AP World History / resources for non-AP World History

[Porridge]

AP World History wasn't on my radar for DD, but I stumbled across a few resources designed for AP prep. They actually look like great resources that pull together primary source documents and provide prompts for how to evaluate them and use them to draw conclusions about a historical time period.  

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0814740480/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2EGAH7V5DDGPU&psc=1

https://smile.amazon.com/Thinking-Through-Sources-Ways-World/dp/1319329373/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1EXV89B5VO2YC&keywords=Thinking+Through+Sources+for+Ways+of+the+World%3A+A+Global+History+with+Sources+for+the+AP®+World+History+Modern+Course+Strayer%2C+Robert+W.%2C+Nelson%2C+Eric+W&qid=1655573657&sprefix=thinking+through+sources+for+ways+of+the+world+a+global+history+with+sources+for+the+ap+world+history+modern+course+strayer%2C+robert+w.%2C+nelson%2C+eric+w%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-1

Has anyone used these as part of an AP World or non-AP world history course with your student? If so, how did you use them?

My DD loves history and reads a lot. Would it be reasonable to come up with a reading list of books that she reads on her own (which she would likely do anyway -- but I would create the book list to make sure we sample different geographic areas / time periods), then have one of the above resources serve as our primary springboard for discussion and writing output?

 

 

[Farrar]

I have the second one - I'm teaching AP World History this coming year at Aim Academy and it's one of the resources I'm using. I generally think Ways of the World is one of the better texts for the course. 

I have mixed feelings about the course as a whole, honestly. I also teach a course on the History of Africa and Asia at Aim that I just like more because we read real books and do things a little differently. I don't love the reorganization of the AP World syllabus with the new time set (the since 1200) or some things about how its set up and focused. I think it precludes diving deeper into some aspects of world history and tries to cram too much in - maybe the wrong things for a single course. But also, a single course is probably just too much for world history, even since 1200. But the focus on learning to evaluate primary sources in both the history exams is one of the stronger elements of the course IMHO.

[Porridge]

42 minutes ago, Farrar said:

I have the second one - I'm teaching AP World History this coming year at Aim Academy and it's one of the resources I'm using. I generally think Ways of the World is one of the better texts for the course. 

I have mixed feelings about the course as a whole, honestly. I also teach a course on the History of Africa and Asia at Aim that I just like more because we read real books and do things a little differently. I don't love the reorganization of the AP World syllabus with the new time set (the since 1200) or some things about how its set up and focused. I think it precludes diving deeper into some aspects of world history and tries to cram too much in - maybe the wrong things for a single course. But also, a single course is probably just too much for world history, even since 1200. But the focus on learning to evaluate primary sources in both the history exams is one of the stronger elements of the course IMHO.

Yeah, It's not my goal to put together an AP World course, or to necessarily have DD sit for an AP World exam (unless she wants to, but I think she's going to want to spend her time in other ways). I guess I'm wondering whether reading a large stack of books but going through the Ways of the World for output would be enough to count as a high school history credit. 

[cintinative]

On 6/18/2022 at 2:31 PM, WTM said:

Yeah, It's not my goal to put together an AP World course, or to necessarily have DD sit for an AP World exam (unless she wants to, but I think she's going to want to spend her time in other ways). I guess I'm wondering whether reading a large stack of books but going through the Ways of the World for output would be enough to count as a high school history credit. 

I'm sure it would be. When I was evaluating history texts to use as a spine for a homemade course, this one was recommended to me highly on here. I wish I could remember who it was. I don't think it was Farrar though?  Anyway, I ended up going with a Western Civ text instead because I didn't care about AP.  We are using a two volume Western Civ text spread over three years with the primary source book that goes with it and additional full primary sources.  All that to say, I totally think you could do this.

[mlktwins]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:47 PM, Farrar said:

I have the second one - I'm teaching AP World History this coming year at Aim Academy and it's one of the resources I'm using. I generally think Ways of the World is one of the better texts for the course. 

I have mixed feelings about the course as a whole, honestly. I also teach a course on the History of Africa and Asia at Aim that I just like more because we read real books and do things a little differently. I don't love the reorganization of the AP World syllabus with the new time set (the since 1200) or some things about how its set up and focused. I think it precludes diving deeper into some aspects of world history and tries to cram too much in - maybe the wrong things for a single course. But also, a single course is probably just too much for world history, even since 1200. But the focus on learning to evaluate primary sources in both the history exams is one of the stronger elements of the course IMHO.

My boys used Ways of the World for their AP World (Modern) this past year!  Ours was outsourced though so they just used the text book.

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by mlktwins