I am happy to announce that I will have many new videos for the 2018-2019 school year. These videos are based entirely on the APUSH curriculum. They also are in chronological order within each time period.

In addition to having the traditional video guides, I have created “Enhanced” video guides that focus on implementing historical thinking skills. Students will often complete these enhanced video guides for homework and we will continue to work on the skills in class, especially writing.

Please check out the videos for period 1 here: https://www.apushreview.com/period-1-videos-in-order/

I will have up to period 3 done by September 1.

I also am teaching AP World this year and will be posting videos to APWorldReview.com later this week. If you know anyone that is teaching AP World, please share this website with them.

Best of luck this year!

Adam

I have exciting news I will give on August 6, 2018. Lots of new stuff is planned for the upcoming school year, so make sure to stop by then to see what will be coming. I hope everyone is having a good summer!

I spent most of the mod reviewing each multiple-choice question individually and called on students to explain why the chose the answers they did. There were 3 questions that 40% or fewer students chose the correct answer. 2 of those 3 were from the same document about Reconstruction. After talking with the students most said they did not understand the document and guessed the answers. The 3^rd question surprised me that so many students missed; I thought it was straightforward.

We had about 10 minutes left at the end of class so I reviewed an essay topic with the students on the 14-15 amendments. (14 and 15 thesis statement)In addition to their homework due tomorrow, they will turn in an index card with a thesis statement for the essay topic on one side and their contextualization argument on the other.

HW for tomorrow: Native Americans in the Late-19^th Century Analysis Sheet.

Have a good night!

Since Monday, I’ve been grading the Spanish and English Colonization essays. I’ve graded about half of them and I’ve notice that many students are not receiving credit for thesis statements. Most of the students that did not receive credit for their theses simply restated the essay prompt. In my eyes, this should be a guaranteed point for them.

Using the PowerPoint, APUSH Review- The Thesis Statement, I explained the structure I want them to use for their intro paragraphs and thesis. I like the idea of using 2-3 background sentences in the intro paragraph, which if done correctly, could count for Contextualization points. When I was done showing them what a good thesis statement looks like for their essay, I had them try one on their own with a new topic. I called on a few brave souls that were willing to share their writing with the class and gave them feedback.

I wanted to give my students more practice with multiple-choice so I took seven questions (based off of two documents) from the APUSH Practice Exam. I spent extra time on two of the questions that students struggled with. At the beginning of every year I’m reminded that students struggle with the new format of multiple-choice questions since they have not had exposure to them until now.

I plan on having tomorrow be a review day in class for the Periods 1 & 2 test. I gave students a flashcard and told them to write down at least two terms/people/events/etc. that they would like me to review tomorrow. Usually when I do this, I see a lot of the same terms on the flashcards. I will makeg a PowerPoint tonight based on these terms.

HW for Friday: Periods 1 & 2 Review Sheets, Test

Have a good day!