Jump to content

Menu
Giving You and Your Child a Road Map to the Best Possible Education
The Well-Trained Mind Community

orelbeilinson

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    30

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by orelbeilinson

    Self Teaching AP Courses - experiences

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    This post is mainly directed to parents who teach their own AP courses, i.e. no outsourcing. I am writing an article for "The History Teacher" about homeschooling AP history, so history APers are especially welcome.

     

    What was the most difficult course to teach? What was the easiest one? Did you find the CollegeBoard resources to be helpful (especially course descriptions)? How would you characterise your experience?

     

    High school history sequence question/1 year American history suggestions needed

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We do AP Human Geography or PAP World History (9), AP World History (10), AP US + AP European History OR APUSH/APEH + AP Psychology (two, full-year, different classes; 11), AP (Macro/micro) Economics + (US/Comparative) Government (each one a semester [most students take AP Government which is a full-year course that encompasses both exams]; 12).

     

    We usually do not require following that years sequence, but we figured out it gives them a good basis in Social Studies.

    Looking for math recommendations

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    If there is no parental involvement then I'd look for something with a real person teaching math that can help her along. There are various online math classes and there might be something available locally for her.

     

    I suggested that, being an online teacher myself. Mom claims daughter won't make it with online classes. Do you recommend anything specific that is not "threatening"? My friends circle looks genetically-related in terms of math weakness. :)

    Looking for math recommendations

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    One of my close friends wants to bring her daughter home for HS. She is "regular" as far as academics go, but she doesn't get the academic help she needs in school (esp. math).

     

    Do you have any recommendations for math curricula that will be sufficient for 4 years and require little parental involvement? (the mother is NOT able to help with the content...)

     

    Preferably with geometry and precalc.

    What was the name of that European online school offering free AP classes?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Those fearing from indoctrination - we are NOT an Islamic school, even though we did held a Qur'Änic Linguistics programme in the past and about 15% of our students are Muslim - but that's probably because not too many high schools offer Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies classes along with 8 different levels of Arabic.

     

    About microphone access - our classes are held through AnyMeeting.com, an online meeting provider. When entering the class, you can refuse letting your microphone/webcam work.

     

    Besides, our courses are CB authorised, and unlike many virtual schools our school has its own Course Ledger page - requires physical presence. Google "AP Course Ledger". Our code is 716122. It took us about 1.5 years of work to upgrade our 2-digit online provider code to a full school code.

     

    In addition, we 'exist' on the Common Application search engine (used in manual entry in 2013-2014 and will/do appear automatically for 2014-2015 admissions), and are an affiliate school in the Gilder Lehrman Institute. HCW is also a member of the International School Services (and listed in its catalogue) - they help us with teachers recruitment as well.

     

    If you're around, come meet us in Berlin! A group of 2 teachers and 12 students (leading %10) will visit Berlin as a Study Trip: July 17 to 24.

    For the self-educators among you....

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    1. Why do you self-educate (jobs, personal skill, to better teach your kids, etc)?


    To better prepare myself for writing my PhD thesis (getting a lot of sources read will make the process less painful. I also read extensively about subjects that are near my field of research: the function and role of teaching of a certain period of history in certain countries)


    2. How do you track your progress? If you don't track your progress, why not?


    Ditto, Slache.


    3. What is your planning process when picking up a new subject?


    Does it have a Cambridge History? Read it first. Doesn't? Read the Cambridge History of the bigger subject.


    4. How do you chose the resources you use to learn your topic?


    Asking professors for recommendations/H-Net


    5. How often do you study and how consistent are you?


    I try to dedicate 2 hours a day for it. I am usually successful with it.


    6. What do you have difficulties with, in relation to the process of educating yourself (not topics you're studying)?


    Sometimes grading essay takes too much time, or books too dry.


    7. Are you satisfied with the amount of progress you're making? Why or why not?


    Yes! I actually got to narrow my field more and more as my reading progresses, even though sometimes I do think that I will never be able to complete this PhD with all the information I find.


