AP World History
For new and experienced AP teachers
Learning outcomes
After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Apply concrete strategies for designing and implementing an effective AP World History curriculum, drawing from the Curriculum Framework
- Use course themes and concepts to develop a curriculum that cultivates students' historical thinking skills and focuses on critical trends and global processes
- Implement strategies to effectively prepare students for the AP exam
- Develop or revise a syllabus to align with course requirements
Workshop materials
Each participant will receive a copy of the Workshop Handbook, which contains:
- AP World History Course and Exam Description
- AP Course Audit information
- Sample syllabus for AP World History and a Syllabus Development Guide
- AP World History Practice Exam
Zones of Interaction: Long-Distance Trade and Long-Term Connections Across Afro-Eurasia
Interaction plays a prominent role in several key concepts outlined in the AP World History Curriculum Framework—such as "The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural Societies," "Emergence of Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange" and "Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange"—and a smaller implicit role in virtually all key concepts listed in the document. Yet too often students cannot accurately describe or analyze the characteristics of interaction with any specificity. This unit uses "zones of interaction" along familiar land-based and maritime trade routes, as well as across less familiar trans-ecological zones, to build students' factual content knowledge and skills in historical thinking. Because long-term, long-distance interactions characterize history in Afro-Eurasia in many places over several eras, these lessons can be a "longitudinal assignment." By locating these interactions in a geographic space initially encompassing Africa, Europe and Asia, this Curriculum Module also encourages students to work in regions on multiple geographic scales, including ecological zones as well as more conventional political units like empires, nations and continents. By emphasizing a range of long-term connections, this module help students to see that regions and regional differences are a matter of active interpretation rather than inherent or rigid classification.
Note: Ancillary publications reflect important topics in AP courses, and are meant to provide teachers with resources and classroom ideas. However, such materials should not be taken as an indication that a particular topic will appear on the AP Exam.