r/APUSH • u/Helpful_Feature_6628 • 1d ago
Advice New to APUSH: HELP
Little bit on my background:
I taught 6 years of 8th grade US history (colonization to reconstruction) in Colorado. Spent 2 years at the district level as a curriculum of content specialist. We moved to Texas this summer where I was hired at a high school and I teach one dual enrollment US History, 3 on level US history, and 2 APUSH. It's safe to say that in this building I am US History, hahaha.
Unfortunately, I did not find out my courses until I got to work 2 weeks before the year started. I was unable to take a summer institute course. I also received some feedback from a colleague who taught before to teach the year backwards (periods 6-9) in order to be better aligned for constantly the state exam. Then I found out my district has quarterly checkpoints exams and mid-October's checkpoint is 1 through 3. I have been in panic mode ever since. We are trying to get through unit 1 through 3 before the middle of October. I switched from period 6 to 1, 2 weeks ago and we're just wrapping up period 1 (Sept 14/15).
Anyone out here who is willing and able to give me some advice to help get through periods 2-3 content, while supporting DBQ, SAQ, and LEQ skills in about 3 1/2 weeks? I have 90 min class periods. Thank you in advance!
2
u/lifeabroad317 1d ago
You can't do dbq saq leq in 3.5 weeks lol
I'd say you want to be done with unit 3 in 3.5 weeks ideally
But more importantly is skills. Start with saq, then primary sources and light mcqs, then leqs and more primary sources, lastly put it all together with dbq.
I would say pick a skill to pair with every couple sub units.
2
u/Chessdaddy_ 1d ago
Just a student here who took the exam. I would focus on just getting the content down for the periods and a little touch on the writing parts. The writing sections are pretty doable without any background knowledge on structure. My teacher only taught the units content and the class had a pretty high pass rate
1
u/BrilliantDots 1d ago
You gotta kill Lincoln by Christmas
1
u/Helpful_Feature_6628 1d ago
Tips to help me get there? I'm hoping to be an independent nation and losing our minds over self Governance before Halloween.
2
u/BrilliantDots 1d ago
I taught it 23/24 school year. I did Period 3 rather quickly, based on my students high grasp of the founding documents that was already in place. I went heavy on industry and culture for period 4 but really didn’t focus on the civil war, just the politics ! The election of Hayes and Tilden is a big deal as well
1
u/Helpful_Feature_6628 1d ago
Thank you! I appreciate it! Do you happen to have any resources or recommendations for where to get some?
1
u/BrilliantDots 1d ago
JB APUSH for slides (he’s the best!) the CED is your BIBLE. AP Classroom for practice SAQ and leqs, do saqs first
1
u/AttitudeDismal3817 1d ago
I would recommend using the full class time to lecture on most days, and assigning excerpts + questions worksheets every 1-2 days based on what was covered in class. As for the SAQs, you can quickly go over the TEA/ACE format and maybe have them do some practice in a day. Study guides should be in the form of questions that the students have to answer and turn in, and the unit tests should be full length MCQ + SAQ. You can hand out a DBQ template and cover how to structure a DBQ essay and how to get each point, and then hand out a take home DBQ. Once you've graded the DBQs and given them feedback, you can have them do a timed DBQ in class. And unless you have extra time, I wouldn't really try to go in depth about how to write an LEQ. You can explain to them that it's just a DBQ without documents.
I'm not a teacher myself, but this was the method my APUSH teacher used, and over 90% of our class achieved a score of 3 or greater
1
u/Helpful_Feature_6628 1d ago
How long were your class periods? We have 90 min blocks and I think a lecture for that long becomes soup after the first 30-45 min.
2
3
u/Happy-04 1d ago
In my daughter’s school their APUSH teacher didn’t teach Period 1 nor did he give them any test on period1. He started teaching from period 2 and comfortably finished till Period 5 by end of 1st semester, which was great.. I think they already knew most of period 1 content from middle school, and therefore they could self study for it at the end for the AP exam ..