    Teaching AP History courses? Here are my tips & tricks

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Orel, thank you very much for taking time to write this for us. There are several board members that are working on AP history classes and I know we can benefit from this information. For some of us, the struggle is not so much how to do the AP class so our student does well on the test, but the why of it all. Is this how I really want to teach history?

     

    There is a significant amount of material to be covered in all three AP classes. Getting it all in for a typical college survey course is tight. Covering the same amount of information with 1/4 to 1/3 less time due to test preparation is a really tough proposition. Personally, I think the AP board can revise the tests repeatedly, but it is going to be difficult to get the depth that makes the study of history truly rewarding.

     

    Anyway, are you using the new Henretta book that was revised for the new test? What do you think of it? We've been running a couple of threads on choosing American history texts, so I am curious.

     

     

     

    I use it only because of its great instructors manual! Otherwise I'd use Give Me Liberty because the bias so obvious it makes me laugh. The problem with Henretta, however, is that almost everything costs money: test banks ($250...), instructor manual ($150) and of course no used copies yet.

    What was the name of that European online school offering free AP classes?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Does Harari College have an actual physical presence somewhere?  The US address comes up as a light industrial complex, with several trucking companies and international reshippers using the same address.  The Belgian address is slightly nicer, but

     

    Our CA and Belgian addresses are mainly for post processing. As our team is pretty much all around the globe, we have no "central" office. 

    If you used Conceptual Physics, what did you call it on transcripts?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We always go with the SCED system of the National Centre for Education Statistics.

     

    SCED has 03161 Conceptual Physics

     

    Conceptual Physics courses introduce students to the use of chemicals, characteristic properties 
    of materials, and simple mechanics to better describe the world and nonliving matter. The courses 
    emphasize precise measurements and descriptive analysis of experimental results. Topics covered may 
    include energy and motion, electricity, magnetism, heat, the structure of matter, and how matter reacts to 
    materials and forces. 
     
    So if it is a regular level course for 1 credit with no 'sequence', then 03161R10011 would be the full course code.

    What was the name of that European online school offering free AP classes?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I probably shouldn't reply to topics about my school, but that's my reply:

     

    My academic situation is "kind-of" funny. When I was a high school student I began taking (too many) graduate courses in Tel Aviv University (Islamic + Classical History). Shortly afterwards I began writing for encyclopaedias (having a dissertation proposal and much of it written) such as the Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Postcolonial Studies (to be published by Blackwell) and "The Islamic World: An Encyclopaedia of History, Culture, and Society" (to be published by M.E. Sharpe). I began lecturing in conferences (such as ATINER 2013) as well as working on a book proposal for Cambridge University Press. I am now "completing" the official BA requirements to get everything I completed. 

     

    I taught for a while in Oranim College of Education in Israel and in the Islamic Online University (courses in biblical historiography, classical history and classical Hebrew philology) which allowed me to serve as an AP reader (this year is my 4th year) and as a consultant to various publishers (now working as a World History reviewer for Boundless after peer-reviewing titles for OUP). I am also an IB consultant, and work with exam boards providing A-Levels on exams in Islamic Studies, History, English Literature, Arabic, and Biblical Hebrew.

     

    A fun fact: Dr. Yuval Noah Harari (no relation to my school) and I are the only Israeli researchers that 'do' World History. Only one university here had a course in World History, and even that only for 2 hours a week for one semester.

     

    And now enough about me - I welcome you to join any of our live classes to see our quality in person. My next class is going to start soon (1:00pm EST) - AP World History (which I also teach on Mondays at the same time). I also teach tomorrow (9:00 am EST) Classical Arabic I + Pre-AP English on Tuesdays and Fridays (11:00 am EST).

    Teaching AP History courses? Here are my tips & tricks

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I would agree about preferring a solid rubric. But what concerns me is the appearance that in June, just a couple months before classes start in many states (our local school goes back at the end of July), many of the teachers in the AP Teacher Community still seem unsure about just what they are preparing their students to do. There will be a lot of walking in faith, hunches and well educated guesses to putting together a syllabus.

