As more and more school districts introduce APWH, this question has come up: In qhat grade should APWH be taught?
Most have no problems allowing seniors or juniors to take the class, but what about sophomores or freshmen?
The following are some opinions
Freshmen in APWH
- 9th grade world history? Sounds like one of our American weaknesses! We can do anything, if we just try hard enough. Who's your administrator? Should the kids be doing anything so academic at age 15? I was in the 1970s, but that was in England and look where it got me: two failed tenure bids in US colleges. There's a world out there not covered by AP anything. - John David Leaver
- As it is, 78% of the APWH exams are taken by 15 year olds, as we were informed at the reading this past June. The course is, primarily, nation-wide, a 9th/10th grade offering. In fact, in New York, for the past 25 years, Global or "World History" is a mandated 9th/10th grade course with an exit exam, as is US History in the 11th grade, also with an exit exam. those standards are uniform for all students...our AP courses are simply more advanced versions of what they already have to do in order to graduate from High School. Giving the course as a one-year to 9th graders only sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, as it takes most 9th graders the entire year just to get past the "everything's warm and fuzzy" world of most middle schools and begin to accept some criticism of their work without personalizing it. The latter approach (9th grade up to about 1500, 10th grade from 1500 on) is what we do at my school,and the gradual nature of bringing them to where they need to be over the two years (not so much in content, but in skill and, frankly, maturity) has yielded a great deal of success for our kids. - Steve Corso
- Hello. I have taught basic world history to freshman for over 7 years now. I could not imagine teaching them at the AP level. I would love to cover such intriguing information, but they would be lost from the outset. They are simply too immature mentally to handle AP World History. Out of the 50 or so freshman I teach each school year, I would say perhaps 3 to 5 could handle AP level material. Even then, though, with just my best of the best kids, it would still be a struggle for the first 9 weeks or so. AP World HST should be, in my mind, an elective for juniors or seniors. - Shane Tomashot
- I too teach AP World to primarily ninth graders. It is very challenging, but they expand tremendously by the end of the year. Make sure that your administration understands that this is difficult material and results for freshman will not be as good as potentially other grades. I put together a pamphlet to give the 8th grade honor student about the course, and I developed an agreement listing my expectations and responsibilities for the course that they and their parents have to sign. This usually separates the wheat from the chaff pretty quickly. Make sure that your administration and guidance know that there might be a high drop rate.
- I give my students an outline that they have to fill out for each chapter. We go through how to fill these and read the text at the beginning of the course. At least this gives them basic work on note taking skills. I usually try to keep reading assignments between 5-7 pages, but longer reading assignment creep in at the end of the course.
- I start out the essay process slowly working on thesis statements and outlines the first month (in conjunction with material) and then moving onto essays. I let them take the essays home to complete the first time that we do each kind. Then the second quarter I move to letting them know the topic/documents ahead of time so that they can prewrite at home, but write the essay in class. We gradually move to completing the entire process in our 50 minute class period.
- Also, I have found that it's best to give them a small quiz each chapter and then a larger unit test. I make them look over each quiz and write down items that they missed so they have a list of things that they need to study for the exam. I generally also just assign textbook reading and stick to reading the primary source documents in class.
- This fall will be the third year that I'm teaching AP World, but those adjustments seemed to have helped. Rest assured, I'm also continuing to make adjustments this year as well. Don't worry it can be done. - Melissa Nowotarski
Sophomores in APWH
- 10th graders are the overwhelming majority taking the APWH exam. Some take it after two years, others after just one year.
- Whether or not your students are ready for the course varies by districts and schools, however with good vertical teaming, most students can be made better prepared for the course.
- An advantage to sophomores over their upper level school mates is the fact that usually sophomores are not taking other AP classes and therefore they have fewer other academic commitments. Likewise having students before they take other AP classes (especially other histories and English) allows the teachers to put their stamp on uncharted territory so to speak.
- As it is, 78% of the APWH exams are taken by 15 year olds, as we were informed at the reading this past June. The course is, primarily, nation-wide, a 9th/10th grade offering. In fact, in New York, for the past 25 years, Global or "World History" is a mandated 9th/10th grade course with an exit exam, as is US History in the 11th grade, also with an exit exam. those standards are uniform for all students...our AP courses are simply more advanced versions of what they already have to do in order to graduate from High School. Giving the course as a one-year to 9th graders only sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, as it takes most 9th graders the entire year just to get past the "everything's warm and fuzzy" world of most middle schools and begin to accept some criticism of their work without personalizing it. The latter approach (9th grade up to about 1500, 10th grade from 1500 on) is what we do at my school,and the gradual nature of bringing them to where they need to be over the two years (not so much in content, but in skill and, frankly, maturity) has yielded a great deal of success for our kids. - Steve Corso