AP Summer Institute - Week 1
June 17-21, 2019
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Calculus AB: Revised
AP 507.100 Jim Bohan
This session will help teachers design an AP Calculus AB course and prepare their students for the AP Calculus AB exam. Participants will review the content, themes, and structure of the AP Calculus AB curriculum and focus on effective teaching strategies and learning activities that will lead to their students' success on the exam. Calculus AB is primarily concerned with developing the students’ understanding of the concepts of calculus and providing experience with its methods and applications. The course emphasizes a multi-representational approach to calculus, with concepts, results, and problems being expressed graphically, numerically, analytically, and verbally. Using the unifying themes of derivatives, integrals, limits, approximation, and applications and modeling, the course becomes a cohesive whole. With the changes in the revised AP Calculus AB curriculum (2016-2017), this course will be devoted to information and strategies that help teachers prepare their students to perform well on the 2020 Calculus AB examination.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Computer Science A
AP 518.100 Reg Hahne
This course will provide an overview of the content and structure of the AP Computer Science A® (AP CSA) curricula. Teachers will focus on object-oriented programming methodology, with emphasis on problem solving and algorithm development through group participation. Participants will explore how the development and analysis of standard algorithms and the use of fundamental data structures within the AP CSA framework can support their classroom instruction in preparing their students for the AP CSA exam. Focus also will be placed on both multiple-choice and free-response aspects of the exam. In particular, case studies Magpie, PictureLab and Elevens and their implementation, will be shared. It is advisable that participants be familiar with Java.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® English Language and Composition
AP 521.100 Bryan Borah
Important: This course will cover all of the new aspects of the 2020 AP English Language and Composition class expectations and exam.
The course will guide teachers in developing syllabi and strategies in critical thinking and writing. The course will be interactive with the sharing of ideas and building of argument units, using a variety of sources from non-fiction. Study of the AP Language and Composition examination will include College Board materials to provide greater understanding of the content and scoring of the multiple-choice section. Synthesis, analysis, and individual argument essay samples will give participants the opportunity to assess writing skills and discuss techniques that can be used to produce quality writing.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® English Literature and Composition
AP 524.100 Kevin Howard
This course centers on the development of an AP English Literature course that is based on the analysis of a variety of forms of fiction, with a special focus on close reading skills. The course will begin with an overview of the structure, content, and scoring of the AP English Literature and Composition exam. Participants will score sample essays with an eye to understanding the moves that matter on timed writings. In addition, teachers will deconstruct one section of a multiple-choice exam to see the skills and habits of mind that are tested. Most of the class will be spent working through a series of skill-building activities that will prompt students to read, write, and think thoughtfully about texts that are complex and ambiguous. Participants will have time to develop and share practical teaching strategies, including approaches that support the equity agenda of the College Board. Teachers should read Ian McEwan’s Atonement before the week starts; we will be working through the novel during the week.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® European History: Revised
AP 593.100 Pamela Wolfe
This session will help teachers design an AP European History course and prepare their students for the AP exam. Analysis of the redesigned curriculum and test will be a main focus of the course. Participants will review the content, themes, and structure of the redesigned AP European History curriculum and focus on effective teaching strategies and learning activities that will lead to success on the exam. Participants will analyze past AP exam questions and learn to rewrite them to reflect new course requirements. The class will look at new multiple-choice questions, short answer, DBQ and LEQ rubrics. Review of the four major time periods and seven critical thinking skills emphasized on the AP test will occur while participants plan their own course syllabi and create test questions in line with the major themes of the course. Emphasis is put on learning techniques for teaching these skills in the classroom to students of differing abilities.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Government and Politics: United States
AP 537.100 Maria Schmidt
This course provides teachers with an overview of the basic structure and content necessary for an AP course in Government and Politics: United States. The instructor will focus on the development the course using the redesigned curriculum framework as well as the development of learning activities and teaching strategies for use with each of the big ideas, learning objectives and essential knowledge included in the redesigned framework. Emphasis will be placed on the use of multiple resources in the teaching of the course as well as preparing students for the redesigned AP examination format. An analysis of AP examination questions will be included as well as a review of the standards for the grading of the exam. A major portion of the course is devoted to the development of units for an AP U.S. Government and Politics course by participants, including the learning activities and resources necessary for the implementation of such a course. This course is suitable for teachers new to AP U. S. Government and Politics as well as those experienced in the teaching of the course. The course will include a “best practices” sharing session and participants are encouraged to bring a copy of a favorite lesson/activity/strategy they have used in, or that could be adapted to, an AP U.S. Government and Politics course. If participants already are teaching the course or know the textbook and/or any other books they will be using, they should bring these as well.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Latin
