After you read the following information and advice, please feel free to go to my download page, http://www.sjusd.org/pioneer/high/school/staff_info/C8209. Here is a summary of the available materials that could be of further help:
The files that begin “AP US History Board Notes…” are our Board Notes for each unit. They are students’ best friends for staying organized, preparing for exams and essays, and succeeding in class overall! They also contain a complete list of our daily learning objectives and content lists, facts for which to listen during note-taking sessions during class. Please refer to the information on this website page for advice on how to maximize use of these Board Notes. These documents are also available on Google Docs to be downloaded in editable formats: students may take notes on laptops, iPads, or other technology if they wish.
Please follow the following links to download the Google Docs versions of the Board Notes:
Chapters 2 to 8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N2LwGs4VaIVui2o85HHgs0ievsIHkp-SvRQIJt-vOFI/edit
Chapters 9 to 13: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SB1ju80goGoYY4xWIK24Uw38a0mdIZSSeLpR6J5d7kM/edit
Chapters 14 to 22: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pglQgOC75PGLZRvO1CZIdLJ1c72P2GK1BRfjMb6q1pY/edit
Chapters 23 to 26: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PmgK12DbJdHG2g8ndbO7nUVnnv6_0pdyRvjJfGGxPgQ/edit
Chapters 27 to 30: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v9GksSLYjsXz99mrg52AyogdImP60hqc_mJmX5Ehhy0/edit
Chapters 31 to 35: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13QhPPkRhGQ6B5nclQfVhE0dYhOiXcIzieUm56twDW-c/edit
Chapters 36 to 40: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vnl8je8WdCkocFCXH4TlcbL3AFcbg2FM4-1AtFLJpjo/edit
The files that begin “AP US History Guide Questions…” are our Guide Questions for textbook readings for each unit, helping students understand the reading and discern important information from that which is less important.
These Board Notes and Guide Questions together constitute students’ best resources for success in class.
Please also see “Green Sheet 11th Grade AP US History” for our course policies and further advice for success.
If you are interested in my teaching philosophies and priorities for my AP US History students, please see, “Course Philosophies 11th Grade AP US History.”
***Advice on Homework Success***
Each Monday, students are provided a syllabus detailing all homework assignments for the coming week, and frequently, more notice about major assignments and exams. With the exception of periodic binder quizzes (testing students’ note-taking and binder organization), there will never be a pop quiz or test. Students, I recommend using the syllabus to plan your week. Preview all of the assignments on Monday. Assess which are longer and shorter; assess which seem more difficult and easier. Estimate how much time is needed for each, and fit that time into your weekly schedule with your other commitments. Try to anticipate on which assignments you may need help, and then come in for help with Mr. Glasser. A weekly schedule of lunchtime and after-school help times is posted each Monday morning in the classroom. Times and days will rotate, but generally I am available every day, either at lunch or after school. Parents, in helping your student stay organized and current with homework assignments, my best advice is to review the weekly syllabus with him/her each Monday evening. You can talk over which assignments seem to be longer (and will therefore take more time and planning), more difficult (therefore enabling your student to get an early start or to come in for a help session with me), or more potentially frustrating (definitely not an assignment to save until the last night before it’s due).
Students are responsible for keeping all weekly syllabi in either 1. their daily planners or 2. a special section in their binders marked “Syllabus.” At the end of the semester, students will have a running list of every assignment due for the entire semester. There are several purposes of keeping this running list; the most important two are to help the students prepare for exams and to allow students to make up missing homework assignments. Please note that if a student wants to make up missing homework, I will not give assignment information again. Students are held responsible for knowing the specific instructions for each assignment. Work that does not meet assignment criteria will not earn credit. Virtually all homework assignments can be made up until the end of the semester for 75% late credit. The only exceptions are assignments that are specifically denoted as “On Time” in the assignment name in the grade book. Completing these assignments on time serves some sort of important purpose for class, and therefore, these assignments are not eligible for late credit.
I also highly recommend that students and parents not wait until grade updates have been posted before addressing missing homework. Students’ syllabi list all assignments given in class; students, you can use the syllabus to plan proactively instead of reacting to grade reports that show zeros!
Please note that I do not post weekly syllabi on the school website as it is important for me to hold students accountable for keeping their semester syllabi current and organized.
My best advice of all is to refer to our class’s Green Sheet! In it is an entire section on the criteria for strong homework assignments. Here are some excerpts from that section of the Green Sheet. Please refer to the Green Sheet for the full text.
