In case you weren’t aware, I had hosting issues yesterday and today. After spending a long time on the phone, everything should be good now. Sorry for the trouble.
Have a good night.
How I’m Teaching APUSH This Year
This year I am teaching APUSH differently than the past couple of years. While attending a Summer Institute for AP World (which I’ll be teaching for the first time), I gained a lot of insight into the World curriculum and how to apply some of that to APUSH.
As I mentioned in my last post, I figured out how much time to spend on each time period based on the amount of instructional days I have. I used to do about a chapter per week from the textbook, but I found I was spending too much time on period 4 (6 chapters which equals 10% of the curriculum) and not enough time on period 5, for example (3 chapters and 13% of the curriculum).
This is how it works for me, yours will vary depending on instructional days you have.
Period 1 = 5% = 6 days
Period 2 = 10% = 12 days including an assessment
Period 3 = 12% = 15 days including an assessment
Period 4 = 10% = 12 days including an assessment
Period 5 = 13% = 16 days including an assessment
Period 6 = 13% = 16 days including an assessment
Period 7 = 17% = 21 days including an assessment
Period 8 = 15% = 19 days including an assessment
Period 9 = 5% = 6 days
I’ve decided to break down the entire curriculum in chronological order. Each video (so far, and it is my goal) is less than 10 minutes and has fewer videos than instructional days. I’ve designed it this way so that I can spend more in class time on Historical Thinking Skills and mastering the content.
Students will still watch these videos for homework, but I’m also requiring they do part II (the “Enhanced Video Guides”) for their homework. I plan on spending the first ten minutes of each class reviewing big ideas and going over their “Enhanced Video Guides” before going on to different activities.
What will these activities be? I plan on having students purchase a copy of John Irish’s Historical Thinking Skills workbook. (NOT an affiliate link) We will go over different aspects of this in class together in the beginning, and later students will work on these in groups or individually. I also plan on having students write thesis statements, contextualization statements, and work with a lot of document interpretation. I have gone through a lot of history books and taken excerpts from them and will have the students analyze what the author is writing. I’ve found in years’ past that students have struggled more with secondary sources than primary sources.
While students work on these activities, I will be pulling students to the side to review material with them. I plan on giving quick assessments every few days (Here’s an example of Period 1: Quick Assessment For Videos #1-4) and will work with the students that struggle the most.
Students will also use Jeremy Klaff’s No Bull Review Book(NOT an affiliate link) throughout the year and work on the practice multiple-choice questions at the end of each unit.
Like last year, I will be blogging about my daily lessons beginning on Thursday. Wednesday is the first day of school and the real work begins Thursday. If you have any comments, questions, and/or suggestions, I would love to hear from you.
Best of luck this year!
Adam
The Coming School Year
At the end of June, I attended a Summer Institute for AP World, which I’ll be teaching in addition to APUSH this school year. The Summer Institute was beneficial for World as well as APUSH. As a result, I decided to redo my APUSH curriculum.
To start, I wanted to accurately teach each time period with how much of my instruction it represents.
Here’s the number of class days I will be spending on each time period, including assessments:
147 days of instruction until APUSH Exam
- 2 personal days
- 2 conference days
- 2 snow days
- 1 ap pre registration day
- 9 days of review
- 1 day First day of school
- 1 day to go over thesis/contextualization
- 3 days of wiggle room – PSAT Day, Counselor days, etc.
125 days
Period 1 = 5% = 6 days including a quiz
Period 2 = 10% = 12 days including an assessment
Period 3 = 12% = 15 days including an assessment
Period 4 = 10% = 12 days including an assessment
Period 5 = 13% = 16 days including an assessment
Period 6 = 13% = 16 days including an assessment
Period 7 = 17% = 21 days including an assessment
Period 8 = 15% = 19 days including an assessment
Period 9 = 5% = 6 days including a quiz
I also realized there were some holes in my instruction with my videos. Although I covered almost everything in my key concept videos, I wanted to go more in depth, so I began doing the videos in order.
I have 4 videos for period 1, but 6.5 days of instruction. For period 2, I have 6 videos and 12 days of instruction. I usually do a video a night, but I may do a video every two days. In between, I plan on focusing more on historical thinking skills. I’ve already started to incorporate them into my Enhanced Video Guides, (for an example, click here: APUSH Review- Video #14- State Constitutions And The Articles Of Confederation After The American Revolution (Key Concept 3.2, II, A-B; 3.3, I, C)) but I will do even more in class.
I also plan to give more timed, in-class essays for my students.
We’ll see how it all works out and I’ll be blogging again this year.
Good luck!
What’s New For The 2018 – 2019 School Year….
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
Exciting News On August 6, 2018
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!
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