AP/History sequence question

[swimmermom3]

With ds due to arrive back home for school in one week, I would like to run my history plan past you.

 

Swimmer Dude is taking Global Studies 9 at school. When he comes home, it will morph into something like that TC course: History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective. We will compress one year's worth of ancient history into a semester to keep us on TWTM sequence for 9th grade. I have dreamed of doing history a la TWTM, but I think true to my personal style and ds' interests, the course will be a hybrid of TWTM and the first part of an AP World History course. His Literature and Composition 9 course will keep its name, but we will shift to Great Books from the Ancients list.

 

So here is the tentative history plan. Tenth and eleventh grade are flipped from the way the ps does it, so please let me know if there is some wisdom to that plan that I do not see.

 

9th grade - Global Studies 9 at ps/ History of Ancient World - AP-based portion is slower-paced, but focuses on some of the same skills he will need next year.

 

10th grade - AP European History at ps with amazing teacher if allowed - will probably do an extra 0.5 credit history to fill out world portion. The idea is to take advantage of my older kids' favorite ps teacher and to get used to the demands of an AP course in preparation for AP Language in 11th grade.

 

11th grade - AP US History - this is the year most kids take Economics and US Government. Taking APUSH at this time, makes more sense from a chronological perspective. However, at our school, kids take either American Studies or APUSH in 10th grade. Is there a factor I am not taking into account here?

 

12th grade - Contemporary World History - this may only end up being a half credit as 10th and 11th grade history should bring almost half of the world up to modern times.

 

Does this make sense? Could it be better?

[Barbara H]

It makes sense and I think it would work well. There really is no logical reason why US history should be in 10th grade in school - it is just habit and the way you've designed it makes more intuitive sense to me.

 

The one thing I'd suggest is making sure you budget time in the schedule for AP specific prep for AP World and APUSH. Just knowing a lot about about history won't necessarily get the student a good score on the exam. More than some of the APs there is some very specific teaching to the test that you need to do with learning how to do the specific format of the essays they require. I would suggest taking some time when you are planning with looking at materials on the College Board site so you can see if there is a way you can incorporate some of their style of document based questions and so forth as you go through those years.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Fwiw APUSH is a common 11th grade class here. So the sequence doesn't seem that unusual to me.

[swimmermom3]

It makes sense and I think it would work well. There really is no logical reason why US history should be in 10th grade in school - it is just habit and the way you've designed it makes more intuitive sense to me. The one thing I'd suggest is making sure you budget time in the schedule for AP specific prep for AP World and APUSH. Just knowing a lot about about history won't necessarily get the student a good score on the exam. More than some of the APs there is some very specific teaching to the test that you need to do with learning how to do the specific format of the essays they require. I would suggest taking some time when you are planning with looking at materials on the College Board site so you can see if there is a way you can incorporate some of their style of document based questions and so forth as you go through those years.

 

 

Fwiw APUSH is a common 11th grade class here. So the sequence doesn't seem that unusual to me.

 

Barbara and Sebastian,

 

Thank you for the thumbs-up. I hoped I wasn't missing some critical point like maybe students perform better in Government if they have completed their US History. I doubted that was the case, because most 10th graders here take American Studies which is theme-based (ie Manifest Destiny) and not a full, chronological history.

 

Ds won't take the AP World History test. I am only using that as a guideline for skill development - PERSIA charts, DBQs, and CCOT essays, etc. My goal is to cover history up until the AP Euro. class would start, but I don't need to move as quickly as a APWH class would since we are covering a third of the information. Also, those classes tend to be dry, imo, so I will add a few activities for depth and richness. Utilizing the APWH format would be preparation for the AP Euro class.

 

Trawling AP Lang., Lit., and History teachers' websites is a favorite pastime of mine. I have found excellent PowerPoint presentations and handouts for all types of skill-building exercises as well as notes that help me do a better job of teaching.

 

Barb, if ds takes the AP courses from someone other than me, either the school or PA Homeschoolers, will he need additional study time outside of the class?

[Kareni]

I like your plan.

 

I think it's wise to do AP US History after AP European History because much of the time period covered in the US History will already have been covered during his European History class. He'll then have a global perspective for events happening in America.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Barbara H]

 

Barb, if ds takes the AP courses from someone other than me, either the school or PA Homeschoolers, will he need additional study time outside of the class?

 

If he takes a solid course, such as the ones through PA Homeschoolers, they will likely include good test prep. I would expect in PA homeschoolers they will be writing many of the document based questions that I mentioned. For any APs I also suggest the student buy a test prep book (like Princeton Review, Cliff's, etc. - it varies from test to test which one is the best). It helps some students to look this over at the start of the year so they start to get an idea of the sort of test they are preparing for.

[maks]

US History is also a typical 11th grade course here - both in the ps and private hs.

There is a note at the APUSH Home page that this test is being redesigned for 2014-2015, so that may figure into your plans.

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/3501.html

 

I know that the local teachers for AP Biology had kids wait if possible to take that course this year in order to have the new exam.