AP European History
Workshop Syllabus
Susan Barry, NBCT
Franklin High School
Franklin, WI
GOALS: Workshop participants will understand…
• The value and challenge of teaching AP European History
• The availability and depth of College Board resource options
• The availability of ‘other’ resource options
• The necessity and components of a strong syllabus
• The components of the redesigned APEH exam
• How to differentiate instruction to support equity and access opportunities
• A variety of teaching strategies to address the challenge of the course and to
enable students to improve their analytical skills
• How to improve reading and writing skills
• The value and components of performance assessment
• The value of simulations and short research projects
• The importance of establishing networks of fellow AP European History teachers
to share resources
DAY ONE:
Session 1: Introduction to the APSI and review of the week’s agenda
Introductions (instructor and workshop participants)
Redesign Year One (discussion)
-Celebrations/Struggles and where do we go from here?
Session 2: Overview of the ‘redesigned’ curriculum and AP European exam
Did you ‘dare to omit?’
Thinking BIG: Historical Thinking Skills, Time Periods and Themes
Activities to get the school year started
Session 3: Periodization focus through discussion of themes
Strategies for teaching Period 1: 1450-1648
-Humanism
-Art History
Equity and Access:
-Literacy Strategy: Close reading
Session 4: Strategies for teaching periodization and theme
-Student-centered activity strategy: History Circles
DAY TWO:
Session 1: Stimulus-based Multiple Choice Questions
-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Equity and Access:
-Visual Literacy: Graphs and Charts
Session 2: Stimulus-Based Multiple Choice Question Writing 101
Session 3: Comparison focus through discussion of Document Based Questions
-Changes to the DBQ: Audience, POV, Context and Purpose
-A closer look: Curriculum Framework sample DBQ
Session 4: DBQ rubric: Sample scoring
Participant Activity: Strategies geared towards Period 2:1648-1815
-Repurposing ‘legacy’ DBQs as assessments
-Student-centered strategy: Reusing ‘legacy’ exam DBQs as
instructional tools
DAY THREE:
Session 1: Causation focus through the discussion of the Long Essay Question
-Changes to the LEQ (Periodization, Comparison, Causation and
Change and Continuity over Time) plus crafting a ‘quality’
historical argument
Equity and Access:
-Literacy strategy (What is evidence? What is synthesis?)
Session 2: Long Essay Question rubric: Sample scoring
Session 3: Strategies for teaching Period 3: 1815-1914
-PERSIA/SPRITE for organization
-French Revolution
-Isms (cause and effect)
-Social History
Session 4: College Board Resources (online sources)
Internet Sources
DAY FOUR:
Session 1: Change and Continuity over Time (CCOT) focus through the discussion
of Short Answer Questions (SAQs)
-SAQ: 101 (Basic facts about this portion of the exam)
Participant Activity: How to create SAQs for assessments
Session 2: Equity and Access: Period 4: 1914-present
-Visual Literacy: Political Cartoons
Participant Activity:
-Political Cartoon: Write an SAQ and MC question
(using the Curriculum Framework to identify Key Concepts,
Learning Objectives and Historical Thinking Skills)
Session 3: Student-centered strategy:
-Literacy Strategy: Structured Academic Controversy
Session 4: The Assessment dilemma
-Performance assessments
DAY FIVE:
Session 1: Bookends: Summer homework and Exam Review
Session 2: Exam review