Taught by Bill Zeigler
Outline
AP® World History: Modern is one of the most exciting courses, tasked with developing apprentice historians and world citizens. The course seems daunting—teaching the history of the world since 1200 in less than thirty-six weeks—but the focus on historical reasoning skills and historical processes makes this intimidating task more manageable. It’s the Skills, not the memorization of countless facts, that matter.
During the week, we’ll discuss format, pace, class requirements, and day-to-day structures, as well as online resources like AP® Classroom. In addition, we’ll workshop some of the central areas of concern in any social science class—reading, thinking, and writing—and the techniques that will help teachers meet students’ needs.
Plus, the pandemic created some “unprecedented” opportunities to transform instruction, format, and content delivery. We will explore ways virtual designs have augmented our teaching to meet student needs while emphasizing skills.
Finally, we will look at past World History AP® Exams, analyzing the multiple-choice and writing portions, to best organize our class and course around successful teaching and learning. And don’t worry—if you’re new to the course, you’ll be ready to teach it, and if you’re an “old hand,” then you’ll be caught up with any updates. It’s a great course with tremendous possibilities—it just takes time!
Participants should bring a laptop and be able to access Google Classroom.
Goals
- To familiarize participants with the unique perspective, habits of mind, and themes of a world history curriculum AND to develop a practical and functioning course syllabus
- To present world history content, allaying the fears of new world history teachers while enhancing the knowledge of veterans in a collegial environment
- To share instructional and time-management strategies for student and teacher success in both online and in-person contexts
- To explore text, visual, and internet resources, including AP® Classroom, that will boost any world history course
- To investigate the traits and techniques necessary for an Advanced Placement® course in world history through a thorough analysis of the AP® exam
Course outline
- Each day will be a mixture of presentations and activities, group and individual
- Each day will have the following elements: Skill Development, Content, Instructional Planning, Teaching Resources, Historiography, and Sharing of Best Practices
- Participants will be encouraged to participate in focused discussions by analyzing academic articles, reading primary texts, and developing successful strategies for student success
- Differentiated topics will be available for participants upon request.
Typical week agenda
Monday, Day 1
Planning
- Introductions
- Students
- The Course & Exam Description 1 (CED1)
- Units 0–1–2
- Instructional Planning & Creating a Syllabus
- Audit
- Skill Development
- AP® Classroom
Tuesday, Day 2
Reading
- CED2
- Reading & Notetaking
- Sources (Primary, Secondary, Quantitative & Visual)
- Multiple-Choice
- Skill Development
- AP® Classroom
- Units 3–4
- Instructional Planning
Wednesday, Day 3
Thinking
- CED3
- Contextualization
- Sourcing and Source Analysis
- Skill Development
- AP® Classroom
- Units 5–6
- Instructional Planning
Thursday, Day 4
Writing
- CED4
- SAQs
- The Essay
- DBQs
- LEQs
- Scoring Guides
- Reading Simulation
- Skill Development
- AP® Classroom
- Units 7–8–9
- Instructional Planning