U.S. HISTORY
Keith Wood
kwood@murrayschools.org
Keith has taught in Utah schools since 1974, beginning at a private alternative high school then moving to Murray High School where he currently teaches Honors Sophomore English and AP* U. S. History. He was for sixteen years an adjunct instructor at Salt Lake Community College where he taught introductory college writing courses. 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 is a graduate of the Utah Writing Project and is a six-time winner of the Rotary Club Meritorious Teacher of the Year Award, and is a recipient of a U. S. Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award. He was an on-site AP* reader 1999-2007 and is currently a distributed reader scoring short answer responses online. He has been a College Board faculty consultant since 2001.
4-day AP U. S. History Institute Agenda
AP* Seminars Silicon Valley
July 29-August 1, 2019
Please come to the institute with the following:
Information about the textbook you will be using in the upcoming school year—version or edition, number of chapters, quality of publisher-provided supplementary and online materials.
Your school calendar for the upcoming year with holidays and breaks. If you are new to your school, this might require a phone call to the school or the district. This information may be available online at your school or district web site.
Computer—notebook or tablet, PC or Mac. You will have internet access during the institute. There will be group and individual work time to develop and share yearly pacing guides and on preparing a course audit syllabus (important for new teachers). I will also make available about 5 GB of downloadable resources
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This basic outline lists the significant takeaways and learning goals covered during the institute. A detailed, perhaps re-ordered, agenda will be provided on the first day of the institute. If you have questions, please email me at
kwood@murrayschools.org
Day 1
Planning Your Course
Begin the development of a year-long plan for teaching AP U. S. History based on an understanding of the aspects of the AP U. S. History course framework need to be built into a course plan.
Understanding the Curriculum Framework
Understanding the themes and learning objectives and how they are spiraled through the key concepts over multiple periods to help students make connections across time.
AP History Practices & Skills
The AP History Practices and Skills consist of analyzing historical evidence, contextualization, comparison, causation, continuity and change over time, and argument development.
Developing Student Understanding
By examining students’ samples against the rubrics, teachers can gauge their students’ proficiency with the practices and skills
Day 2
Making Connections
Historical context is an essential part of historical analysis. Contextualization requires students to evaluate the importance of the various larger trends and processes that shape events.
Chronological Reasoning
Use instructional strategies that scaffolds the skills of chronological reasoning through evaluating historical causation and patterns of continuity and change over time in a way that builds student success and mastery.
Analyzing Primary Sources
Help students analyze a primary source, including understanding how the author’s POV, intended purpose, situation (context), and/or audience contribute to the analysis of a primary source and. to uncover weaknesses or limitations in primary sources.
Day 3
Analyzing Secondary Sources
Helping students assess the structure of the arguments built to support them, the nature of the evidence used in the arguments, and the points of view that helped shape them.
Sequencing the AP U. S. History Course
Use instructional strategies to scaffold skills in a way that builds students success and mastery that allows teachers to revisit, scaffold, and reinforce skills in multiple contexts throughout the course.
Assessing Student Understanding
Using various forms of assessment to check for student understanding of reasoning skills and key concepts and how to assess student understanding and provide frequent feedback to improve student understanding.
Day 4
Argument Development
Teach instructional strategies that will help students build proficiency with argument development so that they can make a defensible claim about the past in the form of a compelling major claim (thesis) and develop and support a historical argument through close analysis of relevant historical evidence
Strategies for Teaching AP U. S. History
Teachers should use multiple instructional strategies throughout the course in order to reach and challenge all learners. Lessons should be strategically matched to learning goals and performance standards.
Selecting Resources to Support Teaching AP U. S. History
Teachers have control over how they teach the key concept of the course. They should choose content they feel would best help their students understand the learning objectives