     

    A teacher who is doing a course or a few courses year after year may have a dip in scores as a revision roles out. That might cause lower enrollment the following year, but for a school where AP USH is standard for juniors, most likely there will still be full classrooms.  But for me, my kids have once chance at each high school year. The score is the score. If the test turns out to be harder than expected or if the grading doesn't flow along the lines that students prepared for, not only do they not have a high score to substantiate the coursework, but they have lost the opportunity of using that year to good purpose.

     

    It is a POV issue, is suppose. A teacher of a group of students prepares to bring the group to a certain place academically, knowing that some are already there and that some never will be. But the student has to pick what is the best risk for him at that point in time.

    I see the reasoning and I know many teachers who share the same belief (as I led multiple online workshops this year for APUSH teachers preparing for the redesign). My students were a part of the pilot exam last year and I was a part of the pilot reading so I am less concerned about the exam.

     

    If you're teaching APEH this year, what textbook do you use? I love McKay as a primary text and the REA Crash Course as prep. Do not forget to put the required emphasis on art. 

    Teaching AP History courses? Here are my tips & tricks

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Interesting observations.

    Fwiw I looked at the upheaval caused by the APUSH revision and decided this was exactly the year to do AP Euro. I like the expressed goals behind the changes but think there isn't enough clear explanation of what output meets the new requirements.

     

    At least with Euro there are several years worth of graded essays to go over. With US it felt like a lot of guessing.

     

    And given that several text are not yet revised to support the new course guidelines ...

    What I don't like about the current Euro curriculum is the vagueness. The themes are too broad, and you have a lot of room for guessing. I also prefer rubric-based grading over almost-free grading (as current Euro FRQ's are), because there is less room for mistakes. 

    Teaching AP History courses? Here are my tips & tricks

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Bias has a negative connotation. POV is neutral.

    The problem with bias is that it became overused and often said with no justification. Every time we see essays with sentences like "the author of doc #3 is obviously biased because he's British." Point of View is also something more extensive than bias is. I ask them to analyse POV in this way:

    1. Motivation - why was this document created?
    2. Audience: who were the intended readers? How did the fact that the author know who are the intended readers affect the words he chose? If he published it to different readers, what might have changed? 
    3. Exaggeration
    4. Occasion - what was going 'behind the scenes' that might help explain WHY the author created this document?

     

    WHY did THIS person create THIS document at THIS time? Try to contrast it with some OTHER person, document, or time.

     

    And as POV becomes overused as well, I start renaming it slowly to "context".

     

    Then we do the "POV party". I hand them a list of student samples of POV analysis and we play the #1 hottest game show online - "POV OR NOT?"

    Teaching AP History courses? Here are my tips & tricks

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    After teaching 4 years of APWH, APUSH and APEH, including 3 years as a reader (dropped APEH and APEngLit after they came up with the 'one subject requirement') with high passing rates, here are my tips and tricks for teaching AP History courses:

     

