individual student voluntarily agrees to take on an extra workload, and it’s sort of unpredictable and episodic in terms of how that happens in any given class. Whereas an advanced class, everyone is sort of signing on for a more rigorous experience from the outset which shapes what a teacher can expect and what a teacher might actually do as a result of that.”

Ms. Allain says “I can only speak for the Advanced Psychology classes specifically, but for the advanced classes, we’ll dive a little bit deeper into the research and taking some of the basic concepts that an Honors class can learn and applying them in real life, actual scenarios, and taking a step further with psychological theories and concepts. It’s a bit heavier on research, and a little bit more independently driven on that learning process for those deeper concepts.” 

This emphasizes a major difference between advanced and AP classes. Dr. Ruoss clarifies that “traditionally, AP programs are not as much about skill-building as they are covering a defined range of content. These courses focus on significant skill-building and independent research.”

Dr. Cullen plans to focus on skill-building rather than content memorization. He highlights one of the skills when he says “reading words is something that Greenwich Country Day students need some work with… and this is like an exercise class where, you know, the training regiment is going to be a little stiffer than I normally would expect. So I’m hoping students will come into it developing the stamina to read more and read better, and that that will allow them to do things that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.”

Dr. Cullen further explains that AP and advanced classes are “a pretty substantially different thing”, and that “the only thing that AP class and my class have in common is an expectation for a little more rigor.”