United States History
AP 590.100 | Online | Geri Hastings
This online course is designed to maximize the learner experience, providing relevant AP content and pedagogy through meaningful engagement – all focused on best practices for preparing AP students for success. As was done the past two years in this four-day online course, every tool available will be used to provide participants with as close to an in-person, hands on workshop as is possible. Building on the successful online courses offered through Goucher College the past two summers, this AP U.S. History course will provide participants with an overview of the AP U.S. History course and exam and give them opportunities to analyze and integrate the course’s three major component parts – the Topic Specific Learning Objectives, the Historical Developments, and the AP historical thinking skills and reasoning processes. After examining the Curriculum Framework and identifying the characteristics of, and the 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 units—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 2021 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 and share best practices, practice writing questions based on testing models, evaluate available AP U.S. History resources, and learn more about the online resources that The College Board has provided. This course has been designed to provide all teachers with useful activities and strategies and teachers new to AP with an in-depth introduction to AP U.S. History. Instructor support for teachers will continue after the course ends. Graduate credit is available!!
Geraldine Hastings Geri Hastings has served as a University Supervisor of Social Studies student teachers
for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a College Board Consultant for AP
U.S. History and Pre-AP programs, and a College Board mentor for both AP U.S. History
teachers and AP U.S. History consultants. A member of the Committee on State Standards
for the American Historical Association, she has presented at many College Board and
history-related conferences. Prior to this, Geri taught high school social studies
in Baltimore County for 39 years, a career which included teaching AP U.S. History
for 30 + years and serving as Social Studies Department Chairman at Catonsville High
School. The National Council for the Social Studies named her Outstanding Secondary
Social Studies Teacher of the Year for 2003-2004 and the Daughters of the American
Revolution named her as their Outstanding National U.S. History Teacher of the Year
for 2004-2005. Geri has taught the AP U.S. History Summer Institutes at Goucher College
in MD since 1995 and has conducted AP and Pre-AP summer institutes for Texas Christian
University, Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, Bellevue, WA School District, the University
of Louisville, Montgomery College, MD, Spokane Public Schools (Inland Northwest APSI),
the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, Harbin, China, Taipei, Taiwan, and
the American School of Doha, Qatar. She also participates in the AP U.S. History Reading
and has served as a reader, table leader, exam leader, and question leader presenting
at many of the reading’s “best practices” nights. A member of the steering committee
for the AP National Conferences in 2012 and 2013, she served on the Advanced Placement
(AP®) U.S. History Curriculum Development & Assessment Committee (CDAC) and the Advanced
Placement (AP®) U.S. History Test Development Committee from 2007-2015. In addition,
she has created and presented a number of online and face-to-face College Board workshops
and programs. Geri graduated summa cum laude with a degree in U.S. History from St.
Bonaventure University, Olean, New York and received a Masters’ Degree + 60 credits
in U.S. History from New York University. She focuses her workshops on student-centered
learning and experiential education. She believes that students learn more when they
are actively involved in teaching and learning! After highly successful online workshops
last summer, she is ready to return once again to the online format and make the workshops
as hands on as possible!
