Providing quality feedback, and setting aside time for students to read it, reflect on it, and revise with it pushes back against the desire to go fast instead of focusing on mastery. Doing this frequently and consistently also helps build a positive classroom culture; Students can tell the difference between a classroom where feedback is being used as a justification for the grade they received and a classroom where feedback is the pathway to both learning and the grades that reflect that learning.
Author: Shane Twaddell
Approaching AP World History
When I started teaching AP World in 2016 I relied heavily on tips and advice from my APSI as well as resources from other teachers kind enough to share them. I also borrowed a few structures that I had been successful with when teaching AP Econ. Over the years my approach has developed into several … Continue reading Approaching AP World History
AP World Released DBQs & LEQs by Topic & Year
Quick Reference charts for the AP World DBQ and LEQ released topics from past exams. Includes links to the College Board PDFs.
AP World: Teaching Imperialism in Unit 6
Unit 6 is one of my favorite units to teach in AP World, and is arguably one of the most important for understanding contemporary global issues. The unit's content demands thinking about how we teach imperialism as much as what we are teaching. Student engagement is important, but also building historical empathy and training students to think critically about sensitive issues.
ChatGPT & Standards-Based Grading
I decided to see what advice ChatGPT could produce if I put in the prompt "Write a blog post about tips for standards-based grading in social studies." I am copying below what the AI provided to me. It's all fairly standard tips, the type you would see as an introduction to the topic in a general methods textbook. The second part of this post is simply my thoughts on what the AI produced.
C3 Historical Thinking Skills Proficiency Scales
This post contains proficiency scales I have drafted for all C3 history standards for high school. Hopefully they offer a clear starting point for teaching and assessing historical thinking in addition to content.
ChatGPT in AP World History
I finally tested out ChatGPT with my AP World History classes. Seeing the changes that technology brings to education is both scary and exciting; particularly as that change seems to be growing exponentially. Also includes are some great resources I have found on using AI in the classroom.
5 Review Ideas for AP World History
It's almost time for review as students prepare to take the AP exams in May. Here are some quick and easy review activities I have used the last few years.
AP World History: Industrialization Spreads Lesson
For better or worse, I have grouped together some of the content from topics 5.4 and 5.6 in order to cover Industrialization's spread outside of Europe. The goals of this lesson are to establish that industrialization, modernization, and westernization are not synonyms, understanding change requires recognizing unique cultural contexts, and that within colonial encounters and imperial relationships change flows both ways affecting everyone involved.
AP World History: Teaching the Industrial Middle Classes
For the last several years I have used a set of images from French artist Honoré Daumier entitled "les bons bourgeois" as a part of my lessons on topics 5.8 and 5.9. I like to use image sets when I can, especially when lecturing the content might otherwise become boring. Image analysis breaks up the routine of text-based documents, is easily accessible for students at multiple reading levels, is a great way to introduce topics, and can be used as a great hook into more difficult content.