    1. AP United States History:
      1. The course was redesigned. It is going to be our first year with the redesigned course, and it is important to adapt ourselves to it. The good things are that the course description is now as detailed as APWH (so it helps you be sure that you covered everything to the little details) and that the exam at least looks more doable. A full practice exam is already available for AP Course Audit approved teachers (inc. homeschool teachers). I use America's History published by Bedford St. Martin's/
      2. Do not skip content. Many of my students, especially those coming from Middle Eastern educational systems, tend to "gamble" on exam content (i.e. what can I not study without penalty?). The answer is, obviously, NOTHING. Students usually have to show detailed understanding of all periods.
      3. Substantiate everything with relevant historical information. The more the merrier. You are not penalised for saying wrong things, but you are rewarded for saying right things. Be sure to add relevant historical information even in your DBQ answers.
    2. AP European History:
      1. My only advice for this year: WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR. The course is redesigned.
    3. AP World History:
      1. Focus on big ideas and themes. World History is about the big picture, unlike APUSH and APEU that are all for details. Students need to understand how world history is connected by interactions, and even more important: what continued, what changed.
      2. Follow the course description. The course description is very detailed and can work for your as a checklist. 
      3. DBQ your life out. The DBQ is only essay in APWH where prior historical knowledge doesn't give you anything. The more your practice, the better you write.
        1. Emphasise the difference between 'understands the basic meaning of the documents' and 'supports thesis with appropriate evidence from all or all but one document'. None of them asks you to summarise the documents. Trust me, by the time we read your student's essay in the reading we know the documents by heart. Providing evidence requires for recalling a specific element that is unique to this document. Can be a quote, but doesn't have to. Understanding means that the spirit, intention, and content of each document should be correctly interpreted. Merely quoting, summarising, paraphrasing or attributing are not "supporting" the thesis unless they... support the thesis. They need to relate back to it; hence saying that "Zhi Dun says in Document #2 that ..." is not supporting your thesis. "The financial pressure implied in the second question of the Desposition of Error (Doc #3) is echoed in Emperor Wu's Edict (Doc #6)" is an excellent support, as it draws from two documents to support the thesis. Do not quote large chunks! I say no more than 5 words. Maximum 10.
        2. POV POV POV. The chief reader every year chooses whether the students need 2/3/4 POVs, usually 2. Try to POV as many times as you can, because you are not docked for wrong attempts. POV doesn't mean bias, and please stop focusing on that. POV explains why this particular person might have this particular opinion or evaluates the trustworthiness of the document. My favourite analysis methods are asking WHO produced this document (discussing his age, gender, ethnicity, social status, religion, intellect and how it affects his understanding of reality), asking WHEN was it produced, asking to WHOM was it written (and how it affects the writing of the document) and asking WHY was it written. Saying that Tan Emperor Wu (Doc #6) is biased because he is the emperor is... wrong. Stating the occupation itself does not qualify as "bias".
        3. Additional document - no more women peasants. If I had a penny for every time I read that one good additional document would be from a woman/peasant... Think of this one as additional evidence rather than additional document. Link the required document to what you can do with it. It usually would not really help you hearing from a woman. Would it? Tell me why.  
      4. Some people will define CCOTs as THE ULTIMATE HELL. The Continuities and Change Over Time essay requires you to look for what changed (which is usually the easier part) and what stayed the same.
        1. World Historical Context does not mean comparison. World Historical Context asks you to show how A works within B. So saying that like Han China, Rome also suffered from Barbarian invasions will not count. However, saying that Rome was not the only one to suffer from Barbarian invasions, as virtually all classical empires experienced Barbaric invasions is good. It must be tied to the question and must explain either the cause or the impact with relevant global context. So noting that the Cold War was the dominant foreign event that premeated all domestic affairs in southeast Asia is nice to mention, but is not related to the question (in our case the formation of national identities).
        2. Analyse, analyse, analyse. You need to analyse the reason for at least one change/one continuity. Analysis is simply X happened because Y.
      5. The only tip I can give you about Comparatives that is not covered with CCOT's is direct comparisons. Drawing direct, accurate comparisons is required. 
      6. General essay tips.
        1. THESIS - many, many essays fall because of inadequate thesis. Consider "very, many, things, lots, stuff, ways" as our thesis graveyard. A marginally acceptable thesis looks something like that:
          1. DBQ: "There were mixed responses to Buddhism in China in the 6th century: some were positive, some were negative." 
          2. Comparative: "The Russian Empire and the Spanish Empire were politically and socially different but economically both needed to expand to get the materials needed."
          3. More specificity and more analysis makes your thesis stronger, makes you more organised and generally makes sure that you're on track.
        2. Read sample essays! Readers also have annotated samples from PD, but even unannotated ones that have official scores are good for analysis.
      7. My favourite textbook is Ways of the World (2nd edition) by Strayer.  It's a textbook that students love to read.
      8. ​My favourite prep book is Crash Course by REA. Written by one of my most experienced colleagues, it is often praised by students.
      9. PERSIA your way. Have students write a PERSIA (Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, and Artistic) chart for every chapter you read. It helps with essay writing and generally with organising the material.

    I would love to grade any of your essays (no charge, I just do it as a part of my routine) and answer questions. I can be contacted on board or through my email: orel@harari.edu.pl.

×
×
  • Create New...