AP 545.300 Donald Connor
The session will focus on the objectives, syllabus, and exam format for the AP Latin course on Caesar and Vergil. Participants will work through the curriculum guide, developing materials for presenting to students and testing them for the exam. The course will examine the rubrics for grading and the explanations of what the different grades indicate to the colleges. There also will be discussion about certification for the course. The objective of this course is to help students make significant progress in reading, translating, and analyzing Vergil's Aeneid and Caesar's De Bello Gallico in Latin. The course will include studying Rome in terms of politics, religion, ethical and societal values and writing analytical essays about the themes found in different Latin passages. Special attention will be paid to the format of the exam, especially the emphasis on multiple-choice and "spot" questions. Participants will grade the different types of questions, create similar questions for classroom use, and develop materials and plans for the syllabus. Participants are urged to read the AP Latin Curriculum Framework at www.collegeboard.com and to bring any questions they have to class. If participants are currently teaching the course or know what textbooks they will be using in September, they are asked to bring them to the course. Any teacher of AP Latin, from the inexperienced to the very experienced may register for this course.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Music Theory
AP 551.100 Robert McMahan
This course is designed for both new and experienced AP Music Theory teachers. It will provide 1) an extensive review of first-year college-level written, analytical, sight singing, and ear training skills, using AP Music Theory released materials and other sources, both new and old; and 2) in-class discussion as well as application of both recent and long standing teaching techniques and issues in all these areas. Participants are encouraged (though not required) to bring along favorite textbooks, teaching techniques they have either used in their classrooms or found helpful to them in their student days, and any other materials or ideas they feel would lend themselves well to class discussion and presentation. Particularly crucial outcomes of the course include, but are not limited to, the development of model syllabi designed to satisfy both College Board requirements and the special conditions of each participant’s school and a clear understanding of the objectives and performance levels their students must attain to succeed in their high school AP Music Theory course and exam. Novices who have not been involved with music theory in their teaching career up to this time should not feel nervous about returning to this challenging and multi-faceted subject, for all review activities take place in class and in a convivial, non-threatening setting in which all work together in a cooperative and cheerful spirit.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Physics 1: Algebra-Based
AP 589.100 Thomas Hoch
This course will engage educators in completing several goals focused on preparing them to teach the new AP Physics 1 course that debuted in the 2014/2015 school year, and the subsequent exam to be given in May. The first goal involves making an individualized plan for the year. This plan will lay the groundwork for using the Curriculum Framework which pairs core essential knowledge with the fundamental scientific reasoning skills necessary for scientific inquiry. The second goal involves developing and practicing techniques that are consistent with the implications of the physics educational research, which guided the development of this course. The third goal is designing and practicing the laboratory work that is in line with the inquiry laboratory experiments/questions that comprise 25% of the time to be spent in the new course. The fourth goal is to spend some time with the special topics related to the revamped course. At the completion of the week, you should have a very good idea of what you should be doing on a daily basis to best prepare your students for the exam in May.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Spanish Language and Culture
AP 560.100 José M. Díaz
This workshop is designed to provide the participants with an overview of the AP Spanish Language and Culture Curriculum Framework. Participants will examine the themes as well as the recommended contexts and overarching essential questions for exploring each theme in the Framework. The institute will also address issues of curriculum and of Pre-AP* courses. Some time will be devoted to evaluating the sample syllabus to deliver the course. Participants will engage in a discussion of textbooks, websites, and resources available for the course. Scoring Guidelines and students samples will be used for participants to become familiar with the scoring of the free response sections of the exam. Participants will also develop a final project according to the needs of their students during the week, in consultation with the instructor. Participants are also expected to bring copies of successful activities to share.
