AP Course:

AP WORLD HISTORY

William Zeigler

CONSULTANT: William Zeigler

Bill Zeigler lives in San Diego with his wife Marianne. He earned his BA in history from San Diego State University and MA in education, emphasizing professional development in gifted education. He teaches history-social sciences and English at San Marcos High School. Bill currently serves as the Assistant to the Chief Reader for AP World History. Bill has always had a keen interest in world history. He was a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation at Princeton, studying the “long nineteenth century” in world history, and a fellow in a two-year NEH program to explore India and China at Cal Poly Pomona. Bill has worked with QFI and the Solanki Project to increase historical awareness of the Middle East North Africa and South Asia, respectively. He has led national and international sessions in History-Social Science and Vertical Teaming in Social Sciences for the College Board since 2000. Bill has presented at the World History Association, National Council for the Social Studies, and the AP Annual Conference and is a College Board consultant in World and US History and Pre-AP World History and Geography with presentations worldwide. He also serves as a Mentor for World History and is a lead developer for the Project Based Learning curriculum in AP World History.

Bill has served as a member of the program committee and the executive board of the World History Association and the program committee for the AP Annual Conference.

Course Description:

World History AP is one of the most exciting courses, tasked with developing up-and-coming historians and world citizens. The course seems daunting – teaching the history of the world since 1200 in less than thirty-six weeks – but the focus on historical reasoning skills and historical processes makes this intimidating task more manageable. It’s the Skills, not the memorization of countless facts, that matter.

During the week, we’ll discuss format, pace, class requirements, and day-to-day structures, as well as online resources like AP Classroom. In addition, we’ll workshop some of the central areas of concern in any social science class – reading, writing, and thinking – and the techniques that will help teachers meet students’ needs.

Plus, the pandemic created some “unprecedented” opportunities to transform instruction, format, and content delivery. We will explore ways virtual designs have augmented our teaching to meet student needs while emphasizing skills.

Finally, we will look at past World History AP Exams, analyzing the multiple-choice and writing portions, to best organize our class and course around successful teaching and learning. And don’t worry – if you’re new to the course, you’ll be ready to teach it, and if you’re an “old hand,” then you’ll be caught up with any updates. It’s a great course with tremendous possibilities – it just takes time!

Students should bring a laptop and be able to access Google Classroom.

Goals

  • To familiarize participants with the unique perspective, habits of mind, and themes of a world history curriculum AND to develop a practical and functioning course syllabus

  • To present world history content, allaying the fears of new world history teachers while enhancing the knowledge of veterans in a collegial environment

  • To share instructional and time-management strategies for student and teacher success in both online and in-person contexts

  • To explore text, visual, and internet resources, including AP Classroom, that will boost any world history course

  • To investigate the traits and techniques necessary for an Advanced Placement course in world history through a thorough analysis of the AP exam

Course Outline

  • Each day will be a mixture of presentations and activities, group and individual

  • Each day will have the following elements: Course Development, Reasoning Skills, Historical Content,

  • Teaching Resources, Historiography, and Sharing of Best Practices

  • Participants will be encouraged to participate in focused discussions by analyzing academic articles, reading primary texts, and sharing best practices

  • Differentiated topics will be available for participants upon request.

Day 1 – Course and Exam Introductions (CED), AP Classroom, Audit, Skill Development, Units 1-2 & 0?

Day 2 – SAQs, Source Analysis, CED 2, Units 3-4

Day 3 – The Essay, DBQ, Instructional Planning & Syllabus, Grading, Units 5-6

Day 4 – LEQ, Scoring Guides, Visuals, Unit Plans, MCQs, Notetaking, Units 7-8-9,Reading Simulation