U.S. HISTORY
Instructor: Keith Wood

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Keith has taught in Utah schools since 1974, beginning in a private alternative high school then moving to Murray High School where he currently teacher Honors Sophomore English and AP U. S. History. He graduated from the University of Utah with a major in history and a minor in English and has an M.Ed. in instructional technology from Utah State University. He has been an AP reader since 1999 and has been a College Board consultant since 2001. In his spare time, he teaches introductory college writing courses at Salt Lake Community College. You can email Keith at kwood@murrayschools.org

Planning for the institute in advance:

• What do you need from this institute? The most important thing a participant can do is to come to the institute with a list of need-to-know skills that concern you. Consider the following:
  • What text reading/note taking strategies do students need to have to succeed in the class?
  • Organizing the course around broad, thematic, concepts.
  • What should be emphasized? What should be excluded? developing chronological understanding, keeping students accountable for their reading, pacing the syllabus, etc.
• Information about your current (or future) AP U. S. History textbook—version or edition, number of chapters, quality of publisher-provided supplementary and online materials, quality of inclusion of women & minorities, balance of presentation (social, economic, political), etc.
• A lesson plan, teaching strategy, or activity that worked well in your class (AP or other history course) that you can share with other participants (copies can be made on-site).
• Laptop computer (optional, but handy).

2012 Session Outline

This is a very general overview. A much more detailed agenda will be provided on the first day. Part of each day will provide participants the chance to share ideas and strategies with the group.

Tuesday, June 26

• Institute housekeeping
• Introductions
• Expectations: What do you need to know how to do by noon Friday!
• Understanding the challenge
  • The philosophy of Advanced Placement
  • Course coverage—what to include, what to leave out
  • Clarifying the AP "culture" of your school
  • Developing a syllabus
• Suggestions for teaching early colonial and revolutionary American history

• Follow up items from yesterday
• Skill building
• Chronology
• Reading and note-taking skills
• Multiple choice test-taking skills
• Textbooks, supplementary materials—selection and use
• Organizing thinking skills around "big picture" concepts
• Suggestions for teaching the antebellum period, the Civil War, and Reconstruction

• Writing in the AP history classroom. . .
• Fundamentals for you and your students
  • Teach the rubric, it should be overt and ever-present
  • Be consistent in using the rubric—no waffling, no 4.5’s or 6.7’s!
  • Conference with students rather than writing on their papers
  • Practice in parts
• Understanding the task, i.e. addressing the prompt!
• Intro paragraphs backwards from thesis

• Questions & discussion
• Authors, artists, and others who should be included
• Free response essays
• The document-based question
• Handling the horrendous avalanche of papers under which you will shortly be buried. . .
• Review of the week's session
• Questions. . .anything left out, left unclear, left un-discussed
• What's coming from the College Board in the course curriculum update
• Evaluations & certificates