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® Studio Art
AP 572.100 Joann Winkler
This institute for AP Studio Art teachers, new or experienced, will explore all three portfolios; 2D, 3D and Drawing along with the Selected Works (formerly called Breadth) and the Sustained Investigation (formerly called Concentration) sections for each portfolio included will be a studio for each portfolio. Emphasis will be placed on developing strategies for the Sustained Investigation section in any of the portfolio offerings depending on the interest and experience of the participant. Covered will be the Reading process, Power Points used in training for the 2018 Reading, mock Readings using the rubric for the 2018 Reading, sketchbook strategies, The College Board materials, and discussion of Pre-AP. Developing thematic approaches to best illustrate the investigation body of work will be explored along with studio practice developed from the participant’s Sustained Investigation theme. A Power Point illustrating the particular ideation for the investigation and reflection will be created and shared along with a small concentrated body of work in the size format of trading cards. In this summer institute the THREE portfolio offerings given by The College Board (2D Design, Drawing, 3D Design) will be explored. Each part of the portfolio will be dissected by going over the reading process. The institute will also be an opportunity to share best practices, advice and experiences teaching AP. It will also be an opportunity to make art with an eye toward AP teaching practices. In one of the sections a mock reading will be explored to experience what the reading is like. Other topics, such as thematic and idea development for investigation and selected works, will be explored. Participants will be expected to complete all institute requirements, which will include completing a small-scale Investigation based on thematic development, and The College Board requirements. Participants will have ample opportunities to learn, acquire and share best teaching practices and walk away with practical materials and strategies to immediately promote active student-centered learning in the classroom, including ways to enhance visual literacy: how to help students develop skills in looking at, thinking about and communicating ideas about works of art. In addition, this session will directly address ways to seamlessly utilize digital images and computer based multimedia technology into the AP Studio Art course. Finally, participants will be mentored to become “Readers” in a simulated reading of the AP examination and gain an understanding of the grading process. A group excursion will be organized to a museum/gallery in Baltimore. (Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop and an extension cord as most of the handouts are in electronic format, such as on a CD or a flash drive).
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® United States History: Revised
AP 590.100 Geri Hastings
This course will provide participants with an overview of the AP U.S. History course and exam and give them the opportunity to analyze and integrate the course’s three major component parts – the Thematic Learning Objectives, the Concept Outline, and the AP historical reasoning skills and disciplinary practices into their syllabi. After examining the Curriculum Framework and identifying the characteristics of, and reasons for, these three component parts, participants will begin to plan student-centered lessons for some of the key concepts in the Concept Outline. As they design their lessons, participants will determine the connections between the three main parts of the course, connections that are assessed on every question on the exam. Particular emphasis will be placed on daily planning for each of the key concepts – planning which involves chunking content material and creating lessons that cover a great deal of assessable material. Woven throughout the course will be opportunities for participants to take part in high interest, student-centered lessons that were developed to support the new course and engage students. In addition, there will be a strong focus on argumentative writing, especially for the Long Essays and Document Based Questions. The updated scoring tools will be used to evaluate student responses from the 2019 testing to give teachers a better understanding of what students must know and be able to do to be successful in this course. In addition, teachers will discuss best practices, practice writing questions based on testing models, evaluate available AP U.S. History resources, and learn about the new online resources that The College Board will be providing in August, 2019. This course has been designed to provide both new and effective activities for experienced teachers and an in-depth introduction to AP U.S. History for new teachers. Instructor support for teachers will continue after the course ends!!
Preparing Students for Advanced Placement® World History: Modern
AP 580.100 Ane Lintvedt
This course will be devoted to information and strategies that help teachers prepare their students to perform well with the revised AP World History curriculum framework and exam format in 2019-20. Participants will work on integrating the teaching and learning of historical thinking skills, key historical themes, and the specific content of the course into their syllabi. Teachers will have the opportunity to work with specifically-designed, student-centered activities. Teachers will look at document sources and methods of teaching document analysis, since the importance of learning analysis of historical documents is increased in the new exam format with the multiple-choice questions and the short-answer questions (SAQ), as well as the traditional document-based question (DBQ). In addition, there will be a strong focus on argumentative writing, especially for the Long Essays and Document Based Questions. Teachers will discuss how to adjust the course sequences to a c. 1200 CE starting point, practice writing questions based on redesigned testing models, and evaluate available AP World History resources.