Day 67

Student Contribution by Aaron Z

In class today, we did a practice DBQ on the Mughal empower Akbar and his political policies. Because the FRQs were a big struggle for me last, I appreciate that we’re focused on writing DBQs this year. In APHG every single time I took an FRQ it was like a dice roll. Sometimes I would do spectacular on them, but most of the time I would do far worse than I would’ve liked to. So far I’m feeling more confident on my writing, and combined with multiple choice being my strong suit, think I’m preparing pretty well for the AP exam. I think I’ve grown as a learner by improving my analysis skills. Last year I didn’t really work on anything related to analysis.

I like the analysis, I just think it’s way too much sometimes. I would improve this class by supplementing the checklists with paper notes and in-class discussion for better information retention, which is something I personally struggle with in this class.

Compared to my other classes, I feel like APWH is a challenge. Not necessarily because it’s an AP class, it’s because it’s structured differently than my other classes.

My Response

Aaron presents the eternal struggle I’m having. I have video notes that are their homework. I don’t like giving homework. I fight with it every day. I wish I didn’t and I’m rethinking of ways to further minimize it. However, one of the reasons I still give it is to allow time in class to read historical documents and write. I feel Aaron’s comments about developing as a writer. I spend the vast amount of time to helping them develop that skill. If you have been reading along you probably have noticed the pattern of them writing daily. It’s hard to jam all of that in a 48 minute period. Aaron’s given me a lot to think about. Can I elminate the homework and still have them write and read as much as I do?