Strong grades are earned on homework by meeting the following criteria:
- Answering the required questions directly and thoughtfully, including critical analysis and creative thinking
- Supporting conclusions with evidence (quoted and paraphrased) from the readings; make it clear that you read the assignment and use the text as proof for your ideas
- Putting answers in your own words: simply copying large chunks of text is unproductive; rather, please use small passages from the readings as evidence and make the rest of the writing your own original words and thoughts
- Being reasonable in the length of your answers: please don’t be a minimalist—be sure to sufficiently develop your answers—but be reasonable and don’t write two pages for a question that can be answered in one paragraph
Important notes about homework grading include the following:
- If you do not meet the requirements of a homework assignment, you will earn an “NC,” which stands for “not complete” and “no credit.” All NCs will be converted to zeros in the grade book at the end of the semester. If you get an NC, you must finish the assignment and hand it back in to get credit. Make-up NCs can earn only late credit, not full credit. Please be aware that I am strict in my definition of “complete.”
- Please note that having the right answers is not part of your homework grade. It is important for you to understand your reading, and we will discuss the accurate answers in class, but please feel free to guess and take risks in your thinking in your homework. General Douglas MacArthur once said, “if everyone in the room is thinking the same thing, then someone isn’t thinking.” Please get out of the habit of feeling compelled to be “right” and into the habit of being curious and willing to experiment with ideas.
***Advice for Success on Exams—and in Class in General***
The following is my best advice for how to use the available resources to succeed on exams and in class more generally. The “Guide Questions” and “Board Notes” to which I refer are available on my download page, http://www.sjusd.org/pioneer/high/school/staff_info/C8209.
Here is a summary of our general process in class:
First, I assign textbook reading to students; as we focus our class time on working with the information contained in the chapters, it is the students’ responsibility to read, understand, and take thorough notes on the chapters on their own. As we do not review the facts and events contained in the reading, it is vitally important that students reach this level of basic comprehension on their own. In order to help in this endeavor, I provide “Guide Questions” for each chapter. These questions are meant for pre- and post-reading: students should read the questions before reading the chapter to get a sense of the information that should be prioritized as they read and take notes on the chapter. Then, after finishing the chapter and their notes, students should return to the Guide Questions. Here is a good self-test: if students can answer all of the guide questions with their notes, and if all of the facts contained in guide questions are also in the students’ chapter notes, they can be confident their notes are complete. If information from guide questions is missing from students’ notes, they should return to the chapter and find the missing information.
On each day when a chapter is due, I begin class with a 90-second quiz. These reading quizzes contain 3 fact-based questions, and 30 seconds are given for each response. The quizzes are always open notes and will never contain any information not included in the Guide Questions. Therefore, in addition to being the vital first step to improving overall performance in class (in order to be able to successfully analyze information in class and on exams, students must first understand it well), effectively using Guide Questions is the best way to improve low scores on chapter reading quizzes.
Once students have reached a basic understanding of the history contained in the textbook, we spend our time in class analyzing the information, making connections, comparisons and judgments. Students’ major goal, with my extensive help in class, is to create second drafts of their chapter notes. These second drafts are students’ best possible tool for improving every skill needed to do better on exams, essays, and analysis. Therefore, if students are having trouble in class, focusing on these second drafts should be the top priority. Second drafts of notes differ from the students’ first drafts in two major respects: they are organized and filtered. Together in class, we work toward a level of understanding of the information in the chapters at which students will be able to 1. organize their chapter notes—arrange the information not in the order in which it appeared in the book or in chronological order, but organized by themes (big ideas), and stories (major narratives, plot lines that develop throughout one or many chapters); and 2. filter out the information that is not relevant to the themes and stories defined, and therefore not as important to us. Students’ best resource for help in this process of filtering and organizing is the chapter Board Notes. They are called “Board Notes” because I have typed out everything I would ordinarily write out on the board during our class lectures and discussions. By having them on paper, students can instead focus on working with them and adding to them rather than having to copy them from the board during class. These Board Notes contain, among other things, my list of information from the textbook that I find to be the most important to our analysis (thereby helping students filter their own notes) and ideas for themes and stories (thereby helping students organize their own notes). The Board Notes also contain many of my hints as to what essay exam questions will be! I can not stress enough that the secret to doing well in class is to have excellent second-draft notes, and the Board Notes are students’ best tools to get there.
